The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 447 - 436: Ulterior Motives

Chapter 447: Chapter 436: Ulterior Motives

Zhou Wulang led the children outside, allowing Manbao to hide the silver alone in the room. Bai Shanbao was puzzled, "The room is only so big, where can you hide so much money? Just put it in a chest."

"No," Zhou Wulang said seriously, "If we don’t hide this much money well, how could we sleep at night? There are twenty-nine ingots."

More than what their family currently had.

Bai Shanbao wanted to tell them it wasn’t twenty-nine, but forty-nine, since Manbao had already carried back a basket earlier. However, since he hadn’t seen the twenty ingots in her room just now and considering she was keeping it a secret from her father, he kept his mouth shut.

Where could it be hidden to sleep peacefully?

It was, of course, best kept with Keke.

Manbao took all the silver ingots out and stuffed them into the system, letting them keep company with the previous twenty pieces.

Then she dragged two empty carrying baskets out, returning one to Bai Shanbao and leaving the other in the courtyard.

Zhou Wulang was about to ask if she had finished hiding them when Sike, who had been stubbornly watching by the kitchen, charged into the small courtyard like a chick being chased, hollering, "Dinner’s ready! Dinner’s ready! Go eat!"

After the call, he turned and ran back to the main courtyard, where from a distance, he saw Sanya pouting by the kitchen door, with Second Uncle’s wife telling her to slow down her eating.

With a "howl," Sike charged up; he knew all too well that whoever called people to eat would be the unlucky one. Approaching the kitchen door, he raised his little head and looked eagerly at his grand-aunt, second aunt, and mother inside.

Ms.He patted his back and said, "Aren’t you going to move the stools quickly? Stop thinking about snatching food from the kitchen; look, your brothers and sisters haven’t come."

Sike sighed and turned to leave.

Sanya, having finished the meat in her mouth, followed behind, helping to move things too.

The Zhou Family’s home was filled with the enticing scent of meat, and Bai Shanbao couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Manbao warmly invited him to stay for dinner, "My sister-in-law made this herself -- it’s really tasty."

Bai Shanbao was indeed tempted, "But I haven’t informed my mother yet."

"Let Daji go back and tell her. Besides, he has to go back for dinner too."

Bai Shanbao thought she made sense, so he ran out to send Daji back to inform his mother that he wouldn’t be coming home for dinner.

Daji glanced at the children running around in the courtyard, felt that there was no danger for the young master staying here, bowed, and left.

But he didn’t stay away as Bai Shanbao suggested; after informing Ms.Zheng, he returned to the Zhou family. He had planned to wait outside, but Sike, who was chasing chickens back into the courtyard, spotted him standing outside.

The people of the Zhou family then knew.

Old Zhou quickly went to invite him, "Since you’re here, it’s unthinkable not to come in. Come, come join us. Manbao, serve Young Master Bai some dishes."

Junior Ms.Qian had prepared many dishes, and although most were vegetarian, and even several used the same vegetables, they were presented differently.

Bai Shanbao relished the meal, feeling it was no worse than what the cooks at home prepared.

As Manbao ate, she thought that once she bought the iron pot, her sister-in-law could make even more dishes.

Bai Shanbao and Daji thoroughly enjoyed their meals, and Old Zhou was overjoyed, even going so far as to give his daughter two chicken legs to share one with Bai Shanbao.

Manbao generously offered one to him.

She thought her father was particularly generous today.

It wasn’t until after the meal that Old Zhou revealed why he was so generous. He asked Bai Shanbao with a smile, "Young master, I heard from Manbao that your family has a lot of the wheat left that was to be traded for grain?"

"Not much, only nine bags."

"Ah, that’s quite a lot," said Old Zhou, "A family like yours wouldn’t finish it all. I’ve heard you have a lot of land, and with the summer grains about to be harvested, you’ll have to sell off that wheat. Otherwise, it’d be bad to keep it as old grain."

Old Zhou intended to ask Bai Shanbao if he could speak to Old Master Bai and sell a few bags of wheat to them when the time came.

He didn’t want his daughter to beg Old Master Bai for such a big matter, as it would be too much of a burden on her. Besides, they had just made a big profit from him and felt embarrassed to buy wheat from him at a low price.

After all, Old Master Bai had acquired the wheat seeds at the rate of one and two taels per jin from the village, but they hadn’t traded, and instead had made a fortune.

For some reason, even though Manbao always said the price wasn’t high, he still felt guilty.

Ms.Qian glanced at him, knowing what others might not have – that wheat didn’t belong to Old Master Bai but was made by the three children.

As expected, right after Old Zhou finished speaking, Bai Shanbao said, "I’ve sold all that wheat to Manbao."

At that, he turned to Manbao and asked, "How many bags did you buy? Maybe you should buy less, and I’ll sell the rest to Uncle."

The Zhou family: ...

"Huh?" Manbao looked from her father to Bai Shanbao, puzzled, "My father and I are from the same family."

"Ah," Old Zhou slapped his thigh and laughed heartily, "So you’ve already mentioned it to Manbao. Never mind then, never mind. Just forget what I said. By the way, young master, did Manbao mention a price to you?"

"She did," Bai Shanbao immediately perked up, glanced at Manbao, and said, "We agreed on thirty wen per dou."

In fact, when the grain hadn’t yet arrived, they had settled on thirty-five wen per dou.

Manbao had long realized that since they had sold all their wheat as seeds, what little old rice and milled flour was left at home wouldn’t last more than a few days.

If they couldn’t buy grain, she was sure her father would mix in heaping amounts of bran—it was inevitable!

So she had negotiated early with Bai Shanbao for a price of thirty-five wen per dou.

That was still five wen cheaper than the market, wasn’t it?

However, neither had anticipated such a sudden drop in grain prices. Just last night, Old Master Bai had informed them that grain merchants were now buying wheat in Luojiang County’s towns for twenty-eight wen per dou.

Though the grain shop’s price hadn’t dropped yet, Old Master Bai guessed it wouldn’t be long.

That’s why Manbao approached Bai Shanbao to lower the price, and the two youngsters had quite a little squabble over it, but considering the imminent crisis, both compromised.

Manbao didn’t insist that Bai Shanbao give her the same purchase price as the countryside, and Bai Shanbao didn’t stick to making those extra five wen from her.

He offered it to her at cost.

It was precisely because of their "intense discussion" the night before that the two children seemed especially friendly today.

But not wanting his effort to go unnoticed, Bai Shanbao added an explanation, "We purchased it for thirty wen per dou when we transported it from Longzhou, so I’m giving you the cost price."