Chapter 321 Asking for some warming and nourishing prescriptions
The hall suddenly fell silent, even the tea bowl held by Tu Suting seemed to hang suspended in mid-air. A sparrow fluttered past the window lattice under the eaves, startling the candlelight on the desk and making the red seal of "Tong Bao Money House" on the banknote even brighter. The old grandfather's bony fingers traced the edge of the banknote, and after a long pause he sighed, "During the drought, the whole village couldn't even scrape together ten taels of silver to buy food..."
Tu Subo suddenly chuckled, flicking the wooden hairpin in Gu Yuexuan's hair with his fingertips. "It seems three copper coins is too much." Everyone was stunned for a moment, and the burst of laughter startled the young swallows on the beams and poked their fluffy heads out. Smoke curled up from the neighboring roof, carrying the aroma of new wheat rice in the air.
Tu Suting stroked the edge of the account book, the ink on the jute paper still wet. "Wow, it turns out that the girl Xuan is the best at making money in our family!" He flicked the beads on the abacus with his fingers. "The second and third wives work hard all year and only earn a few hundred taels, but the eldest wife is so lucky, she earned five thousand taels of silver in this autumn harvest!"
Suddenly, gasps echoed in the main hall. Xi Lanfang's embroidery frame fell onto the blue bricks, and Li twisted her handkerchief and swallowed her saliva. Gu Yuexuan huddled behind Tu Subo, her ears red as if they could drip blood. "Third Uncle, stop embarrassing me. There's no farm work that doesn't require everyone's help."
The old grandfather knocked on his water pipe, and the copper pot made a dull sound when it hit the corner of the huanghuali table. "According to the old rules, five thousand taels will go to the eldest branch of the family." His cloudy eyes swept over the crowd. "One thousand will remain for the public, and the remaining eight hundred taels will be divided equally between the second and third branches."
Tu Su Minfei leaned against the doorframe, his arms folded, and grinned at the words. Yu clutched her newly embroidered purse, her fingertips circling the lotus pattern. "My winery only makes a total of three hundred taels..."
"The third wife contributed the most, so she deserves it." Tu Subo suddenly spoke up, pulling out an oil-paper bag from his sleeve. "These are Xuanxuan's pickled apricots. Try them, Third Aunt."
Li chuckled, and the tense atmosphere in the main hall suddenly relaxed. Tu Suting scratched the back of his head and muttered, "If I had known farming could make so much money, I should have cleared two more acres of wasteland..."
"What's the hurry?" the old grandfather stuffed tobacco into his pipe. "There's still a hundred acres of wasteland on the south slope. Let Minfei and his men burn the ashes in the spring." Sparks flickered between his fingers. "Just one thing. Each family's accounts are clear. By the end of the year, you must pay 30% to the public. The rest is up to you."
Gu Yuexuan suddenly poked her head out from behind Tu Subo: "That grape trellis..."
"I'll never forget it!" Tu Suting patted his chest and shouted, "I'll build you a two-meter wide pier, so you can have plenty of fruit next year!"
As the night fell over the eaves, candlelight flickered in the east wing. Gu Yuexuan knelt on the edge of the kang, counting the silver coins, which piled up like a small mountain on the coarse cloth sheets. "I need winter clothes for Minyang, a silver bracelet for Yanting, and the plowshare that Third Uncle wanted..."
Tu Subo was leaning against the window frame, carving a wooden hairpin, when he suddenly handed over a carved wooden box: "Second Aunt gave it to me." He opened the lid and found a pair of gilded earrings in the shape of wheat ears.
"Oh!" Gu Yuexuan jumped off the kang holding the box, "Second aunt must have seen me taking a few more glances at me when I was pulling the cloth..." Her voice stopped abruptly, and she looked at the yellow talisman paper at the bottom of the box - the amulet that Yu family usually used, with "a good harvest" written in cinnabar.
Tu Subo pushed her back onto the kang. "Tomorrow, let's go to town and buy some red cloth to make a new coat for the old lady." He brushed his fingertips over the wooden hairpin in her hair. "The burial clothes should be embroidered with gold thread to wash away the bad smell."
From the backyard came the sound of the night watchman knocking on a gong. Gu Yuexuan suddenly grabbed his sleeve and said, "Grandfather said we are of the same blood, but I'm always afraid..."
"What are you afraid of?" Tu Subo blew out the candle, and moonlight shone through the window paper onto the pile of silver. "The second and third wives are now making wine and dyeing cloth, aren't they just focusing on the harvest in the fields?" He pulled her into his arms. "When the spring comes, we'll have to rely on Uncle San and Min Fei to clear the wasteland on the south slope."
Gu Yuexuan listened to the night watchman's call and suddenly remembered the waves of wheat blanketing the fields during the autumn harvest. Yu Shi braved the scorching sun to deliver her cold tea, while Tu Su Minyang's hands were pricked by wheat awns, leaving red spots all over. Silver and money jingled in clay pots, but the real heaviness was the new wheat piled high in the granary.
When the rooster crowed three times, the aroma of steamed buns wafted from the kitchen. Gu Yuexuan placed the divided silver into a clay pot and tied the mouth of the pot tightly with red cloth. Tu Subo sharpened his sickle in the courtyard, the blade reflecting the undulating contours of the southern slope—there lay hundreds of acres of fertile soil, waiting for the first fire of spring.
Xi Lanfang burst out laughing, her fingertips lightly tapping the tip of Gu Yuexuan's nose: "Your second aunt is as loose as a sieve. I just gave her half a pound to buy her some candy and cakes the other day, and now she's showing off her bulging purse as soon as she walks in the door!"
Li looked at Gu Yuexuan's flushed face, suppressed her laughter, and pulled her to sit on a bamboo stool: "Since your second aunt has started it, we in the third house can't pretend to be deaf and dumb." She turned around and shouted to the kitchen: "Her third uncle, where is the box I asked you to keep?"
Tu Suting raised his head and drank the cold tea in the ceramic bowl. He took out an envelope wrapped tightly in oil paper from his pocket and said, "Xuan girl, open it and take a look!" His bronze face flushed. "You can save your third aunt from always accusing me of being stingy!"
Gu Yuexuan suspiciously peeled back the wax seal, and the ink-stained words "30% profit from the winery" on the thin deed paper caught her eye. She remembered that when she'd given the brewing recipe to her uncle last month, he'd only asked her to help look after it. She'd never imagined...
"That's unacceptable!" She hastily refused. "It was originally agreed that the winery would belong to the third branch..."
"Take it." Li held her wrist, a warm look in the fine lines at the corners of her eyes. "Your grandfather has said that from now on, each family only needs to pay 30% of their income to the government." She nodded at the old grandfather weaving bamboo baskets under the eaves. "Besides, without your recipe, how can we brew the apricot blossom wine that makes wine merchants fight so hard?"
Tu Suting rubbed his rough palms and said in a loud voice: "We have made a net profit of 180 taels of silver in the first two months! Once the batch of Chongyang wine in the cellar is opened, the number will at least double!" He spread out his five fingers and waved them in front of Gu Yuexuan, startling the sparrows under the eaves and making them fly away.
Gu Yuexuan laughed so hard that she fell backwards, the bamboo stool legs creaking against the bluestone slabs. Suddenly, a strong arm reached out from behind her, and Tu Subo sat down beside her in the heat of the sun in the fields. "Did you pick up some gold ingots?"
"It's more substantial than gold ingots," the old grandfather joked, holding his pipe in his mouth. "But there's no share for you. If you can please my wife, maybe I'll give you a few copper coins to buy some wine."
Tu Subo sighed in a mournful manner, "Three copper coins aren't enough to buy half a pound of Shaodaozi." He flicked the grass debris from Gu Yuexuan's hair with his fingers and asked, "Shopkeeper, can you please be kind?"
"Two at most!" Gu Yuexuan raised her slender white fingers, the silver bracelet on her wrist jingling, "If there are more, it will cost a fortune."
The whole yard erupted in laughter, startling the old yellow dog so much that it jumped into the chicken coop. Gu Yuexuan carefully folded the deed into her purse and suddenly remembered something: "Uncle San, the other day I saw a pharmacy in the county town selling snake gall wine. Should we try making some wolfberry and angelica wine?"
Tu Suting stroked his beard and pondered, "I need to ask a doctor for a prescription. Don't drink too much." He suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, by the way, Doctor Sun at the village head asked me for wine yeast last month!"
"Grandpa Sun knows the properties of medicine the best!" Gu Yuexuan's eyes lit up, "I'll go get some warming and nourishing prescriptions tomorrow."
The old grandfather tapped the ash off his shoe and said, "Remember to use aged liquor as the base. New liquor is too strong." Seeing Gu Yuexuan nodding like a chicken pecking at rice, he added, "Try brewing a small pot first. Don't overdo it."
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