Chapter Fifty Borrowing Money

  In the ancestral hall, Mazi had already gotten wind of it before he arrived. Today, he was going to get his hands on the deed to the ancestral hall's land. If things were to kick off now, he wasn't afraid either. With a wave of his hand, the dozen or so burly thugs he brought with him stood ready.

  "Old man, I advise you not to struggle in vain. The principle of repaying debts has been around since ancient times, and it's unreasonable that you can still shirk responsibility here." After saying this, Ma Zi glanced at the several sturdy farm workers blocking the temple gate, and indeed saw them show some hesitation on their faces due to his words.

  "You're the ones who want to cheat, clearly it's two hundred taels of silver, but you have the nerve to ask for two thousand taels of gold with a clear conscience, this is obviously trying to swindle our old Ye family!" The clan leader cursed.

  His face was spat with dirty things, but he didn't mind, wiped it off with his sleeve, and said with a gloomy face: "Since you don't drink the toast, you have to drink the penalty wine. Don't blame me for being impolite then. I want to see if you will shed tears when you see the coffin." With a wave of his hand, his men started beating Ye Quan. They beat him until he was dodging and couldn't dodge anymore, like a sandbag being beaten soft.

  The clan leader, although extremely angry with his useless grandson for causing such trouble, couldn't bear to see him being beaten like this and hastily shouted: "Stop hitting him, stop hitting him! We'll return the money, we'll return the money!" As he spoke, tears streamed down his face, looking very reluctant.

  Ma Zi waved his hand again, and the man stopped, Ye Quan also spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted.

  When Zhen'er rushed to the scene, the entrance of the ancestral hall was already packed with people. She had planned to apologize to Dr. Ye later and leave for now. However, Ye Baiju disagreed and pulled her siblings forward to squeeze through the crowd. Fortunately, they were small in stature, so they managed to squeeze through easily and soon reached the front door.

  Qī Zhēn ér took a deep breath and hadn't calmed down yet, when she saw the tragic scene of adults inside, afraid of scaring Huǔ Zǐ, she quickly covered his eyes.

  Ye Lao saw Ye Quan faint and, with good intentions, wanted to go over and take a look at his injuries. The thugs who were blocking the way saw that Ma Zi had agreed, so they let him approach Ye Quan.

  This is too ruthless, Old Master Ye shook his head, this can be considered as saving him, but in the future he will be disabled.

  Looking at Old Master Ye's expression, what else don't they understand?

  Ma Zi also knew that Ye Quan was temporarily free from worry about his life, so he became even more reckless. "Old man said to return the money, where is it?"

  The clan head shook his hand and pointed at his own son: "Go get all the money from home, if it's not enough, borrow from relatives."

  His son listened to his words and quickly left. The head of the clan's family in the village was considered not bad, and their financial situation was also quite good, but if they had to repay this money, even selling all their belongings would not be enough.

  The villagers at the door also heard that the clan leader wanted to borrow money, and everyone's hearts were hesitant for a moment. To say that they are all from the same village, let alone the same clan, who can help each other when they are in trouble. However, this debt is too large, 2,000 taels of gold, who can afford it? Even if the entire village's property was put together, it might not be enough. Moreover, after this incident, the clan leader's family would be ruined, how could they repay the money?

  The clan leader looked at the hesitant expressions on everyone's faces and knew that they were all somewhat reluctant to lend him money. Although he felt that human relationships had become cold and the world was a harsh place, there was nothing he could do about it. He bowed to the crowd and said with a pained expression: "Today, I, Ye Jingde, will swallow my pride and ask for your help. Don't worry about the money we owe, we'll sell everything, including our pots and pans, our house and land, to pay you back. If I can't repay it, my son will; if he can't, then his son will. No matter what, we won't default on our debt to all of you."

  The clan leader's words brought tears to his eyes, and the crowd was also moved. They took out their money, 30 cents, 50 cents, 2 dollars, 8 dollars, some families with a thick foundation gave 1 or 2 strings of cash. Even the stingy woman who didn't want to take out money was forced by her husband to take out tens of cents to show their sincerity. The village head was also very efficient and arranged for the village scribe to record the amount of money borrowed on the side, and loudly announced how much each person borrowed, so that everyone could hear it.

  When the money collector walked up to Qizhen, she hesitated for a moment before handing over the one hundred or so wen she had earned from selling wild fruits that morning.

  When the clerk announced that Qizhen had donated 110 wen, the villagers were shocked and stared at her. In this village, people are not rich, borrowing a few hundred wen is already a favor, and it's not expected that the clan leader's family will actually repay it. But Qizhen, an outsider with no relation to the clan leader, took out 110 wen in one go, it's unknown whether she really has money or doesn't understand the value of this amount. However, there were also those who felt ashamed, thinking that Qizhen, an outsider, had donated more than their own relatives, and they turned red-faced and retreated to the back.

  The clan leader listened and just nodded, thinking that these were the two young masters who had been forced to leave by them just yesterday. Yesterday, his ignorant daughter-in-law had made a big fuss, but it was already good enough for others not to hold grudges against him. He bowed to Qizhen'er's siblings. Qizhen'er hastily avoided him.

  Ye Lao Yezi heard the singing and only then discovered that Qi Zhen'er's siblings and Bai Zhi were standing at the door, hurriedly came over to ask: "How did you all come here? This isn't a place for little kids like you, quickly go back home."

  Ye Baiji's eyes reddened as she said: "Grandfather, Zhen'er and the others are leaving, they came to bid you farewell."

  Ye Lao looked at Qi Zhen'er, saw her calm face and knew she had made up her mind. He hesitated for a moment before saying: "I'm busy here, you all go back first, we'll talk when I get back."

  The son of the head of this clan has already brought all the family property, and his family members have also followed. The one walking in front, with a worried look on her face, is the person who was most enthusiastic about sending off Qi Zhen's sister and brother, the one known as Lotus Sister from the Jiang family.

  She had fainted when she heard that her son was in such trouble and was beaten so badly, and now that her husband was back home wanting to sell the house and land, she suddenly came to and struggled to get up.

  Before, Lotus sister drove away Qi Zhen's younger brother and sister, everyone in the village knew that now Qi Zhen didn't hold a grudge and lent them so much money to help them out, her character is clearly seen as superior. At this moment, many people looked at her with some discontent. However, Lotus sister is now focused on her own son and hasn't noticed these things.

  After half an hour, the relatives and friends who were sent to borrow money from the clan leader's family gathered in the ancestral hall again. However, some people say that from the beginning, this side was making a big fuss, and the clan leader's several sons all arrived, but none of his daughters-in-law or grandsons came, it seems they also knew that things were getting out of hand and wanted to distance themselves from the situation.

  The money from selling the land and house, plus the family's own savings of over 150 taels, was of course reduced in price due to the urgency of the sale. They borrowed another 20-30 taels of silver from relatives and friends, and with the help of the people at the ancestral hall entrance, they managed to scrape together over 30 taels, with Ye Lao Yezi and the village head contributing more, each giving 5 taels of silver. Later, those who contributed money behind Qi Zhen'er's back did so in order not to lower the price too much, with the lowest contribution being at least 100 wen, which allowed them to raise a bit more money.

  The clan leader looked at the over 200 taels of silver that had been gathered, his face bitter, but he still forced himself to say to Ma Zi: "This is 200 taels of silver, return the money my grandson borrowed. You also saw it, we've been gathering for half a day and this is all we have."

  Ma Zi glanced at the scattered money, took out the IOU and waved it, sneering, "Old man, are you kidding me? The IOU clearly states two thousand taels of gold, what's with these two hundred taels of silver?", as she said that, she stepped on Ye Quan's hand, causing him to wake up with a pained cry.

  That cry was too mournful, it made people's hearts tremble with fear. Qi Zhen'er hugged Hu Zi in her arms, afraid that he would be frightened. It wouldn't be good if the child got scared.

  The clan leader saw his grandson being beaten and was heartbroken, but he could do nothing. He kept saying: "Stop hitting him, stop hitting him, if you want to, take my old life instead."

  Ye Quan's mother, Lian Jie, let out a cry and fainted again. At this time, no one paid attention to her, because the atmosphere in the ancestral hall had become tense once more.

  When Ma Zi took out the IOU, Qi Zhen'er glanced at it from a distance and hummed in some confusion, but her voice was too small, even Ye Baiji, who was closest to her, didn't hear it, let alone others.

  Ma Zi didn't react to the clan leader's words, and bluntly said: "Since you can't pay back the money, then bring out the deed to the ancestral hall. If you don't bring it today, don't blame me for being impolite." His subordinates had already developed an understanding with him after doing this debt collection work together, so when they saw him like this, they knew he was going to use those skills to intimidate people again. With one kick, the table in front of him was broken, and the surrounding people were all startled.

  The villagers pointed at him and stuttered, unable to speak.

  Ye Lao Yezi practiced medicine, learned from the Doctrine of the Mean, and was also kind to people in daily life. However, being beaten by someone in the ancestral hall and openly provoked, even with a good temper, he got angry at this moment. "Ma Zi, if you want money, just ask for it, why make a fuss here? This is a sacred place, you'd better restrain yourself."

  Glancing at Ye Quan, who had fainted, Old Man Ye continued: "Just now, Brother Quan has already made it very clear that he only borrowed two hundred taels of silver. We can return more than two hundred taels and that's already being extremely kind. As for this ancestral hall, it belongs to the Ye family clan, and you won't be able to take it away today no matter what."

  The crowd also shouted excitedly: "The temple is ours, get out of our temple!"

  Ma Zi was so angry and ashamed by what Old Ye had said, and seeing the people outside getting agitated, he feared that they would all start making trouble, and his dozen or so men wouldn't be able to reason with them. He pushed Old Ye aside, slapped the IOU on the table and said: "We have a contract, even if we go to court, we're in the right! Who dares not obey?"

  Everyone saw him take out the IOU and mention going to the yamen, and they all lost interest. Country people don't want to get involved with the yamen. Why? That's a place where you waste your money. Not to mention that this matter has nothing to do with them, even if it did concern them, they would still think it's better to avoid trouble. Moreover, someone like Mazi must have a powerful backer, and officials are always right, so going to the yamen wouldn't work out in their favor, maybe they'd even get slapped around.

  Ye Lao was pushed to the ground, Ye Shiwei rushed over and helped his father up. Ye Baiju and Qi Zhen'er were worried but didn't dare come in, only Hu Zi didn't understand and saw someone bullying his beloved grandfather, so he rushed over and slapped Mazi, shouting: "You dare to push my grandfather! You dare to push my grandfather!"

  That hemp seed was annoyed by a little kid, and slapped Hu Zi's palm and pushed him. Hu Zi's hand wasn't fully recovered, and it was pushed against the corner of the table again, crying in pain instantly.

  At this time, Zhen'er didn't have so many worries, and rushed into the temple to hug Hu Zi in her arms and comfort him.

  The ancestral hall is a place where outsiders are not allowed to enter, and even children are not allowed in. But now, no one can take care of these rules anymore. Since Mazi led people into the ancestral hall, this rule cannot be established today. So when Zhen'er and her brother rushed in, no one drove them out.

  Ye Lao was also helped up by Ye Shiwei, and after taking a look at Hu Zi's hand and seeing that it wasn't seriously injured, Zhen Er finally felt relieved.

  He saw a hint of complacency on Ma Zi's face, and Qi Zhen'er felt extremely indignant in her heart. This act of snatching people from the ancestral temple was no different from digging up someone's ancestors' graves. She thought that this Ma Zi was also a rogue.

  Looking at the clear palm print on Tiger's face, Qizhen thought for a moment and said: "You're cheating, the IOU clearly states that Ye Quan borrowed 200 taels of silver, but it doesn't say he has to repay 2,000 taels of gold!"

  Zi Zhen'er's words caused a commotion among the crowd! ***Lately, every chapter has had quite a few words.