The next day.
He Xiuyuan had just woken up. After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he heard a knock on the door.
Hearing the knock, He Xiuyuan went to open the door and saw Zhou Yong standing there.
Zhou Yong looked at He Xiuyuan with an extremely respectful expression.
"Mr. He, this is the silver from selling the spiritual herb, a total of forty-eight taels."
As Zhou Yong spoke, he took out the silver from the sale.
He Xiuyuan took the silver Zhou Yong handed him and, upon closer inspection, it indeed amounted to forty-eight taels.
Seeing so much silver, He Xiuyuan was momentarily stunned.
Forty-eight taels of silver was an absolutely enormous sum in this world. Normally, common people rarely encountered silver; they primarily used copper coins.
And these forty-eight taels of silver could cover the annual expenses of over ten households.
He Xiuyuan looked at the silver in front of him and thought. Last night, about twenty people went up the mountain. If divided equally, each person could receive over two taels of silver.
Thinking of this, He Xiuyuan took four taels of silver from the pile and then said, "Take the rest of the silver and distribute it."
Zhou Yong was stunned when he saw how much silver He Xiuyuan took. It wasn't that He Xiuyuan took too much; it was that he took too little.
In his opinion, even if He Xiuyuan were to divide the silver among others, he should at least take the lion's share, taking half of the silver.
Yet, He Xiuyuan only took four taels of silver? How could that be!
If the others found out, they would absolutely not agree.
"Mr. He, you've taken too little silver. This is absolutely unacceptable. At the very least, you must take twenty-eight taels of silver!"
As Zhou Yong spoke, he tried to hand the majority of the remaining silver to He Xiuyuan.
He Xiuyuan taking so little silver was absolutely unacceptable.
He Xiuyuan was also stunned when Zhou Yong handed him the silver, then quickly said, "Four taels of silver is enough. Take the rest and distribute it. The others still haven't received as much as I have."
He Xiuyuan himself felt that four taels of silver was more than enough.
However, upon hearing this, Zhou Yong shook his head like a rattle-drum.
"Mr. He, you can't say that. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have made it back last night. You must accept this silver!"
"For us, twenty taels of silver is enough. If the others really knew that I only gave Mr. He four taels of silver, they'd curse me to death."
Zhou Yong looked at He Xiuyuan with a determined expression, as if he was resolved to give He Xiuyuan a large portion of the silver no matter what.
However, He Xiuyuan felt that he owed a debt of gratitude to his neighbors for their previous care, and this was a way to repay some of that kindness.
Therefore, he did not want to accept too much of the silver.
But He Xiuyuan stood at the doorway, and after a moment of back-and-forth with Zhou Yong, Zhou Yong remained unyielding, which frustrated He Xiuyuan.
After thinking for a moment, He Xiuyuan sighed.
"How about this, I'll take eight taels of silver, and you can distribute the remaining forty taels, okay?"
"If that's still not acceptable, then I won't take a single coin of this silver."
By the end, He Xiuyuan had also emphasized his tone.
Hearing He Xiuyuan speak so firmly, Zhou Yong hesitated for a moment before reluctantly nodding.
"Alright, take this silver and go distribute it among them."
He Xiuyuan waved his hand and said casually.
Seeing this, Zhou Yong immediately took the silver and turned to leave.
When He Xiuyuan went out again, he saw strong men constantly passing by, each carrying sacks of grain on their shoulders.
In addition, a slab of meat hung from the waist of each of these big men.
Some children, seeing this scene, drooled and followed their adults, looking longingly.
"Tsk, it's not New Year or a festival, Wu Laosan, have you guys struck it rich? Buying so much grain?"
The others, seeing Wu Laosan and the rest returning, each carrying grain, instantly felt a pang of envy.
They couldn't understand. It wasn't a festival, so where did the other party get so much money to buy grain and meat?
One must know that ordinary people like them ate only two meals a day, and those meals contained very little grain.
Most of it was mixed with leaves and eaten together.
It was even rarer to buy grain like this, directly carrying several sacks of grain on one's shoulders back home.
Wu Laosan and the others, carrying several sacks of grain, felt the heavy weight on their shoulders, and their hearts were filled with even greater joy.
They had originally thought that although Mr. He said he would distribute silver to them, they hadn't imagined how much it would be.
They never expected that when Zhou Yong found them today, each person would be given two taels of silver.
This was two taels of silver!
Two taels of silver could buy so much grain!
After receiving the silver, they quickly went to buy grain, feeling even more grateful to He Xiuyuan.
Mr. He truly lived up to his reputation as a scholar; his character genuinely made them feel somewhat ashamed.
Because they knew that if they were given so much silver, they would absolutely not be able to take out so much to distribute to others.
He Xiuyuan's actions truly made them feel deeply respectful.
"Nonsense, didn't we go up the mountain to collect that spiritual herb yesterday? We sold the spiritual herb for money, everyone got a share, and now we have money to buy rice and meat."
Wu Laosan came back to his senses, looked at the astonished onlookers, and then grinned.
The people nearby also knew about last night's events, but hearing about it was one thing. With so many people going up last night, they didn't think the other party could earn much money to distribute.
But seeing it today, they realized they had been too naive.
Looking at Wu Laosan and the others, the amount of silver each person received must have been substantial.
Seeing that each of these people had several sacks of grain on them, that must be several hundred catties of grain!
Thinking of this, these people looked at each other, filled with regret.
If only they had known they could get so much grain, they should have followed them last night!
Wu Laosan clearly saw the expressions of these people. Seeing their extremely regretful looks, he secretly shook his head.
These people thought it would have been good to have gone last night, but for those who did go last night, if they had to choose again, they probably wouldn't want to go, would they?
The tiger demon they saw last night was truly too terrifying.
This made Wu Laosan and the other hunters afraid to go hunting on that mountain again for a while.
After all, if they encountered that tiger demon again, no one would be there to save their lives.