One month later, it was Mrs. Dong’s tenth birthday.
The academy and the government office were also closed on this day.
Qian Chunhua took the birthday gifts she had prepared and brought her family to Dong's house.
The gift was a hundred-year-old wild ginseng and a green crystal ornament of a longevity pine.
These two things were the "good stuff" that Qian Chunhua had stockpiled before traveling through time.
At that time, Qian Chunhua had a classmate whose hometown was Daxinganling. His family contracted a mountain and specialized in growing ginseng.
These wild ginsengs were not raised by his family. They were discovered after he contracted the mountain. There were not many of them, and Qian Chunhua was able to get three of them through his classmates.
Qian Chunhua bought the green crystal ornament of the longevity pine when she was traveling in Jiangsu Province. She saw that it was beautiful, inexpensive, and had a good meaning.
During the Min Dynasty, industry was not developed and people lived a simple and plain life.
However, crystal clear objects such as green crystal have become treasures that people compete to collect.
The rarity and preciousness of green crystal make it a symbol of identity and status.
From the last time they sent tableware themselves, it can be seen that the Dong family is extremely fond of modern and exquisite industrial products.
Therefore, Qian Chunhua decided to take out this set of crystal ornaments, also hoping to win the favor of the old lady.
In the past few months, Qian Chunhua has always been feeling uneasy.
The Dong family gave her thirty thousand taels of silver, which was a very considerable sum of money.
Qian Chunhua knew that this amount of money might be just a small amount for the Dong family.
But for Qian Chunhua, it was an astronomical figure.
She had been thinking about how to repay the Dong family's generosity and trust.
Therefore, Qian Chunhua prepared this set of crystal ornaments, hoping that it could become a precious decoration for the Dong family, and also hoping that it could add some brilliance and joy to Mrs. Dong's birthday banquet.
At Liu Mansion, the residence of Liu Changshi, Liu Yushi and his family were sitting around the dining table eating breakfast.
Due to the drought, their breakfast was very simple, with a bowl of porridge, a steamed bun, and a plate of pickles per person.
Then the owner of the house gets an extra egg.
The maids and servants in the house ate a little worse, but each of them only had one less egg.
Even so, the morning meals are much better than those of ordinary families.
Liu Shuchao looked at the steamed buns and eggs with a sad face, and complained unhappily: "Mom, why are you eating these again? They are too disgusting."
As he spoke, he poked the porridge in the bowl with his chopsticks, as if it were a bowl of bitter medicine.
Liu Yushi watched his beloved son get angry. He looked at his wife with dissatisfaction and asked, "Didn't I ask Daniu to bring back 100 kilograms of rice and 10 kilograms of meat yesterday?"
Zhou Dongwei threw down her chopsticks and replied unhappily, "Don't you see how many mouths there are to feed in the mansion? One hundred kilograms of rice is only enough for one month. We don't even know what we'll eat next month."
Liu Yushi shut his mouth. He knew that if he said any more, it would only cause more quarrels.
At this time, Old Lady Liu spoke.
She picked up her chopsticks and said, "Stop arguing. If there is no rain during this drought, it's already good enough to eat these. Why don't you go out and ask around? Many people out there can't even afford to drink black noodle soup."
Liu Yushi also sighed.
He knew that although he was an official, if food was in short supply, he would not be able to buy much food with his silver, so it was good enough to have something to eat.
The whole family could only survive this disaster by living frugally.
Liu Shuchao didn't care about that. He said in a bad temper, "I want to go to Dong Cong's house. He can have a feast someday."
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