Chapter Nineteen Made Some Money

  "Little Wang." Lian Man'er smiled and greeted, thinking to herself that time is money, and if they didn't hurry up, it wouldn't do. She was also afraid that if they dragged on for too long, Wang Youheng would change his mind.

  Wang Youheng walked over and patted Xiao Qi's head.

  "Here, Wang Zhanggui, Man Er, you two come with me to sit in the house and have a cup of tea."

  Lian Man'er, Lian Zhi'er, Wu Lang and Xiao Qi followed Wang Youheng to the guest room, where a young servant brought in tea and snacks.

  Lian Man'er sat up straight, Lian Zhi and Wu Lang were a bit stiff, they all sat upright, even Xiao Qi sat properly, although curious about the decorations in the house and drooling over the pastries on the table, but didn't dare to look around.

  "You must be thirsty from walking, this is sour plum soup, it's been iced, drinking it can still quench your thirst." Wang Youheng said.

  It's indeed sour plum tea, with a light brown tea soup and floating on top are the delicate osmanthus flowers. Without even drinking it, I can already smell that sweet and sour aroma.

  None of the kids lifted a finger.

  "Don't be so formal in front of me, just like when you were kids," Wang Youheng said with a smile. "Man's injury isn't fully healed yet, this honey tangerine tea is pretty good too."

  Wang Youheng picked up the tea in front of Lian Man'er and handed it to her.

  Lian Man'er had no choice but to take it over, the tea soup was a light yellowish-green color, with the unique fragrance of orange floating on it. Lian Zhi'er, Wu Lang and Xiao Qi saw Lian Man'er drinking tea, and they also picked up their cups to drink.

  Wang Youheng got up again and handed a piece of pastry to Xiao Qi.

  Xiao Qi didn't dare to answer, but instead turned her head to look at Lian Man Er, and Lian Man Er nodded slightly.

  "Thanks, Brother Youheng." Xia Qi then accepted a pastry and slowly started eating it.

  Wang Youheng returned to his seat and sat down, asking: "So those things were delivered by you guys pushing a cart?"

  "Little brother Wang, we just want to earn some pocket money ourselves." Lian Man'er nodded and said. This matter, she hoped to keep it a secret, but didn't dare ask Wang Youheng directly. Wang Youheng was a person of status and didn't seem like a big mouth, so he shouldn't casually reveal their struggles as young girls, just in case he inadvertently let it slip to someone related to the Lian family. By saying this, Lian Man'er thought Wang Youheng should understand her meaning.

  As expected, Wang Youheng understood what Lian Man'er said and nodded with a smile.

  "I understand," said Wang Youheng, "I will instruct the people below to keep this matter confidential and not let anyone know... It's hard for you." He also knew about Lian's family affairs because he lived in the town and some things were clearer than Lian Mianer. Lian Mianer wanted to earn some private money, and he was happy to see it happen.

  A few people were chatting about family matters when Wang Zhuang came in from outside.

  "...six bags, a total of 458 catties and 6 taels." Wang said, "At the rate of five cents per catty, it comes to 2,293 cents in all."

  Wang Youheng nodded, looking at Lian Man'er, as if asking her what she had to say. Although Lian Zhier and Wu Lang were a bit older, he could see that the one in charge was Lian Man'er.

  This is about the same as Lian Man Er's estimated weight, and she was still very satisfied.

  "Can those two strings of cash be exchanged for silver?" asked Lian Man'er. More than 2,000 big coins, that's not a small amount, and the key is that it's not easy to store them without being discovered.

  "Alright." Wang Youheng readily agreed and told Manager Wang to fetch the money.

  Wang Zhanggui went out and came back after a while, bringing with him two taels of silver and three strings of cash, which he placed on a tray and presented.

  Lian Man'er picked up the money and discussed with Wang Youheng: "Brother Youheng, if this poor girl is sold well, how about we send another batch over in a few days?"

  "How many days?" Wang Youheng asked.

  Lian Wan'er looked at Lian Wulang and said, "Those bitter girls will take how many more days to mature? We still need to ask Lian Wulang."

  "At most ten days, no more than half a month." Lian Wu Lang hastily said.

  "All right, then it's ten days later, send as much as you have." said Wang Youheng.

  "Little Brother Heng," Lian Zhi'er said hesitantly, "If it's not selling well, Little Brother Heng shouldn't lose money to buy it just to take care of us."

  Lian Man'er also nodded, she wanted to make money, but didn't want to make this kind of money.

  "I told you, let's talk business. I'll also tell you the truth, just now I've already discussed it with my father, this poor girl we still have to send to the prefecture to sell, no matter how many, you can bring them over. That's right, we can't sell her to anyone else!" Wang Youheng said with a smile.

  "That's natural." The children chimed in unison.

  They successfully sold the bitter girl and got the money, and also set a date for the next delivery. Lian Man and Wang Youheng bid farewell, and Wang Youheng personally escorted them out.

  "Does your head still hurt, Man Er?" Wang Youheng asked.

  Lian Man'er shook her head, and after waking up, she didn't have a headache anymore.

  "That's good, do you still remember what happened at that time?" Wang Youheng asked again.

  "I completely forgot." Lian Man'er shook her head again, she tried to think hard, but only vaguely remembered that at the time, Lian Duo'er was present, and it seemed like there were others, but no matter what, she couldn't remember who they were, maybe it was just an illusion. "It's not just this thing, I've also forgotten some things from before."

  Wang Youheng sighed softly, "Man Er you have to be careful yourself, Zhi Er, Wu Lang you guys take good care of Man Er."

  Lian Zhi'er and Lian Wu Lang naturally nodded in agreement.

  "Young brother Heng, I'll take care of Er Jie too." Xiao Qi hastily said.

  "You go ahead and be busy, Yongheng brother, we'll head back to the village now," said Lian Man'er.

  Wang Youheng stood at the door, watching as Lian Man'er walked away into the distance before turning around and going back inside.

  "I don't know if doing this is right or wrong..."

  …………

  As they came out of the pharmacy, several children walked on the street, looking at each other, and everyone's face was smiling. They had never seen so much money before, let alone earned it themselves. Just now in the pharmacy, in front of outsiders, they all pretended to be calm, but now that they were out, they couldn't help it.

  "Sister, we're rich now." Xiao Qi couldn't stop grinning foolishly.

  Lian Man'er nodded. The two silver coins she had already hidden on her body, and only put the remaining three strings of money, a total of 293 wen, in her sleeve.

  She had inquired that the fields around this area were all dry land, and the best ones could be bought for five or six taels of silver per mu, while the inferior ones could be bought for three or four taels of silver per mu. The amount of silver she currently had could buy... half a mu of land.

  Don't underestimate half an acre of land, half an acre is also land. She will accumulate it bit by bit until she becomes a big landlord with thousands of acres of good land. Cough cough, the goal seems a bit far-fetched, so let's just aim to be a small landlord with 100 acres of land instead. This is definitely achievable for her, and in not too distant future.

  Of course, Lian Man'er wouldn't use these two taels of silver to buy land. This money was meant to be saved as start-up capital. Poor girl, she only needed to put in the effort and she could earn silver. But if she were to do other business, it would probably require investment. Just like what happened earlier in the mountains, she discovered something that could make her money, but it required initial investment.

  These two taels of silver cannot be moved, and the remaining three strings of money, according to Lian Wan'er's original intention, also wanted to save them up, not spending a single one. However, after some thought, she felt it wouldn't do. Lian Wan'er, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi had all put in their labor, they should be given timely returns, let them truly taste the sweetness of getting rich through labor, so that in the future when doing things they would have even more motivation.

  Forget the practical idea, let alone the diligent, honest and loving care of Cong Zhier, Wu Lang and Xiao Qi for her, made her concerned about them. This is the money they earned together, she thought, they should enjoy their own labor gains happily.

  It was still early, and several children were walking slowly on the main street.

  "Young Brother's family snacks are really delicious, and the tea is also good to drink." Little Seven said with his arms around him. He had just been very mindful of being a guest, and only ate a little bit of the tea and snacks.

  "After we have more money, we can have even better pastries and tea." said Lian Man Er.

  Xiao Qi looked up at Lian Mian'er and nodded heavily.

  "I'm listening to Second Sister's words. Second Sister says we should make more money and buy lots of delicious food." Little Seven stretched out his arms, drawing a big circle.

  "Now that we have money, which we earned ourselves. What does everyone want to buy?" asked Lian Man'er, gently swaying her sleeves.

  The three children were all a bit embarrassed. They had many things they wanted to buy, but they were used to saving and really didn't know how to say it when they had to spend money, and they couldn't bear to part with their money.

  "Afterwards, we can still earn more money. Well, I think I'll save the whole thing, and there's less than three hundred coins left, which is enough for us to spend." said Lian Man Er.

  Lian Mian'er said she had saved two taels of silver and only spent the rest of the money, so the three children relaxed.

  "Second sister, I think..." Xia Qi pulled the hem of Lian Mian'er's clothes and pointed to a nearby shop. The shop had only two doors, with a red awning hanging under the eaves. On the awning was tied a circle of satin flowers, in the middle was a round plate, below which were long tassels representing noodles, and on the awning were two oily characters - "Chen Ji".

  "The white buns at his house are really delicious. When I was five years old, my grandfather took me to the market and we had some." Xia Qi said, pursing her lips, with nostalgia and longing in her eyes.

  "Alright, let's go eat some meat buns." Lian Man'er nodded. They hadn't gotten much food at noon and had been doing physical labor for half a day, so she was feeling a bit hungry too.

  "Chen's meat buns are famous, but they're too expensive, two cents each." Wu Lang said hesitantly.

  "We have money, after a few days, we can still make some more." said Lian Man Er.

  Several children consulted with each other and finally decided to be "extravagant" once.

  They pushed the flatcar, heading towards Chenji. Before they even reached Chenji, on the other side of the main street, there was a huge two-story wine building. The waiter at the wine building lifted up the door curtain and smiled all over his face as he sent two people out of the wine building.

  "Slow down, sir! Come back again, sir!"

  Those two men had obviously drunk a lot of wine, their faces were flushed red, they waved at the shopkeeper and called for two sedan chairs.

  "After leaving the temple, they went to the street." The two men got into the sedan chairs and with a shout of command, the two sedan chairs flew towards the end of the street.

  "That... That's not Big Uncle and Second Uncle!"