Mrs. Luo panicked and followed her son to report to the authorities.
Several aunts were still muttering, "It's been a long time since they reported this to the police. They must have checked at the orphan's house, but they definitely didn't find the orphan."
Another aunt said, "How could the Luo family find her if she ran away with the money? She definitely wouldn't live in the same place. She might not even be from that village. The Luo family is ridiculous. They wanted to marry a new bride, but didn't they consider whether her identity was fake? She said she was an orphan, so she must be an orphan? They didn't even ask around. Now look what happened! They were planning to take advantage of her, but now all their belongings have been taken away. Since the orphan lived at the Luo family for two months before running away with the money, it must have been premeditated. They were trying to defraud her. The Luo family deserves it!"
"She deserves it. They didn't even want such a good daughter-in-law before. Lin and her two daughters are now helping out at Madam Xu's restaurant. The two girls don't get much, but they're definitely making a couple of hundred coins. That adds up to about one or two ounces of silver a month. And Lin is diligent and virtuous, while the Luo family are all idiots."
"But Mrs. Lin is injured and can't give birth to a son..." Some women also murmured.
The other women were speechless.
Xu Qinyu was dumbfounded when she heard this. No wonder Old Lady Luo didn't even roll her eyes when she saw her today. So that's how it was.
It is wrong to cheat on someone for money, but she still feels happy about it. The Luo family deserves it. The three members of the Luo family are not good people, and it is hard to feel sorry for them.
It seems that the orphan girl is not an ordinary orphan at all, but a habitual liar.
As for whether the government would find out, Xu Qinyu had no idea.
After listening to the gossip, Xu Qinyu said something to the aunts, and then left with Pei Weixuan and headed towards Laixi Lane.
On the way, Xu Qinyu also told Pei Weixuan about the Luo family and how Lin left the Luo family, which was why she was willing to let Lin work in the restaurant.
Pei Weixuan listened silently. Although Yu Niang was kind-hearted, she would not help with everything. She had her own sense of propriety in doing things.
Xu Qinyu talked all the way, and Pei Weixuan mostly just listened, occasionally replying a few words, and soon they arrived at Laixi Lane.
There were several houses for sale here, all with notices posted on their doors. Xu Qinyu picked a house that was relatively clean and went up to knock on it. The door quickly opened. An old man opened the door and he recognized Xu Qinyu. "Is this Mr. Xu from Xu's Restaurant? Mr. Xu wants to buy a house?"
Xu Qinyu immediately smiled and said, "Uncle, my family wants to move to a house with two entrances. Can I go in and take a look at this house?"
The houses here are all similar. As long as the inside is clean and there is nothing that needs a lot of repairs, it's fine.
The old man immediately invited the two into the house.
It turned out that the old man was the father of this family. His family was also in business. They bought a new house on West Street and were about to sell the house here. The old man would come to guard the house during the day.
In fact, the house was also listed with a real estate agent, but the real estate agent wanted to charge a fee for helping to sell the house. The old man was reluctant to pay the fee, so he said that he could save a lot of money by keeping the house.
Xu Qinyu and Pei Weixuan entered the house.
The house is spotless. Not only is it clean, it's also well-maintained. However, because it's been maintained, it's bare and the furniture has been moved away, so it feels a bit empty.
This is a two-story house with a relatively deep area. It is divided into two levels, front and back. At the back is a row of back rooms, which can be used to store sundries and many other things. Even a donkey cart can be parked in the back rooms, which is very spacious.
In front is the living yard, which includes the main house, wing rooms and kitchen.
The main house consists of three rooms in a row with a large main hall. On the east side are three side rooms, and next to the side rooms is a smaller ear room. On the west side are the kitchen and woodshed, and next to the woodshed is a well.
The main house and the wing rooms are connected by a corridor with a large patio in the middle. However, it is bare now and you can plant some flowers and plants there in the future.
So this house, including the ear room, has a total of seven rooms, enough for a family to live in.
Sister Yan is still young, so she must sleep with Wen. Sister Ning has her own room, Fourth Brother has one, Xu Qinyu has one, and Feng Ge'er is also young, so she lives with Fourth Brother now, and she also lives with Grandmother Zhu. There are still two rooms left, and when Sister Yan and Feng Ge'er grow up, they will also have their own rooms to live in.
But by then Xu Qinyu would definitely be able to afford a house with five courtyards and live in a bigger house.
Now that Mo Yu and Bai Yu have moved into this house, they can't actually leave, so we need a bigger garden.
But this house was very good as a two-story house. Xu Qinyu liked it at first sight and turned to ask the old man, "Uncle, how much is this house?"
The old man smiled and said, "If Miss Xu wants it, just give her two hundred taels of silver."
The two-story houses here are indeed all priced at this price, but the windows connecting the rooms in this house are still smooth and clean, without any insect damage, and there is even a winding corridor. When it rains on weekdays, you can walk from the winding corridor to the rooms and the kitchen without getting wet. Most two-story houses here are reluctant to have winding corridors, and even this winding corridor costs a lot of money.
Xu Qinyu felt a little embarrassed. "Two hundred taels of silver can't buy such a nice two-story house."
The old man smiled and said, "But if you sell it to Miss Xu, I am willing to do so."
His original intention of staying here was to save some money, but he had a good impression of Miss Xu, and their whole family liked the food cooked by Miss Xu. The old man had a little daughter who was about eleven or twelve years old this year. She was in a similar situation to Shao Ge'er of the Xia family, very thin, but it was not a problem she was born with, she was just picky about food and didn't like to eat. Since she had eaten at Xu's Restaurant, the little girl ate more and naturally gained weight.
Fortunately, my family runs a business and can make money, so we can afford to let the little girl eat in the restaurant.
That’s it, I only eat more breakfast at Xu Ji.
Breakfast for the family cost only about a hundred coins, which was affordable with three taels of silver a month. But dinner was too expensive for the family, at least five hundred coins, which was more than ten taels of silver a month. So they didn't eat dinner in the restaurant, but bought some fish balls, fish heads, braised fish, etc. outside the restaurant.
The little girl said that the fish was not as delicious as the one cooked by Miss Xu, but she was willing to eat it anyway.
As soon as the old man said that, Xu Qinyu remembered.
There was indeed a very thin little girl who liked to have breakfast at Xu Ji with her mother, and they would pack some breakfast to take home after each meal.
The little girl was frighteningly thin at first, but after eating at Xu's for a while, she had visibly grown better.
The little girl's problem should be caused by her picky eating. She is completely different from Zhizhi. Zhizhi is fat, but the little girl is extremely thin. Both need dietary adjustments, and the results can be seen after a period of adjustment. Xu Qinyu has been making fat-reducing meals for Yang Zhizhi for more than a year. Although they are called fat-reducing meals, they actually taste the same and have the same ingredients, except that the proportion of oil and salt is slightly less. Yang Zhizhi has been eating them for more than a year, and now weighs about 120 pounds.
Later, Xu Qinyu also told Yang Zhizhi that she needed to do some exercise every other day.
She taught Yang Zhizhi a few moves that she could do after meals on weekdays, and each move only took half an hour.
Yang Zhizhi also persisted, so even though she weighs 120 pounds now, she doesn't look fat. She has a very well-proportioned figure. Coupled with her fair skin and watery eyes, she is indeed cute and adorable. Even more people have come to the Yang family to propose marriage.
Yang Zhizhi was also quite satisfied with her current weight, so she stopped eating the fat-reducing diet. In fact, the diet Xu Qinyu prepared was not much different. Now she just needed to return to the normal intake of oil and salt and eat less staple food.
Yang Zhizhi was used to the food Xu Qinyu made, so even if she was hungry in the middle of the night, she couldn't eat any other pastries.
Even if she resumes her normal diet, eats less staple food, and continues to exercise every other day, Yang Zhizhi can still lose weight slowly. Of course, she will only lose about one or two pounds a month.
Wei Shi didn't know how to thank Xu Qinyu.
But she asked her daughter to lose weight not because she wanted to find a good husband for her, but for her health. Zhizhi is still young, and she has never thought about getting engaged and married so early.
After hearing what the old man said, Xu Qinyu did not insist anymore and bought the house for two hundred taels of silver.
It was still early, so Xu Qinyu followed the old man directly to the yamen to sign the deed. In order to buy the house, she already had five hundred taels of silver notes on her, so she didn't need to go back to Guihua Lane to get the silver, and went directly to the yamen.
Soon, the documents and deeds were written, and with the fingerprints and the government seal pressed on them, the house became Xu Qinyu's.
This was the second time she bought a house, not counting the workshop on North Street. Xu Qinyuyue was not very excited. She took the documents back and told the Pei family that the house had been bought. The house was quite good, but it was a bit empty. She just needed to buy some furniture to move in.
All the furniture from Guihua Lane also needs to be moved there, but it’s still not enough, at least not enough beds.
Furniture is also available for purchase.
This job will be given to Fourth Brother and Sister Ning. They will be free tomorrow. The restaurant has to be open tomorrow, so Xu Qinyu and Wen will be busy.
The evening meal was also eaten in the Zhu family yard.
Wen also sent someone to deliver a letter to her uncle, Zhu Taishou, in Raozhou City, saying that Pei Weixuan had returned. The letter did not explicitly state this because she was afraid that the letter would fall into the hands of others.
After receiving the letter, Governor Zhu came directly to Guihua Lane with his wife Zhu in the evening.
We had dinner at Zhu's house.
Governor Zhu felt a little emotional when he looked at Pei Weixuan. This was the Fourth Prince. Even though he was demoted to a commoner and exiled, he was still the Fourth Prince in his heart.
Zhu Taishou was a little reserved, so Pei Weixuan poured two glasses of wine in his honor, "Uncle, this is a toast from your grandson."
After drinking two glasses of wine, Governor Zhu was no longer so reserved. He started talking to his grandson. As the conversation gradually opened up, he found that many of his grandson's ideas coincided with his own.
Even Governor Zhu couldn't help but feel sorry. If the eldest prince was still alive, he would inherit the orthodoxy, the fourth prince would be crowned king, and he would be able to serve the court and let the people live and work in peace. What a pity...
Both of them drank a little too much. Prefect Zhu was drunk and slept in Guihua Lane at night. Before sleeping, he whispered to Zhu that his niece's family was so miserable. He also said that how could the eldest prince poison the late emperor, and he must have been murdered by the new emperor and Empress Dowager Fu.
There were no outsiders here, so Zhu let the master talk. She knew her limits and would not spread the words. In fact, she also felt that her niece's family was quite miserable.
Wen stayed here to help clean up the kitchen, and asked Xu Qinyu and Xuan Ge'er to go back and wash up and rest.
Xu Qinyu held one hand each, holding Yan Jie'er in her left hand and Feng Ge'er in her right hand as they went home.
Pei Weixuan and Ning Jie'er were a little behind.
Xu Qinyu held the two children by the hand and smiled slyly, "Sister Yan, Brother Feng, let's see who can run home first."
Both children nodded, and Xu Qinyu led them forward.
The laughter of Xu Qinyu and her two children could be heard all along the way.
Pei Weixuan looked at them with a smile unconsciously on his lips, and even Ning Jie'er was the same.
Just as they ran to the door of their house, Xu Qinyu and the two children were exhausted and out of breath. They were about to push the door open to drink some water when Xu Qinyu heard a miserable howl suddenly coming from the end of the alley.
When Xu Qinyu heard the scream, she recognized it was from Old Lady Luo.
The alley was not very long, with about ten families living there. The Pei family and the Luo family were only separated by a few families, so shouting in the yard could be heard, not to mention the miserable howling of old woman Luo.
The howl startled both Sister Yan and Brother Feng. Xu Qinyu patted them on the back and said, "Don't be afraid."
I think that in the afternoon when Luo Dagen and his wife went to the yamen to report to the police, they didn't see Old Man Luo, so Old Man Luo must not be at home.
Now when Old Man Luo returned home, he learned that all the money in the family had been taken away by his son's new bride. Naturally, he couldn't stand it and beat Old Lady Luo.
The situation of the Luo family was indeed as Xu Qinyu had guessed.
Old Man Luo came back a little late today and didn't notice that there was someone missing from the house. There was still food left in the kitchen, so he served himself a bowl of bean rice.
The bean rice was undercooked and the cooked dishes had no salt at all and were difficult to swallow.
Old man Luo frowned as he ate.
Ever since his son's new bride came home, the orphan girl had always cooked the food, and the food tasted pretty good, better than what Old Man Luo cooked. But he didn't expect that the food she cooked today would be so bad. Old Man Luo didn't want to call the orphan girl over, so he called Old Man Luo out, but Old Man Luo didn't dare to come out at all. She knew that if the old man knew that the orphan girl had run away with all the money in the family, he would beat her to death.
Old Man Luo shouted for a long time but didn't see anyone. He was so angry that he couldn't swallow the food. He dropped his bowl and chopsticks and went into the room.
The room was dim, and he couldn't see Mrs. Luo's expression for a moment. He just frowned and asked, "Where's Dan Niang? What happened to the meal Dan Niang cooked today? The bean rice was undercooked, and the vegetables didn't have any salt at all. It was completely inedible."
Old Mrs. Luo hesitated and didn't dare to speak.
Old Man Luo frowned even more. "Let me ask you a question. How did Dan Niang prepare the meal today?"
"Today, I cooked the meal."
"Why doesn't Dan Niang do it? Is she sick?" Old Man Luo thought that if she was sick, he would just give up.
Old Lady Luo didn't dare to reply, but Luo Dagen from next door couldn't stand it anymore and came over and said, "Dad, Dan Niang has run away with our money."
"What, what did you say?" Old Man Luo couldn't believe what he heard for a moment.
Luo Dagen repeated it again, panting, "Dan Niang took away all our money. Your box and mine were opened, and all the money inside was gone."
Old Man Luo's vision went dark, and he forced himself to walk to the box. He found that it was indeed open. After searching again, he found not a penny of silver left.
Old Man Luo felt like the sky had fallen. All the money he had saved for his entire life was gone.
Over the years, he had saved twenty taels of silver, excluding household expenses. Now he had lost everything. He thought that if the old woman had not instigated her son to coax the orphan girl home and get her pregnant, he could have saved even the betrothal gift. But he ended up letting a wolf into the house.
"Have you reported it to the police?" Old Man Luo asked his son, suppressing the hatred in his heart.
But at the moment he still held a glimmer of hope in his heart, thinking that maybe he could find Dan Niang and get the money back.
Luo Dagen's face was filled with despair. "I reported it to the authorities and went to the village where Dan Niang lived, but she didn't return. I asked the nearby villagers, but they also didn't see her return. They also said that Dan Niang wasn't originally from their village, but moved here last year. She said her family had met with disaster and everyone had died, leaving her alone, living in a dilapidated house at the end of the village."
In other words, Dan Niang is not a local, and she would definitely not stay here after taking the money. She would have run away long ago, and no one knows where she went. In any case, she would not stay in her original village, nor would she stay in Yuanbao Town. The government would not be able to catch her even if they wanted to.
Old Man Luo also understood. Without saying a word, he turned around and dragged Old Lady Luo out.
Old Lady Luo was dragged to the ground and asked in panic, "Old man, what are you doing?"
Old Man Luo dragged the person into the yard, picked up the wooden stick next to him and hit Old Woman Luo on the head. Old Woman Luo screamed in pain and her head was bleeding.
Just this alone was not enough for Old Man Luo to vent all his anger, and he cursed, "If you hadn't given your son such bad advice, you wouldn't have brought this liar to our house. That's more than forty taels of silver. Now our family has nothing." As he said that, he swung another stick at Old Man Luo. Not satisfied yet, he kicked Old Man Luo on the leg. With a click, Old Man Luo's legs and feet twisted in a weird posture, and Old Man Luo was lying there motionless.
Old man Luo hadn't stopped yet and was still beating.
Luo Dagen hesitated and said, "Dad, stop hitting me. Mom doesn't seem to be moving."
Only then did Old Man Luo stop. He was so tired that he threw the stick aside and prepared to go into the house.
Luo Dagen said, "Dad, Mom seems to be motionless. Her head is bleeding, and her legs seem to be broken. Do you want to call a doctor?"
"Why hire a doctor?" Old Man Luo turned around and cursed, "Do we have a penny left at home? What can we hire? It's all her fault, you idiot. They say you should marry a virtuous wife, and it's really true. Look at what our family has become after marrying her. Your original wife was so nice, so docile, but she couldn't give birth to a son. If she couldn't, you could have taken a concubine. But you insisted on listening to this idiot and divorced Lin. Now look at you, Lin is so capable, but she even instigated you to lure a liar home. Our family is finished now."
After saying this, Old Man Luo wiped his tears and went into the house.
Luo Dagen looked at his mother lying on the ground, her life or death unknown, and did not dare to carry her back to his father's house, so he took her to the house where Dan Niang used to live. He had no money on him, so he really couldn't hire a doctor for his mother, so he could only leave it like this for now.
…
When Xu Qinyu heard the screams of Old Lady Luo, she just shook her head and went into the house.
She knew that Old Lady Luo would be beaten badly this time, after all, all the family’s savings were gone.
Fortunately, Lin left such a family early on.
Xu Qinyu no longer cared about the Luo family and led Yan Jie'er and Feng Ge'er back to the house. As soon as they entered the yard, they saw Mo Yu lying at the kitchen door. Hearing footsteps, she turned around to look at them, and was stunned to see Pei Weixuan behind Xu Qinyu.
Mo Yu took over the shift from Bai Yu last night, but it did not return to Guihua Lane. Instead, it went to the mountains to hunt and only came back after filling its stomach.
It hadn't seen Pei Weixuan for more than a year, but it obviously remembered its male owner. After hesitating, it walked around Pei Weixuan. When it smelled a familiar scent, it rubbed against him and meowed at Pei Weixuan.
Pei Weixuan raised his lower lip, leaned forward slightly, touched the black jade, and called out, "Black Jade."
Mo Yu began to rub his palm and meow.
Xu Qinyu watched and laughed.
Ning Jie'er couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Mo Yu treated his family members indifferently except for his closest sister-in-law, the fourth sister-in-law, whom he spent all day hanging around. But now, seeing his fourth brother, whom he hadn't seen for more than a year, Mo Yu was still so clingy.
But it’s not surprising, as Fourth Brother seems to be very popular with these pets.
Xu Qinyu went into the kitchen to boil water. After a while, Pei Weixuan also came in to help. Ning Jie'er was in the main room with the two children. Mo Yu also went into the kitchen and lay down beside her, looking at Xu Qinyu and then at Pei Weixuan.
After boiling some water and washing up, the whole family went to bed early.
The next day, Xu Qinyu and Wen went to the restaurant.
Pei Weixuan and Ning Jie'er went to take a look at the new house in Laixi Lane, and sent Feng Ge'er and Yan Jie'er to the Zhu family to ask Zhu to help take care of them, while the two went to choose furniture.
I didn't choose furniture that was too expensive.
But Pei Weixuan and Ning Jie'er both chose a step-up bed for Xu Qinyu's room. Even though it was made of ordinary wood, the price of the step-up bed was more than thirty taels of silver, because the craftsmanship of the step-up bed was the most complicated. It was a relatively large bed. Not to mention the carvings on the bed frame, the whole bed was more like a small room. There was a corridor around the bed, and some small boxes and cabinets could be placed on both sides of the corridor. There was also a footboard under the corridor. Girls from wealthy families basically slept on the step-up bed, and a little maid would sleep on the footboard to keep watch at night.
The step-out bed is equipped with a large gauze tent, which provides good privacy and sealing.
This is just ordinary pear wood, and it is already very expensive.
In addition to the step-up bed in Xu Qinyu's room, Pei Weixuan also equipped Ning Jie'er's room with a step-up bed. The other rooms were all equipped with ordinary bunk beds. In addition, Xu Qinyu's room was fully equipped with vertical cabinets, washbasin, dressing table, and makeup box.
The two girls could use something better, but he didn't need it.
In just two days, all the furniture in the new house was purchased and the house was cleaned.
While Xu Qinyu was busy at the restaurant, Pei Weixuan moved all the remaining things in Guihua Lane to the new house so that he could stay there at night.
The new house needed to be warmed up, but Xu Qinyu was busy, so Wen, Lin and the big girl came back and cooked two tables of food in the new house. The guests invited were Cheng Ge'er and his family from the third branch of the Pei family, as well as Old Lady Zhu, the waiters Yuan and Chen, and the four brothers Fengtiao Yushun.
Xu Qinyu also closed the restaurant half an hour earlier in the evening and led everyone to Laixixiang's warm room.
The greenhouse is also very lively, everyone just eats and drinks together.
After the room was warmed up and everyone went home, Xu Qinyu was pushed by Ning Jie'er to her room. The whole family gave Xu Qinyu the largest room in the main house.
Entering the room, there is a four-panel screen at the entrance. Around the screen is the step-out bed, which is covered with a gauze curtain, an ordinary white gauze curtain, which has been hooked up to reveal the step-out bed inside.
Some of her small cabinets and money boxes were moved to the corridor inside the bed.
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