699: Chapter 688: Heavy Gift 699: Chapter 688: Heavy Gift Bai Shan packed up his book basket ready to leave when Wei Ting hurriedly grabbed his arm, “Are Erlang and the others not coming to read books today?”
Bai Shan pulled his sleeve out of his grasp and said, “They’re not coming.”
“Why?”
“Fourth Brother Zhou is coming back from our hotown today, and I need to head ho early too, alright, please step aside.”
Wei Ting also quickly packed his things to leave, catching up to ask, “Right, our horseback archery class is about to start, are you buying a horse or renting one?”
“I’ll just rent one from the school,” Bai Shan was now not very fond of the horses raised near Qixia Mountain; although it’s normal for a horse to go mad after being whipped, he still doubted its safety.
Wei Ting nodded and said, “Renting is not bad, it’s much cheaper too, then we’ll go pick out the horses together later.”
Bai Shan curiously looked at him, “You’re renting a horse?”
The Wei family lived in Yizhou City, and their family background wasn’t low.
Even if they didn’t go to Qixia Mountain to buy horses, they could just bring one from their own ho.
Wei Ting explained, “This year, all the classmates in our class are renting horses, so I just went with the flow.”
Bai Shan nodded, and upon reaching the door and finding Daji, he then bid farewell to Wei Ting, “I’m leaving.”
Wei Ting waved goodbye regretfully.
Ji Hao could not co to school yet as it takes a hundred days to recover from bone and muscle injuries, so it’s likely he wouldn’t be able to attend school this year, and whether he would advance to the next level with them or repeat a year is still uncertain.
Bai Shan seed to not enjoy playing; how sad.
Once Master Shan was seated securely, Daji began to drive the carriage and reported in a low voice, “Zhou Si has co back, the Old Madam sent him with letters and clothes for the winter, and, today, the Ji Family sent invitations to our ho along with many precious gifts.”
After a pause, Daji continued, “County Magistrate Tang has co, he’s at ho playing chess with Mr.
Zhuang.”
Bai Shan was surprised, “So much has happened today?”
“Yes,” Daji replied.
The carriage quickly returned to the small courtyard, and Bai Shan hopped down, pushing open the gate to enter.
He saw many gift boxes arranged in two piles in the courtyard.
Manbao and Bai Erlang were opening the boxes and exclaiming in the midst of one pile of presents, but the loudest exclamation ca from Zhou SiLang, whose face bead with excitent.
Upon seeing Bai Shan’s return, Manbao imdiately waved excitedly, “You’re back!
Co and see the gifts from the Ji Family; there are so many.”
Curious, Bai Shan approached and opened a gift box, noticing a jade carving inside, and he couldn’t help saying, “Didn’t they already send gifts?
Why are they sending more?”
Manbao thought for a mont, then shook her head, “I don’t know, the master told to accept them, so I did.”
Bai Shan glanced at the study and seeing the master and County Magistrate Tang playing chess, he quietly asked Manbao, “Why has County Magistrate Tang co?
Have we caused trouble again?”
Manbao shook her head, “I don’t know, he went straight to playing chess with the master as soon as he arrived and didn’t interrogate .
You should check what’s in your gift boxes first, is there any gold?”
Zhou SiLang also ca over imdiately, saying excitedly, “The Ji Family sent Manbao a box full of gold, with twelve ingots in total spread over two layers.”
Bai Shan also beca curious, rolled up his sleeves, and began to open his gift boxes.
After Daji finished tying up the horse, he ca over to help and soon found a very heavy large box.
Once opened, they saw two rows of gold ingots, three rows in total; removing the top layer revealed another row underneath, also twelve in total.
Everyone exclaid with a “wow,” filled with envy.
Bai Erlang looked at Bai Shan and then at Manbao, full of regret, “Why didn’t I go to Qixia Mountain that day?
So much money; it’s even more than our estate makes in a year.”
Zhou SiLang reached out and touched Bai Shan’s gold ingots, drawing a breath and said, “Even if you’d gone, it wouldn’t have helped; see, even though Lijun and I went that day, we didn’t receive any gifts.”
Bai Erlang: “That’s because you two didn’t play any part.”
“Even if you had gone, it wouldn’t have been much use,” Zhou SiLang sized up Bai Erlang and said, “Could you ride a horse like Young Master Shan to rescue soone, or could you weave a needle to save soone like my Manbao here?”
Bai Erlang was left speechless.
“Right, Daji, you have a gift too, where’s yours?” Zhou SiLang turned to ask Daji.
Daji went back inside to bring out a small box, opened it to show Bai Shan, inside were two round, plump gold ingots, each weighing about twenty taels.
Manbao and the others exclaid with a “wow” again, touching them over and over in their arms.
Zhou SiLang couldn’t let go, his eyes sparkling with stars, “I’ve never seen such plump gold ingots before; they’re so pretty.”
Bai Shan also took it and felt it, then, looking at the gold ingots in his own box, said, “I want mine to be made like these too.”
Daji: “… Master, if you like it, how about we swap?
Otherwise, it’ll cost a fee to have them remade at the silver store, not to ntion the wear and tear.”
Bai Shan imdiately hugged the gold ingot and said, “Alright, let’s swap; you’ve made a rit at Qixia Mountain this ti, and I was intending to reward you too, so I’ll give you another gold ingot.”
Then Bai Shan was about to give him five gold ingots when Manbao quickly stopped his hand, “I have two plump gold ingots too; I want to swap one as well.”
Daji, looking at his young master, generously gave the other gold ingot to Manbao.
Manbao hugged it tightly, smiling so much her eyes squeezed shut, and from her box, she picked out two gold ingots to give back to Daji.
Zhou Lijun watched enviously, “Cousin, are you tired of holding it?
Let help you hold it for a while.”
Bai Erlang also said to Bai Shan, “Shanbao, are you tired?
Let help you hold them.”
The group of them played with the two plump gold ingots, laughing and giggling for a while before they started looking through other gift boxes.
This ti, the Ji Family’s gifts for them were exceptionally high-grade; for Manbao’s, there were two sets of jewelry she hadn’t even seen before, looking particularly pretty and precious.
So precious that with her little understanding right now, she wouldn’t really be able to wear them.
As Zhou SiLang unpacked gift boxes, he said, “Keep them, we’ll bring them ho later for mother to put away for you, to be part of your dowry when you marry.”
Manbao was unwilling, “I don’t want that, I want to keep it for myself.”
Although she couldn’t wear them now, just looking at them made her happy every day.
Zhou SiLang was puzzled, “Manbao, where exactly do you keep all your money and precious things?
Can your little cubicle even hold all that stuff?
Isn’t it better to take it back ho and keep it there, what if there’s a thief here?”
Bai Shan nodded, pointed at several boxes, and said, “These, these, and these, Fourth Brother Zhou, next ti you go ho, please take them with you, hand them over to Grandma to keep.”
Zhou SiLang nodded and then looked at Manbao.
Manbao insisted, “I want to keep them for myself.”
“Fine, but don’t co crying if they get stolen.”
Manbao was overly confident, “They won’t get lost, but I’ll take these fabrics back for mother and my sister-in-law to make clothes.”
“You better not, the clothes you sent last ti were all converted to money,” Zhou SiLang said, “Mother said those fabrics were obviously very nice, and everyone at ho works in the fields.
Wearing such clothes would be a waste, you might as well keep them to make your own clothes.”
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