Chapter 49 Chapter 49 Two chapters merged into one

She never expected that her uncle would end up like this. Her mother even asked, "Your aunt-in-law told your father to bring him back with a donkey cart? Do you think that's reasonable?"

Not to mention that her uncle's family already had a donkey cart, and she didn't want to use their own cart to pull a dead body. Even if Yingniang's family also had a donkey cart, why did she put all the blame on her parents?

Jinniang looked at Wei Xiong and said, "You didn't agree, did you?"

Wei Xiong almost agreed, of course. After all, his brother had died, and he was at a loss. But his wife disagreed, so he refused. When Jinniang asked him about it, he immediately shook his head and said, "No, no."

"That's good. You should focus on your own affairs. If they ask you what to do, just tell them to handle it themselves. He has children, daughters and a wife, so you can just go and help him out." Jinniang gave instructions.

There's no way. Her father is just like that. He's not good at coping with situations. Only she can give orders and put words into his mouth.

After she finished speaking, she was about to talk about her termination of the contract at Wenxiu Courtyard when she heard her mother say, "Your grandma was also lamenting that your third uncle's lifetime of earning money ended up in the hands of your third aunt?"

"Ah? Isn't it Third Uncle's aunt who manages the money in his family?" Jinniang was very surprised.

Wei Xiong said: "Yes, your third uncle has always been the one managing the money in his family."

Jinniang looked at her parents and said, "Then you'd better not go there as much as possible. Uncle San's money will cause disputes. If it's missing, they won't blame their own people but you."

Without Wei Xiong, the main helper, luckily there was still son-in-law Anping. In order to take care of the funeral, Anping even dropped his own job and worked really hard. The reason is that my third aunt doesn't care about anything and she doesn't want to get involved in anything that is troublesome or hard.

Even the third aunt said: "I told your third uncle not to go, but he insisted on going."

This is so false. Jinniang shook her head in silence.

Naturally, she thought her mother would have a strong reaction when Jinniang was released from the Wenxiu Courtyard, but she didn't expect her father to react even more strongly.

"Jinniang, why don't we go find Cheng Ya Ren again? Working for the government is more stable. You have to pay back so much money every month. What if you can't pay it back?" Wei Xiong was very anxious and put his brother's death behind him.

He had his reasons for saying that. When he came back from the Imperial Guards, he thought he would be on a roll from then on, but he never knew that things would get worse and worse. Looking at his former comrades, some of them became county magistrates in Jiangling, some worked in the government office in Kaifeng, but he was nothing.

Jinniang said, "Dad, the contract for the job at Wenxiu Court was only for three years, and it actually expired at the end of last year. If I had signed it, what if my monthly salary was still two strings of cash? The house hasn't been built yet in the past few months, so I can make some at home and send it to Jinxiu Pavilion, which will also bring in some income. When the time comes, I can open my own shop and won't have to ask anyone for help."

Wei Xiong was still chattering, but he didn't expect Yang Ge'er to stand up and say, "Dad, my sister is right. No matter how good Wenxiuyuan is, it is still a job for others. What's wrong with her doing it for herself in the future?"

"That's right, my daughter has her reasons for doing this." Luo Yu'e also supported Jinniang.

Wei Xiong said awkwardly: "I just think that my daughter will know more people when she works outside..."

"Okay, just take care of your own things first. You have to think of a way to deal with grandma's affairs quickly. Don't bother me. I don't ask you to pay back my monthly loan." Jinniang said with a fierce face.

Seeing his daughter like this, Wei Xiong didn't dare to say anything more.

At Third Uncle's place, Sheng Ge'er had just joined a lumber shop and had not stayed there for even a single day, having to go to work every day. Ying Jie'er was being taken care of by her mother-in-law during the confinement period. Anping came to keep vigil for a month, and after completing the funeral, he also sold all of Third Uncle's shops, and asked someone to send Third Uncle's mother-in-law and grandma back to their hometown to bury Third Uncle.

Although the problem of grandma following them was solved, Jinniang felt strange: "Why is Anping so dedicated? Even if he is a son, he wouldn't be so attentive."

When Third Uncle's ashes were sent back, Yingniang's child was just one month old, so Jinniang went with her parents to settle down.

Unexpectedly, the An family changed the carriage. The horse was four feet seven inches tall. Wei Xiong was familiar with horses, and he said at a glance: "I'm afraid it will take at least thirty strings of cash to take this horse."

"How did their family still have money to buy a new horse? Didn't they borrow money for the funeral of Third Uncle?" Jinniang said.

You have to know that when Yingniang got married, in addition to the loan for the house, she also had to borrow 200 strings of cash for the betrothal gift, which is not a small amount of money.

Of course, only Yingniang knew about this. She didn't expect her mother to be so lazy and unwilling to take care of her father's funeral. Fortunately, Anping found her father's savings and gave 200 strings of coins to her mother. She kept the remaining 500 strings of coins.

She exchanged thirty strings of cash for a carriage, four hundred strings of cash for a loan, and the remaining seventy strings of cash she kept carefully. How could she feel uneasy?

Even so, she still cried poor to her relatives.

Seeing that Yingniang was crying poor but not hurt at all, Jinniang had already guessed 80% of the truth. How ridiculous! In the end, she was just making things difficult for others!

The third aunt thought she was smart. She felt that since she had taken the money from the third uncle, she was afraid that the relatives would come after her, so she went back to Jiangling under the guise of being filial to grandma. It turned out that he took the money and ran away, but he was afraid that his relatives would stop him. He didn't expect that there is always someone better than you.

It is already June, and the walls of the new house have been primed with yellow mud mixed with hemp. The master plans to wait for it to dry before applying fine lime. The last step is to ask painters to paint on the walls.

Jinniang simply skipped the third step, because now is different from the Tang Dynasty. Painting on the wall is not only too dull, but also a waste of money. At that time, she can just hang vertical paintings and calligraphy, which is the most fashionable thing nowadays.

She decided to paint by herself, all of which were flowers she was familiar with, using seven colors as the theme on white silk. For yellow, she chose Zhao Chang's "Bee and Flower", for pink, she chose Xu Xi's "Red Peony", for white, she chose Huang Quan's "Dancing Butterflies", for purple, she chose the wisteria flowers from the Hanlin Academy of Painting, for green, she chose Gu Deqian's "Waterfowl in the Lotus Pond", for blue, she chose Cui Bai's "Loquat and Peacock", and for orange, she chose the Hanlin Academy's "Trumpet Creeper".

She gets up in the morning to paint a picture, and starts doing needlework in the afternoon. Without a fixed job, she has to take care of everything on her own.

However, it is very expensive to frame a painting, so Jinniang had to stick it on white paper and put it aside. Surprisingly, it was her younger brother Yangger who helped her frame it with a wooden frame, and it looks very beautiful.

This month I brought back twenty strings of cash from Jinxiufang, but before I could even warm them up, I gave them to Gongtou.

Jinniang looked at the money in her hand and found that she still had a hundred strings of cash. She breathed a sigh of relief. Budget was one thing, but building a house would actually involve too many additional items. Fortunately, she was able to resist the temptation.

While painting at home, she heard Yingniang and Anping coming over. Jinniang went out to greet them and asked, "Hey, what are you two doing here?"

Yingniang said, "I just went to my second uncle's shop and told him and my second aunt that my eldest sister and her husband will be moving to a new house tomorrow. They told us about it and we just happened to be passing by here so we came to tell you."

After they finished talking, the couple said they had something else to do and left.

When her parents came back, Jinniang said, "They didn't invite us to go. It was Yingniang and the others who heard the news and told us. This is too much of a disrespect for us. I won't go then."

Wei Xiong also said: "They didn't come to pick us up, and they didn't even send a servant."

"Then just ignore them. Are they always the ones who find fault with us, and we can't find fault with them?" Jinniang said indifferently.

Of course, Rong Niang knew nothing about all this. In her opinion, they were all family and they should know about the housewarming and would definitely come over. She had people buy chicken, duck, fish and meat, and also found a way to buy some beef to entertain relatives and friends.

Feng Sheng has a wide network of contacts, and this time he invited more than ten tables of people, and this was even without a large banquet.

"Rong Niang, Prime Minister Zhao is coming, and Mr. Zhang is also coming. They are all arranged to sit on the east side. They can't sit together with your second uncle and the others." Feng Sheng thought of Wei Xiong's shabby appearance and felt that he couldn't sit with the guests.

Rong Niang nodded: "Okay, I understand."

She also didn't like her second uncle's family very much. Jinniang was too weird and her second aunt had too bad a temper, neither of them were worthy of being in a respectable family.

The day they moved into their new home was, of course, a very grand occasion. Rong Niang was only twenty-two or twenty-three years old now, which was the prime of her life. She was also very pretty and brought a lot of honor to Feng Sheng.

There is even a sense that a wife's appearance is a glory to her husband.

As usual, Feng Sheng would look at the gift books, which could reflect the relationship between him and others. He was commenting: "Yingniang and her friends sent half a pig and a few baskets of fruit, and also a piece of cloth, which is very rare."

"Yingniang has just been out of confinement for a short time." Rongniang is psychologically closer to Yingniang.

Feng Sheng laughed again: "This Zhang Yuanwai is also good. He sent us the best lamb rolls and the best Duan inkstones for our two brothers."

The couple pointed and talked, and finally realized: "Didn't your second uncle and his family come?"

Rong Niang pressed her forehead and said, "It seems like it didn't come."

"Could it be that she is not coming here to avoid paying the membership fee?" Feng Sheng thought that Jinniang might have spent all her money on buying the house. I heard that she even left the Wenxiu Academy. She must not be coming here because she has no money.

Rong Niang shook her head: "Probably not."

Feng Sheng raised his eyebrows: "That's hard to say. It may not have been like this before, but it's hard to say now. The job at Wenxiuyuan is gone, and the so-called extra income is always precarious. I have to pay back the loan every month. Tsk tsk, sometimes girls shouldn't be too stubborn."

Rong Niang was speechless for a moment.

On the Chinese Valentine's Day, Jinniang had just delivered the clothes to Jinxiu Pavilion and went to see the new house. The door had been installed and the walls inside had just been polished. The location of this house was particularly good, facing south and north.

But the color of the pillars was wooden, which was different from the color of the walls. Jinniang couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Gong, is there any way to make the pillars in the front hall the same color as the walls?"

Gongtou smiled and said, "That's easy. We have some paper. You can buy it yourself and I'll help you paste it. It's 50 cents a piece. We've polished the lime so finely that it's almost white. Isn't it great this way?"

So Jinniang went to the bookstore and bought 32 sheets of pasting paper, spending a total of 1,600 coins. Jinniang also gave 200 coins to Gongtou as wages and asked him to cover all the pillars with pasted paper.

There is a counter in front of the main hall and a shelf for storage behind it. On the east side of the main hall is a round table, with several embroidered stools and a couch. These are all made of ordinary wood. Jinniang cut a tablecloth from a piece of brocade, strung beads on it, cut tassels, and spread it on the table, making it look luxurious and wealthy.

As for the couch, it looked ordinary, but it was filled with silk cotton in the same color brocade as the table and tied to the couch, and then pillows were made with various soft satins, with cherry pink, light green, and milky white as the base, and embroidered with various flowers, which was very beautiful.

In her opinion, this is her storefront, and the place where they live in the back does not need to be so sophisticated.

The front hall was almost decorated. He asked his father to put a vat at the door and fill it with water. He also asked the flower and tree seller to get some mud, and placed the lotus tubers horizontally in the soil, and then covered them with a layer of mud.

The gardener smiled and said, "When the water lilies grow, they will be very beautiful. Just remember to turn the soil, girl."

Jinniang nodded slightly: "Okay, I'll remember that."

As for the fifty-cent paper flowers on the counter, the mother and daughter had an argument over whether to buy real flowers or fake ones. Jinniang said, "We only need to put one pot at the entrance of the gate. As for other places, there is no need. Artificial flowers can always be this color. Look how beautiful this paper peony is. The price is not expensive. But real flowers need special people to cultivate the soil and plant them. I don't have the time."

After saying that, she had someone carry in a lemon tree. The lemon tree had green leaves and yellow fruits, and looked very fresh. She spent more than 200 coins to find someone to make it.

Luo Yu'e said, "If you put fake flowers in the house, people will laugh at you, and it's not a good sign."

"Mom, you can raise it on my terrace or on the porch." Jinniang smiled.

Luo Yu'e knew that she could not argue with her daughter. Her daughter's mental strength was unmatched. She only hated that they did not give her a good background, so that her daughter became a jackdaw. Thinking of this, she did not argue.

She even arranged where the clothesline should be placed, and no one was allowed to argue with her.

After locking the door and coming out of the new house, Jinniang covered her nose and said, "The windows have been painted. After a few months, when the smell has dissipated, we can move in."

"Just move in during the New Year." Luo Yu'e couldn't wait.

Jinniang nodded: "I think so too."

"Then your embroidery shop needs those silks and satins. Would you like to go and have a look?" Luo Yu'e asked worriedly.

Jinniang shook her head: "No hurry, as soon as I hang this plaque, I'm afraid that people from silk shops, silk thread shops, and woolen thread shops will have to come to my door, which is really annoying."

"But what if you don't make preparations early? What if business is bad? You have to pay back a lot every month. The money here in Jinxiu Pavilion is not easy to handle. Alas, this is really a problem. I don't know who will take your place." Luo Yu'e said.

Jinniang smiled and said, "That must be the female officials in the palace. They will find a place like this to settle down after retiring from the palace. There is no need to talk about the past. In fact, I have a better way. When people see me, they don't even need to look at my skills, they will come to me to do business."

Luo Yu'e was puzzled: "What does this mean?"

"Mom, my daughter is really determined to lose weight this time. Once I lose weight, won't I be a living signboard?" Jinniang said with a smile.

Who knew that Luo Yu'e burst into laughter and didn't believe it at all: "You've said it eight hundred times."

"That was when I had a job before. Now I specialize in needlework at home. How can I not do that now? Besides, I had nothing before. Even if I was beautiful, I was still a daughter of a poor family. Now I have wealth and beauty, so I can at least screen out half of the people who overestimate their abilities." Jinniang spoke confidently.

Just like in the Zhou family, being born beautiful is not a good thing. People use their power to oppress you, and you are a slave and your body is not even your own. The same goes for Wenxiuyuan. Now that she is out, she can restore her true appearance.

Losing weight requires money and time. People who are busy every day can only fill their stomachs with high-carb foods or sugar-oil mixtures, and stay up late at night. It is impossible for them to lose weight.

However, because of this, Jinniang could no longer stay up late at night, and all the clothes had to be made during the day.

With such a large base, she certainly can't start running right from the start. Besides, there's nowhere to run, and people will think you're an outlier. She had to control her diet first. In her previous life, she lost weight by using the formula 16 plus 8. Anyway, she couldn't go on a diet and her hair fell out very easily.

No one at home thought Jinniang could really lose weight, but Jinniang started to keep a record every day. She ate a small bowl of lotus leaf porridge and an egg in the morning, and a fist of rice, two fists of vegetables, and a fist of protein at noon. If she was too lazy to cook at noon, she would buy two sour-stuffed buns, which are vegetable buns. As for the evening, it was difficult.

Because her parents might cook good food at night, like the mutton stewed with sauerkraut her mother is making now. She puts a lot of dry ingredients in it, making it sour, spicy and delicious, and it's easy to eat too much if you're not careful.

Stop, she had to stop.

Seeing her daughter stop eating after eating a bowl of rice, Luo Yu'e said anxiously, "Jinniang, I asked someone to keep this mutton for you. Eating more can replenish your blood and qi, it's a good thing. I have to do business with your father during the day and can't take care of you. I don't know what you ate. Let me serve you some rice..."

"No, no, no, I really don't want to eat anymore." Jinniang turned around and went into the room.

Luo Yu'e was afraid that her daughter would be hungry, so she sighed slightly and served some more mutton: "I'll save it for her to eat when she's hungry. She still has to work every day, so how can she not eat enough?"

Jinniang returned to her room and continued to do needlework, but after about an hour, her stomach began to hurt a little. Before, she often had sesame cakes or meat cakes for midnight snacks, but now she can only hold on with great difficulty to lose weight.

Unable to bear it any longer, she went to bed. She was so hungry that her stomach hurt, so she ate a piece of mutton her mother brought.

She was afraid that her menstrual period would be irregular due to losing weight, so she bought some red dates and longans as snacks, but she would not eat them after dinner.

She is losing weight at home and is unwilling to go out because she will be easily tempted once she goes out.

It was Rong Niang's birthday, and she sent someone to invite my parents to dinner. Of course, Jin Niang did not attend such a big dinner.

Rong Niang was asking Luo Yu'e, "Why didn't Sister Jin Niang come?"

"She can't come because of something." Luo Yu'e listened to her daughter's advice and told her not to tell anyone about her weight loss.

Rong Niang said with great sympathy: "Don't bring these gifts in the future. It's just a few bites of food for the family, which is nothing."

Luo Yu'e remembered that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Feng Sheng and Rong Niang came to give her mooncakes. They took the initiative to give her gifts, probably to apologize for their impoliteness last time, and they couldn't really break off the relationship.

But after hearing what Rong Niang said, she smiled again and said, "This is nothing."

However, Rong Niang felt that the second wife must have become poor after buying the house, so she specially sent some fruits and mooncakes to them last time. This time, she also wanted them to come empty-handed so that they could have a big feast.

After all, Jinniang is her cousin.

Luo Yu'e had no idea what they were thinking. She sat at the table and saw a table full of delicious dishes. In front of them was crab, which was stir-fried with sesame oil and cooked with soy sauce and vinegar. It tasted so good when she put it in her mouth.

"Mrs. Rong, I want to bring some food for Mrs. Jin."

Regardless of whether her daughter is twenty years old now, in Luo Yu'e's eyes, she is still her daughter. Whenever she comes across anything delicious, she wants to bring it to her daughter. Of course Rong Niang agreed and asked someone to bring a food box over. Luo Yu'e packed some food in it and thanked her again.

Rong Niang waved her hand: "This is nothing."

She didn't ask about Jinniang's house, why? Yingniang asked a few questions: "How is the construction of Second Sister's house going?"

Luo Yu'e then started talking: "It's almost done. There's still some paint smell in the house, so I'll move in after the Chinese New Year. I'll invite you guys to come over and play then. You all must come."

Yingniang laughed and said okay.

During the meal, Luo Yu'e also chatted with other guests from the Feng family, and also talked with Yingniang's mother-in-law, An Sigu. An Sigu was quite good at talking, and praised Jinniang in front of Luo Yu'e: "The girls in your Wei family are really outstanding and capable."

"From what you said, it's just to make a living, how can you do it?" Luo Yu'e waved her hand.

Rong Niang sighed secretly, look, before there were people who helped Jin Niang to find a marriage partner, but now no one dares to talk to her about marriage. Her second uncle and second aunt also seemed to be fine.

Luo Yu'e really acted as if nothing had happened. She left the packed food with Jinniang. No matter where she went, if she saw anything delicious, she would bring it back for her children. Sometimes she would even pack up a candy given by others.

Jinniang picked a crab and ate half a bowl of rice. Luo Yu'e looked at her daughter with a smile and hurriedly stood up and said, "It won't work without soup. It's so dry. I'll make some egg drop soup."

"Mom, don't worry, I'll just drink more hot water and I'll be fine." After Jinniang said this, she touched her face.

Luo Yu'e nodded secretly: "That's great. I didn't expect you to stick with it this time."

Jinniang shook her head: "It's still too early. There are still two months left. My daughter needs to lose some weight."

Apart from asking people to hang plaques and colorful flags in the new house, Jinniang did not go out. Finally, on the 18th day of the twelfth lunar month, she was ready to move into the new house. The relatives were all curious about Jinniang's new house, so they all arrived.

Yingniang was the first one to arrive. As soon as she saw a woman at the door, she was immediately stunned. The woman was so beautiful. How could such a woman appear in such a poor alley? With a face as red as peach blossoms and slightly exposed pearly teeth, she looks pure and elegant, but when she slightly tilts her head, she reveals a kind of naivety, which makes her look lively and smart.

But the face seemed familiar, and when he saw the woman approaching, he smiled and said, "Yingniang, why are you staring at me?"

This woman turned out to be the second sister Jinniang, Yingniang was shocked.

Jinniang was smiling. She originally had a pale complexion and her facial features were not deep and bright, so when she gained weight, her facial features became blurred, and her almond eyes became squinting, and she had a double chin and broad cheeks. After losing weight, because she rarely went out, her skin became white and almost transparent, and her contours and facial features were highly compatible.

Seeing Yingniang running in, she was asking her mother, "Second aunt, how did Second Sister become so beautiful?"

Just as he finished speaking, Rong Niang came in. Although she did not rely on her beauty to commit crimes, she knew that she was born well, otherwise Feng Sheng would still be obsessed with her. But after meeting Jin Niang, she was beautiful, gentle, charming, and quiet. The two looked at each other and had some concerns in their hearts.

On the contrary, Yingniang saw her elder sister and the second sister standing together and couldn't help asking her husband: "You are a man, tell me which one of them is more beautiful?"

"I don't know." Anping would not answer these questions.

Yingniang said angrily, "You must tell me."

Anping looked over and saw that Rongniang had delicate eyebrows and eyes. At first glance, she was stunning, bright and pretty, but after looking at her for a few more times, he always felt that there was a lack of confidence and she might be frightened. But Jinniang looked pitiful and even more pitiful, like a milky white lilac flower, full of a broken feeling, but her eyes were firm and resolute, her temperament was calm, and when her eyes moved, it seemed as if her eyes could speak.

But he could only compare these secretly in his heart. In front of Ying Niang, he still said firmly: "No one is as beautiful as you anyway."