Chapter 66 Aren't you going to haggle?
After eating mutton noodles, Song Chunxue took the children for a walk around.
"You guys go look around some more. Sanwa and I will go check out the blacksmith's shop. The shovel we made this morning should be almost ready. Let's go get it."
Song Chunxue didn't want to tell the two of them about buying the land, so she made up a lie.
The fourth brother became suspicious. If it was just about making a shovel, why did he have to bring the third brother along?
"Mother, I don't want to go shopping anymore. Sanwa has never been to the county before, let him see more. Not everyone can climb the city wall, but he can go and look around the Wenchang Pagoda and all kinds of shops in front." As he spoke, the fourth brother handed Xiujuan to Sanwa to hold.
Sanwa didn't know how to refuse, so he hugged Xiujuan in his arms.
Although Jiang Hongying didn't know why her mother insisted on taking the three children with her, she could tell from her mother's words that there must be something she didn't want them to know.
She pulled on her fourth son's arm and said, "Mom must have made something else too. It's too heavy for you to carry, but Third Brother is strong. Come on, let's go over there and buy a pig's trotter. You have just enough money for one. Do you want some?"
Upon hearing the word "pig's trotters," the fourth brother couldn't move his feet.
“Alright then,” the fourth brother said, looking at the third child. “My arms are really sore. You can carry her for a while. Xiujuan isn’t heavy, but I’m not used to carrying her.”
It was rare to hear the fourth brother speak to him so politely, so the third brother nodded and said, "Then you can go ahead."
"Sanwa, do you want one?" Jiang Hongying looked at his hand. "You're not being stingy, are you? Did you bring any money?"
Sanwa was a little embarrassed, but still wouldn't admit that he was reluctant to spend money.
"I brought some, but the pig's trotters are too oily. I want to buy something else." He said, turning and walking towards the blacksmith's shop. "You guys go ahead and eat. I'll buy some later."
Song Chunxue saw Sanwa's reaction and knew exactly what he was thinking.
The sun is high in the sky, this is the hottest time, but you can't feel its scorching heat yet.
The hottest time of summer is actually between noon and late afternoon (1-3 PM).
Song Chunxue looked at his youthful profile and asked, "You haven't had time to spend the money I gave you yet, have you? Didn't you bring any money with you today?"
“I brought some,” Sanwa said, looking at the road ahead. “I just didn’t bring much, and there’s nothing I particularly wanted to buy.”
"How much did you bring?"
Song Chunxue stared straight at him, thinking that he probably didn't even have a single copper coin.
She thought of her third son in her previous life, who was just like that. After getting married, he would only go to the market if it was for something from home or something particularly important.
He never spent money recklessly. Every time he went to the market, Mulan would hope that he would bring back some food. He would never bring anything without asking in advance.
“Three…three copper coins,” Sanwa smiled and whispered, “enough to buy some candy.”
Actually, he didn't think three copper coins was a small amount. His mother worked hard every day to shovel the produce, but it wasn't always enough to sell for three copper coins a day.
Money doesn't come easily; if we just spend it on food, wouldn't that be a disservice to our hard work?
They came from poor backgrounds, so they couldn't afford to spend money lavishly. A hundred copper coins could be saved up to one tael of silver in a few months.
For many families, saving even a few taels of silver a year was already a great achievement.
Unlike the others, he will definitely stay in this place in the future, digging for gold from the ground bit by bit. It is by no means easy to save up a single gold bean in a lifetime.
He knew long ago that survival was not easy, and as long as he could get by, he would resolutely not spend money that he shouldn't.
When Song Chunxue heard his words, she was shocked and slowed down to walk behind him, her eyes hot and sore.
This child always makes her want to cry.
She knows Sanwa well; he's very frugal when it comes to money.
After her children grew up and started their own families in her previous life, she gradually learned to treat herself better, unlike when she was supporting her children's education.
But Sanwa was different; because he had too many children, he was always afraid to spend money.
It wasn't until he got older and his daughters got married that he finally got a moment's respite and would occasionally be a little more generous to himself.
But soon, his son became a constable in the yamen, and he took a fancy to the daughter of a farmer in the county.
The other party's family was relatively well-off, and they only had one daughter, so they asked Sanwa to buy a large house in the county.
He became even stingier than before.
"Mom, don't be sad. I'm not greedy and I don't like spending money."
Seeing Song Chunxue with her head down, Sanwa comforted her, "Everyone has their own destiny. I was never born to enjoy happiness. As long as I live peacefully, it doesn't matter if life is a little tough."
Song Chunxue quietly wiped away her tears and went to the blacksmith's shop.
As expected, blacksmith Zhou Xiang was waiting, and he smiled when he saw them.
“You’ve arrived. Please sit in the room across the street for a while; it’s too hot here.” As he spoke, he took a T-shirt from a wooden peg outside and put it on.
Following his gaze, Song Chunxue saw an inconspicuous house across the street. It was an adobe house with peeling walls covered in acidic mud, looking quite old.
The room was not small, but the doors and windows were small, and several people were sitting inside.
"So you're the woman who wants to buy that piece of wasteland from the Zhou family?" One of the middle-aged men, with a wrinkled face but a confident and energetic demeanor, got off the kang (a heated brick bed). "Why would you want to buy that land?"
Song Chunxue knew that what he meant by asking that question was that the person who bought that piece of land was clearly wasting money.
He looked Song Chunxue up and down, as if to say, "You don't have much money, so why did you spend it so recklessly?"
“I was thinking that if the children want to build houses in the county in the future, I can buy a piece of land here and have a place to build houses. Besides, the county is surrounded by city walls. If we encounter bandits, we can at least hide in the city and build a simple thatched hut.”
If they knew that in five or ten years, this place would become incredibly valuable, they would definitely regret it to the core.
"Alright, what price can you offer?" The man with a wrinkled face, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, picked up a few sheets of paper from the old wooden table beside him.
"Five taels of silver, if that works out, we'll make a deal." A few years later, an acre of land here would cost at least five hundred taels.
The man exchanged a glance with Zhou Xiang and unconsciously smiled.
"Alright, since you're so keen to buy, we won't try to fool you." With that, the man took out two neatly written pieces of paper, each stamped with three red seals.
“You two just need to write a word and put your fingerprints on this. If you’re not comfortable with it, you can look at the words on it and let your child see it clearly before signing.” As he spoke, the man pointed to the people in the room, “These are the owners of these shops. We invited them here to be witnesses.”
Blacksmith Zhou Xiang, fearing that Song Chunxue wouldn't believe him, began to introduce each person one by one.
"This is Uncle Zhao, the one who runs the mill up ahead. This is my second grandfather, an elder in the family. This is the owner of the tavern up ahead, and this is..."
He introduced each of the six people in the room one by one.
Song Chunxue believed them because the land was worthless to begin with, and selling it for five taels of silver was like a windfall for them.
“Mother, this land deed is written very clearly. It will be valid when taken to the government. The words about heavenly principles and human nature, as well as this line, are printed. The rest were written by them. There’s no problem.”
Sanwa looked at it carefully again. "But, Mother, shouldn't we try to negotiate the price with them?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
