The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 425 - 414: Deceived by Someone

Chapter 425: Chapter 414: Deceived by Someone

Zhou Dalang and the others stood in the courtyard watching the old couple argue, too intimidated to do anything but lower their heads and pretend they didn’t exist.

Between father and mother, of course, they’d side with mother because countless facts had proven that in the end, father would listen to mother too, especially on big matters like these.

As expected, Old Zhou huffed and puffed for a while but didn’t storm into the house to move the wheat. Instead, after angrily puffing on his pipe, he left with his hands behind his back to watch the excitement over at the village chief’s place.

Once Old Zhou had left, the children all let out a sigh of relief. Zhou Dalang immediately squatted down in front of his mother and asked, "Mom, what’s the big opportunity behind all this?"

Ms. Qian smiled at him and said, "Go back into the room and find the sacks with circles drawn on them. Move out three bags and just put them in your and your wife’s room. If your father ever asks about those three bags of wheat, you’re not to let him know, understand?"

The sacks marked with circles usually contained the best wheat—grains that were the first to be threshed, full, and golden, looking even better after being dried in the sun.

Zhou Dalang nodded in confusion and, leading his younger brothers, he moved the sacks of grain without further questions.

When Old Zhou returned in the afternoon, he had a foul expression because all the households in the village that wanted to exchange wheat had done so.

They had poured it out and checked—the batch of wheat from the Bai Family was not of poor quality; it was comparable to their own, clearly having been winnowed and dried.

The Zhou Family hadn’t made the exchange; the village chief had even expressed concern several times, but upon hearing that Auntie Qian opposed it, he did not pry further, though he did keep a watchful eye.

He decided to set aside two more bags from the wheat he planned to exchange.

The village chief was about the same age as Old Zhou, and the two had grown up together. Even though the chief was a generation older, they had compared peeing distances as kids.

The village chief had always thought that Uncle Jin led a good life because he had married a good wife.

In terms of brains, it was still best to consider Auntie’s opinion.

So if Uncle Jin wanted to exchange wheat and Auntie Qian did not, whose opinion should be followed?

The village chief decided to keep a bit more for his own household and exchange the rest, after all, it was difficult to come by such an opportunity.

Old Zhou walked home with his hands on his back, not even in the mood to smoke.

The properly exchanged wheat was delivered to Bai Shanbao’s home for storage. They had brought over quite a bit of wheat and, after making the exchange, still had some left over, which was hauled back to the Bai Manor.

After school, Manbao and the others did not go home but instead were the first to rush over to the Bai Manor, ogling the grain sacks that had almost reached the ceiling, laughing uproariously with hands on hips.

Mr. Zhuang, curious and following the kids to see what all the fuss was about, couldn’t help but stroke his beard, a deep chuckle betraying his amusement.

He clapped his hands on the backs of the three smug children, saying cheerfully, "Be mindful, lest happiness turns sorrow."

Bai Shanbao, waving his hand jubilantly, said, "No worries, if the hall uncle refuses to buy, my family will!"

Curious, Mr. Zhuang asked, "At what price would you buy?"

Bai Shanbao replied, "Manbao, Bai Er, and I have discussed it already, forty copper coins per dou."

Mr. Zhuang: ...selling to Old Master Bai at one hundred and fifty copper coins, but buying it themselves for forty copper coins per dou.

Shaking his head, he looked at the three clever kids and said, "You three little foxes are really making excellent use of an insider price."

Bai Shanbao replied, "I am one of our own, after all. How could I justify taking so much of my own money?"

Manbao and Bai Erlang nodded in agreement.

Mr. Zhuang turned to Bai Er and asked, "What are you nodding for?"

Bai Erlang rushed to say, "I’m one of our own, too."

Unable to help himself, Mr. Zhuang gently tapped Bai Erlang’s head three times with the book in his hand, shaking his head as he said, "Tonight, have the kitchen steam you a bowl of pig brains.’

Isn’t there a saying, ’eat what you lack’?

Bai Shanbao and Manbao covered their mouths to laugh, pulling Bai Erlang away, "Let’s go. First, we’ll do our homework, and when your dad comes back, we’ll go have a talk with him."

Bai Erlang immediately forgot Mr. Zhuang’s words, elated at the thought of a showdown with his father.

Old Master Bai returned from the county town after dining with friends. Just as he dismounted and handed the reins to a servant, a child as stout as a little calf burst forth from an angle and threw himself into his arms.

Old Master Bai caught him instinctively, and upon seeing it was his own son, he nearly expelled the contents of his stomach from the shock. Both amused and annoyed, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"Dad, you’re finally back; we’ve already made our decision."

"Decided on what?" Five days had passed, and Old Master Bai had nearly forgotten about the wheat seed business.

"About the wheat seeds, we’ve settled on the pricing," Bai Erlang said anxiously. "Dad, you didn’t forget, did you?"

Old Master Bai glanced at his foolish son, released him, and hummed indifferently, "So much time has gone by; how could I not forget? I thought you wouldn’t sell, so I decided to buy from others."

Bai Erlang was stunned, not expecting to be so preemptively thwarted. Thinking of his failed journey to Yizhou, tears nearly came to his eyes. "Dad, how could you go back on your word? You said you’d wait until we had discussed things."

Old Master Bai coughed lightly, quickly saying, "You can’t blame me. You all took too long. By the way, what’s the price you settled on? Let me hear it. If it’s cheap enough, I might still buy some from you."

Bai Erlang hesitated, assuming their set price seemed a bit high.

The two children who had been planting flowers in the neighboring Bai Manor’s garden heard Old Master Bai had returned and dropped what they were doing to come out.

They greeted Old Master Bai warmly, "Hall uncle, you’re back."

"Uncle Bai, are you tired? Would you like to sit down for some tea?"

Old Master Bai felt the kids were unusually enthusiastic today and smiled broadly, "Sure, sure, where shall we drink?"

"Let’s drink at my place," said Bai Shanbao. "Our cook has prepared some refreshing desserts, really tasty ones."

But Bai Erlang rushed over to the others, and in front of his father whispered to them, "Don’t bother inviting. My father said he already bought the wheat seeds from someone else, and doesn’t need ours. We need to discuss right away what to do."

Though he meant to whisper, Old Master Bai was not far from them, and the foolish son clearly hadn’t mastered the art of whispering—he overheard it all!

Old Master Bai’s gaze settled on his foolish son.

Manbao and Bai Shanbao both widened their eyes, exclaiming in unison, "Impossible!"

Bai Shanbao turned to Manbao first, "Aren’t we the only ones who have the wheat seeds?"

Manbao added, "We’ve already bought them back; where could Uncle Bai find them?"

Old Master Bai’s eyes now widened in shock, "What? What did you say, what have you all bought back?"

"The wheat seeds, of course," declared Manbao with conviction. "We swapped all of the new wheat seeds in the village back for our wheat. Now, we’re the only ones who have the new seeds. Uncle Bai, who did you buy the wheat seeds from? You haven’t been duped, have you?"

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