Volume 2: A sudden change in the prison, a red-clothed man goes out to find a thief Chapter 211 I, Li Si, send money
Busy days always go by quickly, and in the blink of an eye, another two days have passed.
"Tick-tock. Tick-tock..."
Today, the sound of rain outside the door never stopped. I guess it was the beginning of spring again. It was a rare sunny day on a day like this, when it often rained lightly.
Raindrops were dripping from the green tiles of Qianjialou. Behind the intermittent "pearl curtain" were the hazy streets and alleys of Jiangnan and the scattered eaves.
Li Si leaned against the door, greeting passers-by to come in and sit down. When he had nothing to do, he would look at the rainy scene in the south of the Yangtze River in the distance, lost in thought.
There are not many customers on rainy days, and the waiters in the store are also relaxed and unhurried.
The humidity with a hint of coolness permeated the air, making everyone feel listless.
At this time, a person walked out of the door of Qianjialou, a woman in a purple dress.
She had just walked out of Zhang Susu's room, went downstairs and came to the door, apparently planning to leave.
During this period of time, this woman always came. Every time she came, her eyes were red and no one knew what had happened.
Can the girls in the brothel go out so casually? Li Si was a little puzzled about this, so Xiao Cao told him that this was because the mother of Wanhualou was easy to talk to and treated the girls well.
This time, just like every other time, when the woman walked to the door, Li Si had already seen her red eyes and bloodless lips.
Her face was pale and she looked haggard, probably because she had just cried, and her eyes were a little swollen.
Perhaps she felt Li Si's gaze, she looked back at Li Si before leaving.
Similarly, Li Si was also looking at her with his dead fish eyes.
The two looked at each other for a while. After a while, the woman lowered her eyes, bowed slightly, opened the paper umbrella in her hand, and left in the rain.
"Tick-tock , tick-tock, tick-tock..."
The rain was still falling on the street, hitting the bluestone slabs, the roof tiles, and the stone steps. Occasionally, one or two drops of rain hit Li Si's cheek, which was cold and uncomfortable.
Xiao Cao and Banjiexian were throwing stones again. Last time, Li Si cheated her out of a bag of melon seeds, and she wanted to win it back from Banjiexian.
Lao Luo was teaching Ning Caihe how to read. Every time at this time, he taught very seriously, probably because he was recalling some past events.
Hao Dayou steamed a bun for himself and sat in the corner eating it. He didn't know why he didn't get fat even though he ate so much.
Everyone in the store seemed to have nothing to do until Zhang Susu walked out of the room. Her eyes were a little red, probably because of the woman in purple just now.
She walked slowly downstairs holding up her skirt, then she wiped her eyes and shouted into the hall.
"Xiao Si, and everyone else, come here."
Hearing her call, everyone turned their heads and sat around a long table where Zhang Susu was sitting.
"Boss, what's wrong?" Xiao Cao looked at Zhang Susu, who was obviously sad, and asked carefully.
"Do you know why Ziqing comes here so often recently?" Zhang Susu asked, covering her nose with her sleeve and sobbing softly.
The Ziqing she was talking about was naturally Yan Ziqing, the woman in purple.
Everyone shook their heads at this. Every time this woman came, she would not say much, but would just walk straight into Zhang Susu's room . How could they know what was going on?
"Because it's time for her to get married." Zhang Susu said softly, her eyes turning redder.
Chu Ge usually means getting married. But in the brothels of this world, these two words are not so pleasant. They represent the meaning of selling one's body.
Yan Ziqing had always been a prostitute in Wanhualou, selling art but not her body. But no matter how prostitute she was, she was still a prostitute after all, and anyone could buy her if they were willing to spend money.
Just a while ago, a wealthy businessman bought her for 100 taels of gold. If nothing goes wrong, she will be dressed up and sent to the rich businessman's house in three days.
Once she was sent in, Yan Ziqing would not be able to get out. From then on, she would most likely be locked up in the mansion for the rich businessman to play with. After all, she was not a wife, or even a concubine, but was just sold as a maid.
So, Yan Ziqing came to say goodbye to Zhang Susu, and it would be difficult for the two to see each other again in the future.
Listening to Zhang Susu's story, Li Si also learned some other situations.
Zhang Susu and Yan Ziqing knew each other since childhood. Yan Ziqing was much younger than her, so she always treated Yan Ziqing as her sister. Unfortunately, both of them had bad backgrounds. Zhang Susu later "killed" her family, and Yan Ziqing was directly sold to a brothel by her adoptive father.
After that, Zhang Susu and Yan Ziqing had fewer opportunities to meet. But occasionally, Zhang Susu would still go to see Yan Ziqing to see if she was doing well. Because of this, the relationship between the two did not become distant, but became closer.
So when Yan Ziqing said that she was going to get married, Zhang Susu felt as if she was being pricked by needles.
She asked Yan Ziqing to beg the mother in the brothel, but the answer she got was that unless Yan Ziqing also paid one hundred taels of gold to redeem her, the mother could do nothing.
Zhang Susu naturally couldn't come up with one hundred taels of gold, and Yan Ziqing certainly couldn't come up with it even more.
So Zhang Susu thought of a bad plan, which is why she called everyone together.
"Xiao Si." Sitting at the table, Zhang Susu lowered her eyes guiltily for a long time before speaking to Li Si.
"Otherwise, you think of a way."
Her meaning was very simple, and everyone present understood it immediately. She wanted Li Si to solve this problem in a special way.
Everyone knows Li Si's name. If he makes a move, one hundred taels of gold may not be a problem.
Li Si sat aside and said with a wry smile.
"But I haven't stolen for a long time."
"I know, but I can't just look at Ziqing like this..." Zhang Susu said, and suddenly couldn't continue. She covered her face with her hands and leaned her body on the table.
Her shoulders were shaking, as if she was crying, but she held it back so that no one could see.
She really had no other choice, and everyone could see it.
Her parents and husband had passed away early in their lives, and now her only playmate since childhood was going to be sold to someone else's house as a slave. It goes without saying how much of a blow this was to her.
After looking at Zhang Susu silently for a while, Li Si finally sighed slightly and spoke slowly.
"Okay, I'll think of a way."
…
Li Si rarely stole things in the true sense. He would borrow them for two days and then return them, and most of the time, he would leave a note.
No matter what, stealing is always wrong, and he knows that. So unless he really can't stand it and wants to punish someone, he rarely takes other people's money and doesn't return it.
Including this time, he didn't want to solve it by stealing.
After all, he is no longer the thief he once was, and he should not solve the problem in a thief's way. So, he thought of another way to solve the problem.
It is still raining that day.
On the streets of Mingzhou City, Li Si, dressed in black and holding a red umbrella, walked into a teahouse.
He knew that this was a stronghold of Fengyu Tower because Xiao Muchu had dragged him here last time.
When he walked into the teahouse, the waiter looked at him, stunned for a moment, then forced a smile, walked up to him and asked.
"Sir, I don't know what you want."
Li Si put away the red paper umbrella in his hand, took out a jade pendant from his arms, placed it on a table and said.
"I, Li Si, want to transfer money."
