12 Chapter 12
◎Housekeeping is all about popularity◎
There were 222 taels in hand, and 8 taels were still missing. Since it was to buy the house from Master Mu Yun, it was not easy to bargain any more. Cheng Mu asked Mu Yun to go to Renxin Hall to sell the last three ginsengs left in the space and exchange them for 15 taels.
With both the intention and the money, the deal went ahead very quickly. After Jiang agreed, he found an official and the whole thing was done within two days.
Li Xiucai's family has also bought a new house and will move in in the next few days.
Cheng Mu was not in a hurry to move to a new house. She had rented a house here with Jiang for three months, and it had been more than two months in a flash. It was really not easy. She was so restricted, but she actually bought her own house.
There is only half a month left, and she will leave when her contract expires.
Mu Yun had already made an appointment with Zhang Shuban through Captain Lin. Early the next morning, the two of them dressed up and went to the yamen.
There was a long queue in front of the government office and the official warehouse. The wheat was being harvested recently, and many people came to pay taxes.
We found Zhang Shuban's office building, and he was the only one there. Zhang Shuban was short and had a mustache.
After Cheng and the others explained their purpose, Zhang Shuban said, "The original pass."
The original body escaped from the Cheng family by bribing a servant, and the servant gave her this pass. When Cheng Mu handed the pass to Zhang Shuban, she secretly slipped a tael of silver into it.
Zhang Shuban raised his eyebrows slightly. He knew how much it was at a glance. The person who came to ask for favors from Captain Lin actually gave such a large gift. He raised his eyelids and glanced at the two of them. "What do you want?"
Cheng Mu said, "The head of the household is gone, and I am now a widow. Can you please open a new household in my name? My husband's family will keep this little brother-in-law. Since he is not yet an adult, the original household will not count."
Zhang Shuban stuffed the silver in his hand into his sleeve bag and asked, "Name?"
"Cheng Mu."
"age?"
"sixteen."
…
The door sticker was less than two feet wide and had a plum blossom fence around it. Cheng Mu read it word by word with joy. "A big one mouth" referred to her, as girls were called "kou" and boys were called "ding". "Not a Ding" referred to Mu Yun. It clearly stated how many houses she had. Finally, she was a person of status and property.
"Mu Yun, we will really be a family from now on."
Mu Yun looked at her name carefully, Cheng Mu, her name was Cheng Mu.
媺, pronounced the same as "mei", means good and kind.
No matter where he comes from, he is a good person anyway.
There were four places in the newly bought house that needed repairs. Cheng Xi went to find Jiang Shi, but Jiang Shi frowned and waved her hands repeatedly, "No, Madam Cheng, you are pregnant now, you can't touch here or there in the house, it's not good."
"Is there such a thing?"
"You don't have your mother and mother-in-law to watch over you, so just listen to your aunt. Back then, I..."
When her eldest daughter died in childbirth, Jiang found many reasons. She listed the suspects as moving the house during pregnancy and cutting down trees. Whoever said it believed it.
Cheng Mu knew that these had no scientific basis. In ancient times, too many women died in childbirth due to underdeveloped medicine. However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. In order to ensure that her image would not collapse, she gave up the idea.
"Why isn't your belly getting bigger?"
Mrs. Jiang thought about her appetite and said, "You are a double-breasted person. You need to eat the food of two people by yourself. You need to eat more!"
Cheng Xi smiled back awkwardly.
Mrs. Jiang reminded her that it was normal not to show her pregnancy in the first four months, but she would have to make a fake belly after five months.
Fortunately, I bought a house and moved away from the Jiang family.
There weren't many things. Mu Yun moved all the household items that his original owner had bought in one trip. As for the rest of the clothes and other things, he just put them in a bag and carried them on his back.
Jiang, Yu, and Guier all came to see her off. Jiang gave her two sacks and said, "Madam Cheng, I think you don't need these things. It will be more convenient to put anything in them later."
"Thank you, Auntie. I just need this. I usually don't think of buying it."
Cheng Xi wasn't being polite, she really always forgot to buy it.
Yu gave her some pieces of cloth and said, "I don't have anything good, so I made some diapers for your child."
Yu was poor and didn't have much to offer. She could save some scraps of cloth by doing needlework for others, and with that she made a few diapers and a fleece diaper that could be used in winter.
Although Cheng Xi didn't need it, she was inexplicably touched. "Thank you, Aunt Yu. This is my first pregnancy and I don't know how to prepare anything. Last time you gave me a pair of tiger-head shoes."
Jiang said, "With us here, what are you afraid of? Just treat us as your aunts and feel free to look for us in the future."
Cheng Xi expressed her gratitude sincerely, "I'll go home and prepare first. Tomorrow night, you must do me the honor of coming for dinner."
Jiang agreed readily. Yu was a little hesitant to bother her. Cheng Mu said, "Without my parents around, and my aunts not coming to help me warm the house, I'd be too miserable."
Jiang pulled Yu aside and promised Cheng Mu, "We'll definitely go tomorrow night." She said to Yu, "Let's cook a few dishes together and bring them over. I'll prepare the ingredients, and you can just lend a hand, okay?"
Yu had no choice but to agree reluctantly.
Jiang deliberately walked Cheng Xi a little further away, so she moved closer and whispered, "Don't forget to invite Captain Lin. We all live in the same alley. He's also Master Mu Yun, and he's been a huge help to you."
Cheng Mu was quick to think of Captain Lin and Mrs. Yu. Mrs. Jiang was really trying to bring them together. Mrs. Jiang said seriously, "What a greenhouse needs is popularity."
After putting her things in place, Cheng Mu did not choose to live in the main house. The main house was previously occupied by Li Xiucai's parents. People in ancient times were not so concerned about hygiene, especially the elderly. The house where the two old people lived had a special smell. The things had been moved away, but the kang was still there. The wood along the kang, the wall and other conspicuous places were all covered with patina by them. They wiped it several times and dried it for these days, but there was still that lingering smell.
Cheng Mu chose what had once been Li Xiucai's study as her own room. It had a separate room, a kang (a type of kang), and was adjacent to the family's coal room. Since Li Xiucai had always been the family's heir, the study was well insulated, with well-papered doors and windows.
Except for the kang, everything else that could be moved was moved away from the entire house. It would be better to put a shelf where the bookshelf was originally placed. Cheng Mu also wanted to collect some books.
Mu Yun lived in the opposite wing. Cheng Mu went to see how he had cleaned up. He was even more tidy. He didn't put anything on the kang, not even a mattress, and just lay down on it.
Cheng Mu asked him why he didn't use a mattress, and he said he would use it in winter.
Cheng Mu said, "We need to heat the kang in winter. I have a coal room over there. You can move to the east wing and live with me. We can save some money."
"It's okay, I can handle the cold." It was impossible for Mu Yun to live with her.
"Although you practice martial arts, you don't have a layer of fat to protect you. Which girl isn't afraid of the cold? Let's huddle together for warmth."
Girl, you are the girl, Mu Yun said, "I am your uncle."
"That's in front of outsiders. Living in captivity is about being practical. Who knows?"
Mu Yun: ...
There is a vegetable garden behind the main house, which was converted from a path against the courtyard wall. The vegetable garden could not be moved, so several women from the Li family gave it to her with great reluctance. Onions, leeks, turnips, day lilies and taro were planted in the garden. At present, only the onions and leeks were edible. They had mowed them cleanly when they moved, and they grew again after ten days or so.
After watering the vegetable patch with a bucket of water, she cut a handful of chives and made an omelet for dinner. Cheng Xi had harvested a lot of beans in her space. She had learned how to sprout them from Jiang Shi and picked some good ones. After washing them, she spread them in a basket she had bought, covered them with a black cloth, and soaked them all in water. They were growing quickly with the recent high temperatures, so she could make a dish tomorrow night.
Beans can also be ground into tofu, but it's a bit tiring. In order to use up the beans, Cheng Xi wants to give it a try.
The stone mill was moved away by the Li family, and they bought a small one. They soaked the beans overnight and ground them with the millstone. It took nearly two hours to grind a pot of beans. After filtering, they boiled the soy milk and boiled it for a while. Cheng Mu put out two bowls, added a spoonful of sugar to each bowl, and washed it down with boiling hot soy milk. She was almost fainting from hunger, but she couldn't drink it even though it was so hot.
This was Cheng Mu's first time making it, and she felt it might be her last. She said to Mu Yun, who was adding firewood, "I'll just buy it from now on."
Don't waste your time on this kind of thing.
After ordering the marinade, another person was served a bowl of tofu pudding, which was also served with sugar.
Mu Yun gathered the gauze and pressed a stone on it. This was his first time making tofu, and he didn't even know the steps. Unlike Cheng Mu, he felt it was very simple and thought he would make it himself in the future.
Cheng Mu gave Qian Muyun and went to the street to buy chicken, duck and wine. After a busy day, she finally prepared the meal when the neighbors came.
This time, Cheng Mu was the host. She prepared a table for the three adults and two children to sit together without any formalities. But when Captain Lin came in, Yu Shi seemed to be burned and refused to eat at the same table. Cheng Mu had no choice but to set up another table to keep her, so she let Captain Lin and Mu Yun sit there, but they were all in the same room.
Because Captain Lin was there, the atmosphere was a little tense. When they were almost done eating, Jiang said, "Guier, you've secretly watched Mu Yun practice martial arts a few times, right? Today's a good opportunity. Let's go to the courtyard and ask him for some guidance."
Gui'er didn't know how many times she had secretly looked at it, but she was always seen by Jiang. She explained embarrassedly, "It was just a coincidence..."
Jiang said, "Muyun, you have a master to teach you. Today, you can also be Gui'er's little master. Captain Lin, don't you mind?"
Captain Lin drank his wine in silence, waved his hand, and asked them to leave the yard.
Gui Er looked at Cheng Mu, and Cheng Mu said to Mu Yun, "Then let's compare strength and chassis. I'll be the referee."
Yu warned Gui'er, "Don't act silly."
Jiang said, "They are just kids. It would be nice for them to be playmates. We'll just eat our own food and ignore them."
Cheng Mu brought out two children. Mu Yun was a little shorter than Gui'er and had a thinner figure. They first arm wrestled, and Gui'er won. Then they squatted in a horse stance and pushed and pulled, and it ended in a draw. Mu Yun had learned from his master for two months after all, and he felt a little embarrassed and wanted to try again.
Guier said, "Let's fight. You're definitely better than me."
Gui'er is strong, but has no experience in fighting. She has seen Mu Yun practice boxing and has also tried it secretly herself, but she didn't feel anything.
Cheng Xi warned, "Don't be too harsh."
The two men got into fighting postures. Mu Yun signaled Gui'er to attack first. Gui'er thought about the moves she had learned and tried to throw a punch. Mu Yun pulled and tugged, turned over and pressed, and finally subdued Gui'er.
Guier's tentative imitation punch was so adorable that Cheng Mu couldn't help but laugh.
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