My Naive Ginseng Spirit Wife and My Cultured, Scheming, Delicate Husband

chapter78

When Second Sister Ye dragged Second Brother Ye to the Qi family, she had injuries on her face.

It wasn't from being beaten. When she pulled Second Brother Ye out of the gambling house, she accidentally tripped over the door frame and hit it.

As for Second Sister Ye and Second Brother Ye making a scene, yelling and fighting to attract onlookers, the gambling house didn't care at all. They saw this kind of thing every day, were used to it, and just stood by without interfering.

But since Second Brother Ye went gambling every time and Second Sister Ye came every time to drag him out, the gambling house gradually got tired of it.

Besides, Second Brother Ye had already gambled away almost all the spare money he had. The gambling house didn't like such bad debtors. They did business with real silver and gold. All Second Brother Ye ever did was leave promissory notes or talk his way out of it, so they couldn't be bothered to entertain him anymore.

If they forced him to pay now, any scuffle could end up with them being accused and taken to the yamen for a trial. There were plenty of deadbeats like that after losing bets, and the gambling house didn't want to get into unnecessary trouble. So they stopped letting him in, and just chased him away if they saw him.

But the debt still had to be paid, they would go ask after it every now and then, but didn't press for it urgently.

But Second Brother Ye had also borrowed a lot of money from other people. Those creditors were all fellow villagers, who didn't have that many scruples, and came to make a scene directly.

When are you going to pay us back? If you don't pay, you'd better think clearly. If you still don't pay, we'll go to the yamen and make a fuss. You'll definitely get a good beating. If you really can't pay, the yamen has plenty of ways to deal with it.

Whether you sell your children or sell your wife, think about it yourself!

Second Sister Ye had already lost too much face among the neighbors, but she really didn't want Second Brother Ye to go to jail and get beaten, so that was why she dragged him to the Qi family, to see if they could get some money.

Second Brother Ye didn't want to come at first. He still remembered the beating Eldest Brother Ye gave him, and just thinking about it made his teeth ache. Of course he didn't want to come here and be looked down on.

But Second Sister Ye didn't give him a choice: "You need to think clearly. If you don't come, you definitely won't escape that beating! Besides, the Qi family is doing so well for themselves. The little hole you've dug is nothing to them, they can fill it just like that. She's your sister after all, it's only right for her to help you."

Even as she said this, Second Sister Ye knew in her heart that once you start gambling, it's not just a few words that will fix the problem.

But she could only say that, she had to drag Second Brother Ye here first, whatever happened after.

By the time the two of them got to the Qi family gate and made a fuss to get in, it was already dark.

The Qi family were wealthy, but they didn't seize other people's land. They bought a plot of land outside the village and built their own house there. Several surrounding plots were also bought by the Qi family, some were turned into restaurants and tea houses, and some were rented to tenant farmers to cultivate.

But by this time, it was already dark, and there were few pedestrians on the street.

Plus almost everyone around here worked for the Qi family, even if someone came to make a fuss, no one came over to watch, afraid of offending their employer.

Second Sister Ye didn't notice anything unusual, she just shouted at the doorman at the gate: "Do you know who I am? I'm the Second Young Mistress's family from her mother's side! How dare you stop me, do you know what crime this is!"

The doorman was a half-grown boy, the son of a tenant farmer, who came to work for the Qi family.

Normally, this doorman job was supposed to be easy. Who would have thought that someone would come to stir up trouble tonight!

He had a bitter face, didn't say anything, just blocked them from going in, and thought to himself, Brother Tiezi, Brother Tiezi, hurry up and go inside and report this, I can't hold on much longer, this woman is so strong!

It was as if someone heard his inner prayer, very quickly, the big gate behind swung open to both sides.

Second Sister Ye's eyes lit up, she stopped pushing the doorman, shook off his hand, stepped back a few paces, and dragged Second Brother Ye, who was hiding behind the stone lion, out.

"W-we should go back. It's so late, it's not good to disturb Jiaoniang." Second Brother Ye spoke in a low voice, hesitant.

But Second Sister Ye wasn't afraid: "We came this late, I don't believe your big brother will find out. Besides, you are biological brothers, what deep hatred can you have? Even if you split the family and cut off ties, can he really beat you to death?" Then she lowered her voice, "If you don't speak up, if you don't push for this, your big brother won't beat you to death, but those creditors aren't good people, how are we going to live in the future?"

Second Brother Ye had nothing to say immediately, and let Second Sister Ye drag him forward.

But even though the Qi family gate was open, it wasn't opened for them.

The first one to come out was Tiezi. He was growing these days, he'd gotten quite a bit taller in a year. Plus he worked with Qi Yun everyday, he'd picked up some of Qi Yun's mannerisms.

At least his eyes, when they turned cold, had the same aloof and sharp edge as Qi Yun's.

Tiezi naturally knew what kind of people this couple were, just looking at them made him tired of them. But since the master was here, it wasn't his place to speak, so Tiezi just glanced at them, then stepped back to the side.

When Qi Yun walked out, he was warming his hands with a hand warmer.

He didn't actually need a hand warmer now, but Ye Jiao always worried that he'd get cold. Besides, when Ye Jiao was recovering from childbirth recently, she couldn't follow him everywhere, so she always made sure he took the hand warmer before she was at ease.

Qi Yun also cared about her feelings, he wouldn't let his wife worry. Other people might carry the hand warmer out, then put it down when Ye Jiao couldn't see, but Qi Yun carried it all the time, it was like carrying his wife's sincere concern, and he was very careful with it.

When he walked out the gate now, he saw Second Brother Ye and Second Sister Ye at a glance.

Actually Qi Yun didn't have much impression of them. He'd seen them once before at the medicine shop, but at that time all Qi Yun could think about was "whether my wife was wronged", he only cared about going to see Ye Jiao, and didn't spare these two any attention at all.

Now he was really looking at them properly, but it was only a glance, he didn't care much, and his voice was calm: "What brings you two here?"

Qi Yun's voice was calm, and his timbre was clear and cool, it was hard to tell if he was happy or angry.

Second Brother Ye recognized this as his brother-in-law, he said softly: "Brother-in-law." Then he said nothing more, just looked at Second Sister Ye.

Second Sister Ye didn't think much of it, she just lifted her head and said to Qi Yun on the steps: "So this is brother-in-law. We came here to see Jiaoniang."

Qi Yun traced the pattern on the hand warmer with his fingertips, didn't even lift his eyelids: "What for?"

"We heard she had a child, so we came to see her, and catch up. We've missed her, it's been so long." When Second Sister Ye said this, her expression was a little awkward.

It wasn't that she felt guilty towards Ye Jiao, it was that Second Sister Ye felt wronged saying this.

She used to feed her, clothe her, even if she didn't raise her that well, at least she didn't let her starve to death.

Now that she was poor, she had to come here and speak softly to Ye Jiao, it was inevitable that she felt wronged.

But soon Second Sister Ye thought again, even though begging Ye Jiao was a bit humiliating, she thought she could endure this humiliation. Besides, Ye Jiao had always been soft-hearted, she was very easy to talk to. If they just pressed her a little, she'd definitely give them some silver.

After all, in Second Sister Ye's opinion, the Qi family was a respectable, well-off family. When their shop opened, even the beggars who came to sing auspicious songs got a few copper coins, so how much more would they give to her, the family?

This made her straighten her back again: "She hasn't come to see us in such a long time. I thought, since I married her off to your family to enjoy good fortune, her body must have gotten spoiled now, she can't move around easily. What can we do? Me and her second brother are just from a poor small family, we aren't so precious, so we can only come here to see her."

Even Tiezi couldn't hold back his anger hearing these words.

Sent here to enjoy good fortune? How dare they say that!

How shameless do you have to be to brag about selling your little sister like this?

Qi Yun on the other hand wasn't surprised. He'd already seen Second Brother Ye's character before, this was just another reminder, he didn't even feel angry.

In Qi Yun's eyes, these two were nothing, it wasn't worth getting angry over them.

But Qi Yun couldn't let them make a scene here. After all, his parents and older brother and sister-in-law were in the house. If they found out, it would be embarrassing for Jiaoniang.

All matters should be handled outside the gate.

Qi Yun's cold eyes glanced over them: "If you came to see Jiaoniang, why didn't you bring anything?"

This one sentence choked Second Sister Ye up.

Ordinary people bring something when they visit, but they came today to get something, why would they bring a gift?

Qi Yun didn't make them come up with an excuse, he said: "Since you already split the family, Jiaoniang has nothing to do with you anymore, and you have no connection with my Qi family either. Leave, don't make me throw you out."

This was clearly saying they wanted to cut all ties, so Second Sister Ye lifted her head again to look at him, her voice particularly sharp: "You can't get rid of us that easily! We're in this state now, it's all because of Ye Da and Ye Jiao dragged us down. Ye Da gave money, Ye Jiao has to give some too! Your wife was raised by our family. Even if nothing else, I'm her sister-in-law, this is her second brother right here. Now she's living the good life, has she gotten so used to comfort that she's lost her mind, forgotten how..."

"Oh wow, there really are people with faces thicker than a city wall, telling lies without even drafting them." Just then, several older women came out from the side gate, and quickly stood in front of Second Sister Ye.

One particularly stocky woman among them swept a dismissive glance over her, her voice full of ridicule: "I heard about it, you as the sister-in-law abused your sister-in-law, and you owe a ton of money outside. I was wondering what kind of poor family this must be. Who would have thought you spend all the money Eldest Brother Ye saved up, don't give the little sister anything to eat or drink, but feed yourself up all nice and plump."

"Sister, that's not what you should say. She's plump alright, but look at that angry cross-eyed look, she's so fierce!"

"I've seen it before. The master even sent them meat and eggs, and now they turn around and bite the hand that fed them."

"What a waste of that meat. If you give it to anyone else they'd remember the kindness, but you gave it to these two ungrateful wolves."

Then there was a string of laughter. Tiezi and Qi Yun stood further away, couldn't hear what they were muttering, but just looking at Second Sister Ye's bright red face they knew it wasn't anything nice.

Second Sister Ye had no idea where these old women came from, but their words got more and more blunt and vulgar, and she couldn't hold it back anymore.

Before she got married, she was used to putting on airs and bullying her sisters at home. After she married Second Brother Ye, she only got worse. When had she ever lost an argument?

She didn't even care that she came here to beg for help, Second Sister Ye started cursing loudly: "You bunch of old hags, what business is this of mine with my family, what does it have to do with you!"

Logically, it wasn't any of their business.

But these older women had gotten Qi Yun's permission, they specifically came out rolling up their sleeves to curse. Whether it's their business or not, it was the master's order, so of course they'd do it.

Besides, the matter of the Second Young Mistress's family wasn't a secret, everyone in the house had heard a little about it.

They had all been young girls themselves, of course they knew what kind of wronged the little girl had suffered. Ye Jiao had always been very good to the people in the house. Many of these women helped in the small kitchen, Ye Jiao liked to eat, and she always gave generous tips. They had benefited from the Second Young Mistress, so now seeing these two scrounging bastards come here, they naturally felt united against them.

So their relatively polite facade fell apart immediately. The old women didn't even care if the master was there, they shouted the nastiest things they could think of.

Because they spoke so fast, Tiezi could only catch vulgarities like "little w***e" and "thieving bastard", and all sorts of other dirty words poured out nonstop. What was most amazing was that these women didn't even talk about Ye Jiao's family affairs, didn't even mention the terrible things Second Sister Ye and Second Brother Ye did, they just kept coming up with new curse words nonstop for ages.

Even Tiezi blushed hearing them, he couldn't help but look at Qi Yun, and said in a low voice: "Second Young Master, is it okay for them to curse like this?"

Qi Yun's expression was calm: "It's fine."

It was getting late now, and almost all the land around here belonged to the Qi family. No one would dare come out and gossip, so they could do whatever they wanted.

Qi Yun also wanted to teach Tiezi a lesson, so he put his hand on top of Tiezi's head and patted it, saying: "Things in this world aren't like that you can reason with everyone just because you want to reason. To people who care about face, we talk about face to them. To people who don't care about face, we just tear off their face and stomp on it. To people who are reasonable, we reason with them. If they won't be reasonable, there's always the yamen. The most important thing is, you can't let yourself suffer."

Tiezi heard this, lowered his head and thought for a while, then nodded, and carefully memorized it in his heart.

Right now, in Qi Yun's eyes, these two people were both shameless and unreasonable, so there was no need to be reasonable, no need to give them face. They already didn't care about their own face, why would anyone else care about it for them?

But after a while, Qi Yun noticed that even after all that cursing, the two still hadn't left.

If these women wanted to curse, they could curse for a whole day without repeating. If a person who cared about face went up against someone as shameless as Second Sister Ye, they might not win, but it was easy for them to take care of Second Sister Ye.

But even if they won the argument, they couldn't really hit them. They could only restrain Second Sister Ye when she rushed forward to scratch people, they couldn't really hurt her.

The master said no injuries were allowed, just talk, if they injured her, they'd get accused.

Qi Yun also saw that they were really determined to stay and make trouble, so he raised his hand.

Tiezi said immediately: "That's enough!"

The women stopped talking right away, stepped neatly to the side, their faces looked happy, clearly they'd gotten it out of their system just now and felt very satisfied.

In contrast, Second Brother Ye and Second Sister Ye: the man had been cursed to tears, his legs were weak. The woman's face was bright red, her eyes were red with anger. As soon as the women stepped aside, she screamed shrilly: "Fine! You Qi family is big and powerful, you turn your back on people! You goddamned murderers, I..."

Qi Yun frowned slightly: "Gag her mouth."

The next second, someone went over, stuffed a cloth into Second Sister Ye's mouth, then firmly grabbed her arms, so she couldn't move.

Second Brother Ye next to her was shocked. Just now it was only a shouting match, no one touched anyone. Now Qi Yun just gave the order and people grabbed her straight away, it really shocked him.

Aren't they supposed to be in-laws after all?

There's conflict, but how can you really lay hands on us?

But it was at this moment that the two from the Ye family suddenly realized, it was really easy for the Qi family to get rid of them.

But Qi Yun didn't let them think too much, he calmly walked down the steps, and stood in front of the two of them.

The next second, Tiezi saw the look in Qi Yun's eyes.

Indifferent as ice, cold enough to pierce through bone.

The last time he saw this look was when they dealt with the Cai family.

The Cai family... they don't exist anymore now.

But Qi Yun wasn't as angry as Tiezi thought. On the contrary, he was very calm, his voice was just as indifferent as before: "I originally thought you'd know when to quit, but you're obviously more stubborn than I thought. I guess you really have run out of money."

Otherwise, he would not have stayed here without leaving after being scolded to his face for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

As for how they spent all the money, Qi Yun did not want to ask more.

After all, the Qi family will not give a single copper. Judging from their past behavior, the most similar thing about this couple is that they never remember other people's kindness, only think about themselves. If they are not frightened once, they will only be like yellow mud on the sole of a shoe, sticking to you and cannot be washed off.

As for the matter of them wronging Jiaoniang, that has to be settled separately.

Qi Yun handed the hand warmer to Tiezi standing beside him, and said: "What should be said, I have said it, you should know it yourselves. Since this is the case, let us talk about another thing."

Then, Qi Yun took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, unfolded it, and showed it to the two of them.

They could not recognize all the words on it, and only felt confused even when they saw them.

Qi Yun did not make them struggle with that, and said directly: "In March of the year before last, Ye Erlang owed my Qi family three guan and eight qian of silver, and agreed to pay it back as soon as possible. It hasn't been repaid until now, and with interest it is about four guan and five qian of silver. I don't know when you will be able to pay it back to my family?"