Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 339 - 337

Chapter 339: 337

Shengping County

Shen Jingwen was pacing around the room, while Mr. Shen didn’t stop smoking on the kang bed.

Mrs. Shen was being choked by the smoke!

"Old man, can you smoke less?" She was almost choked to death!

Mr. Shen didn’t speak, he didn’t want to smoke either, but not smoking would leave him restless!

For this imperial examination, Yuzhu had married Mr. Tan’s younger brother, who is twelve years her senior. He’s so old he could be her father!

If he had any other choice back then, he wouldn’t have...

Ah! He must get passed this time!

"They’re here! The bearers of the good news have reached the village!" Shen Chengguang excitedly ran in.

"Dad, quick, let’s all go to the front door to greet them!" Shen Chengguang signaled nonstop to the others who were still dazedly sitting on the kang bed!

Haven’t they been waiting for the news since early in the morning? Why aren’t they reacting now that the messengers have come!

"Are they coming to our house?" Thinking of the disappointments of previous years, Mr. Shen became timid.

"Dad, only Jingwen participated in the imperial examination from our village this year!" Mrs. Lan gritted her teeth.

Just had to mention the worst-case scenario!

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Mr. Shen finally believed. He quickly put down the pipe, stepped down from the kang bed, and put on his shoes, "Wife, have you prepared the bounty silver?"

"I prepared it a long time ago! Holding it in my hand!" Mrs. Shen grumbled discontentedly, before opening her hand to show Mr. Shen the copper coins.

Upon seeing the five coins in her hand, Mr. Shen almost keeled over in exasperation!

"Didn’t I tell you to prepare two strings of coins? Who’d give a beggar only a few pennies!"

"Who would give a beggar five coins? If people were this generous, I would become a beggar!" Mrs. Shen snapped back.

She thought even five coins was too generous! Initially, she wanted to only give one coin! Better yet, don’t give at all!

How unlucky! Mrs. Lan had a flash of discontent in her heart, but given the joyous occasion, she eventually held back and hurried out of the house.

"You quickly count out two strings of coins!" Mr. Shen dropped this sentence and also ran out.

He had been looking forward to this scene for decades, and his wish had finally come true. He felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

Mrs. Shen reluctantly counted one string of coins, then decided not to count the rest!

Several hundred coins? That’s enough to sustain her whole family for a month!

When Mrs. Shen came out, she saw Mrs. Lan reward the messenger with one tael of fractured silver!

Her eyes immediately filled with a fierce light! Just you wait, you extravagant Mrs. Lan! I’ll show you what’s what soon!

When Mr. Shen saw Mrs. Shen coming out, he quickly stretched out his hand towards her and said, "Wife, quick!"

Mrs. Shen grudgingly handed Mr. Shen one coin.

Seeing the coin in his hand, Mr. Shen wanted to catapult it right into Mrs. Shen’s face!

Mr. Shen glared at Mrs. Shen. But she paid him no attention and left the house. Even not asking the officer to return the one tael she gave him earlier, Mrs. Shen was already giving the old man face okay!

Many villagers were at the doorway watching the excitement.

Everyone commended Shen Jingwen, piling on praise after praise, saying that the ancestors’ grave in the Shen household was producing green smoke again! They would soon have a high ranking official in their family!

Though they felt a bit bitter hearing the word ’again’, they were still, all in all, happy.

Ever since Mr. Shen got out of jail during the Longevity Festival, he hadn’t felt his back being so straight up until now! He had been hunched down all the time, hardly going outside. Finally, now he can hold his head up high!

As soon as Aunt Lin saw Mrs. Shen come out, she showered her with praises incessantly, as if words were free of cost.

Several gossipy old ladies also hurriedly gathered around Mrs. Shen.

Previously, they were unwilling to associate with Mrs. Shen, because she had been to jail, but now it’s different! Since Shen Jingwen had passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, he might eventually pass the higher level exam, become a government official, and Mrs. Shen has the potential to become an old lady!

It’s said that you get things done easily when you have connections in the government. So it’s better to have a good relationship with Mrs. Shen while there’s still time!

Watching Mrs. Shen surrounded by a few old women, flaunting like a successful fighting hen, Mr. Shen clenched his hand into a fist, wishing to smash the coin in his hand to pieces. He felt his belly full of anger with nowhere to vent.

Seeing his eldest son, and eldest grandson chatting happily with the messenger, he hurried back to the room, took out Mrs. Shen’s jewellery box, dug out the key from where she hid it, opened the box without looking, cavalierly picked up the largest silver ingot and dashed out.

Not until Mr.Shen had handed the ingot to the messenger did he finally feel a sense of relief from his anger.

The officer didn’t expect that he could get a reward of six taels of silver for delivering the good news on this trip, which is equivalent to his half year’s salary!

He cheerfully bade Mr. Shen and the others farewell, as he had to rush to another village to deliver the good news. Maybe he would get another few taels of silver!

"Wen’er’s grandma, your old man is really generous! Tsk tsk, he just gave away five taels of silver like that!" Aunt Lin’s eyes were burning with greed.

"Isn’t it?! He just likes to show off! Mrs. Lan had just given one tael of silver just now! I reckon this five taels of silver shouldn’t have been spent!" Every single coin was like a piece of her flesh! To give those away was like slicing off her own meat!

Wait a minute! Five taels of silver? Isn’t it just one coin?

"What did you say just now? Five taels of silver? Did you say that the old man gave the officer five taels of silver?" Mrs. Shen, grabbing Aunt Lin, asked astonished.

"Yes! Didn’t you see it?" Aunt Lin was taken aback by Mrs. Shen’s suddenly explosive temperament.

Hearing this, Mrs. Shen hurriedly let go of her, rushed back into the room, and saw her treasure box just lying open on the kang bed. What more was left to be understood!

She ran out immediately, holding Mr. Shen’s hand and asked urgently, "Have you taken the five taels of silver from my silver box and given it to that officer?"

"I should have!" Mr. Shen was seething with anger and paid no attention to the amount of that piece of silver at that time. Now hearing Mrs. Shen mention it was five taels, Mr. Shen suddenly felt a pang in his heart too!

"Eldest son! Wen’er! You guys go! Go chase down that officer who brought the good news! Say that the five taels of silver I just gave were given by mistake! I’ll give you five coins, you go and get my five taels of silver back!" Mrs. Shen pushed Shen Chengguang and Shen Jingwen to go find the man.

The villagers went silent after hearing this! Chasing back the reward they’ve already given, they really had no shame, no dignity.

"Mom, I have my dignity, I can’t chase back the silver that’s been given. I won’t go!" Shen Chengguang’s face flushed!

"Grandma, I’m going to be a government official, and you’re asking me to chase after the reward! Where is the dignity in this?" Shen Jingwen, dumbfounded at Mrs. Shen’s audacity, shook off her hand, walked out damn angry and embarrassed, shielding his face. He simply can’t bear to watch it anymore!

"Mrs. Lan, you go! You’re a mere woman, what do you care about dignity!" After listening to all this, Mrs. Shen then urged Mrs Lan to chase after the officer.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.