Chapter 34

**Bang!** In the study of a large residence in the eastern part of Songjiang City, the dark and fat Master Song slammed a piece of paper on the table and roared angrily, "This is outrageous! Can the government do whatever it wants?"

Seeing his father's angry expression, the second son of the Song family cautiously glanced at his father and dared not speak. Earlier, the government had sent someone to notify them that they would be building a merit stele outside the city, and all the names and donation amounts of the contributors would be engraved on it. The paper that Master Song had slammed on the table was also sent along, listing the contributors to be engraved on the stele, ranked by the amount of their donations. The Song family had only donated ten taels of silver, placing them at the bottom of all the contributors.

Despite his dark and fat appearance, which made him look rather stupid, Master Song was actually a shrewd man. Otherwise, he wouldn't have accumulated such a large fortune. When he first received the notice from the government, he immediately understood their intentions. They were simply using this method to force them to donate. Otherwise, if the fact that the Song family had only donated ten taels of silver were engraved on the stele, he and his son would be too ashamed to face anyone.

But what could he do even if he saw through their plan? The merit stele was a straightforward scheme, a legitimate way to take money from their pockets. Unless Master Song was willing to lose face, he had no choice but to obediently hand over the money. Even if the government refused to accept it, he would have to beg them to take it.

Thinking about this, Master Song couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged. He plopped down into a chair, his large chest heaving as he panted heavily. His small eyes darted around, as if weighing the pros and cons of the situation.

"Father, it seems the government is determined to get money from us. Why don't we donate a bit more?" Seeing his father's anger finally subside, the second son of the Song family mustered the courage to suggest.

Master Song didn't immediately respond to his son's words. He sat there in deep thought for a while before finally slamming the table and turning from anger to joy. "Donate! Of course we should donate, and even more than others. Go tell the accountant to take out two thousand taels of silver and donate it!"

"Two... two thousand taels?" The second son was so shocked he nearly jumped. The last time the Song family was cheated by Zhou Chong, their business shrank by half, and their income sharply decreased. Even in the past, two thousand taels was a significant amount, let alone now when the family was short of money.

Seeing his son's shocked expression, Master Song glared at him and scolded, "Foolish! The reason our business has been affected is mainly because we fell for Zhou Chong's trick, damaging our family's reputation. Many weavers are unwilling to sell their cloth to us. I've been worrying about how to restore our family's reputation, but now heaven has suddenly given us such a good opportunity!"

The second son suddenly understood. "I see. You want to use this opportunity to regain the reputation we lost. Although two thousand taels is a lot, if it can help us recover our business, it will be worth it!"

Seeing that his son finally understood, Master Song couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. He had been heartbroken about the money he would have to donate, but then a sudden idea struck him, turning a bad situation into a good one. The Li family, who had donated the most, had only given eight hundred taels. With his two thousand taels, he would definitely be at the top of the merit stele. Even if it didn't completely restore the Song family's reputation, it would certainly change some people's views. In the future, he could put in more effort to do some surface work and not worry about regaining the lost reputation.

Thinking about this, a rare smile appeared on Master Song's dark and fat face. However, he immediately thought of Zhou Chong, who had caused the Song family so much trouble. His face darkened, and he gritted his teeth. "Zhou Chong, you've made our business suffer. One day, I will repay you a hundredfold!"

Unfortunately, Master Song didn't know that the idea of the merit stele also came from Zhou Chong. It was this despicable plan that allowed the Song family to buy some reputation and recover their business. After learning about this, Zhou Chong regretted it deeply. He hadn't realized that his unintentional action had actually helped the Song family.

The merit stele, a straightforward and legitimate scheme, made the wealthy people who were unwilling to donate furious at Governor Xu. However, no matter how angry they were, they couldn't think of a way to counter it. Either they wanted a good name or they wanted to keep their money. They had only two choices. In the end, everyone chose to donate money to keep their good name, as people live for their reputation, and they weren't short of that amount of money.

Of course, they didn't need to buy a name like the Song family, so their additional donations weren't as crazy. The most generous would donate a few hundred taels, and those with weaker financial means would donate a hundred taels, which was already very generous.

A few days later, Zhou Chong received news from Xu Shenzhong. Apart from the generous families like the Wang, Li, and Xie families, who had already donated a large amount, almost all the other wealthy people had made additional donations. After the statistics were compiled, the second round of donations amounted to over thirteen thousand taels. Zhou Chong couldn't help but marvel at the number of rich people in Songjiang. A single donation could raise so much silver. If all that silver were given to him, he wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, the silver was for disaster relief, and even if it were given to him, he wouldn't dare to accept it. It was better to earn his own money and spend it with peace of mind.

That afternoon, Zhou Chong finished another chapter of "Journey to the West." Since selling "Journey to the West" to Xie Lingyun, he had set a plan to write one chapter in the morning, afternoon, and evening. He had already written the first thirty chapters. This way, when he finished the remaining seventy chapters, it would be the end of November. Although he had agreed to deliver the first half of the manuscript to Xie Lingyun by the end of the month, delivering it earlier would allow him to get the money sooner and have a more comfortable year.

Since the disaster victims arrived in Songjiang, the sky had been overcast for several days, with a cold north wind blowing continuously. The sky was dark and gloomy, as if it might snow at any moment. Fortunately, the snow never came, giving the disaster victims a chance to breathe and set up a simple camp outside the city.

This morning, the sky was even more overcast, and although the north wind had stopped, it was extremely cold. With the income from storytelling and the advance on the manuscript, Xu Guan's finances had improved, so he had set up stoves in the rooms of Lady Wang, Liu Guan, and his own room. He often wrote, and without a stove, the pen would freeze, making it impossible to write.

After finishing today's manuscript, Zhou Chong poured some water from the kettle on the stove, washed his brush, and hung it up. He then stretched, put on his cotton coat, and opened the door to take a look.

"Ah! It's snowing!" Zhou Chong suddenly noticed that snowflakes were dancing outside the eaves, like lively fairies chasing each other in the air. A thin layer of snow had already fallen on the ground, covering the world in a silver-white blanket, looking incredibly pure.

In his previous life, Zhou Chong was from the north and had always enjoyed the snow, as it allowed him to have snowball fights and build snowmen. However, seeing this heavy snow now, he couldn't help but sigh. There were still over twenty thousand disaster victims living in makeshift shelters outside the city. Although Governor Xu had done his best to help them, this snow would make their lives even harder.

Thinking about the situation of the disaster victims, Zhou Chong's originally good mood turned sour. He didn't want to stay in the room anymore, so he put on his clothes, took an oiled paper umbrella, and walked out of his courtyard.

As soon as he stepped out of the courtyard gate, Zhou Chong heard the silver bell-like laughter of Duer from Lady Wang's courtyard, mixed with the barking of Baiqiu. Hearing the innocent laughter of the little girl, Zhou Chong felt his heavy heart lighten a bit. He turned and walked towards Lady Wang's courtyard.

Before he even entered the courtyard, Zhou Chong saw through the open gate that the chubby Baiqiu was running fast on his short legs, while Duer, dressed in a bright red cotton coat, was chasing him, laughing like a silver bell. Sometimes she would slip and fall, but she didn't care, laughing and getting up to continue chasing. Her rosy cheeks suggested she had been playing in the snow for a long time.

Seeing Duer's happy face, Zhou Chong finally put aside his heavy heart and walked into the courtyard excitedly. He wanted to play with Duer, but when Baiqiu saw Zhou Chong, he immediately let out a "woof" and quickly ran into the house, clearly having a psychological fear of Zhou Chong. Whenever Zhou Chong appeared, Baiqiu would run as far away as possible.

"Brother, come play with Duer! It's so much fun to play in the snow today!" Duer saw Zhou Chong and immediately jumped up, running towards him and shouting happily.

Worried that Duer might slip again, Zhou Chong quickly took a few steps and picked her up, laughing. "Little girl, slow down. If you want to play with your brother, why didn't you come find me earlier? Were you just playing by yourself and forgot about your brother?"

"No way!" Duer pouted her cute little mouth. "When it started snowing, I wanted to find you, but Sister said you were busy and told me not to disturb you while you were writing. So I had to play with Baiqiu."

Zhou Chong smiled and spun Duer around a few times in the snow, then teased her a bit, making the little girl giggle. Finally, he looked around the empty courtyard and asked, "Duer, why are you alone? Where are Auntie and Zuo'er?"