70 Mud
◎Where on earth did he go◎
Feeling a little uncomfortable with his gaze, she left after making an excuse to greet the craftsmen outside.
Ji Shijing's hand holding the porcelain bowl slowly tightened, and his knuckles turned white.
The craftsmen ate quickly and started working again after they finished. Shu Yao wanted to let them take a break, but Master Li said that there was a big order in town and the work would start in fifteen days, so they had to hurry to repair Shu Yao's house.
Shu Yao was a little shocked: "The west room can be repaired in fifteen days?" Repairing a room in fifteen days, is this a joke?
Master Li explained to her, "The foundation of your west room isn't damaged. Just repair the walls. You can build the other room on top of the west room's foundation. Is that okay?"
Shu Yao looked at the layout of the west room and asked, "Can we rebuild the foundation?"
Master Li took out a wooden ruler and busied himself with his work, not even looking up: "Of course, if you want to rebuild the foundation, you'll have to pay extra."
"How many."
Master Li handed the measured bricks to the worker next to him, looked at the area of the west room, and said, "Ten taels."
Shu Yao suddenly felt that it was a good idea to use the old foundation: "Master Li, is this old foundation solid?" After all, a house is for people to live in, so safety should be put first.
Master Li patted his chest and assured: "I have checked the foundation and it is fine."
Shu Yao: "That's good. Thank you, Master Li."
"It's a small matter."
The craftsmen began to work in an orderly manner.
Shu Yao walked around the yard and didn't see Ji Shijing. She felt strange because he was just here. She searched inside and outside the house, but when she thought about how he was already a grown man and it was unlikely that he would get lost in the village, she didn't bother him.
Seeing Qin E washing dishes at the sink, where more than twenty pairs of bowls and chopsticks were piled, Shu Yao hurried over to help: "Aunt, thank you for today."
Qin E still had a cold face and said "hmm" neither lightly nor heavily.
Jiang Fu looked at the two people washing dishes side by side, and a comfortable smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
After washing the dishes, Qin E took off her apron and said to Jiang Fu, "No one is looking after the wine at home. Go home quickly."
Jiang Fu knew what his wife meant, and said to the craftsmen with a smile, "Next time I will bring you some good wine."
The craftsmen responded one after another.
Just as Jiang Fu and Qin E were about to leave, Shu Yao suddenly remembered something and hurried over: "Uncle, there is a piece of wasteland in my mountain stream. I want to reclaim it and grow some crops."
Jiang Fu frowned. As far as he knew, the wasteland in the mountain stream of Shu Yao's home had been abandoned for three years. Although the terrain was good, it would not be easy to reclaim land that had been abandoned for three years.
He advised Shu Yao: "If you want to eat any side dishes, just go to your uncle's house and get them. Why would a girl grow crops?"
Shu Yao explained: "I want to make some money from farming, and then I can take the crops to town to sell them."
After hearing her words, Qin E couldn't help but say, "If you want to make money, you can weave some cloth and sell it yourself. What's the point of a girl farming?"
She didn't mean to belittle Shu Yao in her words, she was just giving her advice.
Shu Yao asked, "In our Dongping Village, how do girls make money?"
Qin E said, "Men farm and women weave. Naturally, they make their living by weaving cloth. After weaving, they take it to the town to sell. Those with good skills can sell it for two cents. Last month, Jiang He sold four cents."
Weaving? She couldn't even tell the difference between threads, so forget it. She thought farming was easier. When she was little, her family lived in the countryside, and her grandfather contracted dozens of acres of land. She watched him sow and harvest for more than ten years, and sometimes she would follow him to work in the fields, so growing some vegetables and fruits was no problem for her.
She smiled and responded, "Next time I'll go learn how to weave from Xiaohe."
Jiang Fu nodded: "Weaving is what women should do."
But Shuyao still said, "But I just want to reclaim that piece of wasteland. Uncle, can you find a few people to help me do it? I'll pay them."
Seeing that she was determined to reclaim that piece of land, Jiang Fu sighed and said, "Okay, I'll find someone to reclaim it in the next two days."
Shu Yao was overjoyed and took out five taels of silver and handed it to him: "Uncle, this is their wages. If there is less, come back to me. If there is more, you can keep it for yourself."
Jiang Fu had only earned five taels of silver from selling wine for half a year. Looking at the heavy money in his hand, a question arose in his mind. His niece seemed to have become rich, but where did all this money come from? "Yao girl, how do you have so much money?"
Shu Yao laughed and said, "The Ji family is wealthy and gives a lot of monthly allowance, I saved it all."
So that's how it is. Jiang Fu thought about it and still felt that he couldn't take the money. He handed the silver back. Qin E next to him didn't say anything.
Shu Yao didn't take it: "Uncle, the extra money should be regarded as my filial piety to you and aunt. If you refuse it again, I think you are looking down on my filial piety." She pretended to wipe her eyes.
Qin E patted Jiang Fu's hand and winked at him: "It's a child's filial piety, so let's accept it."
Having said that, Jiang Fu no longer refused. When the two were about to leave, Qin E turned back and said, "I'll come back to cook tomorrow."
Shu Yao smiled and nodded. Although her aunt seemed difficult to approach on the surface, she had a good heart.
After seeing off Jiang Fu and his wife, Shu Yao returned to the yard to supervise the work and help out. Before she knew it, the entire afternoon had passed.
These craftsmen worked quite quickly and had already built two walls. At this rate, they would be finished in ten days. Then she wouldn't have to share a room with Ji Shijing. If they lived in the same room for a long time, people would definitely gossip about them. She wasn't afraid of the villagers' gossip, but she was afraid that Ji Shijing would care. After all, he was going to get married, and she couldn't stand in the way of his marriage.
Thinking of this, she realized that she hadn't seen Ji Shijing all afternoon.
Now, she was really worried. Could something really have happened if he hadn't come back for so long?
Please don’t do that, my dear. If anything happens to him, she will die too.
After sending the craftsman away, she hurriedly searched the village, walking from east to west, from the beginning to the end of the village, but still could not find his shadow. When she passed by the dilapidated temple, she shuddered subconsciously, and her footsteps turned a corner, bypassing the dilapidated temple in front of her.
As the sky gradually darkened, the village roads at night were particularly scary, so Shu Yao had no choice but to go home first.
When she arrived at the door of her house, she found that the courtyard door was open. Her first reaction was that Ji Shijing had returned, but she immediately found something wrong. She saw a neat row of muddy footprints on the ground, extending into the room.
No, Ji Shijing is usually very clean. There is not a speck of dust on the surface of his shoes, let alone so many mud stains.
She looked at the lighted house and thought it must have been robbed.
She took a deep breath, picked up a brick from the ground, and tiptoed to the door. She heard rustling sounds coming from inside the room, as if clothes were being rummaged through.
Oh no, her money is hidden in the closet.
If anyone dares to touch her money, she will fight with the thief.
"Ah, you little thief, I'll beat you to death..."
Before she could finish the rest of her words, she just stood there in a daze at the door. Ji Shijing, who was changing clothes, turned around. Shu Yao hid the brick in her hand behind her and threw it out as if nothing had happened.
He seemed to be stronger and his muscles were more pronounced.
She quickly turned her eyes away from his naked upper body, mentally cursing herself for being shameless.
Ji Shijing buttoned up his clothes and put on his coat without haste.
Shu Yao found that the clothes he took off on the ground were covered with mud, and even the soles of the shoes he took off were covered with mud.
It turns out that the muddy footprints in the yard were really Ji Shi's. Where had he gone? How did he get himself so dirty?
She was just about to sit down and have a cup of tea to calm her nerves when she saw a small bamboo basket on the table. She reached out her hand curiously, but Ji Shijing quickly snatched the basket back.
Shu Yao teased him: "Could there be some treasure in here?"
He simply hid the basket under his sleeve: "There's nothing."
Shu Yao made two "tsk tsk" sounds. He lied without blushing or feeling nervous. If he didn't have anything, he wouldn't be able to protect her so tightly.
But if he didn't tell her, she wouldn't ask. She was just curious about where he had gone that afternoon.
Ji Shijing: "I took a stroll in the mountains."
Shu Yao understood how the mud on his clothes and shoes came from, but why did he go to the mountain for no reason? Before she could ask, she saw Ji Shijing hurried out with a basket in one hand and his soiled clothes and shoes in the other, leaving behind a sentence: "I have something to do."
Shu Yao chased him to the door, but found that he had disappeared long ago. She leaned against the door frame, and the moonlight made her shadow very long.
Ji Shijing was walking on a country road late at night. It seemed that something was trying to get out of the basket. He pressed the exit with his hand and walked towards the house not far away.
At night, the countryside was silent, but the capital was brightly lit.
There was still a constant stream of guests in Zui Xiang Fang. In the room on the third floor, Shen Jing'an was resting his head on Shen Qianxiao's legs, and Shen Qianxiao was gently rubbing his temples.
Suddenly, I heard a loud commotion outside.
Chen Jing'an was a little unhappy. He had been having a headache these days and couldn't stand the hustle and bustle.
Shen Qianxiao was like a flower that could understand words. She said softly, "I'll go take a look."
After a while, she came back and started massaging Chen Jingan's temples again. "The government officials came here to arrest Prince Wang, saying that he had raped a commoner girl."
Shen Jingan said "hmm". He played with Shen Qianxiao's drooping hair and said nonchalantly: "Qianxiao, I saw her again a few days ago."
Shen Qianxiao paused, but soon returned to normal, even more gentle and careful than before: "Miss Shu has been away from the capital for more than a month."
Chen Jing'an smelled his favorite gardenia scent and closed his eyes to take a nap.
Shen Qianxiao looked at the handsome and affectionate face lying on her legs, and her heart suddenly felt sour. Others only thought that she was loved by the prince, but only she knew that the heart of the man in front of her had never been with her.
She once tried to find a little bit of love for her in him, but she couldn't find a single trace.
Although the love Chen Jing'an gave her was illusory, she still indulged herself in it and fell deeper and deeper into it.
In a trance, she recalled the Chaoma Temple twelve years ago, when a noble young man stretched out his hand to a little beggar in the mud and said, "You will follow me from now on."
"You'll follow me from now on."
She remembered this sentence for twelve years.
The aroma from the stove was wafting, and she lowered her head and couldn't help but kiss his lips.
Chen Jingan slowly opened his eyes and turned his head away, his eyes showing an unclear emotion. He stood up and turned his back to her: "Go to bed early."
Shen Qianxiao knew that he was angry, and hurriedly chased after him: “Isn’t the prince going to rest here today?”
Chen Jingan just said coldly: "I will come to see you again tomorrow."
The door slowly closed, Shen Qianxiao covered her face with her hands, tears overflowing from between her fingers.
As soon as Chen Jing'an reached the corner of the second floor, he bumped into someone head-on.
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