Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Dividing the Silver

“Grandpa Zhang, how do you plan to divide these two hundred taels of silver?” Lu Qing asked.

“Of course we divide it equally. Every household in the village will get the same amount.” Grandpa Zhang said as a matter of course.

Lu Qing nodded. As the saying goes,

it’s not the lack of money that’s worrying, but the inequality of money. The most worrying thing about money is favoritism. Dividing it equally is the best way.

“However, it’s not easy to exchange these silver notes for silver.” Grandpa Zhang was a little embarrassed.

Lu Qing thought about it and understood what the old man meant.

If you want to exchange silver notes for silver, you have to go to a silver shop.

Silver shops are only available in the county government.

And asking the villagers to take silver notes to the city to exchange for silver, not to mention that everyone dares not to, even Lu Qing would not feel at ease.

The county government is so far away, and with such a large amount of silver, if they are targeted by someone with ulterior motives, it is still a question whether they can return safely.

“I was negligent, Grandpa Zhang. Please give me the banknotes,” Lu Qing said. “I’ll go to Grandpa Ma tomorrow and exchange them for silver.”

“That’s best,” Grandpa Zhang said, immediately handing the two banknotes to Lu Qing.

“I’ll give you the silver tomorrow.”

After Grandpa Zhang left, Lu Qing returned to the house and opened a small chest. Inside, a dazzling silver light shone: a chest full of silver.

This chest of silver was one of the gifts Ma Gu had brought not long ago.

Last night, Ma Gu and his men had raided Happy Village.

It was unknown how long Happy Village had been hoarding money before sending it to headquarters, but Ma Gu and his men had reaped a good harvest.

After counting the money, Ma Gu brought over what he considered Lu Qing’s share.

Unable to refuse, Lu Qing accepted it.

Lu Qing began to take the silver from the chest.

Ma Gu had packed this chest with great care, mostly silver ingots.

The large ones were ten taels, the small ones were five taels.

Lu Qing directly took out forty five-liang silver ingots from the box, and almost took out all the small silver ingots in the box in one go.

The next morning, Lu Qing came to Grandpa Zhang’s house with the silver.

“Grandpa Zhang.” Lu Qing shouted outside Zhang’s house.

“Ah Qing is here, come in quickly!”

Grandpa Zhang didn’t sleep well last night, and he stayed at home in the morning and didn’t go anywhere, just because he was afraid that he would not be at home when Lu Qing came to look for him.

It’s not that he was greedy and thinking about the silver, but this silver was what Lu Qing wanted to distribute to everyone in the village. It was a serious matter, so he didn’t dare to be careless.

Lu Qing carried the silver and went into the house with Grandpa Zhang.

“Ah Qing, why are you here?”

It happened that Grandpa Zhang’s family, two sons and daughter-in-law, were also at home.

When they saw Lu Qing come in, they all stood up, very surprised.

Especially Grandpa Zhang’s two sons, the look on their faces when they looked at Lu Qing was even more restrained.

When Han Wu and his men came yesterday, they were also there, and happened to see with their own eyes how Lu Qing beat those evil men to death.

So now they both have some unspeakable awe in their hearts for Lu Qing.

“I’m here to give you silver.” Lu Qing said with a smile.

“Give you silver?”

Uncle Zhang’s son and daughter-in-law were puzzled.

Lu Qing poured the silver ingots in the cloth bag onto the table. The white silver light dazzled the people in the room.

In the dull eyes of Uncle Zhang’s son and daughter-in-law, Lu Qing said: “Grandpa Zhang, I have exchanged all the banknotes for silver. Here are forty silver ingots, each weighing five taels. You can distribute them to everyone.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go gather everyone together to divide the silver.”

Grandpa Zhang was similarly stunned by the pile of silver, but having lived for decades, he possessed far greater composure than his sons and daughters-in-law, and quickly recovered.

“Dad, what do you mean by dividing the silver?”

At this point, Grandpa Zhang’s eldest son finally caught on.

“Ah Qing said he wanted to distribute the silver notes he got from those thugs yesterday to everyone in the village. He exchanged this silver for Master Ma at the market,” Grandpa Zhang explained.

“So much silver, and all of it was divided?”

Grandpa Zhang’s sons and daughters-in-law exclaimed in astonishment.

“Cut the crap out of me! You two, go get everyone to the ancestral hall. Don’t talk about dividing the silver yet. Just say I have something to tell everyone.” Grandpa Zhang glared.

“Okay, I’ll go now.”

The two sons hurried out.

“Grandpa Zhang, I won’t be involved in the division of the silver. You’ll take charge.”

Lu Qing, however, stood up, preparing to leave.

“How can that be? The silver is yours. It would be awkward if you weren’t there,” Grandpa Zhang said hastily.

“It’s okay, it’s just a little silver. Grandpa Zhang, don’t worry too much. Just distribute it normally. I have something important to attend to later. I need to see my master, so I won’t be there.”

Lu Qing distributed the silver to please everyone. If he showed up, he’d inevitably face another round of gratitude and formalities.

So it was better not to show up.

Seeing Lu Qing’s words, Grandpa Zhang could only say, “Okay, since Doctor Chen has something urgent to attend to, you can go ahead and take care of it.” Only

after watching Lu Qing leave did Grandpa Zhang sigh.

He had already guessed that Lu Qing was reluctant to go to the ancestral hall. The boy was shy and embarrassed to face the gratitude of his uncles.

He didn’t know how to persuade him, so he just let him go.

Grandpa Zhang held great prestige in the village.

Upon hearing that he had something important to discuss, it wasn’t long before the villagers began to gather at the ancestral hall, even those who were still working in the fields.

“Old Zhang, what’s the matter? Why are you calling everyone here in such a hurry?”

Arriving at the ancestral hall, the villagers were surprised to see that Grandpa Zhang had summoned every head of the village household. They thought something big had happened.

Elders of Grandpa Zhang’s generation immediately called out.

The others, upon hearing this, also became agitated.

After yesterday’s events, everyone was a bit nervous, but they couldn’t stand the shock anymore.

“Don’t be nervous. I’m calling everyone here because I have good news to announce,”

Grandpa Zhang shouted, signaling everyone not to panic.

On the table behind him lay a cloth bag, bulging with so much stuff that no one could tell what was inside.

Next to it were a small scale and a pair of scissors, whose purpose was unknown.

“What good news?”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly asking.

“Yesterday, didn’t Ah Qing receive some silver bills from the villains he killed? He decided to share most of it with everyone.”

Grandpa Zhang carefully poured the silver ingots from the bag behind him.

“Here’s the silver Ah Qing exchanged for, a total of two hundred taels. In our village, besides Ah Qing’s family, there are a total of thirty-seven households. Divided equally, each household will probably get a little over five taels of silver.”

Everyone in the ancestral hall was stunned when they saw the huge pile of white silver ingots.

After hearing what Grandpa Zhang said, they couldn’t help but burst into an uproar.

Not far away, halfway up the mountain, Lu Qing, who was heading to the small courtyard halfway up the mountain, heard the commotion and a smile appeared on his face.

(End of this chapter)