The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 442 - 431 Counting Money

Chapter 442: Chapter 431 Counting Money

Old Zhou went out for a stroll, and whether the sun had addled his brain or cleared it, by the time Manbao and Ms. Qian came to, he sighed and asked, "How do you want to divide it?"

Ms. Qian had slept for an hour and also made a plan, saying, "I think, Eldest, Two, and Third should get fifteen taels each for their families; Four only has one child, and you worry he’ll be reckless with money, so just give him ten taels to hold onto himself. The rest should get five taels each, including Xi and Manbao."

Manbao hadn’t expected to hear her own name and excitedly asked, "I get money too?"

Ms. Qian smiled and said, "Of course, you’re a major contributor. If your brothers and sisters get some, how could you not?"

All had worked the land together, and to be exact, the big room would suffer a bit, for Datou and Daya were already half laborers.

Yet such family matters shouldn’t be too precisely calculated; when it comes down to the details, that’s when the family falls into chaos.

Old Zhou fiddled with his tobacco pipe and asked, "How much money will this cost us?"

Manbao had started counting on her fingers as soon as her mother began talking and quickly, happily informed her father, "Not much, just seventy-five taels."

The tobacco pipe in Old Zhou’s hand clattered onto the bed as he shakily asked, "Then, how much will be left for your mother and me?"

"Not counting the small change or the money in the cash box, there’s still forty-five taels," Manbao consoled her father, "Dad, don’t be sad. Once we’ve planted the wheat for this season and sold it to Old Master Bai, we’ll earn quite a bit again."

Not just Old Zhou, but even Ms. Qian was stunned and quickly asked, "We can still sell it at that price?"

"I don’t know, I haven’t had the chance to discuss it with Old Master Bai yet. There’s no rush."

Oh my, how could this not be urgent?

Just as Old Zhou began to fret, Manbao grinned, "Out of all the spring wheat, only our small farm and our family used the new wheat variety. I’ve thought it through; if Old Master Bai doesn’t want it, we’ll just carry it to the county town and sell it ourselves, just slightly more expensive than the grain shop’s seed price."

Old Zhou immediately stopped fretting over the money given away and said with enthusiasm, "We don’t even need it to be more expensive, the same price as the grain shop’s seeds would be fine."

Those grain shops really were rip-offs, charging so much for a peck of seeds.

Seeing Old Zhou agree, Ms. Qian suggested, "It’s a shame to cut up such nice silver ingots. Have Eldest and Two go into town tomorrow and exchange them for smaller ingots. That will make it easier to divide."

Manbao raised her hand excitedly and said, "Mom, I know, we don’t have to take the silver into town to exchange it; we can just swap it with Bai Shanbao and Old Master Bai."

"They have them?"

"Yes, they have five-tael ingots. Bai Shanbao has lots of them, all made from the silver lumps he saved, and they’re especially beautiful."

Those had been minted at the silversmith’s, and the quality was even better than official silver. Bai Shanbao had generously exchanged some with Manbao, and then Old Master Bai also exchanged the rest for her, even asking with a laugh, "What are you going to do with all these five-tael silver ingots?"

"It’s easier to divide."

Old Master Bai then nodded with a smile, uninterested in how her family would divide their silver, but rather curious about how his son was going to divide the money he had earned.

So he directly asked Manbao, "How are you and Erlang planning to divide the money?"

Only then did Manbao remember that she had yet to divide a large sum of money and suddenly didn’t feel like going home. Handing over the silver to her elder and second brothers who had followed her, she instructed them to manage it at home while she went to find Bai Shan.

Dalang and Zhou Er packed the exchanged silver into the cloth and stuffed it into the basket. Upon hearing her words, they shouldered the baskets and reminded Manbao, "I’m going to buy meat later; Dad said we’ll be slaughtering an old hen for dinner tonight, so make sure you come back early for the meal."

"I know, I know, Elder Brother, Second Brother, hurry on," she replied.

Old Master Bai also waved goodbye to the brothers with a smile and then continued to look down and ask Manbao, "With so much money, are you planning to spend it or save it?"

After a moment of serious thought, Manbao said, "Both spend it and save it, I guess."

Old Master Bai’s spirit lifted immediately, and he smiled, asking, "How do you plan to spend it?"

Manbao shook her head, "I haven’t thought about that yet."

Old Master Bai: "...If you haven’t decided, what about Erlang? Has he made up his mind?"

Manbao answered offhandedly, "He wants to go to Yizhou."

Old Master Bai blinked, frowning as he asked, "What for?"

Manbao simply stated, "To have fun."

Old Master Bai: ...

"They say Yizhou is really fun," Manbao got excited as she spoke, murmuring, "Maybe I should go have fun in Yizhou too?"

Old Master Bai thought Mr. Zhuang hadn’t given the third child enough homework; otherwise, why would she think of going to Yizhou for fun?

He decided to have a serious talk with Mr. Zhuang right away; taking the rest of the day off was fine, but they definitely had to make up for today’s lessons tomorrow.

Manbao had already waved goodbye to Old Master Bai and ran over to the next house in search of Bai Shan and Bai Er.

Bai Er was on the divan, amusing himself with a toy, while Bai Shan was fast asleep on the other divan. Upon Manbao’s arrival, she instinctively quieted her footsteps and quietly asked Bai Er, "What about our money?"

Bai Er pointed to the adjoining room and said, "It’s all in there."

He couldn’t help complaining, "You’re so slow; Shan and I have already counted the money three times."

Manbao felt regret and looked over at Bai Shan who was sleeping. Her eyes lit up, and she whispered, "Then I’ll go count it too."

Bai Er waved indifferently, "Go ahead, I don’t want to see money right now, it’s not much fun."

Manbao ran clattering to the next room, where Daji, dozing by the door, lifted his eyes to glance at her before closing them again.

As Manbao pushed the door open, she saw the silver that had been in the chest was now divided into two piles on the floor, the white gleam of the silver shining even brighter under the sunlight.

Unable to resist, Manbao exclaimed "Wow!" and rushed over to hug the silver while giggling, unconcerned about the warm sunshine streaming in from the window.

Noticing a cushion tossed aside, Manbao pulled it over, sat cross-legged on it, and started counting the money.

She loved counting money, especially her own, and in the evenings, whenever she had time and didn’t feel like going out or sleeping after dinner, she would take out her money box and count.

And counting silver ingots was obviously more satisfying and joyful than counting copper coins, for the ingots were considerably larger and lovelier.

Manbao smacked an ingot down next to her and counted "One," then reached for the second...

Listening to the count of one, two, three, four... echo from the room, Daji couldn’t help but shake his head and smile. He snuggled further under the eaves to escape the incoming rays of sunlight.