"Bah~" In the study of a big house in the east of Songjiang City, the dark and fat Mr. Song slapped a piece of paper on the table and roared loudly: "It's too much to bully others. Can the government do whatever they want?

?”

Seeing his father's angry look, the Second Young Master Song next to him looked at his father cautiously and did not dare to speak. Previously, the government sent someone to inform them that a merit monument would be built outside the city, and the names and donation amounts of all donors would be engraved on it.

On top of it, the piece of paper on the table that his father photographed was also brought together. On the paper were written the donors to be engraved on the stone tablet, and they were arranged according to the amount of donation. The Song family only donated ten taels of silver.

Among all those who donated, they were at the bottom.

Even though Mr. Song is dark and fat and looks stupid, he is actually an extremely shrewd person, otherwise he would not have accumulated such a large family fortune. When he first received the notice from the government, he understood it immediately

The government's idea was just to use this method to force them to donate money. Otherwise, if the Song family's donation of ten taels of silver was really engraved on the monument, then their father and son would really be embarrassed to see anyone.

But what if you understand this matter? The establishment of a merit monument is a conspiracy. It can be said that he is trying to take money out of their pockets. Unless Mr. Song really fights to stop his old face, otherwise he will have to

He obediently handed over the money, and even if the government refused to accept it, he would have to lick his face, cry and shout for them to accept the money.

Thinking of this, Mr. Song couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. He sat down on the chair angrily, his fat chest bulging and breathing heavily, and his two small eyes wandered around. He seemed to be weighing the matter.

gains and losses.

"Father, it seems that the government is determined to take money from us this time. Why don't we donate more!" Seeing that his father's anger had finally subsided, the Second Young Master Song relied on his courage.

He stepped forward and suggested.

After hearing this, Mr. Song did not immediately pay attention to his son's words. He still sat there and pondered for a long time. Finally, he slammed the table and said with anger: "Donate! Of course you have to donate, and you have to donate more than others. You go and notify

Accounting room, ask them to donate two thousand taels of silver!"

"Two...two thousand taels?" The Second Young Master Song almost jumped up in fright after hearing this. The Song family was tricked by Zhou Zhong last time. As a result, the business shrank by half, and the family's income also dropped sharply. Even in the past,

Two thousand taels is not a small amount of money, not to mention that the family is short of money now.

Seeing his son's fuss, Mr. Song glared at him fiercely, and then cursed with some hatred: "Stupid! The reason why our Song family's business has been affected is mainly because we fell into the trap of that boy Zhou Zhong.

The treacherous plot has damaged the reputation of the family, and many weavers are unwilling to sell cloth to us. During this time, I have been worrying about how to restore the reputation of the Song family, but I didn't expect that God would suddenly provide such a good opportunity!"

The Second Young Master Song suddenly realized what he said when he heard this: "I understand, it turns out that father, you want to take this opportunity to get back the lost reputation of our Song family. Although two thousand taels of silver is a bit more, as long as you can restore the lost reputation,

The business has recovered, and the money spent is definitely worth it!”

Seeing that his son finally understood what he meant, Mr. Song couldn't help but smile proudly. Just now he was heartbroken about the money he had donated, but suddenly he had an idea and thought of this way to turn a bad thing into a good thing. The Li family currently donates the most money.

He only donated eight hundred taels. Once he donates these two thousand taels, he will definitely be ranked first in the merit monument. Even if the Song family's reputation cannot be completely restored, it will definitely change some people's views on the Song family.

, in the future, if you put more effort into doing some superficial work, you won’t have to worry about getting your lost reputation back!

Thinking of this, Mr. Song's dark and fat face finally showed a long-lost smile, but then he thought of Zhou Zhong, who had made the Song family miserable. This made Mr. Song's expression immediately change, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Zhou Zhong."

My son, you have caused our Song family’s business to suffer, and I will pay you back a hundred times in the future!"

It's a pity that Mr. Song didn't know that the idea of ​​erecting a merit monument also came from Zhou Zhong. It was this unscrupulous method that allowed the Song family to pay for some prestige and the business recovered. After Zhou Zhong learned about it,

But he felt regretful in his heart, and he did not expect that his unintentional act would actually help the Song family.

As soon as the upright plot of the Merit Monument came out, the wealthy people who were unwilling to donate money yelled at Magistrate Xu for his wickedness, but no matter how angry they were, they could not think of a way to deal with it. Either they wanted fame? Or money? Only these two

There were options to choose from, but in the end everyone had to choose the path of donating money to protect their reputation. After all, everyone has a face, and they didn't lack that little money.

Of course, they don't have to spend money to buy a name like the Song family, so the subsequent additional donations cannot be as crazy as the Song family. They can only be a few hundred taels of silver at most. People with relatively weak financial resources can only give a hundred taels of silver.

It's quite generous.

A few days later, Zhou Zhong received news from Xu Shenzhong. Except for the Wang family, Li family, Xie family and other generous families who had already donated a large amount before, almost all other wealthy people had made additional donations. Finally, after statistics, the second additional donation was made.

The donation amounted to more than 13,000 taels, which made Zhou Zhong couldn't help but sigh. There are so many wealthy people in Songjiang Prefecture. They can get so much money with just one donation. If all the money is given to him, he may not be able to make money for the rest of his life.

I'm worried about food and drink. It's a pity that the money is to help the victims. Even if it is really given to Zhou Chong, I'm afraid he won't dare to accept it. He can still spend the money he earned with peace of mind.

This afternoon Zhou Zhong finished writing a Journey to the West again. Since he sold Journey to the West to Xie Lingyun last time, he made a plan for himself, that is, he would write a Journey to the West every morning, afternoon and evening.

He had already written out the thirty chapters. In this way, when he wrote the remaining seventy chapters, it happened to be the end of November, even though it was originally agreed that he would just hand over the first half of the manuscript to Xie Lingyun at the end of the month.

, but if you submit the manuscript earlier, you can get all the money earlier, and it will be better to have a relaxed year by then.

Since the victims arrived in Songjiang, God seems to have deliberately made trouble for these poor refugees. It has been cloudy for several days in a row, the north wind is blowing non-stop, and the sky is so gloomy that it seems like it will snow at any time. Fortunately, God still has

With a trace of kindness, the snow never started falling, which also gave the victims a chance to breathe, and a simple camp for the victims was set up outside the city.

Early this morning, the sky became even more gloomy. Although the north wind had stopped, it was still very cold. During this period, Butler Xu’s income from storytelling and deposits for manuscripts made his money suddenly easier, so he went to Aunt Wang,

Butler Liu and his own room both had stoves set up, especially since he had to write frequently. Without a stove, even the tip of his pen would freeze, let alone write.

After finishing today's manuscript, Zhou Zhong poured some water from the kettle on the stove next to him, washed the brush and hung it up. Then he stretched out, put on his cotton coat, opened the door and took a look.

"Eh? It's snowing!" Only then did Zhou Zhong suddenly realize that patches of snowflakes were flying outside the eaves, like lively elves chasing each other in mid-air. A thin layer of snow had already fallen on the ground.

The original color of this world is covered, and the eyes are silvery white, looking extremely holy.

In his previous life, Zhou Zhong was a northerner. He liked snowing since he was a child, because when it snowed, he could have snowball fights and build snowmen. But now that he saw the heavy snow, he couldn't help but sigh to himself. There were more than 20,000 disaster victims living outside the city.

In Lufeng's simple shack, although Magistrate Xu has tried his best to provide relief to the victims, the snow will probably make life even more difficult for the victims.

Thinking of the situation of the victims outside the city, Zhou Zhong's originally good mood turned a little bad. He didn't want to stay in the house anymore. He got dressed, took an oil-paper umbrella, and walked out of his yard.

As soon as he walked out of the gate of the courtyard, Zhou Zhong heard Duo'er's silvery bell-like laughter from Aunt Wang across the courtyard, mixed with the white ball's "woof, woof, woof" sound. He heard the little girl

With the innocent laughter, Zhou Zhong also felt that his heavy mood had improved a little, so he turned and walked towards Aunt Wang's yard.

Before he entered the yard, Zhou Zhong saw through the open door that the plump white ball in front of him was running very fast on his four short legs, and Duo'er in a bright red cotton-padded coat behind him was chasing him while giving out a smile like a silver bell. Sometimes,

She accidentally slipped and fell, but she didn't care at all. She got up with a smile, brushed off the snowflakes on her body, and chased after her. Judging from her red face, she must have been playing in the snow for a long time.

Seeing Duo'er's happy look, Zhou Zhong finally put aside the heavy heart and walked into the yard happily. He wanted to play with Duo'er, but when the white ball running in front saw Zhou Zhong, he immediately said "woo~"

With a sound, he quickly got into the house with his tail between his legs. This guy had a psychological shadow on Zhou Zhong. As long as Zhou Zhong appeared, he would hide as far away as possible.

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

Zhou Chong was worried that Duo'er would slip again, so he hurriedly took a few steps, then picked up Duo'er and laughed and said: "Little girl, run slowly. Since you want to play with your brother, why didn't you go to me just now?"

Aren’t you just playing with yourself and forgetting about your brother?”

"Where?" Duo'er pouted her cute little mouth and said, "When it first started snowing, I wanted to go find my brother, but my sister said that he was busy and asked me not to disturb him while he was writing a book, so I could only talk to him.

Let’s play with the white ball.”

After hearing this, Zhou Zhong smiled again, hugged Duo'er and spun around in the snow a few times, and then teased her a few more times, making the little loli giggle. Finally, Zhou Zhong looked at the empty yard and said: "
Chapter completed!