Chen Yu quickly brushed the snow off Niu Er.
Niu Er's little face was red from the cold, and his feet were so cold they hurt terribly. He quickly sat down on a chair, took out his little feet, and wished he could put them on the stove to warm them up.
Chen Yu held Xiao Fu Bao, Niu Da held Niu Bao Lan, and the eldest maid Niu Cui Hua pulled Niu Mei Hua and Niu Bao Zhu to sit by the fire.
Niu Er leaned closer to take a look at Xiao Fubao and said, "Sister-in-law, is this ugly girl the one you picked up?"
Little Fu Bao quietly opened her eyes, glancing at Niu Er with a look of disgust: You're the ugly one! You're ugly!
"Newborn babies are all like this, skinny and looking like little old men. They won't be ugly in a few months!" Chen Yu laughed.
"Uncle, these are the new clothes Mom made for us. Do you think they look good?" "Mom made one for you too."
Niu Er was still quite young, and when he heard that he would have new clothes to wear, he immediately laughed: "Hehe, they look great, thank you, sister-in-law!"
Niu Da and Niu Er lived together in a house with three bedrooms in total. Niu Da had one bedroom, their three daughters had another, and the two younger girls slept with Niu Da and his wife.
The house is very crowded.
Although crowded, it was warm and happy.
Niu Er sat by the cradle, holding Niu Baolan in his arms, and scooping up Xiao Fubao with his other hand. The more he looked at her, the more he felt that this girl wasn't actually as ugly as she seemed at first glance.
"Fifth daughter is a bit ugly, but she's so pretty and rosy-cheeked." "My master often says that it's better to have a clever, pretty, and rosy-cheeked daughter than a spendthrift son."
Little Lucky Baby: You've finally learned to talk!
Hearing his younger brother praise his daughter, Niu Da was overjoyed: "Hehe!"
"Second brother, you only come back once a year, and communication is inconvenient. So many things have happened at home!"
Niu Da brought out the money box that Chen Yu had given as part of her dowry; it was full of money.
Niu Er asked in surprise, "Brother, how come there's so much money in the house?" Niu Da then told Niu Er about the strange things that had happened in the house.
Niu Er looked at his ugly daughter and pondered, thinking to himself that she was a lucky child.
Niu Da and Shen Shi killed the oldest hen in their house. The hen had been raised for three years and its meat was very delicious. Niu Da and Shen Shi were in the kitchen.
I also made half a pound of braised pork.
I cooked three side dishes.
"Honey, you eat first, I'll watch the baby for a bit," said two-year-old Niu Baozhu and eight-month-old Niu Baolan, their mouths watering.
Little Fu Bao's mouth was agape with envy.
It's as if she can poke something.
It was tiny, wriggling around in the cradle.
“You eat first. It’s not easy for your brother to come back. You should talk to him. I usually eat first, but I can tolerate it this time,” Shen said.
Niu Da insisted on refusing.
Niu Cuihua caught the baby, Fu Bao, who almost fell out of the cradle with quick reflexes. "Mom, Dad and I will watch the baby together."
Niu Er was starving. In order to get home as soon as possible, he had only eaten dry food for three days since he set off the day before yesterday. Niu Er, who was not used to eating dry food, was so hungry that he was dizzy. He wolfed down a bowl of rice and then ate it in place of his little niece.
Compared to other families, the Niu family has a slightly simpler population. Other families typically have six or seven children, including the older and younger ones, making up more than a dozen people.
Niu Da had just finished eating when he was called away by people from the same village, who said that the old clan chief had something to discuss with everyone.
Niushan Village wants to establish a clan school, open to both men and women.
This year was a bumper harvest for Niushan Village. Although the imperial court increased taxes, every household was able to have enough to eat. Therefore, the old clan chief wanted to gather a few families with better conditions to pool their money to start a clan school.
In Niushan Village, children only need to pay 50 shi of grain, 5 shi of vegetables, and 1 jin of fish per year to attend school.
If any non-ethnic group or family that has not donated money comes to study, an additional four strings of cash will be added to the tuition fee. If a family contributes more than four strings of cash, they can share the tuition fee paid by these non-ethnic group students.
Niu Xiaocao's four children were all studying at a private school, which worried her greatly. So, after paying the tax increase, she donated half of the seventy taels she earned from pork to the private school, which amounted to thirty strings of cash.
Niu Da donated thirty strings of cash.
The old clan chief took thirty strings of cash.
Each of the other households donated ten coins in order to avoid paying the two taels of silver tuition.
They collected one hundred strings of cash.
We can build a courtyard house with sixteen or seventeen rooms, but the private school is smaller, so we only ordered six or seven classrooms.
It will begin after the New Year.
Back home, Niu Da discussed the matter with Chen Yu: "Honey, I want to send my younger brother and eldest daughter to school. I don't want our girls to suffer the same fate as us, from a lack of education."
Although Niu Da was intelligent, he was cheated out of a land deed worth eight strings of cash when he was young because he was illiterate.
When Niu Da bought the cart, business was quite good, and he made a lot of money. He originally wanted to buy two acres of land worth five strings of cash, but after he paid the money, the family refused to acknowledge it.
Instead, they falsely accused Niu Da of borrowing three strings of cash from them. They produced a loan agreement as proof, and Niu Da ended up losing eight strings of cash.
Niu Da was only twenty years old at the time, and it was the first year since he gave birth to Niu Cuihua.
Shen Yu laughed and said, "This is a good thing!"
My brother-in-law started working at the age of twelve. Although his income was meager, he would always bring half a pound of meat and fifteen bushels of grain home for the New Year. He was an excellent brother.
“But, brother, what about my employer? I’m back now, I can’t just not say hello, can I?” Niu Er said.
“Early next year, your sister-in-law and I need to go back to her parents' home. I'll go and resign for you; your employer and manager both know me,” Niu Da said. “Next year, you can temporarily help us raise those dozen or so chickens.”
“Father, Scholar Niu is getting married on the 24th of the lunar year, we need to make some preparations!” Chen Yu said.
"Um"
Niu Daxiucai got married at the age of twenty-four. He married the daughter of a shop owner in Dan County. Her surname was Yan. She was said to be the fifth child in her family and was known as Yan Wuniang. Not only was she beautiful, but she was also a literate, well-mannered young lady from a modest family.
The entire Niu family of Niushan Village came to drink the wine and each gave a gift of ten coins. Since the widow had no money to give a gift, she borrowed ten coins from the Niu family.
Everyone said that the Niu family was very prestigious. When people visited, each person received three eggs and meat in their dishes, and the Niu family was praised to the skies.
If no monetary gift was given, a calligraphy scroll would be presented, with the first line reading: "May you pass the imperial examination with flying colors, and may seven generations of your descendants surround you."
The second line reads: "Brothers in misfortune, a couple in their nineties living in harmony."
Horizontal scroll: Newlyweds.
Overjoyed, Zhang invited the messengers who had delivered the invitations to stay for a meal. Although it was cold on the eve of the Lunar New Year, the lively atmosphere dispelled the chill.
During the Spring Festival, Niu Da's family had a lot of New Year's goods. On the table was a fish, a duck, a goose, a rooster, a plate of braised pork, and four or five side dishes. Niu Da also bought two jars of wine.
The whole village was filled with a delicious aroma.
Da Tan and Da Niu were extremely envious. A few days ago, they heard Li Sheng say that the chickens at the Niu family's house could lay about a hundred eggs a day, and that's when she got the idea.
But it was just too cold.
Niu Da, carrying ten catties of meat, two chickens, a ten-catty fish, about a hundred eggs, and a bolt of brocade cloth he had bought, along with eight strings of cash, accompanied Shen back to her parents' home.
In fact, although Shen Yu's family home was far away, the actual journey did not take seventeen or eighteen days. If she traveled by carriage, she could arrive in three days.
The reason it took fifteen days was twofold: firstly, spring is rainy, and secondly, renting a horse-drawn carriage across three counties would cost twenty or thirty taels of silver round trip.
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