The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 398 - 387 Persuasion

Chapter 398: Chapter 387 Persuasion

It was then that Old Zhou remembered to ask, "Manbao, how much money did you borrow on credit from Yamen, and how much has to be paid back?"

Manbao hesitantly said, "Three taels..."

Old Zhou let out a sigh of relief. "Just three taels?"

Manbao nodded with certainty.

Immediately, Old Zhou said to Ms. Qian, "Quickly, open the money chest. Let Eldest and Two go settle the account tomorrow. Is it that easy to borrow from Yamen? Right, how do they calculate the interest? We only borrowed for a day; they can’t possibly charge us a month’s interest, can they? Manbao, you quickly figure out how much the interest for one day is."

Ms. Qian went to open the money chest and quickly took out three strings of copper coins, which Old Zhou told her to give to Zhou Dalang.

Zhou Dalang hesitantly accepted the coins, but couldn’t help casting a glance at Manbao unconsciously.

Seeing her father sitting weakly on the door threshold, unwilling to move, Manbao simply plopped down on the ground in front of him. "Dad, we borrowed silver, so we have to pay back in silver. Copper coins won’t do."

"Then we’ll repay in silver." Old Zhou told Zhou Dalang, "You go to the town and exchange them for silver at the silver shop."

Manbao said mournfully, "One thousand two hundred wen can be exchanged for one tael of silver."

Old Zhou’s eyes suddenly bulged, and neither his feet nor hands felt weak anymore. He jumped up and roared, "Why’s that?"

Zhou Silang quickly came forward to soothe him and recounted the whole event of them borrowing the cattle that day, emphasizing that they had exchanged silver for copper coins at the same rate, so if their family went to exchange silver, getting that price wouldn’t be a loss.

Old Zhou thoughtfully said, "Is there silver that’s a bit worse than the official silver? Can we just change it for that kind, and will Yamen accept it?"

The Zhou brothers all widened their eyes. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Sanlang hadn’t thought of such a scheme, while Zhou Er and Zhou SiLang and the others had thought of it but didn’t have the courage to act on it.

As for Manbao, she immediately gave a thumbs-up and praised her father, "Dad, you’re really amazing for thinking of that."

Old Zhou gave her a sidelong glance. "Wait until I’ve resolved this matter before I settle the score with you. If your mother doesn’t beat you, I, I will have to give you a beating."

Manbao was displeased and said, "Dad, aren’t you afraid that the harvest will be poor this year and wanted to save money just in case?"

Old Zhou couldn’t help but shout, "If you knew that, why did you still go and borrow a cow?"

"If we don’t pay back this year, we’ll still have to pay back next year or the year after. Dad, borrowing the cow doesn’t put us at a loss at all."

"Not at a loss, my foot. What about that high interest..."

Manbao couldn’t help but say, "That interest isn’t high at all, Dad. The kind of high interest is what Silang borrows to gamble with. Although I think Yamen could actually lower the interest a bit more..."

Zhou Silang, who has been suddenly hit by a metaphorical stone while eavesdropping: ...

Manbao was not an ignorant child; she understood her own father and knew why he reacted so strongly. Seeing her brothers and sisters-in-law all present, and with everyone’s faces showing some concern, she decisively asked Datou to fetch her a burnt tree branch from the kitchen.

Old Zhou’s kitchen always had burnt sticks and branches on hand, because everyone found that these things were particularly conspicuous for writing on the ground and on rocks.

Datou and the others loved using them for practicing their writing.

Taking a branch, Manbao drew in the dirt for her father to see. "Dad, isn’t it you who said a cow can do the work of two adults? Buying a cow is like having two more brothers to help you with the work, so think of how much more carefully we could till the fields..."

The difference between plowing a field once and twice might not be big, with maybe just a few more pounds of grain per mu, but after plowing twice and then adding more fertilizer, weeding carefully, and catching some bugs, that mu might yield an extra ten or twenty pounds of grain.

But all these tasks require manpower.

Having one more cow is like having two more people. How much work can those two people do in a day?

And how much work can they do in a year?

And what is the value of all that work?

Listening to Manbao do the math, Old Zhou swallowed hard.

Then Manbao added, "Dad, our cow is only three years old, it can work for seven or eight years, or even ten years. If it earns you this much in a year, how much will it earn for you in ten years?"

Zhou Sanlang clumsily did the math in his head and exclaimed in amazement, "Isn’t that just like getting two grown sons for free?"

Old Zhou couldn’t help but give him a glare. "Talking nonsense, is it your son? Can it give you grandsons?"

Manbao got excited. "It can, once it grows up we’ll find it a mate."

The onlookers: ...

Old Zhou, however, fell into contemplation, "That makes sense. If it has calves, we can sell them. Selling one for three taels, that’s a lot of money..."

Ms. Qian interrupted his daydream, asking Manbao, "Where’s the cow’s identification tag? Hand it over, let your mother keep it safe."

Old Zhou immediately snapped back to reality. "That’s not right. Even if this deal for the cow was worth it, we still need to repay the money first. We can’t let Yamen eat our interest."

"Dad, what if the heavens don’t bless us this year?" Manbao said, "Shouldn’t you keep some money for emergencies?"

This was precisely why Old Zhou was always reluctant to spend money; the family always needed some savings in case of disasters.

So he thought it was fine to earn less; let the sons work a bit harder, as having money on hand meant peace of mind, right?

But beyond this, Old Zhou had another conviction, "But we must not be in debt, especially not debt with interest."

Old Zhou was not one who had never owed money, but there were two kinds of debts he was always reluctant to owe; as long as he had money, he would make sure to pay it off.

The first was owing money to a family that wasn’t wealthy; he would feel uneasy about it.

The second was debt with interest; this meant that every extra day he owed, he owed a bit more money, which was even more life-threatening than the first type because each night, he felt his heart tremor.

But Manbao thought this method of borrowing was feasible, saying, "Dad, we can afford these interest payments. We have three years. So we don’t need to pay back with the money we’ve saved for ’emergencies’. Because right now, we can borrow money to buy cows, but if there’s a disaster and we urgently need money, we won’t be able to borrow from Yamen at the current interest rates."

Old Zhou: "...this interest."

"This interest isn’t high at all." Manbao could say this because the information Keke had searched for her indicated that even in the future, this interest rate wouldn’t be considered high.

Ms. Qian glanced at Old Zhou and asked Manbao, "When do you plan to repay it?"

Manbao confidently said, "The sooner the better, this winter; the latest by next winter."

Ms. Qian nodded, "If Heaven blesses us this year, the family will repay the debt. The cow was bought for the family to use. If you have the money, you repay it, and if you don’t, the family is here."

This meant giving Manbao the confidence to proceed boldly.

Old Zhou couldn’t help but glance at his wife; was this planning to spoil their daughter to the skies?

Ms. Qian calmly said, "Manbao is a reincarnated fairy after all, I don’t believe her luck will be poor."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the Zhou family immediately perked up, and even Old Zhou’s expression softened considerably.

Keke: ...It was now somewhat certain that Ms. Qian believed this as well.