CHAPTER 218: CHAPTER 218 A FOOLISH MAN IS NOT WORTHY OF SYMPATHY

Gu Jinli followed Third Grandma’s pointing finger and saw a frail-looking man and his tiptoeing foot, frowning and saying, "Third Grandma, this is a cripple, buying him would be a burden."

"Third Grandma is aware, but he looks very familiar, I always feel like I have seen him somewhere." Third Grandma’s eyes reddened as she spoke, "Maybe I’m mistaken, but encountering someone familiar is also fate, perhaps it’s God’s will for us to buy him. Let’s buy him, even having him do some light work in the workshop is fine, it won’t be a waste of money."

Seeing that Third Grandma was crying again, Gu Jinli hurriedly said, "Alright, please don’t cry for now, Your Elderly. Let’s ask him a few questions and take his pulse, if he’s not sick, we can keep him."

"Very well, then quickly ask him," Third Grandma urged her.

Gu Jinli pointed to the lame young man and said, "You, come here."

The young man knew he was a cripple and thought this family wouldn’t buy him, so he hung his head low. Hearing Gu Jinli’s words, he immediately looked up and limped over, bowing to Gu Jinli, saying, "This servant greets the Young Master."

Listening to his words, Gu Jinli asked, "Have you served as a servant before?"

The man replied, "Yes, this servant was born into a servant’s family from a rich household in Northwest Daliang Prefecture."

He’s from a family of servants, which means his parents are both servants.

"What’s your name? How old are you?" Gu Jinli thought of what Third Grandma had said, that this man looked familiar, and added, "How many are in your family? What are your parents’ names? Are they still alive?"

The man replied, "This servant is called Li Anzi, twenty years old this year. There are five people in my family. My parents, younger brother, and sister are all still alive, just... they’ve been sold off separately."

As he spoke, the man began to wipe away tears.

Jiang Jiao pointed at Li Anzi and said, "He’s a cripple, wasn’t initially planning to buy him, but he used to serve the young masters and can read, the Soybean Oil Workshop needs someone to keep records, so I bought him."

Being literate is indeed quite good.

Gu Jinli continued to ask, "What are your parents’ names?"

Li Anzi answered, "This servant’s father is named Li Duofu, and my mother is Li Guiyun."

"Third Grandma, they all have the surname Li, do you recall any acquaintances named Li Duofu or Li Guiyun?" Gu Jinli asked Third Grandma.

Third Grandma thought for a moment with a furrowed brow and shook her head, "No."

It seems that he’s likely not the descendant of someone she knows.

"Perhaps I was mistaken," Third Grandma said with a sense of guilt.

Third Grandpa asked her, "So do you still want to buy him?"

Third Grandma hesitated, "This... he’s a cripple."

Indeed, buying a cripple is not good.

Gu Jinli said, "Let’s buy him. The workshop doesn’t have many who can read; buying him can help us keep some records, and our eldest brother can have a bit of a respite."

The workshop is filled with illiterates, it’s difficult to find someone who can read, and having come across one, even though he’s a cripple, it’s not a problem to buy him—it’s just a little more than one tael of silver.

"We intend to buy you for our workshop, are you willing to stay and work there?" Gu Jinli asked Li Anzi.

Li Anzi replied, "This servant is willing, very willing!"

While speaking, Li Anzi glanced over at the disaster victims, then turned back to ask Gu Jinli, "Young Master, does your family still lack servants?"

He pointed to a girl in the crowd and said, "Her name is Yan Chunxiao. Like me, she used to be a servant at the Li Residence. She was a maid beside the young lady, literate and capable of helping to write things."

Yan Chunxiao, hearing this, was quite excited, but she suppressed the excitement in her heart, did not step forward, and did not speak. She just stood there, bowing in respect to Gu Jinli.

Yan Chunxiao was born into a servant family, knowing that without a word from the master, she should neither move nor speak.

Seeing her understanding of the rules, Gu Jinli asked, "Why were you sold?"

Yan Chunxiao replied, "To answer the Young Master, during the escape from famine, the Li Family lost a lot of silver, and the days were no longer as good as before. Now food is expensive and they couldn’t afford so many servants. After arriving in He’an Prefecture, the master only kept the first-class maids and servants for each master, and sold the rest of the servants."

This answer was correct, but Gu Jinli was not too keen on buying her.

The girl was too attractive. While everyone else had starved to the point of looking like skeletons, almost ghosts, she hadn’t gotten that thin, and her complexion was still somewhat rosy. And...

"Stretch out your hand," Gu Jinli said.

Yan Chunxiao was startled, hesitated for a moment but still stretched out her hand.

Gu Jinli placed three fingers on her wrist to take her pulse, and after a while, smiled and asked, "Do you think my family would buy you?"

Clearly, she had the hairstyle of an unmarried girl, but her body was not clean. She had at least been pregnant twice, and the most recent pregnancy should have been three months ago. At that time, they were still with the master, right?

Getting pregnant while fleeing famine, really such leisure and luxury - a maid who served by the young lady’s side, whose child was it? Li Anzi’s? Or a male master from the Li Residence?

Yan Chunxiao was shocked that this country girl could take pulses. Frightened, she quickly retracted her hand and said, "This slave... this slave does not wish to stay here."

When Li Anzi heard this, he became anxious: "Chunxiao, what nonsense are you talking about? Didn’t you say we should be sold to the same place?"

Hearing that, Gu Jinli smiled meaningfully. Seeing how anxious Li Anzi was about Yan Chunxiao, he certainly had never touched her. He was probably just a spare wheel and might still think Yan Chunxiao was pure.

Yan Chunxiao said, "Brother Anzi, don’t worry about me. We are all servants; wherever we go, we will be servants. Whether we are sold to the same place or not, it does not matter."

"Chunxiao, how can you say that? If we are not sold to the same place, not sold to the same place..." Li Anzi’s face turned red, unable to finish his sentence.

Gu Jinli had no patience to listen and said to Jiang Jiao, "Second Uncle Jiang, we do not want this Li Anzi. You take him away."

Are you acting in a soap opera? So difficult to part with each other. If that’s the case, then he can go and accompany Yan Chunxiao.

Li Anzi did not expect that, originally having a placement, he would no longer be purchased by the Gu Family because of Yan Chunxiao.

Li Anzi’s eyes brimmed with tears, looking pleadingly at Gu Jinli: "Young Master..."

For him, a cripple, finding a buyer was not easy.

Gu Jinli asked him one last question, "What is your relationship with this Yan Chunxiao? Are you engaged, have you pledged yourselves for life, or held hands?"

She wanted to ask if they had been intimate, but that was too risqué; she was afraid of shocking the people present.

Upon hearing this, Li Anzi’s face turned even redder, and he quickly waved his hands, "No, no, Chunxiao is a clean and pure girl. Young Master, do not speak such words, they will ruin Miss Chunxiao’s reputation."

Gu Jinli laughed. Yan Chunxiao’s reputation still needed ruining by her? Yan Chunxiao’s body was already tainted, okay.

But she didn’t want to tell Li Anzi that because foolish men are not worth sympathy.

Gu Jinli did not bother with Li Anzi any further, only instructing the refugees to line up for her to take their pulses and check their pupils and tongues.

Thirty minutes later, she had examined over twenty refugees and pointed out two physically strong men: "Second Uncle Jiang, we can’t take these two."