Chapter 3: Fishing and Killing the Family

  No need to ask, the several slaves of the Ma family must have gone to find trouble for the mother and daughter of the Zeng family, so the Peng sisters and the captain were very much in favor of Liu Ziguo's proposal, and the few people quickly returned along the original road.

  When I arrived at the thatched cottage, I saw several wicked slaves showing off their might. The leader, a squint-eyed fellow, waved a paper with writing on it and shouted loudly: "You, surname Zeng, don't be ignorant of propriety, repaying debts is heavenly justice, if you can't produce the money, then use your daughter as collateral."

  Zeng Cheng stood at the door of the thatched cottage with a scowl on his face and shouted, "When did we ever borrow money from the Ma family? Don't make something out of nothing!"

  The guy holding the IOU sneered and waved the paper in his hand, saying: "Such a beautiful young lady, how come your brain doesn't work well? Last month when your mother was ill and needed money to see a doctor, who lent you the silver? You can't not recognize your own signature on this, can you?"

  "Mr. Feng, the teacher from the neighboring village, lent me twenty taels of silver to buy medicine, how did it become yours, the Ma family?" Zeng Cheng thought back to last month when his mother was seriously ill. The neighbors were also having a hard time and only managed to scrape together two taels of silver, which was not enough to buy medicine. With the illness unable to be delayed, fortunately, Mr. Feng Wencai, the new teacher from the neighboring village, lent her the silver. In her haste, she reluctantly accepted the help from someone she didn't know well and took the silver. At the time, she had even written a receipt with the ink and brush from the private school, clearly stating that she borrowed twenty taels of silver from Feng Wencai. The handwriting on that piece of paper was unmistakably hers, but how did Feng Wencai become Ma Wencai? Clever Zeng Cheng immediately understood, "So it was a trap you set up on purpose, and the ink is problematic."

  The man holding the IOU sneered: "Not bad, Feng Wencai is indeed Ma Wencai, and Ma Wencai is the courtesy name of our young master. Today, the young master has sent me, Ma Fu, to tell you that this debt must be collected today. You have to pay whether you want to or not. If you have silver, pay with silver; if you don't have silver, use people as collateral. Little lady, what do you say we should do?"

  Taking advantage of someone's misfortune, this ancient version of Yang Bailao's story made Liu Ziguang very unhappy. He suppressed his urge to draw his knife and kill, and stepped forward saying: "You're Ma Fu, right? It's just twenty taels of silver, I'll give it to you, go back and tell your young master not to bully people just because he has a bit of money."

  Ma Fu glanced at Liu Ziguo with a slanted eye, sizing him up, and saw that he was a man of some status, but not a local, probably a passing boat passenger. At the time, he had already made plans in his mind.

  "Sorry, sir, but our young master's loan is a usurious one. Now, including the principal and interest... let me calculate it for you. The total interest accrued is 80 taels of silver. Can you afford to pay it?" Ma Fu opened his mouth wide like a lion, trying to scare Liu Ziguang away.

  "It was clearly twenty taels of silver, how did it become eighty taels after such a short time? Even usury wouldn't be so unreasonable!" Zeng Cheng questioned Ma Fu, with tears already welling up in his eyes.

  "We, the Ma family, have been in the lending business from the very beginning. The interest rates are high, but that's just the way it is. If you don't believe me, go to Huai'an County and file a complaint, see how the county magistrate will deal with you!" Whether it was through official channels or private settlements, the Ma family had a 100% guarantee of winning against two poor and helpless fishermen - it was as easy as pinching a snail.

  "It's just silver, I'll give it to you!" Liu Ziguang stretched out his hand in front of Second Miss "Give me the silver note." Because Liu Ziguang didn't have much silver on him, he knew that Peng Jingwei, this little money enthusiast, always carried a lot of gold and silver with her, so he directly asked her for money. However, to outsiders, it seemed like Second Miss was Liu Ziguang's servant girl or something. But because the current situation required them to present a united front, Second Miss still cooperated and handed over a silver note, slapping it into Liu Ziguang's hand.

  Liu Ziguang took the silver ticket and glanced at it, then directly stuffed it into Ma Fu's hand: "Ma Fu, you take a look, it's a hundred taels of silver ticket, Grandpa has acknowledged it! It's a silver ticket from Anhui Rishengchang Piao Hao, so you don't need to find the extra twenty taels either. The accounts between your Ma family and Zeng family mother and daughter are all settled."

  Ma Fu was furious, and indeed there were those who dared to oppose the Ma family. He took the silver ticket in his hand and put away the IOU, glancing at Liu Ziguang with a slanted eye: "Friend, even a strong dragon can't suppress a snake in its own nest. I don't care what kind of underworld you're from, but if you intervene in this matter today, you'll likely get into big trouble for yourself. The Ma family of Huaiyin is not to be trifled with. I accept the silver ticket as a gift and pretend I've never seen you before. Let's just disperse and forget about it." The several house servants behind him also clenched their fists, making cracking sounds that intimidated Liu Ziguang and his companions.

  "I've seen some nerve, but this is ridiculous! You lions demand eighty taels of silver and we put up with it, but now you're taking the money and still not settling the account? Isn't that a bit too shameless?" Peng Jingwei couldn't help but jump out and confront Ma Fu.

  Ma Fu was about to retort when Liu Ziguang interrupted: "Very well, we don't want the hundred taels. Consider it your funeral expenses." "What funeral expenses?" Ma Fu hadn't even understood what was happening before he was kicked flying by Liu Ziguang and landed flat on his back in the mud, his head and mouth covered in filth, looking utterly disheveled. Two servants rushed over to help him up while another two foolish servants raised their whips to strike Liu Ziguang, but were also kicked to the ground by Liu Ziguang. By this time Ma Fu was unable to get up, Liu Ziguang's strength being too great, and it was likely that his ribs had been broken.

  Liu Ziguang recently took a refined route, without wearing a sword or carrying a sword, but only hid a long dagger in his boots. He would suddenly pull out the dagger and walk up to lift one of Ma Fu's legs, ready to cut his Achilles tendon.

  "Impossible." Peng Jingrong hastily stopped Liu Ziguo, this place is not like the iron factory, casually committing a serious crime will definitely cause trouble, besides, even if they killed these few people, it would only bring more trouble to Zeng's mother and daughter.

  Liu Ziguang also realized this, and with a fierce look on his face, he brandished the dagger at Ma Fu's feet several times. Then, he searched Ma Fu's chest and found the IOU, after which he threw him into the mud. "You can't even afford to spend so much on funeral expenses," he said. "Except for repaying the debt to Zeng's mother and daughter, give the rest to your family members who are doctors. If I find out that you dare to come looking for trouble again, I will definitely destroy your Ma family." Suddenly noticing the mud stains on his clothes, he remembered how they had splattered him with mud while riding their horses earlier. He forced all of Ma's family servants to roll around in the mud many times before letting them go.

  Ma Fu was already in so much pain that he couldn't speak, and as soon as he was lifted onto the horse by the family guards, Liu Ziguang pulled him down. "You guys have no manners, you're not allowed to ride horses, walk while leading them!" The several family guards, who looked like mud monkeys, had no choice but to carry Ma Fu on their backs and lead the horses away, stumbling as they went. One of the braver family guards asked, "May I ask which noble family you are from? We need to report back to our young master."

  "Go back and tell your young master that we are the Peng family of Liguo Iron Factory. If you want to find a place, whether it's Xuzhou Prefecture or Huaiyin County, we'll accompany you." The second miss seized this opportunity to speak in such a situation.

  The servants slunk away, and Zeng Cheng hastily came over to thank him. He bowed deeply to Liu Ziguo, who waved his hand repeatedly, saying that helping those in distress was a matter of course. He returned the IOU to Zeng Cheng.

  At this time, even Mrs. Zeng, who had been in the house all along, came out to thank them. It turned out that she had just recovered from a serious illness and couldn't see the wind, so she didn't easily come out of the house. All that could be seen was that Mrs. Zeng's face was pale, her facial features were delicate and resembled those of her daughter, with intricate and refined features, but the passage of time had left many marks on her face, and her temples had already turned white. She gave Liu Ziguo and his family a deep bow. Liu Ziguo hurriedly bowed back to return the courtesy, while Peng Jingwei whispered in her sister's ear: "Look at Mrs. Zeng's elegant posture and dignified demeanor, even the imperial ladies-in-waiting are no match for her."

  After this incident, the distance between the two sides suddenly narrowed. Zeng Cheng brewed a pot of snow water tea to entertain them and sat down to chat. They talked about Ma Wencai, who was indeed a tyrant in Huaiyin County. His father had made a fortune by lending money at high interest rates in his early years and now operated several gambling dens, occupying a large area of good water in Hongze Lake. It was probably during Ma Wencai's visit to the lake that he took a liking to Zeng Cheng. Later, he sent someone to deliver betrothal gifts, directly stating that the Ma family wanted to buy a concubine. Of course, this was rejected by Mrs. Zeng. The Ma family did not want to do something as low-tech as kidnapping, so they came up with a small trick. Taking advantage of the Zeng family's urgent need for money, they sent a fake teacher from a neighboring village, named Feng Wencai, to lend Zeng Cheng 20 taels of silver. Then, by removing two strokes from the character "Feng" and replacing them with the character "Ma", it became clear that the Ma family was the creditor of the Zeng family. If they couldn't repay the debt, they would be taken away. Anyone who dared to disobey would be beaten up, and if they still refused to obey, there were ways to deal with them. The court in Huaiyin County was almost run by the Ma family, and winning or losing a lawsuit was not a problem.

  Luckily, Liu Ziguang and his group had a big background, so the Ma family might give them some face and not bother them again for a while. The mother and daughter of the Zeng family were grateful and invited Liu Ziguang and his group to come back for dinner again, and after calculating their schedule, they agreed as they still had plenty of time.

  Zeng Cheng saw Liu Ziguo and his party off for a long distance and stood on the small hill for a long time, watching them leave. The few people returned to the boat without mentioning it.

  When they came again, it was no longer just the four of them, but also a dozen or so attendants carrying sedan chairs. Two small sedan chairs were not occupied by people, but were filled with rice, flour, bean oil, pork, Huai salt, several bottles of soy sauce and vinegar, and two pieces of fine cloth. It was still very troublesome to buy these things in the small fishing village, and they could only be purchased when the peddlers passed through the village or town, selling a few copper coins at a time. As for whole pieces of cloth, it was not even worth thinking about, and they could only mend and wear old clothes. Generally, ordinary families found it difficult to eat lard and meat, which were all taken from the boat by Liu Ziguang. There were also several boxes of high-quality cosmetics, including rouge, powder, and osmanthus oil, which were used by the Peng sisters themselves. These were top-notch products that could not be bought in small cities, and were specially brought for Zeng Ju to use. Since they did not accept silver, Liu Ziguang and the two sisters thought it best to send some practical daily necessities.

  A group of people walked to a place one mile away from the residence of Zeng's mother and daughter, and saw a wisp of smoke rising slowly across a small hill. The captain was delighted and said that Zeng's daughter had already started cooking for them. However, when everyone crossed the hill, they only saw the thatched hut burned down and the mother and daughter sitting on the ground crying.

  It wasn't kitchen smoke, but the remaining smoke after the only shelter of the mother and daughter was burned down.