Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

Chapter 32 Only a fool would give up the opportunity to make a fortune
Qin Shu pouted: "You don't tell me when I ask you, and you even scold me."

As he wrung out the last piece of clothing and put it in the basket, he said, "Oh, I'm so tired."

Yang rubbed her daughter's red hands from the cold and sighed, "If our family had money, you wouldn't have to suffer this."

Qin Shu put his hands to his mouth and chuckled, "Didn't my elder brother go to the market today? If he finds a way to make money, we can move to the county town and hire a servant to help us wash clothes."

Many big families were exiled here and they paid to live in the county town or Dunhuang County. It was nothing like their own home. They couldn’t move out for years and their lives were harder than those of the garrison soldiers.

Yang sighed: "It's a good idea, but making money is not as easy as you think."

"Why is it not easy? Doesn't the Shen family do business with Hu Shang?"

Qin Shu was unconvinced and said, "Shen Zhao can go to the market to sell goods and earn money, why can't my elder brother do it?"

Yang picked up the basket and whispered, "I hope so. If you can really make some money, I'll donate a small official position to your brother."

The position of a minor clerk is not cheap. Even if you work as a cook in the post office, you have to donate thousands of coins.

Even then you still need someone to help mediate, otherwise it won’t be your turn.

Qin Shu nodded: "Of course, when my brother becomes a minor official, let Shen Zhao regret it. Humph! Relying on her similar appearance to Sister Lingyao, she compares herself with Lingyao in everything. Is she worthy?"

Upon hearing this, Yang's lips curled slightly, but a fierce look flashed in her eyes.

He is just a minor official in the post station, but he took advantage of his power to force my family to cancel the engagement. Such an ungrateful person will never have a good life in the future!

Just as I was thinking about it, I saw Uncle Qin limping towards me, carrying two pottery jars on his shoulders. It seemed that he was also coming to the river to fetch water.

"Uncle, how is your Zhuzhu?" Yang took the initiative to greet him.

Qin Zhang raised his eyes and glanced at her, then said calmly, "Much better."

Yang smiled and said, "I told you, Zhuzhu just caught a cold, she just needs to cover herself up and sweat it out, I was really overly worried when I saw how scared my sister-in-law was yesterday."

Qin Zhang said coldly: "Are you saying this to make me thank you, sister-in-law?"

Yang immediately said awkwardly: "No need to thank me, just go and do your work, we will go home too."

After saying this, he hurriedly left with his daughter.

Qin Zhang clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

A few years ago, when his two children fell ill, he asked his sister-in-law, Ms. Yang, for money to buy medicine. Ms. Yang said the same thing and added that the children had sufficient yang energy and would be fine. They would be fine as long as they rested more and did not need to take medicine.

No matter how much he begged, she refused to return his property.

The last two children were gone overnight.

The wife couldn't bear the blow and ran to fight with Yang, and only then did Yang return part of the money.

Now that she said this again, Qin Zhang wanted to slap her twice.

He treated her as a relative, but ended up having her treat his family as a joke. In order to hide those few valuables, the eldest sister-in-law went to great lengths to scheme.

If my wife hadn't insisted on going to the Shen family to ask for medicine today, I guess this daughter would have been lost again.

Qin Zhang took a deep breath and slowly walked to the river to fill his water tank.

In the afternoon, Shen Heng returned home with a beaming smile. He raised the small cloth bag in his hand and said with a smile, "A Zhao! All seventeen pieces are sold!"

"Really?" Shen Zhao quickly took the cloth bag and went back to the house to count it.

Of the seventeen cotton-padded clothes, he only took three thousand four hundred coins for himself and gave the rest to his second brother: "The rest is yours!"

Shen Heng laughed happily and counted his coins one by one.

Shen Zhao glanced outside the courtyard and asked curiously, "Why is no one exchanging food today?" There were no sheep or chickens, which was really strange. Shen Heng said proudly, "That's because the soldiers who bought the cotton clothes were the garrison troops."

"The garrison went to the market to buy cotton clothes?"

"Of course! A few soldiers learned from somewhere that cheap winter clothes were being sold at the market, so they came and bought all the cotton-padded clothes. They also said they would go to the next market again and asked me to keep some for them if I had any more."

Shen Heng counted for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he started counting again.

Seeing how hard he was working, Shen Zhao asked, "How much do you pay the garrison for each piece?"

"Two hundred and fifty." Shen Heng waved his hand: "Don't interrupt me, I'll count again later."

Shen Zhao said unhappily, "No need to count, there are 850 coins left."

Shen Heng was shocked: "A Zhao, how did you know?"

"Two hundred and fifty pieces, seventeen pieces make for four thousand two hundred and fifty. I take three thousand four, so the remaining is eight hundred and fifty, right?" In his previous life, Shen Zhao settled accounts with foreign merchants at the market in the capital. If he couldn't even understand this little number, what business was he doing?
Shen Heng blinked and suddenly said, "No! I also gave Ah Zhu five cents."

"Then it's eight hundred and forty-five coins." Shen Zhao patted his second brother: "If you didn't buy anything, it would be this much."

Shen Heng scratched his head, put the money in front of him, turned around and ran to his mother to ask for some twine, and carefully strung the rope.

It cost one hundred coins a string, and it took him a long time to string them together.

Then he handed the eight strings to his sister and kept forty-five coins for himself: "A Zhao, help me keep them and find a suitable bow and arrow to buy a set, or a sword will do."

Shen Zhao took the copper coin but did not agree immediately: "I'll ask my father before buying weapons."

She wanted to equip her second brother with weapons, but when she thought about how he stabbed a general with a sword in his previous life, she hesitated.

If one day he gets into a fight with someone over a disagreement, I don’t have enough money to atone for his sin.

Shen Heng said nonchalantly: "Dad also agrees that I should practice more bows and arrows, but I prefer to use a crossbow. How about you buy me a crossbow?"

"Let me see if I have enough money first."

Shen Zhao collected the money and turned to ask, "Will you still go to sell winter clothes at the next market?"

"Of course!" Only a fool would give up the opportunity to get rich after tasting the sweetness of making money for the first time.

Shen Heng pocketed forty-five coins and walked out in high spirits. When he reached the door, he suddenly turned back and leaned on the door frame and said:
"A Zhao, I saw the Qin family kid today. He and the Xue family siblings also went to the market."

Shen Zhao didn't care: "Why do you care about them? Stay away from them in the future and don't fall into their trap."

"They are plotting against me? Ha! You underestimate my brother too much!" Shen Heng patted the money in his pocket: "Do you believe that I can use this to recruit a group of people to beat him up?"

Shen Zhao laughed: "I believe it! Why not? But you can't beat him up in public. What if he sues you to the government? Wouldn't our family have to pay compensation?"

Shen Heng blinked, and suddenly realized: "That's right, the man named Qin looks sinister and cunning, we can't fall into his hands."

After saying that, he ran out of the yard.

When Shen Zhao saw his second brother leave, he quickly closed the door and summoned a small bronze mirror.

First, deposit all 4,200 coins, and the account balance will become 9,690 coins.

"With another 6,000 coins, I can get 15,000." Shen Zhao was secretly excited, and then he searched for the prices of bows, crossbows, and swords.

The search turned up a bunch of fancy bows, crossbows and slingshots, the expensive ones costing thousands of coins, and the cheapest ones only a dozen coins.

Shen Zhao was dazzled by the look and didn't know which one was best, so he had to put it aside for the time being and continue searching for swords and daggers.

(End of this chapter)