Chapter 9: Five thousand-character chapter in my book)
After getting important information from Chen Yuanyuan, Shen Shuren was not impulsive.
Two days later, the cultural gathering at Lixiangyuan was as usual. Shen Shuren invited many local Suzhou literary talents to listen to music and discuss politics. Then, the discussion with Chen Yuanyuan's adoptive mother, Mrs. Chen, about "booking the venue for another half year" went smoothly. .
In places like Goulan Liyuan in the late Ming Dynasty, when spending time with Sister Qianqian, the madam would not only care about the money, but also pay attention to the future "exposure" of her daughter.
To put it bluntly, they value whether the benefactor who books the venue will often host literary events to support her, increasing her daughter's chances of interacting with well-known literary figures, and further making her popular.
Chen Shuren didn't understand this twist at first, but after chatting with Chen Yuanyuan several times, he quickly adapted to it. Therefore, in the past few days before talking about "renewal of monthly subscription", he had to show off his appeal. , let Chen see how much support he can accumulate.
Several literary conferences were held in succession, and the last one was about June 10. Shen Shuren even invited Zheng Hongkui from the Zheng family, and also invited Zheng Sen, who had just been brought to Suzhou by Zheng Hongkui.
Chen Shuren also killed two birds with one stone, taking advantage of this opportunity to establish some personal relationships with Zheng Sen.
Zheng Sen was very moved when he saw that Brother Shen was inviting his future concubine to dance and sing. He secretly thought that this brother would follow suit.
In addition, Zheng Sen was young and full of energy, and his loyalty to the court was far greater than that of his father Zheng Zhilong. Shen Shuren chatted with him very happily, and within a few days Zheng Sen became accustomed to talking to him about anything he couldn't understand. Let’s talk about this new big brother.
Mrs. Chen was also very happy when she saw that her daughter could take the opportunity to meet so many wealthy and powerful people.
But in fact, when Shen Shuren realized the unspoken rules of this industry, he had already made a plan: once the contract renewal was successful, he would hide Chen Yuanyuan as soon as possible in the future and never let her show up to sing during dinner parties.
This will do the opposite and make her popularity in the troupe industry disappear as soon as possible.
As a time traveler, Shen Shuren has seen many such operations in later generations that detract from brand value. Therefore, he has already formed a very complete plan on how to redeem Chen Yuanyuan in the future:
He wants to be like Coca-Cola when they bought Huiyuan Juice. They buy it without operating it, deliberately display it in bad condition and wait for the brand to depreciate. Once Chen Yuanyuan is no longer popular, Chen will not have the confidence to ask for high redemption money in the future.
Moreover, he also buried some minefields in the monthly contract. If Chen insists on letting Chen Yuanyuan become famous through other channels while he is hiding it, then he will file a lawsuit with the Suzhou government and directly ask Chen to breach the contract. Chen Yuanyuan bought it back at the official price.
Although a bustard like Chen is an old man who eats people without spitting out their bones, how can an old yin like Shen Shuren, who has hundreds of years of experience, be better than his opponent? I never thought about the subsequent risks.
It seems that these days, Shen Shuren is still the same frivolous and prodigal person, without any change, and outsiders don't think much about it at all.
…
But on the other hand, Shen Shuren has secretly arranged for his confidants to go home to check the accounts and inquire about information, and has completed all the preparations for the acquisition of Dongjia Xiuzhuang.
First, he asked Shen Fu to check the foreign debt accounts of his business and listed all the business partners who owed the Shen family more than one thousand taels of silver. Then he checked it himself and pretended to "accidentally" discover the Dongjia Embroidery Shop. 's accounts.
The Dong Bai family really owed a lot of money to the Shen family, and their business had been in difficulty since two or three years ago. They were originally suppliers of Su embroidery to the Shen family, but when they couldn't make enough money, they asked the Shen family for credit. For raw materials, I owed more than fifty loads of raw silk on credit.
The principal alone is more than two thousand taels of silver, and the average account period is about two years. After including interest, the final amount is more than two thousand eight hundred taels.
There are basically no fixed assets left in Dongjiaxiuzhuang, only a manor, some old equipment, and Dong Bai himself. To put it bluntly, it is "insolvent and should be bankrupt and liquidated."
When seeing this result, Shen Shuren also secretly sighed, otherwise the wealthy people in future generations would not be afraid of their children eating, drinking and having fun, but would be afraid that their children would want to start a business.
After Dong Bai's father died, if he had just closed the embroidery village and farmed the land to collect rent and interest, he would not have been bullied by the original employees.
After doing enough homework, he postponed it until June 15th, which was also the fourth day after Zheng Sen was deceived into Suzhou.
Chen Shucai secretly hid his identity and took a few subordinates to the north of Kunshan City and to the bank of Yangcheng Lake to find the Dongjia Embroidery Village.
…
"Miss, I'm sorry, a group of people came to your door to press for a debt! They said they would use you to repay the debt if they don't pay it back."
In the inner house of the Dong family, a girl with a beautiful and refined appearance, wearing a plain silk mourning dress, was sitting there doing embroidery with a frown on her face.
She had no idea whether the things she embroidered could be sold, and she had no hope. She just embroidered instinctively and mechanically, as if this way she could temporarily forget her worries and stop thinking about the pile of unpaid debts.
After hearing the maid's distress, she was stunned for a while before she realized what she was doing, and her face suddenly turned pale:
"Forced debt? Which creditor? Didn't Uncle Liang say that he would help us shoulder all the external debts? He said that he would bear it until my filial piety period expires, and I agreed to him. By then, this village will all be his. , how could he..."
The Uncle Liang in her mouth was a shopkeeper brought out by his father. He originally took his father's surname and was named Dong Liang.
After the death of Dong's father, the Dong family embroidery shop's business quickly declined. However, Dong Liang set up his own business and opened a new business, and the business of the embroidery shop continued to flourish.
It is said that since Dong Liang changed his surname to Dong, his descendants should also be surnamed Dong. However, after the death of his father, he changed all his sons back to their original surname Cai. Only he himself was embarrassed to go too far and still continued to use the surname Dong. Show that you do not forget the kindness and righteousness of your old master.
After his sons changed their surnames and returned home, they had different surnames from Dong Bai, and there was no taboo of "no marriage with the same surname". So a few months ago, when Dong Bai was completely insolvent and unable to support himself, Dong Liang He made a condition with her:
Dong Liang's family helps Dong Bai shoulder foreign debts. When her filial piety period expires, the remaining houses, looms, and heavy items in the Dong family embroidery village will be assigned to Dong Liang. She herself will have to marry Dong Liang's son. as a wife.
Dong Bai refused to obey at first, feeling that it would be a disgrace to the family to spread the news. How could she talk about these things when her mother's filial piety was not fulfilled? So she also thought about running away anonymously and simply giving up the house at home.
Later, when Dong Liang saw his mistress's tough attitude, he took a step back and said that the matter could be settled as a gentleman's agreement for the time being. There was no need to make it public, and there was no need to take the deed to witness the deed tax, which would not damage the reputation of Dong Bai's family.
Dong Bai then temporarily let go of his worries and continued to live at home for a few more months.
Unexpectedly, debt collectors still came to the door today. Has Dong Liang not paid off the Dong family's foreign debt as promised? Did he just temporarily stabilize the creditor and let people suspend the debt collection?
Dong Bai felt dizzy, and it took him a while to catch his breath. He chased the maid and asked, "Can you hear clearly what they are saying? Whose family are they here to collect debts on behalf of? How much money is involved?"
The maid was also confused and could only say vaguely: "I don't know. The people who came here looked evil and refused to reveal their identity. They only said that they had paid some dead debts from the Shen family and came to collect money."
When Dong Bai heard this, he became more and more frightened.
She knew that the Shen family in Taicang was her family's biggest creditor, but the Shen family were decent people after all. If they came to collect money in person, they would still have room for mercy.
But from what the maid said, it was obvious that the Shen family had already felt that the Dong family's money would not be returned, and it had been delayed for two years, so they resold the debt at a low price.
This is like companies in later generations selling dead and bad debts to specialized debt collection companies, and letting the debt collection companies come to your door to ask for money. The method is much more ruthless.
"No, hurry up and grab the two bags of clothes packed on the bed. Throw the rest to them. Let's run out of the back door!" Dong Bai knew very well that falling into the hands of evil people who specialize in debt collection would not end well, so he made a prompt decision.
Just run.
…
However, luck obviously did not favor Dong Bai.
She and the maid came to the back door, and first quietly opened the door a crack. Seeing that there seemed to be no one outside, they opened the door wide and took advantage of the darkness of dusk to rush out, hoping to hide in the reeds by Yangcheng Lake.
However, just after walking a few dozen steps out of the back door, several people came out of the corners on both sides. The leading man, who was tall and long, quickly caught up with the girl with small feet and grabbed Dong Bai, making her unable to resist.
"Miss Dong, you owe my family several thousand taels of silver. Not only did you want to run away secretly, but you dared to take away these bags of soft jewelry. It's not very honest. Even if I don't embarrass you, these things should belong to my family."
The tall man at the head is obviously Shen Shuren, but in order to set the stage, he has to pretend to be a little more vicious for the time being.
Dong Bai's face turned pale and his heart was ashen. As soon as he struggled to escape, he was about to throw himself into Yangcheng Lake.
In a hurry, Shen Shuren grabbed Dong Bai and held her tightly to prevent her from committing suicide. He also yelled at other men to come over and help contain the situation to avoid further accidents.
Naturally, the servants did not dare to disobey and immediately formed a circle as instructed by the young master.
But because of this, the servants relaxed their control over the rough maid who had been captured. When the maid saw this, she struggled to break free and ran away immediately.
The binding of women's feet in the Ming Dynasty was not as cruel as in the Qing Dynasty, but ladies from wealthy families would still bind their feet to a certain extent, especially now that it is the end of the Ming Dynasty.
But the rough servant maid did not need to bind her feet at all, so she could escape much faster than Dong Bai. In addition, she was not very important, so the two Shen family servants pretended to chase her for a while, then came back to report that they had not caught her.
Shen Shuren didn't take it seriously, and waved his hand to indicate that he would talk later. Then he changed his expression to a cheerful one, and sent Dong Baili back to the house first.
Dong Bai saw that he didn't do anything excessive, he was just here to force the debt to be repaid, so he had no shame to resist, and the situation fell into a stalemate for a while.
Chen Shuren waved his servants to leave, and analyzed with empathy: "Miss Dong, we are just here to collect debts, why have we gone to this step? You are so beautiful, even if you are caught to pay off debts, you can still be a concubine at worst.
.
If you escape, you will have to remain anonymous, and no one in Suzhou will be able to stay. Do you think that just because you have learned Kunqu Opera for a few months, you are going to sing on the Qinhuai River? In your heart, is it worse to be a maid than to be a singer? "
Dong Bai gritted his teeth, his heart was ashen, he closed his eyes tightly and shed tears: "If I keep my name anonymous, no matter how humiliated I am, I will not disgrace my deceased parents' reputation. No one will know who I am.
If someone proves his true identity and takes him back, but he fails to observe his maternal filial piety until the end of the term, he will be forced to become a concubine, and the reputation of the Dong family will be ruined!"
Chen Shuren was stunned. He had not yet adapted to this feudal ethical way of thinking.
Indeed, in the eyes of people in the late Ming Dynasty, especially people with status, being physically humiliated is not the worst thing. If you can remain anonymous and others don't know who you are if you are humiliated, it is at least better than the reputation of your dead parents.
This is an era where name is greater than reality.
Shen Shuren was a little angry about Dong Bai's choice at first, because he felt that it was understandable that a woman would not want to be bought by a rich man.
But if there are two evils, and I would rather sell music and sing than be a plaything of a single man, then it is a bit difficult to understand.
Now that he knew it was just because of the burden of his family's reputation, he didn't bother to worry about it anymore.
"Even so, please calm down first and I will talk to you in detail later."
Chen Shuren first left Dong Bai to dry, and asked the servants to keep an eye on her to prevent her from committing suicide. Then he walked aside, quietly pulled over the servant who was pretending to chase the escaped maid, and asked in detail:
"Did you really fail to catch up and be thrown far away, or did you keep biting and staring?"
The servant replied in a low and reliable voice: "Don't worry, young master, I followed your instructions and kept an eye on where she was escaping. Finally, we found out that she had fled to another embroidery shop two streets away, and we came back. "
Chen Shuren nodded, everything went well. The maid must have gone to the buyer who had privately agreed with Dong Bai to "help her shoulder the debt, and when the filial piety period is over, she will be taken in by Zhuangzi."
The subject of this lawsuit was chosen well. The one who sold one house and two houses was the first buyer. Wouldn't he be involved in the situation? Chen Shuren spent seven or eight days slowly laying out the case for this case.
The maid who asked for help didn't know Shen Shuren's identity until she escaped, so as a local snake, the other party would definitely not give up.
Chen Shuren thought for a moment, then waved his hand to the servant who was pretending to chase the missing maid: "You two should go back first, and be strict in your tone. What happens next has nothing to do with you."
Shen Shuren is very cautious. He uses his thugs to beat his servants and his followers to follow his servants. They have a clear division of labor and keep each other secret. No one knows the overall plan.
Therefore, even if the case is discovered in the future, these two stalking servants will not be found out, let alone become witnesses. They have nothing to do with the subsequent parts of the case.
After arranging the outside affairs, Shen Shuren took the debt deed and the prepared documents to negotiate with Dong Bai again:
"Miss Dong, I have made it clear to you now. I am in Shen Shuren, the eldest son of the Shen family in Taicang. Today I am personally asking you for a debt. Your Dong family embroidery shop owes my family fifty loads of raw silk. , the total principal and interest is more than 2,800 taels.
If you transfer the ownership of this manor to our Shen family immediately, and you yourself also serve as my family's maid for five years, this debt will be wiped off.
In addition, you said that you are afraid that you will be forced to become a concubine before the period of filial piety has expired, humiliating the family. Then I can expressly stipulate in the contract that you can continue to wear Sujuan's filial piety clothes during the period of being a maid. The content also does not include servants of Israel.
You just need to continue to help my family make embroidery and weaving, and pay it off with your labor. You can also ask your neighbors to witness this, and you can also indicate it when you take this deed to pay the deed tax."
Chen Shuren wanted to seize time and explained his conditions thoroughly in one breath.
Dong Bai wanted to die at first, but as he listened, he found that the young master Shen he had just met in front of him was actually quite kind, so he couldn't help but relax.
She just still doesn't understand what the Shen family's conspiracy is, and why they gave her such favorable conditions - let her weave satin for five years and embroider Su embroidery for five years, and then she can pay off the insolvent part. No matter what the Shen family thinks, Not worth it.
"Master Shen, don't you think this condition is too generous? This little girl's virtue is not worthy of her. I'm afraid she won't be able to bear such a condition." Dong Bai finally insisted.
Chen Shuren smiled: "Oh, you still think the conditions are good? Well, it seems that you are not greedy, so I will tell you the truth. To me, a few thousand taels of silver is nothing. I am in Kunshan Lixiangyuan, Bao Chen Yuan and Miss Chen sing songs, and there are so many expenses in a few months.
A while ago, when I was drinking and talking with Miss Chen, she looked sad after drinking. She couldn't help but feel sad when she thought of what happened to a sister who had learned folk music from her.
For the sake of Bo Jiaren's smile, I wanted to secretly give her a surprise, and while her sister was still teetering on the edge of the cliff, I helped her out, which can be regarded as a good deed."
After hearing this reason, Dong Bai was completely relieved.
It turns out that giving her such generous conditions to save her from suffering was just to please Sister Yuanyuan, which is something that a wealthy playboy can do.
"I didn't expect that Sister Yuanyuan was not out of the sea of misery herself, but she could save me from this mess with just a casual word. You are so good to Sister Yuanyuan, I believe you, as long as you don't disgrace the Dong family's reputation."
Shen Shuren stood up with a smile and clapped his hands. After a while, the Shen family's servants went to the nearest neighbor's house to Dong's embroidery village, served wine, notarized it, and signed the documents. All legal procedures were completed in just half a day. .
Some procedures that require reporting to the Yamen would originally be very slow, but how powerful is the Shen family? Not only is it the richest man in Suzhou, Shen Tingyang is also the head of the Household Department.
With a little money to clear the way, the local clerks in Kunshan were all fawning over each other, and their work efficiency was unprecedentedly high. Even the clerks who had been off work due to darkness were dragged back to work under the lamplight.
Shen Shuren himself did not show up or sign during the entire process, leaving everything to the stewards of the Shen family.
After finishing the process, since the Dongjia Embroidery Village was already the property of the Shen family, Shen Shuren was not polite. He said that it was getting late that night and stayed at the Dongjia Embroidery Village. However, he lived in the front yard and Dong Bai lived in the backyard. Autumn has no fault.
The signboard at the door will not be changed for the time being.
Everything did not disappoint Shen Shuren. The next morning, Dong Liang's family, who had a secret gentleman's agreement with Dong Bai but had not publicly certified the agreement, sent someone to visit them.
"It's so slow. These people are not willing to work the night shift to recover women." Shen Shuren yawned and thought to himself.