"Huh~" In the study of a big mansion in the east of Songjiang City, the black and fat Master Song slapped a piece of paper on the table fiercely, and roared loudly: "It's too much to deceive people, can the government do whatever it wants?" ”

Seeing his father's angry appearance, Song Ergongzi next to him cautiously looked at his father and didn't dare to speak. Before, the government sent people to inform them that a merit monument would be built outside the city, and the names of all the donors and the amount of donations would be engraved on it, and the paper on the table that his father patted was also sent together, and the paper was written on the donors to be carved on the stone tablet, and they were arranged according to the amount of donations, and their Song family only donated ten taels of silver, which was the bottom among all the donors.

Don't look at Master Song is black and fat, he looks stupid, but in fact, he is an extremely shrewd person, otherwise he would not have accumulated such a big family business. When he first received the notice from the government, he immediately understood what the government was thinking, it was nothing more than to use this method to force them to donate, otherwise if they really engraved the matter of their Song family's donation of ten taels of silver on the tablet, then their father and son would really have no face.

But what if you understand it? The matter of making a monument of merit is a conspiracy, it can be said that he is going to take money out of their pockets, unless Master Song really wants to not have his old face, otherwise he has to obediently send the money, and even if the government does not accept it, he has to lick his face and cry and shout for the family to accept the money.

Thinking of this, Master Song couldn't help but be a little discouraged, and sat on the chair with a huff, his fat chest was puffing and panting, and his two small eyes were dripping and turning, as if he was weighing the gains and losses of this matter.

"Father, it seems that the government is determined to take money from us this time, so let's donate more!" Seeing that his father's anger had finally subsided a little, Song Ergongzi had the courage to step forward and propose.

After hearing this, Master Song didn't immediately pay attention to his son's words, he still sat there and pondered for a long time, and finally slapped the table, turned his anger into joy and said, "Donate!" Of course, you have to donate, and you have to donate more than others, you go and notify the account office, and let them take out two thousand taels of silver to donate! ”

"Two ...... Two thousand taels? Song Ergongzi almost jumped up in fright after hearing this, last time their Song family was cheated by Zhou Chong, but the business shrank by half, and the family's income also decreased sharply, even if it was placed in the past, two thousand taels was a lot of money, not to mention that now the family is short of money.

Seeing his son's fuss, Master Song glared at him fiercely, and then scolded with some hatred: "Stupid! The reason why our Song family's business was affected was mainly because of Zhou Chong's tricks, which damaged the reputation of the family, and many weavers were unwilling to sell the cloth to us. ”

Song Ergongzi also suddenly realized when he heard this: "I understand, it turns out that father, you want to take this opportunity to get back the lost prestige of our Song family, although two thousand taels of silver is a little more, but as long as you can recover the lost business, this money is definitely worth it!" ”

Seeing that his son finally understood what he meant, Master Song couldn't help but show a smug smile, just now he was heartbroken and donated the money he had gotten, but suddenly he had a flash of inspiration and thought of this way to turn bad things into good things. Now the Li family, who donates the most, has only donated eight hundred taels, and once his two thousand taels of silver come out, he will definitely be ranked at the top of the merit monument, even if he can't completely restore the reputation of the Song family, but it will definitely change some people's views of the Song family, and in the future, he will spend more effort to do some superficial work, so as not to worry about getting back the lost prestige!

Thinking of this, Master Song's dark and fat face finally showed a long-lost smile, but then he thought of Zhou Chong, who had made their Song family miserable, which made Master Song's face immediately change, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Zhou Chong'er, you have caused our Song family's business to be bleak, and he will be returned a hundred times in the future!" ”

It's a pity that Master Song doesn't know the Dao, the idea of making a monument of merit is also from Zhou Chong's hand, and it is this lack of virtue that allows the Song family to pay money in exchange for some prestige, and the business has also recovered.

As soon as the dignified and upright conspiracy of the merit monument came out, those rich people who were unwilling to donate scolded Xu Zhifu for his lack of virtue, but no matter how angry they were, they couldn't think of a way to deal with it, or to be famous? Or ask for money? There are only these two roads to choose from, and everyone in the end has to choose the road of donating money to protect their name, after all, people live a face, and they are not short of that money.

Of course, they don't have to spend money to buy a name like the Song family, so the additional donations after that can't be as crazy as the Song family, at most a few hundred taels of silver, and those with relatively weak financial resources can already be considered very generous if they can give a hundred taels of silver.

A few days later, Zhou Zhong got the news from Xu Shenzhong, except for the Wang family, the Li family and the Xie family who had donated a lot of money before, almost all the other rich people made additional donations, and after the most statistics, the second additional donation was more than 13,000 taels, which made Zhou Chong sigh that there are so many local tyrants in Songjiang Mansion, and he can get so much silver with a single donation, if all this silver is given to him, I am afraid that he will not have to worry about eating and drinking for the rest of his life. It's a pity that the silver is for the relief of the victims, even if it is really given to Zhou Chong, I am afraid that he will not dare to accept it, and he still spends the money he earns with peace of mind.

Since the last time he sold Journey to the West to Xie Lingyun, he made a plan for himself, that is, to write a Journey to the West every morning, afternoon and evening, of which he has already written the first thirty times, so that when he writes the remaining seventy times, it will be the end of November, although it was agreed that he would hand over the first half of the manuscript to Xie Lingyun at the end of the month, but the earlier he submits the manuscript, the sooner he can get all the money, and it will be better to have a relaxed year.

Since the victims arrived in Songjiang, God seems to have deliberately embarrassed these hard-working refugees, and it has been cloudy for several days, the north wind is blowing non-stop, and the sky is gloomy and it seems that it will snow at any time. Fortunately, God still has a little mercy, and the snow has not fallen, which also gives the victims a chance to breathe, and set up a simple disaster camp outside the city.

Early this morning, the sky was even more gloomy, although the north wind stopped, but it was very cold, during this time, Steward Xu said that the income of the book and the deposit of the manuscript made him loose all of a sudden, so he raised the stove in Aunt Wang, Steward Liu and his own room, especially he has to write often, without the stove even the tip of the pen will be frozen, let alone write.

After writing today's manuscript, Zhou Zhong poured some water from the kettle on the stove next to him, then washed the brush and hung it up, then stretched his waist, put on his cotton clothes and opened the door to take a look.

"Huh? It's snowing! At this time, Zhou Chong suddenly noticed that the snowflakes outside the eaves were flying, like lively elves, chasing each other in mid-air. A thin layer of snow had also fallen on the ground, covering the original color of this world, and it was a silvery white color, which looked extremely holy.

In his previous life, Zhou Zhong was a northerner, and he liked snow since he was a child, because when it snowed, he could have snowball fights and build snowmen, but now seeing this heavy snow, he couldn't help but sigh secretly, there are more than 20,000 victims outside the city who live in simple shacks that show wind everywhere, although Xu Zhifu has tried his best to help these victims, but this snow, I am afraid that the lives of the victims will be more difficult.

Thinking of the situation of the victims outside the city, Zhou Chong's originally good mood became a little bad, and he didn't want to stay in the house at the moment, so he got dressed and took an oil-paper umbrella, and walked out of his yard.

As soon as he got out of the gate of the courtyard, Zhou Zhong heard the laughter of Duo'er like a silver bell from Aunt Wang across the courtyard, mixed with the cry of a white ball. Hearing the little girl's innocent laughter, Zhou Chong also felt that his heavy mood had improved a little, so he turned around and walked towards Aunt Wang's yard.

Before entering the yard, Zhou Zhong saw through the open gate that the fat white ball in front of him was running fast with four small short legs, and Duo'er, who was wearing a big red cotton coat in the back, gave out a silver bell-like smile while chasing, and sometimes accidentally slipped and fell, but she didn't care at all, and got up with a smile and patted off the snowflakes on her body and continued to chase. Judging by the reddening of her little face, it is estimated that she has been playing in the snow for a long time.

Seeing Duo'er's happy appearance, Zhou Chong finally put aside the heaviness in his heart, and walked into the yard excitedly, wanting to play with Duo'er, but when the white ball running in front saw Zhou Chong, he immediately let out a "woo~" sound, and quickly drilled into the house with his tail.

"Brother, come and play with Duo'er, it's fun to snow today!" Duo'er also saw Zhou Chong at this time, and immediately jumped up happily, shouting while running towards Zhou Chong.

Zhou Zhong was worried that Duo'er would slip again, so he hurriedly took a few quick steps, and then picked up Duo'er and said with a smile: "Little girl, run slowly, since you want to play with your brother, why didn't you go to me just now, did you just care about playing by yourself and forgot about your brother?" ”

"Where?" Duo'er pursed her cute little mouth and said, "I wanted to go to my brother when it first snowed, but my sister said that my brother was busy and asked me not to disturb my brother to write a book, so I could only play with Baiqiu." ”

Zhou Chong smiled again after hearing this, hugged Duo'er and turned around in the snow a few times, and then teased her a few more words, making the little Lori giggle, and after the last Zhou Chong looked at the empty courtyard and said: "Duo'er, why are you alone, where did your aunt and Bang'er go?" ”