The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 479 - 468: Borrowing Money

Chapter 479: Chapter 468: Borrowing Money

Marrying someone else, she might not have had the life she has today.

Old Zhou had been lazy when he was young and wasn’t particularly good at showing affection, but that wasn’t a problem unique to him—didn’t every man in the village have the same faults? Ms. Qian saw it very clearly.

Even her eldest brother, it was his wife who used to carry water for the household, then it was the daughters-in-law, and now it was the turn of the grandchildren...

Zhou Jin was singled out by others merely because he was a bit lazier than the average person, but he had a thoughtfulness that others lacked.

Even though the women in the village could manage the household and even held the money, when it came to using a large sum or making a major family decision, there were not many women who could really take charge.

Not to mention when the head of the household disagreed with her.

But Ms. Qian could.

In the Zhou family, Ms. Qian seemed to seldom meddle in outside affairs, leaving them to Old Zhou to arrange, but when she did speak up, the family still had to listen to her.

If it were in any other household, the man would’ve thrown a fit by now.

But Old Zhou wouldn’t throw a fit.

Perhaps harried by old grudges, Old Zhou felt quite guilty. He rose before dawn, even earlier than Ms. Qian.

Groping around the room for a while, he ended up waking Ms. Qian; then he went out the door.

Ms. Qian opened her eyes long enough to see his retreating figure, then closed them again.

Old Zhou squatted in front of Manbao’s door.

As Manbao, who was just about to come out to fetch water and wash up while stretching her stiff limbs and with her hair disheveled, opened the door, she almost knocked the wooden basin on her father’s head from fright.

"Dad?"

Old Zhou hushed her with a gesture, carefully glancing toward Four’s room. Seeing that there was no movement next door, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, then he quickly pulled his good daughter back inside and said, "Manbao, Dad’s got a favor to ask of you."

Holding the wooden basin, Manbao nodded, "Dad, just say it."

"You have money, don’t you?"

Manbao nodded affirmatively; she was quite wealthy.

Old Zhou heaved a sigh of relief, a bright smile blooming on his face as he whispered, "Dad wants to borrow some money from you. I..."

After pondering a moment, Old Zhou seemed to realize he hardly had the chance to save money. He became conflicted and said, "How about I pay you back in a few years?"

"Dad, don’t you have your own secret stash?"

Old Zhou then took out the private money he had felt about for that early in the morning to show her. It wasn’t much—just a string of coins with a dozen or so tied together.

He sighed, "All the money at home is in your mother’s hands, she keeps track of every single coin. Over the years, I’ve only managed to save these 116 coins."

Manbao stared at her father in astonishment. Even Four and Sanya had more savings with her than that amount.

Old Zhou asked Manbao, "Is your money plentiful?"

Manbao nodded; it was certainly much more than what her father had.

"Then, could you lend your dad a little?"

"Dad, what do you need the money for?"

"I want to buy your mom a silver bracelet, it doesn’t have to be very large, a thinner one will do," he said distressfully. "Last time I went to the county town, I had my eye on it, but after buying the fabric with the money your mom gave me, there wasn’t much left, so I didn’t get it. I thought I could wait until she got a bit older to buy it, but..."

But wasn’t it just yesterday that he was reproached for past misdeeds?

Although his old partner didn’t show anger on her face, he always felt she wasn’t really happy either. Last night, Old Zhou hardly slept a wink, thinking about it, the more he thought, the more he felt as if there were weeds growing uncomfortable in his heart.

He demonstrated the size and style of the silver bracelet to Manbao and whispered, "I’ve asked about it; that bracelet would cost three liang and seven hundred coins. Manbao, could you lend dad a little?"

Manbao was very skeptical of her father’s ability to repay the debt, "Where will you get the money to save then?"

"Remember on the fifth day, Second Brother made nearly two hundred coins selling mugwort? Next year, I’m not letting him go to sell it; I’ll go instead. Save up for a few years, and by the time you get married, I should be able to repay it."

Manbao: ...

Without washing her face or combing her hair, she set down the basin and started talking business with her father, "Dad, you won’t be able to save money like this. Look at you, after all these years, you only have just over a hundred coins in private money."

Old Zhou: ...What could he do?

All the money earned at home went directly to Ms. Qian’s hands. His sons could keep four-tenths of their earnings, but he had to hand over all of his. The private stash was only there because he scrimped and saved.

Old Zhou was consumed with worry.

What could Manbao do?

She could only offer him her profound sympathy and make a suggestion, "Why don’t you sell your tobacco?"

Keke had said that smoking was bad for one’s health and sitting beside someone who smoked wasn’t good either. Manbao had wanted her father to quit smoking for a long time.

But although Old Zhou was fond of Manbao, he was not inclined to give up one of his few pleasures, so no matter how much he agreed verbally, he would continue smoking as soon as he turned around.

Zhou Jin didn’t use to smoke when he was young, and he hadn’t even known such a thing existed in the world.

He started smoking the year Zhou Yin sold himself, which was the year Zhou Yin brought back a bag of grain after selling himself and also found a lifeline for the villagers by introducing them to a job in the county town.

At that time, he took Dalang and Erlang to work in the county town carrying burdens for people. The weight he had never borne before pressed heavily on him; he couldn’t sleep and the work was heavy. One day, a passing porter offered him some tobacco, and after trying it, he felt it was good.

The porter left him some tobacco leaves, with the agreement to return the following year to buy the leaves Zhou would grow.

However, Zhou did grow the tobacco, but the porter never came back. It was uncertain whether he forgot about the arrangement or had died on the road.

In any case, with the grown tobacco leaves unwanted, Zhou just dried them, cut them into strands, and smoked them himself. Later, other people in the county town also began smoking and started buying tobacco leaves.

Under normal circumstances, Zhou would only sell his tobacco leaves when there was no money at home to buy medicine for Ms. Qian.

Because if they couldn’t even afford medicine for Ms. Qian, it roughly meant they were at the end of their rope.

Nowadays, the household wasn’t short on money, and his old wife didn’t take medicine anymore, so Zhou was very reluctant to exchange his beloved pastime for cash.

Therefore, faced with Manbao’s suggestion, he thought about turning away, but his bottom seemed to have a will of its own, stubbornly sticking to the chair.

After quite a while, Zhou seemed to find a reason, "That bit of tobacco leaves isn’t worth much."

"Who says that? Isn’t a liang of tobacco leaves worth ten coins?"

"Yes, but how much tobacco does your dad have?"

"Then plant more, it doesn’t take up much space anyway since you just plant it in the corner of the vegetable garden."

Zhou stubbornly retorted, "Selling more will only cheapen the price; a jin would only fetch seventy to eighty coins."

"Ten jin would be seven to eight hundred coins."

Zhou immediately shook his head, "Where would I get that much? A whole bunch of tobacco leaves only dries to one jin. It’s not worth it, not worth it."

Manbao bluntly said, "Dad, if you agree to sell half of your tobacco leaves, then I’ll agree to lend you."