Luò Mù - 落幕
The three-day deadline passed in everyone's anxious expectation.
In order to prove the truth of An Ziran's words, many tenant farmers and people who love to join in the fun ran to wait outside the grain shop of the shopkeeper Feng. Before the time came, the whole street was almost surrounded by dense crowds.
The voices of discussion kept coming from the crowd, and most people still didn't believe that the An Family would be so generous.
The group of rioters who made trouble that day were also there.
As the time approached, the grain shop remained silent. Seeing that the sun was about to climb to the highest point, the people sent by An Changde to mingle in the crowd began to spread rumors that were unfavorable to An Ziran.
With a sun on their heads, the restless people who waited were incited, thinking that An Ziran was lying to them, and all kinds of unpleasant words came out one after another, and there was even a tendency to riot, and those rioters also started to approach grain shop, there is a lot of momentum to grab it again.
At this moment, the door of the grain shop opened.
Since the last grain grab incident, the grain shop has been closed for three days, and not a single crack has been opened for three days, so no business has been completed, but this is not the only grain shop in the An Family, so it doesn't matter.
The shop was empty, with only a few neat tables and chairs and a large box on the ground. In the center stood An Ziran, the current head of the An Family. He seemed to be a little thinner than three days ago. The blue brocade robe really looks like a handsome boy, but no one has the heart to appreciate it now.
When the people saw that he really appeared, they rushed forward, but they were blocked by the servants of the An Family.
Shopkeeper Feng stood up and said, "Everyone, don't be impatient. If you want to get your IOUs back, just stand quietly, don't make any noise, wait for my order to come one by one, and just stand there, when you hear your name being called, come and take back your IOU."
After speaking, the people really quieted down.
Shopkeeper Feng nodded in satisfaction, then returned to the shop and said to An Ziran, "Young Owner1️⃣, there is no problem."..
➖
1️⃣ Shào Dōng Jia - 少 東家 = Young Owner (They call him Shao Dong Jia, not Shao Ye (Young Master)).
️➖
"Then let's start." An Ziran said calmly.
Standing next to An Ziran, Su Zi immediately opened the box and took out piles of IOUs from the inside. The people outside were eagerly waiting for their necks to grow longer. Even if the An family members did appear, the IOUs were not in hand, they still find it hard to believe that the An Family is actually willing to return the IOU to them, like a dream.
Although Anyuan County is a small county, its population is not large, so there are almost too many people who owe the An Family IOUs. A table, and four shopkeepers are responsible for issuing the IOUs.
Names were called one after another. When they got the familiar IOU, they almost burst into tears. It was this IOU that tortured them for many years. Many people always thought that they would never have the opportunity to get the IOU back in their lives.
Seeing that the situation was over, An Changde's people left immediately.
Just when they just walked out of the crowd, the people who were immediately guarded by the side quickly grabbed them into the alley next to them. Everyone was immersed in excitement and joy, and no one noticed the situation here.
More and more people have received IOUs, but some people are so nervous that their palms are sweating, because they haven't got any of them yet. Seeing that everyone else has already got them, they don't know why, and they feel more and more uneasy.
Time passed quickly, and the sun was about to go down in the blink of an eye.
There were only a small stack of IOUs left in the box, but there were still a lot of people outside.
Su Zi handed the remaining IOU to An Ziran, who stood up slowly, walked to the steps and stood still, his calm gaze swept over the dozen anxious faces below, "Do you know why I left you all at the end??"
The dozen or so tenant farmers who hadn't received the IOUs immediately bowed their heads in shame. They were the rioters who robbed the An Family's grain shop twice, and had already vaguely guessed that those who didn't get the IOUs were with them.
A rough-skinned, dark-skinned farmer gritted his teeth, suddenly walked up to An Ziran, and shouted loudly,, "I'm sorry, Young Owner, we already know that we were used by villains and caused a lot of losses to the An Family's grain shop. It's our fault, please forgive us, we will never dare again."
The farmer's surname is Liu. There are six people in his family, including the old mother, so the family is often short of food, so he often borrows food from An Changfu. Up to now, he has borrowed five or six buckets of rice in total, although it doesn't seem special to some people, only a few tens of kilograms, but for their family, they may not be able to afford it for a lifetime, so he was instigated to rob the An Family of food.
As soon as he came out, others also admitted their mistakes, saying that they would not do it again in the future, and their attitude was sincere.
An Ziran will gave them the IOU? of course not!
If you do something wrong, you must have the courage to take responsibility. If this matter ended like this, there would be more people who would follow in the future. It's hard to predict something like the human heart. Just like in the morning, they started harassing the An Family, before they could wait. It was hard for him to believe that these people would do nothing in the future, so they had to learn some lessons.
"I can return the IOU to you, but in view of the losses and troubles you have caused the An Family. I will not return the entire IOU to you. How much silver taels and food you owe to the An Family. The An Family will deduct one-third of it. This part needs to be repaid by you, if there is no objection, go to the shopkeeper Feng to sign a new IOU, if there is any objection, you can turn around and leave now."
An Ziran said word by word.
Seeing so many people's joy when they got the IOU, they still have to repay one third. This kind of feeling of falling to the bottom in an instant is not uncomfortable at all, especially after the comparison, they are extremely regretful why should they listen to those people, if not for that, they would not owe the An Family a third of the food and silver.
The Young Owner has already made it clear, and if they protest, there will be nothing left. What else can they do? Now the resistance is unpopular, and they can only blame themselves for not being firm enough, and they were easily incited, and that ends up signing a new IOU.
An Ziran returned the old IOU to them, his eyes swept across the sad and happy faces,, "I have another piece of good news to inform you, starting today, the An Family will no longer charge 70% of your land rent, but 40% instead." As soon as the voice fell, everyone fell silent.
An Changfu was the most ruthless landlord. He received 70% of the rent from the tenant farmers every year, so that many tenant farmers paid labor but could not get the corresponding harvest. Therefore, they often did not have enough to eat. However, looking at all the landlords in the Da Ya Dynasty, the highest the ground rent is generally not lower than 50%, so everyone was dumbfounded when they heard the news.
"Yes... is it true?" A tenant farmer swallowed in disbelief.
The corner of An Ziran's mouth twitched, "Of course, there is no reason to take back what I An Ziran said."
Some people rushed home and stumbled. They wanted to tell their families the good news, while some fell directly on the ground and cried bitterly. Get up, God finally has eyes.
This matter soon reached An Changde's ears, and his whole face turned black.