Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 520 Ma Zhou’s Wish

The prime minister's salary was equivalent to more than three hundred taels of silver a year, which was a very high salary. Even if Ma Zhou had no gray income, it was still a huge sum of money.

Xia Lin calculated that one tael of silver was equivalent to about 2010 yuan in based on grain. Being cheated of taels of silver was equivalent to being cheated of yuan. Ma Zhou's annual salary was equivalent to about yuan, which was not a lot of money for him. He didn't really care. Instead, he felt particularly guilty when he knew that there were so many petty jobs in Jinling City under his rule.

It is true that Ma Zhou and Xia Lin are comrades, but their core demands are somewhat different. Xia Lin wants to change the world, while Ma Zhou hopes to see all the poor people in the world happy.

"If these ten taels of silver can protect her from being bullied for a few days, it wouldn't be a bad thing." Ma Zhou smiled helplessly: "It's my fault that I didn't say there are no thieves in the world."

"Come on, don't be such a saint." Xia Lin put one hand on his waist and pointed at the lighted figure in front of him with the other hand. "You've only had a few days of good life, but you've already become so out of touch with the world. I was so heartbroken when only a few taels of silver were seized from my house. Let's go find her."

Ma Zhou was left in a state of confusion by this guy. His inquisitive nature seemed to have never changed. However, after all these years, Ma Zhou knew what kind of person he was, so he decided to go with him.

Pulling Ma Zhou forward, Xia Lin was like a hound. Although his boxing skills had declined, his tracking ability had not deteriorated at all. Although a long time had passed, Xia Lin could still roughly know the movements of the money-swindling woman through various analyses.

Finally, after some searching, Xia Lin arrived at the entrance of a small alley.

"This way."

"How did you know it was here?"

"You can question my administrative ability, but don't question my professional level."

"I have never doubted your ability..."

Ma Zhou felt very aggrieved by what he said. Everyone in the world knew that Xia Daosheng was a good administrator. Fuliang's glittering golden sign was there. It was said that if there was a lot of wealth in the world, Fuliang would have seven buckets of it. Yet, such a place was an almost deserted village ten years ago.

The two walked along the dark and broken road for a while. Xia Lin looked around, listened attentively, and finally raised his hand: "This way! I heard her talking."

"You can hear this? Are you a cat?"

"Hehe." Xia Lin said nothing, just kept on walking.

The weather is pretty good tonight, the moon is bright and the stars are sparse. The full silver moonlight is so bright that even the alley is clear and bright.

They came to a shared house, which was actually a kind of courtyard that had been popular in southern cities since the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Several different families built houses facing each other with only one entrance and exit, and a yard in the middle was used for daily drying of clothes.

It is similar to the courtyard houses in the north, but overall it is smaller and more cramped. The south is humid so the shady areas in the courtyard are always covered with moss and are extremely slippery.

At this moment, the shaky door was half-open, and inside was the Wen Sanniang from before. She was holding a winnowing basket in her hand, which should be filled with steamed buns or dumplings. There were a lot of them, about a dozen in total.

There were about seven or eight children sitting in front of her, the oldest was probably only seven or eight years old, and the youngest was probably three or four years old. They were looking at Wen Sanniang distributing food with great anticipation.

"Eat slowly, be careful not to get burned. We can eat meat every day for several months to come." Wen Sanniang lifted her hair and said with a smile, "Isn't mom amazing!?"

"Great!"

Children, of course, think it’s great to have food, and they giggle.

At this moment, Xia Lin pushed the door open and walked in. Ma Zhou behind him shouted "oh" but failed to stop the impulsive Xia Daosheng.

Startled by the sudden noise, Wen Sanniang looked up and saw Xia Lin and Ma Zhou. Her face immediately turned ugly.

At this time, the older children in the yard immediately stood up and blocked Wen Sanniang fiercely: "Are you here to bully my mother too?!"

Xia Lin glanced at the children on the ground, tilted his head and looked at Wen Sanniang and said with a smile: "Did you give birth to all of them alone?"

“No…” Wen Sanniang was very scared. She and the little ones had no way to resist the two strong men. Now she could only pray that they would not hurt the children. “These are all children I picked up on the road… Some were abandoned by others, and some got lost.”

Xia Lin nodded. Before he could speak, Wen Sanniang continued. With tears in her eyes, she whispered, "My Lords, I know I was wrong. You can do whatever you want to me. Just don't bully them. They are poor people anyway."

"Hey." Xia Lin nudged Ma Zhou with his elbow: "Everything is fine recently, right?"

"Well, isn't it that General Gao is arguing with the Dali Temple? I'm fine."

"Think of a way to deal with Mingsheng. This won't work."

"Ah."

Yu Sanniang could not hear their whispers. She was very nervous and kept her head down, waiting for the final verdict of fate.

Xia Lin, however, sat directly on the steps nearby, looking at these dirty and skinny children: "Back then, I was also thrown on the roadside, but I was luckier than you. I was picked up by a rich family and grew up to be twelve or thirteen without any trouble."

After he finished speaking, he looked up at Wen Sanniang and said, "Your last name is Wen, and your name is Sanniang?"

"My last name is Wen... Because I'm a girl, I don't have a name. I'm the third child in the family, so everyone calls me Sanniang."

"Yes, I also know a Sanniang, my son's mother." Xia Lin raised his head and sighed, "Come to think of it, I still haven't seen my two children."

“Hmm~~?” Ma Zhou turned his head, seeming to want to say something but stopped himself.

Xia Lin sat there and continued, "Don't do this again. You're lucky today because you met two powerless people like me and him. If you had tricked someone else, you probably wouldn't have survived today."

"Thank you both gentlemen...but I have no other options."

Xia Lin waved his hand: "I know, people have to live." He turned around and glanced at Ma Zhou, who was now full of sorrow, pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back: "It's a waste to read the books of sages."

"Hey!" Xia Lin slapped his thigh: "Zhou'er."

"What's wrong?"

"I suddenly have an idea."

"What method?"

Xia Lin stood up and pinched the face of the child who was protecting Wen Sanniang with a determined look on his face and said to Ma Zhou, "Let's go out and talk."

Wen Sanniang just watched Xia Lin and Ma Zhou come so suddenly, and then leave so suddenly, her eyes full of confusion, but she also realized that they had no ill intentions, she just felt that these two people were... weird.

"What can you do?"

"The signs of a chaotic world are gradually emerging. Farming is definitely not an option right now. We need to open up a separate industrial zone around the capital."

"That'll take a long time, right?"

"There are quick ways to do it." Xia Lin narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice: "As long as we can get a large number of people in, and then give them a job, even if we have to use money to support them during this stage, it's fine."

"Where does the money come from?"

"Li Yuan."

"Li Yuan!?"

Ma Zhou's voice was hoarse from shouting at that time. Fortunately, this was a slum and not many people recognized them. But Ma Zhou really didn't expect that Xia Lin's method was to get money from Li Yuan?
"Li Yuan is in a more serious trouble than us right now. Their currency has depreciated sharply, and prices are expected to soar. We have no money to spend, and the entire industry is beginning to decline. Shouldn't the two sides get involved?"

"But will they agree?"

"I'll take care of it." Xia Lin patted his chest and said, "I'll take care of it. You start preparing for the factory tomorrow. If you don't have money, borrow it first! Ask the Dugu family, the Tang family, or the princes! Yes, didn't the princes say they wanted to do this before? Tomorrow you go find Prince Teng and Cen Wenben. We're all old acquaintances, so it'll be easier to get things done."

"Okay, I see. What are your plans for this plan?"

"Look for Cen Wenben. He has worked in Guangzhou for so many years. He has transformed the entire Lingnan from a smoky and humid land into a land of plenty. He has everything from Fuliang. You two can do the specific operations, and I will get you the money."

"it is good!"

Ma Zhouyi saw Xia Lin, who had been wandering around before, jumping up and down again as if he had been injected with chicken blood. In fact, a big stone in his heart fell to the ground. Otherwise, it would be a big problem to let him toss around like that all the time...

"Oh... Daosheng."

"Ok?"

Ma Zhou was silent for a moment: "I have something to ask you."

"You say, we've been so pretentious for so many years, and you're still embarrassed?" Xia Lin looked at Ma Zhou and said, "You're also 40 years old."

"Um..." Ma Zhou hesitated for a long time and cleared his throat: "Just now you said you have a son and a daughter."

"Ah? This..." Xia Lin paused: "I lied."

Ma Zhou was silent for a long time again: "The Sanniang you said you knew, is she..."

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Oh... So..." Ma Zhou was silent for a moment: "So the precious twin boy and girl of the Dugu family are actually..."

"No... Oh, stop guessing."

Ma Zhou glanced at Xia Lin for a long time. After a strange silence, he said, "Daosheng..."

"Okay, okay, yes, yes... Oh, look at you, both of them are mine." Xia Lin simply waved his hands: "Are you satisfied?"

"Well... I told you that Dugu Han has such small arms and legs that he is not someone the Princess of the Li family would be interested in."

"She gave birth to one, and Dugu Han gave birth to one."

Ma Zhou almost choked himself to death with his saliva. After he finally recovered, he raised his hand to stop Xia Lin from talking: "Give me some time. You mean, the two children of the Dugu family..."

"They are all mine. The princess gave birth to one, and Dugu Han gave birth to one."

"Ah!" Ma Zhou pointed at Xia Lin and said, "Du Gu Han is a girl?"

"Nonsense, can men give birth?"

Ma Zhou immediately shut up: "I heard nothing and I don't know anything. You didn't tell me anything."

(End of this chapter)