Chapter 101 The couple's new house
The provincial capital of this province is called Guangling City. The new house is located on Kangle Street in the east of the city. It is seven rooms wide and five rooms deep.
It was dusk when the group first entered the new house. By the time everyone had finished packing and gone to their rooms to rest, the moon was already hanging over the sparse toon trees, and the shadows of the trees were swaying.
Chen Qi was very tired because she had been walking for two days. When Xie Yuduo took her into the new bedroom, she only took a quick look around.
This is the main house in the center of the inner courtyard, with five rooms in a row. The depth and width of the house are much wider than the original one.
Xie Yuduo had already arranged for someone to take care of everything. The room was fully equipped with high tables and low stools, brocade quilts and mattresses, screens and curtains, dressing tables and clothes hangers.
As expected of him, he is still as thorough and meticulous as ever.
Seeing her turning around, lost in thought, and then rubbing her eyes due to sleepiness, Xie Yuduo coaxed her to take a closer look tomorrow. He first called a maid to help her wash up, then arranged for her to go to bed and rest for a while, and then he went to wash up.
When he came back, Chen Qi had already fallen asleep on the wide, gold-painted, lacquered bed.
He sat down beside the bed, looked at her peacefully sleeping face, and leaned over to give her a kiss.
"Yue'er, we're home."
Chen Qi turned over and slept even more soundly.
The next morning, Xie Yuduo asked someone to pick up his elder sister Yu Zhong.
In the morning, Xie Yuduo took Chen Qi, led Yu Jing, accompanied Yu Zhong, and took Xiao Ling and other maids to tour the new house carefully.
At the front of the new house are seven shops facing the street, divided into two shops, east and west. Both have vermilion doors and painted plaques. On the east side is a four-room wide herbal medicine shop, and on the west side is a three-room wide spice shop, which has not yet opened.
The first yard is next to the shop, which is the residence of the shop manager and shop assistants, as well as a warehouse for storing various goods.
The second and third courtyards were arranged as Xie Yuduo's outer study for receiving guests and inner study for reading, writing, sitting and lying down, because there were few people in the family.
The fourth courtyard was originally intended for Yujing to live in, but she was timid and didn't dare to live in a courtyard by herself, so it was temporarily arranged as an empty guest room.
The fifth courtyard has five tall and spacious rooms in the main hall, two slightly smaller side rooms on the left and right, and three side rooms on the east and west sides. This is the inner residence where Shen Qi, the mistress of the house, lives and sits.
Behind the yard, there is a row of back rooms where the maids live, as well as a kitchen, stables, etc., next to the back door of the house facing the street, making daily entry and exit convenient.
Chen Qi looked all the way and sighed all the way——
The house has a neat layout, with tall halls and spacious rooms. As you walk in, you will see houses with flying eaves and black tiles, and wide roofs and high beams everywhere.
No wonder Xie Yuduo said that day that this house was really nice.
Everyone looked around and praised it from back to front. Xie Yuduo then led them to a corner gate, which led to an alley running through the five courtyards and was wide enough for cars to pass.
There is also a corner door on the other side of the alley, but I don’t know where it leads to.
Xie Yuduo ordered his servant to unlock the door with a key, push open the door, and lead everyone in.
Only then did Chen Qi discover that there was an even larger garden to the west of the new house.
The garden is shaded by trees and has a stream flowing by. There are several courtyards and pavilions, as well as moon windows, snow caves, water pavilions, and wind pavilions. They are connected to the osmanthus shed, camellia rack, peony garden, crabapple pavilion, rose rack, and peony pavilion... There are flowers that never fade in all four seasons, and the scenery of everlasting spring in all eight festivals.
Everyone entered the garden, walked and looked, walked and played, and it took them less than half a day to finish the walk.
It was September, and red fish were swimming among the algae in the pond, and pink butterflies were dancing on the flowers. Everyone couldn't help but admire them.
Xie Yuduo took advantage of everyone's inattention and quietly squeezed Chen Qi's hand, signaling her to walk slower and talk away from everyone.
"How is it, do you like it?"
Chen Qi looked at him asking questions even though he knew the answer, and couldn't help but smile.
"If I say I don't like such a big and nice house, will you believe me?"
Xie Yuduo smiled triumphantly, and seeing that she was genuinely happy, he leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"The imperial court has many restrictions on merchants' homes. Otherwise, this house could be bigger and better."
Chen Qi smiled and glanced at him sideways.
She always believed that he would keep his word, and for the first time in her life she felt that he was just bragging.
This kind of house is bigger and better than she could have imagined in her dreams!
…
As the mistress of the house, Chen Qi naturally lived in the five main rooms in the backyard. She also arranged for Yu Jing to live in the three west wing rooms in the same courtyard, while the east wing rooms were left empty.
Chen Qi couldn't help but sigh that such a big and nice house, with dozens of rooms, was only occupied by their family of three.
Hearing this, elder sister Yu Zhong couldn't help but tease her.
"Don't think there are too few people living here now. In the future, when you and Erlang have three or five children, and their children have their own children, there won't be enough room!"
After hearing this, Chen Qi just smiled at Xie Yuduo and didn't say anything.
When they first arrived at the new house, even though Xie Yuduo had already sent people to take care of everything, Chen Qi had to arrange for the maids to pack up the boxes and valuables, and also sent people to buy slaves and arrange carriages and horses. She was busy for several days.
In addition to settling into the new house, Chen Qi was also busy attending banquets.
The first banquet she attended was that of Yu Zhong's husband's family - the He family.
The He family was also a business family. They originally did business in Pingshan County and had frequent dealings with the grandfather of the Xie family. Their family background was not as good as the Xie family at that time, so they married into the family.
Later, Xie's grandfather passed away and the family fell into decline for many years. However, the He family got lucky and took advantage of the booming business to move to the provincial capital and buy a house, living on the edge of West City.
That day, Xie Yuduo rode a horse, and Chen Qi brought Yujing and Xiao Ling in a brand new carriage, and they went to the He family together.
Since it was his first time as a guest in the provincial capital, Chen Qi had to be careful and cautious in every step.
The He family's house was much smaller, with three courtyards in total. The second courtyard was given to the newlywed He Erlang. In the third courtyard, the He family's parents lived in the main hall, and the youngest daughter lived in the west wing.
Yu Zhong, He Jia Dalang and his wife, their ten-year-old daughter Xiu Jie'er, and their six-year-old son Li Ge'er, all squeezed into the three rooms in the east wing.
Chen Qi was very puzzled. Since the eldest family had two children, why didn't they let the four of them live in the front yard? Wouldn't that be more convenient?
Yu Zhong noticed that Chen Qi was confused and explained in a low voice.
Originally, their family of four lived in the front yard, but He's Erlang had been studying since he was young, and had just passed the imperial examination this year. The grandfather of his new wife had worked as a county magistrate in another province for two or three years, and was somewhat more noble than the merchant family. His parents-in-law did not dare to treat them badly, so they arranged for Erlang and his wife to live in the front yard.
Chen Qi was even more surprised.
Just because someone in the family worked as a minor official in another place for two years decades ago, how could he be so honored?
Yu Zhong sighed, smiled slightly, and nodded.
There is a difference between officials and businessmen, and the difference is this huge.
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