"What? Five taels of silver? I'm not even worth five taels of silver even if I'm sold!" When Mrs. Li heard the amount of the entrance fee, her eyes widened and her face was full of disbelief.
Her skinny body seemed to be injected with a powerful force. She stood up from the ground and shouted at the top of her lungs. Her voice echoed in the gathering place of Sujia Village, startling the birds in the trees and making them fly away.
"Yes, our family has no money!" Widow Wang also responded.
She frowned, one hand tightly grasping the corner of her clothes that had turned a little pale from washing, and the other hand constantly wiping her eyes, as if the hardship of life came back to her mind when money was mentioned, and her eyes were full of helplessness and sorrow.
"Oh my God, there are more than a dozen people in our family, and the entrance fee alone will cost more than 50 taels. Otherwise, we might as well not enter the city!" Dazhuang's father counted his fingers for a long time, muttering the numbers in his mouth. His rough fingers were particularly eye-catching in the sunlight.
After figuring it out, he felt like he was hit by something heavy, his body shook violently, and he was shocked by the entrance fee from his home. The blood instantly disappeared from his face, and he stood there blankly.
"Your family is okay, but my family has more than 20 people, and the entrance fee is more than 100 taels! Our family is so poor that even mice don't want to come, so how can we have the money to go into the city?" The head of the Su Manqing family, a large family in the village, frowned, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to have deepened a little, and his face was wrinkled with worry.
He kept pacing on the spot, rubbing his hands together, looking anxious and helpless.
"Village chief, how about we not go into the city?" Su Dashan said tentatively.
In the corner, Aunt Qin and Grandma Dajiang were huddled together, their heads close together, their eyes occasionally glancing at the village chief and Old Lady Yao's family in the center of the crowd, while they were whispering to each other.
Aunt Qin narrowed her eyes, a hint of jealousy on her face, and lowered her voice and said, "I think only the village head's family and Old Lady Yao's family can afford the five taels of silver for the city entrance fee. One of them has someone working in the city, and the other has a scholar.
They are much richer than us. Look, we work so hard to make ends meet that we barely have any money left, but they are so well off that they live a comfortable life.
As she spoke, she curled her lips, her eyes full of dissatisfaction.
After hearing this, Grandma Dajiang nodded slowly, with a hint of envy and dissatisfaction in her eyes.
She hunched her back slightly, patted her thigh lightly with one hand, and responded, "Yes, I see that the village chief's clothes have fewer patches than ours, which shows that they have more money.
"Old Lady Yao is even richer. I remember they drank sugar water and mung bean soup on the road last time. The aroma wafted far away and made my grandson's mouth water. But she was so stingy that she wouldn't even give us a bit. Look at how stingy she is, huh!"
Grandma Dajiang frowned as she spoke, and the wrinkles on her face deepened a little, as if all the resentment was written on her face.
Although Grandma Dajiang's voice was very low, it still attracted the attention of a woman who was sewing shoe soles next to her.
The woman stopped what she was doing, leaned over curiously, and asked, "Auntie, what are you talking about? Why are you talking about the village chief's family and Old Lady Yao's family?"
Aunt Qin and Grandma Dajiang were startled by this sudden inquiry. They looked at each other, and Aunt Qin quickly waved her hand and said, "Nothing, nothing, just chatting about family matters."
The woman looked at them doubtfully and continued to sew the soles of her shoes.
"Alas, how can we compare to them?" Aunt Qin stared at Yao Qingshuang closely. Her eyes followed Yao Qingshuang's figure closely. Looking at Yao Qingshuang's clothes, which were not made of silk or satin but were much neater than her own, and the neatly combed bun on her head, the fire of jealousy in her heart burned even more fiercely. Her hands unconsciously twisted in front of her, and her lips trembled slightly.
The sun was baking the earth scorchingly, and the atmosphere on the open space where Sujia Village gathered was particularly depressing.
The village chief stood in the middle, calculating the entrance fee with a worried look on his face.
The wrinkles on his weather-beaten face seemed to have deepened a little, and sweat slid down his cheeks, but he had no time to wipe it away.
He was silently calculating in his mind: There are more than 200 villagers in Sujia Village, and each person has five taels of silver. The entrance fee alone will be more than 1,000 taels. The village simply does not have that much money.
As I raised my head and looked at the sad and helpless faces around me, I felt mixed emotions.
But when he thought of the consequences of not entering the city, he couldn't help but sigh deeply.
Everyone’s food is almost gone. If we don’t buy food, what will we do in the future?
This problem was like a huge stone, weighing heavily on his heart.
The villagers nearby were also whispering to each other, some sighing, while others were anxiously arguing about what to do.
At this time, Yao Qingshuang was really shocked when she heard that the entrance fee was five taels of silver.
However, she changed her mind and thought: everyone just needs to go into the city to buy supplies, there is no need for the whole village to go in, just send a few people in to buy them, this way the entrance fee can be kept within a reasonable range, and everyone should be able to accept it.
Yao Qingshuang took a step forward, cleared his throat, and said to the village chief, "Village chief, look, there are so many people in our village. If we all go to the city, we really can't afford the entrance fee.
We can count the supplies the villagers need and send a few people to the city to buy them. This way, we can buy the things we need urgently and save a lot of money on the city entrance fee.
When the village chief heard this, his gloomy face instantly broke into a delighted smile. He clapped his hands and shouted, "That's right, that's right! Wencheng's mother is really smart. Why didn't I think of this good idea?"
As he spoke, he excitedly turned to face the villagers and shouted in a louder voice, "Fellow villagers, go back immediately and count the supplies you need. Remember, only buy what you need urgently, and don't buy everything indiscriminately.
We'll send people into the city to make some purchases shortly. The village will cover the entrance fees, so don't worry!"
The village chief's voice echoed above the gathered villagers, and that resonant voice carried a power that reassured everyone.
The villagers were stunned at first, then nodded one after another, with relieved smiles on their faces. Everyone said one after another: "Oh, this is really a good idea!"
"Yes, thanks to Old Lady Yao for coming up with this idea."
With that, everyone quickly dispersed and hurried home, ready to carefully count the supplies that needed to be purchased for the family.
After a while, everyone came back one after another and reported the lists of supplies they needed to buy.
After some discussion, it was finally decided to let the village chief's eldest son Su Yuandong, Su Wenjun, Dazhuang and Doctor Bai go to the city together to purchase supplies.
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