Chapter 153 Money
Liu stood at the window and watched the interaction between the two children. A smile appeared on her face. She sighed and turned to leave.
Daji followed with his head down and his hands hanging.
Liu stopped and tilted her head, saying, "Let them go. There's no need to stop them. As for County Magistrate Fu, don't worry about it."
Daji agreed.
Liu turned around and looked straight ahead, saying softly, "There's no such thing as an old friend. People are gone and the tea gets cold. Besides, Qi'er and him have never crossed paths."
So there is no need to mind too much.
That's what they said, but both the grandfather and grandson of the Bai family were sad because County Magistrate Fu mentioned Bai Qi. Liu hid her sadness in her heart, but Bai Shanbao couldn't help crying at night.
He had long forgotten his father, and his existence was not in his memory, but he grew up listening to his stories, and because he had no father, he was always bullied, so he knew in his little heart that it was good to have a father, and that his father would protect him.
So for three days in a row, his little pillow was wet.
Liu saw all this but did not intervene.
But soon Bai Shanbao's little head had no room for dreams about his father, because he decided to dig up his ginger.
His ginger grew particularly well, even better than Manbao's, and was plump and clustered together. He used a small hoe to loosen the soil, then held the ginger leaves and pulled them up to bring out a cluster.
Bai Shanbao was very happy and went to his grandmother to exchange the ginger for money.
Liu gave him a string of money. Bai Shanbao was so happy that he took the money to find Manbao and said, "Look, I made a lot of money."
Manbao was not envious at all. She ran back to her room, took her bamboo box from Koko, and came out to him with it, "I have more than you."
Old Zhou was sitting on the doorstep smoking. Upon hearing this, he knocked on his pipe, stood up quietly and looked over here. Finding that he couldn't see clearly, he took a few steps forward.
Manbao squatted in the yard, opened her box and let him see her money.
There was a small pile of scattered copper coins inside, and four strings of copper coins tied together. Manbao counted them out and showed them to him, saying, "I still need twenty-two coins, and then I will have another string."
Manbao said proudly, "When my fifth brother comes back from the county, there will definitely be a bunch."
Bai Shanbao envied, "How did you make so much money?"
"If I didn't buy meat every day, I could save even more." Manbao counted on his fingers and said, "My fifth brother and his friends can sell hundreds of coins worth of ginger every day. It seems more people are eating ginger now that winter has arrived."
"Hey, didn't you say we eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer?"
"Yes, that's what my friend said, but it's strange that they only eat it in winter."
Old Zhou, who was standing there, thought, you two fools, ginger is harvested in autumn and winter. If you don’t eat it in autumn and winter, who would dig it out and eat it when the ginger pieces are still small?
He took another sneak peek at the money in the treasure box and figured out the amount.
Manbao kept all the money of the younger ones. Old Zhoutou never knew how much they earned, but he knew that Manbao kept their money separately.
Manbao said the money was hers, so it was hers.
The money that the fifth and sixth brothers got was about the same as Manbao's, but those two guys were very stingy. They even bought vegetarian buns for lunch when they went into the city. Unlike the fourth brother, he bought meat buns even though he only had four cents.
Since Manbao became rich, she started buying meat for the family again, either asking Zhou Erlang to buy some when he went to the market in the morning, or asking Zhou Wulang to buy it from the county town.
Old Zhou calculated the money Manbao had spent recently, and he had an idea of how much Laowu and Laoliu had earned during this period.
After this calculation, Old Zhou was satisfied. Before going to bed at night, he discussed with his wife in front of Manbao, "Winter is coming, and the fourth brother will be back from his military service soon. I think we can prepare to build a house."
Qian also nodded and said, "Just build it on the open space next to it, build it out along the way, and open a door in the yard to go through it."
Old Zhou nodded and said, "Since we are going to build it, I am thinking of building two more houses, so let's build seven big houses."
Qian looked at her husband in surprise.
Old Zhou twirled his hands habitually and said, "The fourth child is getting married, and the fifth child is almost ready to get married. They all need their own rooms, so we have to build three rooms. Manbao is getting older and is a scholar, so we have to build her one too. Datou and Daya, the grandchildren, are getting older every year, so I thought of building a few more rooms for them to live in when the time comes."
This was different from what they had discussed before, and Qian frowned.
The house they live in now was built when Manbao was one year old. It cost a lot of money to build the six large rooms, all made of stone and blue bricks. It can't be said to be the best in the village, but it is one of the best.
Before this, they lived in low, half-mud, half-thatched houses with small windows. Not only at night, but also during the day, there was rarely any light in the house.
Manbao might not be used to it, or she might be weak, and she kept crying. She cried for half a year. As a result, there was a lot of rain that year, and she broke out in many red rashes. Old Zhou and Qian were terrified, fearing that the child would be gone.
Later the doctor said that the place we lived in was too humid.
Old Zhou then gritted his teeth and used the money he had hidden to build these five stone houses. He even made the windows of the main house a little bigger.
In the summer, I take Manbao to sleep near the window, where it is ventilated and dry, and he can get some sun from time to time.
In winter, they live in the inner room.
It was only in the past two years that Manbao and he started sleeping separately because he grew up.
They had discussed it before. The fourth brother had grown up and was getting married, so he needed a house of his own. But the fifth and sixth brothers were not in a hurry. The two brothers could live there first, and the extra room would be given to Manbao. When the fifth brother was also getting married, they could build another room.
So, Old Zhou now wants to build seven rooms at once?
Qian stared at him with a very strange look.
Old Zhou coughed lightly and said, "Since we're going to build it, let's build it all at once. Didn't the fourth brother almost pay back the money recently? Add to that what the eldest brother and the others paid, it should be enough to build the house, right?"
Qian was silent for a moment and then said, "But the fourth son still needs to find a husband."
Old Zhou also sighed, his face full of sorrow.
Manbao, who was standing next to them, couldn't help but stretch out his little hand to stroke their eyebrows, and quickly said, "Dad, Mom, I have money too. I will build a house for you."
Old Zhou hugged her and said, "My dear daughter, this house is occupied by your brothers. You can lend it to them to build a house first, and I will ask them to pay it back to you later."
Qian: ...She finally understood what he was planning.
Manbao was clueless and said innocently, "Didn't I get a room too? Of course I have to contribute too. My brothers don't have to pay back."
"What do you mean one room? I'll give you two rooms. One for sleeping and one for study. In the future, you can also invite the young master of the Bai family to come home to do homework."
Qian gave him a sidelong glance and said, "Shut up."
When there is not enough space at home and Manbao takes up two rooms, what will the daughters-in-law think?
(End of this chapter)
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