Once the decision was made, things proceeded quickly. The next day, Zhou Quan took Xu Shun to the government office to complete the formalities and bought the land.
Five mu of land cost twenty taels of silver. Since it was wasteland, the price wasn't considered expensive by them.
But for ordinary people, that price is astronomical. You have to understand that buying two acres of homestead land in the village would only cost two or three ounces.
After purchasing the goods, Zhou Quan began to help him contact people. They first leveled the ground there, and then marked out the area for building a yard and planting bamboo.
In the courtyard, Xu Shun planned to build two adjacent small courtyards, and fence off the rest of the land to plant bamboo.
Zhou Quan suggested to his brother-in-law that even if they were to plant bamboo, they shouldn't plant it in one large patch. Instead, they could plant it in sections like bamboo groves, so that the family could have a place to play, like the gardens in the town. They could just replace all the bamboo with bamboo and dig two ponds.
Xu Shun listened to Zhou Quan's well-reasoned explanation and entrusted him with the task of helping him with his plan.
When Zhou Quan got home, he went to find Li Mai. Li Mai chuckled when she learned that he had once again taken on the task of designing the bamboo garden for her.
However, she was also willing to help her older sister's family.
Li Mai spent three days designing the entire layout of the bamboo garden for Xu Shun, including the houses.
Xu Shun liked the name after seeing it and said, "From now on, let's call this courtyard Xu Family Bamboo Garden!"
Zhou Quan agreed, saying it sounded quite nice.
This led to the creation of the Xu Family Bamboo Garden, which later became famous in northern China.
Such a large courtyard and mansion cannot be built in just one or two months.
The construction team Zhou Quan hired also helped build the house, while Xu Shun personally arranged the transplanting of the bamboo. The villagers hired people to help him dig up his bamboo grove and move it to the bamboo garden in town.
After things were settled with Xu Shun, Zhou Quan stopped paying much attention to that side, and Yun Chang and the others began to take large-scale action on the matter in the back mountain.
Just as Yun Chang had expected, the Emperor decreed that Yun Chang establish a northern garrison camp five miles outside Qing Shi Town.
Actually, it's all to protect the normal mining operations of the gold mine.
Yun Chang's side got busy, and there were some things that Zhou Quan and Lu Qian needed to help with, so everyone was very busy this spring.
While everyone was busy with their own affairs, trouble still befell the Xu family.
The news that Xu San had bought land in town, planted bamboo, and built a yard spread throughout Xu Family Village. People were both envious and sighed, thinking that Xu San's family was finally going to rise to prominence.
During the period when Bai Shi lay low in front of Xu Da, she managed to heal the injuries on her face.
Seeing that she had been more obedient lately, Xu Da relaxed his close surveillance of her, allowing Bai Shi to spend time alone with her two sons.
Bai twisted the truth in front of her two sons, telling them why she was beaten on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and even telling them that if she were to die at Xu Da's hands, it would be because their third uncle had slandered her in front of their father.
The two children were only teenagers, innocent children who had not yet been harmed by the world, and did not understand the intricacies of adult relationships.
In their hearts, their mother was the most respected person, and whatever she said was right. Since their mother said that their third uncle was slandering her and even caused their mother to be beaten by their father, then it was their third uncle's fault.
They were still young and didn't dare to cause trouble for their third uncle. They also knew that their third aunt's family was very powerful now. However, they knew that their grandparents could control their third uncle. Therefore, the two innocent children sadly brought up that past incident in front of their grandparents when they visited them during a day off.
They had no idea what harm it would cause their grandparents if they told them about this. They just wanted their grandparents to scold their third uncle and get justice for their mother.
It just so happened that Zhou Xing was not home that day, and the children had gone to the Zhou residence to play with Zhuzhu all day. Zhou Xing was minding the shop and selling things, while Xu Shun was busy at the bamboo garden.
The house is finished, and they are currently building a perimeter wall around it.
However, in the afternoon, Xu Dalu, from the east courtyard of Xu Shun's house, ran out of breath and found the shop. He told Zhou Xing that something had happened at home.
Zhou Xing was completely bewildered and hurriedly asked what had happened.
Xu Dalu, panting heavily, told his eldest son that his two sons, who were on leave today, went to visit their parents and said some inappropriate things, which angered the two elders so much that one vomited blood and the other fainted.
Zhou Xing's head went blank, her vision went black, and she saw stars. She instantly guessed what they had said.
Zhou Xing's legs went weak with fright. She couldn't let anything happen to her parents!
She hurriedly went to the shop next door, her legs trembling, to find the shopkeeper and ask him to call Zhou Lin for her.
The shopkeeper quickly locked the door and ran to Zhou Lin's workshop.
Zhou Lin arrived quickly and asked what had happened to his sister.
Zhou Xing briefly explained the situation and told him to hurry up and go to the bamboo garden to find Xu San and bring him back. She then locked the door and ran towards Li Mai's shop.
She knew that at this moment, only Li Mai could save the two elderly people.
When the couple returned to the Xu family home with Li Mai, Quan Zhoulin, and Lu Qian and a few others who happened to be in Li Mai, the Xu brothers' families were already in their courtyard.
Hearing Xu Da's wailing, Xu San felt dizzy and rushed into his parents' house.
The two elders lay stiffly on the kang (a heated brick bed), while everyone else knelt and wept, but Bai was nowhere to be seen.
"What's wrong? What happened to my parents?" Xu Sanchan asked the only old doctor in the village, his voice trembling.
The old doctor was also carried back by Xu Er.
"Oh, Sanzi, please accept my condolences. Your parents were so angry that they couldn't catch their breath and both of them passed away."
At this moment, Li Mai also entered the house with Zhou Quan's help.
It was mid-February, and she was already more than eight months pregnant. Normally, she shouldn't be traveling by carriage anymore; she should be staying at home to protect her pregnancy. Her belly was large, and she could go into labor at any time.
However, upon hearing that her eldest sister had begged her, she still asked Zhou Quan to drive the carriage and bring her there.
On the way, fearing the bumpy ride, she rested in her spatial dimension, and also made some preparations for rescuing the person.
Zhou Quan, who was driving the carriage, thought the same way, so they didn't arrange for anyone else to be in their carriage.
"Impossible, this is impossible!" Xu San roared, disbelieving, and glared fiercely at the kneeling crowd, shouting, "Get out of here, I'll settle accounts with you later."
After yelling, he turned to Li Mai with reddened eyes, "Xiaomai, I beg you, please try your best to save people, okay?"
Li Mai nodded, "Don't worry, brother-in-law, I will do my best!"
After saying that, she glanced at Zhou Quan and told him to send everyone else out, leaving only Xu Shun and Zhou Xing inside.
Outside, Xu Da and Xu Er knelt silently in front of the door, while the younger ones were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they dared not cry anymore. Madam Yuan knelt at the very back, her face also very pale, her head bowed.
She thought to herself, "Bai Shi has probably already run away by now!"
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