"Brother Quan, come on, come into the tent with me," Hong Xiaoduo called out softly.
Normally, if she said that, Quan Jinghuai would have followed without saying a word.
But seeing her excited expression, he asked, "What is it?"
"What is it? Is it something important? Is it good news? We haven't counted the contents of the food box that General Mu gave us yet." Hong Xiaoduo was curious about the amount inside, thinking about how heavy it felt in her hand.
Quan Jinghuai suppressed a laugh and held up three fingers.
"Three, three thousand taels?" Hong Xiaoduo understood.
Quan Jinghuai nodded. For some reason, he hated greedy faces the most, but he didn't feel disgusted at all by this excited look in front of him. On the contrary, he found it quite cute.
"Did they give it to you voluntarily?" Hong Xiaoduo asked curiously. If it was an official reward for helping to solve the problem of pirates, there was no need to hide it.
But if not, could it be that Brother Quan asked for it himself? She felt that was unlikely.
Now that she knew the amount, she wasn't in a hurry to go into the tent to count it. What she was more curious about now was where this considerable sum of silver came from.
Quan Jinghuai didn't hide anything from her and explained the whole story. Then he observed her reaction carefully. Surely she wouldn't laugh at him for not being chivalrous in handling this matter?
After hearing this, Hong Xiaoduo smiled and gave Quan Jinghuai a thumbs up: "Not bad, but I'm really surprised that you would do this, Brother Quan."
“With so many mouths to feed, every expense costs money. This time, we helped them eliminate a major threat, so three thousand taels of silver is nothing. Besides, this money didn't come from their own pockets,” Quan Jinghuai said.
"Wait a minute, Brother Quan, you said it wasn't from their own pockets, could it be?" Hong Xiaoduo thought of the cover-up when giving the money, and pointed towards the sea.
Is that what she meant?
Quan Jinghuai nodded and smiled, "The money for today's celebratory luncheon also came from there."
"That old man looked pretty old-fashioned, I didn't expect this at all," Hong Xiaoduo teased with a smile.
However, when she thought about how Brother Quan asked for substantial money because it was for the sake of his seven children and his large family, she was truly moved.
Everyone else is a master, enjoying the respect and offerings from their disciples.
However, after Brother Quan took in disciples, he still had to worry about finding ways to support them.
"Brother Quan, we've dragged you down." Hong Xiaoduo felt a little bad.
Seeing her like this, Quan Jinghuai quickly said, "Stop, Xiaoduo, don't say that. I'm not used to it. Compared to you, what I'm doing is nothing."
Even if you have no relation to them, you can still take them in and protect them.
Besides, I'm their master now. Isn't it only natural for me to think of them?
These were Quan Jinghuai's heartfelt words. She was an unmarried young woman who had met them when they were still dirty little beggars, and she had tolerated them calling her "mother"!
Although it sounds a bit ridiculous, she has actually let them shout until now.
“Then, Brother Quan, you can keep this money. How you use it is up to you,” Hong Xiaoduo said.
He had risked his reputation to get the money, so Hong Xiaoduo felt it was inappropriate for her to keep it, because she would have reservations about using it.
This amount is far greater than the initial sum of silver given by Brother Quan; it's over a thousand, even three thousand taels.
Hearing her words, Quan Jinghuai understood her thoughts and smiled: "Xiaoduo, just keep it. Don't feel burdened. You should think of it this way: the pirate incident was originally your doing, not mine."
All I did was ask for it. You could say I asked for it for you.
After saying that, he saw the man in front of him, who had just been very moved, suddenly look enlightened: "Brother Quan, what you said seems to make sense."
"But Brother Quan, you're really something. If I were sitting there, I probably wouldn't have thought of doing that."
Quan Jinghuai's words clearly comforted Hong Xiaoduo, and she instantly felt much less burdened.
Quan Jinghuai could almost imagine that in the days to come, she would take her seven disciples and Feiyan on all sorts of shopping and eating sprees.
In fact, Quan Jinghuai also found her usual style of doing things to be quite unique.
You might say she's stingy, but even the black and gray oxen used for pulling the cart are fed top-quality fodder.
She was generous, never wasting a single bite of food along the way, and never staying in the best rooms at inns.
“Xiao Duo, even without these three thousand taels of silver, I've never seen you worry about money before. There are twelve mouths to feed, big and small, plus two four-legged ones.” Quan Jinghuai said casually when the topic came up.
"Brother Quan, to be honest, when I first started taking care of these seven people, I was really worried. At that time, I was penniless and couldn't even afford to buy them steamed buns or sesame cakes."
But later, after meeting a series of kind people and having money in my pocket, life wasn't so hard anymore. But I was still thinking about how to save money and whether I should try to earn more.
Well, I think I should be able to earn money if I want to.
"Even if I'm not capable of earning it myself, I have ways to deal with it. I'll make sure they don't have to be beggars again," Hong Xiaoduo said with a smile.
She had a Thunderfire Sword, an ancient sword from a previous dynasty worth five thousand taels of gold, at her waist; that was her source of confidence.
However, even though Brother Quan was one of her own, family, she couldn't tell him about selling the ancient sword at her waist in the future.
I have a feeling that if I told him, he would definitely object.
Anyway, that's how she felt.
"Xiao Duo, I overheard General Mu asking if he knew his nephew. Does that mean he knows that nephew likes you? If that's the case, even if he's extremely narcissistic, at least his status is there—he's a genuine young general."
The Mu family has been military officers for generations, with a good family background and reputation.
"If this marriage with the Mu family goes through, supporting all seven of them won't be a problem," Quan Jinghuai said.
Not far away, the children, who had already finished getting ready, were approaching. Kaiyang and Yaoguang wanted to come over, but Tianshu stopped them, saying that their mother was talking to their master and they shouldn't go over to disturb them.
Hearing him say that, Feiyan, who had originally wanted to return to the table and sew shoe soles under the lantern, changed her mind and joined the children in posing questions to each other and doing arithmetic.
After hearing Quan Jinghuai's words, Hong Xiaoduo hurriedly waved her hands: "Brother Quan, don't talk nonsense if you don't know the situation. How could that guy like me? It's just because..."
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