"A bowl of icy jelly to cool off, two spoonfuls of brown sugar to forget all worries."
This rhyme had spread widely in the Southern Prefecture Library. In just one day and one night, icy jelly had become a dish known to all students.
As soon as Cheng Loanloan's stall opened, four or five groups of students came one after another.
There were a total of twenty sets of bowls and spoons. Five people worked together, and in less than a quarter of an hour, a barrel of icy jelly was completely sold out.
The empty barrel was filled with the copper coins earned today. The four Zhao family boys had never seen so many copper coins and stared intently at the money.
Cheng Loanloan coughed, "First, pack up our things, then find a deserted place, and we'll count how much money we earned today."
The four boys nodded vigorously, quickly washed the dishes, put them into the water barrel, closed the wooden lid, and left it by the roadside. The group of five walked towards an alley.
As Zhao Sidan turned around, he suddenly stopped. He turned his head and looked. Why did the person who just came out of the Southern Prefecture Library look so much like his elder cousin?
Before, when his mother scolded them, she would say they were not as good as their elder cousin, Cheng Zhao. All the good things in their home, their mother would send to the Cheng family, which was actually all for their elder cousin, Cheng Zhao.
When elder cousin Cheng Zhao needed money for school, their mother would take their father's pension silver and give it to the Cheng family.
Today, they earned so many copper coins. If their mother saw their elder cousin, she would definitely give all the copper coins to elder cousin Cheng Zhao.
This was the money they had worked so hard to earn; there was no way they would let Cheng Zhao benefit from it!
Zhao Sidan looked at Cheng Loanloan. Seeing that his mother hadn't noticed his elder cousin, he quickly moved away from the library entrance.
Cheng Zhao had just walked out of the library, frowning as he watched the five people walk away. He felt that those people looked so much like his second aunt and four younger cousins.
Why would his second aunt bring his younger cousins to Hekou Town?
As Cheng Zhao was deep in thought, a few fellow students approached, their faces full of mockery, "Brother Cheng, where are you off to?"
Cheng Zhao held several copied books in his hand and said politely, "I'm going to Dehe Hall. Does any brother wish to come along?"
"You copy books at Dehe Hall; we don't have that kind of refined interest." A student clicked his tongue twice. "I heard that copying one book only earns a hundred *wen* coins. How long does it take you to copy one book?"
Cheng Zhao said indifferently, "If my studies are busy, it might take half a month to finish copying one book."
"Hahaha, in other words, you can only earn a hundred *wen* coins in half a month."
"A hundred *wen* coins can't even buy an inkstone, only the cheapest writing brush."
"Brother Cheng's family is so poor, why not go back to the countryside to farm..."
These people openly ridiculed him, but Cheng Zhao's expression remained unchanged. He turned and walked out of the library gate, holding three copied books, and headed towards Dehe Hall.
Cheng Loanloan and her four sons sat in a deserted alley.
The four boys had never learned to calculate. After counting to ten, they didn't know what to do and kept scratching their heads.
Cheng Loanloan could only count by herself. Finally, she finished counting; there were a total of seven hundred and twenty-three copper coins.
"Three barrels of icy jelly require about three *jin* of jelly flower seeds, about twelve *jin* of lantern grass. The labor cost is twenty-four *wen* coins, and the cost of brown sugar and peanuts is eighty *wen* coins.
Subtracting all these, how much did we earn in total today?"
She squinted her eyes and smiled at her four sons, offering an enticing condition.
"The first person to answer correctly will be rewarded with a meat bun for lunch today."
A long time later...
Finally, someone raised their hand. Zhao Sidan excitedly said, "Mother, I know, it's six hundred and twenty-nine!"
Cheng Loanloan shook her head, "A little less, calculate it carefully again."
Zhao Sidan counted on his fingers, thinking hard.