The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 428 - 417: Scare

Chapter 428: Chapter 417: Scare

Old Zhou stared, "Sell? After you got the money, didn’t you exchange it for wheat?"

Manbao smiled and nodded, waiting for Old Zhou to praise her.

Old Zhou asked with a trembling voice, "How much did you sell?"

Manbao proudly said, "Sold it all!"

Not just Old Zhou, but Zhou Dalang and several others who were enjoying the cool in the courtyard couldn’t sit still anymore; they all crowded around, "Sold it all?"

Old Zhou couldn’t remain seated; he slid off the threshold and onto the ground, slapping his thigh and couldn’t help but cry out "aiyo, aiyo." He pointed at Manbao with both a can’t hit and can’t scold expression, he could only cry, "You’re ruining the family. What’s the use of exchanging for money, can money be eaten, can it?"

Old Zhou shouted, "The family had only a tiny bit left from last year’s summer and autumn grain harvests, if you sell all the wheat, what will the whole family eat?"

Manbao was taken aback, she was only focused on making money and didn’t think of this.

However, she quickly recovered and comforted her dad, "Dad, it’s okay. Old Master Bai said that tomorrow, once the transaction is complete, we’ll have money and can just go buy grain."

Old Zhou couldn’t help but tap her forehead with his finger and said, "Girl, are you being silly from studying too much? You sell the grain and then go buy grain, what’s the point in that? Do you know how much you’re going to lose from this back-and-forth?"

"No loss," Manbao said, "Even if we’re buying back wheat, I sold a dou for one hundred fifty wen, and buying a dou for fifty wen would still yield a good profit."

Seeing her old man crying so miserably, Manbao’s little head started working overtime, and she quickly said, "We don’t necessarily have to go to the county town to buy. Bai Shanbao’s family still has a lot of wheat. I’ll talk to him, let him sell it to our family. Anyway, they’re going to sell their grain anyway."

Old Zhou was about to cry again, but Zhou Erlang had already shouted, "Dad!"

Old Zhou got startled, about to burst out in anger when Zhou Silang squeezed through, his eyes shining as he asked, "Manbao, how much did you just say you sold to Old Master Bai for?"

Manbao said proudly, "One hundred fifty wen per dou!"

Old Zhou finally heard the number clearly, his eyes bulged out, and he straightened up!

Ms.Qian slapped him on the hand, and Old Zhou jolted back to his senses. He didn’t blame his wife but seized her hand and asked, "Am I dreaming without realizing?"

"What dream? Don’t you see all the children are here?" Ms.Qian turned her head and instructed her daughter-in-law, "Go light the oil lamp, let your dad have a look at the document Manbao brought back."

Ms.Feng cheerfully complied, mainly because they also wanted to see.

With the oil lamp lit, the family gathered around to look at the document. Old Zhou could now only barely recognize a few numbers and his own name.

So he didn’t attempt to read all the characters but just asked Manbao where the amount of money was written, then stared at that part.

After looking for a long time and confirming it was indeed written as one hundred fifty wen, Old Zhou cherished the document like a treasure, shooed away his sons disdainfully, and then softly and gently asked Manbao, "Manbao, is our family’s wheat made of gold? Why is it so expensive?"

"Not at all expensive," Manbao said, "The grain store in the county town sells it for one hundred forty-four wen per dou, and our wheat is even better than theirs, yet we only charged one hundred fifty wen."

Old Zhou smacked his lips, "Why has the seed become so expensive? I remember wheat seed used to be just ten wen or nine wen per jin, right?"

Old Zhou tried hard to do the math, but not being able to figure it out, he simply asked Zhou Silang, who had gathered around again, "What’s that in per dou?"

"One hundred twenty wen?"

Old Zhou was agape again, "That expensive? How come it gets so expensive when converted to dou?"

Everyone: ...Expensive what? A dou is around twelve jin; you pay the same price for twelve jin anyway.

Old Zhou felt his heart racing, sensing something unreal, and it took him a while to remember something, "Then how did you exchange the wheat with the villagers? They should have paid Old Master Bai, too."

"Dad, it wasn’t Old Master Bai who exchanged the wheat, it was us." Manbao said, "We got the wheat and then sold it to Old Master Bai."

"What?!" Old Zhou couldn’t help but exclaim loudly, asking, "Who are ’we’?"

"Me, Bai Shanbao and Bai Er," Manbao said, "Shanbao accured a batch of grain to exchange, we got it and then sold the wheat to Old Master Bai, also at this price."

"Aiyo," Old Zhou couldn’t help but slap his thigh, "Why didn’t you say so earlier? If you had told dad sooner, I wouldn’t have haggled with you. I would have straight away exchanged it jin for jin."

Everyone looked at him with disdain.

Old Zhou glared back and said, "What are you looking at? Last year they exchanged wheat seed with our family in the same manner. Now my girl wants to exchange back, why should there be a price increase?"

"Dad, Grandma Liu said we’re not looking to be crooked merchants, and we still have many dealings with the villagers in the future, how can we only think of taking advantage of others?"

Ms.Qian also gave him a sidelong glance, "You’re this old and still not as thoughtful as a child like Manbao."

"Manbao is a scholar; I obviously can’t compare," Old Zhou said righteously, but still looked up to address his sons, daughters, and grandchildren, "This matter, let it stay within our family, you must not go spreading it around, got it?"

Everyone agreed.

Old Zhou continued, "Knowing how much we earned is enough for us, if you talk about it outside, you will be the ones in trouble later on. Tell the children once you’re back home."

Old Zhou paused and then said, "After selling the wheat tomorrow, Four, go to the big market and cut some more meat to bring back; we should celebrate properly at home."

Old Zhou was very happy, and so were the people of the Zhou Family.

Old Zhou put his worries aside, but since he was too excited, he couldn’t sleep. He simply waved for everyone to disperse and decided to go out and enjoy the cool air again.

Seeing his little daughter’s round belly, he knew she had just eaten and not digested her food, so he simply sat down with her on the threshold and let his wife massage her stomach.

He asked with a smile, "Manbao, have you calculated how much money our family’s wheat will bring in once it’s all sold?"

"I don’t know; we haven’t weighed it yet."

"Eh? Isn’t it written on the document?"

"It’s blank for now, we’ll write it in after weighing tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, Old Zhou fell into thought.

Seeing him silent, Ms.Qian asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Old Zhou said, "I remember last year Big Brother and the rest got their wheat seed from us; they used our seeds for the winter wheat, didn’t they?"

Ms.Qian’s heart stirred, and she nodded her head.

Old Zhou then took out his smoking pipe and leisurely started to fill it with tobacco.

Ms.Qian didn’t speak either, letting him think.

After a while, Old Zhou asked Manbao, "Manbao, does Old Master Bai accept all the new wheat seed, or only yours and ours?"

Manbao thought for a moment, feeling that she couldn’t decide for Old Master Bai, so she said, "I only mentioned ours."

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