noffsinger Chapter 408 The lion opens its mouth
Chapter 408 The lion opens its mouth
Wei Chengwu's face suddenly turned blue and red.
When he was young, he looked down upon the martial arts in his family and longed to appear in the court as a civil official.
The Duke of Dingguo's Mansion was inherited by Wei Ling's line. He felt that he was also surnamed Wei, but was born in a line that could not inherit the title. So he wanted to enter the official career through studying, rather than relying on martial arts to get a title of military officer under the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion. Since he was not protected by his ancestors, he would create a new world for himself.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. After he passed the exam and was happy for a while, he failed again and again. After three years, he finally failed the exam for the fourth time. His family could not stand it anymore. After all, it cost a lot of money to support his studies. He also made many friends in foreign countries. Every day, he attended poetry gatherings or book clubs. He would not only read books but also invite people to dinner and socialize. Over the years, the family's assets were consumed a lot. In addition, his mother and wife were not good at making a living, so they lost a lot in business. The two shops in the family were also transferred to others due to poor management.
This is somewhat like living off one's savings.
So after he failed the exam for the fifth time, his mother couldn't help but urge him to come to the Duke's Mansion to try his luck. He was reluctant at first, and going to the Duke's Mansion would go against his original intention!
But he couldn't stand his wife crying all day long, and his old mother threatened to commit suicide, so he could only bring two chickens to the Duke's Mansion.
What a coincidence, Wei Ling was really at home that day, and he politely let the person in.
It was just that Wei Ling's father had something to do that day and was delayed in returning home, so he made him wait in the side hall for a long time. It was almost dusk when Wei Ling's father finally came back.
If Wei Ling had not been very enthusiastic and humble at the time, he would have turned hostile and left on the spot.
Through Duke Dingguo, he managed to get a sinecure job as a clerk in the government office in the capital. He didn't have much to do on weekdays, just organizing files. The government office had so many clerks and there was no shortage of people like him to do the work, so he was very free most of the time.
Originally, Duke Dingguo wanted to use his free time to continue studying, and if he wanted to take exams, he could continue taking them. After all, he has a salary now, and continuing to study will not affect the family's financial support.
But Wei Chengwu felt that the Duke Dingguo's Mansion was humiliating him!
After all, anyone who has read a little and can read can do this kind of work! And he wants to be a noble and a prime minister in the future, to be a minister who can compete with the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion. Who is he trying to fool with this kind of insignificant job?
But even so, he had only been working as a clerk for two years when something went wrong in the Duke Dingguo's Mansion!
There is no need to talk about what happened next. His mother and wife both died on the way to exile. He was lucky enough to make it to the north and escape the strangulation of the Wei family. He lived in the north for many years until Wei Ling led his men out of the mine in Mangshan and rescued him.
Even though Wei Ling gave him a lot after he was rescued, he still felt that he should not have suffered such hardship. It was all because of Wei Ling's family that he had to live a life worse than pigs and dogs!
So when Wei Ling was about to return to the North and needed him to help deal with the affairs of the Duke Dingguo's Mansion, he felt that this was God's compensation to him!
So he felt very at ease to have the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion registered under his own name.
Now Wei Ling asked him for the house. Although he knew that the house should belong to Wei Ling, he still looked at Wei Ling stubbornly.
"So what?" Wei Chengwu sneered. "If I hadn't been implicated by your family, how would I have ended up like this? How did I get through those years? I knelt on the ground and worked like a cow or a horse, ate worse than a dog, and slept in a pigsty or a cowshed! Even when I was sick, I would get up and work! Is this enough to make up for the so-called official position your father gave me? Then what can your family use to compensate for the lives of my mother and my ex-wife?!"
Wei Ling's heart trembled slightly.
Yes, too many people died in the Wei family before!
"I can give you other compensation!" Wei Ling said slowly. "But I must take this house back."
"Give me money? How much can you give me?" Wei Chengwu continued with a sneer, "The more than one thousand taels of silver you ask people to bring back every year is enough to compensate me? You still want me to use this money to repair the Duke's Mansion? You are dreaming!"
"You name a price!" Wei Ling said after thinking for a moment.
"One hundred thousand taels of silver!" Wei Chengwu opened his mouth loudly!
After he said the number, he saw Wei Ling's face darken slightly, and then he sneered again, "Why? Are you worried about the money? Do you think this big house of the Duke's Mansion is not worth 100,000 taels? Or do you think my wife and mother's lives are not worth 100,000 taels?"
One hundred thousand taels! It is indeed not a small amount.
Although Wei Ling knew that he was not unable to come up with the money, it was just that after taking out such a large sum of money, he would basically be almost completely drained!
Su Jixiang was rich, but that was Su Jixiang's money. Over the years, he had never asked how much money Su Jixiang had earned. Most of his money was in Su Jixiang's hands.
Spending 100,000 taels at once...
"This is not a small amount." Wei Ling pondered for a moment and said, "If you can decide, I will go and raise the money!"
"Okay. As long as you can give me one hundred thousand taels of silver, I can transfer this house to you immediately!" Wei Chengwu originally thought that Wei Ling would reject him outright, but he didn't expect that Wei Ling would actually consider it!
Compared with a hundred thousand taels of silver and a dilapidated Duke's Mansion, he would of course choose the hundred thousand taels of silver!
What could he not do with 100,000 taels of silver?
Now it only costs 20,000 taels of silver to buy a decent house in the capital!
Besides, he was only talking about a Duke's Mansion. When the Duke's Mansion was transferred to his name, the mansion also included more than a hundred acres of fertile land.
The fertile land was not included in the 100,000 taels of silver!
Since Wei Ling didn't mention those fertile fields, he just thought that these fields were used to compensate him!
So Wei Chengwu also felt that this deal was a good deal.
He was also afraid that Wei Ling would go back on his word, so he added, "If you can make up your mind, we can sign an agreement. You pay me, and I'll give you this house in the Duke's Mansion!"
This matter must be made clear. Only the house will be given, not the fields. Wei Chengwu wants to finalize this matter quickly before Wei Ling changes his mind.
Because he knew that Wei Ling was now the Marquis of Zhenbei, if he went against Wei Ling, he might not get any benefit in the end! So he might as well get this done before Wei Ling changed his mind!