Chapter 134 Chapter 134 Update.
"Our house in Mulberry Alley is one of the most spacious. I never imagined I could live in such a nice courtyard in Chang'an."
Ji Feng wandered around and came in and said,
"When I go out, the nuns all ask me to help them earn money. I say that teaching an apprentice will starve the master to death, so I can't teach."
There was a glow on his face when he spoke. After all, living in a big house is something that everyone desires.
"Good answer. I know a few shameless people. They don't dare to ask me to my face, so they only dare to ask you little girl."
Tian said, she is also radiant and looks a few years younger.
After buying this house, they never had to face the situation again where the landlord wanted to sell the house and urged them to move out.
"It's so comfortable to live in our own house. We can even build boxes and wardrobes. Even your sister's dowry, if I saw something good, I would dare to buy it for our home. We have enough space, so we can put it all in."
Tian sawed a piece of wood and built a swing for the children in the yard. Ji Feng climbed up the old mulberry tree and passed the rope through the branches.
After moving house and drinking that day, Ji Xu sat on the swing, swinging in the wind, feeling at ease and peaceful.
There were red cloths hanging everywhere in the yard, and an earthen altar for worshiping the land god on the ground, with some ashes of burnt wood left underneath.
Tian saw the neighbors out and stood at the door talking.
Liu Laogu and the others all said that Tian had given birth to a capable daughter and that she would enjoy a happy life in the future.
Tian was so happy that she drank two more glasses of wine. Her face was flushed and she smiled so hard that her teeth were showing. This was the most decent moment in her life.
Here Qiu Gu returned home and took her son Wang'er with her and said:
"Look at your Aunt Tian. She's only been in Chang'an for a few days, but she's already living in a large courtyard with three rooms. I can't count on your father-in-law anymore, so I just hope you study hard, become an official in the future, and buy me a large house next to the Weiyang Palace. That would make my life worthwhile."
Her son Wang'er was about seven or eight years old and was a noisy child. He held a chicken drumstick he had taken from Tian's house in his left hand, pointed at the tree outside, and shouted:
"Cicada! Cicada! Catch! Catch!"
He didn't have the patience to listen to the end, so he broke free and went to catch cicadas. Qiu Gu scolded him for not making progress and asked him to write the big characters that the calligraphy teacher had taught him today twenty more times.
Wang Er pretended to sit at the desk for a while. While Qiu Gu was mending the soles of shoes, he found the old calligraphy he had written, put down his pen and said:
"I'm done!"
They ran to the alley to play. Qiu Gu was illiterate, so she counted the wooden sticks and found there were twenty of them, so she believed them to be true.
When she was young, she was an actress who performed comedies for wealthy families and married a local peddler who traveled around the country.
She had quite a fortune in her early years, but five or six years ago, her husband made a bad choice and bought a large amount of grain in Jiangnan. Instead of increasing in value, the price decreased, and she lost all her family property. She even sold a small house in Anling County.
She had to rent a house to live in with her child, and now that she was old and ugly, few people wanted to play with her anymore.
Fortunately, she asked Ma Gu to look at Wang'er and she said that he had the appearance of an official and was destined to be an official in the future. She hoped that Wang'er would make progress and let him study every day.
Her husband had recently gone into business with others in Bashu and had not been bringing much money home. Even though the family was frugal, they could still afford to send him to the elementary school in the academy. They had moved to this small house, which could save them a few cents compared to renting the two rooms in the front yard before. So they bought Wang'er a lot of wooden sticks for practicing calligraphy.
"Wang'er, have you finished writing today?"
Da Ya, Ji Feng and others were playing Cuju in the alley.
Da Ya was the grandson of Liu Laogu. He was not well educated. His mother worked as a hairdresser in a wealthy family in Maoling County. She said that when he was two years old, she would introduce him to the family and make him a coachman.
Now I do some chores at home, and when I have free time I go to the dock to help people move things and earn some pocket money.
Xiaohua is his sister, only four years old, with two little pigtails. She follows them and picks up balls. The balls are in the shape of balls, made of sheepskin. After kicking them for a long time, some of the fur inside bursts out, but they still play with them.
Wang Er said, "Of course I've finished writing it."
I followed them to play Cuju in the streets and alleys, and only went home after dark.
It is said that after Liu Laogu finished drinking the house-moving wine and went home, she kept muttering good things about young people and promising futures.
When I pushed the door open, I saw a cage in the corridor with a big rooster inside. I took a look into the window.
She saw her son-in-law Wu Dou cut up the piece of braised pig's ear that she had left for her daughter, and ate it with wine while leaning on the kang, feeling extremely angry.
"Those with men at home are worse than those without men at home, they are such a waste!"
He kicked the cage. Wu Dou heard the cockerel crow and ran out. He chased it all over the yard and caught it back in the cage, saying:
"Mother, even if you see someone living in a big house, there's no point in taking my things out on you. If you have the ability, go and earn a fortune."
Aunt Liu pointed at me and said, "I am old and useless. You are so young and you have become my son-in-law. Instead of working properly to earn a few dollars and having decent food and clothes, you run to the West Market all day to fight cockfights. Instead, you rely on women to support the family. I am ashamed of you!"
Aunt Liu has only one daughter, and Wu Dou is her live-in son-in-law. He seemed to be an honest and decent man at first, but after getting married, he became even more lazy and greedy.
After drinking two more glasses of wine, Aunt Liu lost her temper and scolded him with a frown.
Wu Dou said, "Who among the neighbors doesn't laugh at me for being someone else's son-in-law? It's no wonder you're bullying me. If a family is poor and a son is strong, they marry into the family. If I were capable, would I come to your house and suffer the humiliation?"
"Who made you angry? You marry a man and you get clothes and food, but you don't care about the outside world. You should wash the dirty clothes at home and make hot meals! You have hands and feet, but you eat ready-made food."
After hearing what Liu Laogu said, Wu Dou said:
"But I ate a piece of your pig's ear and pulled out so much."
In the end, I didn't dare to make too much noise, so I went to the kitchen to light a fire and cook.
He called back the big yak playing opposite, snatched the Cuju ball from him and scolded him:
"You've been hanging out on the other side all day. I think you're destined to be a son-in-law. It's not easy to be the son-in-law of that shrew, Aunt Tian. If you eat one or two more pig ears, I'll scold you!"
When Aunt Liu heard him making indirect accusations, she was about to start a quarrel again. Fortunately, her daughter Liu Chunniang came back and persuaded her to go into the house.
Aunt Liu complained, "You only come back once every two weeks, and the braised food sells out so fast. I asked my daughter Xu to leave a piece of pig's ear for you to eat when you come back, but he ignored me and cut it for himself to eat with his wine!"
Speaking of Jin, she has not been willing to go out lately because everyone in the alley is talking about the good news that the Tian family has bought a house.
As it happens, I live next door, and the noise from the house-moving banquet can reach this side, as can the aroma of the wine and food, which cannot be blocked by the courtyard wall.
She spat, "She bought the house with a loan, and she's not even that happy about it. If she can't pay it back someday, and the debt collectors break her arms and legs, she'll realize the consequences!"
Thinking of this, he wished that the business next door would fail, which would be better than others getting rich while he was poor. He was so angry that as soon as his son-in-law came back, he asked him to call a bricklayer.
When her son-in-law Du Xian asked the reason, he thought there was a leak that needed to be repaired.
Jin pointed at the shorter courtyard wall and gate and said:
"This place needs to be built higher! That door needs a new one!"
Ji Yuan finally realized what was going on and said, "Why bother changing it? It's a waste of money. Our yard is small, and if we just build a high wall, it will only make it harder for sunlight to enter.
"Don't be angry, mother. I heard the yard next door is selling for 1,500 taels. I've calculated that with all their business, they can't make more than 200 taels at best. Think about how much they've borrowed from the Ziqian family. It's ridiculous that they can't pay it back. With such a huge debt, how can they live in peace in any big yard?"
Jin felt better after hearing this, and nodded and said:
"She's very popular right now. The prepared food vendors in the store are already looking to get back at her because she's taking away their business."
"This year, taxes will have to be paid. Just for her house, the tax is nearly one hundred taels!" Ji Yuan said.
The two houses in her family are worth quite a bit of money because of the good location, so the tax will be quite high, not to mention the one next door.
As Ji Xu had already bought a house, he had been doing business as usual recently. In his spare time, he took the land deed to and from the government office to handle the registration and household registration.
Nowadays, the government does not encourage population movement or leaving home easily. If you want to move your household registration, you must first obtain permission from the local government to "change your household registration."
To this end, Ji Xu first wrote a wooden slip, stating his hometown, population, property, and the matter of moving his household to Anling Town. The government then sent it to his hometown in the form of a document. After his hometown Lingshui County agreed, a "land declaration letter" would be issued. After receiving this land declaration letter, he would be able to settle down here.
Ji Xu wanted to complete the relocation before August, when the government took stock of the population, so that he could pay taxes in Anling County and no longer have to return to his hometown to pay taxes.
She asked some vendors who were also from other places, and they said that the Sanfu area had agreed to settle down, and the local government had always released people, which meant that it was only a matter of time before the "letter of complaint" was received.
In late August, the land acquisition letter from the local county court arrived as expected, and her family successfully moved to Anling County.
She retrieved her family's new household registration, which was a foot-long wooden tablet with her family's information written on it:
A woman named Tian Gui, a resident of Anling, aged thirty-five, without any disability.
The eldest daughter, Jixu, was seventeen years old and had no disabilities;
The youngest daughter, Jifeng, is ten years old and has no disabilities;
The youngest daughter, Jizhu, is seven years old and has a slight stutter;
The youngest daughter is six years old and mute.
Xiaoyao gestured that his original home was in Chang'an. When Ji Xu and his friends first arrived here, they reported it to the local authorities to see if there were any missing persons matching Xiaoyao's record, but there had been no news, so they settled down there as well.
She herself didn't know her own age. Six was a rough estimate based on her smaller stature than Ji Zhu, and the government also agreed with it.
Compared to the past, the family information is also very different, and it is:
Area 1 of the Thirteen Steps House in Mulberry Alley;
an ox cart;
a wheelbarrow;
Slaves and maids have none;
There are no acres of land.
"Have we got our household registration back?"
"I got it back, faster than expected. Come and have a look, Mother."
Hearing the sound of wheels, Tian Shi, who was busy preparing dinner in the east kitchen, came out to wipe her hands. Ji Xu took out a wooden tablet from his bosom. Tian Shi held it up and said,
"That's great, that's great. We've been waiting for this day. We can finally move in! The little ones can go to elementary school now, and we can talk about it respectably in public."
However, Tian had another worry. After moving, she had to pay taxes in September.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
