The Lucky Farmgirl-Chapter 1950 - 1925: The Shop

Xia Rui opened the box, inside was a pile of silver ingots.

Initially, Zhou Yin and Xia Xia had agreed that he would leave the fields, shops, and also the house in Shangzhou to them for care. All the rents would be collected by them, and he would come back once a year or every other year to collect them, and also to pay respects to the family.

Therefore, Zhou Yin specially reduced the rent by forty percent as a reward for them.

The annual rent was eighteen taels, every year Xia Xia would put eighteen taels of silver in it, thinking that when someone came to reclaim it one day, he wouldn’t be unable to pay, thus breaching trust.

In these fourteen years, their family didn’t always have smooth sailing, but no matter what happened, no matter how difficult, they never touched the money in this box.

As Xia Xia said, the main thing in life is to keep one’s word.

There are now 252 taels in this box, Xia Xia said with a smile, "There’s also a sum of money that I’ve added, these years I couldn’t take care of your parents’ fields properly, how could I take the forty percent reduction? I asked your aunt to take it from the shop, just wait a little, she’ll be back soon."

Manbao nodded with a smile and didn’t refuse, "That’s quite a lot, it’s so heavy, Aunt Rui definitely won’t be back so quickly."

Xia Xia nodded, "Then sit down for a bit, have a meal here; it would be better to leave after dinner and see your elder and younger cousins. Your older cousin is studying but he doesn’t have the talent in reading that your grandfather and father have. No matter how many years of study, it hasn’t amounted to much... "

After chatting for a while, Xia Xia fell asleep unawares.

Xia Rui was frightened to see this, he reached out to touch his nose, relieved only after he detected his breath.

He glanced at Manbao, Manbao nodded slightly, then Xia Rui moved the box full of money out for her, saying: "Your aunt may take a while to come back, you wait here for a while."

Manbao said, "Uncle Rui, no need to give me the forty percent money."

She said, "This matter doesn’t count as your breach of trust, it’s my parents who didn’t come back on time. You’ve taken on risks that weren’t supposed to be yours, they are the ones at fault, though they were forced into it."

Xia Rui looked at Zhou Man in surprise, not expecting her to say such a thing.

Manbao glanced back at the legitimate wife, took out a deed from her sleeve and gave it to Xia Rui, saying: "Thanks to you for taking care these years, Uncle Rui, no need to rush on moving the shop, consider it my gift to you."

"How can that be?" Xia Rui was only partially expecting the forty percent rent, but this was beyond his expectations, he pushed it back saying: "This won’t do, the shop is yours, I can’t take it, how about you just continue renting it to me if you feel sorry?"

Manbao firmly placed it in his hand, seriously saying: "Uncle Rui, I can give ancestral land to a clan that has never cared for me, so why can’t I give the shop to you?"

Xia Rui opened his mouth, feeling ashamed, and said: "How, how is that the same?"

"It’s not the same," Manbao smiled, "In the future, perhaps I won’t have much contact with the clan here, but the graves of my great-grandparents and grandparents are still here, and even my children will return here someday. The ones we can rely on and be close to will only be you, Uncle Rui."

Xia Rui felt both assured and ashamed, several times wanting to speak but stopping himself.

Manbao acted like she didn’t notice, firmly placing the deed into his hand, then said, "No need to let Uncle know of this matter. Oh, I’ll accept this box of rent, thank you for looking after my grandparents all these years, Uncle Rui."

She then formally bowed to Xia Rui.

Xia Rui hurriedly supported her, saying, "No need for this, no need for this..."

Carrying the box full of silver, Manbao left the house. Bai Shan waiting outside almost dropped it immediately as he stepped forward to take it.

Holding his breath, he asked, "What’s so heavy?"

Calmly, Manbao shook her hand and said, "Money!"

Bai Shan: ...

Holding the deed, Xia Rui suddenly snapped back to reality from his daze, stepping forward to help them carry it, but Daji was already carrying it to put on the cart, Bai Erlang sitting by the cart couldn’t help but open the box for a glance.

Seeing the shiny silver ingots inside made him click his tongue, looking at Zhou Man with complicated eyes.

Unknowingly, she was richer than them now, although when they were young, he and Bai Shan were the richest.

Holding Bai Shan’s hand, Manbao got into the carriage, telling Xia Rui standing beside it, "Uncle Rui, head back now, I’ll come to see Uncle again before I leave."

Xia Rui agreed, stepping back to watch her leave.

When they returned to the inn, Old Zhou touched the box of silver ingots, saying, "You’re the only uncle in the Xia Family."

Manbao nodded, "Actually, with all this money, they could roughly buy a shop."

Zhou Wulang said, "Your shop is worth more."

He said, "It’s two-stories, with a backyard, it’s no smaller than our restaurant in the capital, and the location is good. Even if Shangzhou doesn’t compare to the capital, the price isn’t much different."

After all, the location of their shop in the capital is rather mediocre, far inferior to the one in the center of Shangzhou, no one knows how the little uncle bought that shop back then.

Manbao also didn’t know, but giving it away doesn’t make her feel bad, "I entrusted Uncle Rui to take care of my ancestors’ graves here."

Old Zhou nodded, Manbao had mentioned several days ago about gifting the shop, so he was already past the point of feeling upset.

Manbao looked around and asked, "The person who went to collect the rent hasn’t returned yet?"

Daji said, "No."

Manbao touched her chin and said, "It seems Patriarch Xia wasn’t prepared ahead of time, he must indeed be feeling the pain."

Despite feeling pain, Patriarch Xia still gave the rent to the two guards who brought the cart, things had come to this point, there was really no need to stir up trouble over this, he was just puzzled why Zhou Manbao was in such a rush.

Yesterday everyone was clearly very cordial when she came, he thought she would mention the rent issue only after this year’s autumn harvest.

His son hesitated for a moment before saying, "She seemed a bit unhappy after visiting the uncles’ graves yesterday, and didn’t speak much upon returning. Could it be because of this?"

Patriarch Xia suddenly understood and sighed after a while, saying, "Understood, go and visit Officer Xu when you have the time, tell him Zhou Manbao has specifically pointed out she wants this year’s rent."

"Will Officer Xu blame us?"

Patriarch Xia snorted, saying, "Why would he blame us? Stepping back was his idea, wasn’t the rent collected over the years enough for him? Also, he’s registered with the county magistrate now, I’m afraid he won’t cause trouble, as for the future, who can say? You just go, tell him our family’s rent including past rents have been handed over, he will understand."

His son agreed.

Patriarch Xia sighed again, saying, "I don’t know what kind of situation Zhou Man is in the capital, I’ve only heard she’s a divine doctor, but it’s a pity she won’t change her surname..."

His son lowered his eyes, there isn’t much affection between the Xia Family and Zhou Man, and the Zhou Family isn’t bad to her, why would she change her surname?