The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 146 - 135: Splitting the Money (Additional update at 25,000 recommendation votes on Qidian)

Chapter 146: Chapter 135: Splitting the Money (Additional update at 25,000 recommendation votes on Qidian)

Zhou Silang quickly came out with an empty basket on his back, clutching his pocket with an excited look and twinkling eyes. Ignoring Second Miss Fu standing opposite his sister, he walked straight up to Manbao, grinned, and said, "Manbao, let’s go back!"

Second Miss Fu, who still wanted to talk to Manbao: ...

Thinking that their conversation was over, Manbao nodded and waved goodbye to Second Miss Fu.

Second Miss Fu could only say, "If you get a day off, remember to come to the county town to play with me."

Manbao agreed, and walked out hand in hand with Zhou Silang.

Zhou Xi, accompanied by Wulang and Liulang, waited outside. They could always see Manbao, so they weren’t too worried. Seeing the two coming, they greeted Second Miss Fu inside the door with a bow and then turned to leave.

Once they were a good distance away, Zhou Silang looked around, and seeing that no one was nearby, he took out the copper coins from his pocket, his eyes gleaming: "The kitchen said our family’s ginger is better than what’s sold outside, and forty wen is not expensive at all. Look, this is three hundred and twenty wen."

Half of it belonged to Zhou Xi. Zhou Silang counted out the money to give to her, but Manbao and the others eagerly watched her.

Zhou Xi looked back, puzzled.

Manbao said, "Big sister, I helped find all the customers."

Zhou Wulang immediately added, "Big sister, I helped with the weeding."

Zhou Liulang chimed in, "I helped with the fertilizer, and we all planted the ginger together."

Zhou Silang, standing by, set a good example. He counted out forty wen from his own money, gave ten wen to Manbao, ten to Five and Sixth each, kept the rest for himself, and then put the remaining money into a cloth bag saying, "This is for repaying debts."

Manbao stared at the ten wen in his hand.

Zhou Silang, clutching his pocket, said, "Manbao, you can’t tattle this time. I’m older than Wulang and he has money, so how could I not have any?"

Manbao argued righteously, "Fifth Brother doesn’t gamble."

Zhou Silang: "...I don’t either, not now."

Manbao held out her hand, "Give me the money, and I’ll hold it for you. When you need it, you can ask me for it."

Zhou Silang didn’t want to give it up, but Manbao threatened him, "If you don’t give it to me, I’ll tell Mom and Dad you have money!"

Zhou Silang, with a face full of grief and indignation, took out the ten wen he had just put in his pocket and smacked it onto Manbao’s little hand. Because ten wen wasn’t a small amount and her hands were too small, one coin bounced out.

Manbao picked it up and put all the money into her own pocket, then patted it satisfactorily and looked towards her big sister.

Zhou Xi: ...

Did they just divide the money in front of her as if she didn’t exist?

However...

Her brothers and sister all looked at her, and Zhou Xi could only reluctantly do as Zhou Silang did, taking money from her own share to give to them. She didn’t really want to give it, "You are all so young, what do you need the money for?"

She believed that one should not have their own money before getting married because that’s how she had been raised.

Zhou Wulang argued with conviction, "To get a wife!"

Zhou Liulang: "To buy clothes!"

Manbao: "To buy meat!"

Zhou Silang silently thought to himself: I just want to feel it!

Zhou Xi rebutted each of them, "Dad and Mom will provide the money for you to get a wife, Liulang, didn’t you just make a new set of clothes before the New Year? Manbao, you should spend money more frugally..."

Manbao replied, "Money cannot be saved; it’s meant to be spent. Only circulating money can truly be called money, otherwise it’s just a piece of copper. Big sister, are you giving it or not?"

"Alright then." Anyway, Zhou Xi hadn’t understood a word. She felt that what Manbao said wasn’t right but didn’t know how to argue back. Indeed, reading is good; she couldn’t even debate proper.

Zhou Xi sighed and gave each of her three younger siblings ten wen.

Manbao also requested of her, "You can’t tell Dad and Mom, okay?"

Zhou Xi laughed, "You sure ask for a lot, isn’t that lying?"

"I didn’t ask Big Sister to lie, just that if Mom and Dad don’t ask, you don’t have to say anything. How could that be lying?"

Zhou Xi found herself at a loss for words.

Looking at her siblings standing together, she knew they were in cahoots and could only nod in agreement.

Wulang and Liulang, happy, decided to keep two wen each for pocket money and handed the rest to Manbao to save, also reminding her, "Write it down in the account book when we get back."

Manbao patted her chest and assured, "No problem."

Zhou Silang, enviously eyeing the two wen in their hands, said to Manbao, "Manbao, why don’t you give me two wen too, and just save eight wen for me?"

Manbao thought about it and decided that since she had wielded the stick, she should offer a carrot. So, she pulled out two wen from her pocket to give to him, cautioning, "Silang, you can’t use it for gambling, okay?"

Two wen was not enough for gambling, even if someone was willing to bet with him — oh no no no, he didn’t want to gamble at all.

Zhou Silang, now satisfied with the money, began to curiously look at the stalls on both sides, lamenting, "Look how many people there are today, we should have dug up more ginger."

Manbao said, "What’s the rush? The busy farming season is over, and you and Wulang can carry ginger to sell every day. Let it stay buried in the ground longer, maybe it will even grow more."

Zhou Silang felt that Manbao made sense, and no longer felt regret. He excitedly looked around.

With the farming season just ended and it being the day to pay the grain tax, the county town was teeming with people. There were also grain merchants from other places coming to buy grain, so the town was particularly lively.

Correspondingly, there were many street vendors selling food. Zhou Silang thought everything looked delicious but didn’t want to spend his limited money. He then urged Manbao, "Little sister, look at those candied hawthorns, don’t they look nice?"

Manbao swallowed, nodding.

Zhou Silang said, "Let’s buy a skewer."

Zhou Xi, annoyed, smacked his head, saying, "You as the older brother should buy one for your sister."

Zhou Silang stopped talking, and in the end, it was Zhou Xi, who was both generous and couldn’t bear to see Manbao disappointed, who bought a skewer. The candied hawthorn was made with extremely sour hawthorns, and after one bite, Manbao didn’t want to eat anymore.

So it was the three Zhou brothers who benefited.

Manbao felt that the treat was just nice to look at and not tasty at all.

Keke then enlightened her, "That’s because the hawthorns here are wild, with a higher sourness. In the future, after breeding improvements, hawthorns will become sweeter, and then candied hawthorns will taste quite nice."

She added, "Besides hawthorns, candied skewers can be made with apples and other fruits. I just checked and found that historically, there were candied skewers made with Chinese yam beans, which were reportedly delicious."

Manbao’s eyes sparkled as she asked, "How delicious?"

Keke thought for a moment and chose her words, "It’s said to be the best among many fruits used for candied skewers, though it could also be mistaken, given that Chinese yam no longer exists. When something is no longer available, people tend to attribute wonderful imaginations to it."

Though it was said, Manbao still drooled at the thought, planning to ask her sister-in-law to make Chinese yam bean candied skewers for her once the Chinese yam vines at home had beans.