Little Fu Bao smiled in a way that seemed to be both happy and sad.

Grandpa Zhuo said, "Ming'er, call her aunt!"

Zhuo Ming then grew a little bolder: "Aunt... Aunt"

Little Fu Bao's eyes, which seemed to hold both joy and sorrow, gradually filled with a smile. "Sister!" Grandpa Zhuo patted Little Fu Bao's round little head, picked her up, and said:

"Let Grandpa see if Xiao Fubao has gained weight!"

Chen Yu stiffened for a moment, but then, remembering that the two families had been related by marriage and that his niece was his own granddaughter, he smiled and said, "It's nothing for Xiao Fubao to call me grandpa."

"Knowing I might run into you, I took the opportunity to make some clothes for Ming'er!"

Zhuo Ming bravely took the clothes, a brocade jacket and trousers. A smile gradually appeared on her face. Her aunt... didn't seem as scary as in the play.

Much better than my aunt.

Since Niu Jinhua went blind, although she rarely went out, her temper became increasingly worse. She not only blamed Niu Da for her blindness, but also cursed her own brother to die young every day.

Moreover, she often beat and scolded her two sons.

He was also extremely cruel to the daughter born to this girl.

Chen Yu smiled and said, "Plum Blossom, you call her 'little sister,' and Little Fortune, you call her 'cousin.'"

"cousin"

"Cousin!" Little Fu Bao called out sweetly.

Zhuo Ming immediately took a liking to the little girl, took a small step forward, and reached out to touch Xiao Fubao's chubby little hand. It was warm and plump.

"Grandpa, my little sister is so cute!"

Grandpa Zhuo smiled, then said to Shen Yu, "I heard you came to sell pickles yesterday. Everyone who bought your pickles said they were delicious. I went to the pig farmer next door and tried some. Today I was thinking of buying two jars to take to town after class."

Shen Yu quickly took two jars and said, "Twenty coins a jar." She then grabbed a handful of dried sweet potatoes in soy sauce, wrapped them in oil paper and cloth, and stuffed them into Zhuo Ming's pocket.

"Are you the one who sold pickles and sauerkraut yesterday? My son and my husband really love your sauerkraut. Yesterday, they ate two big bowls of rice in one go! I'm thinking of buying five more jars!"

Approaching us was a peasant woman from a poor family in Haijia Village. She wasn't planning to eat it herself; some relatives had come to visit yesterday and really liked her pickled vegetables. She didn't say she bought them, but rather that she had made them herself to sell for ten coins a jar.

Several people ordered several jars and paid in advance. Although it was wrong to cheat people, her family was too poor. They didn't even own a piece of land and could only eat rotten vegetable leaves from other people all year round.

Having finally saved up some money, I thought I'd improve the children's meals. Yesterday, I tried some pickled cabbage. Several jars of pickled cabbage were freshly stir-fried and sealed in jars by the Shen family, selling for eight coins a jar. The cabbage was much better than theirs.

It tasted better than what she made, so she gritted her teeth and bought a jar. Who knew that someone else would take a liking to it and order five jars from her? She made ten coins in one go, enough to buy two ounces of meat for the children.

Chen Yu brought her several jars.

Little Fu Bao asked, "Auntie, would you like us to deliver this to your home?"

The woman said, "No need, no need, I can carry these things myself!"

Haijia Village was relatively wealthier than Niushan Village. Some of the farm women, having heard that those who bought pickles and fermented bean curd yesterday had praised Shen's cooking, gathered around and chattered amongst themselves:

"I want a jar of pickled vegetables!"

"My son loves that. How about I buy half a pound of your spicy bean curd sheets?"

"My daughter-in-law is pregnant and craves sour foods. I want two jars of sour food! Will you come to sell them every day?"

Chen Yu said, "My shop is about to open. From now on, my daughter and brother-in-law will sell the goods every day after school. They will sell in the front for the first half of the month and in the back for the second half!"

Niu Meihua and Xiao Fubao were busy collecting money.

"How much is your sweet potato chips per pound?" asked a burly man with a stubble beard and wearing a shirt with seventeen or eighteen holes.

"That's also twenty coins a catty, how many ounces do you want?" Chen Yu asked.

The burly man said, "I want eight jars of pickled white radishes, eight jars of pickled white cabbage, eight jars of pickled red radishes, eight jars of pickled greens, eight jars of sauerkraut, and eight catties of pickled sweet potato chips."

Shen Yu was somewhat surprised. These eight jars of braised pork cost 160 coins, the thirty-two jars of pickled vegetables cost 640 coins, the eight jars of sauerkraut cost 40 coins, and the eight jars of braised sweet potato chips cost 160 coins.

That's a total of eighty or forty coins.

This is equivalent to a family's monthly income.

But the person in front of me doesn't look like a rich person at all.

Someone joked, "Uncle Man Guan, you've got money now! Did you sell those dozen or so acres of land back home?"

"Not only are we rich now, we've even taken a bath! Hahaha!"

Hai Manguan was a well-known poor household in the entire Niushan County. Although Shen had never met him, she had definitely heard of him. The people in Niushan Village were also poor, but few were as poor as him.

Being poor is nothing; what's terrible is his extreme laziness. Just how lazy is he? His wife is also a lazy bum. Hai Manguan's family used to be quite well-off, still owning over ten acres of land, but since his parents died, no one has farmed it.

He was too lazy to get dressed, so he stayed in bed all year round. He would eat once every two days if he could, but he would never eat once a day. He said he was too lazy to go to the toilet, so he ate and drank less.

He was too lazy to take a bath, so he only took one bath a year. That one bath was only taken because his wife scolded him. His wife was more diligent than him; she ate at least one meal a day and took three baths a year.

Their only son fell ill, but he and his wife were too lazy to move and refused to go out, which dragged the bright and clever boy to his death.

For fifty years, the couple never worked or earned money. Their original more than 100 mu of land was sold off, leaving only a dozen mu.

He didn't smell bad today, so he probably really took a shower.

"Uncle Man Guan, did you kill someone and rob them?" someone speculated.

“How could he possibly kill someone? Even if you put a pile of gold in front of him, he wouldn’t bother taking it! Does he have the guts to kill someone?” another person laughed.

Hai Manguan said, "I found it!"

"Found it? Where did you find it?"

Haiman Slam ignored them.

Regardless of where the money came from, as long as the money was legitimate, there was no reason for Madam Shen not to accept it. However, after accepting the money, Madam Shen felt uneasy. She weighed the copper coin in her hand, feeling strange but unable to figure out why.

Shen's unease grew stronger, and she said, "Uncle, I can't take this money, and I can't sell you the vegetables!"

Mrs. Shen pushed the cart away.

Little Fu Bao sat in Shen's stroller, smiling as she looked at Shen, "Mommy, the money is fake!"

As if struck by lightning, Shen realized that something was wrong with the money. It was because the amount of money was slightly lighter than the same amount of money, by one or two grams.

People who aren't careful won't notice it at all.

However, the counterfeit money did not circulate in the market, and the Niu family did not know this. It was probably three years later when it finally circulated. Hai Manguan hardly ever left his house, and he certainly did not have the intelligence to make counterfeit money. So where did his counterfeit money come from?