Chapter 191: Going There Personally
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“You said Uncle Meng is injured?” When Su Ying woke up with the children, Xiao Jin had just returned and he explained what happened last night to her.
“Mm-hmm. The wound has been treated. You can go and take a look when you have time.”
Su Ying nodded. “Did you kill the person who broke into the array formation last night?”
“I killed him. He’s from the Nan State. After this, they won’t send anyone over for a short while.”
“Mm-hmm. At least we can spend the winter in comfort.”
Su Ying helped the two little ones put on their clothes. The weather was very cold in the morning and evening, so she took the cotton-padded vests made by Bai Shuang and the others and helped the children put them on to prevent them from catching a cold.
After sending the children to school, Su Ying went to the Tiger Base.
Tian Niu had already received the news ahead of her and rushed over. Her heart ached terribly when she saw the pale Meng Zi. “How could you be so careless?”
“I’m old and useless,” Meng Zi said with a weak smile.
Tian Niu wanted to tick him off, but when she saw his weak appearance, she couldn’t bear to open her mouth.
“Uncle Meng.” Su Ying entered the room.
“You are here, Madam Su.”
“I heard from Xiao Jin that you were injured, so 1 came over to take a look.”
“It’s just a small injury. It’s nothing serious,” Meng Zi said nonchalantly.
Qiao Yang had just told her that Meng Zi’s shoulder had been pierced right through by an arrow. How could it be a small injury when the shoulder blade had been pierced right through?
“I have some medicine here to relieve pain and help the bones and wounds heal. Uncle Meng, take it.” Su Ying took out two kraft paper packets. “The red pills are for pain relief. You can only take a maximum of two pills a day. Take this when you can’t bear the pain anymore. The black pills help in healing the wound.”
“Madam Su, you are so considerate,” Tian Niu said gratefully.
“Uncle Meng was injured because of the Tiger Base. 1 can’t just ignore his injury. Uncle Meng, rest well. Don’t worry about the charcoal production. 1’11 arrange for someone to go over there.”
“Thank you, Madam Su. Don’t let me hold you back.”
Su Ying nodded slightly and walked out.
When Qiao Yang found out that Su Ying had arrived, he quickly changed into a clean robe and walked out with his chest puffed out and his head held high.
“Madam Su, you’re here.”
Su Ying glanced at him, thinking that this kid really liked to put on airs all the time.
“I’m here to take a look at Uncle Meng.”
“Madam Su, yesterday that Old Master Zhang gave us a lot of grain. I’ll bring you to take a look.”
“How much did we get for the charcoal?”
“It’s less than a hundred taels.”
Qiao Yang brought Su Ying to the warehouse. When the door was opened, the interior was filled with sacks of rice.
“Old Master Zhang said that he would allow us to bring the grain back first. We can use future shipments of charcoal to pay him the balance of the money we owed him.”
Su Ying looked at the grain in front of her. Even if she made charcoal until the end of the month, she probably wouldn’t be able to produce enough charcoal to pay back that much grain.
She would wait until the end of the month to tally the final amount. If the charcoal was not enough to make up for the silver owed, she would just pay Zhang Liang the balance in silver.
From now until the end of December, the people of the Tiger Base would be busy making charcoal. After this batch of charcoal was delivered to Zhang Liang, they would make a few more batches before packing up for the winter.
The weather was getting colder and colder. When Su Ying stepped outside, her breath turned into white mist instantly every time she exhaled.
“Madam Su, the charcoal has been loaded. When do you think we should set off?”
This was the last time they were going to deliver the goods, so Su Ying planned to make a trip there herself and buy everything she could at the same time so that she could spend the winter in peace.
“Tell the team to wait for me at the gate. I’ll be there soon.”
“Alright.”
Xiao Jin walked out of the house. He had been leading his men to set up defenses around the Tiger Base during this period of time. He had already set up array formations at the four corners of the Tiger Base. Now, only the slope at the back of the mountain was left. As the slope was not part of the Tiger Base’s territory in the past, they had to fence up the slope again. After all, their fruit trees had already been planted there.
“Be careful on the road.”
“Got it.” Su Ying took out the hat Lin Zhuyu had made for her and put it on. The hat covered her entire face, leaving only her eyes exposed.
Jiang Yang led the horse over, and Su Ying swiftly mounted it. “Let’s go.”
Qiao Yang and the others were already waiting at the entrance with their carts. As this was the last time they were going to deliver charcoal, Su Ying had asked Qiao Yang to borrow quite a number of carts from Zhang Liang the last time they conducted their charcoal transaction. This would allow them to transport more charcoal to Zhang Liang this time.
“We’ll go early and come back early. Let’s go.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
Su Ying rode her horse at the front of the group. After they left the northern wilderness, she went to the rear of the convoy to observe the situation around them.
Fortunately, the journey was fairly smooth. When they reached the border pass, the sky had just turned bright.
However, when they arrived at the appointed place, Zhang Liang was nowhere to be seen.
Qiao Yang craned his neck and looked around. “That’s strange. Why isn’t Old Master Zhang here yet?” Usually, Zhang Liang would come early and he was never late.
“Second Master, don’t worry. Perhaps Old Master Zhang was delayed by something.”
Qiao Yang nodded. “Maybe. He said that he would be leaving the border in a few days. He probably had a lot of things to do.”
As they spoke, they saw someone walking over.
Everyone on the team became wary, but when they saw clearly who the person was, they let their guard down slightly.
“It’s Old Master Li.”
Su Ying rode her horse to Qiao Yang’s side. “Who is Old Master Li?”
Qiao Yang explained, “Madam Su, you might not know this, but this Old Master Li is Old Master Zhang’s business partner. The last two times Old Master Zhang came to collect charcoal, Old Master Li was with him.”
Old Master Li, who was dressed in a gray cotton robe, rode his horse to the front of the group. “Second Master Qiao, sorry to have kept you waiting.”
Qiao Yang cupped his fists at Old Master Li. “Old Master Li, you’re too kind. We just arrived.”
Old Master Li’s gaze fell on Su Ying. Although only a pair of eyes were visible on her head, it was obvious from her posture that she was a woman. “This must be Madam Su?”
During their previous transaction, Qiao Yang had mentioned that Su Ying would come personally for the final delivery.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Old Zhang is preparing to leave the border today, so he can’t come over. He asked me to come out and collect the goods for him,” said Old Master Li.
“Alright.”
Old Master Li walked to the back and began to inspect the goods.
After confirming that there were no problems with the goods, Old Master Li asked his men to come over to do the unloading and loading.
Su Ying took out a small booklet from her pocket. Recorded on it was the amount of money involved for each transaction they made. After deducting the silver for this shipment, they still needed to pay Zhang Liang another 300 taels of silver.
“This last batch of goods is still not enough to pay the balance sum of the grain that Old Master Zhang gave us previously. Here are 300 taels of silver to top up the balance we still owed Old Master Zhang.”
Old Master Li looked at the silver in her hand but did not take it. “Er… Why don’t you follow me to enter the border pass and hand it to Old Master Zhang personally? If he doesn’t accept this silver… If I still take it back and he blames me, I won’t be able to explain this matter clearly.”
Su Ying had planned to buy some more things after going through the border pass anyway, so she agreed. “Alright.”
“Coincidentally, Old Zhang also said that he had something to give to Madam Su.”
Su Ying raised an eyebrow. “He has something for me?”
“Yes. You’ll know once you go through the border pass with me, Madam Su.”
“Alright..”
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