Chapter 70 Jinjiang first release Chapter 70 This is the posture tonight...
Yu Qinglong and Fang Shu were unaware that someone was secretly competing with Dexin Book House. After returning to the town, they immediately went to Ma Qinsui and Yan Xikuan, took them with them, and rushed back to Xiaxixi Village overnight.
This time, everyone wanted to celebrate the festival together in a lively atmosphere. As for where Ma Qinsui and Yan Xikuan would stay, there was no need to worry once they arrived in Xiaxi Village. If someone was staying in the side rooms at home, there was also room for them at Brother Fangshan's house, or even at Wusheng's.
When Yu Qinglong and Fang Shu left the county town, they took with them the osmanthus cake and osmanthus honey given by Lu Dexin. They also spent a small amount of money this time and bought two large braised geese in the county town.
This thing is a bit expensive, two for 660 wen. But Mid-Autumn Festival hasn't passed yet, and everyone has been very tired these days, so Yu Qinglong decided to give everyone a good reward.
He also bought some dried clams to take home and make soup. Dried clams are very common in this coastal county and are not very expensive.
Ma Qinsui and Yan Xikuan also came with a pound of fresh mutton they had bought in town during the day.
According to local customs, people eat mutton noodles during the Double Ninth Festival, so it is just right to buy some mutton.
Yu Qinglong said with a smile, "It's perfect to make soup with dried clams and noodles. It must be incredibly delicious."
Several people started drooling just thinking about it.
The next day, Fang Wu woke up early to knead the dough. Since there was so much to knead, Yu Qinglong lent a hand, and the two of them took turns kneading. The elder sister-in-law picked the vegetables, and the elder brother helped wash them.
My brother's back has recovered a lot. As the weather gets cooler, he'll get better soon.
I can't do heavy work yet, but I can still help out a bit.
Brother Fangshan from next door came over to help chop wood, and his wife cut the mutton. Even Zhuangzhuang was busy, helping to keep an eye on Yan Pan.
At Yu Qinglong's urging, Li Zheng also came to celebrate the festival with his children. He felt a little embarrassed at first, as he was the only outsider, but Yu Qinglong repeatedly emphasized that they were good friends, and Li Zheng accepted the favor.
Yu Dayou and Zhou Yuehua were there, too, kneading dough to save for the afternoon. They had to make steamed buns and flower rolls.
Several families gathered together. Yu Qingye and Bai Wanqiu arrived soon after. Yu Qingye was holding two large carp, each as long as his forearm. The couple didn't look well.
Zhou Yuehua asked, "Qingye, what's going on?"
Yu Qingye said, "It's okay, Dad. Qiu Ge'er can't stand the smell of fish, so he felt uncomfortable. He was struggling for a while on the way."
Bai Wanqiu's pregnancy was known to both families, so they kept quiet. However, Yu Qinglong soon discovered that the fish had been taken away, and Bai Wanqiu looked a little uneasy.
He simply used the excuse of going to dig some vegetables and took Bai Wanqiu to the back vegetable garden and asked, "What's wrong, little brother?"
Bai Wanqiu's eyes were red and he just shook his head.
"My second brother is mean to you?"
"No. Brother Ye is very good to me."
"What's going on? Is Uncle Bai unhappy that you're here for the holidays?"
"Not really. It's my father who wants us to move out early." Bai Wanqiu couldn't help wiping away tears as she spoke. "The last rain flooded Shangxi Village badly. All the fields of my brother's fiancé's family are in low-lying areas, and they won't produce anything this year. So they want my brother to get married quickly."
"Hurry up and marry her? But every family is in financial difficulty right now, why are you still..."
"Um."
Yu Qinglong understood that the Bai family's in-laws wanted to reduce the number of mouths to feed.
At times like this, families with savings can still get by, but if they don’t, it would be a fatal situation.
To get married, you have to send a betrothal gift to the other party. With this betrothal gift money, you can delay the process.
Bai Wanqiu felt utterly miserable. He was clearly their biological child, yet his parents always prioritized his younger brother over theirs. This was true before he got married, and even more so afterward. Now he had no place to live and was pregnant. His parents knew it, yet they kept saying it harshly.
At home, they claimed they didn't work, and when they did some carpentry work at night, they said they were using the lamp oil at home. But when they came here to celebrate the festival, they said they just went to Yu's house to take whatever they had.
There are fish that can be touched, and I also kept two at home.
Yu Qinglong was completely impressed: "Did Uncle Bai and the others agree to the other party's family?"
Bai Wanqiu said, "I agreed. Otherwise, the family would marry her off to another family. My brother refused, so my father said they would bring her home at the end of this month. They also asked me and Brother Ye to find a place to live as soon as possible to make room for my brother."
But it’s already this time of year and they can’t build a house at home. What can they do?
Bai Wanqiu felt worried just thinking about it.
Seeing him crying again, Yu Qinglong quickly comforted him, "Don't worry, little brother. We'll slowly think of a solution. We'll always find a place to stay."
Bai Wanqiu nodded, but she was still anxious.
It's already Double Ninth Festival, and it will be cold in a blink of an eye. If he loses his place to live by then, he doesn't know what to do.
Yu Qinglong couldn't think of a suitable place at the moment. If all else failed, he'd have to ask his second brother and Bai Wanqiu to stay with his parents. While it would be inconvenient, there wasn't much else to do. Renting another place would make it even harder to save for a house, and eating out would be inconvenient.
Renting a place elsewhere doesn't feel like being at home. At least you have vegetables in your own garden, but when you rent a place, you have to buy everything.
But he also needs to discuss this matter with Li Zheng.
After eating hand-rolled mutton noodles in the morning, the men went out to work. Although it was a festival, firewood was more needed in winter, so when they had time, someone in the family would go into the mountains.
All the men from several families left, including Fang Shu.
Yu Qinglong took the opportunity to ask his father if it would be okay to let his second brother come and live with him.
Zhou Yuehua had already heard from her second son about the in-laws kicking her out, and was already worried, so of course she agreed. After all, it was not a good idea for her son to live with his wife's parents. Furthermore, it was far away, and he wouldn't be able to take care of his son-in-law, which was also worrying.
But he couldn't bring himself to say it.
They told others that they rented the house themselves, but in fact the rent was paid by their youngest son.
"We can do it, but I don't know if Zheng Ge'er will agree."
"I'll ask him. It should work."
"Of course." Li Zheng was called into the kitchen by Yu Qinglong, thinking he was going to prepare lunch, but he was actually asking if his second brother and his wife could also stay at his house. He agreed immediately, "You said we're good friends. Besides, since we've paid the rent, you can have more people stay here."
"Great. Then I'll pay you an extra fifty cents a month."
"No need. You've already helped me a lot. If you hadn't come, I don't know how I would have gotten through this winter."
He was running out of money, and it was hard to feed two mouths with a child and all the work around the house. It was only when Yu Qinglong came to Xiaxi Village that he and his child had hope.
He now truly regards Yu Qinglong as his best friend.
Yu Qinglong said, "Don't be so polite to me. Your agreement to this matter is a great help to me. Don't worry, my second brother and my younger brother are also very easy to get along with."
Li Zheng said, "Just look at Uncle Yu and Uncle Zhou and you'll know. Your whole family is doing well."
God knows how hard it is for him to take care of a child, cook, collect firewood, and farm all by himself! But since Uncle Yu and his friends came, he has someone to help look after the child even if he has an emergency. Uncle Yu goes to collect firewood whenever he has time, and Uncle Zhou even teaches him how to make clothes for the child.
He has no experience in many things, and having an adult by his side to help him is something that people with parents' support cannot understand.
However, Yu Qinglong strangely understood his suffering and always helped him.
Li Zheng felt that it was probably because Yu Qinglong himself had suffered a lot.
He had heard that Yu Qinglong had a difficult life in the past, simply because he was taller than the other boys. But in fact, he sometimes envied him for this, because at least being taller meant he would be less bullied.
"I'll ask my little brother later. He should agree," Yu Qinglong said. "If possible, I'll have them pack up and move over tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
"Okay. Just tell me if there's anything I can do." Li Zheng said with a smile, "As long as it's something I can do, I'll definitely help."
"Okay then, it's settled."
It would be troublesome to send wood and inkstone base materials back and forth to his second brother. It would be much easier if they moved to the same village. In the future, if he had any last-minute ideas, he could go directly to his second brother for advice.
Not long after, Yu Qinglong went to ask Bai Wanqiu. Bai Wanqiu asked, "Would Zheng Ge'er be happy with this? I wonder if he would find it inconvenient if we went over there."
Yu Qinglong said, "No, he agreed. And it's a good thing you came over. I'm counting on you to help me with some needlework, and I can make some money."
Bai Wanqiu now only wanted his family to save enough money to build a new house as soon as possible. When he heard that he could also make money, he nodded without hesitation.
Could life be harder than living under his father's watchful eye? His father constantly complained about him living with his husband in his parents' home. But they'd already paid for food and oil. He just wanted to move in with his father-in-law and his father-in-law. At least they wouldn't tell him off. Even if he didn't do well, they'd patiently teach him, unlike his parents.
Now I can finally put down the big stone in my heart!
Although it's not very convenient to share a room with my father-in-law, it's better than having no place to live. And they can rebuild their house in half a year at most.
In the afternoon, a group of men returned, each carrying a large bundle of firewood on his shoulders. Even Yu Qing's family carried some. Naturally, he brought what he carried to the Fang family.
"I told him to just give it to his in-laws, but he insisted on carrying it back." Fang Dingman couldn't help but defend himself after hearing his wife's complaints, "This kid is quite stubborn."
"We have two bundles left over there, which is enough for him." Yu Dayou said, "Besides, since he lives here, this is what he deserves."
"Hey, when he gets better, I won't stop him if he chop all the firewood on the mountain." Fang Dingman took a large bundle from Yu Qing's family. "Good boy, it's so heavy." He asked, "How about yours, Shu'er?"
"That's all I have." Fang Shu put the bundle of firewood he had brought with him on the ground and opened it. After picking and choosing for a long time, he took out half of it and said, "The rest are what I need."
"...What can you do with that broken branch? It's too thin to even burn."
"That's not certain. Maybe Long Ge'er can make something out of it." Fang Shu's firewood was the least reliable of all the others. It wasn't as thick as the others, and it was a bunch of thin branches, so thin that they looked like they would burn up if burned.
"Then go show it off to your husband," Fang Dingman said. "Everything is precious to them."
The group laughed out loud when they saw Fang Shu actually taking those twigs to look for Yu Qinglong.
Not only did he bring back many twigs, he also brought back something else for Yu Qinglong.
"Whoa." As soon as he entered the study, Yu Qinglong heard a sound that didn't sound like a human sound.
"What is it?" Yu Qinglong looked at Fang Shu.
"I found it by the river." Fang Shu took out a little wild duck from his arms. It had a black little body with a tuft of yellow hair on its head. It was extremely cute.
"Its leg is injured. Maybe its mother doesn't want it anymore. When I saw it, it was alone, so I brought it here. I thought you would like it."
"Let me take a look."
Yu Qinglong took the duckling. It was so fluffy that it melted in his hands. He quickly tended to the wound on its foot, bandaged it with a clean cloth, and then gave it some food from the chickens and the geese.
Maybe it was hungry, so it ate a lot, and soon after it finished eating, it began to doze off.
It's so small, it should be the ducklings from the autumn breeding season. It can't be put together with the big ones at home, otherwise it will probably be bullied.
Yu Qinglong simply used the thin branches that Fang Shu brought back to weave a small nest for the ducks and put some hay in it.
Fang Shu smiled and said, "I knew that anything you put into your hands would become something useful."
Yu Qinglong stared at the remaining thin willow branches in his hand for a while.
He originally knew how to weave baskets, but he had always felt that his craft was not worth mentioning in this era, because there were many people who could weave much better than him, so he didn't think it was a particularly useful skill for him.
But he just suddenly realized one thing - whether it would be useful or not depends on what he made up.
If he had woven a basket, a shoe, or a basket like the locals, then of course it wouldn't have been very useful. But what if he had woven something else? For example, storage drawers, which weren't available here.
People here use wooden planks to make cabinets, even those with drawers, because the north is dry and ventilation isn't as important. Wood is sturdier and more readily available. Another reason is that there aren't plant materials like white rattan in the north that can be used to weave delicate items.
But what if he tried to make a storage basket or a storage drawer out of wicker? It could also hold clothes, but the cost would be much cheaper than a cabinet made of wood?
Wood that can be used for furniture cannot be used immediately after it is cut. It must be soaked in water beforehand to relieve stress and prevent problems such as insect infestation.
To put it simply, it needs to be soaked in water for a long time to achieve uniform moisture content inside and outside, and then slowly dried to avoid uneven moisture content inside and outside causing cracking during drying. Therefore, the cost of furniture in the north is definitely much higher than that made of materials such as wicker.
"Brother Long? What are you thinking about?" Fang Shu shook Yu Qinglong's sleeve. "Are you worried about how to raise it?"
"No, I just thought of something else. As for this little guy, let's keep him in the woodshed for now. It'll be a little dirty at best, so we just need to clean it up regularly. If we give him enough food, he should grow up quickly. By the way, if you're not busy tomorrow, can we help Second Brother move?"
"Where are you moving to?"
"Moving to Zhengge's house. Second brother's parents-in-law have always disliked them. This time they said they were planning a wedding for Bai Zaodong."
"That's fine, let's move tomorrow. It's closer and more convenient for us to get around."
"I know my husband is the best." Yu Qinglong hugged Fang Shu and pecked him, making Fang Shu distracted in broad daylight.
"Stop making trouble, someone might come in soon." Fang Shu said this, but he still held Yu Qinglong's waist tightly, picked him up and put his arms around his waist.
"Is this position okay for us tonight, husband?" Yu Qinglong asked.
"If you say it's okay, then it's okay." Fang Shu's breathing became unstable, and he secretly annoyed that it was not dark yet.
At this time, Fang Dingman asked outside: "Shu'er, Long'er, how do you want to eat the braised goose?"
Yu Qinglong hurried down: "Here comes father!"
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Author's words: Fang Shu: Let it get dark soon [Please]
Qinglong: Then you should eat more tonight, or I’ll drain you dry. [Sunglasses]
Fang Shu: I promise to have five steamed buns as a base [laughing and crying]
Qinglong: Aunties, please don't forget to help me and the city guards if you pass by. [Empty bowl]
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