Chapter 131 The Serving Maid
But the old ox just wouldn't listen. Her father whipped it a few times, but it didn't move. No matter how much he scolded it, it was useless. The ox just kept walking on its own, neither fast nor slow, which was heartbreaking to see.
Gu Lianshan didn't dare whip the cow too hard for fear of scaring it in the middle of the night.
Seeing that I couldn't control it, I had no choice but to leave it alone.
It took the old ox more than two quarters of an hour to get from the inn to the new yard. It was so slow that Gu Tang wanted to get off the ox and run by himself!
After entering the yard, Gu Tang felt that all the heat in his body had disappeared, his feet were so cold that he had lost all feeling, and he felt as if he had just crawled out of an ice cave.
Seeing that Gu Tang was very cold, Gu Lianshan asked Gu Ping'an to tie up the cow, while he went into the house to light the oil lamp, and then lit the stove, and let Gu Tang sit in front of the stove to warm himself.
After Gu Ping'an came back from tying the cow, Gu Lianshan took him to the kitchen again. The father and son simply cooked a pot of porridge and just had a meal to warm themselves up.
After dinner, Gu Tang calmed down. She held an oil lamp and went to check on the chickens and ducks in the yard.
Gu Ping'an also followed. He had been thinking about these chickens and ducks these days, wondering if they had laid eggs.
The water trough and feeding trough in the pen were half empty, all the chickens and ducks were crowded into the nests, and the ground was covered with chicken and duck feces.
Gu Tang stopped immediately, not wanting to step on the feces so late at night, so he handed the oil lamp to Gu Ping'an and asked him to go into the pen and touch the chicken and duck coops to see if there were any chicken or duck eggs inside.
Gu Ping'an loved picking eggs. He rolled up his sleeves, took the oil lamp with excitement, and started to search the chicken and duck coops one by one.
When he reached into the first chicken coop, Gu Pingan quickly shouted out happily: "There are eggs! I touched them!"
Because it was not the brooding season, the hens did not protect their eggs. Gu Ping'an still took the eggs away without pecking his hand.
Gu Ping'an handed the egg to Gu Tang and asked her to take a closer look.
Gu Tang took it and found that the egg was still warm. He guessed that it had been pressed under the hen.
You can't keep them under your body all the time. If their claws break the eggs, all the eggs will be wasted.
She returned the eggs to Gu Ping'an: "Wait here for me, I'll go get a basket and you can pick up all the eggs in the basket later."
She remembered that the last time she bought something, she bought a pair of small, pot-bellied bamboo baskets. At that time, her father disliked the baskets because they were too small and couldn't hold many things. But Gu Tang thought the baskets were cute, so he agreed and bought her a pair.
Now that I think about it, that basket is just right for storing eggs. One basket can hold about fifty or sixty eggs.
After taking out the basket from the backyard, Gu Tang happily took the basket back to the second courtyard and handed the basket to Gu Ping'an, asking him to pick out all the eggs quickly.
Oh, yes! There are also duck eggs. She happened to buy a pair, one basket for chicken eggs and one basket for duck eggs.
Gu Ping'an took out chicken and duck eggs from the chicken and duck coops, counting them quietly.
Gu Tang was very willing to feed these chickens and ducks. Although they were away for the past few days, she provided them with enough food in the trough, and now there is still half left.
It can be seen that these chickens and ducks have never been hungry.
The food was good, and the eggs were laid more, and soon the two baskets were full.
After checking all the chicken and duck nests, Gu Ping'an reported the final number of chicken and duck eggs: "Twenty chicken eggs! Eighteen duck eggs!"
Well, not bad! More than she expected.
Gu Tang nodded, very satisfied with the number of chicken and duck eggs.
These chickens and ducks are all original species, not those that have been improved and evolved from generation to generation in the previous life. The number of eggs they lay each year is not large, so it is very good to have these now!
Hearing the number his son reported, Gu Lianshan, who was boiling water in the kitchen, poked his head out and said to the siblings happily, "I'll make you omelettes tomorrow morning. This is Dad's specialty!"
Gu Ping'an responded, smiling from ear to ear, and was very much looking forward to it.
He handed the oil lamp to Gu Tang, picked up two baskets and left the chicken coop.
Gu Tang held the oil lamp behind him, closed the chicken coop, and followed him to the kitchen.
The kitchen of this courtyard is located in the east wing of the main hall. The room is very spacious and has two large stoves and two small stoves.
When she was arranging the yard, she deliberately placed two large vats in the kitchen, one for well water and the other for rice and other food.
After entering the kitchen, Gu Tang took the chicken and duck eggs, put them into the jar for storage, and sent Gu Ping'an to wash up, and then sent him to bed.
This means that he has to get up early to feed the chickens and ducks, and he should continue to check the chicken and duck coops tomorrow, as the chickens and ducks might lay eggs again.
Gu Ping'an didn't think much about it. He happily poured hot water to wash his face, and imitated Gu Tang to clean his teeth with salt.
Gu Lianshan glanced at his silly son, then glanced at his shrewd daughter, without saying a word, he just sat in front of the stove and warmed himself with the remaining fire.
After Gu Ping'an washed up and left the kitchen, Gu Lianshan asked, "What do you want to say to Dad?"
Gu Tang first smiled and praised her father: "Your eyes are really sharp, nothing can be hidden from you!"
After she finished praising him, she changed the subject and talked about the East Ear Room: "During the day, I dug out two boxes of rare items in our East Ear Room..."
Gu Lianshan suddenly raised his head, his eyes sparkling: "Rare item? Is it valuable?"
Just as he finished saying this, he realized that his daughter was wrong: "Wait a minute! You said you dug it out? Dad asked you to go to the east ear room to look for things, not to dig things. What were you thinking? Why did you think of digging underground?"
Gu Tang told her father what she had seen in the east ear room, and explained her own inferences, reluctantly explaining why she wanted to dig underground.
Gu Lianshan's eyes were burning with excitement when he heard this: "It's hidden so secretly, it must be something valuable! My dear daughter, tell me quickly, have you opened the two boxes? What rare things are inside?"
Gu Tang paused, not knowing what to say: "Wait here, I'll go get the two boxes, you should see them with your own eyes..."
After saying this, she hurried to the backyard and took out the two boxes from the system backpack.
Gu Lianshan calmed down. His daughter didn't look like she had dug up anything valuable.
When Gu Tang turned around, he had two more boxes in his hands.
Even though he had a bad premonition, Gu Lianshan was still excited for a few moments and kept staring at the box in his daughter's hand.
There was a small table in the kitchen, which was used for the servants to eat. Gu Tang pulled it over, put the box on it, and opened them all for her father to take a look.
Looking at the things in the box, Gu Lianshan was stunned. He rubbed his eyes for a long time to make sure that he was not dazzled!
"Stop rubbing it, Dad. You saw it right." Gu Tang took out everything in the box, then took out the scale and weighed the silver first.
"Tsk! Our family is really wealthy! No wonder we can support two scholars! Look, there are eighty taels of silver!"
Gu Tang handed the scale under her father's nose and signaled her father to look carefully.
The two elders of the Gu family treated their second branch harshly, not because the family was poor, but because the Gu family was very wealthy! They had eighty taels of silver hidden away!
At this moment, Gu Lianshan didn't even look at the silver. He stared at the gold and silver jewelry on the table, stunned.
"Is this true?" His voice trembled, and his outstretched hand was shaking.
Gu Tang put down the scales and nodded: "I bit it a few times with my teeth, it should be true."
She picked up a hairpin and pointed to a spot for her father to look at carefully. "It has the word 'Chen' engraved on it, which should be the surname. I have heard people say before that some wealthy families would mark their jewelry with their surnames and given names, etc."
Hearing this, Gu Lianshan finally understood what his daughter wanted to say. He took the hairpin and looked at it under the oil lamp. Sure enough, there was a very eye-catching word "Chen" engraved on the hairpin.
Gu Tang glanced at her father and asked tentatively, "Dad, among our relatives and friends, have you ever heard of anyone with the last name 'Chen'? These things definitely weren't stolen by my grandparents. They don't have the brains or the means to do so. I wonder if our family hid them for someone else, or if this 'Chen' family has any connection with our family?"
"The surname Chen?" Gu Lianshan looked thoughtful, some distant fragments flashing through his mind.
He seemed to have heard of this surname Chen...
Gu Tang raised her eyebrows. Looking at her father's expression, could it be that he really knew something?
After searching his memory for a long time, Gu Lianshan finally remembered something, but he had overheard it and he didn't know whether he should tell his daughter.
Gu Tang was sharp-eyed and noticed the hesitation on her father's face. She was delighted, thinking that her father really knew it!
"Dad! If you know the origin of these jewels, you must not hide it from me!"
Gu Lianshan paused for a long time before saying, "When Dad was seven or eight years old, I overheard your great-grandmother and your grandma quarreling. Your great-grandmother said that your grandma had worked as a maid in a wealthy family, and that she was a liar who had concealed the fact. When the two were arguing, Dad seemed to have heard something about the Chen family."
"Are you sure?"
Gu Lianshan shook his head hesitantly, "I'm not sure. This happened more than 20 years ago. It's good enough that Dad can remember it. I definitely can't remember more details. But Dad can be sure of one thing, that is, your great-grandmother said that your grandmother used to be a servant girl!
Dad thought, if that’s the case, then these jewelry were most likely given to your grandma by her master when she redeemed herself, or they were given to her by her master during her years as a maid, and your grandma slowly accumulated them.”
Gu Tang was speechless: "More than half of these jewels are made of gold! There is also jade! The various colored jades inlaid on them are rare items. Which master would be so generous to reward a maid?
Even if they really gave her a reward, they would not give jewelry with a surname on it to a girl! Besides, my grandma is such a showy person. If the master really gave her so many good things, she would not bury them underground. She would just put these jewelry on her head and body to show off! "
Gu Lianshan could not refute this.
Indeed, given his mother's indescribable personality, if these things really came from a legitimate source, their heads would have been filled with them long ago.
Now buried underground without seeing the sun, it goes without saying that these things must not see the light of day!
Gu Lianshan sighed, put down the hairpin in his hand, and asked Gu Tang what his plan was: "It's useless to say anything now. Now that you've dug it out, what are you going to do?"
Gu Tang picked up the jewelry and put it back into the box. He said matter-of-factly, "Keep it and hide it. If you need money in the future, soften the gold and silver with fire, and beat them into gold and silver cakes with a hammer. Then, when you take them out to spend, no one will be able to recognize them."
She doesn't care whether these gold and silver jewelry came from legitimate sources or not. That is Feng's own problem. Now that they are in her hands, they are hers!
It's impossible to return it, don't even think about it!
Coincidentally, Gu Lianshan thought the same.
"If these things are kept in your grandma's hands, we don't know whether they will be good or bad in the future. It's better for us to spend them without anyone knowing. This will help your grandma solve a problem. It's been so many years since your grandma kept them hidden. It's really a waste!"
Gu Tang nodded, her father was absolutely right!
The Feng family has been hiding these jewels for all these years. The main reason might be that Mr. Gu didn't know about the jewels.
Old Master Gu is even more ostentatious and concerned about reputation than Mrs. Feng. If you remove the inlaid jade pieces, these gold and silver jewelry would be worth at least two or three hundred taels of silver by weight.
If Mr. Gu really knew, he would have spent the money long ago and bought a house and moved to Bei'an City!
"Hide yourself carefully and don't let anyone see you." Gu Lianshan warned him worriedly.
Glancing at the silver in the box beside him, he picked up a piece of silver and put it in his arms, and said, "You should also keep this silver. If the family is divided, your grandfather and grandmother will definitely give our family a share. With this silver, our family will be more relaxed in the future."
"Didn't grandma yell for meat yesterday? I remember she loves pork, and she always buys the fat meat. Tomorrow we'll go to the inn to pay the money, and ask them to give her a bowl of steamed meat every day. No lean meat, only fat meat. My grandma likes fat meat!"
Gu Tang bent down to pick up the silver while pretending to be cheerful and successfully fooled her father.
Gu Lianshan knew that the Feng family only bought the fattest meat, but he really had no idea whether people liked to eat fatty meat.
But after hearing what Gu Tang said, he suddenly realized that if someone buys the fattest meat, it means he likes to eat fatty meat.
Not to mention making lard, his mother could buy fat about ten times a year, but only make lard two or three times.
There is no need to worry about the remaining fat, it must have been eaten secretly.
"I'll listen to you and give your grandma more good food. As the saying goes, if you eat well and take good care of yourself, your illness will heal faster! If your grandma can stand up again in the future, it will be much easier for us to take care of her!"
Gu Tang raised his head and smiled: "Don't worry, since you took so much money from my grandma, I'll give you plenty of fat pork!"
If the money is not enough, she can give some more herself and make sure Feng has food to eat every day!
After putting away the silver and jewelry, Gu Tang carried the box and left the kitchen.
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