Do you know: I, a commoner prime minister

Chapter 67 Who's family with you?

"Shulan, weren't you teaching Yujie to read? What are you doing here!"

When Hao saw Shulan walk in, she spoke quickly before Shulan could even bow, and winked at her.

"Yes, daughter-in-law..."

Shulan overheard bits and pieces outside the door and knew that this matter was quite troublesome. Seeing Hao Shi wink at her, she was about to bow and leave when Zhou Shi pounced on her.

Shulan was startled. Just as she was about to dodge, Zhou grabbed her skirt. She stumbled and almost fell, but was caught by the maid behind her.

"Third Aunt, what are you doing?"

Hao was surprised that Zhou would do this, and quickly went to pull Zhou away.

"She's a junior, and she's not in charge. Let's talk about your matter slowly."

"Wife of the eldest son, please help your aunt! If you don't help me, I can't go on living. I might as well die here!"

Zhou held on tightly, not letting go. She wasn't stupid; last time, Hao and the others had made excuses about not being able to ask their daughter-in-law for money.

If we let Shulan go, Madam Hao will say the same thing again later.

The hall was thrown into chaos in an instant.

"Mother, Great-Aunt!"

Shulan knew this wouldn't work, so she raised her voice and said, "Please let go of each other's hands first, and sit down to talk about what's going on!"

Upon hearing this, Hao released Zhou, and Zhou, seeing this, also released Shulan, and shouted at the three women standing to the side, "Are you all stupid? Help me up!"

The three women then stepped forward to help her, but Zhou was still cursing and swearing, "How could I have given birth to such stupid children like you?"

Shulan frowned slightly. Judging from Zhou's words, these three were all her daughters.

Even if the people around her didn't like her daughter, they wouldn't have cursed her like that.

"Mother, what happened?"

Shulan stepped forward to help Hao Shi sit down and asked, "Why did you come to our house looking for trouble, my dear aunt?"

"Ugh!"

Mrs. Hao sighed and recounted what had happened.

The last time Zhou came to borrow money, she wanted to use it to bribe her son.

Unable to borrow any money, he returned home and, urged by his son, had no choice but to seek help from landlords and gentry.

Almost all landlords and gentry would lend money and grain to the local people.

It wasn't that they were happy to help others, but rather that they knew the situation of the people in the neighborhood.

They knew exactly how much land the family owned and which members of the family could fetch a good price.

Borrowing money or grain is no problem. They've already calculated all your family's assets and will lend you money at a 40-50% discount.

If they can't pay it back, they can use their land and children to pay off the debt.

The Zhou family still has more than 20 mu of land, which is their livelihood, and they certainly can't bear to sell it.

So they went to the landlords and gentry to borrow money, but that money wasn't enough.

Then he went to his sons-in-law's houses to borrow money, borrowing from all three of them, before he could barely scrape together the money his son needed.

The money was given, and the son said he would take care of things, but he never returned.

The Zhou couple couldn't wait any longer, so they went to the city to look for him, only to learn that their son had gambling debts in the city and said he needed to pay them back in the next few days.

When they went into the city to look for her, those who owed them money learned that her son had run away, and they directly pressured the couple to repay the debts.

The Zhou couple had no money, but anyone who dared to lend them money must know something about their family. They were told to give up their land as collateral, or else they would be sent to the authorities.

The couple were both in the hands of the other party. No matter how reluctant they were, they had no choice but to be taken home and handed over the only land deeds left in their home to the other party to pay off the debt.

After these people left, the landlord they had borrowed from also found out.

The landlord dared to lend money because of those fields.

Now things are really bad; all the land has been used to pay off debts, and the Zhou family will starve to death once the food runs out.

The landlord immediately wanted to seize her daughter-in-law and grandchildren to pay off the debt, even if it wasn't enough, it would at least make up for some of the loss.

Zhou was naturally unwilling to accept this, so she could only plead with the landlord for time to raise the money, and also explained the situation of Zhou An's family.

When the landlord heard that there was a chance to get all the money back, she agreed, but her house was already under surveillance.

Before Zhou had even set off for Qinghe County, her three sons-in-law had already learned the news.

Upon hearing this, they knew their money was likely going to be wasted, and in their anger, they all sent their wives back home.

He threatened to divorce them if they didn't get their money back.

When Zhou married off her daughter, she practically sold her off. Over the years, she has taken advantage of her sons-in-law quite a bit, and the sons-in-law have long been annoyed by her.

If Zhou hadn't said that her son was about to become a minor official, they wouldn't have lent them the money at all.

When Zhou saw that her three daughters had been sent back, she was not worried about them at all. Instead, she thought of them as three helpers and brought them to the Zhou family home.

Of course, this was Shulan's guess based on what Hao told her. Zhou only said that her three daughters had been kicked out by their maternal families and could not survive.

"Grandma, how much do you need to borrow?" Shulan asked after a moment's thought.

Upon hearing this, Madam Hao became anxious and quickly tugged at Shulan, giving her a meaningful look.

Shulan patted her hand and gave her a reassuring look.

Upon hearing this, Madam Zhou was overjoyed and quickly replied, "Paying off the debts and redeeming the land will probably require five hundred taels!"

"Then how does Grandma plan to repay this debt?" Shulan asked calmly.

She saw that the Zhou family had been driven to the brink of despair, and that she might actually try to kill herself and cause a scene at the Zhou family's place.

Even if they could forcibly drive the people away, if this family were truly driven to their death by the creditors, the Zhou family would inevitably be criticized.

Public opinion can be a powerful force, and this would not be good for Zhou An's reputation.

If they could just pay some money to send them away, even if something happened to their family later, the Zhou family would have done more than enough.

Unexpectedly, Zhou made an outrageous demand, asking for five hundred taels of silver.

"I've paid off the debt and redeemed the land. I'll pay it back slowly," Zhou quickly assured her.

"The grain produced from one mu of land is worth about one to three taels of silver. After deducting the income from seeds, farm tools and taxes, there is not much left."

Shulan calmly calculated: "I heard that my aunt's family originally only had a dozen acres of land. Even if all of these fields were taken back, under the condition of good weather, after deducting all the miscellaneous expenses and the family's food and drink, would they be able to save two taels of silver at the end of the year?"

If a year of famine were to occur, we might even incur debts, and five hundred taels of silver would be a debt we could never repay in our lifetime.

"Then... three hundred taels it is."

As she spoke, Zhou wiped away her tears and said, "I'll owe my sons-in-law for now, but I can't pay any less, otherwise our family really won't be able to survive."

Shulan's face darkened, and she said, "If that's not what you mean, then please leave."

"What did you say, Da Lang's wife?" Zhou asked incredulously.

"I said, 'Grandma, please go back.'"

Shulan said calmly, "If you want to die, go ahead. It's more difficult to kill yourself by running over. How about I have someone fetch some rope for me?"

"You...you..."

Zhou pointed at Shulan, too angry to speak. She turned to Hao and shouted, "Third daughter-in-law, look at your daughter-in-law! Is this how you treat your relatives? We're all family, and not only do you refuse to help, you even kick us when we're down!"

Upon hearing this, Hao turned her head away and remained silent.

"Who considers you family?"

Just then, a voice came from outside.

Upon hearing this voice, Hao and Shulan stood up excitedly.