Chapter 157 Weak, pitiful, and helpless
After all the lunch guests had left, Sheng An led the couple to the tea room to talk.
When the topic of buying a courtyard house came up, Zhang Zhaodi laughed and said, "We've already found one that's just two alleys away from our home. The owner is asking for a bit too much, and we're still negotiating with him. We should be able to get it down in the next couple of days."
Sheng An asked, "How big is the area, and how much silver will it cost?"
As Zhang Zhaodi gestured, she said, "It's about the same size as my house, except there are two more rooms. The front and back yards are a bit small. Once I buy it, I'll have to tear down the two small huts in the back. The owner wants 130 taels."
The homeowner's family was large, with several sons getting married and having children of their own. The original few rooms were no longer enough, so they built one room each in the front and back yards.
The two rooms are separate from the main house, so they can be easily dismantled.
"One hundred and thirty taels is a bit high. One hundred and ten taels should be more reasonable."
Sheng An estimated the value of the house based on the location of the Zhang family's property and felt that 130 taels was indeed a bit high.
The Xu family's small house is in a better location, but it's smaller than the Zhang family's. At the end of last year, someone took a liking to the Xu family's small house and offered only one hundred taels of silver.
"Yes, we offered 105 taels, but the landlord didn't agree. He wants to wait and see if anyone offers a higher price."
Zhang Zhaodi only had one hundred taels of silver, so naturally she hoped the price would be as low as possible. Offering one hundred and five taels was to let the landlord know that she could only offer one hundred and eleven at most, and she wouldn't buy it if it was more than that.
The homeowner was aware of the situation, so he didn't make any definitive statements, clearly indicating that he was prepared to lower the price.
Zhang Daikui interjected, "My mother gave me ten taels of silver, which should be enough to buy a house."
Zhang Zhaodi glanced at him and said, "Keep your money safe. I'll have enough after I sell one more bamboo weaving."
Zhang Daikui looked aggrieved, his bear-like frame making him appear weak and pitiful: "Wife, I'm your man, it's only right that I give you my money to spend."
If a wife refuses to spend his money, does it mean she doesn't consider him her husband?
His mother never hesitated to ask his father for money, and his father saved up less than two taels of silver over more than ten years.
Last time, Xiao Kui accidentally pulled these two taels of silver out of the mouse hole and was beaten by his parents. He didn't even get to eat dinner that day, and he was so pitiful.
Seeing her cousin Da Kui acting like a submissive wife, Sheng An gave her best friend a teasing look: You're good at managing your husband, impressive!
Zhang Zhaodi was so embarrassed that she grabbed Zhang Daikui's waist and said, "Shut up! I didn't tell you to speak!"
Zhang Daikui shrank back, too timid to speak.
Zhang Zhaodi couldn't stand it anymore and patted him on the back: "Go next door and play cards with Shuqi and the others. I need to talk to An'an for a bit."
Zhang Daikui glanced at his wife, then at his cousin's wife across the table, and hesitated without moving: "Is there anything I can't listen to?"
Zhang Zhaodi was speechless and just stared at him.
Zhang Daikui finally noticed his keen eye and reluctantly stood up, turning back every few steps as he left, making sure to close the tea room door behind him.
Sheng An couldn't help but chuckle: "You're a year younger than Da Kui, so why does Da Kui act like your son in front of you?"
Zhang Zhaodi said irritably, "He's such a simpleton, all he does is cling to me all day long. In the middle of the night, I was sleeping soundly when he got up to go slaughter a pig with Dad and the others, and he even woke me up to tell them. It's infuriating!"
Sheng An laughed heartily: "You didn't yell at him?"
Zhang Zhaodi sighed: "He wasn't fierce, but he couldn't hold it in and kept shouting for four or five days before he finally got rid of this habit."
Especially on their wedding night, this man was like a tireless donkey, busy until the latter half of the night and still refusing to let her sleep.
Just as she was falling asleep from exhaustion, he finally finished getting dressed to slaughter the pig. A shout of "Wife!" woke her up, infuriating her.
If she weren't afraid that her in-laws and brothers-in-law would think she was a wicked daughter-in-law or sister-in-law, she would have loved to pick up a butcher knife and stab them.
Sheng An laughed until tears streamed down her face, but seeing her best friend's frustrated expression, she quickly stopped laughing and comforted her, "It's good that you've corrected it. Fortunately, Da Kui is quite obedient."
Zhang Zhaodi rolled her eyes at her, her eyes full of accusation: "How dare you say that? Of all the things you could give me, you had to give me that kind of embarrassing thing, cough cough—"
At this point, she realized she had lost her voice and coughed violently, trying to cover up her embarrassment.
Upon hearing this, Sheng An immediately guessed what Zhang Zhaodi was going to say, and a gossipy look instantly appeared on his face: "So, how was that booklet?"
Zhang Zhaodi was, after all, a new bride, unlike those middle-aged women who were outspoken and uninhibited. Her face turned bright red, like a ripe apple: "It's...it's alright."
Who would have thought that big, dumb guy knew nothing and almost went to the wrong place, causing her to suffer a great loss.
If she hadn't secretly looked at the booklet, she probably would have let that big, silly guy do whatever he wanted without thinking.
Sheng An chuckled and winked at her best friend: "As long as it works, it's worth the effort of personally running around bookstores to buy it."
Zhang Zhaodi blushed and said, "Thank you."
Such private topics are not suitable for in-depth discussion, even among close friends, so the two tacitly stopped and started talking about other topics.
Zhang Zhaodi adapted well to her husband's family. She got along well with her mother-in-law, Xu Cuilian, and her two younger brothers-in-law respected her as their eldest sister-in-law, never letting her do the laundry or cooking.
However, Zhang Zhaodi couldn't really do nothing. She always took the lead in doing easy chores like sweeping and washing dishes before Xu Cuilian.
As the two chatted about everyday things, Zhang Zhaodi remembered something else and quickly thanked Sheng An: "The wedding day was chaotic. Luckily, you helped me watch over my dowry, otherwise those new quilts would have been torn to shreds."
Sheng An also remembered this incident and quickly asked about the follow-up: "How did you handle it?"
Zhang Zhaodi: "We didn't teach that person a lesson. My mother-in-law specifically found a gossipy auntie and told her about it indirectly. The gossipy auntie then spread the word..."
The family whose dowry money was suspected to have been stolen by the short, thin man went directly to the man's door to demand an explanation.
The short, thin man vehemently denied the allegations, claiming that he was tricked and severely beaten the night before while urinating and is still unable to walk normally.
Anyway, this incident caused quite a stir, and the neighbors became very wary of the short, thin man, fearing that their homes would also be burglarized.
Sheng An was not surprised by the result and instructed Zhang Zhaodi: "Everyone knows you have a lot of dowry. Once the house is bought, tell them that you have spent all of your dowry money, so that no one will try to take advantage of your family."
The Zhang family, father and son, were notorious and no one dared to mess with them, but the Zhang family in Huai Shu Village might be a different story.
Zhao Di has many relatives, and who knows if some of them will be jealous and find various reasons to ask her for money.
Zhang Zhaodi nodded quickly: "I understand."
Not long after the couple returned home, they bought the house they had their eye on for 110 taels of silver.
Just before that, Zhang Zhaodi had sold a bamboo weaving set, which gave her an extra ten taels of silver. She paid for the house herself.
Xu Cuilian and her husband didn't say anything about this, but Zhang Daikui felt extremely wronged.
He went to Xu Jinnian to complain about this, and even drank a lot of wine in the small building to drown his sorrows. In the end, Zhang Zhaodi dragged him home by the ear.
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