Old Zhou stood in line with a slip in his hand among a crowd of people. Some households sent their stewards to collect the goods, and of course there were officials' family members who came in person.
For the past year or two, Manbao's salary had always been collected by Old Zhou himself. By now he didn't even need his grandsons and granddaughters at home to read the slip for him; he could practically recite in his sleep how much silver and stipend grain they got every month, so he always came alone with a helper to collect it.
And because he'd come so often, he'd gotten to know quite a few people here.
There were circles even among those who collected salaries; his circle was made up of officials' family members.
In this group there were fathers like him, there were uncles and elder uncles, and plenty of younger brothers as well.
Their common trait was that family assets weren't particularly abundant, and the ranks of their officials ranged from sixth grade up to fourth grade.
