Chapter 119

Shuiqing had a feeling.

Bai Ziqian seemed to be purchasing something valuable, not just charcoal priced at two wen per jin.

It felt like a scene from a luxurious store in Hua Guo, where a wealthy young master pointed at bags and shoes, saying, ‘I’ll take this, that, and everything else.’

However, Bai Ziqian, the sole heir to the wealthiest family in Nandu, wasn’t just shopping—he was the proprietor of the store; it was all his own estate.

Zhang Jinniu stared dumbfoundedly at the young Bai Ziqian. He knew he was from a rich family, but in his understanding, wasn’t one or two silver taels already a lot? Could a child really afford that?

Not only today’s one or two silver taels, but also the ones to come!

In about five days, he could deliver another batch of charcoal, and it wouldn’t be less than today’s. Before the New Year, he could at least make four deliveries, totaling five taels of silver, including today’s.

Could Bai Ziqian really afford this?

Bai Ziqian hurriedly ran back to the house where he was staying, fetched a silver ingot, and tossed it straight to Zhang Jinniu.

Zhang Jinniu instinctively caught it. The icy sensation in his hand made him look closely.

Then, he stood there dumbfounded.

“Is… is this silver? Is it real silver?”

Bai Ziqian replied impatiently, “Bite it and see if it leaves teeth marks.”

Who was he looking down upon?

He had indeed been very poor before!

But now, he was completely different—before his parents left, they left him over a hundred taels of silver, just for pocket money.

Buying winter charcoal for Shuiqing’s family was the right thing to do. What was the problem with spending a little silver?

Zhang Jinniu had only seen silver in other people’s hands; their family didn’t even have broken silver. They earned just a few wen here and there, and when they accumulated enough, they’d string together copper coins to make a tael.

Now, real silver was in his hands, and it was a hefty ingot. He swallowed nervously, then bit into it.

Seeing the teeth marks, he grinned foolishly, “It really is silver! I finally touched real silver!”

Bai Ziqian had thought Zhang Jinniu was questioning him, but it turned out he had never seen silver before.

Suddenly, Bai Ziqian felt a bit uneasy.

From childhood to adulthood, the accessories he carried were rarely silver, let alone gold—they were mostly high-quality jade.

Looking at Zhang Jinniu, he realized there were many children who hadn’t touched silver until they grew up.

Zhang Jinniu’s dark face was excited and joyful.

He cradled the silver as if afraid it might melt, then after a while, he hurriedly handed it back to Bai Ziqian, saying nervously, “This… this silver is too precious. Your silver ingot is intact; it’s probably worth several taels, right?”

“Ten taels per ingot,” Bai Ziqian explained warmly.

Hearing it was ten taels, Zhang Jinniu suddenly felt the icy silver was burning his hands!

Flustered, he said, “That’s too much. I can’t give you change. Should I give you copper coins instead?”

One tael of silver could buy a thousand copper coins, and holding them in hand felt secure for someone like him.

Bai Ziqian said boldly, “It’s fine, no need for change. You can deliver the charcoal according to this silver later.”

Five hundred jin of charcoal, packed in bamboo baskets, would fit comfortably in the large woodshed of Shuiqing’s family.

Zhang Jinniu held the ten taels of silver, excited and unsure what to do.

He just vaguely nodded and promised to produce and deliver plenty of charcoal, tightly clutching the silver to his chest before hurrying home with quick steps.

“Auntie, come and see!” Zhang Jinniu called out without catching his breath, as soon as he arrived near his mother.

Mrs. Zhang had been busy lately with building a new house, physically tired but oddly spirited.

As she walked toward her son, she asked, “What’s the matter? If you have something, just take it out. Why hide it?”

Zhang Jinniu looked around, saw his younger siblings weren’t nearby, and directly presented the silver in front of his mother.

The bright silver emitted a cool, clear light.

Mrs. Zhang felt her eyes blur for a moment, as if she was seeing things.

She actually saw silver?

Zhang Jinniu quickly explained the matter of delivering charcoal and Bai Ziqian buying charcoal and paying for it with silver on the spot.

Mrs. Zhang was ecstatic, not knowing how to express her joy!

She held the silver, rubbing it repeatedly, thoroughly enjoying the sensation.

Then she hurriedly instructed her eldest son, “We don’t need to go to Niutou Town to pick and sell charcoal anymore. We can use the spare time to make more charcoal. You take the younger ones and make more charcoal before the New Year.”

Speaking of which, it’s still because your sister-in-law Shuiqing takes care of our family. We must be honest in our dealings. The charcoal we send must be more, not less!”

Firewood costs nothing, and the charcoal kiln is ready-made. There’s no cost in this business.

In the past, after making charcoal, we had to carry it out to sell. Only Jinniu and Yinniu could do it. Since last year, even Touniu could carry half of it. But if three people went to sell charcoal, not only did it take half an hour each way, it also consumed a lot of time.

Now, using this time and energy to make charcoal will definitely yield more charcoal than in previous years!

Zhang Jinniu snapped out of his daze and nodded vigorously, “Mother is right.”

With silver, where can’t you buy charcoal?

Bai Ziqian gave them silver because he was a guest of Sister-in-law Shuiqing’s family, and Sister-in-law Shuiqing had placed the charcoal order with them.

Mrs. Zhang excitedly paced around the low, thatched hut, sometimes thinking that Shuiqing was indeed a benefactor to their family!

Whenever something good happened, she thought of her family first.

There was never any deduction from the silver.

Then she thought that she must complete the tasks assigned to her well.

Then she thought that the children had been working hard during this period. Fortunately, they could eat more than just thin porridge, and they could also have dry buns.

And before this, Shuiqing had given them wine lees, mixed into flour or rice slurry. The buns that came out were fluffy and soft, and they were very delicious!

The children loved them.

Recently, the whole family had been busy making adobe bricks and cutting firewood and burning charcoal, which was indeed hard work. Why not buy some meat to eat?

Pig’s offal was cheap, although it didn’t smell good, but washing it with plenty of wood ash and frying it with some chili made it acceptable. At least it was a meat dish.

And eggs, now that they were earning money from other things, they didn’t have to exchange all the eggs for salt and items every day.

Shuiqing said that eggs were good things, best for health. Steam some for the children to eat, to nourish their bodies.

And salt, this time they needed to buy more from outside, to pickle the fish caught by the youngest one. It was a good dish to serve guests during the Lunar New Year…

Zhang Jinniu heard that his mother was going to Niutou Town to buy pig’s offal for them to eat, and also that from now on, the family would steam eggs with three eggs every day, feeling as happy as if it were New Year’s!

Immediately, he felt that they could burn another five hundred catties of charcoal!

On the other side, Shuiqing, looking at the freshly baked new charcoal, started thinking about what to have for dinner.

How about having a barbecue?