Liu, whose throat recovered, held his breath in his heart, but he did not jump like before. Even Gu Ming noticed her abnormality: "Sister, do you say that the evil woman has really changed for the better, or is she holding back the bad?" ”

"Who knows! Wait and see!! Gu Ye shrugged. She didn't think that Liu would be able to completely change her mind in this lesson.

"The money shopkeeper has come to collect the mountain goods with a team of mules and horses!!" At the entrance of the village, I don't know who shouted, and the whole village seemed to explode into a pot, and it suddenly boiled.

Qingshan Village is located in the middle of nowhere, and it is a two-day hike to the nearest nameless town. The mountain roads are narrow and rugged, making it difficult for horse-drawn carriages to pass, and barely accessible for people and livestock. As a result, it is difficult to transport the output in the mountains for money.

However, the mountain goods are very popular outside, especially the ladies and ladies of some large families, who have a soft spot for nuts such as pine nuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts. Mushrooms, fungus and some herbs are also in demand.

As long as there are business opportunities, they can attract profit-seeking businessmen. They brought in some groceries and daily necessities from outside the mountains and sold them to several villages in the mountains, and then took back the best-selling mountain goods from the villages to earn the difference. The money shopkeeper is one of them.

The money shopkeeper is kind and angry, and the price is relatively fair. Gradually, he developed from a peddler with one man and one mule and horse to a caravan with more than a dozen horses. The village's name for him has also evolved from "little money" to a slightly respectful "money shopkeeper".

Qingshan Village is the most remote of several villages. There were only five or six mules and horses left in the caravan, and the rest were full of goods in other villages and went back first.

The arrival of the money shopkeeper received a warm welcome from the villagers. They moved the dried mountain goods to the door of their homes and opened them up to wait for the inspection of the money shopkeeper. If you deliberately adulterate and fool him, you will be listed as a refusal and will never accept their mountain goods. Aunt Wu is the only family in Qingshan Village who has been rejected!

The manual work of collecting mountain goods, weighing and loading goods is handed over to hired short-term workers to do. He was now surrounded by a group of women, selling the goods he had brought in from outside the mountains.

"Money shopkeeper, why did you bring so many pieces of cloth this time? The color is also single. Was it in the first few villages, robbed by those old goods? Although the third grandmother is only in her forties, she has a high level of seniority and is quite respected in the village, so few people dare to squeeze with her every time she chooses goods.

Her youngest daughter, Yinggu, who will be fourteen years old in the next year, asked her eldest brother, who works in the town, to tell each other in the village twenty miles outside the town, and made an appointment to see each other one day in half a month. She wanted to make her daughter a new dress in bright colors, and who knew if the rest would be either black or gray. It's so disappointing.

When the money shopkeeper heard her say this, he took out a cloth bag from the bottom of a basket, and opened it to reveal a dark red cotton cloth. He smiled and said, "Third aunt, this is the cloth that my mother-in-law asked me to buy for her." Since your family needs it, give it to Aunt Ying first! ”

The third grandmother touched the fabric, the weaving was very fine and even, and the color was evenly dyed, nodded with satisfaction, and said with a smile: "Then thank you to the money shopkeeper!" This piece of fabric isn't cheap, is it? ”

"I won't tell you, this cloth was bought back from Yancheng by me for 200 wen, you take 200 wen, and you won't be charged a copper plate more." The money shopkeeper said with a smile.

The women around who were a little blushing at this cloth gasped when they heard the price. Two hundred wen, you can buy a whole piece of cloth, and it is more than enough to make eight or nine tops!

The third grandmother was also a little hesitant. The mountain goods cost two pennies a catty, and the family had to sell a full hundred catties to exchange for this cloth. However, this cloth is indeed good, and the color is bright, and if the little daughter wears it, it must be as beautiful as a flower.

"Third aunt, this cloth is muslin cloth from the south, look at this weaver and this dyeing, the rich people in the town can't buy it if they want to!" Seeing this, the money shopkeeper was not reluctant, and while putting away the fabric, he explained why the price was so high. I originally bought it for my mother-in-law, and I didn't plan to exchange it for money.

When the third grandmother heard this, she gritted her teeth and stomped her feet: "Money shopkeeper, I want this cloth." I'll give you the money when I'm done selling the mountain goods. ”

The family that my brother told his daughter is quite well-off, and it is close to the town. The girl looks like a peugeot, if she wears clothes made of this cloth, this family affair will definitely not be able to run! If a girl can marry away from this impoverished mountain, she will not be guilty for the rest of her life, and it is worth spending more money!

The daughters-in-law and daughters in the village are all huddled together, carrying needles and threads, and some necessities. If the family has money to spare, they will also pick a piece of cloth and keep it for the children to make new clothes to wear. A few years ago, there would be no merchant entering the mountain.

Liu was not among these people, she looked at the goods in the basket from a distance, and her heart had already been calculated. Anyway, they were going to the town in two days, where the goods were cheaper than the ones brought in by the money merchant, why did she spend that unjust money. As for the mountain goods at home, if it weren't for the lack of donkeys and horses at home, she wouldn't have sold them to the money merchant and let him make a fortune from them!

There are more than 30 households in Qingshan Village, and it is already night when the mountain goods are weighed well and the money is calculated. The money shopkeeper and his men spent the night in the village, and the next day they pulled up the mule and horse team and embarked on the return journey.

Gu Ye was waiting outside the village early in the morning, and at her feet was a basket full of air-dried wild animals.

The money shopkeeper knew Gu Ye'er. Her story has long been spread through the mouths of the people in the village. In the impression of the money shopkeeper, this is a poor child who has been abused by his stepmother.

Seeing her stop on the mountain road that the mule and horse team had to pass, the money shopkeeper was very surprised, and stepped forward and asked, "Little girl, do you have something to sell?" ”

Gu Ye nodded, lifted the leaves covered by the basket, and asked softly, "I don't know, the dried chickens and hares, the money shopkeeper will not accept them!" ”

"Collect!" There are not many people who can hunt in these villages, and people like Zhang Lihu's family generally have mules and horses at home, which is convenient for them to send game to the town. Therefore, the money shopkeeper rarely receives such goods every time he visits.

He pondered for a moment, and said to the little girl: "The wind chicken and duck in the town are generally twenty yuan a catty, I won't make you the difference, and I will charge you twenty yuan a catty." ”

"Thank you, shopkeeper!" Although she didn't know the price of game, she knew that the money shopkeeper had always been fair in doing business, and she would not cheat her little money for a child.

Gu Ye took out the game one by one, and the more the money shopkeeper looked at it, the more frightened he became. There were eight pheasants, five hares, and a few small birds that looked like pigeons. After weighing, there were more than 40 pounds. Where did this kid get so much game?

"Forty-two catties and six taels, for you forty-three catties, a total of eight hundred and sixty wen!" The money shopkeeper was not troublesome, and did not ask about the source of the game. He tugged on the abacus beads and quickly worked out the result.

"Thank you! Please also help me keep it secret, my brother will have to trouble you when he hits the prey in the future! Of course, Gu Ye saw the doubts in his heart, and explained casually. Anyway, most of these prey were picked up from the traps dug by Gu Ming, and it was not a lie to say that it was hunted by his brother.

However, in the last ten days, there have been many fewer prey caught in the traps, and sometimes there is no harvest for several days. The prey came a little inexplicably, as if someone had deliberately thrown it into the pit. Who is it?

Gu Ye, who had collected the money and bought some fine grains, muttered to himself on the way back to the mountain from the path. The guard, who followed her from afar, heard her whispering, and thought of the way the master foolishly caught hares and pheasants every day, and his heart was full of questions—what was so special about this little girl that could make the master work so hard? Don't...... Does the master like to nibble on ribs? However, this little "rib" is too tender, right?

At night, the hidden guard, who was resting on a big tree not far from Gu's house, caught a conspiracy from the main house against the object he was protecting.

It was late autumn, and the temperature difference between day and night in the mountains was large, and the Gu family had already burned the kang. After lulling Xiao Zhuang to sleep, Liu shook the sleepy man awake.

Gu Qiao, who was disturbed from sleeping, said impatiently: "What are you doing, you're tired for a day, and you don't let people sleep?" ”

"Dad! I've been pondering for the past few days, our family's fortune, and my voice, are inseparable from Gu Ye'er's girl! I said she's a broom star, and you still don't believe it! "Liu hated the authenticity.

Gu Qiao frowned slightly, and asked, "How do you say this?" ”

"Look! You were originally the second shopkeeper in the town, and you married a girl released by a big family, and you lived a prosperous life. But since the birth of the dead girl, you have been kicked out by the owner and returned to this poor country. And your ex-wife Miao, who happened to be fine, suddenly fell ill and died. It's definitely her gram! My voice was also speechless after scolding her. "Let's just say that the Liu family has restrained his temperament these days, and he is thinking about these things!

Gu Qiao thought about it carefully, it seemed that this was really the case.

Seeing that the man was a little moved, Liu made persistent efforts: "With that broom star here, don't think about it in the future." Maybe, as she grows older, her ability to overcome people is getting bigger and bigger, and our Xiaozhuang is still so young, don't be tired of her......"

"So what do you say? It's such a person, you can't strangle her to death, right? For Gu Ye, Gu Qiao didn't have the slightest pity in his heart, some were just indifferent and disliked.

"Look at what you said, am I such a ruthless person?" Liu Shi glanced at him and continued, "I have inquired, there is a tooth woman in the town, who specializes in buying children from poor people. After teaching, she sold it to a big family in the city as a girl. ”

"You mean, you sold that girl?" There was a bit of hesitation in Gu Qiao's voice.

"Is there less selling children these days? You gave birth to her and raised her to such a big age, and the money you sold yourself should be regarded as her honoring you as a father! Liu had a natural face.

After some consideration, Gu Qiao finally agreed to Liu's approach. A conspiracy against Gu Ye began.