Chapter 86: My beloved granddaughter, does she like money? (Two chapters in one)
With this clue, the next morning, all the aunts and grandmas in the village prepared breakfast for their families. Instead of weaving at home, they came to the old ginkgo tree in the center of the village. There sat a white and fat old man. In the bamboo basket in front of the old man, there was a silver glitter. It was a whole basket of silver, all of which were small ingots weighing one or two taels each.
Although the villagers here are richer than in many other places, they use copper coins in their daily lives. Although they have seen silver, they have only seen a basket full of silver like this in their dreams.
The little old man was accompanied by a little granddaughter. Needless to say, these two people were Zhen Wuduo and Zhao Shiqing.
Zhen Wuduo took a piece of silver, smiled, and said to his little granddaughter beside him: "My dear granddaughter, do you like silver?"
Zhao Shiqing: "I like it very much."
Zhen Wuduo: "Do you envy Grandpa for having money?"
Zhao Shiqing: "I'm so envious."
Zhen Wuduo: "Do you want to know why grandpa has so much silver?"
Zhao Shiqing: "I really want to know."
Zhen Wuduo: "Grandpa has so much silver thanks to the five comparisons."
Zhao Shiqing: "Five? Grandpa, please tell me, my granddaughter is in a hurry to make money."
Zhen Wuduo: "The first comparison is that I am more careful than others; the second comparison is that I am more kind than others; the third comparison is that I am more quick than others; the fourth comparison is that I think more than others; the fifth comparison is that I know more people than others."
Zhao Shiqing suddenly realized: "No wonder grandpa has so much money. Aunts and aunts, I am not an outsider. I lived in this village when I was a child. You may still remember me. My family name is Shi. I lived in the alley in front."
Shuanzi's grandmother and mother were also in the crowd. Shuanzi's mother recognized Zhao Shiqing as the little girl who had visited her home yesterday. She quickly told Shuanzi's grandmother, "Mom, it was she who asked about Shi Pozi's home yesterday."
Grandma Shuanzi stretched her neck, trying to see more clearly. She asked tentatively, "Are you the little girl from Lao Shi's family?"
Zhao Shiqing nodded: "It's me."
Grandma Shuanzi exclaimed, "Oh, little girl, your eyes are healed! The Lord of Heaven has appeared, your eyes are finally healed!"
After Grandma Shuanzi said this, everyone else knew who Zhao Shiqing was: "So it's the little blind man from the old Shi family. Wow, it's good to have money. It can even cure blindness."
"That's right. Look how pretty this little girl is. Her eyes are like puddles of water. How can you tell that she was blind before?"
Grandma Shuanzi was anxious. She was different from these people. The Shi family was a business family. Unlike other families in the village, the men in the Shi family did not have to go to the fields to farm, and the women in the Shi family did not have to spin and weave day and night. Therefore, the villagers, especially the women in the village, had very complicated feelings towards the Shi family, with envy, jealousy, and even a little hatred.
But Shuanzi's grandmother was different. They were both widows and had only one son. They were both tied to the same fate. Seeing Zhao Shiqing's eyesight improved, Shuanzi's grandmother was truly happy for Shi Pozi.
"Little girl, where is your grandma, and your parents? Why didn't they come back together?"
As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Grandma Shuanzi remembered what her wife said yesterday. There was no reason for the little girl to go back to the village and ask around to see if there was anyone with the surname Shi. She knew where her family lived. Even if she was too young to remember it, the adults in the family would tell her. What was going on?
Hearing someone finally asking, Zhao Shiqing sniffed, her eyes reddening. "To be honest, Auntie, I was separated from my family when I was young. Later, my adoptive father took me in, and I was reunited with my grandfather not long ago. We returned to the village this time to find the whereabouts of my parents and grandma."
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then began to talk. Grandma Shuanzi couldn't believe it: "Little girl, you said you were separated from your family. How did you get separated?"
Zhao Shiqing shook her head. "I was injured. I was found in the bamboo forest beside the path ahead. I fell seriously ill afterwards and didn't remember anything when I woke up."
Shuanzi's grandmother said anxiously, "How is that possible? Your grandmother treats you like the apple of her eye. How could she let you go to a bamboo forest alone?"
At this time, Zhen Wuduo said loudly: "Fellow villagers, please be quiet and listen to me."
The God of Wealth spoke, and everyone looked at him.
Zhen Wuduo said, "Now, I'm going to ask everyone a few questions. Anyone who can provide clues and doesn't talk nonsense will be rewarded."
"First of all, who told you that my daughter and her family went to another place to get their child treated?"
He looked at the little girl standing in the front, who was brought by Ling Bo: "You go first."
This is the little girl who provided the clue yesterday. When she heard that she would tell the story in front of everyone today and that she would get a prize, she was so excited all the way. Now it was finally her turn. The little girl said loudly: "Ten years ago, when I was still a child of four or five years old, one day a peddler came to the village. He sold delicious sesame candy. I dragged my mother to buy some for me. The peddler asked me why I didn't go to see the blind little sister off. I said, is it the blind little sister of the Shi family? He said yes.
At this time, my mother asked, "What are you sending me? Is the blind child going out to see a doctor again?" The peddler said, "Yes, on the way here this morning, I happened to see a family with a blind child. He asked a few questions, and the family said they heard about a doctor who was very good at treating eyesight, so they took the child to see him."
Later, my mother told my grandmother about this, and my grandmother told the villagers.
At this time, the aunties and grandmas burst into laughter and pointed at the little girl and said, "Your grandmother is famous for her quick talk in all the villages."
The little girl felt a little embarrassed, and her mother pinched her again: "You're still talking about your grandmother, but I think you're almost there too."
Zhen Wuduo looked at Zhao Shiqing and said, "My dear granddaughter, how many useful words did this little girl say just now?"
Zhao Shiqing certainly didn't count, but she said loudly, "Fifteen!"
Zhen Wuduo pointed to the bamboo basket and said, "Count out fifteen pieces of silver for her."
Zhao Shiqing immediately started counting one, two, three, four, and five until he reached fifteen, fifteen small ingots, which was a full fifteen taels.
Fifteen taels of silver were held in front of the little girl. She was so scared that she didn't dare to reach out to take it. She had only heard the girl named Lingbo say that there was a reward, but she didn't expect that it would be a full fifteen taels of silver.
Fifteen taels of silver would take A'niang and her two or three months of weaving day and night to earn. Besides, they only earned copper coins, not hard-earned silver.
Her mother took the silver for her, smiling from ear to ear. If she had known she could get so much, she would have asked her own Nan to say a few more words.
Her mother hurriedly tried to recall what happened that day, but unfortunately her memory was far inferior to her daughter's. Not to mention the peddler, she didn't remember anything that happened that day at all.
But someone else remembered what she didn't remember.
"The peddler you're talking about isn't Xiao Wu, right? Xiao Wu knows the eldest son of the Shi family. He even asked him to bring him goods from the city. If it were Xiao Wu, he definitely wouldn't ask like that. In our village, how could a little girl play with the blind boy of the Shi family, let alone see him off? They don't have that kind of relationship."
Everyone else nodded, indicating that this was the case.
Shuanzi's grandmother quickly comforted Zhao Shiqing: "Don't blame them. It's not that they didn't want to play with you. It's that you had eye problems at the time, and your grandmother was worried about letting you go out. That's why you swung on the swings and blew the whistle at home every day, and sang to the birds. The eaves and walls of your house were full of birds, and there were even swallows' nests in the yard."
Zhao Shiqing suddenly remembered the news Xiaoguai brought back. Who would have thought that the yard that was once full of birds has become a place where birds cannot reach.
The little girl from before was answering everyone's questions: "That peddler is not Uncle Wu who comes here often. I've only seen him once."
At this time, Zhen Wuduo spoke again: "Now let me ask the second question: Besides this little girl, does anyone else remember the peddler?"
The aunties and grandmas looked at each other, racking their brains, but they couldn't remember whether there was a second peddler who came to Zhuxitang besides Xiao Wu.
At this moment, a weak voice came from the corner: "I remember."
Everyone looked over together, and it turned out that there was not only a woman here, but also a man hiding!
He was a skinny boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old, with disheveled hair and tattered clothes. He looked very out of place in Zhuxitang, which was famous for its wealth.
An auntie kindly reminded him, "This is Lu Niu'er. His parents died early, and his family is the only one with the same surname in the village. He has no relatives to help him, and he himself is too weak to do anything. He is the most useless person in our village."
When Lu Niu'er heard the aunt say this to him, he angrily said, "What's wrong with me being useless? I'm not supported by women. Your husband, your two sons, and your son-in-law, all of them are supported by women. Your women work themselves to death spinning and weaving, and your husband sleeps in a dark room in town. Who in the village doesn't know about it?"
The auntie was sorely touched that she tried to hit Lu Niu'er, but was pulled away by the other aunties. They pointed at Lu Niu'er and said fiercely, "Just wait and see, I'll smash your doghouse when I get back!"
Zhao Shiqing said to Lu Niu'er, "Please answer our question first. You said you had seen that peddler?"
Lu Niu'er nodded. "Not only did he see me, he even kicked me into the pond. Luckily, I was able to hold my breath, so I stayed under the lotus leaves for quite a while before coming out. I almost got stuck in the mud and couldn't get out."
Zhao Shiqing asked, "What exactly is going on?"
Lu Niu'er: "I was hungry that day, and I begged several families in the village, but I only got half a bowl of brown rice. I wasn't full, so I wanted to go to the hillside over there and catch a snake to eat."
Just as he said this, he heard an aunt say, "You're not catching snakes for yourself, are you? I still remember that year when you were just a little kid and came to my house to beg for food. My mother-in-law didn't give you any and scolded you a few times. That night, you threw snakes into my yard through the gate."
Lu Niu'er snorted coldly: "That snake is not poisonous at all. You are guilty, you deserve it!"
The auntie was so angry that she started cursing loudly, and Zhao Shiqing had a hard time getting both sides to stop fighting temporarily.
She motioned for Lu Niu'er to continue, and Lu Niu'er said, "I was looking for snakes on the hillside when I saw a peddler coming towards me. I was behind a big tree at the time, so I could see him but he couldn't see me.
I saw that the peddler was a stranger, not the one who usually came here, so I became curious and couldn't help but look at him a few more times.
The peddler stopped in front of the big tree, put down his burden, and walked forward.
I didn't know why he threw the burden down. I wanted to see what good things were in the burden, but I was afraid that he would come back suddenly. So I wanted to see what he was going to do and whether he had gone far away. I walked about ten steps in the direction he was going, and saw him walk to an open space, look around, and then turn around and walk back. When he turned around, he saw me. He asked me why I was following him?
I said I didn't, and he suddenly pounced on me. He looked so fierce and scary. It was the first time in my life that I saw such a scary person.
I turned and ran, all the way to the village. I was in front, and he was chasing me. We ran to a pond, where he caught up with me and kicked me into the pond. As I fell into the water, I heard someone shouting, "Who are you? Why are you hanging around in my pond?" The man said he was just passing by and was about to leave.
But I still didn't dare go out until I couldn't hold it any longer, then I stuck my head out. There was no one around, so I went home. Oh, by the way, that kick he gave me was pretty bad. Although I went home, I couldn't get out of bed for several days. It was Aunt Li Xiu who was kind enough to see me stay at home and worry that I was hungry, so she came to see me, hired a doctor for me, and brought me food every day. Otherwise, I might have died."
Aunt Li Xiu was also in the crowd. Upon hearing this, she said, "I remember now. That's what happened. You said a passerby kicked you. Turns out it was a peddler."
Lu Niu'er said, "It's the peddler. He's carrying his load."
Zhen Wuduo asked Zhao Shiqing: "How much of what he said is useful?"
Zhao Shiqing: "Sixty or seventy sentences?"
Zhen Wuduo: "Count him for eighty sentences and give him eighty taels."
Zhao Shiqing: "Okay!"
Someone rubbed his ears and asked the person next to him: "How much did the old man say?"
"Eighty taels!"
"Is it really eighty taels? Not eight taels?"
"It is eighty taels, absolutely true."
"Oh my god, eighty taels, that's a lot of copper coins!"
Zhao Shiqing called Lu Niu'er over and asked him to take off his tattered clothes. Then, he threw the small gold ingots into the tattered clothes. Everyone held their breath. Lu Niu'er stared blankly at the pile of silver ingots. Then everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Oh my God, there really were eighty taels!
"Lu Niu'er, now that you have the money, go find a wife and buy a loom, then you can enjoy a good life!"
Hearing this, Lu Niu'er suddenly came to his senses and spat at the person who spoke: "I have money and I will do business myself. I won't rely on women like your man to make a living!"
"You little bastard, you don't know how to appreciate kindness. You deserve it for not being able to keep the silver. Sooner or later, it will become a bargain for the thief!"
Zhen Wuduo: "Come on, follow this kid. If there are two thieves, we will beat them one by one. If there are two, we will beat them both. This money was given out by me. Anyone who dares to rob me is going against me!"
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