Upon entering the courtyard, Grandma Jiang asked with a smile, "Wan'er, I heard from Dahe that you and your second uncle were on your way home at noon to transport another batch of mosquito coils to town to sell. How did it go? Did you sell them all?"
"Of course, they're all sold out. You wouldn't believe it, Grandma, all those customers who couldn't get any were staring at me longingly, begging me to go home and bring back some more mosquito coils. They said they'd wait as long as it took," Jiang Wanwan said happily.
"Sigh," she sighed heavily again, "It's all my fault for being too clever. The mosquito coil I developed is so effective that a customer spent a lot of money on it."
"A lot of money? How much?" Old Mrs. Jiang's eyes lit up, and she stopped in her tracks, her eyes fixed on Jiang Wanwan like searchlights.
The Jiang family members following beside or behind the two were immediately intrigued and stopped in their tracks, watching Jiang Wanwan with excitement.
Jiang Wanwan crossed her arms, blinked her left eye, and smiled mysteriously, "Guess what."
"One tael! It must be one tael of silver!" Uncle Jiang said excitedly.
One tael of silver was a lot for him.
To everyone's surprise, Jiang Wanwan shook her head and said with a smile, "That's not right!"
“I guess it’s two taels! Since it’s a large sum of money, it must be two taels.” Aunt Hu confidently said, holding up two fingers.
"My aunt guessed half right. However, there was another distinguished guest who rewarded us handsomely."
“It should be five taels. The wealthy families in town should be quite generous, I guess it’s five taels!” Zhu said, holding up five fingers.
"Three taels! It must be three taels!" the boys said with grins. Who would give someone so much silver for no reason? Wouldn't it be better to keep it for themselves to buy food?
"None of them are right!" Jiang Wanwan held up a finger and shook it from side to side.
"Oh dear, Wan-ya, just tell me already, stop keeping me in suspense. Grandma's getting impatient."
"Yes, Wan, just tell us already, we're all so anxious."
Jiang Wanwan feigned a nonchalant expression, rummaging through her crossbody bag. "Well, it's not a lot of money, even though it's supposed to be a large sum. Here, that's all."
As she spoke, Jiang Wanwan slowly opened her palm, revealing a silver ingot in her hand.
"Ten taels!"
Everyone in the Jiang family, except for Uncle Jiang Er and Jiang Xun, stared wide-eyed and couldn't help but cry out in surprise, their eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets.
Grandma Jiang pointed at the ten-tael silver ingot in Jiang Wanwan's hand and asked in a trembling voice, "Wanwan, is this ten-tael silver really a gift from a guest? Or did you take out your own money to please Grandma?"
It's no wonder the Jiang family reacted so strongly; they lived in a remote, impoverished village where earning even a penny was incredibly difficult. Moreover, they had never seen anyone give such a large sum of money as a tip.
Jiang Wanwan pouted, "Grandma, you don't believe me!"
"I believe you! I believe you!" Grandma Jiang said hastily, worried that she might upset her eldest granddaughter. But her gaze involuntarily fell on Uncle Jiang, and it wasn't until Uncle Jiang nodded at her that she fully believed this incredible good news.
"My goodness, ten taels of silver! We'd have to set up our stall for ten days to earn that."
"Who says otherwise? One customer tipped us two taels of silver, and another tipped us ten taels. My goodness! Not counting the money we made selling things at the stall, we've already earned twelve taels of silver just from tips alone. This incredible wealth has finally come our way!"
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