The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 597 - 586: Addition

Chapter 597: Chapter 586: Addition

The three youngsters were busy, and Mr. Zhuang was naturally busy as well. Early in the morning, he had given Manbao a lesson, talked about a text, and then let her study on her own.

He had always been relatively confident in her. Although the child would occasionally be lazy, she was still quite self-disciplined, so that little bit of laziness was tolerable.

Bai Erlang was a different story; if he wasn’t watched, he wouldn’t think of reading or doing his homework until the sky fell.

So, after Manbao had memorized the newly learned text and written for a while, she went to the bookshop to read.

Mr. Zhuang reminded her, "Come back for lunch."

Manbao agreed and then left with her little cloth bag.

The cook was bustling in the kitchen. She had gone to the market that morning and was now planning to straighten up the kitchen properly, since she would also need to provide them with snacks and tea in the future.

Meanwhile, after sending Bai Shanbao off to school, Daji returned and went out shopping with Zhou Silang and Erya.

The Bai Family’s carriage driver had taken the prepared dry food and left early in the morning, of course, carrying the young masters’ letters with him.

When Manbao arrived at the bookshop, Zhou Silang and the others had already chosen two beds and were selecting bookshelves.

Large pieces of furniture like this were usually made-to-order. Ready-made ones were rare, and thus new large pieces would be very expensive.

But there were also old ones.

Though Daji was a servant, he really didn’t understand these things.

So, he followed Zhou Silang around two blocks and took three shortcuts to a very unfamiliar place.

Zhou Silang led them to a shop, and Daji couldn’t help but look up and exclaim in surprise, "A pawnshop?"

"Yes, the items here are cheap. Come, let’s go in and choose."

Daji... He only knew that when you need money, you can take things to a pawnshop to exchange for cash, but he had never thought that you could actually buy things from a pawnshop.

He hesitated a bit, "Aren’t the items here quite expensive?"

"Except for some antiques, the rest are second-hand goods. How could they be expensive?" Zhou Silang explained, "Like clothing and quilts that have been used, they’re very cheap, and some tables and stools, even if they’re made of good wood, are much cheaper than newly custom-made ones."

"Not to mention beds, they are more than half cheaper than the ones sold outside."

Of course, the price the pawnshop paid to buy them back was also very low; the items pawned usually fetched only a third of their value at best.

Zhou Silang might have been there for the first time, but he seemed quite familiar with the pawnshop clerks. As soon as they entered the pawnshop, a young clerk came up cheerfully, saying, "Fourth Brother Zhou, I’ve spoken to the owner. I’ll take you to the storeroom."

Zhou Silang walked forward with his arm over the clerk’s shoulder, laughing and asking, "I need something good for our own use, especially the bookshelf. Those books are treasures. If the shelf collapses and damages the books, that’s one thing, but it’d be terrible if it collapsed on someone reading."

"Fourth Brother Zhou, you can rest assured. Our shop has always been fair to all customers. With me here, the items you get will definitely be the best."

The young clerk led them to the storeroom, opened the door, and ushered them in. It was filled with large wooden items.

Beds, desks, chairs, and bookshelves, and even trinket shelves.

All these items were piled inside, relatively orderly. The young clerk said, "These have all been acquired this month. The ones from before have all been sent out, so you can only choose from these here."

Their pawnshop only dealt with buying items, and the selling was handled by some other stores owned by the boss.

Items like clothes and quilts were usually washed, dried, and laid out in the store for people to choose from. As for large items like beds, if their quality was still good, they would be cleaned and sold at a discounted price. Although not on par with new custom-made ones, they didn’t look much different.

Those of average or poor quality were simply repaired a little, then sold at a further reduced price.

Taking them directly from the pawnshop would be even cheaper.

Zhou Silang had brought Daji and Erya specifically because he knew this.

The three of them began selecting items in the storeroom. One bed was for Zhou Lijun to sleep on, so she was primarily picking it out.

Zhou Silang and Daji were mainly choosing bookshelves.

There were quite a few good bookshelves in the storeroom, including two made of fine Manchurian ash. Of course, the price was also quite pleasing.

So Zhou Silang immediately eliminated them.

But Daji was somewhat tempted, whispering, "With such good wood, this price is really cheap."

Zhou Silang replied, "We’re just in Yizhou to accompany the studying. Once your young master gets into the capital, we will be leaving. Why would we need such a good bookshelf?"

Daji was startled, "Isn’t that going to take four or five years at least?"

Now it was Zhou Silang’s turn to be taken aback, "Is it going to take that long? I thought it would only take two or three years."

Daji: You really have a lot of confidence in my young master. I thank you for that.

Zhou Silang, coming back to his senses, said, "Whether it’s two or three years, or four or five, either way, we’re not aging here. There’s no need to buy too good a bookshelf. Otherwise, you won’t be able to take it home later and it’ll be hard to sell. Better to buy a cheap one."

He added, "It won’t break anyway, and it looks more or less the same, right?"

Zhou Silang looked back and forth at several bookshelves and noticed that other than some slight color differences, they were indeed pretty similar, so he nodded in satisfaction, "Not bad, they are more or less the same, so we’ll select these two. They are both cheap and sturdy. Useful!"

Daji... The money was in Zhou Silang’s hands; what objections could he have?

Zhou Lijun also chose two beds.

Considering the small space and it being for one person, the two beds she chose were not large, but they looked quite sturdy and beautiful.

Daji also picked out two screens. His taste was much better than Zhou Silang’s. He knew this was something you couldn’t skimp on, especially if it was to be placed in the young master’s room.

Otherwise, if he didn’t like it, his mood might even be sour when he got up.

One of the screens was to be placed in front of Zhou Lijun’s bed, and she immediately argued for herself, "Fourth Uncle, little sister is fastidious, you know. If you buy something ugly and she doesn’t let you in the room, then what?"

Zhou Silang had to give in a bit, but still felt the pinch, "Two screens, more expensive than the beds. If I had known, I would have let Second Brother make some out of bamboo at home and bring them over."

"You’ve become thrifty too, Fourth Uncle."

"This is the cost of not knowing how expensive firewood and rice are, alright."

After they finished selecting, the young clerk came forward to tally up the bill. Zhou Silang was quite satisfied with the total. Although the screens were a bit expensive, the beds and bookshelves turned out to be much cheaper than their budget.

"There’s a ox-cart parked outside; I’ll go have someone come in to move this," the young clerk said.

Zhou Silang went to pay. The expenses of the day were far below their budget, so they had quite a bit of money left.

If it weren’t for the cook at home, Zhou Silang would have really liked to go out with the money and buy some seasoned meat to celebrate.

However, considering there was a cook at home, he restrained himself and didn’t dare to overindulge.

After they moved the items home and placed the beds in their respective rooms, Zhou Lijun carried water to clean the beddings, and the cook helped out.

When the beddings were aired and dried, the two arranged their own beddings and also made up Bai Erlang’s bed, and in passing, tidied up his scattered toys and other stuff, packing them into a box and sliding it under the bed.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.