Meng Nan shouted towards the old lady: “All of you shut up, you, tell me, how exactly did you save those 30 silver coins? How much does your family earn per year? How much does your family spend per year? How long did you save those money? Tell me everything clearly.”
Old Lady Bai get anxious inside her heart. Although she was in charge of the family’s money, she had never taken note of them. She only knows that after each harvest, she will leave some of it to serve as the family’s food. And then, the rest of the 2 to 3 silver coins will be spent as family’s expenses and tuition fee for Bai Xiaofeng. After that, almost nothing will be left. So, how will she save that amount of money?
Old Lady Bai tried saving money in her entire life, but she only saved a very little amount. But then, she spent those 2 silver coins for Zhao Lan’s treatment. Her money that she kept so much in her small box reached it’s bottom instantly.
Seeing the old lady couldn’t open her mouth and utter a word, Mrs. Liu became anxious. She quickly pulled her husband’s sleeves and asked him to speak out.
Bai Dazhu was, after all, a man and the eldest son of the family. Although Bai Dazhu was scared of the Magistrate, he can’t just watch his mother being pushed to the corner. He shouldn’t hide his head like a tortoise.
Bai Dazhu softly coughed and headed towards Meng Nan: “Daren, our 30 silver coins were not saved for merely two days. It took us more than 10 years to save. We were able to save money little by little because our family has 2 acres of land. After saving some food for the family, we will sell everything, the family will earn 2 silvers coins at most. It was very difficult for us to lose that money, after all, my eldest son will soon get married.”
Meng Nan didn’t felt moved, he simply said: “So, these 30 silver coins, were saved little by little by all of you?”
Bai Dazhu quickly nodded: “Exactly.”
“These 30 silver coins of your family, was is it in the form of silver tickets or in coins? Or perhaps, it is silver ingots?”
When Bai Dazhu heard those words, he was shocked. Why he didn’t predict that the magistrate will ask those questions next? What will he answer? Bai Dazhu busily looked at the old lady to ask for help.
At this time, Old Lady Bai has recovered her mind. She knew that their lies must continue. They mustn’t make any mistake.
Old Lady Bai answered back instead: “It was mixed, it has silver coins and silver ingots. As for how many of them each, I don’t know, I’m also confused, I didn’t count them well.”
When the villagers outside heard the old lady’s words, they shook their heads. Some of them even couldn’t help but had arguments.
“This old woman is really shameless. Just to extort money, she can say those words. Who doesn’t know how much she loves money? If she really has that much silver coins, she must have been counting them every day, so how she will not know how many coins or ingots are there?”
Meng Nan turned and look at Bai Zhi, then asked, “What about you? Can you proved where did you get your money?”
Bai Zhi smiled and said: “Of course, that money came from Hu Bo, Hu Bo can naturally prove them.”
She and Hu Changlin had already discussed this thing last night. So, they naturally know, what to say and what not to the government officials today.
Hu Changlin stepped forward towards Meng Nan: “Daren, this old one is poor and never saved money before. But not long ago, this old one’s son, Hu Feng, went to the mountain to hunt. Luckily, he was able to dig out a wild ginseng. This old one asked our village doctor to help me sell the wild ginseng for us to have some money.”
Meng Nan raised his eyebrows, “Oh? How much did you sell it?”
Hu Changlin calmly replied: “A total of 200 silver coins. Our village doctor can testify with it.”
200 silver coins? A wild ginseng can be sold for 200 silver coins?