Chapter 252 Can it be replaced with sugarcane?
"Third Young Master, it's two cents per pound. Miss Xiao said she'll take whatever you want." Wang Lizheng looked at Xiao Jiayuan's sullen face and said a little embarrassedly, "We are all villagers, working hard in the fields. We only care about this money..."
"Jinwen and Jinwu, bring up the money!" Xiao Jiayuan turned around and said to the two Jinwen brothers, "Jifu, set the table!"
"Okay, young master." Ji Fu responded and immediately started to set the table. He took out the school bag on his back, which contained pens, ink, paper and inkstone. Ji Fu took the initiative to take over the task of grinding ink.
"Jiachen, I'll be in charge of the records, and you'll be in charge of the payment!" Xiao Jiayuan said as he looked at Xiao Jiachen who had followed him. He instructed in an orderly manner, "Sister Lianxin, please ask everyone to line up. Aunt He, please take care of the weighing. Thank you for your hard work."
Xiao Jiayuan and Xiao Jiachen sat down, and next to them was the money brought by Jin Wen and Jin Wu, all of which were small change and copper coins. Not to mention the villagers of Wan'an Village, even Wang Lizheng, who thought he had seen some worldly things, couldn't help but gasp when he saw this scene!
This wealthy family is different. A little kid is not even as big as his grandson Chuan Rong, nor as tall as Chuan Rong Gao. But facing so many people from Wan'an Village, Xiao Jiayuan is not offended at all!
"Li Zheng Wang, who of you will weigh your names first? We have to go to school later!" Xiao Jiayuan had already spread out the paper and looked at Li Zheng Wang and the others, who seemed to be motionless.
"Let's weigh mine first." Li Zheng Wang was at the front at the moment. He drove his ox cart over and handed it to Aunt He to weigh.
Wang Lizheng turned around and shouted, "Don't be anxious, everyone. Come one by one."
Aunt He has had experience in harvesting oranges in the workshop, so she is very familiar with the process now. Except that sugarcane is not as easy to weigh as oranges, she has done the rest countless times.
Aunt He saw that it was difficult to weigh the sugarcane, so Donggui, who was standing nearby, stepped forward to help. Soon, Aunt He finished weighing the first ox cart!
"There are six bundles of sugarcane in total, which adds up to 580 kilograms!" After weighing them, Aunt He looked at the head of the village, Wang, and said, "Head of the village, take a look. Is the weight correct?"
"That's right, that's right." Li Zheng Wang nodded affirmatively. His son Wang Bao was staring at the scale from the side. Five hundred and eighty kilograms, that's exactly right, just more and no less!
"Li Zheng Wang, go to the third young master to count the money." Seeing that Li Zheng Wang was not moving, Aunt He put the weighed sugarcane away and urged him to leave.
Wang Lizheng responded and walked up to Xiao Jiayuan. Xiao Jiayuan had already started writing his name. Looking at his elegant handwriting, Wang Lizheng thought: Chuanrong can't write such beautiful words!
"Wang Lizheng, five hundred and eighty catties, two cents a catty, that's one thousand one hundred and sixty cents. Can you do the math? Is it correct?" Xiao Jiayuan's chubby hands tapped quickly on the abacus. He looked at Wang Lizheng and said, "You do the math. If it's correct, come here and press your handprint!"
"Okay." Li Zheng Wang didn't say much and called his youngest son Wang Gui over. Wang Gui held an abacus in his hand and said, "Dad, he didn't make a mistake."
"Then put your fingerprint here to prove that you have received the money." Xiao Jiayuan handed the paper to Wang Lizheng, pointed to the place where 1,160 coins were written, and asked him to put his fingerprint!
"Okay." Li Zheng Wang had sold sugarcane before, but he had never sold it to each family one by one like this. In previous years, he would collect the sugarcane from the entire village and sell it together!
As Wang Lizheng pressed the ink, Xiao Jiachen beside him had already counted out 1,160 coins!
The moment he received the money, Wang Lizheng felt like he was dreaming. In the past, he worked hard to deliver sugarcane to the county and the provincial capital, but he didn't even get two cents for one pound. Not to mention that he could get all the money paid off by delivering sugarcane on the spot!
"Dad, how about I count it?" Wang Gui looked at his father Wang Lizheng standing there with the money in his hand, looking dazed, and immediately spoke.
Wang Lizheng slapped his hand away and said, "Can't your father even count money?"
Wang Lizheng glanced at him and said, "Just stay here and help the villagers check a price!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Lizheng stuffed the money into his pocket, and it instantly bulged out. He hummed a little tune and watched Aunt He weighing the scales. He grabbed Shi Lizheng, who was about to leave, and said, "Brother Shi, tell me, has your county built a school?"
Wang Lizheng had just finished the autumn harvest and started to get busy with the sugarcane harvest. Seeing that the sugarcane was ripe and sweet, he immediately took the villagers to cut it and transport it to Fu'an Village, for fear that the night would bring more trouble!
"Of course, Fu'an College!" Shi Lizheng was so excited when he mentioned the village school that if he had a tail, it would be lifted up to the sky. He stroked his beard and said, "You Wan'an Village doesn't have a school yet, right?"
"Brother Shi, isn't it? It's hard to hire a teacher. Besides, the villagers are lucky enough to have enough to eat. Who has the spare money to hire a teacher?" When Wang Lizheng heard about the school, his eyes suddenly showed envy. He said, "Brother Shi, then, then, can my grandson go to the school? Do you accept people from other villages?"
"Brother Shi, when we were building the dam, we were like brothers. If anything good happens, you must think of me!" Wang Lizheng tugged at Shi Lizheng's clothes and whispered, "None of my sons can read, but my grandson Chuanrong is a good student. The county is too far away."
Wan'an Village and Fu'an Village are separated by two hills. Wan'an Village is far from Wan'an County and Lancang County!
We had to cross two hills to get to Fu'an Village. Although the road was difficult to walk on, it was much closer than going to the county!
"My grandson Xiaolin went to school a few days ago, and the cinnabar of Qihui is still burning between his eyebrows." Shi Lizheng was even more excited when he mentioned his son and grandson. He said, "My son Youchang went to the provincial capital early to prepare for next year's college entrance examination and provincial examination!"
"Youchang is a smart kid. Who knows, he might pass the exam and become a scholar!" Li Zheng Wang praised Shi Li Zheng's son and grandson as soon as he saw them, and started to talk about his grandson going to school again.
"Does your grandson want to go, or are there other children in your village who want to go?" Shi Lizheng asked.
"My grandson definitely wants to go, but the children in the village..." Wang Lizheng said hesitantly: "Then I don't know, but there are still a few families who have this idea."
"The school was built with money from Miss Xiao, and it was Miss Xiao who invited the teacher. There is indeed a child from the county studying in the school." As soon as Shi Lizheng finished speaking, Wang Lizheng wanted to stare a hole in his face.
Shi Lizheng raised his hand and said, "But they are very generous. The six gifts they gave to you as a gift are ten pounds of meat, ten pounds of dried longan, and so on."
"What?" Wang Lizheng's eyes widened when he heard the ten kilograms of meat. Shi Lizheng continued, "Not only that, they also gave every household two kilograms of melon seeds!"
Wang Lizheng's brows furrowed as he said, "This school isn't easy to go to, but we're not from the village anyway. The six rituals are easy to negotiate, but can these melon seeds be exchanged for sugarcane?"
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