Chapter 425 - 414: Deceived by Someone
Zhou Dalang and the others stood in the courtyard watching the old couple argue, too intimidated to do anything but lower their heads and pretend they didn’t exist.
Between father and mother, of course, they’d side with mother because countless facts had proven that in the end, father would listen to mother too, especially on big matters like these.
As expected, Old Zhou huffed and puffed for a while but didn’t storm into the house to move the wheat. Instead, after angrily puffing on his pipe, he left with his hands behind his back to watch the excitement over at the village chief’s place.
Once Old Zhou had left, the children all let out a sigh of relief. Zhou Dalang immediately squatted down in front of his mother and asked, "Mom, what’s the big opportunity behind all this?"
Ms. Qian smiled at him and said, "Go back into the room and find the sacks with circles drawn on them. Move out three bags and just put them in your and your wife’s room. If your father ever asks about those three bags of wheat, you’re not to let him know, understand?"
The sacks marked with circles usually contained the best wheat—grains that were the first to be threshed, full, and golden, looking even better after being dried in the sun.
Zhou Dalang nodded in confusion and, leading his younger brothers, he moved the sacks of grain without further questions.
When Old Zhou returned in the afternoon, he had a foul expression because all the households in the village that wanted to exchange wheat had done so.
They had poured it out and checked—the batch of wheat from the Bai Family was not of poor quality; it was comparable to their own, clearly having been winnowed and dried.
The Zhou Family hadn’t made the exchange; the village chief had even expressed concern several times, but upon hearing that Auntie Qian opposed it, he did not pry further, though he did keep a watchful eye.
He decided to set aside two more bags from the wheat he planned to exchange.