CHAPTER 29: CHAPTER 19 EARNED MONEY_2

"Manman, do you still feel a headache?" Wang Youheng asked.

Lian Manman shook her head. Ever since she had woken up, her head hadn’t hurt again.

"That’s good. Do you still remember what happened at the time?" Wang Youheng asked again.

"I don’t remember it at all," Lian Manman shook her head again. She racked her brains but could only vaguely remember that Lian Duoduo was present, and it seemed there were others, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember who. Maybe it was an illusion. "Even things from before are becoming hard to recall."

Wang Youheng sighed softly, "Manman, you have to be careful. Zhizhi, Wu Lang, you both need to look after Manman more."

Lian Zhizhi and Lian Wulang naturally nodded their heads.

"Brother Youheng, I’ll take care of Second Sister too," Xiao Qi quickly said.

"Brother Youheng, you go ahead with your work; we’re heading back to the village," Lian Manman said.

Wang Youheng stood at the doorway, watching Lian Manman and her group walk away before turning back into the shop.

"I wonder whether doing this is really right..."

...

After leaving Jisheng Hall, the children walked along the street, looking at each other with wide smiles spreading across their faces. It was the first time they had seen so much money, and they had earned it themselves. Just now, inside the pharmacy, they had all put on a brave face in front of strangers, but now that they were outside, they could not contain their excitement.

"Sister, we have money now," Xiao Qi chuckled foolishly without stopping.

Lian Manman nodded. She had securely hidden the two taels of silver close to her body and only kept the rest—the three strings of Wen Money, totalling 293 wen—in her sleeve.

She had inquired previously, the fields around here were all dry land, the best ones going for five or six taels of silver per mu, with lesser ones available for three or four taels. With the silver she had now, she could buy... half a mu of land.

But don’t look down on half a mu of land; half a mu was still a tract of land, and she, Lian Manman, would accumulate it bit by bit, aspiring to become a landlord with thousands of acres of good land. Cough cough, that goal seemed a bit far off, so becoming a Little Landlord with a hundred acres of land would be good enough, and certainly achievable, in the not so distant future.

Of course, Lian Manman wouldn’t use the two taels of silver to buy land. Instead, she planned to save it as seed money for starting a business. Her recent labor as a "Sour Child" had earned her silver simply through exertion. However, if she wanted to undertake another livelihood, it would require financial investment. For instance, during her time in the mountains, she had discovered something that might be profitable but would need initial funding.

If the two taels of silver were not to be touched, then the remaining three strings of Wen Money, according to Lian Manman’s original intention, were also to be saved and not spent. Yet, upon further thought, she felt that wouldn’t do. Lian Zhizhi, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi had all put in the labor and deserved timely rewards to truly taste the sweetness of earning wealth through hard work, which would give them more motivation in the future.

Alright, putting aside such practical thoughts, the diligence, honesty, and the care she received from Zhizhi, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi made her genuinely concerned for them. This was money they had earned together, and she thought they should happily enjoy the fruits of their own labor.

The Chinese hour was still early, so the children walked slowly down the main street.

"The pastries from Brother Youheng’s place are really delicious, and the tea is too," Xiao Qi said with his arms crossed. He had been very self-aware when he was a guest earlier, and only had a little of the tea and pastries.

"In the future, when we have even more money, we’ll have even more delicious pastries and drinks," Lian Manman said.

Xiao Qi looked up at Lian Manman and nodded vigorously.

"I’ll listen to Second Sister. Let’s earn lots of money, Second Sister, and buy lots and lots of tasty things," Xiao Qi said as he stretched his arms out wide, drawing a large circle in the air.

"Now that we have money, money that we’ve earned ourselves, what does everyone want to buy?" Lian Manman lightly shook her sleeve where the money was hidden.

The three children all seemed a bit troubled. They had many things they wanted to buy, but having always been frugal, they found it hard to bring up and reluctant to part with their money when it actually came to buying something.

"In the future, we will be able to earn much more money. I want to save the large amounts, but with the almost three hundred Wen Money, that should be enough for us to spend now," Lian Manman said.

Hearing that Lian Manman had saved the two taels of silver and would only spend the rest, the children relaxed.

"Second Sister, I’d like..." Xiao Qi tugged at the hem of Lian Manman’s clothes, pointing to a shop not far away. The shop had only two storefronts and hanging under the eaves was a red canopy with a ring of silk flowers. In the center was a round sign depicting long threads underneath to represent noodles, and in the middle of the canopy were two greasy characters—"Chen’s."

"Their plain meat buns are so delicious. When I was five, Gramps took me there once when we went to the market," Xiao Qi said as he licked his lips, his eyes full of nostalgia and longing.

"Alright, then let’s go eat the meat buns," Lian Manman agreed. They had all gotten a small share of lunch and had been doing physical labor for half a day, so she too was feeling a bit hungry.

"Chen’s meat buns are quite famous, but they’re really expensive, costing two Wen Money each," Wu Lang hesitated a bit.

"But we have money, and after a few days, we’ll be able to earn another batch," Lian Manman said.

After some discussion, all the children decided to indulge just this once.

They pushed the handcart toward Chen’s. Before they reached Chen’s, they saw a grand two-story restaurant across the big street. A server from the restaurant was lifting the door curtain and, with a smiling face, saw off two patrons coming out of the establishment.

"Gentlemen, please come again," the server said.

The two men were clearly drunk, their faces flushed as they waved at the server and then called for two sedan chairs.

"To Temple Back Street," the two men instructed after boarding the sedans, and the chairs raced off towards the end of the street.

"That... that’s Uncle and Second Uncle!"

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