Li Yan followed Mr. Li and two villagers into an antique house. Li Yan's eyes fell on a shopkeeper who was over fifty years old and neatly dressed and sitting behind the counter. His fingers were nimbly flipping a stack of copper coins. The shopkeeper picked up a copper coin with a pair of brass pliers and strung them together accurately!
Hearing the noise, the shopkeeper looked up at the newcomer, put down his work and asked, "What do you need?"
Li Yan smiled slightly and walked to the counter: "Shopkeeper, we just received the payment from the owner of Piaoxianglou for the goods. We want to exchange it for copper coins from you so that we can divide the money when we return to the village!"
The old shopkeeper smiled knowingly upon hearing this: "It's OK to exchange. Bring the silver here first, and I'll weigh it!"
Mr. Li hurried forward and handed the silver to the shopkeeper. The old man took out a scale and placed the silver on it. Looking at the slightly tilted beam, the old man nodded with satisfaction and said to Mr. Li, "You do have twenty taels of silver. How do you want to exchange it? Do you want to exchange it all for copper coins?"
Mr. Li thought that although distributing all these copper coins would be convenient, he was also worried about making it too conspicuous. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Could you help me exchange ten taels of loose silver and the rest for copper coins?"
Soon after the two men had discussed it, the old man asked the boy to prepare the loose silver and coins. It happened that everyone on this trip brought a basket, so they put all the copper coins they exchanged in it!
Mr. Li collected the silver coins and, along with two villagers, carried the basket of copper coins onto the carriage. He said nervously, "Let's go!"
Li Dalang urged the carriage and they quickly left the city. When they reached the small road and there were fewer and fewer pedestrians on the road, their tense nerves slowly relaxed!
At this time, Mr. Li asked Li Yan in confusion: "Just now at the bank, why did you tell him where the money came from?"
Perhaps she was overthinking it, Li Yan said embarrassedly, "I'm worried that the shopkeeper might be afraid that the money came from illegal sources and won't give us the change!"
Mr. Li was choked by his granddaughter's answer, but then he thought about it and realized it was right: "Judging from the way they are dressed today, it doesn't look like they have so much money!"
When the few people drove the carriage to the village entrance, the villagers were already waiting there, looking forward to their return.
They gathered around excitedly, asking about the situation of several people.
Old Man Li patted the basket on the cart and said to the villagers, "Don't worry, everyone. The fruit has all been sold. I'll go back and get the paper I wrote down this morning, and we'll divide the money right away!"
Master Li asked Li Yan and Li Dalang to take good care of the things, and then hurried home!
Everyone cheered, the villagers filled with excitement and joy. From time to time, some villagers would ask Li Dalang about his sales today.
When the villagers learned that they had sold it for twenty taels of silver, they were extremely excited. Everyone was silently calculating the amount they had earned!
After a while, Mr. Li brought out the data recorded this morning, and the originally noisy conversation instantly quieted down!
Mr. Li handed the paper to Li Yan and said, "Calculate the wages for the villagers according to the records here!"
Those whose names were called came forward happily to take the copper coins. Those silver coins that could not be melted were divided into groups of several households and asked to change them privately.
The villagers took the copper coins handed over by Li Yan with a smile on their faces. Except for the wealthy family in the village, Li Youshou's family, which had four sons, three daughters-in-law, and five half-grown children, their family received nearly one or two taels of silver, and each other family received more than two hundred coins!
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