Dinner was corn paste, braised meat, mixed cucumbers, and roasted eggplant. The corn paste was cooked until it was thick.
I thought Old Lady Chen would come, but she didn't. Chen Ming asked Chen A-lu to deliver half of the braised meat to Chen Ye's house, and invited Chen Ye and his son to have dinner at home tomorrow night to discuss building a house the day after tomorrow.
Chen A-lu glanced at the food on the table and ran away quickly with his lame legs.
Wang shouted at the door, "Don't worry, we are waiting for you."
After A Lu came back, the family sat on the kang to eat.
Seeing the two little boys eating the braised meat as if they wanted to swallow their tongues, Chen Ming also looked like he was enjoying it very much. Is this braised meat really that delicious?
Chen Ahfu ate a piece and found it fragrant, but not quite like the braised pork of his previous life. Instead, it tasted more like braised pork.
Chen Dabao smacked his lips and said with great satisfaction, "It's great to have money. I can have enough food and braised meat."
Chen A-Lu asked Chen Ming, "Dad, are we living like a small landlord now?"
Chen Ming smiled and said, "Not quite. If we exchange all our silver for land, we should be considered a well-off family."
Chen Ahfu smiled and said, "Then let's work hard and become a small landlord first, and then a big landlord."
Thinking about the bag of broken gold and pearls, even if he only sold a few items, he could become a small landlord. However, the silver shops in the capital were in a panic because of Jin Yanzi, and the situation had also spread to nearby counties and towns, so they dared not sell those things at this time.
That little thing is such a troublemaker.
Wang smiled and said, "I don't dare to think about being a landlord. I am very satisfied with my life now."
Chen Dabao has always had confidence in Chen Afu and said, "Grandma believes in my mother. My mother said that if I can be a landlord, then I can be a landlord."
Everyone laughed at what he said.
The next morning, when Chen Afu got up, Wang was already busy in the kitchen.
Chen Ahfu saw that Wang had only cooked one egg, so he took out three eggs from the small basket and cooked them in the pot. He said, "The children in our family are sick, and my mother and I have worked hard, so we need to eat better. Don't worry about running out of money, we can earn more after that."
Not only did he wash the pickles and mix them with some sugar, he also asked Chen Dabao to pick two cucumbers from the field and pound them and mix them together to eat.
Although Wang thought that she should be more frugal and live a long life, she would not object since her daughter said so.
After dinner, Wang wanted to go to the county town embroidery workshop to get some embroidery work. Chen Afu advised her to take less and not to do it at night, as it would hurt her eyes. Chen Ming also asked her to buy three catties of Xiao Yuanchun, which Chen Ye loved to drink, one catty to drink at night and two catties to give to him.
If Chen Ming was not afraid that Mrs. Hu was too greedy, he would have wanted to give his mother and elder brother some more things, but he had to hold back for the time being.
In addition, Chen Afu asked Wang to buy a set of pens, inkstones and some rice paper, saying that A Lu and Da Bao should learn to write and she also wanted to learn.
Although Wang was frugal, she was still willing to buy pens, ink and inkstones. She also hoped that her two children would study more and have a bright future.
In the afternoon, Wang and Chen Ah-fu started to work in the kitchen. Today they were making leek and pork dumplings, Wang was making the dough and Chen Ah-fu was wrapping them.
This was the first time his family made dumplings, and not only Dabao was excited, even A Lu was extremely excited.
As a few people were chatting and laughing, Old Lady Chen came.
As soon as she entered the room, she said, "That woman Hu is too short-sighted. Yesterday, she heard that your family made a lot of money selling sewing baskets, so she wanted to bring her family to your house for dinner in the afternoon, but your eldest brother scolded her, so I didn't come." She lowered her voice and said, "Some people in the village said that your sewing baskets made four strings of money, and some said that they made six strings of money. Is it really that much?"
Chen Ming smiled and said, "Well, almost. After the house is repaired, I will take A Lu to the capital city for treatment."
The old lady smiled with wrinkles all over her face, and said, "That basket is really pretty, but I didn't expect it to sell for so much money." Then she asked Chen Ming, "Do you have enough money? I heard that Qianjin Medical Clinic charges a lot, at least five strings of coins. I have saved more than one string of coins, and I will use it all to treat A-Lu. As long as A-Lu's leg is healed, I can die with my eyes closed."
Chen Ming said hurriedly, "That money is for mother's coffin. Keep it for mother. We have enough money..."
The old lady looked at Chen Ming carefully, then pulled him to the door and looked at him again, and said, "Why do I feel that you look much better?"
Chen Ming smiled and said, "Well, I feel much better these days. I am not short of breath and I cough less."
As they were talking, Chen Ye and his son, Mrs. Hu, Chen Dahu, and Chen Daya all arrived.
As soon as Mrs. Hu entered the room, she complained to Mrs. Wang, "We are relatives. My sister-in-law knows how to make a sewing basket. Why don't you teach me so that my family can earn more money?"
Chen Ahfu explained, "My mother has been doing embroidery, so she has no time to make needlework baskets. Those needlework baskets were made by my father and I. We didn't expect them to sell so well at the time, so we didn't tell anyone. If you want to learn, I'll tell you today."
Mrs. Hu said angrily, "Do you need to tell me now? Everyone in the village knows what to do. What were you doing before?"
Old Lady Chen usually had to give face to Mrs. Hu. She said, "Eldest Wife, it was me who didn't let Second Wife tell you. It's not that I don't trust you, but I don't trust your family. You can't help but tell them when you have something good. Your family members are so rich and don't work. If you know this idea, why don't you find someone to do it? If everyone knows it, how can Second Wife make money? My A-Lu can't delay any longer."
Chen Ye also frowned and said to Hu, "I say, woman, you never learn your lesson from what I say every day. It's rare for my second brother's family to make some money, why are you interfering?"
Chen Afu found it somewhat amusing. Fortunately, the Hu family had these two huge mountains pressing down on them, so they couldn't cause any big waves.
Mrs. Hu began to talk about how Chen Ye was like a father to Chen Ming and how she was like a mother to her brother-in-law, "…It's a pity that we worked so hard but never even had a piece of silk clothing to wear."
Chen Yesian was happy to hear this, but the last sentence made him blush again. He frowned and said, "I say, you stinky woman, we are all peasants, doing rough labor every day, how can we wear silk clothes?"
Chen Ming quickly handed the gourd of Little Yuanchun to Chen Ye and said, "Although we made some money this time, we still have to take A Lu to the city to see his leg. I know that big brother has helped us a lot over the years, so I sold two kilograms of Little Yuanchun. When we make more money in the future, we will buy silk clothes for mother and big brother... and big sister-in-law."
He really didn't want to mention Hu, but in order not to embarrass Chen Ye, he still mentioned her.
Chen Ye blushed and tried to refuse. Old Lady Chen said, "Just take it, eldest brother. This is the second brother's intention. You have indeed helped him a lot."
Chen Yecai accepted it.
While eating, they discussed how to renovate the house the next day.
At night, after Dabao fell asleep, Chen Ahfu drew a rough outline of the Bird's Nest and Sydney Opera House. She was not used to using a brush, so she drew with charcoal sticks. The Bird's Nest was simpler, but the drawing was almost accurate. She could only draw the Sydney Opera House from memory, because Jin Yanzi had never seen the original anyway. She drew until late at night and put the drawing into the space, but Jin Yanzi had not returned yet.
That little thing didn’t even come home yesterday. I wonder where it went now.
The next day, the second branch of the Chen family began to get busy. Because the courtyard wall needed to be built with mud bricks, one more person was hired, making a total of six people.
Since Wang wanted to do embroidery, Chen Afu took the initiative to take on the task of preparing lunch.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
