novelraw Chapter 268 A Life-Saving Grace? Is it Worth the Price?
Chapter 268 A Life-Saving Grace? Is it Worth the Price?
Chapter 268 A Life-Saving Grace? Is it Worth the Price?
"They were afraid you wouldn't accept it, so they rushed off in a hurry," Uncle San said, somewhat worried.
"I haven't even returned the mutton I sent the other day, and now they've sent three cows. What am I going to do?"
Gu Lianshan wiped his face: "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I'll definitely return the favor in a beautiful way."
It would have been better not to say anything at all. After hearing this, Uncle San became even more uneasy.
"Don't do anything reckless. Your father still has some silver. Just take it and use it to buy things."
"Don't overthink it." Gu Lianshan hesitated for a moment, then simply told a lie.
"I still have some savings, but the money isn't in my possession; my daughter has been keeping it. I'll talk to her about it later and ask her to take out some for spending."
"Alright, if it's not enough, just go to your father's room and get some more."
"Okay. Let's go back. It's cold outside. Let's go back inside and lie down for a while."
The father and son returned to the courtyard, closed the gate, and went back to their respective houses.
It's too early now, and there's nothing to do if I get up. I'd better go back to my room and sleep for a while longer.
They said they would go back to their room to sleep, but both father and son had something on their minds. From 3:45 AM to early morning, neither of them could fall asleep.
Finally, dawn broke, and the two breathed a sigh of relief, got dressed, and got up again.
After leaving the house, Gu Lianshan wanted to talk to Gu Tang about the money, but considering that it was not yet time for his daughter to get up, he had no choice but to wait patiently.
Looking at the snow on the roof, and thinking that there was nothing else to do, he turned around and grabbed a rake, and dug all the snow off the roof.
The snow has stopped, but the sky hasn't cleared up yet. The dark, ominous clouds are terrifying. I estimate it will stop at most until the afternoon, and then it will snow again tonight.
Gu Ping'an also got up, yawning as he came out of the house, wearing a new fur coat.
Gu Lianshan glanced at him and couldn't help but say, "You should save a new outfit for New Year's Day. You're showing off with a new outfit today and a new outfit tomorrow. You don't even know who you are anymore."
Gu Ping'an was speechless. Who had provoked his father so early in the morning? Why was he in such a bad mood so early in the morning?
“I kept two sets of new clothes, and my second sister told me to take turns wearing the rest. She said not to be reluctant to wear them, because if I don’t wear them this year, they might be too small next year and I might not be able to wear them then.”
Gu Lianshan's eyes widened: "How come you have so many new clothes?"
“My second sister bought it. I said I didn’t want it, but she insisted on buying it for me.”
"Why didn't you buy it for me?" Gu Lianshan asked, his eyes red with envy.
Gu Pingan rolled his eyes: "Then I don't know, you can ask your second sister yourself."
Gu Lianshan: ...You thought he wouldn't dare to ask, right?
Wait, I'll ask!
After having breakfast, Gu Tang finally got up.
Gu Lianshan placed the sesame oil egg custard he had made himself in front of her, so that Gu Tang could try it.
Gu Tang glanced at him. This unexpected kindness must mean he wants something from her!
"Speak, what do you want to do?"
"What do you mean by 'what'? Why do you think I'm doing something when Dad just steams a bowl of egg custard for you?" Gu Lianshan stubbornly refused to admit it, his face completely unconcerned.
Gu Tang ignored him, finished scooping out the steamed egg custard with a spoon, wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, and stood up: "You won't talk, huh? Then I'm leaving. I'll go ask the clan leader when Gu Qing will be punished."
These words were deliberately said for Gu Lianshan to hear. Gu Qing left the village yesterday, and it's unknown whether she has returned yet.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, Gu Lianshan quickly stopped him: "Go later, your father has something to ask you right now."
"I knew it." Gu Tang glared at him. "You personally brought the food to my room today, and you still dare to say you're alright?"
"What are you saying? Your father used to bring you meals to your room quite often!"
"Alright, alright, what exactly did you want to see me about?"
"It's nothing serious, it's just that Gu Sanlang brought three cows yesterday and left them behind, saying it was a gift for recognizing the family..."
Gu Lianshan looked worried and counted on his fingers as he told Gu Tang, "The other day they sent over three dwarf sheep, and today they left over three cows. We've received two big gifts, but we haven't returned a single one."
Hearing this, Gu Tang understood, "You want to ask me for money to buy return gifts?"
"That's not what I meant. I certainly don't want your money. What I meant was, could you sell some of the jewelry you scavenged from your grandmother?"
"You want to sell those pieces of jewelry?" Gu Tang asked seriously. "They all have markings on them. Wait a moment, I'll take them out for you to see."
Gu Tang got up and went to the inner room. She took out a wooden box from her system backpack and carried it back to the outer room with both hands.
She placed the box in front of her father, opened it, and took out various pieces of jewelry inside, letting her father examine them closely.
"Look, there are words on it!"
The box of jewelry confiscated from Feng's house contained a pair of beaded bracelets, two pairs of bangles, two hairpins, two hair ornaments, and about twenty rings of various kinds.
The bracelet is made of jade beads, while the bangle is made of gold.
The two hairpins and two hair ornaments are also made of gold, but they are inlaid with some red and white jade.
The twenty or so rings were a mixed bag, some made of gold, some of silver, some of jade, and even a few gold-inlaid jade rings.
Whether it's gold, silver, or jade, all of these items are engraved with the character "Chen".
“My grandmother has kept this hidden for decades and hasn’t dared to touch it. This stuff is probably not appropriate. I also have a box of loose silver, a full eighty taels, which I also swindled from my grandmother. Why don’t you take that silver?”
"That silver will be used for other things in the future. With your grandma and grandpa's health, once they're both bedridden, that bastard of an uncle will definitely dump them on us."
I'm thinking, of these eighty taels of silver, keep forty taels as your personal savings, and keep the remaining forty taels for now. If your uncle really does send your grandparents here in the future, use these forty taels to support them; we can't let them die in front of our door.”
Gu Tang had no objection, but the Feng family might not be able to hold out until then.
She's coming back, but she hasn't had a chance yet. Once she finds an opportunity, she'll send Madam Feng away as soon as possible!
"If you insist on taking these jewelry pieces, then melt them down in a fire and hammer them into gold and silver ingots. That way, you won't have to sell them. Besides, the markings on them will probably be gone after being burned."
"That's a great idea!" Gu Lianshan exclaimed with delight. With gold and silver melted together, even the most numerous marks could be dissolved.
"You put them away first, and I'll melt them down once I've gathered all the necessary materials."
"Okay!" Gu Tang put the jewelry back into the box, and suddenly remembered something.
"By the way, did you open and check those twenty baskets of things that Gu Sanlang sent?"
She secretly put six hundred taels of silver in there!!!
Gu Lianshan was taken aback: "I didn't see it. I brought it back and put it in the east wing. Father forgot about it!"
"...Let's go take a look. Gu Sanlang must have given money as a thank you for saving his life."
Gu Tang took the wooden box to the inner room, put it back into her system inventory, and then came out of the inner room, urging her father to hurry up and go to the east wing to take a look.
"How do you know they'll give you money?" Gu Lianshan asked, puzzled.
"For example, if someone in the village saved me, and our family was wealthy, how would you thank them?" "With silver!"
"That's right. For families like ours, nothing is more useful than giving money."
Gu Lianshan looked at her with admiration; his daughter was right, and he couldn't argue with her.
As they approached the east wing corridor, they saw Gu Ping'an sweeping the snow in the courtyard.
Upon seeing his son, Gu Lianshan suddenly remembered something and asked his daughter with a serious expression, "How many new clothes have you prepared for Ping'an? He's changed into two or three new outfits in the past few days!"
“I didn’t buy much. I bought it for him when I was buying clothes.”
Gu Lianshan: "...Then why didn't you buy one for Dad while you were at it?"
"Buy it for you?" Gu Tang turned to look at him and said something that really hit home.
"Aren't you worried about spending money? That's why I didn't buy you any. I was afraid that seeing new clothes would remind you of the money you spent and make you feel bad!"
Gu Lianshan:……!!!
"If you say that, it will break your father's heart even more!"
"Then I'll make it up to you later?" Gu Tang teased him deliberately.
In fact, she had hidden a new piece of her father's clothing in her room, intending to take it out and give it to him during the New Year.
Gu Lianshan was unaware of the truth and ignored Gu Tang.
With a stiff face, he pushed open the door to the east wing and walked in with heavy steps.
Seeing his father suddenly open the door, Gu Ping'an quickly called out, "There's a dog inside! Don't step on it!"
"The dog's in this house?" Gu Tang glared at him. "Isn't there a doghouse? Didn't you bring it back?"
"We brought them back, but they're afraid of the cold and don't want to sleep in the doghouse in the backyard. They were sleeping in my room yesterday, but this morning they ran to this room."
As they were talking, they saw his father, with a dark face, grab the two puppies by the scruff of their necks and toss them out the door with a light touch.
Seeing that the puppies were alright, Gu Ping'an breathed a sigh of relief and called out to them, trying to lead them away.
The two puppies always avoided Gu Tang, but today was no exception. They tucked their tails between their legs, circled around Gu Ping'an, and then rushed into the snowdrift.
Gu Tang twitched her lips. She was the one who bought the dog, but as soon as they saw her, the two puppies ran faster than rabbits!
It seems she just doesn't get along with dogs.
He sighed, rolled up his sleeves, and went inside.
Quickly check those baskets; her six hundred taels of silver can't be lost!
Gu Lianshan had already started searching through all the baskets, and when he saw Gu Tang come in, he urged her to check the contents of the baskets.
Lifting the cloth covering the baskets, you can see twenty baskets, and at a glance, you can roughly tell what was being delivered.
The five baskets of cloth were all made of fine silk and satin, and the colors were mainly red, green, pink, and blue, which were suitable for girls, with only a few brown and dark blue colors suitable for boys.
The six baskets of fur coats, judging by color and size, three of them were for Gu Tang, and the remaining three were for Uncle San, Gu Lianshan, and Gu Ping'an, one each.
Two baskets of slaughtered and plucked chickens, two baskets of fish frozen into sticks, one basket of tangerines, one basket of salt, one basket of sugar, and two baskets of pastries.
"This...this gift is far too valuable!" Gu Lianshan exclaimed in amazement.
When he saw the number of baskets, he knew that the things delivered must be quite a lot, but he never expected that the things inside the baskets would be so valuable!
"After all, it was a life-saving grace, and Gu Sanlang is an honest person, so he was naturally very generous when giving a thank-you gift."
Gu Tang pretended to be curious about the fur coat, picked up a light pink brocade fur coat, and deliberately pulled it up to show off the silver she had secretly put in earlier.
The silver was wrapped in cloth, and Gu Lianshan quickly noticed it: "What is this?"
He reached out and picked it up; it felt heavy in his hand. His expression suddenly turned strange, and he began to suspect something.
With trembling hands, I opened the package, and sure enough, it really was silver!
"There's even silver in here?!" Gu Tang feigned surprise, her eyes shining brightly.
"Father! Look for the other baskets and see if there are any with silver inside!"
Gu Lianshan was also dazzled by the silver in front of him. He carefully put the silver back into his basket and began rummaging through the other baskets.
After searching through the remaining baskets, they finally found another bag of silver in another basket containing a fur coat.
Gu Lianshan picked up the two bags of silver, weighed them in his hand, and felt that they were the same weight.
Gu Tang took the silver and put it together, then smiled and said, "Didn't you want to buy something for Gu Sanlang as a return gift? Now that you have this silver, you don't have to worry about it anymore."
Gu Lianshan laughed too: "I'll go call your grandfather over and let him see these good things too!"
"And Ping An, call Ping An over too."
"Yes! Shout it all together!"
Gu Lianshan was overjoyed; his daughter had done a great job saving the person! She had truly rescued a golden child who could scatter gold!
When the third uncle and Gu Ping'an entered one after the other, the grandfather and grandson were immediately astonished by the scene inside the house.
In their search for silver, the father and daughter had emptied all their baskets, leaving the items scattered everywhere—a truly spectacular sight.
Gu Tang was picking up bags of pastries and putting them into her basket when she saw them come in. She quickly got up, waved to them, and showed them the silver wrapped in cloth.
"Look! This is probably the first time we've ever seen so much silver!"
Indeed, the six hundred taels of silver consisted mostly of silver ingots of various shapes, and the weight of the bundled items was quite considerable.
Gu Ping'an stared wide-eyed, as if he couldn't believe it, and actually picked up a piece of silver and put it in his mouth and bit it.
When he took it out and saw the two layers of teeth marks on the surface of the silver, he grinned and said, "It's real silver!"
Gu Tang snatched the silver from his hand, looking disgusted: "This silver has been touched by who knows how many people, don't you find it dirty!"
"Not dirty! Silver isn't dirty!" Gu Ping'an retorted with a smile.
Gu Tang ignored him and turned her gaze to her third uncle: "Master, why aren't you saying anything?"
Upon learning that Ah Gou had sent so much silver and gifts, Third Uncle's first reaction was indeed one of joy.
But after the initial excitement, he became somewhat uneasy.
"These things, plus this bag of silver, will probably cost over a thousand taels of silver! Can we really accept this?"
The old man's words brought Gu Lianshan's feverish mind back to its senses.
He looked at these items, estimated their value in his mind, and then looked at the silver in Gu Tang's hand, suddenly feeling uncertain.
Indeed, that must be over a thousand taels of silver!
"Hearing you say that makes me a little uneasy. How can I possibly receive so much silver and stuff for saving my life?"