Chapter 94 Hello, copper cash
At this time, Mammy Tang, who was waiting for the gharry at the roadside, lamely ran and caught Madam Luo for condolences. Just now, Mammy Tang was blocked by the crowd and didn’t see the details of the accident. She only saw Madam Luo throwing herself on Third Miss’s “corpse” with crying, so Madam Luo vividly described the most dangerous scene for her.
At the other side, Feng Yang couldn’t get an answer from He Danggui, so he changed a topic and grinned, “I’m so sorry that I almost killed you today, but you are really lucky. Sis, maybe you don’t know that once a horse is running fleetingly, its four hooves will alternate between ‘up’ and ‘down’.” He took down the fan from his chest, and gesticulated with it. He said, “When the horse is up, it is like flying in mid-air. When it reaches the highest point, its hooves have no strength in the air. Even if it is stepping on a swallow, the swallow will not be damaged after the stepping, but could fly away with its wings open! Ha, sounds interesting?”
He Danggui put on the veil dumbly. The pain on the back was still scorching. She was suffering a lot physical injury and uncontrollable inner Zhenqi were both consuming her energy. She didn’t know how long she could hold on. She only felt so tired that she wanted to sleep.
However, Feng Yang still said excitedly and waved his fan to circulate air. He used the fan to point at a piece of blue stone steps, which was broken by the horseshoe in the near distance, and laughed, “Look at there. When a horse was falling down the hooves, the hooves were like the most murderous weapon. A delicate girl like you would definitely die in this case. I am not frightening you. When the horse steps down, you will die instantly. That is to say, you will have no strength to leave your last words.”
He Danggui lowered her head and walked behind Madam Luo, and gently pulled Madam Luo’s sleeves, trying to arouse her attention and urging her to get on the gharry quickly to go on their trip. However, Madam Luo said to Mammy Tang how frightened she was and how lucky Yi was. She didn’t even look back. Mammy Tang also heard with astonishment and felt deeply moved.
He Danggui bemoaned in her mind, “Grandma, in fact, I have no luck at all, I was trampled exactly by that horse.”
The only good thing was that the injury on the back was throbbing rather than pricking, which should be bruise caused by blood stasis. There was no scuffing or bleeding, otherwise the blood would have seeped through her clothes. If so, Madam Luo would have asked to see the wound by herself, and then her white skin on her back would betray her disguise... Although there was no particularly precious medicinal material in Yingying powder formula, it was also very cumbersome to make. So, in order to save it for more using, she only smeared it on her face, neck, hands, and forearms. Once her clothes were taken off, the yellow and white skin contrast at each junction would be very obvious, and anyone who saw it would find it strange. At this moment, she suddenly understood the feeling when she threatened to strip Bai Yangbai in public...
Feng Yang wasn’t finished, so he followed He Danggui’s steps and walked behind Madam Luo, then continued to praise the good luck of He Danggui, “Sis, now that you only spat a little blood and feel fine, it proves that when the horse trampled you, its hooves were still ‘up’. There was no harm at that time. But then again, you can jump much higher than my 18 sisters. Maybe you are very suitable to learn martial arts and your age is also suitable...”
He Danggui yawned behind the veil and dragged Madam Luo’s sleeves again. This time, she finally got the special treatment that Madam Luo touched her head.
Feng Yang closed the fan and laughed again, “Sister, you are a girl, so it’s useless for you to learn kung fu. What about I show you a Formula of Arts of Lightness and you can practice it accordingly? I believe that with your aptitude, it would be easy for you to climb trees, walls, roofs and beams within a year. Well, considering it an apology for that I almost killed you just now, how do you think? Don’t despise this formula. You have no idea how many people want it. Hey, sister, why don’t you talk to me? Is it...?”
“Benefactor, benefactor, my benefactor!”
The woman, who was the mother of the little yellow-haired baby, ran over suddenly and pushed Feng Yang aside. She held He Danggui’s hands with tears in her eyes, shaking her hands up and down, “I have heard from the passers-by that you saved my child! Benefactor! You saved my child, which means you saved my family. You are very kind-hearted. Let me kowtow to you!” After that, she dropped to her knees. “Thud, thud, thud!” She banged her head on the ground several times.
He Danggui’s back sorer for the shaking, so she had no strength to pull the woman up. Therefore, she turned her head and said to Feng Yang, “Childe Feng, please help this aunt up.”
Feng Yang smiled, “Ha, ha, you finally talk to me. I thought you were angry with me for what happened just now.” Then he helped the woman up in gray with the handle of the fan. Seeing the woman’s head still kowtowing, but she already stood up involuntary, Feng Yang then suddenly approached He Danggui and whispered, “My friend… He doesn’t like women, so don’t stare at him like that later.”
The woman bent over and pulled the bamboo basket next to her feet. She opened the lid and took out her son, crying to He Danggui, “My boy is a posthumous child. His father died when I was pregnant with him. How could I face my parents-in-law if he died here today! You are the benefactor of our family!” She cried as she took out a small white bag from her sleeve, then she handed it to He Danggui, “It was my greed that almost killed my son. I’m giving these silvers back! I’m so sorry that I conned out of your money!”
Here was the story. This woman took her son to the market for grocery shopping, and happened to meet Madam Luo’s gharry colliding in the market on the street. Although she and her son were not injured, they were frightened.
Later, the gharry stopped. The hawkers who had suffered loss for their goods shouted loudly. So, Miss Ji ran to apologize to them and told them her master would later compensate them for loss according to the price. As soon as the hawkers heard that the wrecker was willing to pay compensation and saw the gharry in front of them was very grand, they knew that gharry must belong to the rich, so they all calmed down.
Miss Ji went back to the mansion and brought the purse. She began to compensate them according to the extent of damage of their goods one by one. Many of them had already set their own compensation price. Miss Ji also directly gave them money without demur. On the one hand, she knew that it was the masters’ fault for crashing the hawkers’ stalls, so she was willing to pay them more for easing their anger. On the other hand, she worried about the injuries of Mammy Tang and Madam Luo, so she was in no mood to bargain with them. Anyway, Luo’s Mansion didn’t care about the money.
Some passers-by were covetous to see that some hawkers got compensation for 3 or 4 strings of qian even if their vegetables only dropped on the ground and could still be picked up and sold without any damage. So, later, a passer-by came and told Miss Ji that just now he twisted his feet when eluding the gharry and asked for 3 strings of qian. Miss Ji immediately gave him money. Also, she said she would send a few big bottles of bone-setting medicated liquor and place them on the counter of Li’s Inn on this street, so that he could go there and treat his wounds.
Then, Miss Ji repeated her words to the passers-by who were watching, and her original intention was to calm the fear of everyone to show she was sorry. Luo’s Family was a big clan in Yangzhou City, which attracted much attention in every word and deed. It would be terrible if there were any bad rumors about “leaping the horse in the street to mess with the public”. Money couldn’t buy reputation. She believed Mammy would make the same decision if she disposed this.
However, many people felt this family was really rich and thought they encountered a sucker! So, they surrounded and said that they hit their heads, sprained their necks, and twisted their waists... Miss Ji told everyone loudly not to crowd and line up one by one, then she continued to take money out of the purse to give “wounded” passers-by. Soon after the copper cash in the purse were used up, she started to pay the 2 qian small silver ingot. When the 2 qian small silver ingot ran out, she started to pay 5 qian big silver ingot...
When it was the woman’s turn, the big silver ingot was used up, so Miss Ji gave her a small change. The woman took the bamboo basket with her son inside and sat down on the steps by the roadside. She took the weight of the small change and assumed it was more than 1 liang!
Now their family’s living only counted on fishing and selling fish by her father-in-law and brother-in-law. They could only earn 1 liang silver through work from dawn to dusk for 3 or 4 months, and cut off the daily expense for the family. She and her mother-in-law would like to set up a tofu workshop to subsidize their family. However, although they saved money for a long time, they still couldn’t afford it because it would cost at least 2 liang silver to found the workshop.
The woman looked down to see her son who was squatting in the basket and playing yo-yo happily. He would soon grow up. And when he turned 5 or 6 years old, he would talk and walk. Then if she didn’t send him to a traditional private school to learn to read books and recognize words, he would surely follow his grandfather and uncle to sell stinky fishes...
As long as she had 2 liang silver, she could set up a tofu workshop and her son could go to the traditional private school. When he grew up, he could go to the North Street to ghostwrite letters. He could earn 2 liang of silver per month by then...
Thought of here, she stood up excitedly, turning her eyes to look at the long line that was waiting for the compensation. She was afraid that the silver would be given out if she went there late, so she didn’t even put the lid on the bamboo basket back, but left her son in the basket and joined the queue without turning round.
Soon it was her turn again. Miss Ji remembered her, so she asked why she came here again? Then the woman pointed to the bamboo basket in the distance, and said loudly, “I brought my son to the market. My arm was injured, so I came for compensation before. But I just opened the bamboo basket and found that my two-year-old son had broken his head. He was bleeding. I don’t even know whether he is still alive!”. Miss Ji was scared, so she immediately took out a big silver, handed it to her, and asked her to send her child to San Qing Tang quickly. She also promised that they would let the best doctor treat the child!
The woman took over and hefted the silver. She thought this time there were 4 or 5 liang. She was happy and timid. After hesitating for a while, she pushed her way through the crowd, but then found that her son was not in the bamboo basket. And a person in the distance was shouting, “The horse trampled a child! The child is dead! Child dead!”
The woman stumbled to the scene of the accident and saw her son’s yo-yo at a glance. So, she jumped on and cried desperately with regret in her heart. She felt regret for her greed caused her son’s death! When the woman was regretting and crying sadly, there was a thin girl sat up from the ground and handed over a yellow-hair baby to her. The girl told her to take good care of her son in the future.
The woman picked up her lost-and-found baby, squatted on the roadside and cried beside the baby who was smiling. When she finished crying, she heard from the passer-by that the little girl had just been covering the baby’s body and blocked the damage for him. The woman recognized that they were the family whose gharry crashed the market and then paid the compensation to everyone. The family saved her son but she cheated them out of their money! At this moment, the 5 liang silver became heavier than stones and hotter than irons. She was too embarrassed to take it. So, she jumped up to thank them, made an apology and gave back the silver.
Many passers-by and hawkers who cheated the silver before were deeply moved by seeing this scene. Compared with the shining personality of the little girl who “gave her life to save the young child”, their personality had been mapped to infinite dark and they became shamed. So, before He Danggui, who was weakened for her back injury, could understand the situation of the woman in gray, the passers-by on both sides of the road strived to give the money back to her with noisy sound.
Some were a handful of copper cash, some were silver ingot, and some were big silver ingot... Her little hands were soon full of money.
In the eyes of the passers-by, these well-dressed people were standing chatting together. They seemed to be very familiar with each other, maybe they were relatives. So, from Madam Luo and Mammy Tang, to Feng Yang and Guan Bai, their hands, sleeves, robes and even folding fans were stuffed with strings of copper cash.
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