PFC Chapter 229 Don’t Be a Male Wife (8)
Chapter 229 Don’t Be a Male Wife (8)
Even Ning Zhu’s own marriage has not been settled, how can she care about him!
He didn't know what this life was like. He just went back to his room and closed the door. He was left all alone, without anyone to talk to.
When he was so tired from working that he could not even straighten his back, no one showed concern and asked about his well-being anymore. Instead, there were only a bunch of criticisms, saying that he worked too slowly, was clumsy, and could not even say a nice word!
Ning Mancang fell asleep with a sigh. The next day, he caught a cold and staggered back home.
He was sick, and Mrs. Li couldn't let him work. She could only do it herself while cursing at him. She then gave him two doses of medicine and left it to fate whether he could take the medicine well or not.
Fortunately, he was in good health and managed to survive.
I heard that Ning Ning's business is getting better and better. People from several nearby towns are buying goods from him, and he has hired more than a dozen people to help him.
There are always people who are afraid that they don't know and tell them. Ning Zhu was very angry. After thinking it over, he felt that it must be because his fame and achievements were not high enough that he could not step on these people.
So, he studied hard, waiting to avenge his previous defeat three years later!
……
Time flies, and three years have passed in a flash. Ning Ning is talking to someone in a newly opened shop in the county. The other party is a drug dealer who sells medicinal materials. He is talking to Ning Ning nonstop, "My tortoise shell is really top-notch, and the price is fair. I guarantee you won't regret buying it. If you miss this opportunity, you will never have this shop again..."
Ning Ning interrupted him, "Your tortoise shell is fake."
"What?! Don't talk nonsense when you're young. You've only been dealing with medicinal herbs for a few years, but I've been in this business for more than ten years. How can you know more than me?"
Ning Ning remained calm, "Since you say it's true, do you dare to let me verify it?"
"How do you want to test it? I tell you, if you are wrong, you have to give me an explanation!"
The drug dealer traveled far and wide, had a dark and rough skin and a burly body. At the moment, he had a stern face, which seemed to be threatening.
Ning Ning took the tortoise shell and said, "This is easy. Fake tortoise shell becomes soft when baked, and it doesn't have the dark patterns of real tortoise shell. We will know after we try it."
As he said this, he went to the small incense burner next to him. The drug dealer hurriedly stopped him and apologized with a polite smile, "Oh, look at my eyes, the clerk took the wrong one when I left, and I didn't look carefully. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I'll go back and get a better batch!"
He went out dejectedly and asked his colleagues about Ning Ning's background.
His colleagues advised him, "Don't think that this new owner is easy to bully just because he is young. He has expanded his shop little by little, and moved it from the town to the county. He has sharp eyes and ideas in his mind, so don't fool him. This is the first time, and he is giving you face. If there is a next time, and he makes a big fuss, your reputation in this business will be ruined. How can you make a living in this business in the future!"
"Oh, I really ran into a tough guy."
He knew that he had been treated badly, and he made up his mind not to neglect this young man again.
He didn't know that Ning Ning was comforting the sighing Song Ruoniang at this moment.
Song Ruoniang's life is better now than before, and Ning Ning even bought a little maid to serve her.
But she couldn't sit still and had to help Ning Ning with work, so Ning Ning asked her to do some light work.
Today she went out to the temple fair and met a few people from her former village. During the conversation, the villagers advised her to be careful with Ningzhu.
They said that Ning Zhu had worked hard for three years, hoping to get his name on the list of successful candidates, but failed.
Unexpectedly, when he went to take the imperial examination, he caught the eye of the new county magistrate.
The magistrate saw that he was a young scholar and knew that he had not passed the exam, so he encouraged him and asked him if he was willing to review his studies while working as a clerk in the yamen.
There was no rank for clerks in the yamen, but the court did have quantitative regulations.
However, the number of clerks in the yamen was excessively expanded. For example, the imperial court stipulated that there could only be 20 clerks in a county, but the actual number might expand to 200 or 300.
The number of additional people was not within the scope of the court's permission, which is what later generations called "not included in the establishment."
After all, Ning Zhu had the title of a scholar, so the magistrate asked him to be a "regular" official.
In fact, according to Ning Zhu's previous views, he also looked down upon such officials.
But it was because he failed this time. His family didn't have the money to let him act so arrogantly. He always had to consider his livelihood. He would never agree to farm. In this case, he might as well be an official first.
This was enough to scare ordinary people. In fact, to the common people, the county magistrate was high up and was seldom seen in daily life. It was these officials who frightened them more.
Therefore, Song Ruoniang had no intention of visiting the temple fair.
She came back worriedly and discussed with Ning Ning, "Why don't we stop running the shop? We've made a lot of money. We can use the money to buy some land somewhere else. You're old enough now, and I'll find a matchmaker to find you a wife. We can live an honest life."
Ning Ning held her forehead with her hand, why is it happening again!
Now that Song Ruoniang's life was good, she started to urge her son to get married.
The problem is, this body does belong to the original body, but the soul is his, and he can't marry a wife for the original body!
"Mother, let's not rush to get married, let's deal with the current matter first. You don't have to scare yourself. Ning Zhu is just a clerk, not a high-ranking official. We do business in an orderly manner, what can he do to us!"
"But the people should not fight against the officials. Didn't you see that Ning Laifu's boss had such a big business? But when he saw Ning Zhu passed the imperial examination, he didn't even mention asking Ning Laifu to pay back the money. Although we are law-abiding, we can't stop him from deliberately finding fault with us."
"Mother, the clerks also have division of labor. He can't just come and find trouble whenever he wants. He can't cover up everything in this county! If he really dares to be unreasonable, I will find a place where I can reason with him. Besides, we all know Ning Zhu's character. I'm afraid that before he can retaliate against me, he will cause trouble for himself first!"
Seeing how confident he was, Song Ruoniang slowly put her mind at ease.
Ning Ning's guess was correct. Ning Zhu really wanted to take the opportunity to take revenge. Of course, his apparent reason was to crack down on those unscrupulous merchants.
But the county magistrate ordered him to work with several other officials to collect grain taxes.
After all, it’s harvest season, and that’s a big deal.
Of course Ning Zhu had to obey the order, and he had heard before that collecting grain taxes was very lucrative. He also wanted to earn more money, so he decided in his mind to let Ning Ning go for the time being.
Because there will inevitably be losses in the process of collecting and transporting grain, more grain will be collected. This is the so-called "fire loss". But no one can tell exactly how much loss there will be, so there are many tricks that can be done. This is where the profit of collecting grain lies.
Several old clerks first invited Ning Zhu to drink a few times. They became "insiders" and told each other about their difficulties. Every family had their reasons for being in urgent need of money, so let's make these farmers suffer.
So, when it was time to harvest the grain, Ning Zhu took the lead and the weather was darker than in previous years, which made the people complain.