Zongwu: The Days of Mixing in the Tongfu Inn

Chapter 128 The Insidious and Cunning Aunt Fan (two chapters in one)

At noon, Zhang Chen and Bai Zhantang, who got the money, returned to the inn. As soon as they entered the gate of the inn, they heard Guo Furong's smug smile.

Tong Xiangyu at the long table had a hint of envy on his face. After seeing Zhang Chen and Bai Zhantang coming back, he stood up quickly and asked:

"How is it? Did you get the things back?"

Bai Zhantang smiled triumphantly, raised the purse in his hand, Tong Xiangyu, who didn't know that things had been successfully sold.

At this time, Zhang Chen looked at the triumphant Guo Furong and the confident scholar beside him, and asked suspiciously:
"What's wrong with the two of them? It feels different from usual."

Before Tong Xiangyu could answer this question, Dazui, who delivered food from the back kitchen, said disdainfully:
"What else? If someone wants to be rich, of course it's different."

Hearing this, Zhang Chen pointed to the scholar, and said in surprise:
"Is there really a bookseller willing to publish that novel by Brother Xiucai?"

After Dazui nodded affirmatively, he snorted in the direction of a scholar before leaving.

It seems that before the two of them came back, Xiucai should have shown off in front of Da Zui, otherwise Da Zui would not have such an expression.

After understanding the situation, Zhang Chen asked Guo Furong:

"Brother Xiucai, it's a good thing that the novel can be published. Which bookseller are you looking for? Such a visionary?"

Although she didn't write it herself, there are still profits for herself after publishing the book, so after hearing Zhang Chen's boast, Fu Rong said happily:

"It's Xiaochen who has vision, unlike the others, Xiucai, the book she wrote this time is so good that even the booksellers praised her again and again, and asked us to sign the contract immediately and hurry up and publish the book!"

After Guo Furong finished speaking, Zhang Chen grasped the point and asked again:
"Bookseller? I remember that you have been running all over the town, big and small, in the past few days? No one is willing to publish books for Brother Xiucai?"

Xiucai smiled awkwardly when he heard Zhang Chen's words. A few days ago, he took the manuscript and went to find booksellers with Guo Furong full of confidence, but he didn't expect that none of the dozens of booksellers, big and small, would accept him. .

Hearing the truth from Zhang Chen at this time, it really made him a little restless, Xiucai quickly explained:

"It's not a bookseller in the town, it's a bookseller who just came from the capital yesterday. This is the news that Guo Furong and I managed to find out. We visited her again this morning. She is willing to publish a book for us after reading the novel. , and let us write the contract on the spot.”

As soon as Zhang Chen heard that it was a bookseller from the capital, he thought of Aunt Fan in the original play, and said tentatively:

"Wouldn't the surname be Fan on this tree?"

Guo Furong gasped in surprise, and then said:
"How do you know? You don't know her, do you?"

Zhang Chen waved his hand to show that he didn't know her, but he thought of the text trap he set for Xiucai in the play, and patted his head before he said:
"Since the contract has been signed, show me the contract over there."

"Brother Xiucai, it's not like I said you, making a contract is such a big deal, why did you sign it so hastily?"

Before the scholar could speak, Guo Furong said carelessly:

"Of course such a good thing should be started early. Mrs. Fan can tell you that if the book of Xiucai is finished, she can underwrite [-] yuan herself."

To say that the rest of the people were a little skeptical before, but now everyone agrees that this Aunt Fan is very unreliable.

Leaving aside other aspects for the time being, just talking about the writing style of Xiucai's novel, if she dares to say with confidence that she will underwrite [-] yuan, won't he be afraid of losing his fortune?
Tong Xiangyu, who was watching the play at the long table, said in a bad mood:

"My silly sister, why didn't you talk about it when you came back just now?"

"She said that if she sells 10 taels, she can sell 10 taels. If she has so much money, why would she go out and look for books by herself?"

After the crowd analyzed the situation for her, Guo Furong knew she was wrong and whispered:
"Then what should we do now? Now that the contract has been signed, if the scholar can't finish writing, he will pay a large amount of liquidated damages."

At this time, everyone realized that the author of this book is Xiucai, and then they all turned to look at Xiucai, and Xiucai had been sitting on the bench before everyone was analyzing Guo Furong, looking forward in a daze.

This look frightened everyone to pat him on the back and pinch him. After a while, Xiucai returned to normal.

After Zhang Chen recovered a bit, he was asked:
"Which one of you owns the contract? Take it out and ask everyone to consult and see if there is any way to avoid paying liquidated damages."

It was Guo Furong who hurriedly took out the contract from her body and put it on the table. Zhang Chen picked up the contract, read it carefully, sighed and did not speak.

Seeing that Zhang Chen just sighed and didn't speak, Xiucai said anxiously:

"If Xiaochen has any questions, just tell them directly. I'm really a little scared when you're like this."

Bai Zhantang also finished reading the content of the contract at this time, shook his head and said:
"It's not that Xiaochen doesn't say anything, but that the contract seems to be fine on the surface, even if you drag her to the government, she won't be afraid of you."

What Bai Zhantang said made Xiucai and Guo Furong look puzzled, neither of them knew the way of the contract.

Bai Zhantang signaled Zhang Chen to speak, because this kind of thing was seen most in the yamen.

Zhang Chen pointed to a clause in the contract and said:
"Just saying this one is problematic, and the terms are vague"

"It's marked here that as long as she is dissatisfied, you have to keep revising the draft, but you haven't said exactly how much you want to revise."

"If she is still dissatisfied or asks you to change according to her request, it will be a breach of contract if you don't comply"

"There is also this last item, which is obviously vague. It is not clear who the specific compensation party is? It will be very disadvantageous to file a lawsuit in the future."

Under Zhang Chen's detailed explanation, Xiucai and Guo Furong realized the trap hidden in this contract, and successfully let the two of them understand their current situation.

Bai Zhantang said comfortingly:

"Don't be so pessimistic! If the scholar's book really satisfies others, then all these terms can be passed."

Tong Xiangyu did not comfort the two, but calmly said:
"The only way now is to do what Zhantang said. You should write it out first and then talk about it. We will see how Auntie Fan will deal with it then?"

"Don't worry too much about this matter, it really can't, isn't there all of us?"

After hearing this, Guo Furong said to the scholar:
"Xiu Cai is the one who is sorry for you this time. If I hadn't forced you to sign this contract in such a hurry, this matter would not have happened."

The scholar waved his hand and said:

"Let's not talk about this. At that time, none of us thought that there would be such a thing. Just like what Lao Bai said, it hasn't happened yet. It's a big deal for me to change the manuscript a few times."

This chic gesture of the scholar made Guo Furong feel better.

After holding the contract and putting it in his arms, Zhang Chen said to them:

"Leave this contract with me first. Later, I will go to the county government to find out who this Aunt Fan is."

The two nodded their heads in agreement.

After lunch, Zhang Chen left the inn early and walked towards the county government. Not long ago, Liufanmen bought a house next to the county government, and planned to establish a stronghold in Qixia Town. This time, Zhang Chen planned to Go to this stronghold to find information.

After a while, Zhang Chen walked to the tea shop next to the county government office. This was Zhang Chen's idea. After all, this stronghold is used to send and receive information, so it still needs to be disguised on the outside.

After searching for information in the inner courtyard of Cha Temple for a long time, I found information about Aunt Fan. It stands to reason that there should be no information about her here, but it happened that this Aunt Fan was not a simple bookseller. There are other purposes in coming to Qixia Town.

Looking at the official document that said that the six door gods, Zhang Wuqing, will arrive in the town in a few days to arrest Mrs. Fan, this line of small words made Zhang Chen's originally expressionless face burst into a smile.

After reading the official document, Zhang Chen pondered for a while as if thinking about something, and then left the teahouse.

After returning to the inn, Guo Furong graciously led Zhang Chen to sit down, and Xiucai quickly handed over a bowl of tea.

This gesture made Zhang Chen dumbfounded and said:
"Don't worry, I've already found information about Mrs. Fan."

"She is an illegal bookseller. Her main job is to copy those popular books and insert large-scale plots in them, such as those Three Kingdoms, Water Margin..."

Bai Zhantang, who was watching the play, heard the words, his eyes lit up, and he said with a smile:

"Hey, it turns out that these are all published by Mrs. Fan. If you want to put it this way, Mrs. Fan hasn't lied yet. Those books she published are indeed selling well."

Zhang Chen didn't talk to Bai Zhantang and gave Bai Zhantang a supercilious look. After hearing what Bai Zhantang said, Xiucai asked in doubt:
"Why don't I remember reading these books?"

Bai Zhantang chuckled, and Zhang Chen said:
"Of course you haven't heard of it. Those books are basically banned books. That's what Mrs. Fan does."

Xiucai started to panic at this moment, and said with a broken face:

"He won't let me write these? Then I would rather die than write these plots in my novel."

Zhang Chen gave him a look that he understood, which made Xiucai hide in a corner to heal his wounds with a gloomy expression.

Guo Furong stood beside Zhang Chen shaking Zhang Chen's upper body and said:
"Xiaochen, you have to help Xiucai! Otherwise, Xiucai will be miserable."

Zhang Chen knew that there was no danger this time, and Wuqing would come to arrest Aunt Fan soon.

He wasn't worried about any danger, but thinking about what happened this time could teach them a lesson so that they could be more vigilant in the future.

Afterwards, Zhang Chen pretended to be embarrassed and said:

"It's difficult! We signed a contract with him, and now he hasn't made any mistakes, so we have to continue according to the content of the contract. I inquired, and this Mrs. Fan has a very deep background!"

Seeing Zhang Chen, Guo Furong felt a little embarrassed, took a step back tremblingly, and said in a broken voice:
"That's 1 taels of silver, what should I pay for it?"

Also listening to the news, Tong Xiangyu saw that Guo Furong regretted it, and said angrily:

"Now I know I regret it, I see that you will not be so impatient in the future"

"How can there be so many good things in the world, and you just picked them up"

"Xiaochen and Zhantang, you two can help out! After all, this is our person"

Guo Furong looked gratefully at Tong Xiangyu and Zhang Chen upon hearing this.

Zhang Chen looked at Guo Furong and said:
"Since that Aunt Fan tricked you into signing this contract, it means that she has plans for you. Let's hold back and see what she can do."

...............

After Xiucai and Guo Furong handed over the finished novel to Aunt Fan, seeing that she didn't make any comments, they were relieved and hurriedly left her residence.

Just after the two of them thought the matter was over, Aunt Fan came to the inn with the brilliant manuscript that evening, the purpose was obviously to let the scholar come forward to revise the manuscript.

After a while, seeing the scholar appeared in the lobby, Aunt Fan pointed out the shortcomings in his manuscript with her unique sharp voice.

Seeing that she belittled her achievement with sarcasm, Xiucai couldn't help but say that it's a big deal that I won't write it, let whoever you want to write this book write.

Aunt Fan's eyes lit up, as if she was waiting for the scholar to say this, then she took out the contract and waved it in front of the scholar, and said proudly:

"If you don't want to write, that's easy to do. As long as you pay the liquidated damages, I'll leave right away."

Seeing Aunt Fan talking about things with the contract, Guo Furong couldn't help interjecting:

"This contract is obviously that you are cheating us, you still have the nerve to mention it"

This sentence hit Aunt Fan's heart, she waved her hand disdainfully and said:

"Children can eat indiscriminately, but they can't talk indiscriminately. This contract was signed by you voluntarily. If you want to blame, it's because you didn't read carefully at the time."

His wife Fan made Guo Furong speechless with just one word, and after seeing that no one spoke to the rest of the crowd, she spoke again:
"Stop talking nonsense, since you don't want to write, then take the money"

"I don't even ask you for more, just follow the amount in the contract, no more, no less, 1 taels."

"If you can't get it out, let's go to the county government, and I'm not afraid to tell you that there are people there."

After finishing speaking, he hummed and stopped talking.

Zhang Chen saw that Aunt Fan was so arrogant, but Qi seemed to have something to say, so he opened his mouth and said tentatively:

"We won't be able to come up with the amount of 1 taels of silver for a while. Why don't we give us a few days and let's make it together."

Aunt Fan was overjoyed when she heard the words, but she regained her composure in an instant and said:
"It doesn't matter, you don't have cash, don't you still have land? I think the location of your inn is good. If I suffer a disadvantage, I will give you a discount."

What she said made Zhang Chen understand the real purpose of this Aunt Fan. It turned out that she wanted the place of Tongfu Inn.

When Xiucai heard Mrs. Fan's words, she couldn't help but stepped forward and shouted:

"You should give up on this! Even if I sell the iron, I will not sell the land. This is the ancestral property of my Lu family. If I sell it, how can I have the face to meet my ancestors?"

Aunt Fan snorted coldly and said:
"Then it's up to you. I'll get the money tomorrow. If you don't have cash, let's go to the county government."

"I'm not afraid to tell you again, there are people above me, don't lose the lawsuit and cry."

After speaking, Aunt Fan left the inn.

　Thanks for the support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)