“Next up, we have noblewomen!”

“Tsk, it’s a woman.”

“Who wants a woman? I don’t have any special preferences.”

Some people expressed their disdain. Men wouldn’t dare to come here to buy women. If word got out, they would lose all their reputation. Even the spit of the people around them could drown them.

The people above seemed accustomed to the lack of interest in women. They didn’t call out for the second time and planned to move on to the next.

Naturally, Xu Zhi had no intention of buying, but who would have thought that the little person she had just bought would pull her sleeve and nervously look at the silent woman on the stage.

Seeing Xu Zhi not speaking, he became anxious. “Please, please save my sister. As long as you save her, I’m willing to accept any punishment when we go back. Please, please save her.”

The woman’s eyes were filled with tears, very appealing, but Xu Zhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was his sister, she thought it was something else.

But Xu Zhi had only brought three taels when she went out, all used to buy him. Fortunately, she still had some friends around her, so she asked them to chip in one tael each and bought the woman that nobody wanted just now.

After all, she was still a woman, considered labor, and the other party wouldn’t sell for less than one tael.

The woman came down from the stage with chains, and the person in charge personally unlocked the chains.

“Qing’er?!”

Xu Zhi had told the person in charge behind her to buy her, so Zhang Xi didn’t know that the person who bought her was actually the one who bought Zhang Qing.

“It was him who insisted on me buying you.” Xu Zhi explained in advance to avoid others thinking she had some special preferences.

“Qing’er is young, please don’t blame him!” Zhang Xi was older than Zhang Qing, so she naturally could tell that Xu Zhi was not very wealthy. But why would someone like her agree to spend money on someone like her who was almost useless? It must be that Zhang Qing had promised something!

Xu Zhi didn’t know why, but looking at the man beside her in fear, she suddenly felt a bit malicious. “I’ve promised him to buy you, and I can’t return you.”

Zhang Qing’s body trembled fiercely, looking even more scared.

Xu Zhi chuckled inwardly.

Buying someone she liked, Xu Zhi was somewhat happy after all. She didn’t want to hear Zhang Xi saying that Zhang Qing didn’t know any better, so she directly brought the two of them back home.

At home, Xu Qiu was embroidering something. When he heard the knock on the door, he hurried over to open it, only to see his younger brother followed by a woman and a man.

That woman… was beautiful and dignified, and the man was also handsome, but he looked too timid, keeping his head down and not daring to look up.

“Zhi’er, who are these two?”

Xu Qiu couldn’t help but ask.

“These two… I bought them at the market.”

Xu Qiu was dumbfounded and looked at Xu Zhi incredulously. He had never expected that his sister would actually go to the market and buy a man to be her husband?

No! Xu Qi was still a bit better than her. At least Xu Qi only brought one back, but her? She actually bought two!

“Come with me.”

Xu Qiu called Xu Zhi to the side and asked her, “What were you thinking? Buying a man to be your husband?”

“Well, there’s no one around here that I like. I met them at the market today and bought them in a hurry.”

“What about that woman? Why would you buy a man to be your husband and still bring along a woman?” He could actually accept buying a man to be a husband, but why bring along a woman? Could it be that this child was not learning properly?

“She’s his sister. I couldn’t bear to separate them, so I bought them together.”

So that’s how it was.

Xu Qiu felt a little relieved and wanted to scold Xu Zhi a bit to prevent her from doing anything bad, but when he saw her playful and smiling face, he couldn’t say anything. He also felt that Zhi’er couldn’t be that kind of person, right?

So he reluctantly agreed, “Then you should properly arrange a wedding with him, so that Xu Qi and the others can come back and join in the fun together.”

“Alright, you take care of that woman first. I’ll take Qing’er back to the room first.”

Xu Qiu called out to her, “Zhi’er, pay attention to yourself.” He wasn’t too confident in the willpower of a woman who had been single for more than twenty years.

Xu Zhi listened in a daze, blushing in the end. Zhang Qing was even more embarrassed, his whole body turning red.

Only Zhang Xi looked worriedly at Zhang Qing. She didn’t believe there were any truly good women in the world, especially not the kind who would go to such places. Zhang Qing had just agreed to something for the sake of saving her, and now she regretted her own powerlessness, unable to rescue Zhang Qing from this predicament.

“Come with me, there’s a vacant room over there for you,” Xu Qiu called out to her, and she could only follow him.

Zhang Xi had been bought by Xu Zhi, and the deed was in Xu Zhi’s hands. She dared not disobey. She used to be a young lady from a prestigious family, even though she was born out of wedlock, her temperament was different from the common people.

“Thank you, Mistress.”

This call was very elegant, and Xu Qiu blushed when he was called Mistress like this. He nodded and left.

On the other side, in Xu Zhi’s room.

Xu Zhi was leading Zhang Qing in, wanting him to familiarize himself with the environment. After all, this would be the place where he would rest in the future.

She was not a saintly person, buying a man back with the intention of providing for him. A person in their twenties who hadn’t had any release of desire had some thoughts.

“This bed will be where we rest in the future. If you don’t like the decorations in the room, you can change them anytime, or add more. Do you understand?” Xu Zhi said, then turned around, only to be startled. The man she had just brought back was kneeling on the ground, his back bent, and even his clothes seemed to be trembling.

Before she could ask, Zhang Qing spoke up, his voice trembling, as if he was extremely afraid but had to speak, “Please punish me.”

“Punish?”

Xu Zhi suddenly remembered that when she bought Zhang Xi just now, he had said she could punish him however she liked.

Since she didn’t refuse and obediently bought him, was he asking for punishment now?

“You said before, I can punish you however I want?”

Xu Zhi wanted to tease him, but she didn’t want him to kneel on the cold ground for too long.

So she reached out to help him up, and hugged him, telling him to sit in her lap.

Zhang Qing was timid, and when Xu Zhi said this, he was even more frightened. “Yes, yes, however you want to punish me.”

“But I can’t think of how to punish you. Why don’t you suggest something to me?”

Zhang Qing looked like he was about to cry, but still forced himself to say, “You can… you can use a cane to whip me, or slap me, whatever you want, it’s all fine.”

Xu Zhi then noticed that his face seemed a bit red, as if there were lingering marks of slaps that hadn’t faded away.

She felt a bit displeased and used her fingers to touch Zhang Qing’s face, asking him, “Did they hit you?”

Zhang Qing looked confused and didn’t seem to understand why Xu Zhi was asking this. As a criminal who had been punished by his family, being beaten was a normal thing, right? But he still obediently nodded.

“Did they also use a cane to whip you?”

Thinking of the two punishments Zhang Qing mentioned earlier, Xu Zhi couldn’t help but ask again.

This time, Zhang Qing shook his head, “No, they didn’t whip me.”

They were going to sell him, so how could they dare to whip him? It was normal for him to be beaten at home if he made mistakes in the past. His mistress would use a cane to hit him, and after being hit many times, he remembered that this was a way of punishment.

Knowing that there were no wounds on his body, Xu Zhi felt relieved. She kissed Zhang Qing’s face and then started to tease him.

“What if you’re in extreme pain?”

Zhang Qing’s eyelashes trembled with grievance and fear. “If it hurts… if it hurts, I’ll endure it.”

He closed his eyes, afraid to look at Xu Zhi again.

Xu Zhi intentionally asked him to stand up and said she was going to punish him. Zhang Qing stood up shakily, obediently, but he didn’t dare to open his eyes.

There was a sound of movement beside him, probably Xu Zhi looking for something.

The sound stopped, did she find it?

Zhang Qing trembled even more violently, and his feet were almost unstable.

Xu Zhi deliberately said, “You’re trembling so much you can’t even stand steadily. You’ll definitely not enjoy the punishment later. You might as well kneel down.”

Zhang Qing obediently lay on the table, without any resistance, but his eyes were still closed, afraid to open them.

There was a frequent sound of air moving, which should be her looking for something.

Then she said, “You’re trembling so much you can’t even stand steadily. You’ll definitely not enjoy the punishment later. You might as well kneel down.”

Zhang Qing obediently lay on the table, without any resistance, but his eyes were still closed, afraid to open them.

Then there was a sound, not too heavy, falling on his buttocks, a light sound.

“Alright, punishment over.”

Xu Zhi threw away the chicken feather duster used to scare people, turned around, and picked up the stunned Zhang Qing.

Zhang Qing sat back in Xu Zhi’s arms, looking at the gentle smile in her eyes, for some reason, he couldn’t help but cry out loud.