The next morning.
"Mother, are you up? It's time to make breakfast." Madam Sun gently knocked on Old Mrs. Chen's door.
Old Mrs. Chen tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep, and the meat that was almost in her mouth was gone.
She felt like she had a lump of cotton stuck in her chest, unable to go up or down, and she sighed and groaned in distress, unable to fall asleep.
I tossed and turned like a pancake until dawn before I finally felt sleepy. Just as I was getting into a deep sleep, I heard a knock on the door.
He sat up abruptly, cursing angrily, "Knock, knock, knock! Trying to wake someone up this early in the morning!"
Sun said irritably, "You didn't prepare any rice for this morning last night. I'm waiting to cook rice!"
The Chen family's grain was all locked in a cupboard by Old Mrs. Chen. Usually, the grain for the next morning would be taken out the night before, and Mrs. Sun could cook it as soon as she got up.
Old Mrs. Chen was in a bad mood these past two days because she lost the money she had just received, and she completely forgot about it yesterday.
Having finally fallen asleep, Old Mrs. Chen was now woken up by Mrs. Sun. She was furious and got up to put on her shoes and get out of bed.
He fumbled for his key in his waistband, opened the grain cabinet,
They discovered that the rice jar was empty and the family had run out of food.
Old Mrs. Chen's face instantly turned extremely ugly. "Eat, eat, eat! You want to eat as soon as you open your eyes! I can't live like this anymore!"
Sun Shi walked in carrying a rice basin, glanced at the cupboard, frowned and complained, "Mother, you said a while ago that we wouldn't go hungry, but now everyone is waiting to eat. How am I supposed to cook without rice?"
Old Mrs. Chen's face turned pale. She had indeed said those words. It was her fault. She had secretly sold the family's food rations so that her third son could go to school. Otherwise, they could have survived until the autumn harvest.
With just over twenty days until the autumn harvest, without food, many will likely starve to death.
He thought that by defiled that brat Chen Qingqing, she would have no choice but to marry Fan Tong, and he could secretly collect the bride price, solving not only the food problem but also enough money to build a courtyard. Now, all his efforts have been in vain.
He touched the thirty coins in his purse and sighed helplessly, "Second brother's wife, take these thirty coins and go to town to buy some millet. The crops in the fields will be ready for harvest in a few days, so we should be able to get by."
Looking at the money she was handed over, Sun smiled sheepishly, "Mother, Zhanliang's leg hasn't healed yet, how can I have time to go to town to buy grain? Let Father go instead!"
"Let Da Bao go. He's always doing chores for that wretched girl and doesn't do anything for his own family. What's the point of keeping him around?"
"I don't like what you're saying. Da Bao gets paid for working for Qing Ya Tou. What do you mean by 'carrying the load for her'?"
Old Mrs. Chen rolled her eyes. "If there's a wage, why haven't I seen a single penny?"
"How would I know? Da Bao isn't a child anymore. He has the right to keep the money he earns. As his mother, I can't control that."
Old Mrs. Chen was speechless for a moment after being choked by Mrs. Sun's words.
Just then, Old Man Chen walked in from outside with his hands behind his back. "Alright, stop arguing, I'm going to buy rice."
Grandma Chen handed him the money and urged, "Take the money and come back quickly, don't delay."
"Don't worry, it won't delay your lunch." Old Chen took the money and went out the door.
After a long while, Old Man Chen finally returned, panting heavily.
Grandma Chen stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the half-full bag of rice. "Old man, how come you only bought this little bit of grain with thirty coins?"
Old Chen took a sip of water, took a few deep breaths, and then said, "Grain prices have gone up. It used to be three coins a liter of millet, but now it's six coins. If you give me thirty coins, I'll only buy this much."
Grandma Chen was incredulous. "You haven't been scammed, have you? How could the price increase so much all of a sudden?"
"I asked several rice shops, and they all had the same price. This year is bad, and all grains have gone up in price. Fine rice has risen to forty coins per catty."
After finishing his sentence, Old Chen paused for a moment, then sighed and said, "Old woman, life is not going to be easy from now on. I just heard in town that the imperial court will increase taxes this year, and we're afraid we won't have enough food to eat!"
Old Mrs. Chen's heart tightened. "What are we going to do? Are we really going to starve?"
"Alright, don't worry about it for now. Let's deal with it for a while. If our third son can pass the imperial examination next spring, we'll definitely be able to get through this difficult time."
"Yes, this is the only way for now."
Grandma Chen came out of the house carrying a small half-bag of millet. "Second son's wife, the rice is back. Hurry up and cook some porridge, I'm starving."
Sun came out of the thatched hut on the side, looked at the half-full bag of millet, and said with a worried expression, "Mother, this little bit of rice is only enough to last for three days. What will we eat after that?"
"There's always a way out. We can worry about later. First, let's fill our stomachs and get cooking!"
"knew."
Sun was depressed, feeling that life was getting more and more hopeless. Her husband was blindly filial, and ever since Old Man Chen carried him back from Wild Wolf Valley, he believed that Old Man Chen loved him very much. She had mentioned dividing the family property several times, but he refused to agree no matter what.
Forget it, you can't wake someone who's pretending to be asleep. Let's just let the division of the family property take its natural course!
Having figured this out, Mrs. Sun turned and went to the kitchen, feeling rather annoyed.
At this moment, Old Man Chen, who had just rested, spoke up, "Old woman, on my way back, I saw more than ten oxcarts coming towards our village. The carts were all made of blue bricks, and it looked like someone was building a big house."
"More than ten oxcarts, how big must the house be?" Old Mrs. Chen's eyes were full of envy. "Come on, let's go and see what's going on, whose family is so powerful."
As she spoke, Old Mrs. Chen walked out of the courtyard...
Knowing that it was time to deliver bricks, Chen Qingqing had already found a place to put them. When she saw the Lu brothers arrive, she quickly pointed to the open space by the roadside and asked.
"Master Lu, do you think it would be alright to move the bricks here?"
"Okay, let's unload it here!"
"Alright, you guys keep busy, I won't keep you company."
The Lu brothers nodded. Chen Qingqing had other matters to attend to at the sugar shop and knew they couldn't be of much help here, so they turned and went to the Wu family's old house.
When Old Man Chen and his wife walked into the courtyard, they saw a long line of oxcarts pulling blue bricks parked at the gate, and they couldn't help but frown.
“Old man, you’re absolutely right, someone in our village wants to build a house.”
"Why are they all parked in front of our house? Could it be that that brat is really going to build a house?!"
After being reminded, Old Mrs. Chen suddenly realized what was happening and gritted her teeth, "Such a thing just happened, and she's already preparing ingredients today. It seems that this brat is really up to no good."
"Judging by this setup, they're probably planning to build a huge mansion!"
"Impossible. It's not that I'm looking down on them, but with their poor, clueless minds, they wouldn't know how to spend money. Building an ordinary brick house would be good enough."
"You're right. That brat is more cunning than a chicken and more shrewd than a monkey. She'll be married in a few years. She wouldn't be willing to spend several hundred taels of silver to build a house!"
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