Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 188 Calculation
"Why didn't my sister come out?" Dong Yuanyuan asked.

"Oh dear, I have to go apply the medicine to her." Mu Lian said as she ran towards the east wing, and Dong Yuanyuan followed.

Old Zheng pointed at Tang Hu: "He asked you how you plan to share the money you earn with us?"

Jia Chuan smiled and asked Tang Hu, "How do you think I should divide it?"

Tang Hu thought about it seriously and said, "It should be divided according to the amount of effort contributed."

Jia Chuan pointed at Shunzi and said, "He always seems to contribute the least when something happens. According to you, he should have starved to death long ago. But he's been through thick and thin with me and has been with me the longest." Jia Chuan took a deep breath, looked up at the sky, and knew that it was useless to talk to Tang Hu about this now, so he changed the subject and asked, "You came back so early, is it because you don't get along with the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

"He said the Embroidered Uniform Guard only allowed him to break through the iron gate; everyone else was idle," Old Zheng interjected.

Jia Chuan said "Oh" and went inside without saying anything else.

Tang Hu hurriedly followed.

Old Zheng and Shunzi saw this, but they didn't move. They sat on the porch and watched as Han Guang lazily left the doghouse...

Before Jia Chuan could even sit down, Tang Hu entered the room and asked, "If I stay, how much silver do you plan to give me each month?"

Jia Chuan frowned, sat down in a chair, and asked, "Why do you want to stay? And why should I give you money?"

"If you didn't want me to stay, why did you tell me there was gold and silver hidden in the secret passage? And why did they say those things?" Tang Hu looked at Jia Chuan expressionlessly.

Jia Chuan looked up at the 'big, dumb guy' in front of him and thought to himself that Gao Yuntian's mind was sometimes at home and sometimes out. Now this guy was showing up, seemingly there but not really. If it weren't for his kung fu skills, not to mention that his character needed improvement, even if he only cared about money, Jia Chuan wouldn't have kept him.

But the road ahead is long, and there are always stronger people out there. Who knows what kind of monsters we might encounter? Having more people like that might really save our lives. So now we need to find a way to get Tang Hu to offer to stay so that Jia Chuan can make his own demands.

Jia Chuan shook his head, feigning helplessness, and said, "If I wanted to keep you, I'd have to see something in you. What do you think I see in you?"

"Even if they all joined forces, they couldn't beat me."

“That’s true, but you just said in the courtyard that if money is to be distributed, it should be based on how much effort is put in. You’ve been here for a few days now, and you’ve seen that most of the time they don’t have much to do. If you stay, it will be the same; there won’t be many opportunities for you to do anything. So how can I distribute money to you monthly? If it’s distributed monthly, will you have to take care of your own food and lodging? Or will I charge you separately? Including what you’re wearing now and what you’re covered up with at night, do you have to give me some money for that?”

Just as Tang Hu was about to defend himself, Jia Chuan said again, "Although you are skilled in martial arts, you have no loyalty. Just like that night I was able to trick you with money and get you captured. If someone wants to kill me again in the future, they only need to bribe you in advance, and you might kill me for them. If you had any conscience, you would accept less and watch me be killed. But looking at you now, you are capable of doing these things. I just want to ask you, why should I keep you alive?"

Tang Hu thought about it and realized that it did seem to be true.

“I said I would give you travel expenses, and I will. You can wait until they find the hiding place of the silver before you leave. I will give you some more then. If you can’t wait, you can leave now. I won’t keep you.”

"If I leave now, how much travel money are you planning to give me?"

"Twenty taels. You have no wife or children, you're all single and have no family to worry about, and no one can rob you on the road. Use these twenty taels wisely, it should be enough for you to find a place to settle down..."

"I helped you kill that sorcerer..."

Jia Chuan waved his hand and said, "That matter is to offset the fact that you killed me. Originally, I could have disregarded your life and killed him, which would have been easier. You know that. Let me ask you a question: do you know why I insisted on killing that person? I knew that person was powerful. With so many Imperial Guards, I could have just made a fuss beforehand and let them get the news and run away. There was no need to put my own people in danger."

Tang Hu frowned at Jia Chuan and tentatively asked, "You want even greater credit?"

Jia Chuan shook his head: "He was just a subordinate and had no direct connection to what happened at the Herb Gathering Bureau. I don't need him to add icing to the cake for me. I killed him because he was evil by nature. If I hadn't killed him, who knows how many people would have died at his hands in the future, and they would all be poor people."

Tang Hu was puzzled.

Jia Chuan raised an eyebrow and said, "This is the difference between you and me, and it's also why I don't want to keep you here. You have no kindness in your heart, and you only have money in your eyes. You seem to be protecting yourself, but in reality, you will only bring trouble upon yourself. I predict that you won't live for more than three years after you leave. Giving you more money will only benefit someone else in the end. But I will definitely keep my promise to you. Are you leaving now?"

Tang Hu's serious face twitched, as if he were making a difficult decision.

Jia Chuan added:

"Don't ask me how much I'll get if I find the hidden silver in the secret passage. First, I don't know if I can find it, and second, I don't know how much I can find, so I can't give you an answer. If I don't find it, you'll still get the same twenty taels. If I do find it, but not much, I'll give you an extra three or five taels at most. That silver belongs to the Emperor, not me. Do you understand that? Rules, rules are very important. If you want to stay in a place, you have to abide by its rules. I'll ask you one more time, are you leaving now?"

Jia Chuan looked up at the tall man in front of him, his body tense, his expression becoming more and more resolute. He immediately said, "Remember, money isn't everything. If you kill all of us and take all the gold and silver in the secret passage for yourself... then you'll be no different from the sorcerer you're talking about, and I really can't let you live."

Tang Hu's body trembled uncontrollably. The thought had flashed through his mind, but only for a moment. If he really found the hidden silver in the secret passage, the Imperial Guards wouldn't be able to stop him on his own.

But the young man in front of him saw through it at a glance, and what puzzled Tang Hu even more was that he understood that Jia Chuan's previous and subsequent uses of the word "stay" had different meanings.

Tang Hu took a step back, took a deep breath, and said, "Let me think about it." Then he pushed open the door and went out.

Following Shunzi and Old Zheng into the house, Jia Chuan told them to leave the door open. He watched Tang Hu stride out of the courtyard and sighed.

Old Zheng shook his head and said, "If we really keep such a person around, he'll probably be a troublemaker sooner or later."

Shunzi sighed, "Jia Chuan is thinking that if he encounters someone more formidable in the future, to be honest, I'm afraid too. He really is a menace. He can hold back today, but what about tomorrow? If he really has a relapse, who can control him? I was genuinely worried that he might get angry and hurt you when I was outside..."

Jia Chuan waved his hand and said, "No, he's not a bad person..."

"Not bad at all? They can do bandit work, and they'll even take on jobs like murder..."

Jia Chuan interrupted Old Zheng, saying, "When he first came down the mountain, he didn't know anyone, had no money, and was just a big guy. If it were you, could you tell which people down the mountain were good and which were bad? If he were really bad, he would have become the leader of the bandits long ago. Why would he need to leave? That's one point. Secondly, if he were really a bad person, he would have killed all the bandits who found him. But he not only spared them, but also used up all his money to register their households. Do you think he was willing to take on this job of killing me? He has no wife or children, yet he has to support those idle people. Is being a boatman so easy?"

"Now that you mention it, it seems like the person I met isn't the same person," Old Zheng asked.

Jia Chuan smiled and looked at Shunzi, asking, "That night, you witnessed his skills. Do you think Chen Mo and the others had any chance of survival in the secret passage?"

Shunzi paused for a moment, then hurriedly said, "Brother Chen said it was because he was suffocating in the secret passage, so..." "He could easily slam his head against the walls with one hand on each side, how could he give Chen Mo time to retreat with his men and even come up first? He made that big gap in the secret door, how could that iron door stop him?"

"You mean..."

“He can open it, but he’s afraid that if he does, it will really be gold and silver. He hasn’t decided whether to stay or leave, or rather… whether to kill or not.”

"Isn't this still a bad person? How could a good person have such thoughts?" Old Zheng asked, spreading his hands.

"He may not be a good person, but he is someone who can be redeemed. He could have killed me that night, but he hesitated not because I seized the opportunity, but because he himself kept hesitating... He was after the money, but I just told him the conditions for staying. He will think it through. As long as no one provokes him, he won't do anything."

Shunzi hurriedly asked, "What if someone really tries to bribe him in the future?"

Jia Chuan paused for a moment and said, "Let's see what choice he makes this time. It would be a pity to kill this person. If he's left somewhere, it's fine if he meets a good person, but if he meets a bad person..."

“If he really chose the silver and killed the people in the secret passage, and he knew the way out of the secret passage…” Shunzi said halfway, then tilted his head and thought for a moment and said, “Even if he’s not very bright, he should be able to figure out that even if he leaves with the silver he can carry, how would he get out of the city? Could he still kill his way out? If he didn’t choose the silver this time, he would just feel that he couldn’t take it away, and he wouldn’t see anything wrong with that.”

Old Zheng sighed and said, "I know you're anxious. If you ask me, once this case is over, you should ask the Emperor to let you resign. I think that money is enough for us. As long as nothing major happens again, we can handle things on our own. There's no need to keep him here..."

No sooner had Old Zheng finished speaking than a member of the Imperial Guard rushed into the courtyard and shouted, "Found him!"

……

The silver was indeed hidden in a dark room near the small house, with a heavy iron door.

Why did Zhou Cheng choose this place? It must not have been built for long. When the old prince was alive, he wouldn't have dared to put his money in the herb-gathering bureau. So the money here is probably what he earned in less than a year.

But there was a lot of money involved!
Standing outside the wall that Tang Hu had breached, Jia Chuan looked at the stacked wooden boxes inside and sighed inwardly: Zhu Zhanji must be laughing in his sleep again.

The things in this room might be enough to soothe Zhu Zhanji's anger over this case, and who knows how many lives it might save.

Jia Chuan turned to look at Tang Hu, who was standing in the secret passage, and asked, "Why didn't you go in?"

The dark room was brightly lit. Chen Mo, Hai Feng, and Meng Jun stood at the innermost part with grim faces, while Gao Yuntian guarded the door. Several imperial guards were opening wooden boxes one by one, while Tang Hu stood in a secret passage a few steps away from the dark room.

Jia Chuan knew that the three people inside were secretly overjoyed, and they probably couldn't show any other suitable expression except for a sullen face.

Tang Hu said, "I don't need that much."

Jia Chuan looked at Tang Hu very seriously and found that he was serious and not joking. Jia Chuan also knew that this person didn't seem to know how to joke.

He shook his head and asked again, "To stay or to leave?"

"How much of this silver is yours?" Tang Hu asked.

Jia Chuan subconsciously turned his head to look around. The sound was coming from below, and there were people all around. Tang Hu's tone was not quiet either. Not to mention those around him, even the three people at the very back could hear it. Everyone's expression was very subtle.

Jia Chuan cleared his throat and said, "These ill-gotten gains should all be confiscated, but I will explain to the Emperor that everyone has worked very hard and deserves some reward."

Tang Hu pressed further, "How much is the reward?"

Meng Jun, who was inside, was furious and shouted angrily towards the secret passage, "What does it have to do with you? You should be in jail right now!"

"When you needed him, didn't you think he should be in jail?" Jia Chuan questioned Tang Hu before he could even explode.

"Where he is won't stop us from using him!" Meng Jun remained arrogant.

"Do you think you can use him? Would he let you use him? Come on! You're so capable, capture him. Don't implicate the other Imperial Guards. You alone, fight him to the death!"

"you……"

"Don't worry, after you die, I will explain to the Emperor that you brought this on yourself and deserved to die!"

Tang Hu had already taken two steps forward, but he stopped and looked at Jia Chuan. This was the first time in his life that someone had spoken up for him. Before he could get angry, he was replaced by another emotion, but he didn't know what that emotion was.

Meng Jun was speechless after being yelled at by Jia Chuan. He looked angrily at Chen Mo, hoping that Chen Mo would say something on his behalf.

Chen Mo snorted and said, "Without Protector Tang, let alone finding these things, we would probably be dead even in that pharmacy. He saved our lives and helped us open this place. Now you're saying he should be in jail?"

Meng Jun's face flushed red and then turned pale after Chen Mo's words. Hai Feng quickly tugged at him and whispered, "Have you forgotten how powerful he is? If you piss him off, do you think you can leave alive?"

Meng Jun immediately felt refreshed and pursed his lips without saying another word.

Seeing that the Imperial Guards were opening chests full of silver, Jia Chuan glanced at Tang Hu and gestured for him to come with him.

The two emerged from the hidden door, where the Imperial Guards were also stationed. Soon, all the wooden crates would be moved up. Zhao Dewen had already found a courtyard where all the crates would be transported. Once the Emperor's decree arrived, they would have to transport them back to the capital.

Jia Chuan walked to a place far away from the secret door, found a tree, sat down under it, pointed to the side and said, "Sit down, there's no one here, we can speak frankly about some things."

Tang Hu sat down and asked, "Was it inappropriate of me to ask that question just now?"

Jia Chuan did not answer the question, but instead asked, "In your eyes, are officials who are greedy for money always blatant and open about it?"

Tang Hu nodded.

(End of this chapter)