Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

Song Sanniang just smiled at her, then respectfully said to the county magistrate, "Sir, please detain the two men temporarily, and send a yamen runner to go with me to find a human to estimate the value of the Qin family's house.

I will pay the excess amount in cash and try to get the house deeded today."

The county magistrate nodded and said, "Yes."

After saying this, he ordered a yamen runner to follow Song Sanniang and the others to find the human trafficker, then detained Qin Guafu and the other person and left the court.

After leaving the county government office, the three witnesses took their rewards and said goodbye to Song Sanniang and the others.

The joy of Qin Haodong and his brother was beyond words. Together, they bowed deeply to Song Sanniang and her daughter.

After he stood up, he said to Song Laoer and his daughter, "Uncle Song, Sanniang, we can no longer repay you two for saving our lives.

Now he has helped us punish that vicious woman and got our house back. We two brothers really have no way to repay him.

We two brothers don't want the house, we just consider it as a way to repay your kindness."

Song Lao Er quickly refused, "That's impossible. How can we take your house? Don't think like that. We didn't do anything."

Song Sanniang clicked her tongue twice and said, "You guys are dreaming. I am just selling your house back to you. We will still have to settle the total price when the time comes.

However, I will give you the money from Widow Qin as cost, and I will deduct the compensation from your recent wages."

Qin Haodong knew that Song Sanniang didn't want the two brothers to be too grateful to her, so she said this.

However, the two brothers planned to repay her for her kindness by working like slaves for the rest of their lives.

"By the way, does the house your father left behind also have a storefront? How big is it? Do you know what it is rented out for sale now?"

Qin Haodong replied truthfully, "Yes, there is a store. My parents used to sell breakfast. In addition to the dining area, the store can accommodate eight tables inside and two tables outside the door.

Now it is rented out to someone else for breakfast, but I don’t know when the lease will expire.”

Song Sanniang wanted to rent Qin Haodong's store directly, which would avoid a lot of trouble.

But I don't know when his lease will expire, or what the store situation is like.

So they went to the dental clinic first.

The bailiff found a human trafficker who was registered with the government.

The trafficker was called Li Du, a talkative man about 1.7 meters tall with a bright smile, probably in his thirties.

When Song Sanniang and the others told him the purpose of their visit, he suddenly understood.

"It turned out to be the breakfast shop in Tianshui Lane. I heard there was a small well in that house, but it seemed a little small.

Although I have never been inside, from the outside, I estimate that it is only about 30 or 40 square meters, right?

Qin Haodong nodded. "The house is relatively small. Apart from the spacious yard, there are only two rooms, a kitchen, and a small utility room."

Li Du nodded, "Then let's go and take a look together."

Several people came to Qin's house. Qin Haodong didn't bring his key when he left. He guessed that Qin's widow's son was at home, so he knocked on the door, but no one came to open the door after knocking for a while.

The yamen runner came forward and knocked a few times, then shouted, "Officials are investigating a case, open the door quickly."

This time, there was a sound of a door opening in the yard, and soon, the back door was opened.

A fat boy with disheveled hair and dirty face rubbed his eyes and looked at the people outside the door in surprise.

The biological father of Qin widow's son was surnamed Liu, and he was a relative of Liu Laowu within the fifth degree of mourning.

After his death, Widow Qin took him and remarried to Qin Haodong's father.

Originally Liu Fu was unwilling to change his surname, but the widow Qin said that her surname was also Qin, and he changed his surname to follow hers, so Liu Fu changed his name to Qin Fu.

Qin Fu saw Qin Haodong and his brother and angrily glared at them with his eyes that were almost invisible due to the fat on his face. "How dare you two little bastards come back?"

The yamen runner didn't care about the little fat boy. He just wanted to finish his work quickly so that he could go back to the county government office and chat with his colleagues.

He pushed Qin Fu aside and led the way into the Qin family.

As soon as you enter the door, you will see a small courtyard paved with bluestone bricks.

There is a well on the left, a kitchen and utility room on the right, and two rooms to the north.

The room on the left is a hall with a dining table. The hall is separated from the master's bedroom by a curtain. Probably because there are no guests, the curtain is closed at this moment.

You can clearly see an ordinary bunk bed, a dressing table, and a wardrobe in the bedroom.

The dressing table was filled with rouge, powder, gold and silver jewelry, and the closet was so full of clothes that the door could not be closed and could only be left ajar.

In the other room, there was only an ordinary wooden bed and a wooden desk.

There was actually a bed in the utility room. Only the thick dust on the bed board showed that no one had slept in it for a long time. There were a lot of messy sundries in the utility room.

The kitchen is simply a two-hole earthen stove, a water tank, a wooden basin for bathing, a table for dishes and chopsticks, and finally a toilet placed in the corner of the kitchen that emits an unpleasant smell.

Seeing Qin Haodong and his group walk into the house and look around, Qin Fu angrily blocked the door and said, "What are you guys doing? Why are you running into someone else's house? Get out of here right now."

The house was so small that everyone took a quick look. After hearing what Qin Fu said, the yamen runner glanced at him and told him,

"Your mother got into trouble. This house is going to be sold. It will soon no longer be your house."

Qin Haodong sneered and said, "This house was never yours in the first place. You are just occupying its nest. Soon the house will be back in our hands.

You should pack your bags quickly and prepare to find a place to move with your mother."

Song Sanniang asked Li Du, "Let's take a look at the front of this house. After that, please give us a realistic price."

Li Du was happy. "I'm already old, it's okay for you to call me Uncle Li. Okay, let's take a look at the storefront as well."

So a few of them walked towards the storefront, leaving Qin Fu there pondering what Qin Haodong had said. What kind of trouble had his mother gotten into that made them move away?

Several people came to the storefronts. This street was full of storefronts facing the street, and they all sold snacks or grocery stores, which were convenient for nearby residents.

The Qin family is not in the front position, but rather in the back.

Although the morning market had already passed, I didn't want to waste the rent for renting a storefront to do business, so I sold the goods all day long.

It's only around four or five in the afternoon, and there are not many people in the store. A couple is preparing dinner in the storefront.

When I saw a few people coming, I thought they were going to eat, but when I saw the yamen runners, I hesitated again.

The bailiff stepped forward and asked, "How long will the lease between you and the shop owner last? How much is the monthly rent?"

The couple looked at each other, and the husband stepped forward and said, "Sir, our family signed a one-year contract, and the lease will expire in half a year. The monthly rent is three hundred coins."

After the yamen runners inquired about the situation, Li Du had an idea in his mind, "This house is so cramped and located at the back, which has affected the business of the storefront to some extent.

But the advantage is that there is a well, and the house is in the county town after all, with a dock and a storefront.

In this case, I will directly state the reserve price. It can be sold for at least 160 taels."

Song Sanniang and Qin Haodong discussed it and decided that there was no problem with the price.

Because the buyer and seller are now Widow Qin and Song Sanniang, and since Widow Qin is not here, Qin Haodong will be the agent, so the human teeth only serve as an estimate.

Song Sanniang gave him twenty cents as a reward for his hard work, and he left happily.

Qin Haodong returned to his room and found the house deed. He then planned to go to the county government with Song Sanniang and others to handle the transfer of the house deed.

Qin Fu blocked the back door and prevented them from leaving. "Why are you selling my house? You can't take my house deed."

The officer stood in front of him impatiently and pulled out the sword at his waist. Qin Fu was so scared when he saw it that he immediately moved his fat body away and stopped blocking the door.

In fact, their movements had already attracted the attention of the neighbors, and everyone came out to watch, but Qin Haodong and his companions left quickly.

When they arrived at the county government office, they found themselves in the same room where they had previously signed the deeds, but another clerk was handling the house transaction. After checking the deed, the two parties signed a debt settlement agreement.

"In the twentieth year of Chen Wu, Qin Rufang damaged Song Bai's goods worth 150 taels. Now he is using his house to pay off the debt. He owns a house with a storefront in Tianshui Lane, Dajiang Town, with a market value of 160 taels. Song Bai now adds 10 taels to Qin and gets this house. If there is any violation of the above, I will punish you without excuse."

The next thing was for the two of them to sign their names. Song Bai quickly pressed his fingerprints, and Qin the widow was sent to the cell to sign her name. After she was given ten taels of silver, she signed her name.

She also had to pay 3% deed tax, so she only got 4 taels and 8 cents out of 10 taels, and the Song family paid 1%, or 1 tael and 6 cents.

Song Sanniang also secretly gave the yamen runner who helped her a few taels of hard-earned money. The yamen runner did not expect that he would have an unexpected surprise and happily accepted it.

When Widow Qin walked out of the prison, Liu Laowu wanted to pull her over to ask her to help pay back the money and rescue him, but Widow Qin spat at him.

The police had already come to inform his family, but they just said they had no money and left him to die in prison.

If he fails to pay back the money within a month, the government will not let him eat idle meals. He will be forced to do hard labor and can only come back when he earns enough money.

Widow Qin just wanted to go back and pack up her gold and silver jewelry. As long as she had these, she could still live.

At worst, she could find another man. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but quicken her pace.