Chapter 968 Fleeing Famine? There's No Way to Escape (15)
Clearly, the Ning family had also considered the fate of the Sun family, and they all expressed their support: "Father, Mother, don't worry, we siblings will definitely work together, farm hard, earn money, and make sure you live a good life."
The old lady took out the wine that the Lu family had sent and handed it to her eldest grandson, saying, "Fill everyone's cups and let's all have a drink together."
Every member of the Ning family was present with a cup of wine. The Ning family members sat down at two tables. The large round table, which seated ten people, was filled with dishes, including fish, meat, wine, vegetables, and river delicacies unique to the south. It was an extremely sumptuous feast.
Of course, these ingredients were all sent by the Lu family; they couldn't bear to eat them like this.
The old lady raised her wine glass and said, "This glass of wine is to toast the Goddess Peach Blossom. Without her, our family would probably have starved to death, died of thirst, died of sunburn, and would have rotted away long ago. We wouldn't have the good life we have today."
The old man chimed in, "That's right, that's right, your mother is right."
The family shared the same sentiment and drank all the wine in their glasses.
"Eldest brother, you still need to do some work tomorrow. Find a good piece of wood and carve a longevity tablet for Goddess Tao Xian yourself. From now on, our whole family must burn three sticks of incense every morning and evening to thank Goddess Tao Xian for saving our lives."
"Alright, Mother, I'll find a good piece of Phoebe zhennan wood tomorrow, and I'll measure the dimensions accurately. I guarantee that Lady Peach Fairy will be satisfied."
Old Master Ning is good at some woodworking, but he's not good at making complex, large pieces of furniture, mainly because he's not skilled at carving those intricate patterns. He's fine with tables, chairs, and benches for his own home. Of course, with Old Master Lu's generous contribution, there's no need to make furniture; he can easily handle just making a memorial tablet.
"Alright, let's eat." After giving the order, the family began to eat in a lively atmosphere.
After dinner, Ning Song took his tools to the backyard.
System: [Go a little further ahead, it's right next to that outhouse.]
Ning Song instinctively covered his nose.
After covering it up, he remembered that the house hadn't been lived in for many years, so it couldn't be that bad.
Soon, he arrived at the location designated by the system.
Dig, this is it.
Ning Song was very obedient. Without saying a word, he picked up a pickaxe and started digging. The thing was buried very deep. He dug for almost half an hour, creating a pit as high as a person, before finally digging it out.
Good heavens, today I truly understand what it means to dig three feet into the ground.
You dug more than five feet today, and three feet are gone.
Ning Song was delighted. He picked up his pickaxe and continued digging around the box for quite a while before finally managing to dig the large box out.
"So heavy! Thank goodness you gave me a super-strength pill, otherwise I really wouldn't be able to lift it."
Escape System: [That's definitely heavy. This box contains a full thirty taels of gold, two thousand one hundred taels of silver, and fifty strings of copper coins.]
Before being exiled, the scholar buried all the money in his house, thinking that if they had a chance to come back in the future, they could use these things to turn their lives around. Even if he himself could not come back, his descendants could.
Unfortunately, all these things ended up benefiting the Ning family.
Soon, Ning Song carried the box to the old lady's room.
"What's this?"
"It was pointed out to me by the Fairy Peach Blossom Goddess. I haven't seen what kind of grandson is inside yet."
The box has a lock, and it's locked right now.
Ning Song gripped the lock and yanked it hard. The lock fell off with a snap, and when he opened the box, a beam of light nearly blinded the old couple.
"Good heavens, it's silver, and gold too!"
With the Ning Song system at his disposal, he didn't care about these things and generously handed them over to the old lady.
The old lady and the old man counted for a while before saying, "More than two thousand taels of silver! Can our family buy a lot of land now?"
Because of the system's warning, Ning Song knew that chaos was about to break out, so he advised, "Grandma, I think we have so many empty houses. Instead of spending money, we should buy more grain and store it. As for buying land, there's no rush. If we find suitable land, we can buy some. If not, we might as well cultivate the land ourselves."
Even though Xiaoyu Village is right next to the county seat, it is still a mountainous area with many mountains around it. However, the mountains are not so steep. The imperial court has a regulation that the land reclaimed by the people themselves is exempt from tax for three years. After three years, they only need to pay half of the tax. It is still worthwhile for those with labor to reclaim land.
"Yes, listen to Da Sun, we should stock up on more grain." The world is unstable these days, and grain is the most important thing, so I'll have Da Sun go buy some tomorrow.
"Alright, hurry up and carry these into the milk house. Once you're done, you can go back."
Ning Song quickly carried the box to the inner room and then left.
After he left, the old lady sighed again.
"Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. If the Lu family really has what you think, then we are the ones who are marrying above our station."
"You old fool, what do you know! You're incredibly arrogant. If our granddaughter really marries that guy surnamed Lu, she'll suffer a lot."
Besides, you yourself said that our family is marrying above our station. What if the Lu family only wants your granddaughter to be a concubine?
"That won't do. Even if the Lu family makes a huge fuss, I won't agree!"
Grandma Ning snorted, "You'd better be!"
The old man was angered by his wife. "You old hag, what are you humming about? Do you think I'm such a brainless person?"
After saying that, the old man stepped into the inner room. He was tired after a long day and didn't have time to waste words with the old woman. He wanted to get a good night's sleep first!
The old lady was also exhausted. There was nothing she could do; she was getting on in years. She had finally escaped to Yuecheng and found a place to stay, but all her energy had dissipated. She probably wouldn't recover without a few days of rest.
Everything was normal for the next two days.
On the fourth day, two carriages bearing the insignia of the Lu family arrived at the Ning family's residence in Xiaoyu Village.
A woman stepped down from the lead carriage. She wore a large red flower in her hair, held a pink handkerchief in her hand, and was dressed very elegantly. After getting off the carriage, she glanced at the house in front of her and said, "So this is the Ning family."
In the second carriage, Butler Lu got off and said, "Yes, this is the place. I'll leave the rest to you."
"Don't worry, with me, Zhang the matchmaker, there's no marriage that can't be arranged. Besides, your master is such a good catch, how could the Ning family possibly disagree?"
Butler Lu: "Matchmaker Zhang, once you're inside the Ning family, you can't have such thoughts anymore. Our young master is keeping a close eye on this matter. If anything goes wrong..." Don't think that just because you're an official matchmaker, even if an official ruins our master's plans, you can forget about ever working in Yuecheng again!
"Yes, yes, I understand, I know!"
She wasn't stupid. The most important thing for a matchmaker was to be able to read the room. Today's marriage was something the Lu family was eager to accomplish. In front of the Lu family, she naturally had to flatter the eldest master of the Lu family, but in front of the bride, she naturally had to say the best things. Otherwise, how could the marriage be arranged?
Then Butler Lu led the matchmaker into the Ning family's mansion.
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