Chapter 13 Golden Coupon

"What? You found that? You're such a lucky girl! You know, if you take this over there and fill in your name, all the houses on the deeds will be yours. No, show it to your mother first." He Youyou wasn't surprised at all; her daughter could read.

When Master Qu was young, he suffered from being illiterate, so all the children in his family, regardless of age, had to be taught by a private tutor from the age of three. No one, male or female, could be left illiterate.

Although their little girl only received two years of early childhood education, she was very intelligent from a young age. She could read and write many words after being taught them only twice.

Because of this matter, the mother and daughter were often harassed by the First Madam. After all, they were still children and did not know how to hide their talents. When praised by their teacher, they naturally became proud.

The three children born to the First Madam are: the eldest son, Qu Junjie, who is eighteen years old; the eldest daughter, Qu Qingqing, who is fourteen years old; and the youngest son, Qu Junping, who is twelve years old.

Although Qu Junping started his formal education earlier than Qu Weiwei, he was not as good at writing or recognizing characters as she was. Boys are naturally more mischievous, and Qu Junping was also less gifted. Little Weiwei was punished twice in winter, forced to kneel in the snow to apologize, each time for an hour. If He Youyou hadn't risked her life to complain to Master Qu, her daughter would surely have frozen to death in the freezing cold by that wicked woman.

Qu Weiwei crawled over to the kang cabinet like a little insect, and then took out a stack of unnamed land deeds and house deeds that she had found in the old lady Zhang's room that night.

When Qu Weiwei handed the items to He Youyou, He Youyou was stunned. There were too many, at least twenty or thirty.

"Why are there so many? Daughter, did you see that Butler Hu or anyone else escaped without being unconscious?" He Youyou was completely unconscious at the time and had no idea what was happening outside. However, seeing these things, she knew that Butler Hu must have been packing his things to run away. After all, being able to produce so many house deeds and land deeds meant that he must have planned it in advance.

"Does Fourth Aunt count? I saw Steward Hu and Fourth Aunt carrying several boxes out of the courtyard, making many trips. I was afraid they would see me, so I hid and didn't dare to go out to see. These land deeds fell down when Steward Hu left. I only dared to pick them up after they had gone quite far." Qu Weiwei was afraid that she would encounter Fourth Aunt or Steward Hu again in the future, so she had to give her mother a heads-up.

"So it was them. It seems that Steward Hu is not only cooperating with the First Madam in secret, but also with the Fourth Concubine. Isn't he afraid of getting himself killed by playing both sides? Let's not concern ourselves with this matter. Anyway, we won't get anything from leaving those things in that house. Let them go if they're not going to be moved."

"But we can't return these deeds. Come on, let's look at other things. You hide these for now. Tomorrow, Mom will take you to the housing bureau to have your name written on these deeds. Oh, by the way, daughter, you're not called Qu Weiwei anymore. You take my surname and are now called He Caiwei. Your nickname is still Weiwei. Remember that, your name is He Caiwei now." He Youyou was a very easygoing person. Although the Qu family had a lot of property, no matter how much, it wouldn't end up in her hands, so if it was gone, it was gone. It didn't concern her much.

"Don't use my name, use yours. And Mother, this cloth bag is so heavy, what's inside?" Qu Weiwei, no, she should be called He Caiwei now. He Caiwei felt that writing her name was not as good as writing He Youyou's name.

After all, she's an adult, while I'm still a little kid; my persuasiveness isn't as strong as an adult's.

"How do you want to deal with these things? If you want to sell them, then we can just sell them and fill in that person's name, right? It'll save us from having to change it again, and it'll be more convenient that way. This package here contains gold yuan notes that I exchanged for ten silver dollars."

Your Grandpa Lin also stuffed some legal tender into there. Legal tender can no longer be used here. Your Grandpa Lin said that it can still be used in some places in the south. He doesn't consider this money and just gave it to us. Keeping it with him would only cause trouble.

"The Gold Yuan is a new currency just issued by the new government. Many factories outside are also paying wages in Gold Yuan. We should carry some with us so we don't have to exchange them when we need them." He Youyou said as she opened the package, which contained two packages of different sizes.

The large packages contained legal tender, in denominations ranging from large to small, with each denomination bundled together in large bundles, including thousands and tens of thousands of yuan, all neatly stacked as if they had just been taken from a bank.

These gold coins ranged from one yuan to five yuan, ten yuan, twenty yuan, fifty yuan, one hundred yuan, two hundred yuan, five hundred yuan, and even thousands and tens of thousands of yuan.

"No, are gold yuan notes really that worthless now? Why can ten silver dollars be exchanged for so much?" He Caiwei asked, puzzled.

“It’s not all of it that was exchanged. Some of it is money your Grandpa Lin owed your maternal grandfather a few years ago. When he heard we were going south to visit your maternal grandfather, he paid back all the money he owed, which is why there’s so much. Now, one silver dollar can be exchanged for three hundred gold yuan notes. Your Grandpa Lin lent your maternal grandfather fifty silver dollars back then, but he doesn’t have any silver dollars to pay back, so I had him exchange them for gold yuan notes. He felt he got a good deal, so he not only gave me these but also a gold necklace, which is also in this bag.” He Youyou explained as she emptied the bag, bundles and bundles of money rolling all over the kang (a heated brick bed).

He Caiwei's eyes lit up as she looked at the huge pile of banknotes. These things could be collected and stored for decades to come, and they would be very valuable.

"Mom, I found a waterproof cloth in the cabinet on the kang in this room. You can use this cloth to sew a satchel and a backpack. That way we can put our things in there, and if someone tries to steal it, we can use it as a weapon. If we hit them with it, their heads will definitely be buzzing." This was the only use He Caiwei could think of for these things at the moment.

"Sigh, my daughter is so smart. Okay, then take out the cloth, and I'll fix it in a bit. It'll be done quickly sewing the bag. Now that you mention it, I think this thing can be used as a self-defense weapon. After all, it's quite heavy. If it gets hit, I think I'll faint." He Youyou thought her daughter was clever enough to immediately think of another use for this thing.

"Now, let me tell you about the information we're registering outside. I'm currently a widow named He Yuping, and your fictitious father is registered as He Dazhu. After your father died, we were destitute and had to go south to live with your maternal grandfather. Remember that. When we register, if anyone asks for details, just say your father was a driver for a landlord. Because the landlord fell from power and couldn't pay wages, he gave us this land as payment. We're selling it now to cover our travel expenses south." He Yuping's information had been confirmed with her father's friend, Uncle Lin. There was indeed such a person, but he had been secretly beaten to death by the landlord for not paying wages for several years.