"What?" The old gentleman at the money house was dumbfounded.
For a while, he sat there without knowing what to say. After a long moment, he finally muttered, "Could it be that you came to our money house looking for trouble, sir?"
Zhang Xiaohua found this extremely strange. "I'm only withdrawing my own money. Who has the patience to come looking for trouble with you?"
"Then once you've withdrawn your money, just leave. Why do you need so many copper coins?"
Zhang Xiaohua found it even stranger. "What's wrong with copper coins? I just like spending copper coins. So what? Your money house is so enormous, yet you don't even have five strings of copper coins?"
"This..." The old gentleman was choked speechless by his words.
Zhang Xiaohua was not wrong. A money house bore the name of money—how could it not keep some copper coins in reserve? However, the usual transactions here involved gold and silver. If someone brought large-denomination silver notes or gold notes to withdraw a great amount of gold or silver, that was perfectly normal. Yet the person before him had brought a five-tael silver note to exchange for five strings of copper coins—five thousand cash. This was something they had never seen before.
"Are you people really a money house or not? Do you have any copper coins?"
Zhang Xiaohua was growing impatient.
Only then did the old gentleman come to his senses and confirm, "Sir, do you truly want them exchanged for copper coins?"
"Yes, I want copper coins."
The old gentleman still tried to persuade him. "When spending in the marketplace, sir, scattered silver pieces will do. Why go through such trouble?"
Zhang Xiaohua insisted, "Doesn't your money house have 'The Customer Above All' written on the wall? Is such a small request