Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1688 The Country Girl Looked Down Upon 9
The steward thought to himself, putting aside everything else, how dare the Zhou family not repay the money owed to those powerful banks? Aren't they afraid of death?
If anyone dares to owe money and not pay it back, then one day when Master Zhou, Master Zhou, and some of the Zhou family's young men and women go out, they might get beaten to death or maimed, and the murderer won't be found. After all, this world isn't like modern times with surveillance cameras, so life is more important than money, right?

Given that none of the members of the Duke of Zhenguo's family hold official positions in the court, how dare they owe money to those powerful and influential families and refuse to pay it back? Who gave them the guts?

When Old Master Zhou heard from the steward that the debts couldn't be left unpaid, he was already planning to borrow new money to pay off the old ones. But then, after the steward left, Linlang took out something and handed it to Old Master Zhou, saying, "Grandfather, don't borrow new money to pay off old debts yet. This was sent to me anonymously, accusing the steward's family of embezzling 50,000 taels of silver from the household. I guess this person is the steward's sworn enemy, otherwise they wouldn't have reported them. Grandfather, I think we can talk to the steward's family. If they're willing to hand over more than 30,000 taels, we'll let them go. Otherwise, we'll send them to the yamen. I think they'll be willing to hand over 30,000 taels to avoid going to the yamen, after all, nobody wants to go to jail. With this 50,000 taels, we can pay off 3,000 taels. We can use the rest to pay off the debts with higher interest rates first, and keep 10,000 taels on hand."

Linlang naturally didn't intend to lay off all the people at once, lest they cause trouble. Instead, she planned to slowly boil the frog in the water, cleaning up one family at a time. This way, others would think that they wouldn't be targeted. By gradually eliminating the major figures in the manor, even if the remaining small fry were all laid off, it wouldn't have much of an impact.

So when Linlang saw that the family couldn't pay back the money, she decided to slaughter a fat pig first.

Before Old Master Zhou could say anything after hearing Linlang's words, Old Madam Zhou and the others stared in astonishment, exclaiming, "What?! A servant could embezzle fifty thousand taels?! That's outrageous!"

In the countryside, they were lucky to save five taels of silver a year. But this man, a mere servant, embezzled fifty thousand taels from the Duke's mansion! How wealthy the Duke's mansion must have been back then!

In fact, this person was greedy for more than that, but much of it had already been spent on his family's extravagant lifestyle. The family's cash, land, and shops were worth about 30,000 taels. If they sold all their possessions, they could probably raise more than 50,000 taels. That's why Linlang wrote 50,000 taels. Otherwise, no matter how much she wrote, it would be useless if the other party couldn't give it to her.

Grandpa Zhou was also surprised that someone would send Linlang an anonymous letter of complaint. Why didn't anyone send one to him?

But that's not the point. The point is, they're going to have money.

Immediately, Old Master Zhou summoned the steward to his study to discuss the matter.

Then, just as Linlang and the others had predicted, the steward was willing to return the stolen goods, only asking that Old Master Zhou and the others not send their family to the yamen.

There's nothing we can do. These kinds of things can be easily investigated and clarified. Besides, the anonymous whistleblower letter contained a lot of evidence, so they can't deny it. They can only accept their bad luck.

I just felt a deep hatred in my heart, wondering who had anonymously reported them.

These people in the mansion were fighting like court factions, and they knew their family did indeed have many enemies who wanted to drive them out so they could rise in power. Therefore, they didn't suspect Linlang of orchestrating the whole thing, assuming it was someone else who had reported them. The head steward's wife, however, was quite upset to see Old Master Zhou drive her family away.

Not long ago, she had looked down on this family, secretly mocking them for being vulgar, rude, and brainless. She wanted to join forces with her aunt and others to drive them away and make them go back to being peasants. This was also the reason why the servants in the mansion looked down on the Zhou family. They were influenced by her aunt and others and always felt that the Zhou family would be driven away sooner or later and would still be peasants. Since the Zhou family would still be peasants in the end, how could they respect peasants? After all, they were the stewards of the Duke's mansion, much more powerful and influential than the peasants in the countryside.

Unexpectedly, before she and her husband could even kick the other person out, they were the ones kicked out by this family, which naturally made them feel depressed.

However, she was not willing to die like this. She only thought that after the Zhou family was driven away by the aunt and others and the new lady entered the mansion, they might be able to come back. So they were hoping that the aunt would drive the Zhou family away as soon as possible.

Although they were driven away, they had lived in the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion for decades and had extensive connections. Even if they left, they could still influence the development of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion and help the aunt and others complete their tasks. If they returned in the future thanks to the aunt and others, at most they would not be able to make any money. So, thinking of this, the head steward's wife felt at ease and left with her head held high, not showing any sign of frustration.

Meanwhile, the Zhou family suddenly received over 40,000 taels of silver—this was the result of a dispute between Old Master Zhou and the other party. Old Master Zhou was not satisfied with over 30,000 taels, and the steward's family would be bankrupted if they paid over 50,000 taels. The steward was also unwilling to accept this, so in the end, they settled on over 40,000 taels. The entire Zhou family was dumbfounded when they saw so much money.

However, as Linlang suggested, Old Master Zhou had already decided to pay off the debts owed to several money shops with higher interest rates first, so that if the interest rates were too high and the debts were not paid off in time, they would lose more and more. He also kept 10,000 taels on hand for emergencies. So, he had more than 40,000 taels, all of which were used to pay off debts and were quickly spent.

The Zhou family was heartbroken to see this. Master Zhou said, "The late Duke was too wasteful, accumulating so much debt."

Master Zhou also said, "That's right. I heard from the people in the manor that before the late Duke inherited the title, his family still had an estate. As soon as his parents passed away, he sold it shortly after becoming Duke. Then, without the estate, he became successful and started selling the family's antiques, calligraphy and paintings. After selling them all, he went to borrow money. If we hadn't come, the Duke's manor would not have been able to survive."

Madam Zhou said, "With so much debt, can we really not pay it back? Paying back this debt is such a loss. If we didn't use this money to pay off the debt, we would be rich!"

Old Master Zhou said with a wry smile, "We should still pay it back. I'm afraid there will be trouble if we don't. We've just arrived in the capital and our foundation is weak. How dare we not pay back the money of those rich and powerful people?"

Seeing that his family was still reluctant to part with the money, Old Master Zhou understood that they were reluctant to part with so much money, so he immediately reminded them: "Think about what happens in the countryside if you borrow money at high interest rates and don't repay it. Do you think we'll have a good ending if we don't repay the money lent out by these wealthy and powerful people in the capital?"

Upon hearing that loan sharks from the countryside were coming to their door to collect debts, looking like wolves and tigers, the Zhou family, who were considered honest people, immediately dared not continue to talk about not repaying the money.