bayedsolid Chapter 295 Zhao Guojiu
Chapter 295 Zhao Guojiu
Who knew he would end up like this! His own younger sister followed Miss Nie and married the current emperor, and after the founding of the country, she was even granted the title of Virtuous Consort.
After Shen Lian made his fortune in Shandong, Zhao Yide rushed to find his sister. Although Zhao Ruyi didn't like her brother, he was still her brother after all.
Zhao Ruyi gave him some money to settle down in Quancheng and found him a wife. She also asked Uncle Fu to find him a job, and he lived a peaceful life for a few years.
With the establishment of the new dynasty, Zhao Yide naturally returned to the capital. Shen Lian reluctantly granted him the title of viscount and bestowed upon him a three-courtyard mansion.
Zhao Yide became the emperor's brother-in-law, and his former cronies quickly came looking for him. They spent their days indulging in debauchery, and the silver bestowed upon them by the emperor was almost gone.
Zhao Yide didn't dare go to the palace to ask his sister for money now, but luckily there was construction going on outside the city. Leveraging his past connections, he contracted the basic construction work for Yuntian Tower from the Royal Construction Company.
The hundreds of people on the construction site were all people he had recruited from the capital through coercion and enticement by his former cronies.
This Yuntianlou is much larger than the one in Shandong, and the investment is as high as several million taels of silver. Shen Lian plans to transform it into a comprehensive international hotel integrating accommodation, catering, conferences, leisure and entertainment.
With the increasing number of foreigners and merchants in Beijing, the city lacked such high-end venues. This Yuntian Tower will fill this gap, and Shen Lian personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
"My lord, please give me my wages first! My family hasn't had anything to eat for days." Just as Zhao Yide was inspecting the area, a thin man responsible for digging ditches suddenly knelt down in front of him.
"Old Jin! You better get to work! Who do you think our Lord is? Would he owe you this little bit of wages?" Before Zhao Yide could even speak, Huang Er shouted angrily.
"My lord, please! Give me my wages! My wife and children at home have been starving for days!" Old Jin Yan'er kept kowtowing.
Zhao Yide glanced at it with disgust; there was no way he would give him the money. He had used all his money for lending.
Because of the tight schedule, the Royal Construction Company paid each worker 80 cash a day, but Zhao Yide paid them 30 cash a day.
Moreover, apart from the first few days when he paid wages on time, he hasn't paid a single penny in the past month.
He arranged for someone to take the money and lend it out at the casino, with a 13% return on 90% of the winnings. This money could earn him several thousand taels of silver a month. How could he possibly give it to these migrant workers now?
Seeing Zhao Yide turn to leave, Jin Laoyan suddenly rushed over and hugged his leg. His family was already poor, and they were owed wages. He was desperate to see Zhao Yide today.
"Get out of here!" Zhao Yide roared in anger. He had just changed into a new set of clothes that morning, and now this lowly commoner had dirtied them.
"My lord, please, please!" Old Man Jin pleaded.
"What are you standing there for? Get out of here right now!" Zhao Yide roared.
Huang Er and his gang of supervisors rushed over and started punching and kicking Jin Laoyan'er until they finally pulled him away.
Jin Laoyan was beaten until he vomited blood and fell unconscious on the ground.
The nearby workers watched this scene with burning eyes, gripping their hoes and pickaxe handles tightly.
"What are you doing! What are you doing? Get back to work! This is outrageous! Find out whose construction site this is!" Huang Er shouted.
The migrant workers watching dared not meet Huang Er's gaze and all turned their heads away.
"I quit!" a young migrant worker roared, throwing down the handle of his pickaxe.
"Not going to do it? Hah! You want to die? This is a royal construction site. Who dares not to do it? If you delay the construction by even one day, your whole family will be dead!" Huang Er roared.
"Erdan, forget it! Forget it! Let's get back to work!" Several coworkers nearby quickly pulled the young man aside and tried to persuade him.
"You guys, carry this guy away! Don't let him get in the way." Seeing that everyone was intimidated by him, Huang Er pointed at Ge Erdan and the others and said.
The workers had no choice but to carry Jin Laoyan away.
"Pah!" Seeing that the matter was resolved, Zhao Yide spat out a mouthful of phlegm, patted his trousers, boarded the carriage, and drove away.
After finishing work in the evening, Ge Erdan and his men carried the dying Jin Laoyan back to a dilapidated thatched house in the outer city.
Pushing open the half-closed, dilapidated door, one finds the room cold and deserted. A thin woman is sitting up on the straw-covered bed.
A thin, bony boy lay beside them, staring at them with wide eyes.
"This is what you are doing?"
"Sister-in-law, something's happened to Brother Yan!" Ge Erdan and the others put Jin Lao Yan on the bed.
"Husband, husband! What's wrong?" The woman rushed over and cried out anxiously, clinging to Jin Laoyan'er. Unfortunately, Jin Laoyan'er remained unconscious and motionless.
"Sister-in-law, we've scraped together some money. Take it and use it to buy some medicine!" Ge Erdan reached out and grabbed a dozen or so coins, placing them on the bed.
"Erdan, what happened?" Jin's sister-in-law asked with tears in her eyes.
"Hey! It's all because of that son of a bitch Huang Er..." Ge Erdan recounted the whole story.
"Sister-in-law, hurry up and get the medicine! Don't think about anything else. They're royalty, we can't afford to offend them!" Ge Erdan shook his head, gave a few more instructions, and left.
In the early morning, Chang Le put down her bowl and chopsticks. The maidservant waiting beside her quickly handed her a cup of hot tea.
Chang Le took a sip, rinsed his mouth with a "glug-glug" sound, and then spat it into the spittoon held by the maid.
Chang Le took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth and stood up. His wife, who had stopped eating long ago, quickly took the official robes and helped Chang Le put them on.
"Let's go!" Chang Le looked at himself in the mirror, stroked his beard with satisfaction, and turned to his son.
Chang Lin, already dressed and carrying his book box, hurriedly followed his father toward the door.
Chang Le values his ten-year-old eldest son very much. He is currently in the third grade at Dongcheng Elementary School and his grades in all subjects are excellent.
Chang Le would go to court an hour early every day, taking the opportunity to drop his son off at school on the way.
The father and son walked out of the mansion gate, where the servants had already prepared a carriage and were waiting.
Just then, the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from afar. Chang Le couldn't help but frown and look up. Nowadays, very few people in the inner city dared to ride horses at high speed on the streets.
A fast horse galloped up and stopped in front of Chang Le's house. An official dismounted; the man was He Zhiwen, the director of the urban management bureau and Chang Le's old subordinate.
"My lord, something has happened!" He Zhiwen, without even wiping his sweat, walked up to Chang Le, cupped his hands in greeting, and said urgently.
"What's the rush! Speak slowly!" Chang Le frowned and scolded softly. He was now a high-ranking official of the second rank and naturally possessed a certain demeanor.