Miao Chu

Chapter 308 Neighborhood
Song Miaoxian didn't rush to look at the document. Instead, she raised the lamp in her hand and shone it on the big man's appearance. She asked, "Although my family is in debt, I know all my creditors and we have already agreed to postpone the repayment. But I have never seen you before. I don't know where the debt I owe you comes from."

The person opposite said, "You know you're in debt? You owe money to others, but instead of paying it back quickly, you're hiring people everywhere, buying tables and chairs, and I heard you're even planning to open a restaurant!"

“Your creditors couldn’t stand it anymore. Because you’re an orphan and you’re trying to win over other people, they couldn’t come to your door. So they had to sell their debts to my family. Now you don’t owe them anything, you only owe my family!”

As he spoke, he shook the receipt in his hand, demanding, "Is this what you owe?! What you owe Cai's Fish Shop, Rongji Butcher Shop, Xinghe Firewood Shop..."

This person counted them up, and there were as many as seven or eight.

After counting it all in one go, he pressed, "Yes or no! I need the money urgently today, I can't wait a moment longer, are you still going to pay me back?!"

Song Miao had her own calculations in mind, and upon hearing the number of people being counted, she almost immediately realized what was going on.

—Aren't these the creditors who we can't find when we go to their homes lately?
No wonder they avoided me; they had already sold off the debt long ago.

It's not that I can't sell the debt, but I've already discussed the extension of the repayment period with all the creditors. Those who agree will receive more interest, and those who disagree will repay immediately.

With Song Miao's skill, it was clear to everyone that Song's business was thriving and there was no need to worry about anything. The interest was steady and the rates were quite high. As long as people didn't need the money urgently, most chose to continue borrowing, and the longer they borrowed, the better.

The choice was given long ago, and it wasn't forced—Song Miao was powerless and had no way to coerce anyone. Given that both sides had signed a contract, it would be unfair for her to act this way.

She frowned and said, "You're right, it's only right to pay back debts—but is this debt real or fake? If it's real, I won't owe you a single penny. But the creditor hasn't shown up. If you're here to extort me, you'll pay today and then come back tomorrow..."

"You wait!"

As they were speaking, someone on the other end turned around and called out.

A short while later, several people walked in from outside, looking rather awkward.

But they were all the creditors from that day.

Along with the crowd came many neighbors from the same alley.

Because the restaurant serves breakfast, the staff always go to bed earlier than others, which is somewhat like having their days and nights reversed.

However, although it was nighttime, it was not yet very late. After hearing the commotion for a while, some people came out to see what was going on. When they saw a lot of people, they also gathered around and asked what was happening.

Seeing people approaching, the burly man at the head of the group became even more energetic.

He shouted, "Miss Song, if you want to see the creditor, now the creditor is here! Besides the creditor, your own neighbors are also witnesses. There's no reason to keep delaying any longer. It's time to pay back the money!"

Song Miao sighed inwardly and asked the creditors who had come, "Uncles and aunts, when I owed you money, I said I would postpone the payment and that if you disagreed, you could let me know in advance. If you urgently need money, why did you avoid me and ignore me, and instead sell the debt to someone else? Knowing that the debt collectors have ulterior motives, you still acted this way. Is that righteous?"

When the crowd heard Song Miao speak, they didn't look directly at her, nor could they answer; they simply turned their eyes away.

After a long while, someone finally shouted, "Young lady of the Song family, you are so ignorant—I can pay my debts to whomever I want. You, who are in debt, have the nerve to act all high and mighty! Mind your own business!"

"And another thing—when you went to that butcher Shen's house to get the goods that day, did you ever think of me? Now I have to think of you!"

As soon as this person finished speaking, the people next to him, as if they had found an outlet for their anger, immediately followed suit and said, "That's right! When you went to Feng's to buy fish that day, did you ever think about my Cai Family Fish Shop? If you hadn't been so heartless before, how could we have sold the debt so easily now!"

"If you continue to buy my vegetables properly, even if you give me three times more interest, I won't sell this debt—you surnamed Song, don't blame me for doing the opposite!"

"You deserve it! It's all your own fault, and now you're complaining about the smell—I only shorted two pounds of charcoal and made a few wrong deliveries that day. After you told me, didn't I replace it with yours? That's still not enough, you still refuse to use my services. When you didn't give me any face back then, did you ever think this day would come!"

Hearing that they were attacking here, Song Miao already had some guesses, and now she fully understood the reason.

After arriving here, she first set up a stall and started doing business before she went to talk to various families about postponing the repayment of debts.

Song's business gradually grew, and so did the purchasing. In the beginning, thinking that it was better to stick with what they already knew, they tried to continue using the original suppliers.

Some creditors, after trying her skills, understood her abilities and, seeing her pitiful state, readily agreed, even willing to settle accounts every ten days or half a month. Others, however, felt that she bought too little and were unwilling to deliver to her door, or that she had delivered a few times but it wasn't suitable, or that they were worried that Song Ji owed too much money and would have difficulty repaying it in the future, so they refused to agree again.

But as the business grew, the former's business naturally continued, but those who had initially refused or tried it but found it unsuitable almost all came up to Song's again, wanting to continue supplying goods to Song's.

After a few months, Song's family had already found their own purchasing partners, so they had no choice but to politely decline.

This time, presumably, they realized they couldn't get Song's business, and the so-called "boss" across the street had spent more money to buy Song's debts. So they quickly reached an agreement and transferred all the IOUs in their hands.

Greed for money is one thing, and while their actions may be unethical, it's not entirely wrong. But these people are speaking with such self-righteousness, demanding benefits and verbal advantages, even trying to shift the blame onto themselves in front of the middleman, the police, and the soldiers. Song Miao is not about to agree to this.

She raised her voice and said, "Uncle Cai, when Song's family wanted to buy fish, shrimp, and dried squid, didn't I go to your family first? Tell me yourself, why did I switch to Feng's family later?"

"Uncle Cai" snorted and said, "How would I know if you yourself disregarded old friendships!"

“The same goods, you sell them to other shops for thirty coins a catty, but you sell them to me for thirty-six coins. I don’t buy less than other shops—am I stupid or something?”

"I told you I only wanted live fish and shrimp. The fish and shrimp you gave me all changed color. One time, the gills were even pink. You even told me you had just killed them by dropping them—you've really made people sick and ruined the restaurant's reputation. Are you going to compensate me? Even if you are, can you afford to?"

Uncle Cai couldn't help but retort, "Everyone else can eat it without getting sick, but your guests can?"

"So you're admitting that all I got were dead fish and shrimp??"

"There are plenty of restaurants that buy dead fish and shrimp to sell. Everyone can sell them, so why can't you? What are you pretending for!"

Song Miao shouted, "What others can sell, my family just can't! Customers come to eat at my house because my food is good, delicious, and clean!"

He added, "If I need something temporarily, I'll just let you know so you can send over more goods, but you always refuse, or you complain endlessly. But with other companies, they never complain at all, and they always send live fish and shrimp, big and good quality goods. If it were you, would you turn down cheap, good goods to buy expensive, rotten fish and shrimp?"

At this point, an old woman from next door stood aside and interjected, "Young lady Song, don't pay any attention to him. This guy is taking advantage of you because you're a young girl, inexperienced, and just started the business. He wants to squeeze all the money from your grandchildren's daily expenses!"

Immediately, voices of agreement arose from all sides.

Uncle Cai turned around and glared at the old woman, scolding her for meddling and then at Song Miao. But no one paid him any attention; people just pointed and whispered among themselves.

Seeing that something was amiss, another person quickly said, "Whether he did something wrong is another matter, but what did I do wrong? When have I ever failed to deliver all the firewood to you?"

Song Miao sneered: "You did send everything, but did you send the right things? I need pine needles for starting a fire, and good bamboo charcoal. You gave me ordinary pine branches soaked in oil, and several times I couldn't even start a fire. The charcoal was all just charcoal butts, and every time I burned it, there was a whole stove full of smoke, making my meat smell like smoke! I'm not selling smoked meat—would you buy meat like this?"

"Furthermore, do you think you can hide the fact that you poured water into the firewood? When you burned the firewood, the ends were all wet. Did you think I couldn't see that?"

"Firewood naturally contains some moisture! And there's always a lot of rain there!"

"Then why is it that other people's firewood doesn't contain water? And why can other people's pine trees catch fire? And you're selling it for much more than others!"

Hearing that the story was becoming increasingly dubious, the burly man at the head of the group quickly stepped forward and pushed aside the fishmonger and the firewood seller, saying, "What nonsense are you spouting? Is the IOU genuine? You want to see the creditor now, and the creditor is here—where's my money? Don't try to deny it; I want it now. If you can't pay it back, I'll use your house as collateral! And if you do it again, you'd better behave yourself and become a maid in my house to pay off your debts!"

The crowd erupted in a thunderous roar.

One neighbor, unable to stand it any longer, spat and said, "You're dreaming big!"

A neighbor who had benefited from Song's business hurriedly asked, "Little Song, if you don't have enough, I'll lend you some!"

Another person said, "If you dare to cause trouble, we'll report you to the authorities—Song Ji has teachers and students from the Imperial Academy here, as well as officials from the capital's government offices coming and going. Are you afraid?!"

However, the constable who claimed to be from Nanxunmen said, "No matter how many people she knows, she has to pay her debts. Does she think she can escape?"

Someone else said, "If you have eight hundred strings of cash, pay it for this young lady!"

Upon hearing the number eight hundred, the neighbors who arrived later immediately fell silent, no longer daring to speak, all knowing that this time they were in big trouble.

Some people had already slipped away quietly to find the patrolmen and constables of the Vermilion Bird Gate.

Song Miao didn't have time to chat idly with the person opposite her.

She first asked for a written agreement.

The other person refused to let go, and instead showed it to her himself.

Before long, Song Miao found a few mistakes, recalculated the numbers, and finally determined that the debt was 768 strings of cash and 306 cash.

Once she had figured it out, she didn't say much, but turned around and called out "Second Aunt" towards the door.

The number was clearly reported again.

Soon, Cheng Erniang agreed and began carrying baskets out one after another.

Song Miao then addressed her neighbors, saying, "Fellow villagers, I've recently been thinking of reopening my restaurant, but there are many expenses involved. I was worried that my old creditors would be unhappy, so I've already spoken to them one by one..."

She briefly explained how she had done it, and then added, "Everyone else has reached an agreement, but we couldn't find the few people from tonight no matter how hard we looked. It turns out they had sold off their debts."

"I can transfer my debts to whomever I want. I'm in debt, so I have no right to speak—all I can do is pay back the money."

She gently lifted the cloth covering a basket.

It was completely full of strings of coins.

And then there's another string of coins.

The alleyway suddenly became eerily quiet, with only the chirping of crickets in the corner and the weak roars of cicadas from their bellies in late summer and early autumn.

When Cheng Erniang brought out four loads, totaling eight baskets, Song Miao also showed off the money inside the eight baskets.

"I haven't been able to find their whereabouts. I don't know what happened, but my family has suffered misfortune. At the beginning of the year, someone came to my door with the deed to this house, and someone else came with a debt, asking me to pay an old gentleman..."

She paused, and although she didn't finish her sentence, everyone present knew what she meant.

"I calculated the amount of money owed to you all by the restaurant, and discussed it with the regular customers. I borrowed three or five hundred from each of them to pay off the debt. Several places and hundreds of kind customers have gathered together, which is enough to pay off the more than seven hundred strings of cash. It's really a coincidence that the money was just gathered this afternoon, and it's still fresh when you all came to visit. It saves me the trouble of going from restaurant to restaurant without finding the rightful owner!"

When Song Miao spoke, there was complete silence on the other end, and no one responded for a long time.

"Gentlemen, aren't we going to take stock of everything? Once we leave here, I won't be responsible for any problems that arise inside!"

In the end, the burly man who was in charge came forward and called over two more people to count the money.

The money had already been strung together and arranged very clearly.

The two counted again and found no mistakes, so they could only nod helplessly to the big man.

Seeing this, not only the big man, but also all the creditors, whether they were fishmongers, meat sellers, firewood sellers, rice sellers, etc., all looked uneasy.

"Now, I've finally paid off all the debts I owed you, haven't I?"

As Song Miao spoke, she looked at the police officers and middlemen behind her and said, "I would like to trouble you gentlemen to act as witnesses—I need a document explaining the debt repayment situation, and I would appreciate your help in signing and affixing your fingerprints. I also need to retrieve the original IOU, and there are other things..."

So when Wang Sanlang rushed over with Zhang Siniang, they met the Zhuquemen patrolmen and constables who had been kindly invited by the neighbors of Suanzao Lane at the alley entrance. When they finally arrived at the restaurant, there were only a few neighbors there to comfort Song Miao.

"Don't worry, your mother is watching over you from the afterlife. Those villains will surely have failed in their scheme!"

"If you need anything, just knock on my door. It's not the middle of the night—it's the perfect time to help out our neighbors!"

Half an hour later, in a courtyard a few streets away, the burly man who had been there earlier had several baskets of copper coins carried into the house. He didn't even dare to raise his head, and could only tuck his tail between his legs and whisper, "Master... this time, I've been pecked in the eye by a goose..."

(End of this chapter)