My Husband Is Not Easy To Mess With. - Chapter 31: Don't Even Move Yourself
Chapter 31: Don’t Even Move Yourself
Since Nie Yao’s return to the capital, his actions had been consistently strange.
He claimed to be a corrupt official for the sake of the border army’s provisions, yet he was never seen doing anything outrageous for the sake of accumulating wealth.
Over the past few years, countless people had come with large amounts of money and treasures seeking his help, but he ignored the vast majority of them, only assisting a small fraction who seemed to have genuine grievances.
Sun Ji could never figure out Nie Yao’s true goal before.
Now the truth was revealed.
He just wanted to swear.
“Scoundrel! You &%￥#@%￥…” Sun Ji rattled off a torrent of curses.
They were all very scholarly.
Nie Yao listened as if he didn’t.
They were, after all, some stale platitudes with minimal harmfulness and no actual insulting power, so they went in one ear and out the other.
“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough…” Sun Ji had been imprisoned for days, his strength was poor, and he started coughing non-stop after cursing for a while.
“Lord Nie.”
The imperial physician, as requested by Nie Yao, treated Sun Ji’s external wounds, then reported, “The criminal has also caught a mild cold. Should I prescribe medicine for him?”
Prescribe what medicine?
Medicine cost money!
Nie Yao waved the imperial physician away, dismissing him, and said to Sun Ji, “Little Sun, you heard the imperial physician. I don’t think a little cold needs treatment. Of course, if you personally want treatment, there is a way.”
He took out his purse and weighed it in his hand.
He was directly hinting for Sun Ji to pay.
With money, came medicine.
“Heh, heh, heh, heh, ha… Hahahaha… Hahahahaha… cough, cough… cough, cough, cough… cough, cough, cough, cough… Hahahahahaha…”
Sun Ji first burst into mad laughter.
He laughed even while coughing uncontrollably.
Nie Yao ignored him, sitting down to drink a cup of tea.
The meat fed to him earlier by his future wife was a bit too much and made him feel slightly greasy, so a cup of coarse tea was perfect to ease the feeling.
When Sun Ji had laughed enough, he stopped on his own.
His eyes were filled with a deadly, gloomy aura.
Sun Ji: “Since Lord Nie is so eager for money, why don’t we strike a deal?”
At this point, he was finally willing to pay.
Nie Yao put down the teacup given by his future wife, “Just say it directly, how much can you offer?”
The direct words made Sun Ji wide-eyed.
A scornful smile appeared on his face.
It was unclear if he was laughing at Nie Yao or at himself.
“Five million taels of silver, in exchange for you letting me out, how about that?” Sun Ji hadn’t had much interaction with Nie Yao before and didn’t know his ways.
He habitually offered a lower amount first to probe.
Nie Yao scoffed and reminded him, “Lord Sun seems to have forgotten again. When the Sun family deals with me, the price is ten times higher.”
“If we calculate it, Lord Sun, you are only willing to offer fifty thousand taels of silver to buy your freedom?”
“Why, is Lord Sun’s freedom so cheap?”
The misstep he made at the palace gate once again struck Sun Ji, making him furious.
If he weren’t hungry and out of energy, he would surely have risen up and fought with Nie Yao.
“Nie Yao! Don’t go too far!”
It wasn’t that Sun Ji couldn’t afford more money, but a tenfold price increase, even with the Sun family’s vast wealth, was difficult to bear.
But Nie Yao was determined to make him bleed heavily.
Nie Yao: “Lord Sun. As far as I know, all the descendants of your Sun family are useless mud that can’t be plastered onto a wall. The entire family relies on you alone. If you’re gone, what will happen to your long-lived father at home?”
As he said, none of the direct descendants of the Sun family were capable.
However, there were one or two competent people among the collateral relatives and in-laws.
Before, the Sun family would carefully cultivate those people according to Sun Ji’s instructions, but once he was imprisoned, whether those true Sun family young masters would still allow an outsider to stand over them was uncertain.
Nie Yao smiled: “How about this, considering we were once colleagues, I’ll give you a twenty percent discount—eight million taels of gold.”
“The moment this money arrives at my residence, the people here will send you out.”
He even felt sorry for Sun Ji.
A matter that could have been settled with a mere eighty thousand taels, he had to make it ten times more difficult.
Honestly, why was he doing this?
“No!”
Sun Ji was unwilling to part with so much money.
Eight million taels, and in gold, would barely be gathered even if the entire family’s assets were emptied.
The cost was too great, so Sun Ji tried to bargain, “I can only scrape together eight million taels of silver at most!”
Forget about gold.
He didn’t have it.
Nie Yao sighed, pretending to be very agreeable: “Fine, then eighty million taels of silver is also acceptable.”
Sun Ji gritted his teeth: “I only have eight million taels of silver!”
“What does that have to do with me?” Nie Yao tapped the teacup, instructing a subordinate to wash and put it away well. He also stood up. “It seems Lord Sun didn’t read the flyer I sent out carefully. It says no bargaining.”
Whatever he said was final.
There was no room for change.
Nie Yao: “It’s only eighty million. Sell off some of the Sun family’s assets and pool the money, it’s not impossible to get. Lord Sun, money is dead, but people are alive. Your Sun family still relies on you.”
Nie Yao left one subordinate there, telling Sun Ji to inform him once he decided to pay.
If he ultimately decided not to pay, then there was no need to meet again.
The little money they had dug up from ransacking his home was enough for him until he found his next big spender.
His indifferent and non-committal attitude made Sun Ji resentful yet helpless.
Before Nie Yao left the prison, Sun Ji asked him one last question, “How can I be sure that you will let me out after taking the money?”
Nie Yao: “You can write an IOU first.”
He wasn’t afraid of Sun Ji defaulting on the debt.
On one hand, he would send a professional team to follow him when he was released; on the other hand, he had investigated the Sun family’s industries quite thoroughly.
If Sun Ji dared to run, he could get more than eighty million.
Leaving the prison cell.
Nie Yao noticed that the subordinate following him seemed a bit off, with red-rimmed eyes, looking at him strangely as if he was about to kneel and kowtow at any second.
Nie Yao instantly got goosebumps, rubbing his arm and kicking the thick-skinned subordinate’s knee.
“Why are you crying? Did you lose money?”
“No, wuwu… Lord…”
This subordinate was from a farming family.
The words Nie Yao spoke in the prison just now deeply touched him, “Wuwu… Lord… I… I knew you were a good person! A great person! Wuwuwuwu…”
The tough man shed tears.
Nie Yao retreated in alarm.
“Why are you suddenly so sentimental? Are you sick?”
He knew his subordinates. Every single one of them adhered to the tough-guy principle of “bl00d flows but tears don’t,” even if they broke an arm or a leg, they’d grit their teeth and say it didn’t hurt.
It made him deeply regret telling them stories of “tough-guy legends.”
And this self-appellation of “An” (I/me, a rustic pronoun).
They were only supposed to use it when they were pretending to be honest folk while rubbing their hands together, but now they were addicted to using it all the time, weren’t they? “An” wherever and whenever.
Nie Yao: “If you’re sick, go see a doctor immediately! Don’t come to work with injuries and delay things, do you hear me?”
“Wuwuwu… Lord… hic~ Lord, I’m not sick… I just really wanted to cry… Lord, you really are a good person! I knew following you and giving my life for you wasn’t wrong!”
“Lord, I will continue to risk my life to protect you in the future! You are the benefactor of our entire family! Wuwuwu wah…”