A Clash of Gods - Chapter 162
Chapter 162 Pay the Debt
Ding Yitu didn’t speak, while Dou Lianzhong came over, saying casually, “Manager Ding works in an escort agency and travels around the world depending on his connections, and he knows countless people. However, in my opinion, there are many people who know Manager Ding, yet he may not remember all of them.”
Yang Ning didn’t argue but asked with a smile, “Master Dou, I have heard that many pleasure boats on the Qinhuai River belong to you. Is it true?”
“So what?” Dou Lianzhong asked in reply.
Yang Ning replied while smiling, “Nothing.” Then he turned to Yuan Rong, asking, “Yuan Rong, does the pleasure boat where Pearl is belong to Master Dou, too?”
Before Yuan Rong answered, Dou Lianzhong stated, “Right, that pleasure boat is mine. Xue from the Treasures House owed me a lot of money due to poor management those years, and that guy wanted to evade debts after dying, but it’s an unquestionable moral truth that if you owe somebody money, you should pay the debt. Since Pearl was his concubine, she could certainly pay the debt by labor.”
Yang Ning stated, “It turns out that Pearl was sold out to pay the debt. So Pearl’s slavery indenture is in your hands?”
Dou Lianzhong seemed to intentionally provoke Yang Ning and Yuan Rong, and he chuckled. “Right, her slavery indenture is in my hands. According to the law of the Chu State, Pearl belongs to me, so she has to be like a slave. She didn’t listen to me, so I will surely teach her a lesson later.” He leered at Yuan Rong, with complacency in his eyes, saying, “Master Xuan, I heard that you were on good terms with Xue those years and once promised to take care of Pearl. Do you want to redeem her?”
Yuan Rong had a blush on his fair-skinned face and responded in a deep voice, “Master Dou, don’t go too far.”
“Aha, Yuan Rong, you are from a scholarly family, so it’s logical that you feel pity for a beauty.” Dou Lianzhong was complacent. “But I just worry that if you want to redeem a prostitute, will your family pay so much money? Even if you can pay money to redeem her, can a bitch whose red lips have been kissed by many men marry into your mansion? I am afraid that old Minister Yuan will break your leg then.”
Yuan Rong stated angrily. “You…” He was so furious that he couldn’t continue.
Seeing that, Zhu Yuchen hesitated for a moment and then asked cautiously, “Master Yuan, how much…will it cost to redeem Pearl?”
Yang Ning had helped them out of a predicament today, so Zhu Yuchen felt grateful. Since Yang Ning and Yuan Rong had a plan to redeem Pearl seemingly, he wanted to return a favor with a favor and express his thanks.
He was naturally clear that although they should pay a large amount of money to boost a beauty queen on the Qinhuai River, in fact, it wouldn’t cost a lot of money to redeem a girl on the river. Even a popular girl was merely like a drop in the bucket compared with the Zhu family’s wealth.
The most valuable girls on the river were the eight beauties in the boat king for now, while Pearl was not one of them, so she wouldn’t be worth much money no matter how valuable she was.
“What? Master Zhu, you are wealthy and generous. Do you want to redeem Pearl?” Dou Lianzhong laughed loudly. “I am not unreasonable. As long as you can give me money to redeem her, I won’t care about a prostitute, but Pearl was sold to pay the debt. If you want to redeem her, you need to pay off the debts that the Treasures House owed me those years.” He raised his hand and rubbed his chin with his thumb. “If you hold all the fortune of your family’s cloth shop in pledge, it will probably be enough.”
Zhu Yuchen turned pale instantly and knew that Dou Lianzhong demanded an exorbitant price. He knew that it was almost impossible to redeem Pearl.
Xiao Shaozong remained silent and just peeled peanuts. It seemed that he liked eating peanuts and enjoyed the process of peeling peanuts more.
Yang Ning watched aside coldly and smiled faintly, talking to Xiao Shaozong, “Your Excellency, I didn’t plan to mention the old debt today, yet I have to figure out here how much it was since Master Dou mentioned it first.”
Xiao Shaozong was at leisure and smiled. “Marquis, who do you want to do accounts with?”
Yang Ning waved at Dou Lianzhong. “Come here.”
His motion was impolite, and Dou Lianzhong got furious, asking, “Will I go as you said?”
“I want to do accounts with you. Of course you need to come here.” Yang Ning took something out and laughed. “I am scared of being short of money, so I bring this treasure with me all the time.” He shook his hand, and it was a piece of paper. Xiao Shaozong looked at the paper in doubt, while Dou Lianzhong turned pale at a glance.
“Your Excellency, this is a loan agreement with Master Dou’s signature after the trial of Governor Mo in the Capital Bureau.” Yang Ning smiled. “Master Dou has also said that if you owe somebody money, you should pay the debt. Now it happens that we can do accounts.”
Dou Lianzhong couldn’t help but say, “Qi Ning, you played a trick. I…”
“What?” Yang Ning’s face darkened. “You don’t want to acknowledge the debt?” He sneered. “His Excellency is here, and the Capital Bureau stands for the empire’s law. If you don’t acknowledge the debt, you just defy the law of the country. Your Excellency, is it to rebel if he defies the law of the country?”
Xiao Shaozong laughed. “Anybody should obey the law of the country.”
“Your Excellency, you are right.” Yang Ning laughed loudly. “Master Dou smashed the family heirloom of the Marquis of Honor. Considering Minister Dou’s dignity, I don’t want to go to their mansion to demand payment of the debt. I thought that the Dou family is a famous powerful family and won’t refuse to pay the debt like the shameless rascals, but Master Dou didn’t pay the debt after I waited for a long time. Your Excellency, it happens that you are here today. I think we can do accounts here.”
Dou Lianzhong retorted in a rage, “What family heirloom? It was just a trap set by you. You said that a low-quality colored glaze horse was your family heirloom…”
Yang Ning sneered. “Master Dou, so you still act shamelessly? If so, I can do nothing but report to His Majesty and ask him to transfer the record of the trial from the Capital Bureau. Let’s see how this case was heard in court. What do you think?”
Dou Lianzhong turned pale.
In fact, he was most worried that the file of the trial that day would be revealed to the public. He had said whatever he wanted in court and spoken out rebellious words several times. Although he had said that in anxiety, those words could be serious or nothing. If Yang Ning pestered him, the Dou family couldn’t gain profit.
Yang Ning naturally knew what Dou Lianzhong was thinking about, so he laughed and asked, “Master Dou, shall we do accounts?”
Jiang Suiyun expressed with a smile after seeing that Dou Lianzhong looked unnatural, “Marquis, a colored glaze horse of the highest quality is worth hundreds of taels of silver at most. How about I pay Master Dou’s debt. Is it okay if I pay one thousand taels of silver?”
Yang Ning frowned. “Master Jiang, I know that your family is the richest in the country, but what do you mean by paying Master Dou’s debt? You are a businessman. Although Master Dou has no official position, after all, he is a son of the minister in the Ministry of Revenue. A businessman pays the debt for a son of the minister in the Ministry of Revenue. This…”
Jiang Suiyun turned pale at once.
Xiao Shaozong stated with a smile, “Marquis of Honor, Suiyun and Lianzhong have known each other for many years and taken each other as a brother. It’s not related to their identities, and Suiyun is always public-spirited and kindhearted. Perhaps he is worried about Lianzhong, so he said something wrong.” He turned to Dou Lianzhong. “Lianzhong, it’s your and Marquis’ business. You talk about it, and others don’t get involved in it.”
Yang Ning laughed. “Your Excellency, you are wise.” He put the loan agreement on the table. “Master Dou, tell me how you will pay the debt.”
“Er…”, Dou Lianzhong could do nothing after the bane of his life was mentioned by Yang Ning, so he responded resentfully, “Tell me how much money you want and how to deal with it once and for all.”
“You should know that the heirloom of our family is something priceless rewarded by the emperor.” Yang Ning was at leisure. “How about you give Pearl’s slavery indenture to me first? By the way, since she has lived in the pleasure boat for two years, you give it to her.”
Dou Lianzhong frowned. “So we are even?”
“You are daydreaming.” Yang Ning was merciless. “This is the first compensation. We will take our time and do accounts later.”
Dou Lianzhong sneered. “You are blackmailing me. Can you extort me randomly with this loan agreement?”
Yang Ning stated, “I won’t talk rubbish with you. If you don’t agree, let’s go to the Capital Bureau to get the file and then see His Majesty.” He sighed. “You have smashed a family heirloom rewarded by the emperor, yet you still try to bargain and defile the gift from the emperor. We need to make it clear.”
Dou Lianzhong feared most that Yang Ning would mention the file, so he was frustrated and said with difficulty, “You…you can’t hit me when I am down!”
“I hit you when you are down?” Yang Ning couldn’t help laughing. “Master Dou, have you been educated? You have contact with the Jiang family who have treasures filling the home, and the manager of the Rising Sun Escort Agency protects you. You wear gold and silver and hug many women, yet how can you say that you are down?” He got up and cupped his hands in front of Xiao Shaozong. “Your Excellency, Dou Lianzhong is importunate and wants to act shamelessly seemingly. He doesn’t take a reward from the emperor seriously, while our family take it as a treasure, so I can do nothing but report to His Majesty.” He was going to leave while saying in a deep voice, “Duan Canghai, let’s go to the Capital Bureau now and ask Governor Mo to give us the record of the trial. Then we will wait at the gate of the imperial palace tonight.”
Duan Canghai replied in an instant, “Yes, Marquis.”
Seeing that Yang Ning was aggressive, Dou Lianzhong expressed anxiously, “You…wait a moment. I…will agree with you.”
“Oh?” Yang Ning turned around and stared at Dou Lianzhong. “Master Dou, His Excellency is here. With him as a witness, you can’t make irresponsible remarks. What will you agree to do as you mentioned?”
Dou Lianzhong glanced at Xiao Shaozong, to see that the latter was peeling peanuts without taking a glance at him, so he was helpless and said, “I…I will give you Pearl’s slavery indenture. From now on, Pearl will be yours, and that…pleasure boat will be yours.”
“All of us have heard that.” Yang Ning laughed. “Master Dou, where is the slavery indenture? Can you give it to me now?”
Dou Lianzhong replied, “We have many servants in my mansion, and I won’t bring all the slavery indentures with me. I will tell somebody to get it later.”
“Good things don’t stay overnight.” Yang Ning looked up at the sky. “There is some time before midnight. Please send somebody now to get it on horseback urgently, and it won’t take a long time to go and come back. Give the slavery indenture and the pleasure boat to me before midnight.”
Anger was shown in Dou Lianzhong’s eyes. He snorted and walked over, telling an attendant to fetch it. The attendant left under his order. Then Dou Lianzhong came back and stated crossly, “Just wait.”
“Master Dou, don’t blame me. I never trust you.” Yang Ning chuckled. “Please write some words first to indicate that you have given Pearl and the pleasure boat to me and make it clear…” He pondered for a moment and then added, “I will write it for you. Somebody, bring me a brush pen and ink.”
Nobody around did anything, so Yang Ning asked with a frown, “What? Nobody has heard me?”
Dou Lianzhong ordered in a rage, “Bring him a brush pen and ink.”
Then somebody fetched a brush pen and ink. Yang Ning wrote some words and told Dou Lianzhong to sign and seal. Dou Lianzhong was anxious to tear Yang Ning to pieces. He told Zhu Yuchen and the others to come tonight because he wanted to teach them a lesson, but he hadn’t expected that this King of Hell would come here, too. He regretted it a lot.
He was alert to Yang Ning. As he was clear that this guy was tricky, he was afraid that Yang Ning would set another trap. He checked the words several times carefully just in case, and he even asked Jiang Suiyun to check it once before he sighed and sealed. Then he gave it to Yang Ning, while the latter received it, folded it and put it away, saying with a smile, “Fine, I won’t disturb you. I will wait over there for the slavery indenture.” He cupped his hands in front of Xiao Shaozong. “Your Excellency, goodbye.”
Xiao Shaozong finally turned his head and expressed with a smile, “The scenery on the Qinhuai River is quite beautiful. Marquis, enjoy yourself tonight.”