Chapter 406: Chapter 406 - 406 Borrowing Money

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

What was worth mentioning was that during this period, Constable Zhang, who was relatively free, would come over to Gu Ziyi’s place to make his presence known.

The patriarch and his wife quickly understood Constable Zhang’s intentions.

However, as long as he didn’t stay overnight or force his way in, no one would interfere with their affairs.

Gu Chengye and his wife built two tiny houses at the foot of the mountain because of Mother God Temple’s reconstruction, selling tea and incense there. The business would not make them wealthy, but it was decently prosperous.

One day, while Zhou Ying and Gu Chengrui were harvesting the white sweet potato vines in the field, the village chief approached them. “Yo, you guys are starting already?”

“Yeah, since we planted early.” Gu Chengrui stood up and asked, “1 heard that Grandpa Qian’s family planted quite a lot of sweet potatoes this year?”

“That’s right. Our next year’s worth of food depends on these white potatoes.” The village chief smiled and continued, “1 came here today to buy some beef from you guys since harvesting sweet potatoes is strenuous. We should at least nourish ourselves, eh?”

“That’s not a problem. I’ll get someone to bring half a cattle’s worth of meat here to sell tomorrow morning. Anyone who wants it can buy it at the village entrance.”

“Alright, it’s a deal then. You guys go ahead with your day.” The village chief turned around to leave after he finished speaking.

Zhou Ying quickly stopped him. “Grandpa Qian, remember that we will buy white potato vines from you. Remember to keep them for us if you don’t want them.”

“No problem, I’ll give you more than half when the time comes.”

In the evening, Zhou Ying went to cook dinner after collecting the white potatoes.

Gu Chengrui walked around the village and told them about the beef coming tomorrow. At the same time, he also mentioned their intention to collect sweet potato vines.

This time, the situation differed from last year, so many people promised to sell their white potato vines to the couple.

The next day, when the meat arrived, the people started harvesting their white potatoes too.

After drying the white potatoes, Zhou Ying and Gu Chengrui carted the white potato vines from home to the manor and began harvesting the white potatoes there together.

Because they were planted at different times, it took them a month to harvest everything.

After all the seeds were collected, County Magistrate Kong collected the excess and distributed it to areas with fewer seeds.

After they were completely done, river transportation also officially began. Those who were coming to the villages to collect white sweet potatoes were the first to come by boat.

Apart from the families in Shanghe village who had sold some, the other families would rather sell their children than white potatoes after the famine’s devastation.

Also, Zhou Ying took the opportunity to sell a batch of cattle and sheep.

When she had just received the money and had not even warmed it up, Father Gu came to them to borrow money.

Gu Chengrui looked up at him and asked, “Father, are you considering buying a boat?”

“Yes, now that everything is going well, it’s time to get a new customer base. I want to take the opportunity to strike and snatch some customers before others can.” Father Gu nodded and explained his reasoning.

“Of course, you can join us if you want,” he said after a moment of hesitation.

After the couple looked at each other, Gu Chengrui shook his head and replied, “We don’t know anything about the transportation business, so we won’t participate.

“But even though we’re father and son, since you’re borrowing money for business, you’ll have to leave me an IOU.”

“No problem,” Father Gu said after a short pause. “When I return the money, I’ll give you 30% of the interest.”

“Forget about the interest; you can just pay us back when you have more money.”

“No problem. Do you have a pen and paper?”

“Yes, please wait a moment.” Gu Chengrui went for a pen and paper and asked him to write an IOU. After pressing his thumbprint on it, Father Gu borrowed 20 taels of silver from them.

“I hope they will have a better result this time,” Gu Chengrui commented after sending him back. “Otherwise, these 20 taels of silver will be wasted..”