Money

Mrs. Liu stood by the window, watching the interaction between the two children, with a smile playing on her lips. She sighed and turned away.

Daji lowered his head and followed.

Mrs. Liu stopped in her tracks and said, "Let them be. There's no need to stop them." As for the County Magistrate Fu, we need not concern ourselves with him.

Daji agreed.

Mrs. Liu turned to face forward and said softly, "There's no need to worry about old acquaintances." People come and go, but Qier has never had any interaction with them.

So, there's no need to be too concerned.

Although that's what she said, both the White family and their descendants were saddened by the mention of County Magistrate Fu. Mrs. Liu kept her sadness hidden, but Baishanbao couldn't help but cry at night.

He had long forgotten his father because he had no memory of his existence. But he had grown up hearing about him, and because he had no father, he had always been bullied. This realization dawned on him even at a young age, highlighting the importance of having a father who would protect him.

For three consecutive days, his small pillow was wet with tears.

Mrs. Liu saw all of this but did not intervene.

But soon, Baishanbao's little head was no longer filled with dreams about his father, as he decided to dig up his ginger.

His ginger was growing exceptionally well, better than Manbao's, plump and in long strings. He loosened the soil with a small hoe, grasped the ginger leaves, and pulled out a root.

Baishanbao was very happy and went to his grandmother to exchange the ginger for money.

Mrs. Liu gave him a string of coins, and Baishanbao was overjoyed. He showed the money to Manbao, saying, "Look, I earned a lot of money."

Manbao was not envious at all. She ran back to her room, took out her bamboo box from Keke, and came out to show him, "I have more than you."

Old Zhou was sitting on the doorstep smoking. Upon hearing this, he tapped his pipe and quietly stood up to approach and take a closer look.

Manbao squatted in the yard and opened her box to show him her money.

There was a small pile of scattered copper coins and four strings of neatly tied copper coins. Manbao counted the coins and said, "I only need twenty-two more coins, and I'll have enough for another string."

Manbao proudly said, "When my fifth brother returns from the county town, I will definitely have another string."

Baishanbao was envious and asked, "How did you earn so much?"

"If I didn't eat meat every day, I could save even more," Baishanbao counted on his fingers. "My fifth brother and the others can sell several hundred wen worth of ginger every day." In winter, it seems like more people are eating ginger.

"Huh, didn't you say that we should eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer?"

"Yes, my friend said that, but it's strange." "They all eat ginger in winter."

Old Zhou thought to himself, "Two fools, ginger is harvested in autumn and winter. If you don't eat it during that time, who would dig it up to eat when it's not fully grown?"

He quietly took another look at the money in Manbao's red box and got a rough idea.

All the small money was held by Manbao, and Old Zhou never knew how much they earned, but he knew that Manbao kept her money separate.

Manbao said the money was hers, so it was hers.

The money was divided equally among the fifth and sixth brothers and Manbao, but the two boys were very thrifty. They even bought vegetarian buns for lunch when they went into town, unlike the fourth brother, who only had four wen and still wanted to buy meat buns.

And since Manbao had money again, she started buying meat for the family. She would either ask Zhou Erlang to buy some when he went to the market in the morning or request Zhou Wulang to purchase some from the county town.

Old Zhou calculated how much money Manbao had spent recently and had a rough idea of how much the fifth and sixth brothers had earned during this time.

After completing the calculation, Old Zhou felt satisfied and intentionally discussed with his wife before going to bed, "It's winter, and our fourth son will be returning from his service soon." I think we can start preparing to build a house.

Qian nodded, "Just build it on the adjacent empty land, extending it out and opening a door in the courtyard."

Old Zhou nodded and said, "Since we're building, I'm thinking of adding two more rooms." Let's build a seven-room house.

Qian looked at her husband in surprise.

Old Zhou habitually twisted his hand and said, "The fourth son is getting married, and the fifth son is also about to get engaged." They both need their own rooms, so we need to build three. Manbao is also grown up and a scholar, so we need to build a room for her as well. "The grandchildren are getting older, so I thought of building a few more rooms for them to live in."

This was different from what they had discussed before, and Qian frowned.

The house they currently lived in was built the year Manbao turned one, and it cost a lot of money to construct the six spacious rooms, all made of stone and blue bricks. It was not the best in the village, but it was still considered good.

Before that, they lived in a small, low half-mud, half-thatched house with small windows. Even during the day, it was rare to see any light inside.

Manbao might not be used to it, or she might be weak, as she had always cried a lot. She cried for half a year, and then it rained a lot that year. As a result, she developed many red rashes on her body, which frightened Old Zhou and Qian, who feared for the child's life.

Later, the doctor said that the place they lived in was too damp.

Old Zhou decided to bite the bullet and use the money he had hidden to construct these five stone rooms. He even enlarged the windows in the main room.

In the summer, he would sleep with Manbao near the well-ventilated and dry window, where they could also occasionally bask in the sun.

During the winter, they would reside in the inner room.

It was only in the past two years that Manbao started sleeping separately.

They had discussed it before, and the fourth son was going to get married, so he needed his own room. But the fifth and sixth sons were not in a hurry, so the extra room would be for Manbao. When the fifth son also wanted to get married, they would add another room.

But now, Old Zhou wanted to build seven rooms at once.

Qian looked at him with a very peculiar expression.

Old Zhou coughed lightly and said, "Since we're building, let's construct everything at once." Isn't the fourth son almost finished repaying the money? "With the contributions from the eldest son and the others, it should be enough to build the house, don't you think?"

Qian remained silent for a moment and said, "But the fourth son still needs to get married."

Old Zhou sighed and looked worried.

Manbao, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but reach out and touch their eyebrows, and said quickly, "Dad, Mom, I also have money." "I'll help you build the house."

Old Zhou hugged her and said, "Good girl, these rooms are for your brothers. You can lend them money to build the house, and I'll ensure they pay you back later."

Qian finally understood what he was planning.

Manbao, unaware of everything, innocently said, "Didn't I also get a room?" Of course, I'll contribute as well. "My brothers don't need to pay me back."

"What room?" You have two rooms: one for sleeping and one for studying. In the future, you can also invite the young master of the Bai family to do his homework at our house.

Qian glared at him and said, "Shut up."

With Manbao occupying two rooms at home, what would the daughters-in-law think?