EBE Chapter 32 Grand Prize 2
Chapter 32 Grand Prize 2
Chapter 32 A Grand Prize of a Thousand Taels
"Huff..." Wang Wen ran around, panting heavily.
Sheng Lan, holding a towel, ran beside Wang Wenzhou, her eyes fixed on him with a gentle gaze.
Wang Wenzhou insisted on running every morning, which Wang Qiang always mocked, so he asked his goddess to run with him. It has to be said, having his goddess by his side provided enough motivation to run—all for those eight-pack abs! And all for sleeping with his goddess!
Wang Wenzhou wasn't running fast, and Sheng Lan would occasionally use a towel to gently wipe the sweat from his face.
Wang Wenzhou grew increasingly fond of the goddess; she was just too good to him.
Just then, a man and a horse came from the opposite direction.
"Whoa..." Wang Qiang pulled on the reins, and "Black Whirlwind" stopped.
"What is it?" Wang Wenzhou asked.
"Young Master, the silver you asked me to exchange has arrived. The carriage is parked at the South Gate," Wang Qiang replied.
Wang Wenzhou looked up and saw that he was not far from the South Gate, about two thousand meters away, and he would arrive in a short while.
"Okay, you go ahead, I'll be there in a bit," Wang Wenzhou said.
Wang Qiang turned his horse around, squeezed its flanks with his legs, and shouted, "Giddy up!" Black Whirlwind galloped off.
Wang Qiang glanced back at his young master, shook his head with a wry smile, and just couldn't understand it. Was his young master out of his mind? Getting up early every morning to run two laps around the county town—wasn't that just asking for trouble?
The young master keeps saying he wants to lose weight, he's practically obsessed! What's wrong with being fat? People envy fat people! Being fat means your family is well-off and you can eat your fill. People as fat as the young master are all very rich and powerful.
"Huff, huff..." Wang Wenzhou gasped for breath.
Although two kilometers is not far, it still took Wang Wenzhou almost half an hour to run to the south gate, leaving him panting heavily.
Sheng Lan only had eyes for Wang Wenzhou. She walked over and gently wiped the sweat from his large face. His hair had thinned, and his once ugly face now looked increasingly handsome. Sheng Lan chuckled to herself as she wiped his face, thinking, "What good fortune I accumulated in my past life to meet such a wonderful man like him."
"Bring all the silver down!" Wang Wenzhou said.
"Yes, sir!" Li Hechen and two constables quickly climbed onto the carriage and began unloading the silver.
A thousand taels of silver, weighing over a hundred catties, was piled up and looked very attractive. In no time, many passersby gathered around.
"Lord Wang? What are you doing with so much silver?" someone asked.
Wang Wenzhou smiled, cupped his hands in greeting, and said loudly, "I was just about to have someone write a notice that this money is a bonus."
"So much? City entry tax, and the bonus for tax receipts?"
Wang Wenzhou nodded and said, "Starting tomorrow, there will be a lottery every month until this day next month. If the city entry tax revenue is less than two thousand taels, this one thousand taels will be the prize. If the city entry tax revenue exceeds two thousand taels, half of it will be the prize. In other words, the prize will be at least one thousand taels every month from now on."
"Ah!" The crowd was immediately stunned.
A thousand taels! That's a fortune you could never earn in a lifetime! People started fantasizing about what they would do if they won the lottery.
“The rules for tax stamps have changed. Each person can only pay the city entry tax once per day at each city gate. That is to say, each person can receive a maximum of four tax stamps per day,” Wang Wenzhou said.
"Sir, what if I pay more?" Geng San squeezed through the crowd and asked.
"No matter how much you pay, you can only receive one tax stamp at a time. If you want to pay more tax to enter the city, I certainly support you! This is also for the benefit of the people of Hanshan!" Wang Wenzhou smiled. He made this rule, of course, to prevent people from buying more tax stamps.
"Haha!" Everyone laughed. Without a tax receipt, no one would pay more taxes!
"And another thing!" Wang Wenzhou continued, "If you don't have a good citizen certificate when entering the city, you won't be given a tax receipt after paying the city entry tax."
"Ah! A certificate of good conduct?" No one knew what a certificate of good conduct was.
"Sir, what is a good citizen certificate?" Geng San asked.
"A Good Citizen Certificate is proof of identity. Starting this afternoon, you can get a certificate from the village head, and then go to the yamen (government office) or one of the four city gates to have it processed by the yamen runners. Let me mention that there is a processing fee of one qian of silver for obtaining a Good Citizen Certificate," Wang Wenzhou replied.
"Ah! One qian of silver!" One qian of silver is one hundred and fifty wen, which some people think is too expensive.
"Sir! This is far too expensive!"
Geng San calculated quickly. He laughed and said, "Butcher Li, you have to think of it this way: after you get the good citizen certificate, you can enter and exit each of the four city gates once a day. Each tax ticket sells for five coins, so you make a pure profit of four coins. Four tax tickets are sixteen coins. In just ten days, you'll get your money back from the good citizen certificate. After that, it's pure profit!"
“Brother, you’re right!” Wang Wenzhou laughed. “Actually, I had no choice but to set up the Good Citizen Certificate. Otherwise, there will always be some people who take advantage of loopholes. If they sneak into and out of the city a few more times and pay more taxes and get more tax receipts, it’s too unfair to those who follow the rules! As for the one tael of silver for the processing fee, it is indeed a bit too much. But I also have my difficulties. There are so many yamen runners in the yamen, and I don’t even have money to pay their monthly wages this month.”
“Yes!” Li Hechen quickly chimed in, “Don’t even mention this month, we didn’t get our monthly allowance last month either. I’m a little better off, after all, my dad is rich. But families like Liu Mazi’s, they all rely on him to earn money, and they’re almost starving!”
"Hehe..." Liu Mazi said with a wry smile, "I have to thank Lord Wang for being understanding of his subordinates! Otherwise, I really wouldn't want to be a yamen runner anymore."
Everyone thought about it and agreed. Although one tael of silver was a bit expensive, it could be earned back in ten days. Even if the city gate tax could only be collected for a month, there would still be a profit for twenty days!
Wang Wenzhou pointed at the silver and said, "Li Hechen, don't just stand there! Arrange the silver properly, make it look like a big ingot. Then tell Ma Bantou to send eight constables, divided into two shifts, one shift for daytime and one shift for nighttime, to watch over this silver."
"Your subordinate obeys!" Li Hechen hurriedly arranged the silver according to Wang Wenzhou's instructions.
"Young Master, do you want to put the silver here?" Wang Qiang asked in a low voice.
"Hmm!" Wang Wenzhou nodded and said, "Who wouldn't be tempted if they saw so much silver laid out here with their own eyes?"
"Amazing!" Wang Qiang gave his young master a thumbs up.
One thousand taels of silver, arranged in the shape of a large ingot.
Wang Wenzhou then found paper and pen, wrote a couplet, and pasted it on.
First line: The treasury is full of abundant resources, and then great love is bestowed upon all directions.
The second line reads: Individuals pay meager taxes, yet even the smallest blade of grass can repay the warmth of spring.
Horizontal scroll: Paying taxes is an honor.
"Clap clap!" Wang Wenzhou clapped his hands, admiring the couplets he had copied.
"Young Master! Most of the characters you wrote are wrong!" Wang Qiang whispered a reminder.
Wang Wenzhou couldn't write traditional Chinese characters, only simplified ones, so Wang Qiang felt that many characters were written incorrectly, missing this or that.
"As long as you can understand it, that's fine! Why do you care if the words are spelled correctly or not!" Wang Wenzhou said irritably.
"Xiaoqiang, your young master's handwriting is amazing! It's so elegant and graceful, with a unique charm!" Sheng Lan said in a serious tone.
"Pfft!" Wang Qiang almost burst out laughing. Sister-in-law, I'm too embarrassed to argue with you. Even if I held a pen between my toes, I could write better than the young master with his handwriting!