Chapter 17: Successfully joining the ranks of those who own property and land in the county town...
Although the bailiffs did not hold official positions in the county government, they had more convenient access to connections than others. Making connections with them was a way to gain more influence in a county town where they were unfamiliar with the people and people.
After seeing the two sellers off, Guo Baiwen carefully put away the land deed with the red seal. In fact, like the house and land deed, he used his clothes to hide it and put it into the system warehouse.
Since they are all paper documents, these items are all automatically grouped into the same compartment by the system.
Now all ten squares are completely full, there isn't a single empty space.
The group walked to a restaurant not far from the county government office. It was past lunchtime, and there were only a few people inside. They found a quiet corner to sit down and then began discussing the amount of their commission.
The commission for buying and selling land is higher than that for selling houses, at six percent, which amounts to thirteen taels and six hundred and eighty cash.
This part of the commission was paid entirely by the buyer, Guo Baiwen, because he helped find someone in the county government to expedite the process.
When he took out his money, he thought for a moment and simply gave Granny Sun a round number, making it fourteen taels.
The extra money was a token of gratitude for the other party's hard work today, including smoothing things over with government officials and helping him become a "distant relative" of the Zhao family to expedite the process.
Including this lunch at the restaurant, Guo Baiwen had already ordered six dishes, but he specially ordered two more hearty meat dishes, boiled mutton and roasted carp, so that everyone could have a good treat.
This was as a way of thanking the Zhao family for not having lunch today and for helping me with all the preparations.
Just like with the pastries, Granny Sun refused the extra money several times, but seeing that Guo Baiwen was sincere, she happily accepted the reward.
Now, not only will her son's place in the new city be finalized before the end of the year, putting an end to her worries, but the extra money might also be used to buy a big silver longevity lock for her soon-to-be-born grandson or granddaughter.
This was the first time Guo Baiwen had ever hosted a dinner party in the county town.
Previously, I would ask the restaurant staff to deliver my meals, but they were just simple food boxes with one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and one soup, containing things like minced pork and egg flowers, and a bit of oil.
One serving costs only ten coins.
He ordered a three-person meal box for ten days, which cost only three hundred coins.
But today he ordered boiled mutton, a dish he only learned about from the restaurant staff. After it was served, he realized it was simply mutton cut into chunks and boiled with seasonings. However, because the broth was clear and the meat was tender, it was a common dish served at banquets and gatherings to impress guests.
After all, a pound of ordinary mutton now costs ninety coins in butcher shops.
The fact that the host was able to serve mutton to guests shows great sincerity.
The grilled carp was ordered purely as an add-on, because the restaurant said it was their signature dish. Unexpectedly, it tasted surprisingly good. It's probably because the restaurant's own sauce is unique; it was carefully brushed on several times during grilling, making it very flavorful.
It was an eatery located right in front of the county government office, and even though the shop was small, the food was quite good.
This meal cost 670 coins.
Because they had to work in the afternoon, the group didn't drink alcohol at noon, but simply had a few cups of tea instead.
There were a total of eight dishes for four people. The restaurant provided very generous portions, and after the meal, there was still some food left over from each dish.
Besides some tofu and cabbage, only the mutton and fish were a bit pricey, and there were also two pork meatballs.
Although pork is cheap, now that it's winter, a pound of lean pork costs 25 coins.
After some polite refusals, since the Zhao family lived closer, Granny Sun asked the restaurant for food boxes to pack the remaining dishes and take them home. She planned to change them into her own bowls and plates before returning the empty food boxes to the restaurant.
After saying goodbye at the door, Guo Baiwen carried his basket and headed back towards his new home.
He had barely stepped inside when Hu Qingshan, who was working on the partition wall of the main room, spotted him and greeted him, "Brother Guo, you're back? I brought your lunchbox at noon and put it on the stone table in the yard."
"With this kind of weather, I reckon it's going to get a bit cold."
I almost forgot, he also ordered himself a boxed lunch today.
After thanking Hu Qingshan, he took the food box upstairs as well.
Inside was a dish of stir-fried mung bean sprouts with minced meat, four small pickled cabbage, minced meat and tofu balls, and white radish soup. The amount of rice was generous, but it seemed to be old rice.
Soup and broth are not easy to carry on the road, so Guo Baiwen drank the bowl of white radish soup. The taste was neither good nor bad, not bad at all, but it certainly couldn't compare to the taste of the restaurant at noon.
Next time I have the chance, I'll take Grandma Guo and Xiaohua to eat there too.
He smacked his lips, finished the soup, and then put all the remaining food into a newly bought earthenware pot with a lid.
That oiled paper isn't something you can reuse indefinitely, so this is much safer. This earthenware pot, this size, only costs five coins. It even has a handle strung on it with hemp rope for easy carrying. It has a wide mouth and a lid so you don't have to worry about spills and it's easy to clean. It's quite convenient as a lunchbox.
Since it's evening, I'll just take them all home to eat.
There was also a large earthenware jar, which I bought for ten coins, to store the milk powder he pulled out. It was not as good as the sealed milk powder container, so it was only less damp in winter, but he still had to drink it quickly.
He, his grandmother, and Xiaohua would each make a bowl of calcium supplements every morning to help with calcium intake. Maybe that would stop his grandmother's knees from hurting so much, and maybe he and Xiaohua could grow taller.
Remove all the labels and packaging from the milk powder cans. I don't know if these cans are made of iron or aluminum, but they make a clanging sound when you tap them, and they sound quite sturdy. If we add a handle to them, we can use them as water buckets in a well.
So he put the things in the box and packed up the lunchbox, preparing to take it out to return the food container later.
Guo Baiwen had lamented how quickly money went when he bought clothes that morning, but seeing that the original three hundred taels of silver in the drawer had shrunk to ninety-six taels and fourteen cash, he couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.
Of this money, fourteen taels were to be used to pay the remaining balance for the furniture from the carpentry workshop.
That leaves only eighty-two taels and fourteen coins.
Sure enough, once we arrived in the county town, we found that there were places where we had to spend money everywhere.
But at least the newly issued land deeds for twenty acres gave him some comfort.
Although he has less money now, he can now be considered to have successfully joined the ranks of those who own a house and land in the county town.
Moreover, the expenses won't be as high as they were yesterday and today, so the remaining eighty-odd taels should last a long time.
Guo Baiwen said that the pot of food he brought back that night was the restaurant's meal for the day, and because Grandma Guo had made pancakes, he couldn't finish it and brought it all back.
Grandma Guo was worried that if he went to the county town, he wouldn't have enough money to eat good food.
But looking at the lunch provided by the restaurant for the short-term workers, it was better than the black rice soup they made at home, so they were quite happy.
Nothing was wasted in the earthenware pot. Grandma Guo added some millet and barley, along with some salt and soy sauce, and cooked it into a big pot of mixed porridge.
A bowl of mixed grains, with meat, vegetables, and tofu, tastes quite good.
Xiaohua has been able to eat her fill these past few days, and she even has the energy to take care of the pair of rabbits we bought in the evenings.
The rabbits and chickens were kept together, with an extra layer of bamboo lattice fence in between. But perhaps because of the cold weather, the two hens laid at least one egg a day, while the pair of rabbits remained inactive.
Grandma Guo said that maybe they felt cold and didn't want to move. She said that when she had time, she would make them a bigger, windproof nest out of dry straw, just like the two hens.
So Xiaohua, who had originally planned to eat spicy stir-fried rabbit meat during the Chinese New Year, could only watch longingly every day and give them more grass to eat.
Perhaps even the heavens were happy for him, because it didn't rain for the next few days.
Hu Qingshan's craftsmanship was also passed down from Hu the carpenter. His carving and woodworking skills were excellent, and he even finished the work half a day ahead of schedule.
He thanked Hu Qingshan and then gave him and his junior brother each a box of pastries. These two boxes of pastries were also obtained from his daily check-ins in the system: one box of peach shortbread and one box of jujube paste cakes. They were all old-fashioned pastries wrapped in oil paper, so he didn't need to bother changing the packaging.
Neither of these were his favorite flavors, yet he kept drawing them several times in a row. They were taking up space in the storage room, and he couldn't finish them when he took them out to eat. He was also worried they would spoil if left for too long.
When I went back before, I also gave two packs to Grandma Guo and Xiaohua, but one of them has bad teeth and the other was worried about damaging her teeth, so they could only eat them slowly.
Peach shortbread and jujube paste cake are not cheap. Even if you buy half a pound of them at a pastry shop, it will cost more than ten coins. He gave each of them a box, and filled it halfway with jujube paste and peach shortbread, which was just right to take back and eat.
In a way, I'd like to thank them for not only repairing the stairs and railings, but also for helping me renovate the toilet.
Although it's still a dry toilet, you no longer have to squat there by yourself. The newly made wooden stool, according to Guo Baiwen's idea, is somewhat like the toilet seat from his previous life.
It uses the same wood that's often used for staircase ceilings; it's not the best quality wood, but it's sturdy.
Hu Qingshan made a stool with a hole in it in just over half an hour, and even polished it for a bit, without asking for extra money.
Although the stool is simple, it does free up your legs. The gaps between the legs are large, making it easy to replace the night-scented tub under the base.
He even bought two buckets so he could use them alternately and easily take them out to empty the night soil in the morning.
When he took the person back to the woodworking shop, he also went to see the wooden furniture he had ordered. The shape and size were already finished, and it just needed to be carved, painted and processed a few more times.
Carpenter Hu said he could deliver it to him after the first month of the lunar calendar, by which time the smell should have mostly dissipated.
It's ready to use right away.
A note from the author:
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I, Xinghan San—am back! [droopy-eared rabbit head]
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