Yu Ren Chapter 16

Yu Ren Chapter 16 People buy things, I buy people

“What happened?” Cui Zhen Yi gave a look to the maid beside her. All the maids then retreated from the room, leaving the two cousin sisters to speak.

Little cousin sister was a family from Cui Zhen Yi’s mother’s side. Her surname is Liu and is named Zhen Zhen. She stamped her feet and pointed at the opposite west wing, and said, “Previously, they said that there are military documents in the main building and without cousin-in-law’s permission, no one is allowed to enter. Not even big cousin sister, the official wife could enter. Just now, I want to see the west wing. That damn old slave actually said that cousin-in-law has reserved those rooms for an honorable guest and I was also not allowed to go in! Could it be that big cousin sister is even lower than a guest?!” It was clear that Liu Zhen Zhen wanted to see the west wing building herself. After saying those words, it seemed as if Cui Zhen Yi wanted to see the west wing.

Cui Zhen Yi didn’t expose her (LZZ) little scheme and said: “Did you ask housekeeper Shi Wei who this honorable guest is?”

Liu Zhen Zhen didn’t think of this at all. Just now, she was only thinking about getting angry. She was stunned for a moment and said, “No….”

Cui Zhen Yi frowned. The custom of the current dynasty was that the female family members were generally placed in the west wing and underage young masters in the east wing. She also noticed it previously. There were quite some exquisite flowers and plants put in the west wing corridor while there were only a few pots of half-dead bonsai in the east wing corridor. Could it be that there was really something off about this west wing?

She was curious but she wasn’t sure how important housekeeper Shi Wei was to Lu Ying. She hadn’t seen Lu Ying yet. She didn’t want to offend Lu Ying’s housekeeper when she had just arrived here. She turned to Liu Zhen Zhen and said, “Go order your maid Ju Hong to sweet talk the other servants of the residence and asks who this honorable guest of the west wing is.”

Liu Zhen Zhen nodded and said, “Right! I really didn’t expect that the residence of cousin-in-law, the magnificent northern army’s general, is so small. It didn’t even have proper maids….” It was even worse than her Liu family! The two old maids who serviced them just now, were actually borrowed temporarily. After helping with tidying up for them, they said goodbye to the housekeeper and left.  The rewards that big cousin sister had given to those two were really given in vain! Humph!

Cui Zhen Yi felt dispirited and said, “What can we expect from this kind of wild land?”

“I really don’t know what cousin-in-law is thinking. There has been no war here for years. Couldn’t he ask to transfer back to the capital? Instead, he insists on staying in this kind of place, leaving big cousin sister alone in the capital….” Liu Zhen Zhen’s words seemed as she was feeling unfair for Cui Zhen Yi but it wasn’t without testing. She wanted to know whether the relationship between her big cousin sister and cousin-in-law was really like the rumors, that they were only courteous to each other.

Cui Zhen Yi’s hand holding the teacup trembled slightly and didn’t speak. Regarding the matter about why Lu Ying went to Bei Guan City and didn’t return to the capital these past few years, not even during the Mid-Autumn festival, it was said that he was assembling his personal army to overthrow the current emperor. But there was also some rumors about that he was wholly devoted to his work matters and had forgotten his personal affairs. Cui Zhen Yi and her mother were well aware of what the Cui family had done to him in those years. Although they later brought up the marriage again by various means and Cui Zhen Yi also became his official wife, they knew that he certainly had some dissatisfaction in his heart.

They had once secretly speculated that he deliberately didn’t want to see Cui Zhen Yi. Of course, this kind of thinking only flashed by. The mother and daughter (CZY) thought that what was done couldn’t be undone. The marriage was bestowed by the emperor himself. Therefore, Lu Ying couldn’t divorce his wife in this life and would one day give in.

However, these reasons were difficult to say openly to people. Cui Zhen Yi could only pretend she didn’t hear Liu Zhen Zhen.

Liu Zhen Zhen also lost the interest to ask anymore as she saw that her big cousin sister was ignoring her. She twitched her mouth and changed the subject, “Cousin-in-law will be back in a few days. Let’s decorate the backyard. A lonely man like him in this kind of place with nobody to take care of him, he will surely be happy if he sees big cousin sister being so considerate for his sake.”

Cui Zhen Yi did have some interest in this and nodded, “The things that we brought are limited. Let’s have a good rest tonight and go to the city tomorrow to see what needs to be bought. In addition, ask the housekeeper to buy the nearby houses. Renovate it and connect them to the residence. We also have to live comfortably. Otherwise, after buying two more maids, we wouldn’t have any place to put them…. This residence is indeed a bit too shabby.”

As soon as Liu Zhen Zhen heard that they were going to buy things, her eyes brightened but she said, “I’m afraid that nothing in this small place can enter big cousin sister’s eyes.”

Cui Zhen Yi smiled aloof and ordered a maid to come in to serve her to bed. Liu Zhen Zhen also went back to rest.

At this moment, Lu Ying was patrolling a hundred miles away. Unaware that the last person he wanted to see had already entered his house and even brought him a ferocious guest.

Bai Fu Ling was certainly an unusual woman. For example, her biggest hobby in life wasn’t to buy things but to buy people!

Since she had recovered from her serious illness at the age of three, she had only focused on three things. The first was to make money, the second was to buy people, and the third was to enjoy. And making money was all about enjoying and buying people. So, when she found out that her people had been able to make a lot of money, she focused on enjoyment and buying people.

Early this day on June 16^th, Bai Fu Ling ordered all the bodyguards of the Bai family to stand by and prepared the carriage. She brought a large amount of money to go to the market. This was no ordinary market but a ‘human market’ on the west of Bei Guan City.

The so-called ‘human market’ was a place where people buy and sell human beings. Since the arrival of Lu Ying in Bei Guan City, he had banned the sale and purchase of Qi’s citizens. Later, because of the trade with neighbouring ethnic groups, some barbarians who were used to doing business in Qi began to sell slaves to Bei Guan City. As long as they weren’t selling Qi’s citizens, Lu Ying didn’t bother with them. Over time, the wasteland on the west side of Bei Guan City had become a place where barbarians sold their slaves on the second and sixteenth of the month.

Outside Bei Guan City, there were more than twenty large and small tribes of different ethnic groups. Among them, there were strong and weak ones. The smallest tribe only had a few hundred people. The Qi people were too lazy to distinguish them (the tribes), so they (Qi people) referred all those tribes as barbarians. These people lived a nomadic life without a fixed territory. The tribes often attacked each other to seize better grassland sites. Most of the slaves the barbarians brought to Bei Guan City to sell were looted from the defeated tribes.

These slaves were barbarians. The features of their face were totally different from that of Qi people. In addition, most of them wouldn’t do anything weird (after buying them) because of the language barrier. Most of them were born sturdy and more hardworking than the citizens of Qi. In one sentence, they had a fully developed body and a simple mind! Therefore, they were very popular with some Qi businessmen. Even in the capital of Qi, barbarian slaves could be seen.

Bai Fu Ling was already a regular customer of this human market. With a large number of guards swaggering through the city, many barbarian businessmen were rushing to talk to them to sell their slaves.

Because the character of people here was complicated and Bai Fu Ling was planning to do ‘business’, so it was rare for her to restrain herself and let Bai Shao change her face and looks before she came here. At this moment, she looked like a small malnourished maid with ordinary looks that people would forget easily. The long bangs had succeeded in covering that pair of crystal clear eyes. Standing quietly beside Bai Ping Zi, the flashy Bai family’s famous second-in-charge housekeeper, made one even more impossible to feel her existence.

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