Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 9 Satisfaction
  Early the next morning, just after dawn, Mrs. Liu woke up Li An. She wanted to secretly prepare some dry food for Li An, but Li An refused.

Li An was worried that the noise would be too loud and would wake up his grandfather and others, making it troublesome to ask questions.

Mrs. Liu thought about it and entered the house while Li An was washing.

After a while she came out, handed Li An ten cents of money, and whispered: "Take the money and go to the city to buy some food."

Li An felt warm in his heart and said, "Mom, Uncle Shi and I will have money if we sell things, so we don't need to take them with us."

"What if you can't sell it? Take it." Ms. Liu insisted.

Li An did not refuse this time. He carefully packed the money and said, "Mom, I'll leave first."

"Go." Ms. Liu waved her hand.

Li An walked out of the yard and saw his mother standing there without moving. He waved and walked to Shi Lin's house.

Mrs. Liu watched her son disappear before returning to the house.

……

Since ancient times, countless literati have praised the beauty of Yangzhou in their poems. However, along the way, Li An could not feel the beauty of Yangzhou.

Maybe he is a layman, not as artistic as those great poets, and lacks a pair of eyes that are good at discovering beauty.

However, as we approached Yangzhou City, there were obviously more people on the road.

From time to time, you can see some bullock carts and caravans transporting goods passing by.

When I saw Yangzhou City, I saw a long queue at the city gate from a distance.

The Song Dynasty had developed commerce and did not require traders to trade in designated areas like previous dynasties.

Therefore, traders transporting goods into the city must be inspected and taxed.

Ordinary people simply check and let them go.

Li An and the three of them entered the city following the flow of people.

As soon as you enter the city, you feel like you are in a different world than the outside. The streets in the city are busy with cars and people, and there are many shops on both sides. The sound of hawking is endless, and it is very prosperous.

Shi Zhu had entered the city several times with Shi Lin before, so he was not too surprised.

This was Li An's first time in the city. He had never seen an ancient market except on TV. For a while, he felt that his eyesight was a little tired.

"There are a lot of people in the city, please follow closely and don't get lost," Shi Lin said.

"Oh." Li An came to his senses and quickly followed Shi Lin.

"Let's look at a few drug stores first," Shi Lin said.

……

When Shi Lin took Li An and Shi Zhu to find a store to inquire about the price, the Li family was having breakfast.

Mrs. Liu sat on the stone at the door, took a few sips of porridge, glanced at her father-in-law not far away, and said, "Dad, I thought about it carefully and wanted to send A Niu to study."

Li Mugang brought the bowl to his mouth. He stopped when he heard the words, with a hint of displeasure on his dark face, and said: "Second daughter-in-law, it's not like you don't know the conditions of our family. How can we support two people to study?"

"Yes, brothers and sisters, my rich brother has become successful in his studies. Our whole family can enjoy the blessings, and we will not forget our two younger brothers. Besides, A Niu is already nine years old, and it is a bit late to study at this age. ." Feng said.

Mrs. Liu ignored Feng, but looked at her father-in-law and said, "Dad, when you wanted to send my rich brother to study, you said that only studying can change the fate of our family, and we don't have to dig in the soil all our lives. I also Knowing our family’s situation, I didn’t want my family to pay for it. His father and I paid for Aniu’s education ourselves.”

"Brother and sister, how much money can you have? Studying is not like farming. You will reap the harvest in the autumn, but you have to study for several years. With your little money, how many years can he study? And your family is very good at it. We're going to get married in a few years. If you spend all your money on A Niu for studying, wouldn't Tieniu have to pay for everything when Tieniu gets married?"

Feng didn’t believe Liu’s statement that they would pay for it themselves.

The two brothers were both loading and unloading goods at the dock. How could Liu not know how much money she had in her hands?

She felt that Mrs. Liu just wanted to use her own money to send her son to study first, creating an established fact. After a few years of running out of money, she would ask her father-in-law to pay for it.

Moreover, she has spent the money now. When Li Ping gets married, she will have no money, and her father-in-law will not be able to pay for it.

The more Feng thought about it, the more she felt that Liu's plan was too good.

"Sister-in-law, I know everything you said. When the time comes that I have no money, I will go to my natal brother to borrow money. I will never ask my father for money," Ms. Liu said. Mrs. Feng curled her lips and said, "You borrowed money and if you don't have the money to pay it back, don't you have to pay it back?"

It is said that the debts of the father are repaid by the sons. This saying was the same both pros and cons in ancient times.

In ancient times, there was no saying that debts would be wiped out after death. What you recognized was home.

To put it bluntly, their family is one family in the government's household registration. No matter who in the family owes the debt, it is the family's business.

"I borrowed it and my husband and I will pay it back. Dad doesn't need to pay it back," Ms. Liu said.

"What do you want in return?" Feng asked.

"What do you want to do, sister-in-law?" Ms. Liu asked.

"Unless the younger siblings ask your natal brother to borrow money, ask him to come to our village and find the village leader as a witness. From now on, the money can only be asked from you and not from our family." Feng said with a roll of her eyes.

"We are all a family, why are you saying this? I think it is just right for the eldest and second eldest brother to study together as a family, so it is fair." said the old lady Ding.

"Mom, it's not that I don't want Aniu to study. If our family has this condition, I also want them to be able to study, but it's because the family has no money." Mrs. Feng said quickly when she saw her mother-in-law speaking.

Mr. Li said with a cold face: "The eldest daughter-in-law is right. It is already very difficult to raise a student in the family. How can we afford two?"

"Dad, my daughter-in-law has thought that if Aniu goes to study, she can go to work in the city during her spare time. No matter what, she wants Aniu to study," Liu said firmly.

"Old man..."

Ding pulled the old man aside and didn't know what he said. After a while, the old man came back and said, "Since you said so, I can agree to let A Niu go to school, but I won't pay a penny. In addition, if you go to work in the city, you should pay no less."

It is impossible to have no work at all during the off-farm period. Normally, people have to do watering, weeding, etc.

If Ms. Liu went to work in the city, she would not be able to do the work at home, and naturally part of the money she earned would have to be paid to the public.

"Thank you dad."

Mrs. Liu was happy when she heard this, and she naturally had no objection to paying part of the money.

……

"Master, I've asked several companies, and the highest one is thirty taels. I think it's about right." Li An whispered.

I visited several pharmacies, and except for two that deliberately offered low prices because they wanted to find out what they were missing and wanted to see if they understood, the other ones offered prices of more than 20 taels.

The highest one paid thirty taels. Although Li An knew that the other party was willing to buy it and would definitely make a profit, he was already very satisfied with the price.

Shi Lin shook his head and said: "Go to a few more and see if there is anyone with a higher salary."

"Dad, I'm hungry." Shi Zhu said, touching his stomach.

"Didn't I eat two cakes? If you bear with me, I will take you to eat after a while." Shi Lin said.

"Oh." Shizhu responded aggrievedly.

"Master, there is a cake seller there. I'll buy two."

Li An saw a store selling cooking cakes not far away, and ran over without giving Shi Lin a chance to refuse.

Not long after he entered the city, Shi Lin bought six cooking cakes. He wanted to pay for them but Shi Lin didn't even give him a chance.

It made him feel a little embarrassed.

"Aniu..."

Shi Lin opened his mouth and saw that Li An had run away, so he had no choice but to give up, but his eyes when he looked at Li An became softer.

He didn't care whether he had a cake or not, but he was very satisfied with Li An's attitude.

　You’ve all seen this. Are you embarrassed if you don’t give me two tickets?

　　Hahaha……

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)