Not long after, a steward from a wealthy household arrived in the village.
He offered ten copper coins for the thresher.
Su Xiaoqi inquired, learning that the landlord's family owned thousands of mu of fertile land and a dozen manors. Their farming had only just begun.
She personally went to negotiate, raising the price to one hundred taels.
The steward hesitated for a moment, then immediately agreed.
Agreed…
Watching the wealthy household's steward cart away the thresher,
Su Xiaoqi giggled foolishly, clutching the hundred taels of silver notes in her hand.
"Heh, this money is easy to earn. I barely had to use my brain, just had to remember what the thresher looked like, and that was that."
She thought that she had merely suggested it casually, while Shen Yun had labored diligently, drawing designs for a long time, and even traveled to the city several times to have the thresher made for her.
Therefore, a portion of these hundred taels of silver notes definitely belonged to him.
Su Xiaoqi considered this, then deliberately handed the silver notes to Shen Yun, pretending to say, "Husband, you've worked hard. This money..."
Before she could finish, the silver notes landed in Shen Yun's palm.
Su Xiaoqi stared, dumbfounded.
"Heh, well, I just said it casually, why did he take it so seriously?"
While feeling disgruntled, she saw Shen Yun suddenly take her hand and put the silver notes back into her palm.
Su Xiaoqi was taken aback, quickly taking the notes and tucking them into her bosom.
She feared that if she was a moment slower, Shen Yun might change his mind.
"You, you…" Shen Yun was caught between laughter and tears.
He was glad he was only teasing her.
She should also think about it – whenever he had money, didn't he always give it to her?
Su Xiaoqi also discerned the true meaning behind the smile in Shen Yun's eyes.
Realizing he had seen through her thoughts, she became a little embarrassed.
The thresher, which had appeared so suddenly, also vanished just as abruptly.
The villagers of Zhaojia Village were puzzled for a long time.
They couldn't understand why such a good item had been sold.
"If you want one, buy your own," Su Xiaoqi told them. She explained that the machine had been patented and that threshers would soon be available for sale in the city.
"Ah, Mrs. Shen is right. Your family has already been too kind to us.
Before we even started farming, you lent us grain seeds without taking any payment.
Now that we've harvested our crops and our granaries are full, it's time to return the seeds we borrowed."
The speaker was Zhao Huzhi.
But this was a matter for the entire village.
They had a bountiful harvest this year.
Even after setting aside the grain taxes for the court and eating sparingly, they would have enough to feed their families for the second half of the year.
Next, they would fulfill the promise they made when they received the seeds.
Just as they had when borrowing the seeds, everyone gathered at the village head's house to discuss the repayment.
Some suggested returning the exact same amount of seeds they had borrowed.
This group was led by Zhao Guanggun and Zhao Baoyi.
Zhao Huzhi disagreed first: "How can we calculate it like that?"
At the time, the seeds were impossible to buy.
Even if they were sold at Su Ji Grain Store in the city, one sheng of seeds would cost at least a hundred wen.
Now, during the harvest season, the city grain stores were selling them for only ten wen a sheng.
If they returned them this way, it would be ten times less.
That was too much.
"We should calculate it according to the price we paid for the seeds back then," Zhao Huzhi proposed.
"Exactly! If it weren't for the Shen family's seeds, we wouldn't have been able to plant anything back then."
"Heh, of course you'd say that. You're their maternal relatives, they wouldn't want anything from you. You're just pretending to be helpful. Bah." Zhao Baoyi cursed with great fervor.
Ever since he had gone to the Shen family's house that day to demand the irrigation pond and was refused, he had been plotting.
He had many ideas in his mind, but the farm work kept him from implementing any of them.
However, he deeply hated Su Xiaoqi.
She had actually dared to lay hands on him, not just kick him.
She had even threatened him with a kitchen knife.
Damn it.
This feud was definitely set.
This time, when it came to returning the grain, he wasn't afraid.
Early that morning, his elder brother Zhao Baoren had called him over.
He told him to instigate everyone not to return the grain to the Shen family.
"Why, elder brother? Weren't you always on their side?" Zhao Baoren asked, sounding a bit confused about the change of heart.
He knew that his elder brother had received many benefits from the Shen family previously and had always considered their interests, speaking up for them.
This had led to their family having a very superior status in the village.
"Hmph, on whose side? I only have two daughters, and they've both been plotted against by them." Zhao Baoren hadn't suspected Shen Yun and Su Xiaoqi at first.
But he had a good niece, Zhao Xiaohua.
She had been treating him like her own daughter these days.
She kept visiting his house, often, to explain things, breaking them down and dissecting them. Her sole intention was to convey that the Shen family had malicious intentions and had harmed his younger daughter.
Otherwise, given his status in Zhaojia Village, he could have found any son-in-law much better than that old fogey Huang Liangsheng.
Unfortunately, he had taken advantage of an unguarded moment and slept with his second daughter.
If she didn't marry him now, she wouldn't be able to get married at all.
Zhao Xiaohua had told him that Huang Liangsheng had initially fancied Su Xiaoqi, but because she refused, he had then approached their family's Hai'e.
So, who was to blame if not the Shen family?
Zhao Baoren clenched his fists, furious.
Other families had two daughters, and when they married them off, they gained two sons-in-law, which, when rounded up, could be considered like one son.
He, on the other hand, had married off two daughters and gained himself a father-in-law.
The brothers had made their plans early in the morning.
Zhao Baoyi had been muttering about it even earlier.
But when people arrived, before he could even start speaking, someone else had already set the tone.
They had to return the grain to Su Xiaoqi.
If you borrow, you must return, then you can borrow again.
However, they hadn't figured out how to return it yet.
Zhao Baoyi saw that it was pointless to let everyone shirk their debt for the grain at this point.
So he simply persuaded them to return less.
This was a tangible benefit.
Everyone was quite moved.
After all, most of them had borrowed several sheng of seeds, and if they returned them according to the price back then, wouldn't that amount to several hundred wen?
This amount of money was not insignificant for the villagers who had sold several loads of buckwheat, but they could afford it.
However, why should they gratuitously hand over this money to settle a debt?
It wasn't worth it.
But Zhao Huzhi, Zhao Dashan, and others insisted that the Shen family should not suffer any loss.
Zhao Baoyi and Zhao Guanggun, on the other hand, insisted that they themselves should not suffer any loss.
So, after much discussion, they couldn't reach a consensus.
And Zhao Baoren, who should have presided over the matter, remained silent.
In the end, they simply decided to return the grain according to the wishes of both factions.
From beginning to end, Su Xiaoqi and Shen Yun, who had been invited to receive the grain, did not utter a single word.
They would accept whatever amount was returned.
They simply had Shen E dan, who had recently learned to write, sit beside them to record the accounts.
Which household borrowed how much seed, and how much they returned.
Zhao Huzhi: Borrowed three sheng of seeds, returned three dou of grain.
Zhao Dashan: Borrowed four sheng of seeds, returned four dou of grain.
Zhao Dexing: Borrowed one sheng of seeds, returned one sheng of grain.
Zhao Baoyi: Borrowed three sheng of seeds, returned three sheng of grain.
...
A total of fifty households. Half supported Zhao Huzhi, and the other half stood with Zhao Baoyi.
After Su Xiaoqi finished organizing, she paid ten wen and asked Zhao Huzhi and others to help her carry the grain back to the storage room of the new courtyard.
Shen E dan expressed his confusion. He stared at his elder brother and asked,
"Why did they borrow the same amount of seeds, but return different amounts of grain?"
Shen Yun said calmly, "Because people's hearts are different. Some have dark hearts, and some have upright hearts."
"Oh, I see. So these people are not worth associating with, they have dark hearts." Shen E dan looked at the repayment list he had written and put a cross next to the names of those who returned less.
Although Su Xiaoqi was organizing things, she heard every word the brothers said. She looked up and gave Shen E dan a thumbs-up.
He had spoken the truth.
While they were tidying up, Zhao Baoren and Zhao Baoyi, the brothers, at home, could not quite believe what had happened.
"They really didn't say anything?" Zhao Baoren, to avoid being gossiped about, had not visited again after a brief tour.
The news was relayed to him by Zhao Baoyi.
"Not a word. It's so strange. They didn't make a fuss either. This has made several families regret returning so much with Zhao Dashan and the others."
In those times, grain was scarce. They had initially intended not to break their promise.
But seeing that the hosts themselves did not make a scene, some families who had returned more began to grumble.
If they had known, they would have returned as little as the others.
Wasn't it better to save the extra two dou of grain to eat themselves?