After being away from home for seven days, Hua Shi pushed open the dilapidated gate again and looked at the messy courtyard, sighing softly.

The yard is completely empty now...

It was a funeral, and because three people died in succession, the funeral was quite grand. For seven consecutive days, people came to the Hua family's ancestral hall to watch.

Hua Tingjing helped her a lot. From the first day of putting the coffin in the coffin to the funeral, he followed her all the time and was busy helping out.

He said that he couldn't help her financially, but he would do his best to help in other ways.

The pallbearers and mourners were all recruited by Hua Tingjing. Initially, they came reluctantly, out of respect for Hua Tingjing. They assumed that since all the elders in the Hua family had died, they wouldn't be able to pay much. They thought that coming to help for a few days would bring bad luck and they wouldn't get paid. No one would be happy about such a thing.

Hua Shi originally had nearly thirty taels of silver saved on him, so he naturally wouldn't let anyone work in vain. He gave a lot of money and distributed it in turns. Thirty taels of silver didn't go a long way.

As for what Li Shucui said, that after the funeral, all the family assets were drained out, that simply didn't happen...

Although she didn't count them in detail, she should have spent less than ten taels of silver. If this amount was changed to an ordinary family, it would not be a small sum.

Hua Shi thought about it and walked into the yard, stepping on the thick snow.

The snow in the yard hadn't been cleared for several days, and it had accumulated into a thick layer...

Hua Xiao trotted into the house, opened the door, raised his head, glanced at the top of the beam, and ran out again, whispering to Hua Shi: "Two days ago, the roof of the room we slept in collapsed again under the weight of the snow..."

There was only a small hole where it originally collapsed. It had not been repaired in the past few days, and the snow accumulated more and more, collapsing a large area.

When she looked up just now, she could see the gray sky, the bamboos in the bamboo forest behind the house, and their swaying shadows.

Hua Shi followed him in and looked up.

The broken part of the roof happened to be facing the kang bed, and the bedding and mat on the kang bed were covered with a lot of broken snow.

There was also a puddle of snow on the ground, but I didn't have time to sweep it away...

Hua Shi pondered for a moment, then said, "Let me check on Dad's room and tidy it up. You can sleep in his room for the next few days."

As she spoke, she walked towards the main room and pushed open the half-closed door opposite.

The room where Hua Ciyuan slept was the largest room in the entire courtyard. In addition to a kang bed, there were two tall bookshelves filled with various handwritten books. In front of the window sill was an old desk and chair.

On the desk lay a piece of yellowed paper with black ink smeared all over it. The few large characters originally written on it were obscured by the scribbled strokes, making it difficult to see clearly.

The ink in the inkwell and the brush tips had dried out, clinging to each other stiffly. On the pen stand stood a row of brushes, a dozen or so in all, large and small. But many of the brush tips had worn down to a mere hair, a sign that the user frequently switched between them.

“Wow… so many books!”

Hua Li, who followed closely behind him, stared and sighed.

This was the first time he stepped into this strange house.

On weekdays, Hua Ciyuan never let them into his room. In the past, he did not let anyone else in except Li and Hua Shi.

Hua Shi did come a few times, sitting in front of the desk, holding a book of poetry, pretending to read it a few times, all to please Li who was staring at her at the beginning.

Hua Li walked in cautiously, looking around curiously: "What are these books?"

He walked to the bookshelf, tilted his head back, looked at the neatly arranged books, and blinked.

Hua Shi also looked over. She had seen Hua Ciyuan's handwriting before and recognized it. Many of the book titles were repeated. On a row of shelves, only one was the original book, and the rest were all books copied by Hua Ciyuan.

She thought that Hua Ciyuan did have some talent, and he did study hard, reviewing the contents of the books every day for ten years. It was no surprise that he could pass the imperial examination.

As for why, he hadn't been able to pass the exam for over thirty years, and even earned the title of scholar only half a year ago. This might have something to do with the Li family...

Once he broke that limit, Hua Ciyuan seemed to have found his confidence and felt proud. Unfortunately...

Hua Shi came back to his senses and looked at the kang bed next to him which was obviously a size smaller.

This is obviously a double bed. If four people sleep on it, it's a bit too small...

"Xiaoxiao, come and sleep with me at night. The other three can sleep here first."

Hua Shi said this as he walked to the kang bed, folded up the bright red quilt and put it aside.

This quilt should have been embroidered by an embroiderer when Hua Ciyuan got married. There are two big wedding characters embroidered on both sides, and some red, green and yellow flowers and plants next to them. The corners of the fabric are a little worn, and there are traces of mending in many places. It must have been used for many years.

Hua Shi prepared to sort out all these things, wash and use the usable ones, and move the unusable ones outside and throw them away.

She turned around and asked Hua Xiao and Hua Li to bring the bedding from their room and spread it out.

There is also a charcoal brazier in this room. You can burn some charcoal at night to warm yourself up before going to bed.

Hua Xiao and Hua Li were obviously calmer. They followed behind Hua Shi, watching him eagerly, and did whatever he told them to do, very obediently.

After tidying up the kang bed and other things in the room, Hua Shi didn't touch them for the time being.

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