Since the clan chief was present, it wasn't up to Limai, a young wife he had just married, to speak out.
Li Mai simply put her arm around Zhu Zhu and stood behind the crowd to watch the fun.
After the clan chief saw that they had all lined up in their respective families, he spoke up: "Back then, the six of us helped Mr. Yun Chang, and now only I am still alive. The other five are Zhou Liao, the father of the three brothers Da Niu; Zhou Qiong, the father of You Cai and Lin Cai; Zhou Yuan, the father of You Gen; Zhou Yongping, the father of Wang Cai and Wang Chun; and Zhou Yongze, the second uncle of Sanli."
"However, Yongze died suddenly that year. Later, the villagers said that Mr. Yun had brought bad luck to the village because of these things, and they told us to drive Mr. Yun away."
"Later, Mr. Yun heard the news and passed away. Yunze's older brother, Yongxin, was Zhou Quan's grandfather. Mr. Yun felt the most guilty towards Yongze. He had a good relationship with Yongze when he was in the village. I think the main reason he buried these things here was to thank Yongze's family."
"Now that Sanli has summoned all of us, to be fair, I've decided to divide everything Mr. Yun left behind equally. Everything will be divided into six portions, and the six families will take them back. As for your brothers, how you divide it back home is your own business."
“Alright, we’ll listen to the clan leader,” Wangcai and Lincai, the two brothers, said first.
Despite the clan leader's advanced age, he is of a lower generation and is of the same generation as people like Old Man Zhou.
"Chieftain, what if there happens to be a little extra?" Yougen asked with a grin.
"The extra bit, which can't be divided into six portions, will be given to the Sanli family. Mr. Yun buried this in his family's land, and it was his son Xiaolei who found it today. If Xiaolei hadn't found it, would you have seen this windfall?"
Old Man Zhou's full name is Zhou Sanli.
The clan chief looked at Zhou Yougen and said, "If none of you have any objections, I'll start distributing the items."
Everyone looked at each other, and finally shook their heads, indicating that they had no objections.
The clan chief called Old Man Zhou and a few others over to open a jar, pour out its contents onto the ground—it was all stones.
A group of women excitedly tried to push forward to see what the treasure was, but to their surprise, what was poured out were some stones.
"Is this stone also a treasure?" a woman asked in surprise.
The clan chief glanced at her. "The letter said there might be something inside these stones, but whether we can find anything depends on luck."
“Here are twenty-seven stones in total. I’ll divide them, or you can choose them yourselves. You can’t tell anything from their appearance, and they’re all about the same size,” the clan chief asked.
"Chieftain, please distribute them. We really can't see what's valuable about these things," Old Man Zhou said.
The others nodded in agreement. Indeed, they had lived their entire lives in the mountains, seeing nothing but stones every day, so there was nothing special about them.
The clan chief squatted down and divided the pieces into six portions, each containing four pieces.
The remaining three pieces were set aside.
The men of the families who received the stones would carry them to the back and give them to their brothers or wives before going to wait at the front.
The next jar opened contained a jar of silver ingots and silver notes, along with some beads of various colors.
When they saw the silver that they cherished most, their eyes lit up, and they wished it were all their own.
The clan chief was clearly shocked; he had never seen so many silver ingots before.
Finally, the total amount of silver ingots and silver notes was more than five thousand taels. It seems that the beads were worth five thousand taels, while the letter said they were worth ten thousand taels.
These items were easy to divide, and each family received a considerable amount of silver ingots, silver notes, and beads.
Once they got their hands on these things, everyone was overjoyed, and the brothers squatted there to divide them up.
Seeing this, the clan chief shouted, "There's still one jar left. After you've divided it up, go back and let the brothers divide it up too."
Everyone gathered around again.
When they saw the two large stacks of books taken out of the jar, everyone fell silent.
To be honest, none of them are literate; very few of them can read. Even those who received some early education are now all working in the fields.
Therefore, they lost interest in all of these books.
“We can’t read either, so the clan leader can decide how to distribute them. See if any of the children can use them for schooling. I’ll show them to my son when he goes to school in town,” said Zhou Sanniu’s wife.
“Yes, clan chief, we don’t need the book. If anyone wants it, they can exchange it for silver,” Wang Chun suddenly said.
"Hey, this is a good idea, clan leader, let's divide it up. Once it's divided, whoever wants it can exchange it for silver." Everyone chimed in with their own clamor.
Li Mai and Zhao Shi exchanged a glance. It seemed that if they were to give away the books they wanted to others, they would have to pay money in order to keep the books for themselves.
The clan chief thought this method would work, so they started dividing it up.
"The Three Character Classic, then let's give it to Lin Cai's family. Your son should be starting his formal education at the academy this year, right?" the clan chief asked as he distributed the books.
Lin Cai nodded, "Okay."
"The Thousand Character Classic will go to Wangcai's family; you have a child who needs to study." The clan chief continued distributing the books.
When the incense manuals were distributed, the clan chief felt that these were things that rural people like them wouldn't understand, so he was a bit stumped, "Who wants these incense manuals?"
No one said a word.
Zhao said calmly, "Clan leader, if no one wants it, just give it to us. Xiaoquan can't do much anyway, so let him keep it at home to pass the time!"
The clan chief thought about it and agreed, so he put it in the pile at his house.
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