For lunch, I made spicy cold chicken salad, stir-fried sliced meat with organic cauliflower, braised eggplant, and tomato and egg soup.
After finishing her meal, Xiao Yunying waited for about half an hour, drank the medicine to regulate her body, and then went out for a run to exercise.
She runs every morning and evening; if she has something to do in the morning, she runs in the afternoon instead.
"Mom, I'm going for a run."
Mu Lianrong shouted through the door, "You're not allowed to go up West Mountain!"
"Okay."
She ran two laps around the foot of West Mountain, then walked slowly when she got tired, but her heart was itching to run again.
"I'll just go take a look around, I'll be right back."
As they walked up the mountain, they were stopped by someone.
"mother."
"Luo Yang, what are you doing bringing Xin'er here?"
Grandma said, "We'll watch over you and make sure you don't go up West Mountain."
Xiao Yunying: ……
"Are you on my side or on my mother's side?"
Luo Yang said with a solemn expression, "You can get sick and injured too."
You can't do anything without any scruples.
"I'm a human being, why can't I get hurt?"
This child probably still thinks she's a monster.
"Therefore, you should pay more attention to your health and avoid going to dangerous places all the time."
"I know." Xiao Yunying took Luo Xin's little hand and walked home: "Xin'er, when you grow up, don't become like your second brother. He's so nagging, like an old woman."
Luo Xin said, "But I think Second Brother is right. Mother shouldn't always go to dangerous places."
"Alright, Mother will go less often in the future."
Luo Xin, acting like a little adult, said, "If Mom likes going up the mountain, you can go to the East Mountain behind our house. Grandma said that there are many people going to the East Mountain and no wild animals."
"Too many people are not good; without wild animals, there are no good things either."
She was still thinking about finding ginseng. The little girl didn't understand; it was her obsession as a time traveler.
Luo Xin said, "It's safe."
Xiao Yunying picked up Luo Xin and rubbed her nose against Luo Xin's: "This little girl knows quite a lot."
The little girl giggled and laughed, and after being held for a while, she said she wanted to get down and walk by herself.
——————? ??? ?
Eight days later, Xiao Shanhai told her that the craftsmen said it was almost finished and the main house beams could be installed in the next couple of days.
There are many customs associated with building a new house here. The homeowner must perform a sacrifice, set up an incense table, paste red paper couplets on the doors and windows, hang red silk on the roof beams, and recite a "beam-raising text." The time for raising the beam must begin at noon. If someone in the family has a birth time that clashes with the time for raising the beam, it must be avoided. Firecrackers are set off to ward off bad luck, and so on.
Xiao Yunying felt overwhelmed by the conversation. Finding it troublesome, she pushed Luo Chen out and said, "Father, the homeowner is Luo Chen. You talk to him."
Luo Chen said, "You built this house."
"You are the homeowner."
“You are our elder, our mother.”
"You are the homeowner."
"The contract has not been altered."
"You will be the homeowner soon."
Luo Chen: ……
Xiao Yunying asked, "Father, is it mandatory to raise the roof beam tomorrow?"
"It doesn't have to be tomorrow. As long as no one in the family has a birth time that clashes with the house's roof beam, it's fine. I've asked your sons, and none of them have birthdays around this time. There are some customs associated with the roof beam raising here. We need to invite people to a housewarming meal to gather energy and warm the stove. Your mother said she'll go to the city tomorrow to buy some meat and such, and we'll raise the roof beam the day after tomorrow."
“I think so too. Let’s wait one more day. I promised to invite Mr. Chen and Sister Cheng Yue to dinner.”
Xiao Shanhai said, "Then I'll have the craftsmen build the wooden frame first, and we'll raise the beam the day after tomorrow."
The following morning, Xiao Yunying, along with Luo Chen, took the old property deed and rode in the village chief's oxcart into the city, asking the village chief to help them go to the yamen to amend the property deed.
The newly built house was moved a bit further out of the village, and a large yard was enclosed by a two-meter-high wall. They also bought more than 50 acres of open land behind the house.
If the vegetable greenhouses are profitable in the future, she plans to expand them. If she has enough money, she might as well buy them all at once to save trouble and prevent someone else from buying them first.
They entered the yamen together, and Xiao Yunying used silver to make arrangements so that no one made things difficult for them. The house and land deeds were issued quickly.
Once the banknotes were given, names were signed, fingerprints were pressed, and the county government's seal was affixed, the matter was considered settled.
The house deed was registered in Luo Chen's name, while the fifty acres of land were registered in her own name.
After leaving the county government office, Xiao Yunying told Luo Chen to go back with the village chief first, as she needed to buy a lot of things and said she would go back by herself in the afternoon.
After saying goodbye, Xiao Yunying walked towards Jinxiu Pavilion, calculating the amount of money she had.
The bricks and tiles used to build the house were all of good quality, and the timber was also of medium to high grade, costing more than 130 taels.
The craftsmen's wages were fifty coins a day. Thirty-two craftsmen would earn about sixty-five taels in less than forty days. The land for building houses was three taels per mu, and the land for cultivating vegetables was five taels per mu. In total, it was about three hundred taels.
The timber and tarpaulin for the greenhouse, along with the wages for the villagers, should be enough from the hundred taels my mother has. Adding to that the hundred taels of silver notes I gave my mother before, the cotton quilts and fabric I bought recently, the gold hairpins I bought for my mother and sister-in-law, the stove and cookware I had made, the furniture I ordered from Aunt Yang, and other small expenses like grains and meat...
"Oh dear, I've already spent more than half of the 1,700 taels of silver that I spent on selling snow fungus and tiger worms."
Money really doesn't last long.
No wonder her mother started nagging her to be frugal. Spending over a thousand taels a month like that on her two older brothers would have gotten their legs broken.
Thanks to Tang Tong for his generosity in buying snow fungus at more than three times the price, and thanks to Da Chong for his selflessness; without these two, we really wouldn't have had enough money.
She still has over 500 taels of silver, which is enough for now. She will start planting vegetables once the greenhouse is completed in a couple of days.
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