good season

With this clue, the next morning, all the aunts and grandmas in the village made breakfast for their families. Instead of weaving at home, they came to the old ginkgo tree in the center of the village. There sat a fat, white old man. In the bamboo basket in front of the old man was a gleam of silver. It was a whole basket of silver, all of which were small ingots weighing one or two taels each.

Although the villagers here are richer than in many other places, they only use copper coins in their daily lives. Although they have seen silver, they have only seen a basket full of silver like this in their dreams.

This little old man is accompanied by a little granddaughter. There is no doubt that these two people are Zhen Wuduo and Zhao Shiqing.

Zhen Wuduo took a piece of silver, smiled, and said to his little granddaughter beside him: "My dear granddaughter, do you like silver?"

Zhao Shiqing: "I like it very much."

Zhen Wuduo: "Do you envy grandpa for having money?"

Zhao Shiqing: "I'm so envious."

Zhen Wuduo: "Want to know why grandpa has so much silver?"

Zhao Shiqing: "I really want to know."

Zhen Wuduo: "Grandpa has so much money because of the five comparisons."

Zhao Shiqing: "Five? Grandpa, please tell me. Your granddaughter is in a hurry to make money."

Zhen Wuduo: "The first comparison is to be more careful than others; the second comparison is to be kinder than others; the third comparison is to act faster than others; the fourth comparison is to think more than others; the fifth comparison is to know more people than others."

Zhao Shiqing suddenly realized: "No wonder grandpa has so much money. Aunts and aunts, I am not an outsider. I lived in this village when I was a child. You may still remember me. My family name is Shi. I lived in the alley in front."

Shuanzi's grandmother and mother were also in the crowd. Shuanzi's mother recognized Zhao Shiqing as the little girl who had been to her house yesterday. She quickly told Shuanzi's grandmother, "Mother, it was she who asked about Mrs. Shi's house yesterday."

Grandma Shuanzi stretched her neck to see more clearly. She asked tentatively, "Are you the little girl from Lao Shi's family?"

Zhao Shiqing nodded: "It's me."

Grandma Shuanzi shouted, "Oh, little girl, your eyes are healed? The Lord of Heaven has appeared, your eyes are finally healed!"

After Grandma Shuanzi said this, everyone else knew who Zhao Shiqing was: "So it's the little blind man from the old Shi family. Wow, it's good to have money. It can even cure blind people."

"That's right. Look how pretty this little girl is. Her eyes are like puddles of water. How can you tell that she was blind before?"

Grandma Shuanzi was anxious. She was different from these people. The Shi family was a business family. Unlike other families in the village, the men in the Shi family did not have to go to the fields to farm, and the women in the Shi family did not have to spin and weave day and night. Therefore, the villagers, especially the women in the village, had very complicated feelings towards the Shi family. They were envious and jealous, and even a little hateful.

But Shuanzi's grandmother was different. They were both widows and had only one son. They were tied together by the same fate. When she saw Zhao Shiqing's eyes were healed, Shuanzi's grandmother was really happy for Shi Pozi.

"Little girl, where is your grandma, and your parents? Why didn't they come back together?"

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Grandma Shuanzi remembered what her wife said yesterday. There was no reason for the little girl to go back to the village and ask around to see if there was anyone with the surname Shi or where she lived. Even if she was too young to remember, the adults in the family would have told her. What was going on?

Hearing someone finally asking, Zhao Shiqing sniffed and her eyes turned red: "To be honest with you, Auntie, I was separated from my family when I was young, and later I was taken in by my adoptive father. I was reunited with my grandfather not long ago. This time, we returned to the village to find the whereabouts of my parents and grandma."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then they began to talk about it. Shuanzi's grandmother couldn't believe it: "Little girl, you said you were separated from your family. How did you get separated?"

Zhao Shiqing shook her head. "I was injured. I was found in the bamboo forest beside the path ahead. Then I became seriously ill and I didn't remember anything when I woke up."

Shuanzi's grandmother said anxiously, "How is that possible? Your grandmother treats you like the apple of her eye. Why would she let you go to a bamboo forest alone?"

At this time, Zhen Wuduo said loudly: "Fellow villagers, please be quiet and listen to me."

The God of Wealth spoke, and everyone looked at him.

Zhen Wuduo said: "Now, I would like to ask everyone a few questions. Anyone who can provide clues and is not talking nonsense will be rewarded."

"First of all, who told you that my daughter's family went to another place to treat their child's illness?"

He looked at the little girl who was standing in the front and brought by Ling Bo: "You speak first."

This is the little girl who provided clues yesterday. She was so excited when she heard that she would speak in front of everyone and get a prize. Now it was finally her turn. The little girl said loudly, "Ten years ago, when I was still a child of four or five years old, a peddler came to the village one day. He sold delicious sesame candies. I asked my mother to buy some for me. The peddler asked me why I didn't go to see the blind little sister off. I asked if it was the blind little sister of the Shi family? He said yes.

At this time, my mother asked, what are you sending? Did the little blind boy go to see a doctor in another place? The peddler said, yes, on the way here in the morning, he happened to see a family with a blind girl going out. He asked a few more questions, and the family said they heard about a doctor who was very good at treating eyesight, so they took the child to see him.

Later, my mother told my grandmother about it, and my grandmother told the villagers. "

At this time, the aunties and grandmas laughed and pointed at the little girl and said, "Your grandmother is famous for her big mouth in the surrounding villages."

The little girl was a little embarrassed, and her mother twisted her again: "You're still talking about your grandmother, I think you're almost there."

Zhen Wuduo looked at Zhao Shiqing and said, "My dear granddaughter, how many useful words did this little girl say just now?"

Zhao Shiqing certainly didn't count, but she said loudly, "Fifteen!"

Zhen Wuduo pointed to the bamboo basket and said, "Give her fifteen pieces of silver."

Zhao Shiqing immediately started counting one, two, three, four, five, until he reached fifteen, fifteen small ingots, which was a full fifteen taels.

Fifteen taels of silver were held in front of the little girl. She was so scared that she didn't dare to reach out to take it. She had only heard the girl named Lingbo say that there was a reward, but she didn't expect that it would be exactly fifteen taels of silver.

Fifteen taels of silver, even if A Niang and she worked day and night to weave cloth, it would take two or three months to earn that much. Besides, they only earned copper coins, not hard-earned silver.

Her mother took the silver for her, smiling from ear to ear. If she had known that she could be given so much, she would have asked her own Nan to say a few more words.

Her mother hurriedly recalled what happened that day, but unfortunately her memory was far inferior to her daughter's. Not to mention the peddler, she didn't remember what happened that day at all. But someone else remembered what she didn't remember.

"The peddler you are talking about is not Xiao Wu, right? Xiao Wu knows the eldest son of the Shi family. He even asked the eldest son of the Shi family to bring him goods from the city. If it was Xiao Wu, he would definitely not ask like this. In our village, how could a little girl play with the blind boy of the Shi family, let alone see him off? They don't have such a relationship."

The others all nodded, indicating that this was the case.

Shuanzi's grandmother quickly comforted Zhao Shiqing: "Don't blame them, it's not that they don't want to play with you, it's that you had eye problems at the time, and your grandmother was worried about letting you go out, so you swung on the swings and blew the whistle at home every day, and sang to the birds. The eaves and walls of your house were all covered with birds, and there were swallows' nests in the yard."

Zhao Shiqing suddenly remembered the news Xiaoguai brought back. Who would have thought that the yard that was once full of birds has become a place where birds cannot reach.

The little girl from before was answering everyone's question: "That peddler is not Uncle Wu who comes here often. I have only seen him once."

At this time, Zhen Wuduo spoke again: "Now let me ask the second question: Besides this little girl, does anyone else remember the peddler?"

The aunties and grandmas looked at each other, racking their brains, but they couldn't remember that besides Xiao Wu, there was a second peddler who came to Zhuxitang.

At this moment, a weak voice came from the corner: "I remember."

Everyone looked over together, and it turned out that there was not only a woman here, but also a man hiding!
He was a thin boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old, with unkempt hair and tattered clothes. He looked very out of place in Zhuxitang, which was famous for its wealth.

An auntie kindly reminded him, "This is Lu Niu'er. His parents died early, and his family is the only one with the same surname in the village. He has no relatives to help him, and he himself is a weakling. He is the most useless person in our village."

When Lu Niuer heard the aunt say this to him, he angrily said, "I am useless, so what? I am not supported by women. Your husband, your two sons, and your son-in-law, all of them are supported by women. Your women work themselves to death spinning and weaving, and your husband sleeps in a dark room in town. Who in the village doesn't know about this?"

The auntie was sorely touched that she tried to beat up Lu Niu'er, but was pulled away by the other aunties. The auntie pointed at Lu Niu'er and said fiercely, "Just wait and see, I will smash your doghouse when I get back!"

Zhao Shiqing said to Lu Niu'er, "Please answer our question first. Have you ever seen that peddler?"

Lu Niu'er nodded: "Not only did he see me, he also kicked me into the pond. Fortunately, I knew how to hold my breath, and I stayed under the lotus leaf for a long time before coming out. I almost got stuck in the mud and couldn't climb out."

Zhao Shiqing asked: "What exactly is going on?"

Lu Niu'er: "I was hungry that day, and I begged several families in the village for half a bowl of brown rice. I was not full, so I wanted to go to the hillside over there to catch a snake to eat."

As soon as he said this, he heard an auntie say, "You didn't catch it for yourself, did you? I still remember that year when you were only a little older, you came to my house to beg for food, but my mother-in-law didn't give you any and scolded you a few times. That night you threw snakes into my yard through the gate."

Lu Niu'er snorted coldly: "That snake is not poisonous at all. You are guilty of your own faults. You deserve it!"

The old lady was so angry that she started to curse loudly, and Zhao Shiqing finally managed to get both sides to stop fighting temporarily.

She motioned for Lu Niu'er to continue, and Lu Niu'er said, "I was looking for snakes on the hillside, and at that moment, I saw a peddler coming over. I was behind a big tree at the time, so I could see him, but he couldn't see me.

I saw that the peddler was a stranger, not the one who usually came here, so I became curious and couldn't help but take a few more glances at him.

The peddler came to the big tree and stopped moving. He put down his load and walked forward.

I didn't know why he threw the load down. I wanted to see if there was anything good in the load, but I was afraid that he would come back suddenly. So I wanted to see what he was going to do and whether he had gone far away. So I walked about ten steps in the direction he was going. I saw him walk to an open space, look around, and then turn around and walk back. When he turned around, he saw me. He asked me why I was following him?
I said I didn't, and he suddenly pounced on me. He looked so fierce and scary. It was the first time in my life that I saw such a scary person.

I turned around and ran, I kept running towards the village, I was running in front and he was chasing me from behind, and when we ran to a pond, he caught up with me and kicked me into the pond. When I fell into the water, I heard someone shouting: "Who are you doing? Why are you hanging around in my pond?" The man said he was just passing by and was leaving soon.

But I still didn't dare to go out, until I couldn't hold it any longer, then I stuck my head out, there was no one around, so I went home. By the way, he kicked me hard, and although I went home, I couldn't get out of bed for several days. It was Aunt Li Xiu who was kind enough to see me and came to see me because she was worried that I was hungry. She hired a doctor for me and brought me food every day. Otherwise, I might have died."

Aunt Li Xiu was also in the crowd. Hearing this, she said, "I remember now. That's what happened. You said a passerby kicked you. It turned out to be a peddler."

Lu Niu'er said, "It's the peddler. He's carrying the peddler's load."

Zhen Wuduo asked Zhao Shiqing: "How much of what he said is useful?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Sixty or seventy sentences?"

Zhen Wuduo: "Count him for eighty sentences and give him eighty taels."

Zhao Shiqing: "Okay!"

Someone rubbed his ears and asked the people around him: "How much did the old man say?"

"Eighty taels!"

"Is it really eighty taels? Not eight taels?"

"It is eighty taels, absolutely true."

"Oh my god, eighty taels, that's a lot of copper coins!"

Zhao Shiqing called Lu Niu'er over and asked him to take off his tattered clothes. Then, he threw the small gold ingots into the tattered clothes. Everyone held their breath. Lu Niu'er stared blankly at the pile of silver ingots. Then everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Oh my God, there were really eighty taels!

"Lu Niu'er, now that you have the money, go find a wife and buy a loom, then you can enjoy a good life!"

Hearing this, Lu Niu'er suddenly came to his senses and spat at the person who spoke: "I have money to do business myself, not like your man who relies on women to make a living!"

"You little bastard, you don't know how to appreciate kindness. You deserve it for not being able to keep the money. Sooner or later, it will be given to the thief!"

Zhen Wuduo: "Come here, follow this kid. If there are two thieves, we will beat them one by one. If there are two thieves, we will beat them two. This silver is given by me. Anyone who dares to rob me is going against me!" (End of this chapter)