Chapter 60 My Mother Won't Sell It

The bearded man closed the door to block the cold wind outside. After Wang An had scanned all the women in the room, he asked, "Which one do you like, young master?"

Wang An smiled politely and said, "I want to find someone who can read and write, and preferably someone who knows arithmetic."

The bearded man was stunned when he heard this, then he laughed and said, "Everyone who comes to me is looking for a concubine. I've never heard that you need to be able to read and write."

Jokingly speaking, the bearded man didn't say much. After all, it is a good thing for customers to have requests. The worst thing is that they have no requests. Those kind of people are the most difficult to deal with.

The bearded man looked at the seven or eight women, and his tone suddenly became fierce: "You all volunteered to sell yourself. We didn't force you to do this. Did you hear what the young master wants? If you meet the requirements, come forward and don't wait for someone to ask you one by one."

After hearing this, three women out of the seven or eight women stood up.

Wang An was surprised. He didn't expect that there were three literate people in the room.

As if seeing Wang An's confusion, Queyazi immediately came up to explain: "These girls were originally from wealthy families, and they were originally supposed to be called Misses. However, due to natural disasters and man-made calamities in recent years, many small wealthy families have gone bankrupt and have been reduced to selling themselves as slaves. The price is higher, but they are all ladies from wealthy families who know the rules. Even if they are taken as concubines, it will not be disgraceful."

"As for the others who didn't come forward, they are all pretty farm girls. Their prices are relatively low, but they don't meet the young master's requirement of being literate."

"I see." Wang An nodded and walked towards the three women who had stood up. "Let me test you. If you can answer all the questions correctly, you can follow me."

However, contrary to Wang An's expectations, the three women did not seem eager to be bought.

He just looked Wang An up and down and seemed to be uninterested.

Wang An was completely confused, but the bearded man's shouting and cursing cleared up his confusion.

"You girls who came from broken families still think of yourselves as ladies? You are dreaming of being noticed by powerful families in the capital city. Wouldn't it be best if you could marry a young master of a prince or noble family?" The bearded man seemed to be full of malice towards these girls from broken families, and his shouting and scolding were very unpleasant.

"It's the best outcome for you to be bought now. I provide you with food and clothing, and I'm just waiting for you to sell yourself so that I can get my money back. If you continue to be picky, be careful that I'll sleep with you first and then you can collect some interest!"

It wasn't until the bearded man threatened to sleep with them that the three women began to panic.

Wang An also understood why the three men were not enthusiastic about him, because he was only wearing ordinary linen clothes and he did not look like a young master from a wealthy family.

"You can't be a rich lady, but you still want to be a wealthy wife... Ha, what wishful thinking." Ergou echoed what he heard, and released his malice towards the three women in front of him without any concealment.

Queyazi also mocked: "Do you think you can live and eat for free here if you can't sell it? When you have saved enough money for food and clothing, it will not be up to you where to sell it."

"Bitch, you deserve to be a prostitute in a dark room."

Under the repeated verbal attacks from the three men, the three women seemed to realize that they were no longer the treasures of their parents, but commodities that would be thrown to the secret door by Mr. Ba to receive customers if they could not be sold.

So the look he gave Wang An was no longer cold, but rather eager.

"Young master, take whatever test you want!" a woman said.

Wang An nodded and gave a few arithmetic problems.

The difficulty is not very high, they are all common addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. After all, as long as you have some basics, at most you can buy it and then slowly teach it.

Wang An picked the one who answered the fastest and best and asked the bearded man, "How much silver does this lady want?"

When the woman heard Wang An directly ask her how much she sold it for, her expression was a little gloomy, but she didn't say much.

When the bearded man saw that Wang An really wanted to buy someone, he immediately became enthusiastic, "Haha, the young master really has good taste!"

"This girl was originally the daughter of a local rich man in Shaanxi. Although she is not from a scholarly family, she was educated at a young age. She can read and write, and can do the arithmetic! As long as this number..."

The bearded man held up two fingers and Ergou immediately said, "Twenty taels? That's not cheap!"

The bearded man was furious when he heard this and spat, "You want to buy such a pretty girl for twenty taels? Dream on!"

As he spoke, he reached out and pinched the woman's chin, lifting her face up.

"Look, look! A genuine educated girl, still a virgin at the age of sixteen, so pretty! Even if she was sold to the city's Jiaofang Bureau as a prostitute, her value would be several hundred taels!"

"It's because our Eighth Master has a kind heart and can't bear to see these young ladies fall into the pit of fire, so he advanced the money to support them in finding a good family!"

Wang An then took a serious look at the woman's appearance. Although her face was a little thin and pale, she did have a lovable look.

With willow-shaped eyebrows, phoenix eyes, a high nose and red lips, especially with his chin pinched by the beard and tears in his big watery eyes, he looks so charming that people can't help but want to pity him.

Wang An didn't have any other thoughts, but he was concerned about the woman's quick and good calculations, so he asked, "Since it's not twenty taels, it can't be two hundred taels?"

The bearded man then released his hand that was pinching the girl's chin and laughed, "What's so strange about this? It's just that the Eighth Master doesn't have connections with those high-ranking officials in the court. Otherwise, a virgin like this would earn him two hundred taels just by having sex with her for one night, not to mention that he could sell her later!"

Wang An said disdainfully, "Those high-ranking officials value music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, as well as talent and appearance. It is not enough to just be literate and pretty. Don't talk nonsense. I really want to buy it, so just give me a real price."

The woman next to him listened to Wang An bargaining with the bearded man, her face turned pale and blue, and it was obvious that her self-esteem was deeply hurt by their overly explicit conversation.

Seeing that he couldn't scare Wang An, the bearded man had to change his face and say with a bitter face: "Young master, you don't know, this woman has an old mother who is dying. It's all because of me who spent money to hire a doctor to keep her alive. Not to mention the two meals a day that are half-dry and half-boiled, which cost me a lot of money!"

"If the price is two hundred taels lower, I won't be able to get back the money I spent on the medicine!"

"Oh, there's an old lady!" Wang An's eyes lit up immediately, and he asked excitedly, "How old is she, and what disease did she have?"

Everyone was startled by Wang An's sudden excitement. They all looked at Wang An with strange expressions, thinking that this guy is so young, but he doesn't have any weird hobbies?

For example, mother and daughter...

"My mother won't sell it!" the woman said urgently.

(End of this chapter)