Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 18 Trap
  Looking at it this way, writing a storybook is still feasible.

Li An feels that if he writes a short story a month, he can earn two to three taels, not to mention five taels, which is pretty good.

As for the shopkeeper, he would only accept the script if it was well written, so Li An was not worried.

After chatting with the shopkeeper for a few words, Li An said goodbye and left.

Seeing that it was getting late, Li An did not continue wandering, but bought three pancakes and walked out of the city while eating.

When he was approaching the academy, he passed by a forest. From a distance, Li An saw Li Fu walking out of the jungle with four teenagers.

One of them was the young man named Xu who said yesterday that Li Fu owed him two taels of silver.

Li An thought suddenly and hid behind a tree.

"Li Fu, you lost another one tael of silver today. Now you owe me three taels. You will be off in two days. If you can't pay it back then, don't blame me for going to your house to ask for it." The boy surnamed Xu said.

"Oh, Brother Xu, if Li Fu's family can send him and his cousin to study, what's the difference of three taels of silver?" said a young man with a lot of pockmarks on his face.

"That's right. Besides, maybe Li Fu will win tomorrow." Another young man agreed.

The young man surnamed Xu said disdainfully: "He has lost so much, it's not sure whether he will dare to play tomorrow."

"Xu Wen, judging from what you said, who hasn't had bad luck? Didn't Li Fu win a few days ago? He just has bad luck these two days. Maybe things will change tomorrow, and he won't even be able to make a profit by then. I won it back."

"Brother Xue is right. I lost a lot in the past few days, but I have won back these two days and made a little profit, hehe."

Li Fu originally lowered his head, but when he heard what the two said, he raised his head and said, "Brother Xu, don't worry, I will definitely pay you back the money. Keep coming tomorrow."

"Haha, Li Fu, I'm optimistic about you. Brother Xu will owe you money when the time comes." The pockmarked boy said with a smile.

Xu Wen curled his lips and said, "It depends on his ability whether he can win. How many taels of silver will I care about?"

While the few people were talking, they slowly walked away.

Li An then walked out from behind the tree with an ugly expression.

He was still a little surprised yesterday, how could Li Fu owe two taels of silver.

When Xu Wen heard that he was Li Fu's cousin, he asked him for money regardless of Li Fu's obstruction. Obviously, the relationship between the two was not very good.

But he happened to lend Li Fu a huge sum of money, which was abnormal no matter how you looked at it.

Judging from the conversation between several people just now, it was obvious that they were working together to set a trap for Li Fu.

Li Fu's attitude yesterday made him very unhappy. He didn't want to care about it at first, but now he can't care about it anymore.

If Li Fu were allowed to continue gambling like this, the money owed would increase and the uncle's family would not be able to pay it back.

By then, his studies may be affected.

……

"Well, Li An, don't call me when you go out to eat." Zeng Chuan said angrily when he saw Li An coming back.

"I went to Yangzhou City for something, not just to eat out." Li An said.

"Then you have to call me, I'm a little scared to go alone." Zeng Chuan said a little embarrassed.

"Okay, next time I go, I'll call you." Li An said.

"That's pretty much it. I'll treat you to something delicious then." Zeng Chuan said with a smile.

"By the way, I want to ask you about someone." Li An said.

"Tell me, as long as there are people in our academy, I know some things." Zeng Chuan said, patting his chest.

"There is a man named Xu Wen in the upper house. Do you know his situation?" Li An asked.

Zeng Chuan was stunned and said, "Did you offend him?"

Li An shook his head and said, "I heard about this person, so I asked out of curiosity."

"It's good that we didn't offend him. His father is the nephew of the headmaster of our academy and the village leader of Xujiazhuang. We can't afford to offend him." Zeng Chuan whispered.

Li An didn't expect that Xu Wen had such a big 'background', so he thought for a while and asked, "I heard that he likes to gamble, right?"

Hearing this, Zeng Chuan looked around and whispered, "Don't talk nonsense about this kind of thing." "So he really likes gambling?" Li An asked.

Zeng Chuan was silent for a while and said: "I don't know if he likes gambling, but he often uses gambling money to deceive people. Several people who were in the same room as him owed him a lot of money because of gambling, and finally sold them People who sell their fields can no longer read books.”

Li An was stunned and asked, "Does the academy not care?"

"How to take care of it? Those who owe money have written IOUs and fingerprinted them. Even if they go to the government, they still have to pay back the money. And the mountain chief is his second grandfather, who will take care of it?" Zeng Chuan said.

"Since he has deceived several people, why are others still being deceived?" Li An asked doubtfully.

"The academy has regulations that you can't gamble in the academy. No one dares to tell anyone who bet with him in the academy. When he owes a lot, his father will take the IOU while Xiu Mu is sleeping and go directly to someone else's house to ask for it. I can’t even read the book, so of course no one in the academy knows about it. I only know that someone from the same village as me was tricked by him.”

When Zeng Chuan said this, he said with some confusion: "By the way, no one in the academy except a few masters and the boys who do odd jobs should know about this matter. They won't talk about it either. How did you know about it?"

Li An said: "I found out about it by overhearing those boys chatting."

Zeng Chuan didn't think much about it and reminded: "Since you know, if he asks you to gamble in the future, be sure not to go."

"Well, I understand, thank you." Li An said.

"Haha, we are friends. Remember to call me next time you go to Yangzhou City." Zeng Chuan said.

"Don't worry, I will definitely call you next time." Li An said.

……

During lunch break the next day, Li An found Li Fu.

"Cousin, let's go out and talk." Li An said.

Li Fu heard this and said impatiently: "What's the matter? Are you being bullied? Let me tell you, fighting is not allowed in the academy. If you are bullied, I won't help you if you come to me."

"I just have something to tell you. If you don't come, don't blame me for telling my grandfather about the money you owe someone when I go back."

After Li An finished speaking, he walked directly to the academy.

Li Fu cursed Li An secretly, but still followed him.

When he came to the small woods on the side of the academy, Li Fu saw no one around and said with a cold face: "You are getting more and more courageous now. How dare you threaten me?"

Li An was too lazy to talk nonsense to him and told Li Fu the news he learned from Zeng Chuan.

Then he said: "You don't owe much now, it's still too late to stop."

After saying that, he went directly to the academy.

He felt that as long as Li Fu was not stupid, he would not continue gambling.

Auntie should be able to come up with three taels of silver.

……

After school ended in the afternoon, Zeng Chuan pestered Li An and asked him if he was going to the city.

"I won't go today. We'll talk about it in a few days." Li An refused.

He already knew the news he needed to know, and he would have to wait a few months before he could write a storybook. After all, he had just started studying.

Even though no one at the bookstore knew him, Li An was still prepared to wait a few months before writing the storybook out of caution.

There is no point in going to the city now, except that you have to spend money to buy food.

Zeng Chuan was a little disappointed when he heard this and asked: "What day will it be in a few days?"

"By the time…"

Just as Li An opened his mouth, the boy from the academy shouted at the door: "Li An, there is someone looking for you outside."

Hearing this, Li An didn't bother to talk to Zeng Chuan and hurried to the entrance of the academy.

He originally thought that his father was worried and came to see him, but unexpectedly it was his mother, Mrs. Liu, who came.

(End of this chapter)