Traveling to ancient times with a sign-in system

Chapter 158 Suspected Wei's Traces
Gu Tang could think of this, and Gu Lianshan could also think of it. After thinking for a moment, he finally agreed to Gu Tang's proposal and continued driving to the horse market.

As the temperature drops in winter, the horse market is no longer as bustling as it used to be. There are only a handful of people on the whole street, and the number of people buying animals is less than half of the number of people selling them.

Most people who choose to sell livestock at this time of year have not yet purchased enough food, bedding, and clothing to keep warm for the winter.

In order to prevent their families from starving or freezing to death in the winter, many people had to reluctantly sell their livestock.

There is no way, they are the most valuable, more valuable than humans!

Especially for those who raise cattle at home, a cow costs at least nine taels of silver, while human traffickers only pay four or five taels of silver for one person. If it is a young and beautiful girl, they will probably give six or seven taels of silver, but none of them are as valuable as a cow.

The father and daughter looked from the beginning of the street to the end and found three shops selling cattle.

Two families sold cows, and one family bought a bull.

The price of a cow and a bull is the same, but cows are gentle, have strong endurance, and are easy to tame. They are very obedient whether they are pulling carts or plowing the fields.

Bulls are different. They have a more aggressive temperament, lack endurance, and often disobey orders. Their only advantage is that they are stronger than cows.

But for farmers, strength alone is not enough. All in all, it is best to raise cows.

Gu Tang also preferred the cow. She pointed to the cow she liked and asked her father to take a look and see if it was good.

Gu Lianshan looked at it from a distance for a few seconds without going forward. After he had a clear view of the cow, he tutted his tongue twice and turned to ask Gu Tang, "Did you really see that cow?"

"What? Is that cow not good?" Gu Tang became nervous when she noticed that her father's tone was not right.

"Who says it's bad? It has a straight head, a strong frame, compact and firm flesh, and a shiny coat. It's at least two times bigger than the cow your Uncle Gu Liu raises! You can tell at a glance that it's been well-bred and carefully fed."

Gu Tang breathed a sigh of relief: "If it's fine, then why did you ask that just now? I thought there was something wrong with this cow."

"There is a problem." Gu Lianshan sighed, "You can't buy a cow of this quality for nine taels of silver. And it's a female cow, so there's no bargaining."

"If nine taels of silver can't buy it, then we'll pay more. As you said, this cow is good-looking, and it's a female. Let's take it home and raise it well. Then we can choose a good-looking bull to breed it with. In less than two years, we'll have another good cow. If you do the math, we'll make a profit."

As long as the cows are well fed, they will only make money and not lose money.

The more Gu Tang thought about it, the more excited she became. She urged her father again to go over and ask how much it cost.

Gu Lianshan was also very tempted. It was indeed difficult to find a cow with good appearance. As long as the family could make a living and not starve to death, the owner would not think of selling the cow.

In this cold winter when there are few people around, if someone takes the cow out to sell, it must be because the cow has encountered difficulties and needs to be sold urgently.

Gu Lianshan's eyes flickered slightly. If that was the case, he could try to bargain.

Driving the ox cart towards the cattle seller, the father and daughter soon arrived in front of the cattle seller.

The cattle seller was a middle-aged man wearing a tattered robe with patches on patches. His face was dark, his brows were furrowed, and he looked miserable.

At this time, he ignored the raging cold wind, put his hands in his sleeves, and shivered as he looked at the people passing by. Whenever someone's eyes fell on his cow, he would smile and call for people to come closer and take a look, praising his own cow with a slightly pleading tone.

Seeing that Gu Lianshan and Gu Tang, father and daughter, did the same, the middle-aged man immediately took two steps forward to greet them.

Seeing the father and daughter dressed respectably, their clothes clean and without patches, the ox cart luxuriously covered with new bedding, and Gu Lianshan even wearing a rabbit-skin blanket, the middle-aged man, who had been freezing for half a day, felt a surge of enthusiasm in his heart, knowing that this was a customer who could afford to sell his cow, and the smile on his face became more cautious.

"Sir, please take a look at this cow of mine. It's strong and docile, a rare and good cow! If you like it, I won't ask you for a high price!"

The man was not a talkative person. After he said this in a dry voice, he did not even mention moving the cows over. He just smiled and bowed, repeating these two sentences over and over again, praising his own cows.

Gu Tang smiled. Such a person would not ask for a high price.

Gu Lianshan also felt that this man was honest, so he wanted to ask him to bring the cow over.

But before he could open his mouth, the man next to him who was also selling cattle suddenly came over with a fawning look on his face.

"Sir, come over here and look at the cow. My cow is bigger than his! It's also stronger! Whether you buy it and use it to plow the fields or to haul goods, it's definitely better than his!"

"Wang Er!" The middle-aged man's face darkened, and he glared at the man angrily: "You are so dishonest! This gentleman is parked right next to me, why are you trying to intercept him?!"

The man, who was called Wang Er by the other man, said with a face full of shamelessness: "Brother Qian, if this gentleman doesn't stop in front of you, then the cattle are yours. There are several cattle sellers on this street. Of course, this gentleman should look at a few of them and compare them carefully. He should choose the one with strong strength and can do the work. Why would he buy the cattle that can't do the heavy work?"

"You!" The middle-aged man was so angry that he wanted to refute him, but he was tongue-tied and couldn't speak when he was angry.

Wang Er ignored him and led his own cow over here, nodding and bowing to show it to Gu Lianshan.

Gu Lianshan took a casual glance and saw that it was a bull, but his daughter didn't like it.

His gaze returned to the middle-aged man: "Do your two families know each other?"

The middle-aged man nodded with a frustrated look on his face. He was about to speak, but Wang Er interrupted him: "We are neighbors from the same village and have known each other since childhood."

"We're from the same village. Which village are you from?"

"From the village on the north side of the mountain."

"Oh! Shanyao Village is not close to Bei'an City! It must be sixty or seventy miles away?" Gu Lianshan was very surprised. It was actually from Shanyao Village.

Gu Tang also knew that this mountainside village was originally a village where unregistered mountain people gathered. It was located halfway up the mountain in the north, and their village name came from this.

About a few years ago, the newly appointed prefect of Bei'an City requested an imperial decree to second the soldiers and generals in the Bei'an camp to capture all the mountain dwellers hiding in the mountains and at the foot of the mountains.

These mountain people have no household registration and are all hidden households. They do not have to pay taxes, but they cannot enter the city to trade.

The government asked them to pay money to register their household, and released every household that registered. Later, the government divided the places where they gathered into villages, adding to the various tax revenues of Bei'an City in the future.

Shanyao Village is such a village. Because the village is on the mountainside, fields cannot be cultivated nearby, so people can only reclaim land at the foot of the mountain. Over time, many villagers moved to the foot of the mountain to live.

However, there are still many villagers who are unwilling to reclaim wasteland and still stay on the mountainside, relying on the mountains for their livelihood.

Seeing that Gu Lianshan knew about Shanyao Village, the smile on Wang Er's face deepened. "Our village is exactly seventy miles away from Bei'an City. I started my journey here yesterday and was frozen all night! Sir, please be kind and buy my cow for only fifteen taels of silver. Please take pity on me and buy it!" Hearing this, the middle-aged man became anxious and imitated Wang Er in leading the cow over, pleading in a tone, "Master, please look at my cow. It's a female cow. Female cows are the best for plowing the fields. This cow is almost one and a half years old, and it's at the peak of its strength. I only want thirteen... no, twelve taels of silver for this cow! I only want twelve taels of silver, and you can take this cow away immediately!"

Twelve taels of silver?
This price is really honest!
Gu Lianshan glanced at Gu Tang, wanting to see if his daughter agreed with him.

This price did not exceed Gu Tang's expectation. She winked secretly, meaning that it was okay.

After getting his daughter's answer, Gu Lianshan walked forward and touched the cow's horns, body, hooves, etc., and looked at the cow carefully, checking every part of it.

On the surface, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it, and its temper was just as the middle-aged man said. As an outsider, he touched it casually, and it didn't seem to get restless. It was indeed docile.

Seeing that Gu Lianshan really touched the cow, the middle-aged man was delighted and kept praising how obedient the cow was. If the old man in his family had not been sick, he would never sell the cow.

"You are a filial son. This cow is really excellent." The more Gu Lianshan looked at the cow, the more he liked it. He felt that his daughter had excellent taste and picked out such a good cow at first sight.

The middle-aged man grinned, feeling relieved. His parents were saved, but it was a pity about the cow. It was the only valuable thing in the family. If he sold it, the family would be left with nothing.

Thinking of this, the middle-aged man felt a pang in his heart and his happiness was reduced by half.

Seeing that the two were about to make a deal, Wang Er, who was standing next to them, became so jealous that his eyes turned red. He drove his bull towards the cow without caring about anything, intending to let the two cows stand together to compare.

But he forgot that the bull had an unstable temperament. He was a little irritable when he was in a strange place, and now he was being slapped and driven forward. He immediately threw his head back and refused to move, and let out a roar: "Moo——"

Wang Er, who was holding the cow rope, was thrown and staggered.

Gu Lianshan's face changed drastically, thinking that the bull was in a bad mood. He hurriedly stood in front of the ox cart and blocked Gu Tang behind him.

The middle-aged man also hurriedly led his own cow away to prevent the bull from going crazy and hurting his cow.

Wang Er restrained the cow immediately, his face gloomy.

It's over now, the business can't be done.

Seeing the bull subdued, Gu Lianshan breathed a sigh of relief, but his anger also surged: "Bulls have a bad temper, and you drove them over here without caring about anything. This is not the way to run a business."

Wang Er now understood that this man would not buy his cow. The smile on his face disappeared, and he looked gloomy and dissatisfied.

Because his daughter was around, Gu Lianshan didn't want to cause any trouble. After saying a few words to Wang Er, he ignored him and went forward to check the middle-aged man's cow to see if it was frightened.

Gu Tang didn't look towards the cow. At this moment, she stared at Wang Er's legs without blinking, feeling very surprised.

When the bull swung its head just now, the rope pulled Wang Er's arm up. The robe on his body probably didn't fit him well, so as his arm was raised, the robe became shorter, revealing the blue pants underneath.

There's nothing wrong with a man wearing blue trousers; the problem lies in the material and style of the trousers.

The material looked like fine cloth, about 50% new, without a single patch, and the color was bright. One could tell at a glance that it hadn't been washed many times.

The corners of the trousers were trimmed with moon-white fine cloth, three fingers wide, and embroidered with a few flowers. The embroidery was very poor, and the petals were almost embroidered into a ball.

Of course, the embroidery skills are not the point. The point is that these pants are obviously women's pants!
What man would wear women's pants to work? Unless the family is so poor that they only have women's pants.

If this were true, then it would be impossible for the woman in this family to be able to afford to wear fine cloth trousers and have the leisure to embroider on them.

Putting aside the embroidery skills, embroidery thread is not cheap.

If that were all, Gu Tang wouldn't have kept staring at them. The reason she stared at them was because she felt that the pants looked very familiar. The original owner had seen them on Wei.

The color and style were exactly the same, but the original owner didn't remember the embroidered flowers very clearly, as he just glanced at them casually at the time.

The reason I remembered this was because Wei was showing off to Zhang at the time, saying that the material for making pants was sent by her mother's family, one blue and one moon-white.

Zhang was upset and turned to ask the original owner for money to buy fabric to make clothes. The original owner didn't give her any money, so Zhang took the fabric her father had given to the original owner.

Therefore, in the original owner's memory, she remembered Wei's blue pants very clearly.

Gu Tang didn't know whether the pants Wang Er was wearing were from Wei's, but judging from the color and style of the pants, they did look very much like Wei's pants.

After Wei fell into the trap, he disappeared and his life or death is unknown.

She once suspected that Wei was rescued by someone, but Wei never returned home. She also suspected that the owner of the trap was afraid that Wei would die in his trap, so he took Wei out and threw him somewhere else. Wei had already died in an empty corner.

Neither of these two suspicions has been confirmed, after all, there is no trace of the person or the body.

But Gu Tang actually believed in the second possibility, that Wei had already died in some deserted corner.

But now the familiar blue pants appeared, overturning her previous speculation.

These pants looked so much like Wei's blue pants, which gave Gu Tang another reason to be suspicious.

Could it be that the owner of the trap rescued Wei and kept her at home or sold her?
After all, Wei is not old, only in her thirties. Those men who can't find a wife are not picky and there is a high probability that they will buy Wei as their wife.

Gu Tang raised an eyebrow. If the pants Wang Er was wearing were really from the Wei family, was he the one who saved the Wei family? Or was he the one who bought the Wei family?

Seeing that his business was failing, Wang Er wanted to take the cow away from here and go to the street.

Just as he turned around, he suddenly saw Gu Tang, who had wrapped his head with clothes to keep warm, staring straight at his... legs?!

I looked down at my legs. They were fine, there was nothing on them. What was there to see?

Wang Er was confused and cursed in his heart: What a problem!

Leading the cow, he walked towards the street without looking back.

After taking only two steps, Wang Er's heart skipped a beat and he suddenly remembered something.

When he came yesterday, the pants he was wearing were not his own...