Rebirth begins with an arranged marriage

Chapter 28, 3 pieces

After handing the money to Guan Xiaolin, Tang Huaiyi still had a little over three yuan and two mao left.

We have to sell the Yuan Shikai silver dollar by noon.

Having some cash on hand means you don't have to panic.

Food and drinks at school are relatively cheap, but even so, if he and Li Xiujuan improve their meals a little, it will cost them more than ten yuan together. In addition, their tuition, accommodation fees, and so on also cost money. Tang Huaiyi estimates that he will need to spend about one hundred yuan to get by for the whole semester.

To ensure adequate nutrition and improve our quality of life, we need to add another hundred yuan.

After deducting taxes and fees, how much income does Tang Huaiyi's family have in a year? It's probably not even two hundred yuan. Considering all living expenses, the money they can afford to send Tang Huaiyi to school is very little. This year, they also gave money to Tang Huaiyi's second and third uncles' families.

No wonder they really couldn't make ends meet and couldn't afford to send their children to school.

After breakfast and a morning of classes, Tang Huaiyi said goodbye to Li Xiujuan after lunch and went to the "antique calligraphy and painting" shop in the East Vegetable Market of the county town.

The thin, fifty-something-year-old boss with a scar on his eyebrow was somewhat surprised to see him arrive.

"Buying or selling?"

Tang Huaiyi first handed over the Qianlong Tongbao coin.

The skinny shopkeeper glanced at it and immediately waved his hand dismissively: "I won't accept this guy's coins, besides, they're not worth much."

"Who is it? Emperor Qianlong?"

Seeing Tang Huaiyi's confusion, the shopkeeper added impatiently, "He destroys calligraphy and paintings, which is infuriating. Anyone who truly appreciates calligraphy and paintings would find him annoying."

Tang Huaiyi was speechless. This "General Manager Zhang," who stamped documents everywhere, was indeed very famous.

"What about this one?"

Tang Huaiyi handed the silver dollar to the shopkeeper.

"A Yuan Shikai silver dollar? Let me see..."

The shopkeeper opened a drawer, picked up a magnifying glass with duct tape, and examined it carefully in the light of the room. He became interested: "Wow, this is a bit rare. It was made eight years ago. This should be worth more than twenty dollars."

"Let me see if it's real, and what its condition is like..."

He examined it carefully with a magnifying glass, then slowly nodded: "Okay, it's real, and the condition is quite good. Thirty yuan, is that alright?"

Tang Huaiyi was pleasantly surprised – he didn’t know the difference between the Yuan Shikai silver dollars. If the boss had kept quiet and bought them as ordinary Yuan Shikai silver dollars, he would have sold them for ten dollars or eight dollars.

But thirty yuan was something Tang Huaiyi never expected.

The crow brought back something really good this time.

As for how much the Yuan Shikai silver dollar from 1919 will be worth in the future, or whether it is really rare, Tang Huaiyi really doesn't have time to think about it now—he needs to fill his stomach first, so that he has the energy to study and change his life before he can think about anything else.

Whether it appreciates in value or not, that's not something we should be thinking about right now.

"Okay, I'll sell it to you for thirty yuan."

As soon as Tang Huaiyi said this, the shopkeeper took out some money from his faded Zhongshan suit and handed it to him.

Tang Huaiyi took the money: "What's your surname, boss?"

"My surname is Hao," the boss said. "What, you want to get to know me?"

"Yes, I'd like to get to know you." Tang Huaiyi said earnestly, "If Boss Hao hadn't told me how much the Yuan Shikai silver dollar is worth today, I really wouldn't have known. So I feel that Boss Hao is a really nice person and a good boss."

Upon hearing the homonym, Boss Hao couldn't help but chuckle: "Just say what you mean."

"I bought some for my collection and some to resell. Either way, I'll make a profit. I'm not trying to be a pushover."

As he spoke, he glanced at Tang Huaiyi again: "Will you still sell coins in the future? If you will, it would certainly be worthwhile to get to know you."

"Young man, what's your surname?"

"My surname is Tang. I do have some coins at home that I need to sell, and I might have to bother Boss Hao again in the future," Tang Huaiyi said.

Boss Hao nodded: "Okay, come often from now on."

He had been somewhat wary, but after making two transactions with Tang Huaiyi, he had let his guard down.

Tang Huaiyi left the vegetable market, which reeked of rotten vegetable leaves, and hurriedly returned to his school classroom.

Several students were studying in the classroom, and Li Xiujuan was one of them.

Upon seeing Tang Huaiyi return, Li Xiujuan's eyebrows relaxed, and she looked over with a bright light in her eyes.

Tang Huaiyi walked over and whispered, "Why are you in the classroom again? Is your stomach hurting again?"

"Much better," Li Xiujuan said softly.

"Want another bowl of brown sugar water?" Tang Huaiyi asked.

Li Xiujuan shook her head slightly: "No need, it's alright, I'll drink it next time."

"Why wait until next time?" Tang Huaiyi said, getting up and bringing back a tub of brown sugar water for Li Xiujuan.

Li Xiujuan blew on the steam and took a small sip: "Want some too? It's very sweet."

"What would I drink? I didn't do that," Tang Huaiyi said with a smile in a low voice.

That's quite interesting...

Li Xiujuan glanced at him shyly, then lowered her head to drink her brown sugar water.

"Did you sell your money?"

"This one wasn't sold." Tang Huaiyi laid out the "Qianlong Tongbao" coin. "The other one was sold."

Li Xiujuan was immediately alarmed. She quickly put down her teacup and instinctively grabbed Tang Huaiyi's sleeve, extremely anxious: "What should we do? You...you didn't sell this, so we won't have enough money?"

"What will we do about going to school now?"

She quickly tried to come up with a solution for him: "I told the class monitor this afternoon that I shouldn't change my meal allowance... If it's really not enough... I..."

In his anxiety, he immediately broke out in a sweat.

Tang Huaiyi quickly reassured him, "Don't worry, I sold the other one; it was worth quite a bit."

"This isn't valuable; what's truly valuable is that?"

"Really?" Li Xiujuan asked, her mouth slightly agape.

"Really," Tang Huaiyi said, then whispered to Li Xiujuan, "That one is only worth thirty yuan, enough for our food expenses for the next two months."

Li Xiujuan was pleasantly surprised: "There really are so many?"

"Hmm, there really are that many." Tang Huaiyi said in a low voice, recalling the amusing incident when he was buying coins earlier. "This copper coin, they didn't like it and wouldn't accept it."

Li Xiujuan hadn't studied the topic of Emperor Qianlong's random use of seals outside of class, so she seemed a bit confused. However, after Tang Huaiyi explained it to her, she couldn't help but laugh.

Just as the two were chatting and laughing, a voice came from the doorway: "Li Xiujuan... Tang Huaiyi!"

Tang Huaiyi and Li Xiujuan looked up and saw Li Xiujuan's elder sister, Li Xiufang, standing at the door.

Li Xiujuan was somewhat surprised and walked outside, saying, "Sister, what brings you here? Is something wrong at home?"

Li Xiufang shook her head and looked at Tang Huaiyi again.

Seeing that Tang Huaiyi had also come out, he greeted them with a smile and invited them to talk outside the classroom.

"I felt that your school life was tough for you two, so I brought you some pickled vegetables..."

"Also, Erni, come here, I have something to ask you..."

As she spoke, Li Xiufang pulled Li Xiujuan aside.