national surname chiming

Chapter 9 Entering My Meat (Second Watch, [-]-word chapter)
After inquiring important information from Chen Yuanyuan, Shen Shuren was not impulsive.

Two days later, the literary meeting in Lixiangyuan was still the same, and Shen Shuren invited many local literary talents from Suzhou to listen to music and discuss politics together.Then, talking with Chen Yuanyuan's adoptive mother, Mrs. Chen, about "charging the venue for another half year" went smoothly.

In places like Goulan Pear Garden in the late Ming Dynasty, when spending money on places like wallets and sisters, the bustard not only looked at the money, but also paid attention to the future "exposure rate" of her daughter.

To put it bluntly, it is to value the benefactor who has reserved the venue, whether he will often host literary meetings to support her daughter, increase her daughter's chances of interacting with well-known literati, and further promote her popularity.

Shen Shuren didn't understand the twists and turns at first, but after chatting with Chen Yuanyuan a few times, he quickly got used to it.Therefore, in the past few days before talking about the "monthly renewal fee", he had to show his charisma and let Mrs. Chen see how much he could accumulate to support him.

There were several essay meetings in succession, and the last one was around June [-]th.Shen Shuren even invited Zheng Hongkui from the Zheng family, and incidentally invited Zheng Sen who had just been brought to Suzhou by Zheng Hongkui.

Shen Shuren also kills two birds with one stone, taking this opportunity, he formed some personal friendship with Zheng Senxian.

Zheng Sen was also very touched when he saw that the eldest brother Shen had asked his future concubine to come out to perform dances and sing songs when he received him.

In addition, Zheng Sen was young and vigorous, and his loyalty to the court was far higher than that of his father Zheng Zhilong. Shen Shuren had a good chat with him, and within a few days Zheng Sen got used to talking to this man when he had things he couldn't figure out. Let's talk about the new brother.

And seeing that her daughter took the opportunity to get to know so many rich and powerful dignitaries, Mrs. Chen was also elated.

But in fact, when Shen Shuren realized the unspoken rules of this industry, he had already made a plan: once the contract was successfully renewed, he would hide Chen Yuanyuanxue as soon as possible in the future, and never let her show up to sing during treats.

In this way, she can do the opposite and make her popular in the Liyuan industry dissipate as soon as possible.

As a time traveler, Shen Shuren, later generations have seen many such operations of Xue Zang detracting from the brand value.So he has already formed a very complete plan for how to redeem Chen Yuanyuan in the future:
He wants to be like Coca-Cola buying Huiyuan Juice, buying it and not operating it, deliberately putting it badly and depreciating the brand.Once Chen Yuanyuan ceases to be popular, the Chen family will not have the confidence to demand a high price for redemption in the future.

Moreover, he also buried some minefields in the monthly contract. If Mrs. Chen insisted on letting Chen Yuanyuan become popular through other channels while he was hiding Chen Yuanyuan, then he would sue the Suzhou government with a lawsuit, directly making Mrs. Chen breach the contract, Chen Yuanyuan bought it back at the official price.

Although old bustards like the Chen family are old Jianghu who cannibalize people and don't spit out their bones, how can Shen Shuren, who has hundreds of years of experience, be fooled by the raging fire in front of him when renewing the contract? Think about subsequent risks.

It seems that these days, Shen Shuren still behaves like a frivolous prodigal son without any change, and outsiders don't think much about it at all.

……

But on the other hand, Shen Shuren had secretly arranged for his confidants to go home and check the accounts while inquiring for news, and finished all the preparations for the acquisition of Dongjiaxiuzhuang.

First of all, he asked Shen Fu to check the foreign debt accounts of his own business, and listed all the business partners who owed the Shen family more than 1000 taels of silver.Then he went through it himself, pretending to "accidentally" discover the accounts of Dong's Embroidery Village.

This Dong Bai's family really owed the Shen family a lot of money, and since two or three years ago, their business has been difficult.They were originally suppliers who sold Su embroidery to the Shen family, but when they couldn't make ends meet, they asked the Shen family to pay for raw materials on credit, and they owed more than 50 tans of raw silk on credit.

The principal alone is more than 2000 taels, and the average billing period is about two years. After calculating the interest, the final approved total is more than 800 taels.

The Dong Family Embroidery Village basically has no fixed assets left, only a manor, some old equipment, and Dong Bai himself. To put it bluntly, it is "insolvent and should be liquidated."

Seeing this result, Shen Shuren also secretly sighed, or else the rich people in later generations would not be afraid of their children eating, drinking and having fun, but they would be afraid that their children would want to start a business.

After the death of Dong Bai's father, if the embroidery village had been closed directly, and the farmers would collect rent and interest, they would not have been bullied by the original employees.

After doing enough homework, it was delayed until June [-]th, which was also the fourth day after Zheng Sen was tricked into Suzhou.

Shen Shucai quietly hid his identity, and brought a few subordinates to the north of Kunshan City, beside Yangcheng Lake, and found the Dong Family Embroidery Village.

……

"Miss is not good, a group of people came to press for debts! They said that they will pay you off if they don't pay the debts."

In the inner house of Dong's family, a beautiful and refined girl in a plain silk filial piety skirt was originally sitting there embroidering with a sad face.

Whether the embroidered things can be sold or not, she has no idea at all, and she has no hope. She just embroiders instinctively and mechanically. It seems that this way she can temporarily forget her worries and not think about the huge pile of unpaid debts.

Hearing the urgency of the servant girl, she was also dazed for a while before she realized, her face turned pale immediately:
"Debt? Which creditor's? Didn't Uncle Liang say that he helped us carry all the debts outside? He said that he would carry it until the end of my filial piety, and I promised him that the village will be his by then. , how could he..."

The Uncle Liang she was talking about was a shopkeeper brought out by his father. At the beginning, Tou Xian followed Dong's father's surname, and his name was Dong Liang.

After the death of Dong's father, the business of Dong's embroidery village quickly declined, but Dong Liang opened his own business and continued to do embroidery business, but it was thriving.

Ordinarily, since Dong Liang changed his surname to Dong, his descendants should also be named Dong.However, after the death of the old master, he changed all his sons back to the original surname Cai, but he himself was embarrassed to do too much, and still used the surname Dong to show that he did not forget the benevolence and righteousness of the old master.

And after his sons changed their surnames and went back, they will have different surnames from Dong Bai, and there is no taboo of "no marriage with the same surname".So a few months ago, when Dong Bai was completely insolvent and unable to support himself, Dong Liang made a condition with her:

Dong Liang's family helped Dong Bai carry foreign debts, and when her filial piety period expired, all the heavy looms and looms left in Dong's embroidery village would belong to Dong Liang.She herself had to marry Dong Liang's son as his wife.

Dong Bai refused to obey at first, and felt that spreading the news would insult the family, so how could he talk about these things when his mother's filial piety was not yet fulfilled?So she also thought about fleeing incognito, and simply gave up the house at home.

Later, when Dong Liang saw that the hostess had a tough attitude, he took a step back, saying that this matter can only be a gentleman's agreement for the time being, without making it public, and without taking the deed to witness the completion of the deed tax, and it will not damage the reputation of Dong Bai's family.

Only then did Dong Bai let go of his worries for the time being, and continued to live at home for a few more months.

Unexpectedly, the debtor still came to the door today. Didn't Dong Liang pay off the foreign debts of the Dong family as promised?Could it be that it was just temporarily stabilizing the creditors and letting people suspend the debt collection?
Dong Bai only felt dizzy, and he took a long time to catch his breath. He chased the servant girl and asked, "Can you hear clearly what the person is saying? Who are they representing to collect the debt? How much money is involved?"

The servant girl was also caught blind, so she could only say vaguely: "I don't know, the people who came here didn't look good, and they refused to reveal their identities. They just said that they pawned some dead debts from the Shen family that would never come back, and came to collect them."

When Dong Bai heard this, he became even more frightened.

She knew that the Shen family in Taicang was the biggest creditor of her family, but the Shen family was a decent person after all, if they came to collect the money in person, there was still room for mercy.

But from what the maid said, it was obvious that the Shen family had already felt that it would take two years for the Dong family's money to come back, so they resold the debt at a low price.

This is like the companies of later generations, selling bad debts to specialized debt collection companies, and letting the debt collection companies come to ask for money, the method is much more ruthless.

"No, hurry up and take the two bags of clothes packed on the bed, and throw the rest to them. Let's run through the back door!" Dong Bai knew that it would not end well if he fell into the hands of debt collectors, so he made a quick decision. just run.

……

However, luck obviously did not favor Dong Bai.

When she and the servant girl came to the back door, they first quietly opened a crack in the door. Seeing that there was no one outside, they opened the door wide and took advantage of the darkness of dusk to escape directly, trying to hide in the reeds beside Yangcheng Lake.

However, as soon as he walked out of the back door, several people came out from the corners on both sides.The leading man was tall and striding long, quickly caught up with the little-footed girl, and grabbed Dong Bai, making her unable to resist.

"Miss Dong, you owe my family several thousand taels of silver. Not only do you want to run away secretly, but you dare to take these bags of soft jewelry. It's not very authentic. Even if I don't embarrass you, these things should belong to my family."

The tall man in the lead is obviously Shen Shuren, but for the sake of the game, he has to pretend to be a bit vicious for the time being.

Dong Bai's face was pale, and his heart was ashamed, as soon as he fought hard, he was about to throw himself into Yangcheng Lake.

In a hurry, Shen Shuren grabbed Dong Bai, firmly held her down to prevent her from committing suicide, and shouted at other subordinates to come over and help to surround her, so as to avoid any more accidents.

The servants naturally did not dare to disobey, and immediately formed a circle according to the young master's instructions.

But also because of this, the servants loosened their control over the servant girl who had already been captured. Seeing this, the servant girl struggled to break free and fled immediately.

Women in the Ming Dynasty bound their feet less cruelly than in the Qing Dynasty, but girls from rich families bound their feet more or less, especially now that it is the end of the Ming Dynasty.

But the servant girl did not need to bind her feet at all, so she escaped much faster than Dong Bai.In addition, she was not very important, so the two Shen family servants pretended to chase her for a while, then came back and reported that they hadn't caught her.

Shen Shuren didn't take it seriously either, and waved his hand to signal for a while to talk, and then changed into a friendly expression of hating iron and steel, and sent Dong Baili back to the house first.

Dong Bai saw that he didn't do anything excessive, he just came to force the debt to repay the debt, so he didn't have the face to resist, and the situation fell into a stalemate for a while.

Shen Shuren waved his hands to let the servants back out, and analyzed empathetically: "Miss Dong, we are only here to ask for debts, why have we come to this point? You are so beautiful, even if you are arrested to pay off debts, you can still be a concubine at worst .

If he escaped, he would have to remain anonymous, and the whole of Suzhou would not be able to stay.Could it be that you have learned Kunqu opera for a few months, so you can't sell it on the Qinhuai River?In your mind, is singing worse than being a maid? "

Dong Bai gritted his teeth, his heart was ashamed, his eyes were closed tightly, and tears dripped down his face: "If I hide my name, no matter how humiliated I am, I won't dishonor the reputation of my deceased parents. No one knows who I am.

If someone proves her integrity and takes her back, but she cannot even keep her mother's filial piety, she will be forced to become a concubine, and the Dong family's reputation will be ruined! "

Shen Shuren was taken aback for a moment, but he hadn't adapted to this feudal and ethical way of thinking.

Indeed, in the eyes of people in the late Ming Dynasty, especially those with status, whether the body was humiliated or not was not the worst.If you can hide your name, no one will know who you are if you are humiliated, at least it is better than the reputation of your dead parents.

This is an era in which name is greater than reality.

At the beginning, Shen Shuren was a little angry about Dong Bai's choice, because he felt that it was understandable that a woman would not want to be bought by a rich man.

But if two evils are in power, and they would rather go to sing than be the plaything of a single man, then it is a bit difficult to understand.

Now that he learned that it was only because of the burden of his family's reputation, he didn't bother to worry about it.

"Even so, please calm down first, and I will talk to you later."

Shen Shuren first left Dong Bai to dry, and asked his servants to keep an eye on her to prevent her from committing suicide.Then he walked to the side, quietly pulled the servant who pretended to chase the escaped maid just now, and asked carefully:

"Did you really not catch up, were you thrown far away, or did you keep biting and staring?"

The servant replied very reliably in a low voice: "Don't worry, young master, I have followed your orders, and have been watching where she is fleeing, and finally found that she fled to another embroidery village two streets away, and we came back. "

Shen Shuren nodded, everything was going well, the servant girl should have gone to the buyer who had agreed with Dong Bai in private to "help her pay her debts, and when the filial piety period expires, she will even be taken over by Zhuangzi" for help.

The subject of this lawsuit is well chosen. The buyer who sells one house and two houses first will be the first to be the buyer.For this scene, Shen Shuren spent seven or eight days slowly laying out the case.

The maid who asked for help didn't know Shen Shuren's identity until she ran away, so the other party, as a local snake, would definitely not let it go.

Shen Shuren stroked his train of thought, then waved his hand, signaling to the servant who pretended to chase after the maid: "You two go back first, and be stricter, the rest of the matter has nothing to do with you."

Shen Shuren is very cautious, thugs use thug servants, stalkers use stalkers, the division of labor is clear, and they keep each other secret, and they don't know the overall plan.

So even if the case happens in the future, these two stalkers will not be found out, let alone become witnesses. They have nothing to do with the follow-up part of the case.

After arranging the affairs of the outside world, Shen Shuren took the debt deed and the prepared documents and negotiated with Dong Bai again:
"Miss Dong, I've made it clear to you now. In Shenshuren, the young master of the Shen family in Taicang, today I personally ask you for a debt. Your Dong family embroidery village owes my family fifty dans of raw silk, principal and interest. A total of more than 800 taels.

If you transfer the ownership of this manor to our Shen family immediately, and you yourself serve as a maidservant for my family for five years, the debt will be cancelled.

In addition, you said that you are afraid that you will be forced to become a concubine before the filial piety period expires, and you will be humiliated to the lintel.Then I can expressly stipulate in the contract that you can continue to wear Sujuan filial piety during your maidservant period, and the content of being a maidservant does not include Israeli servants.

You just need to continue to help my family do embroidery and weaving, and pay with your labor.On this point, you can also ask the neighbors to witness, and you can also indicate it when you take this contract to pay the deed tax. "

Shen Shuren wanted to race for time, so he finished his conditions in one breath.

Dong Bai wanted to die at first, but after listening, he realized that the young master Shen he just met in front of him was actually quite kind, so he couldn't help but relax.

She just didn't understand what kind of conspiracy the Shen family had and why they gave her such a favorable condition—letting her weave silk and satin for five years and embroider in Suzhou for five years, and then she could pay off the insolvency. Not worth it.

"Mr. Shen, don't you think this condition is too generous? The little girl is not worthy of virtue, and I'm afraid she can't afford such a condition." Dong Bai finally insisted.

Shen Shuren smiled: "Oh, do you still think the conditions are good? Well, it seems that you are not greedy, so I will tell the truth. To me, a few thousand taels of silver is nothing. I am in Kunshan Lixiangyuan, Bao Chen Ms. Yuan Chen's singing cost so much in a few months.

A while ago, when I was drinking and talking with Ms. Chen, she looked sad after drinking, thinking of what happened to a sister who had learned folk art from her, and couldn't help but feel sad.

I smiled because of Bojia, and wanted to secretly surprise her. While her sister was still teetering on the edge of the cliff, I would do good deeds by giving her a hand. "

After hearing this reason, Dong Bai was completely relieved.

It turned out that giving her such generous conditions to save her from suffering was just to make sister Yuanyuan happy, which is what this kind of rich dude would do.

"I didn't expect that Sister Yuanyuan herself was not out of the sea of ​​suffering, but she could save me from this quagmire with a casual word. You are so kind to Sister Yuanyuan, I believe in you, as long as you don't insult the Dong family's reputation."

Shen Shuren stood up with a smile, and clapped his hands. After a while, the family member of the Shen family hurriedly found the neighbors closest to Dong's Embroidery Village, set up wine notarization, and wrote a document.All the legal formalities were completed within half a day.

Some procedures that need to be reported to the Yamen would have been very slow, but how powerful is the Shen family?Not only is he the richest man in Suzhou, Shen Tingyang is also the head of the household department.

With a little money to clear the way, the local officials in Kunshan were fawning over each other, and their work efficiency was unprecedentedly high.Even the little officials who had been off work due to darkness were dragged back to work with lamps.

During the whole process, Shen Shuren himself did not show up, nor did he sign, and it was all handed over to the Shen family's steward for disposal.

After finishing the work, since the Dong Family Embroidery Village was already owned by the Shen family, Shen Shuren was not polite, and said that night it was getting late, and he would stay in the Dong Family Embroidery Village, but he lived in the front yard, Dong Bai lived in the back yard, and Qiu had no commit.

The signboard at the door will not be changed for the time being.

Sure enough, everything did not disappoint Shen Shuren. The next morning, Dong Liang's family, who had a secret gentleman's agreement with Dong Bai before but did not have a notarial deed, sent someone to come to the door.

"It's so slow, these people won't work night shifts when they bring back women." Shen Shuren yawned, thinking to himself.

(End of this chapter)