Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 196
Great Schemer
Lu Junming shook his head, “My father didn’t let me go to the frontlines then, and only allowed me to wait in the military camp. I only saw the soldiers return in defeat and didn’t even see my father then. I heard a soldier say that the raincoats were flammable. He said that my father had already been sent to the metropolis to answer for his crimes, and that I should leave as soon as possible!”
Mo Yan laughed, “The inquisitors from the capital arrived too soon!”
“The inquisitors from the capital had been in my father’s military camp the entire time, I just hadn’t seen them before.”
“Has your father seen the emperor before?”
Lu Junming shook his head, “No, he’s just a small martial officer. In this dynasty, martial officers can’t enter politics or enter the palace without summons. Unless he had done a great service for the country, or…”
He couldn’t bear to say it, so Mo Yan said it for him, “Or unless he had angered the emperor, and is going to be judged by the palace.”
The two looked at each other, dismissing the unpleasantness that had just occurred to the back of their minds. Lu Junming thought for a while before saying, “But why did my father say that there was an issue with the raincoats? That’s just intentionally pushing the blame onto my shoulders.”
This kind of general knowledge was virtually known by every commoner. Lu Junming lowered his head and started chuckling, “That bastard, he’s indirectly calling me stupid and for not knowing better.”
“Then is there really a war at the southern border?”
Lu Junming asked Ms. Hua, “Godmother, how much did you buy this bamboo backpack for?”
“Fifty dollars!” she replied.
Zhou Liangsheng said, “I was questioning this these past few days. If there was a war at the southern border, trade would’ve stopped, so there should be a massive inflation of products from the south. However, tea leaves and paper produced in the south haven’t had their prices increased at all.”
Mo Yan couldn’t help but start chuckling along, “Lu Junming, your father is really a great schemer! He’s created such a convoluted plan!”
Right now, they couldn’t figure out why Lu Hong was spending so much effort to get an audience with the emperor.
Even if the emperor was unable to discern a lie riddled with so many holes, one of his many officials in court would. Therefore, Lu Hong definitely had plans.
Since there was no war at the southern border, the Zhen couple probably aren’t spies either, but why did they leave in such a hurry?
The two went back to the workshop, outlining what the workshop should do next, and if they should sell wares from the south.
When it approached noon, there was someone calling from the front gate of the workshop, “Miss Mo, Mr. Lu, I’m here to pick up Zheng’er!”
It was Lin Xian’er here to pick up Mo Zheng, but she couldn’t have come earlier or later. She just had to come pick him up when Mo Zheng had disappeared. Now her son is missing, how are we supposed to break the news?!
It wasn’t an option to conceal the truth from her, so Mo Yan went out and nodded slightly towards Lin Xian’er, “Ms. Lin, you’ve arrived?”
Lin Xian’er said exuberantly, “I’ve come to pick up Zheng’er. I’ve found a good school for him in Yi City, so he can study well.”
Mo Yan mustered up the courage to say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t look after Zheng’er properly, he’s gone missing!”
After she said this, Lin Xian’er’s facial colour instantly changed, “What, Zheng’er missing? How could he have gone missing!”
“He was kidnapped by someone.”
“My sweet little boy had only been with you for a few days and he’s disappeared. What should I, his mother, do?!”
After saying this, Lin Xian’er pretended to wipe at the corner of her eyes with a handkerchief, and pretended to start sobbing, “My son, my pitiful son!” [1]
Ms. Hua had just entered with a vegetable basket. When she saw Lin Xian’er crying about her son, she instantly understood, “You vile woman, you’re the one who dumped your son here and ignored him. Now something’s happened to him, you’re placing the blame on the people who’ve been helping you. No one’s intentionally tried to get rid of your son, he unfortunately encountered some bad people.”
Lin Xian’er threw her handkerchief away and said in rage, “You can say that because he’s not your son, I gave birth to him out of my own womb!”
Lu Junming exited the house to criticise her, “You still know that you gave birth to him? When you dumped him at Ms. Hua’s to act as a caretaker, did you ever think about him?”
Lin Xian’er glared at him furiously, completely forgoing all pretence of being sorrowful, “Wasn’t that because of your plots? If it wasn’t for you, I…”
Ms. Hua went over to push her away, trying to make her leave, “Go away! We don’t have your son here.”
She tried to shove Ms. Hua away with all her might, “I clearly entrusted my son to you, so why did he inexplicably go missing? What do you mean he encountered villains, you clearly sold my son. I’m going to report you to the governing official!”
Ms. Hua naturally went to protect Mo Yan, “Report all you want, we can all testify for Yan’er that the child was kidnapped. She’s been running around trying to look for him all morning!”
“Since you’re all in the same cohort, it doesn’t matter what you say. But I endured forty weeks of pregnancy to give birth to Zheng’er, now that my son has gone missing, you need to at least compensate me.”
Lu Junming lifted the corner of his lip up in a smirk, “Tell me! How much?”
Lin Xian’er froze for a second before saying, “From his birth to now, that’s five to six years of work. Assuming I spent ten silver taels on him every year, that’s fifty to sixty silver taels.”
Lu Junming looked at Mo Yan, “Do you think we should give her this money?”
Mo Yan was infinitely regretful that she had lost the child, but she absolutely objected to giving Lin Xian’er even a dollar in compensation.
“Ms. Lin, when the child was in your belly, Mo Zenian had taken you as his mistress. As you well know, he was a married man at that time, so his money should have belonged to our entire family, but not a single dollar of it should have been given to you. The money you have spent all these years, after being tallied up, is more than the fifty to sixty silver taels we owe you! Pay up!”
Mo Yan extended her hand towards Lin Xian’er, who snorted in derision when she saw it, “Stop joking, you have no right to the money Mo Zenian gave his own woman?”
“His woman? What kind of status did you have? Wife, concubine or mistress, we can go and ask Mo Zenian and see how he responds.”
Nothing good would come out of asking Mo Zenian for Lin Xian’er. Back then, she went to stay at the Hu family’s without a word, Mo Zenian must hate her an untold amount now! [2]
“Why ask him? Without regarding anything else, it still costs money to go to inns and restaurants.”
Mo yan smiled, “So you do that kind of job. Forget about it, we won’t want that money after it’s passed through your hands, but you have no right to reparations for Zheng’er’s disappearance. I’ll try to find the child as best as I can, but whether or not he will recognise you as his mother remains to be seen.” [3]
Ms. Hua measured Lin Xian’er up and down, before taking a step back and spitting on the ground, “Pei! Get out of here, stop sullying our workshop.”
Lin Xian’er knew she wouldn’t be able to get any benefits here, so turned and ran out. Mo Yan said to Ms. Hua, “Godmother, see where she goes and who she talks to.”
To arrive with such alacrity, someone must have tipped her off.
Ms. Hua put down her vegetable basket and followed Lin Xian’er. She ran all the way to Humanity’s Flames to talk to Mo Zenian. As Ms. Hua was hiding behind the grain shop, she couldn’t hear what they were saying clearly, but could make out that they weren’t treating each other pleasantly.
After a while, Lin Xian’er went onto the main road fuming, and got onto a carriage.
So it was Mo Zenian who called her here, those two were really birds of a feather!
In the workshop, Mo Yan asked Lu Junming, ‘How much money do you have left?”
Lu Junming raised his eyebrows, “A little.”
“Then let’s sell goods from the south! We need to make the storefronts earn lots of profits quickly, so your father won’t call you stupid anymore.”
Money! No matter when, it’s something you can’t have little of. If used correctly, it’s more effective than stabbing someone with a knife.
P.S. Would you put it past Mo Zenian and Lin Xian’er to somehow have convinced the Zhen couple to take Mo Zheng away?
[1] Something definitely isn’t adding up…although I thought Lin Xian’er had genuine affection for her son?
[2] The Hu family was the family that Lin Xian’er had forcibly been married to, or alternatively the family of Mo Zenian’s former boss.
[3] If you’ve forgotten, she’s a prostitute.