The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

Everyone's expression changed after Shen Cao took out the money.

They saw Shen's father take Shen Cao to the county town today, so they probably know that they went there to try to make money.

Seeing that they only went to the county town once and were able to produce three taels of silver, it's impossible not to be curious.

That's three taels of silver! It would take an ordinary person half a year to save up three taels of silver, but this family had it in a day.

A small number of people were also very happy to see that they could repay Aunt Li's money. The Shen family were all good people, and they didn't want to see Shen's father go to jail.

Shen Cao scoffed at Aunt Li's impending exorbitant demands, "Interest?"

"The money we borrowed from you has been borrowed for less than a month in total, so where did the interest come from!"

Aunt Li said confidently, "If your father hadn't agreed to pay interest, how could I have lent him such a large sum of money? This is what I was saving for my son's wedding."

"Hmph! Greed knows no bounds. Tell me, how much interest will it be?"

Aunt Li assumed that Shen Cao had accepted the interest, and thinking that they had come up with three taels of silver so readily today, they must still have money left. "Two taels," she said.

"What?!" Everyone was surprised when they heard Aunt Li's words.

Aunt Li is really greedy. She dared to ask for two taels of interest after the money had only been borrowed for less than a month. Everyone expressed their sympathy for the Shen family.

Aunt Li's daughter seems to have married the county magistrate as a concubine, so her family has always been domineering in the village, often taking advantage of the villagers, and even the village chief sometimes has to bow down.

Shen Cao didn't know about Aunt Li's family situation, so she naturally didn't want to indulge her. "How dare you take these two taels of silver?"

"What? You're not convinced? Then let's go see the magistrate and see whose side the county magistrate will take." Aunt Li had an attitude of "What can you do to me? I'll take it."

Just as Shen Cao was about to argue with her, her father tugged at her clothes and told Shen Cao about Aunt Li's daughter.

When Aunt Li saw that Shen's father had stopped Shen Cao and whispered something in her ear, she knew that Shen's father was telling Shen Cao that her daughter was the county magistrate's concubine. She glanced at them smugly.

She gave birth to a fine daughter who not only married the county magistrate and became his concubine, but also frequently brought home good things, making her family one of the wealthiest in the village.

Moreover, even when she goes to the county town to sell steamed buns, no one dares to mess with her. The Shen family is a poor bunch, so she has to swallow this loss.

Shen Cao frowned upon hearing his father's words. Although the county magistrate was a minor official, he was still a significant figure in their impoverished rural area.

But she didn't want to acknowledge the money, even though she had money.

Just then, the village chief arrived.

"Li family, for my sake, could you lower the interest rate a bit?"

"The Shen family has been poor for a long time. We're all neighbors, and everyone has their own troubles."

Aunt Li looked at the village chief, thinking about the two taels of silver she had already received, and had no intention of compromising.

"The interest was agreed upon long ago, and I'm not asking for it for no reason."

That Aunt Li is really greedy! The interest on those two taels of silver is way too much.

[Exactly! Who would want to marry their daughter into such a heartless family?]

We're all neighbors, I never expected her home to be like this.

Aunt Li listened to the villagers' gossip and her face turned ugly. She didn't care what others said about her, but if her son couldn't get a wife because of this, her husband would definitely beat her to death.

At this moment, the village chief walked up to Aunt Li and said, "Li family, you heard what they said. This little bit of interest is nothing to your family, so just ask for less."

"It would be bad if this little bit of money affected your family's reputation or your son's chances of getting married."

Hearing the village chief's words, Aunt Li pretended to be considerate and said, "I'm not that unreasonable. I don't care about this little bit of money, but the interest was agreed upon beforehand, so I'll just give you one tael of silver."

"I only asked for this as a token of my appreciation because of the village."

The village chief walked up to Shen Cao and the others. "Hey, consider this a lesson learned. If you can't come up with this tael of silver, I'll cover it for you."

Just as Shen's father was about to refuse, Shen Cao grabbed his hand, signaling him not to say anything more.

"Then we'll trouble Uncle Village Chief to cover it for us first. We'll definitely pay you back as soon as we have the money."

"What are you saying? I'm not in a hurry. You can pay it back slowly when you have the money." The village chief looked at the Shen family's tattered and patched clothes and guessed that the three taels of silver must have been borrowed from somewhere. It was probably the eldest son of the Shen family who came up with the idea. With that extra tael of silver, the Shen family probably wouldn't be able to pay it back anytime soon.

The village chief took out one or two taels of silver from his purse and handed it to Aunt Li, saying, "Alright, this is the interest, take it."

Aunt Li took the interest and was about to leave when Shen Cao called her back.

"Aunt Li, is there something you haven't forgotten? The IOU?"

Aunt Li turned around, as if she had just remembered, "Look at me, I forgot about that."

As he spoke, he took out the IOU from his pocket and tore it to shreds in front of everyone.

"If your family ever needs money in the future, feel free to come and borrow some." After saying this, he left the Shen family happily.

The village chief persuaded everyone to disperse and go home.

The village chief looked at the Shen family, said nothing, sighed, and left.

After everyone had left, Mr. Shen closed the door.

In the main room, everyone in the Shen family, except for Shen Cao and Shen's father, looked at each other with worried expressions.

“Oh dear, we’ve incurred another tael of silver in debt,” Shen Wan said first.

"Hopefully this time it won't be as troublesome as with Aunt Li." Mother Shen also felt that the three taels of silver today were money that Father Shen and Shen Cao had borrowed from Shen's eldest son.

Shen Cao looked at everyone's melancholy faces and burst out laughing.

"Mother, sister, brother, have you forgotten what Father and I did today?"

Yes, Shen Cao and his father went to the county town to sell ginseng today.

Could it have been sold?

"You sold the ginseng?" Mother Shen was the first to react.

"It's sold, and for a good price." Shen Cao said with a smug look on his face.

Then Shen Cao recounted what had happened at the ginseng-selling event that day, but omitted what had happened at Wan'an Hall.

"So our family is rich now?" Shen Qing couldn't understand the rest, but he understood that the ginseng had sold for a good price, and his family was now rich.

Shen Cao gently pinched his nose. "Yeah, you're rich now."

Upon hearing this, Shen's mother said with concern, "However, we shouldn't flaunt this sudden windfall. Otherwise, if someone with ulterior motives sees it, they might cause us trouble."

“My mother and I think the same way, so I had the village cover the interest today, and he will pay it back in a while.”

"Cao'er is so thoughtful." After hearing Shen's mother's words, Shen's father finally understood why Shen Cao had stopped him today.

He was surprised that he hadn't thought of this, and he began to look at his daughter with new respect.