CHAPTER 141: CHAPTER 141: IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

When Jiang Hu arrived at Liu Yang’s house, only Wang Xiang was there feeding pigs with her son on her back, and Jiang Hu casually picked two cucumber leaves by the edge of the yard.

"Sis-in-law, Liu Yang isn’t home?"

Wang Xiang was a bit surprised to see Jiang Hu; he rarely came over to find Liu Yang—it was usually Liu Yang who would seek him out.

"Oh, Brother Jiang, my husband has gone to the fields. What brings you here?"

Jiang Hu reached out and stuffed the clump of cucumber leaves into Wang Xiang’s hand.

"I just came to tell you the syrup sold, and this is half as we agreed. Give it to Liu Yang when he gets back."

"I have some other things to handle, so I’ll take my leave now."

As he spoke, he didn’t wait for Wang Xiang to open the cucumber leaves and turned to leave.

After a moment of blankness, Wang Xiang finally opened the multi-layered cucumber leaves, and upon seeing the silver ingot inside, she instantly exclaimed, waking up the sleeping child on her back.

She quickly chased after him a few steps: "Brother Jiang..."

But upon looking again, he was already gone, leaving Wang Xiang to stop and tightly clutch the cucumber leaves in her hand, afraid they might be snatched away if she wasn’t careful and even looking around warily.

Luckily, the surroundings were empty; the weather was nice, and everyone was busy in the fields.

She hurriedly hugged the cucumber leaves to her chest, jogging back into the house, feeling unsafe no matter where she hid them, and finally decided to lift the bedding and straw mat.

Only after tucking the silver ingot into the bottom layer of straw and covering it all up neatly did she feel secure.

Yet even so, she didn’t dare go to the pigsty behind the house anymore, instead finding some work to do in the yard.

She even had some slight resentment in her heart: Why didn’t Jiang Hu wait until Liu Yang came back to give him the silver? Giving it to her, she was scared!

So much money, she feared she might accidentally lose it!

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Liu Yang returned carrying a hoe, hearing the pigs grunting, muttering to himself while feeding them.

When he reached the yard, seeing his wife holding a broom sweeping the ground, it seemed odd as she kept standing in the same spot.

"Wife, what’s wrong? Pig feed is right by the pigsty, yet you’re standing here dazing while sweeping?"

Hearing Liu Yang’s voice startled Wang Xiang.

"Husband, you’re finally back."

She threw the broom aside and rushed straight towards Liu Yang.

Liu Yang was taken aback, even threw the hoe: "What’s going on? Did something happen?"

He was ready to catch his running wife, only to see her grab his hand and turn away.

Liu Yang even felt like he saw helplessness in his young son’s eyes, indicating this wasn’t the first time with their mother.

Upon entering the house, Wang Xiang immediately lifted the bedding, causing Liu Yang’s eyes to widen.

No way, in broad daylight with the door still open...

Fortunately, he quickly realized he was thinking too much as his wife lifted the bedding and then the straw mat.

Finally retrieving a bundle of green leaves from the stack of straw, she stuffed it into his arms.

Liu Yang looked utterly confused: "Wife, what’s this?"

Wang Xiang finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Brother Jiang came earlier; he gave this saying the syrup sold, and this is our share."

Such a large sum of money, in her hands, always felt unsettling; now that it was given to her husband, she was finally not worried.

She then slapped her forehead: "Oh, I almost forgot when Brother Jiang came, I was about to feed the pigs, and I left the feed bucket aside as he arrived and I forgot."

As she spoke, she hurried off to go to the pigsty, but was fortunately stopped by Liu Yang.

"I fed the pigs earlier when I came back; you should first check on our son, he seems hungry."

"Huh? Oh, okay."

Wang Xiang quickly put down the son from her back and sat on the bed to nurse him.

The young son was already eight to nine months old, usually eating some soft foods, but sometimes nursing was still convenient.

Now Liu Yang had time to open the vegetable leaf package in his hand.

He knew it must be substantial; otherwise, his wife wouldn’t be this tense, but when he saw the silver ingot, he was still shocked wide-eyed.

"So, so much!"

He thought it would be at most a few taels of silver, even just two or three taels!

His family didn’t sell vegetables every day; only occasionally would they carry some to sell or catch a few rabbits to sell in town.

Besides that, there was only the annual income from grain sold.

Even compared to usual, it was a lot, and their family had many people, and they had more land.

Even so, they could only save around ten taels of silver a year at most.

This year, sending Liu Hai to study and buying books and pens cost nearly ten taels, which took up more than half of the savings from the past few years!

But now, just one vat of syrup sold could earn them as much as a year’s worth of silver!

Even Liu Yang, who prided himself on having decent family money, was shocked at this moment.

Seeing her husband’s expression, Wang Xiang surprisingly felt a sense of pride; at least, she had finished being shocked and became calm.

"You don’t know, Brother Jiang wrapped this in cucumber leaves, casually handed it to me and left, I never thought it would be this."

She dared not directly say silver out of fear that if outsiders overheard...

Liu Yang swallowed hard, took the silver ingot and bit it.

Instantly his teeth tingled, so much that tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, and a circle of teeth marks was left on the silver ingot.

After the shock, Liu Yang instantly beamed with joy.

"That’s great, so much indeed. Wife, next year we’ll plant more sorghum, it’s definitely more profitable than selling grain for a year."

He had no doubt whether this was half or Jiang Hu had pocketed more; he knew it was unnecessary.

Having known Brother Jiang for several years now, he understood his character, plus for a whole vat of syrup to be worth twenty taels—an absolute premium!

More than that?

That, he dare not dream.

Even twenty taels, he was completely unable to imagine before, only at most dreaming of ten and daring not to dream of an extra copper coin.

Moreover, Liu Yang knew clearly, were it not for Brother Jiang, having him sell the syrup would bring only half the price, and that would be a stroke of luck.

"Husband, quickly put this away and let’s take some goods and visit Brother Jiang."

So much money had Wang Xiang’s eyes smiling.

Though the method for brewing syrup was their own, the sorghum seeds came from Jiang’s family, plus Jiang Hu had gifted them an extra pound.

Liu Yang nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, go for it; thanks to Brother Jiang, or we wouldn’t sell for such high price!"

Following that, Liu Yang crawled under the bed, dragging a cabinet from the far corner.

Though his two elderly parents lived with them, since he was their only son, he wasn’t given control of the household finances, and it was the couple who managed it themselves.

Just as he crawled out from beneath the bed, someone called out from outside.

"Liu Yang."

Liu Yang paused, Brother Jiang?

Then he quickly dashed out.

"I’m here, Brother Jiang, what brings you here."