Without moving, the old pilgrim handed the pawn ticket to the mate, “Go and find out what’s there.”
The mate took the silver ticket, and in a short while came over with the box he had found and gave it to the old courtier.
Old Chaofeng opened the box, took a look at it, put it aside, cracked his abacus and said, “The total is three hundred and twenty-two taels and seven coins.
Song Si was just about to give him the silver ticket when Song Wan Yue spoke up, “Can we see the things first?”
The old courtier was stunned and then refused, “That’s not in order.”
“We’ll just take a look.”
The old courtier pressed his hand on the box, “Not even a glance, the rule since ancient times is that you can only give the item to you after you have paid the silver for the ransom.”
Song Wangyue narrowed her eyes.
Song Si didn’t want to cause any trouble, so he took out the silver ticket and handed it in. The old courtier counted it and asked the man to get the change before pushing the box in front of him.
Song Si picked it up, opened it, and handed the box to Song Wan Yue.
“Yue’er, is this it?”
Song Wan Yue looked up at the old courtier.
Old Chaofeng looked back at him with a blank face.
Song Wan Yue laughed leisurely and took the box in Song Si’s hand and put it back on the counter, “Are you guys mistaken, what I pawned was not this bracelet.”
“That’s right.”
I remember clearly, you and another man came here together, saying that your family needed money urgently and you wanted to pawn it for three hundred taels, I refused to pawn it for you, but you begged so hard that you even knelt down, so I gave you three hundred taels in a moment of weakness and was scolded by the shopkeeper for it. Little girl, you will not repay me for my kindness and say that I have exchanged this bracelet, will you?”
“This skill of yours in reversing black and white is really perfect, you haven’t done much of this over the years, have you?”
The old courtier pulled a face, “Young lady, be careful what you say, this is Yuan’s pawnshop, not your house.”
“I also advise you to give me back my bracelet honestly, or I will make you suffer.”
“Yoo-hoo ……”
The old courtier pushed the abacus, “Not a big man, but not a small mouth, come on, drive out!”
Two fellows came over.
“What are you doing?”
Song Si held Song Wangyue back.
Two fellows came up and pulled people, “Go, go, go, don’t make a mess here.”
Song Wangyue kicked one of the fellows in the knee.
“Ah ……
The mate let out a miserable cry and fell to his knees with a thud.
Not only the people in the pawnshop, but even Song Si was startled.
“Big brother, make a big deal out of it.”
Song Wangyue suddenly whispered in his ear.
Song Si reacted and without thinking, he also kicked out directly, the fuming fellow was kicked in the vital parts, and immediately he also screamed miserably and fell to the ground covering his lower half.
The old courtier reacted, “It’s against you, someone.”
Five or six fellows ran out from inside and surrounded them by the counter, and the old Chao Feng also came out from the counter and commanded fiercely, “Give them to me ……”
Song Wan Yue suddenly shouted towards the outside, “Father, why are you and second uncle here?”
Old Chaofeng and a few of the fellows subconsciously turned their heads towards the outside to look, Song Wangyue turned around and reached out to copy the abacus in the counter and smashed it hard towards the door.
Pah!
The abacus landed outside the pawnshop door, and the beads fell to the ground.
Outside was the busy street, and there were many people coming and going, suddenly hearing the sound, all looked over curiously.
“Someone’s been beaten up! The man in the pawnshop has beaten someone up!”
Song Wangyue took the opportunity to shout.
The people all gathered around in a huff and puff.
The old courtier, furious but helpless, took the box on the counter and shoved it into the hand of one of the fellows, “Get them out of here!”
Song Si once again shielded Song Wan Yue in his outstretched hand, “How dare you!”
It was just two country kids, the fellows didn’t dare anything and came forward to pull them out.
Song Wangyue lifted her foot and kicked them, only to hear a few screams, and three more fellows fell to their knees in pain.
Song Wangyue took the opportunity to “panic” and begged for help outside, “Anyone kind enough to help us send a message to the owner of Yue Hak Lai Restaurant, saying that our family’s ancestral jade bracelet has been stolen and replaced, and that the pawnbrokers don’t admit it and want to beat people up.”
Immediately, someone turned and ran towards the restaurant.
The old courtier, however, was tight in his heart, weighing up in his mind the relationship between them and the head of the Yue Hak Loi. If they were really close relatives, I was afraid that the matter could not be settled.
Thinking of this, he gave a wink to the man with the jewellery box, who understood and went to pull Song Wan Yue.
Song Si reached out to block it, and the jewellery box in his hand was accidentally knocked off and fell towards the ground.
A smile of triumph appeared at the corners of old Chao Feng’s mouth, but before his smile could blossom, a hand reached out from one side and grabbed the jewellery box firmly in his hand.
The old courtier’s smile froze.
Song Wangyue provocatively raised the jewellery box towards him, “It seems that your shop is not only good at stealing and exchanging things, but also at destroying evidence.”
As long as the bracelet in the box was broken, it would be useless if the county magistrate came.
The old courtier was so angry that his face turned black, “Don’t eat your wine, take your things and leave, or I’ll make you look good!”
“What’s a good view? Is it beating us up in front of so many people? Or are you thinking of snatching the bracelet back from my hands and breaking it?”
“You ……”
“I said ……”
Some of the onlookers at the door raised their voices and said, “This is the second time such a scenario has happened at your Yuan family pawnshop, last time you had to say that the person pawned a worthless item, you pawned it for so much silver because you saw the person was poor, and you even let the fellows throw the person out, this time it won’t be like this again, will it?”
“Exactly! We pawned an ancestral bracelet worth tens of thousands of taels, and they replaced it with one that was not in good condition, not even worth ten taels of silver, and charged us over three hundred and twenty taels of silver for nothing.”
“This is too much, we always knew Yuan’s pawnshop was shady, but we didn’t expect it to be this shady, at least you should have returned a 300 taels bracelet to him.”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you hear the little girl say that they had an ancestral bracelet worth tens of thousands of taels, can a 300 taels bracelet compare?”
“It’s too shady, I can’t come to their house to pawn things anymore.”
“That’s right, can’t come anymore.”
……
Listening to the people’s chatter, the old courtier’s face darkened to the bottom of a pot.
He pretended to arch his hand towards the people gathered at the door, “Listen to me, everyone, look at the two of them in these clothes, do they look like people who can take out tens of thousands of taels of silver bracelets?”
The crowd really looked carefully and saw that the two were dressed in fine cotton clothes, although they did not look like the children of a poor family, they did not look like the children of a wealthy family either.
“That’s a good question for you, I’d like to ask, since we can’t get it out, how did you pawn it to us for three hundred taels of silver in the first place, you’re running a pawn shop here not a charity shop.”
