The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 438 - 427: Silver Distribution

Chapter 438: Chapter 427: Silver Distribution

Eldest Uncle Qian glanced at him and said to Old Zhou, "Since there’s some at home, we can just use the scattered silver from home to exchange."

Only then did Old Zhou remember this, and he said with a silly laugh, "I’ve been so busy I’m dizzy, how could I remember there’s silver at home?"

Old Zhou looked towards Ms. Qian, who didn’t even twitch, simply lifting her eyelids to say, "There’s not that much silver."

She had clearly heard that between the two families, there was still eleven taels not given. The silver at home was tiny, like little peas, barely above three taels, not enough to exchange for anything.

"Oh." Old Zhou turned to Manbao, "Come on, let’s cut the silver."

Manbao didn’t know why her dad was so enthusiastic about cutting silver, but she sighed and stepped forward, estimating the weight of four taels and seven taels, then drew a line on the silver.

Old Zhou gathered his energy, snipped down, creating a notch in the silver. His eyes intense, he aimed at the notch for another cut...

Third Uncle Qian watched with great interest, pushing aside the fact that he had lost financial control, and thought, actually, it had been many years since he held fiscal power. He squeezed forward, grinning, "Brother-in-law, let me try."

Even Eldest Uncle Qian and Second Uncle Qian eyed the scissors with eager anticipation.

Finally, with the concerted effort of the four old men, the silver ingot was cut into two pieces. Old Zhou happily took out a scale, weighed one piece, and cheerfully said, "Hey, this is pretty accurate, six taels five maces, just a tiny bit more."

Third Uncle Qian: ... How is that accurate?

Old Zhou waved his hand grandly, "Alright, I’ll exchange that extra five maces for copper coins for you. Manbao, five maces of silver is five hundred wen, right?"

"...It’s six hundred wen." Manbao explained, "Dad, you need to calculate using twelve hundred wen per tael."

Old Zhou felt a twinge of heartache, "Alright, your uncle’s amount is a bit short, so is it calculated as three taels and five maces or four and a half maces?"

"That’s fine, such a small difference," said Eldest Uncle Qian. "Let’s say five maces."

Old Zhou couldn’t quite grasp the relationship through these transactions, so he directly waved his hand for Manbao to make change.

Eldest Uncle Qian also didn’t quite understand, but Third Uncle Qian was certainly able to figure it out.

In the end, Ms. Qian still had to open the money box because there weren’t enough copper coins.

The Zhou Family sets up stalls, or the children go out into the streets and alleys to sell ginger pieces, earning mostly copper coins.

So the boxes at home were full of bundle after bundle of copper coins.

Compared to silver pieces, Eldest Uncle Qian and the others found the copper coins far more familiar.

Although they also held silver in their hands, even handling amounts of ten or twenty taels, they always felt that copper coins were more reassuring.

Hence, they had no objection to exchanging silver for copper coins.

In fact, if the Zhou Family did not have such a shortage of copper coins, they would have liked to convert everything to copper coins to take home.

One hundred and sixty thousand copper coins, that’s the equivalent of sixteen bundles, just the thought excited them.

Manbao counted out six strings of coins for Eldest Uncle Qian, each string being one hundred wen, and for Third Uncle Qian, a bundle plus six strings, with an additional fifty wen.

Third Uncle Qian reached out to take them, but then his two sons each stepped forward, eagerly taking the heavy copper coins from Manbao’s hand, and Old Zhou casually handed the silver pieces over to the two kids as well.

Third Uncle Qian: ...

Eldest Uncle Qian was very happy, the Qian Family was very pleased, and the Zhou Family was even more delighted, all except Third Uncle Qian.

Eldest Uncle Qian said to his two nephews, "When you get home, give some copper coins to your mother, and go buy some meat from the market. You’ve been through a lot during the spring planting, and with the noxious vapors strong in May, you need to eat more."

The two cheerfully agreed.

Old Zhou had Dalang and Erlang move the remaining money into the room, and only when he relaxed did he notice he was terribly hungry.

Ms. Qian said, "Everyone hasn’t had lunch yet, let’s go prepare it."

The women then bustled into the kitchen to start making food.

The men sat under the eaves, enjoying the cool breeze and shooting the breeze. The three uncles didn’t let Manbao go either, and pulled her in front of them to look at her again and again. After a long while, they expressed their admiration, "Manbao is getting more and more outstanding. I just saw you handle the tokens so well; what will become of you when you grow up even more?"

Manbao smiled bashfully and modestly replied, "My teacher says my token handling still has a long way to go, I need to keep learning."

"Your Mr. Zhuang is a kind man, make sure to show him proper respect," said Eldest Uncle Qian, before turning to ask Old Zhou, "We were muddleheaded just now, preoccupied with looking at the money, and didn’t properly thank Mr. Zhuang. Later, you have to let his mother send over some eggs. Right,"

Eldest Uncle Qian continued, "We were originally planning for your sister-in-law and the others to come over for the Dragon Boat Festival to see your grandsons, and to bring more eggs. Now that we’ve mentioned this, I’ll have your sister-in-law come over tomorrow, bring more eggs, and deliver them to Mr. Zhuang."

The day after tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival.

Old Zhou happily agreed.

He had recently been a bit worried; his two daughters-in-law had hearty appetites and, since he was reluctant to buy meat, the family had to boil eggs every other day, even if only for the children to eat, while the adults settled for the broth. The consumption of eggs was not insignificant.

After all, his family currently had seven grandchildren who could eat eggs, plus Manbao, and from his perspective, even Five and Sixth who weren’t quite adults yet. One egg per person per meal meant ten eggs vanished, plus the two daughters-in-law who were especially big eaters...

Old Zhou had considered several times whether to replace the eldest daughter-in-law with the second, thinking maybe it would be simpler to just have the younger daughter-in-law prepare food for the others.

But now there wasn’t much to worry about; every time he thought about the silver piled up in the room at that moment, Old Zhou was incredibly cheerful and magnanimous, decided to boil all the eggs at home that night.

Right, he could even go to the big market and buy a piece of meat to bring home.

While they were talking, Manbao took the opportunity to slip over to Third Uncle Qian’s side to console him, "Don’t be sad, Uncle, I’ll give you some candy later."

While speaking, Manbao dug a piece of candy from her pocket and offered it to him.

Third Uncle Qian took it and popped it into his mouth, then let out a deep sigh, his whole being suffused with sorrow.

Manbao watched with aching sympathy; in her heart, he was her dear uncle, and she genuinely held deep affection for all three uncles.

Among them, she had the best relationships with Eldest Uncle and Third Uncle.

The former because every time her sister-in-law took her back to her maiden home, she stayed at the Qian Family, where from a young age, she was cradled in the arms of Eldest Uncle Qian.

As for Third Uncle Qian, she loved being hoisted to his shoulders for fun, and she recalled every time she visited his home as a child, he would always sneak into the kitchen to make tasty food for her.

Though her sister-in-law said it was because Third Uncle wanted to eat, so he used her as an excuse...

But she still loved her Third Uncle.

Yet what Eldest Uncle said was also true; gambling was wrong.

She had known from a young age that gamblers caught in the vice of gambling lose all sense of reason – like Laizi from next door, who, when gripped by his addiction, couldn’t even be called human.

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