"What shenanigans are you girls up to now?" Mrs. Wang couldn't help but scold her daughter. "Don't you have any maidenly reserve? You..."
Upon hearing Mrs. Wang's words, Su Minghui immediately grew displeased. He retorted to his wife, "Alright! What’s with all your complaining? It’s not bad for girls to be a little lively. I think it's much better for them to be so forthright and generous, unlike those petty people!"
Mrs. Wang let out a noncommittal "tsk." She stopped her scolding, saying, "I can't be bothered to talk to you. You just spoil them! See what kind of people you'll raise them into! Did you find anything? Why the excitement? Did you find silver? Take it out and let's see!"
Mrs. Wang asked in a very understated tone. She didn't believe that a few half-grown children could find anything of value.
(The three girls simultaneously looked at Mrs. Wang, their faces full of admiration: Mother/Aunt x2. Nicely done! You guessed that!)
Su Muqing said no more, but picked up the bundle she was holding and lifted a corner.
The moment the contents were revealed, gasps of amazement erupted from all around!
Heavens! What did they see? Were those silver ingots? A whole bundle of them! Who was so wealthy to possess so much silver!
Mrs. Wang's mouth gaped open in disbelief. Did her words just come true? Or did she accidentally step on dog droppings just now? She instantly lost her composure, as did everyone present.
"Where did this come from? Is this all...?" Mrs. Wang tremulously asked Su Muqing. She almost screamed out the word "silver"! It had to be said that she and Su Cuiping were true mother and daughter; their actions and expressions were exactly the same!
Su Minghui was also struck speechless, his mind blank for a moment! He unconsciously reached out and took the bundle Su Muqing handed him. The sudden weight made him feel as if his "qilin arm" could barely support the bundle's heft!
After handing over the silver, Su Muqing also shook her arms, which felt numb from holding the bundle for so long.
Under the expectant gazes of everyone, Su Minghui placed the bundle on the ground. He then carefully unwrapped it, revealing all the silver ingots completely!
He then counted them one by one. There were 48 silver ingots. He picked one up and brought it closer to the torch. He saw that each ingot had an inscription, arranged like a couplet.
At the top was the name of the country – Great Yu Dynasty. On the left was the place of manufacture – Officially Made in Jiangning. On the right was the weight of the ingot – Pure Silver Five Liang.
Only Great Yu Dynasty silver ingots weighing five liang or more were inscribed. Those below five liang were used very frequently and often needed to be broken into pieces for shopping, so they were usually not inscribed.
This meant that this bundle contained a total of 240 liang of silver! No wonder it weighed more than ten catties. It weighed a full 24 catties, heavier than a baby!
The conversion here was 16 liang to a catty, though Su Muqing was unaware of this. In fact, when she saw it was only 240 liang, she was a little disappointed!
After all, in the transmigration novels she used to read, the female protagonists often dealt with amounts of silver in the thousands or gold in the tens of thousands. Picking a ginseng from the mountain could easily sell for hundreds of liang.
She glanced at the desolate surroundings. Ginseng...? It had probably fled with the refugees too!
Compared to that, 240 liang didn't seem like much? She even felt that the three chests underground weren't that valuable anymore! It had to be said, this was quite a display of wealth!
Fortunately, she only grumbled in her heart. If she had dared to say it out loud, reality would have taught her how to behave long ago!
To Su Muqing, this was just a small sum, as she didn't understand the local prices! At least, everyone present except her was unable to express their thoughts at that moment!
240 liang? What was the concept? The Great Yu Dynasty was very stable in all aspects. Its agricultural economy, etc., was somewhat similar to the prosperous Tang Dynasty period that Su Muqing had studied in her past life.
The manifestations were grains and silver! Grains were the least valuable, while silver was the opposite!
Before the drought, a dou of rice only sold for 5 wen. Usually, one liang of silver was equivalent to 1000 wen of copper coins (also called one guan), which could buy 200 dou of rice. 10 dou made one dan, which was 20 dan. Converting to modern weight, one dan was about 59 kilograms. This meant one liang of silver could buy 2360 catties of grain!
But a catty here was 16 liang, which meant 2360 catties x 16 liang = 37760 liang.
And then, according to 1 liang of rice making 3 liang of cooked rice, assuming a family of three with one child, each person eating 3 liang of cooked rice per meal, that would be 9 liang of rice per day. 10 days for 90 liang is 9 catties, 100 days for 90 catties. One by one, two by two, happy International Women's Day, happy May Day, happy Children's Day...
She couldn't calculate it! Over two thousand catties! It was better to give some to others or sell it! The shelf life should not exceed six months, otherwise, it would attract insects!
In short, one liang of silver in this era was not equivalent to the one thousand yuan of the modern era as Su Muqing thought! Its purchasing power was astonishing!
"So much... Muqing, girl, did you find this?" Su Minghui swallowed, a somewhat shameful thought of dividing this silver flashing through his mind! Forgive him for his sudden greed. Of course, he only thought about it!
"Mhm, mhm! I found it!" Su Muqing nodded like a pecking chicken, her face displaying a naive and proud expression, as if expecting praise!
Su Minghui gave her a thumbs-up. "You truly are the treasure-dispensing maiden of our village!"
The surrounding people also gave her thumbs-up along with Su Minghui. Su Muqing instantly gained a large number of manual endorsements!
At this moment, the voice of 217 in her mind also sounded, "Congratulations to the host, you have received +349 Gratitude Points, converted to +35 Contribution Points."
Yes! With this, she now had 45 contribution points. She wondered how many contribution points it would take to upgrade the space from level three to level four.
While some were grateful to her, others resented her. For example, Madam Qian and Ergouzi, who got nothing, and Su Mingfu, Su Mingyuan's elder brother, who was called to help move things!
The three of them were consumed by jealousy! If it weren't for the darkness making it difficult to see, the people around would have thought these three had turned into beasts! Their eyes were bloodshot and turned red!
After his initial excitement, Su Minghui quickly re-wrapped the bundle, tying it securely. He then said to the onlookers, "Hurry up! Don't delay any longer. Let's quickly move the things! We'll discuss the rest when we get back!"
The crowd immediately became energized, as if injected with chicken blood. They were all calculating in their hearts how much silver they would receive.