The Blessed (Book 1)

126. Trying to Persuade the Little Bun (2)

At the thought of all the money his daddy had spent, he could not help feeling all kinds of pain in the flesh, and only wished he could have brought his daddy over to give him a good reprimand.

“Hehe~ Who told you that a village family could not be served?”

Rubbing his head with a smile, Yan Shengrui pulled him to sit down, then said slowly while looking into the distance, “Xiaowen, I know you are a good kid, and since you often got starved before, so you could care about money so much. But every time, you only saw how your daddy spent the money, but never thought how he earned money. Let me explain to you. First, the medicinal fish, at least over one taels of silver a day, right? And that’s about fifty taels of silver a month. As for the jam, I don’t even need to say. In only about ten days, we sold over two thousand taels of silver. And in the future, it’d only grow more. So what’s wrong to buy land and servants? Compared with the money spent, we could earn several times more than that.”

A general who had led the troops for wars all the year around, even if he had lost his memories, it was not appropriate to be so gentle. But facing his own son, he already tried to be euphemistic as far as he could. But if his son still wouldn’t listen, he could only offer his trump card, because he had promised Jingxuan to persuade the little bun.

“I know we’ve made a lot of money, and I’m not trying to keep dad from spending it, but we can’t afford to waste it. Why would he buy a bunch of servants when we don’t have a place to live? Father, I have tried so hard to tell myself that I shouldn’t always focus on the money thing. But every time I see him waste money, my heart aches. Yeah, we earned some money now, and we can keep earning more, but…but…what if some day we run out of money and suffer from hunger and cold again?”

It was absolutely impossible that Yan Shengrui’s words were not useful at all. But the little bun was too scared of a poor life. Till now, he still hadn’t forgotten about those bitter days. At the end of his words, his eyes even turned slightly red, and the hands hanging there tightened. He was really too scared of that kind of days when they even didn’t have food to eat.

“Silly child, even if someday Jingxuan can’t make more money, you still have me! After I get recovered, I can go hunting in the mountains to support the family. I will never let you stave. Xiaowen, I am not trying to lesson you or what, I only hope you can forget about the past gradually, and forget about the responsibility you impose on yourself. Just be a five-year-old kid.”

Pulling him to sit on his lap, Yan Shengrui touched his face with deep sadness. Ling Wen lowered his head, neither saying yes nor no. Seeing that he should still not give up the idea of nagging Ling Jingxuan, Yan Shengrui sighed helplessly, then his face in his hands and said in a slightly solemn tone, “Xiaowen, as you can see, they are making jam all day. It’s so hot, and they go to the mountains and come back a few times a day, and still need to stay up to make all the fruit into jam, and store it in the basement. Even your uncle Zhao and others can’t take it, let alone your thin daddy. Today Shopkeeper Zhang said they would need more and more jam, and your daddy will get more and more tired. Do you really have the heart to let them tire out themselves?”

“No, no! I don’t want to tire daddy out. Maybe we can sell less jam.”

This time, Ling Wen shook his hand without thinking, like he was anxious to expression his feelings. He’d rather earn less money than tiring out his daddy.

“That’s right. Xiaowen, we have signed the agreement with Shopkeeper Zhang. How can we sell less as we want? During the three month we promised, we have to make as much as they ask for. Or they’d go to yamen to sue us. At that time, your favorite daddy would go to jail and eat the food in there.”

Forcing himself not to be soft-hearted, Yan Shengrui deliberately made it serious.

“What to do then? Daddy can’t go to jail. But I also don’t want daddy to be too tired. Father, how about we hire some people?”

As expected, the little bun got anxious this time, with his tears dropping, his two little hands grabbed Yan Shengrui’s shoulders, with only worried and anxiousness written on the face, like Ling Jingxuan had already gotten tired out or got taken away by the yamen. Trying to hold his care about his little son, he continued, “Doesn’t hiring people need money? Do you know how much it would cost a day to hire someone? Thirty copper coins a day! And that doesn’t include the food and water. So it’s at least thirty five copper coins a day, and ten would need three hundred and fifty. So about ten taels of silver a month. But it only cost us seven or eight taels of silver to buy a servant. And they can serve us the while life. Let’s talk about Song Gengniu and his whole family we bought today. Five of them, only thirty taels of silver. Only six for each. You think about it. Is it better to hire people or buy people?”

Reasoning with a kid like that, except Ling Jingxuan, maybe only Yan Shengrui would do that. Judging from Ling Wen’s wide opened mouth, he knew he didn’t understand at all, but…

“So, you mean buying people is better than hiring people? But where do you get so much food to support them? And a place to live? We even have no place to live ourselves. Where do they live then?”

After a while, Ling Wen, with tears hanging from the corners of his eyes, tilted his head in bewilderment. But apparently, his resistance about it became much less. Although he couldn’t fully understand Yan Shengrui’s words, he at least grabbed the key point.

“Hehe…aren’t we going to build a big house soon? Still worried you don’t have a place to live? Xiaowen, we know you are a good kid and always try to maintain this family. But this is really not something that needs your concerns. Promise me. Study hard with your younger brother. Don’t worry about the money thing. Leave it to us, OK?”

Finally, he couldn’t take it and said to him tenderly while touching his little face. Deep in his heart, like Ling Jingxuan, he also felt sad and blamed himself in the heart.

“So…we keep them with us?”

Without answering him, the little bun wiped off tears and asked. Yan Shengrui smiled, “Hmm, we keep them.”

“All right. Since even father said it’s better to buy people than hire people, we’ll let their whole family stay.”

Like having made a huge decision, Ling Wen finally agreed. Watching his little adult-like appearances, Yan Shengrui couldn’t help smiling. Fortunately he cared about Jingxuan, or he really wasn’t sure he could make it.

“Hehe…Then let’s go in. I guess food is ready.”

After the problem was settled, Yan Shengrui held him and stood up. And Ling Wen finally showed a smile. Later, after Ling Jingxuan listened to Yan Shengrui how he persuaded him, he felt so warm in the heart. Although his little bun was a bit stingy and often gave him a headache, between his daddy and money, he chose his daddy! And that was already enough!