Chapter 399: The Ancient Version of Lao Lai
Gu Youtian has been doing business in the prosperous commercial port in the south since he was young.
The business is not big, there is only a small shop.
When Gu Ruinian was ten years old, Gu Youtian made some money and moved his family over from Qinghe Bay.
After arriving in the south, Gu Ruinian suffered from acclimatization problems and developed a high fever. He was about to die, but suddenly he got better.
After he recovered, Gu Ruinian changed his personality. He became calm, smart, and learned to read without a teacher. He passed the examination for a scholar on the first try. He instantly became the most promising junior in the eyes of his grandparents and the second wife, and the person with the most influence in the whole family.
Gu Ruinian looked down on the people of this era, believing that they were ignorant and narrow-minded.
He felt that Gu Youtian's shop was too small and made too little money, so he persuaded Gu Youtian to invest in the escort agency business.
The ancient escort agencies are the modern finance. Gu Ruiniao studied this in a top 5 university in his later life. Relying on the financial risk hedging knowledge he learned in modern times, he would definitely be able to fool these ancients and get money easily.
In his plan, he would rely on the escort agency to accumulate his first pot of gold, and then become a figure like Fan Li, managing business on one hand and the court on the other, sitting on tens of millions of wealth and holding great power in the court, and having a harem with beautiful wives and concubines.
From now on, I will live a life of luxury in this world, which is so great.
He finally traveled to the right place this time, and he didn't have to send out resumes everywhere looking for a job like in later generations.
Since Gu Ruinian passed the imperial examination and his ideas made his shop run differently from other shops and earned some money, Gu Youtian listened to him very much. He mortgaged the shop to borrow a large sum of money, and also took the coffin boards that had been saved by Mr. and Mrs. Gu, and invested all of them in the escort agency.
However, the plot did not go according to Gu Ruinian's plan. In less than half a year, all the pants that Gu Youtian had folded were gone.
The maids and old women in the house were dismissed, the house was sold, all the jewelry of Jia and Old Lady Gu were pawned, and a debt was owed. Not only that, Gu Youtian also broke his promise in the south.
That's the ancient version of a deadbeat.
Gu Youtian no longer had the capital to turn the situation around. He was so angry that he beat Gu Ruinian severely and had not given Gu Ruinian a good look in the past six months.
In response to Jia's crying and pleading, Gu Ruinian suggested keeping the matter a secret from the two elders of the Gu family.
But he couldn't hide it from his eldest son and daughter-in-law, and now they have a lot of complaints about the second son.
Gu Ruinian gritted his teeth and said, "Mom, I know. I don't blame Dad. Dad will understand later that this matter is just our bad luck. It's really not that my original idea was wrong."
When he first arrived in this world, he didn't understand the rules of this world very clearly. The failure of his investment was not because of his incompetence, but because of bad luck.
Gu Youtian, this cheap father, is too profit-driven. He was happy to take Gu Youtian wherever he went because he gained face by passing the imperial examination. But when he followed his advice and failed in an investment, he ignored him.
Isn’t business all about gains and losses?
Gu Youtian didn't even understand this principle.
Gu Ruinian was holding his breath and secretly decided to find an opportunity to make a lot of money and enter the court through the imperial examination. When he was in a high position in the future, he would definitely not acknowledge this cheap father.
Jia nodded, touched Gu Ruinian's quilt, and said, "Mother knows that your idea is not wrong. You are smarter than Jingzhe, how can it be wrong? You have suffered a lot these few days at home. It's cold these days and your quilt is a little thin. Mother feels sorry for you. I will go to the clan leader to borrow a few pounds of cotton to sew you a new quilt tomorrow."
Gu Ruinian didn't want to ask the clan leader to borrow cotton. He wanted the clan leader to deliver it to him.
But the cold snap these past two days was really too cold, and there were no electric blankets in that era, so he didn't care.
If mom wants to borrow it, then she can.
Jia continued to complain, "Your aunt is really something. I heard Honglian say that her house is new and spacious, and she still has charcoal burning in spring. She enjoys her life and doesn't care about the life and death of our family. She has no human touch at all. And your grandmother is also partial. You are her most promising grandson, but she favors Honglian, a money-loser, and she spreads the quilt your aunt gave her on Honglian's bed."
Gu Ruinian smiled faintly and said, "Mom, these are all trivial matters. We don't need to worry about them. After all, it's because our family is down and out that Auntie looks down on us. When we get better, I'm afraid she won't come to curry favor with us."
Jia's brows relaxed and she said, "That's exactly what I mean. So you have to make your mother proud."
"Mom, I understand. You should go to bed early. I want to read a book."
Gu Ruinian was a little annoyed.
Make mother proud. Make mother proud.
What have you ever provided for me as a mother?
He has no money and no platform, and now he has fallen into a dilapidated farmer's house in Qinghe Bay.
If Jia had a powerful family, or Gu Youtian was a prince or a minister, he would not have to work so hard to make money and take the imperial examination since he was standing on a high platform and starting point.
When Jia heard that her son was going to read, she didn't dare to disturb him anymore and walked out with a look of relief on her face.
Gu Ruinian was the only one left in the room. He did not read, but turned over and lay down on the bed in the flickering oil lamp.
so boring.
In the prosperous south, he could also hang out and flirt with the women in the brothels.
Now he could only lie in a daze on his deserted country bed.
If he could hook up with a daughter of an official or a wealthy family, he wouldn't mind becoming a son-in-law.
Faint panting sounds came from next door.
Gu Ruinian grimaced when he heard this.
Can his stepbrother and sister-in-law pay attention to the impact?
Don’t you know that the house is not soundproofed?
It was all because the house was too small and the whole family was crowded together. Since he needed a quiet environment to study, a separate space was cut out for him between Gu Fengnian and Wei's rooms with a cabinet.
Even so, my sister-in-law is still not happy.
"You've seen it. Grandma only favors the youngest aunt, and your mother favors the second child. There is no place for us in this family. You are the eldest child, with a family to support, but your eldest stepson Gu Dahan and his wife live worse than him." Wei said while lying in Gu Fengnian's arms, "You should have listened to me and not come back."
Gu Fengnian said: "What can I do? I am the eldest son."
Wei got angry and said, "You, the eldest son, didn't get anything. Every family values the eldest son, but your family values the youngest son. Gu Ruinian is just a student, but your parents praised him to the sky. He does nothing all day long and only knows how to spend money. He has squandered the family fortune and he doesn't seem to feel any guilt."
When Wei thought about how her dowry was filled with all the money from Gu Ruinian's escort business and lost everything, she felt so angry that her chest ached.
After hearing this, Gu Ruinian wanted to jump up and battle with his sister-in-law. What does a woman know?
Gu Fengnian was also dissatisfied with Gu Ruinian, but thinking that brothers were more important than daughters-in-law, he defended Gu Ruinian in front of Wei and said, "My second brother is a good student. He is the hope of our family and will lead our family to change for the better in the future. You also saw my aunt and her children today. If it weren't for my second brother, my aunt would have relied on Gu Jingzhe to trample us into the mud in the future. When my second brother finishes his studies, our Yao family will have a backer."
Gu Ruinian's expression softened a little. This eldest brother was sensible after all. When he succeeded, he would force his eldest brother to divorce his eldest sister-in-law and find him a new wife and concubines.
"I really don't want to live in the countryside anymore. Why don't you come back to the south with me? My parents are there. We can borrow some money and find a shop to start a business. It's better than living here." Wei wanted to go back.
Gu Fengnian got angry when he heard this and said angrily, "Don't mention this again. Do you want people to laugh at me for marrying into the family?"
Wei started to cry.
Gu Ruinian was annoyed by what he heard and wanted to slap Wei on behalf of his elder brother.