Grandma Qin didn't pay attention to Qin Junyao's expression. As she walked towards the pawnshop, she continued, "You're smart now, but not too smart. This is the easiest way to become self-righteous."
"Then do you know why I dared to go to that grain store to sell the good rice you gave me?"
Qin Junyao shook her head.
"Besides them offering a high price, the most important reason was that the rice you gave was little. If it were more, I wouldn't have dared to go."
"The clothes the shopkeeper wore, the rings on his hands, and the jade pendant at his waist, together, were at least two hundred taels."
"A grain store making a hundred taels of silver a year is a lot. You tell me, why is he so rich?"
"You come to this county once every eight or nine days, and you never come back empty-handed. Where did you get the silver? Your reaction at the grain store just now, I didn't even need to guess to know you were here to sell grain."
At this moment, Grandma Qin, who was analyzing for Qin Junyao, didn't look like the rural old lady who sat on the heated brick bed without taking off her shoes, wore brightly colored headscarves, and loved to watch lively events.
Instead, she looked like a wise person.
"You teach Da Niu and the others at night, and I also need to broaden your horizons. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll cause great trouble."
"I won't ask how you earn silver. When you've saved fifty taels, I'll take you to the northwest city to broaden your horizons. You'll pay for the old clothes later," Grandma Qin said, then led Qin Junyao into the pawnshop.
After hearing Grandma Qin say so much, Qin Junyao's mind suddenly cleared.
Grandma Qin was right. She was indeed self-righteous, thinking that with some advanced modern ideas, having read and learned about ancient knowledge and works, she was smarter and more thoughtful than the people here.
The truth was, if she didn't have a golden finger, she might have starved to death on the road by now.
Qin Junyao carried the old clothes bought from the pawnshop on her back. On the way back to the donkey cart, she asked Grandma Qin how she knew the price of Shopkeeper Jin's clothes and jewelry, and why Grandma Qin, being so capable, had always lived a not-so-wealthy life.
Grandma Qin didn't answer how she knew things were valuable, but retorted, "Without elders to show filial piety, and without children to show cleanliness, can money be earned just by opening one's mouth?"
"I don't have elders to help me raise children, nor do I have siblings to support me. The fact that I can raise all of you to live without any problems is my greatest accomplishment."
Grandma Qin flung her hand and walked ahead, feeling exhausted.
She thought that the Bodhisattva was too kind, making her granddaughter both foolish and innocent. Marrying would be easy, as men liked women like her.
She would only feel relieved if her granddaughter had a supporter. That little hammer wasn't coming back, and if he didn't win over her granddaughter, she couldn't knock Qin Junyao out and force her into a sedan chair.
Perhaps she should let that boy shave his beard and try to use his good looks.
At this moment, Zhao Liangcai, by the salt lake, had a completely unappealing face, a big dark one.
Before him stood fifty-eight soldiers he had personally trained, their large hammers clutched tightly.
"Hit."
The sound of fifty-eight military rods hitting flesh and skin echoed in the camp of the Eight Tribes. The surrounding soldiers all looked with expressions of unbearable pain.
Suozi stood beside Zhao Liangcai with a stern face. These boys deserved to be beaten.
After twenty military rods, Zhao Liangcai did not let them go but intended to give a lecture.
Suozi stepped forward and looked at the soldiers in front, shouting, "Stand at attention."
"Given the current unstable times, the general is merciful and has brought your families here to bring you peace of mind."
"Houses, household registration, and the schools your children will attend in the future have all been arranged by the general."
"And you?"
"You are distracted during training, secretly go home, and now you even dare to send the camp's food outside. Are you tired of living?"
"Fifty military rods are given in three installments so that you will remember at all times that military rations are for your survival. If anyone else sends food out,"
Suozi glanced at the others who were also listening to the lecture, "even if a single grain is sent out, you will lose your lives."
The soldiers dispersed, and Suozi followed Zhao Liangcai back to his room.
"Hammer, what do we do? Originally, bringing the families here was to stabilize morale, but now it has become a cause of unrest. What exactly does Shao Yong of the Northwest Camp want to do? Aren't they afraid that we will also rebel if they don't give the common people a way to live?"
Zhao Liangcai hung his weapon on the wall. "Let's wait and see. The people have been sent in, and the salt has been transported out of the city. Let's see if we can get any news later."
"Hammer, your cousin is quite interesting. How did she know about such confidential matters?"
Zhao Liangcai fiddled with the hem of his clothes and sat on the heated brick bed. "She knows more than just these things. If she only knew this, she would definitely make very practical requests instead of asking me to go back often."
"Tsk, you three women in your family. One has your father completely captivated, one wants to captivate you completely, and the remaining one wants to captivate all good men."
"Heh, is your good sister still thinking about the leg of the stool's brother?"
Zhao Liangcai rolled his eyes at Suozi and lay down on the heated brick bed. He had gone back to the village the night before yesterday. The next morning, when he didn't see Qin Junyao on the mountaintop, he returned directly to the salt lake.
When he returned, Qian Shi told him to keep an eye on a newly arrived scholar and ask about his family, wanting him to arrange a marriage for Zhao Rui.
In fact, Qian Shi meant for Zhao Liangcai to use his position to directly get the person to agree.
The leg of the stool's brother, a sixteen-year-old scholar, handsome and talented, a teacher he specially hired, to be matched with Zhao Rui?
Was Zhao Rui worthy of him?
Zhao Liangcai thought she wasn't, but Zhao Rui believed that she and Yan Bai, the leg of the stool's brother, were destined for each other.
She dropped her handkerchief, and by chance, the scholar picked it up. She stood at the door watching the sunrise and by chance, met him collecting firewood.
"Mother, did you tell Zhao Liangcai?" Zhao Rui swayed Qian Shi's arm, pestering her.
"I told you, I told you. Stop shaking me. You're not in a hurry. The people who went to buy grain haven't returned yet. I'm afraid we won't be able to buy grain." Qian Shi stood by the courtyard gate, having waited for a long time without seeing Sun Pozi and the others return.
"If we can't buy it, we can't buy it. Can Zhao Liangcai let us starve? His military camp houses thousands of soldiers. Just taking a little would be enough for us to eat."
"Mother, why don't you go and ask the Yan family?"
Qian Shi's lips tightened into a straight line. She looked at her daughter, whom she had always doted on, "Rui'er, you are a young lady, you must be reserved. He is just a scholar. With your brother here, why would I need to go in person?"
"Hmph, what's the use of being reserved? If Mother had been reserved back then, how could I have been born?"
"Then, Mother, why don't you go out?" Seeing that Qian Shi wouldn't relent, Zhao Rui changed her request.
Qian Shi looked towards the courtyard gate, not at her daughter's pleading face. "We can't go out now."
"This won't do, that won't do either. Cousin can do whatever she wants, but nothing I say works. You'd think cousin was born to you and Uncle."
"Slap."
The slap Qian Shi gave was so fast and loud that half of Zhao Rui's face turned red and swollen.
Zhao Rui had only been hit twice in her life, once by the old lady from the mountain when she was in the forest, and the second time was now.
"You hit me. You actually hit me. You hit me for an outsider. Woo~~" Zhao Rui covered her face and ran back to her room.
Qian Shi clenched her right hand that had hit her daughter, and unlike usual, she didn't go to comfort her.