Gou Dan’s mother smiled so widely her eyes crinkled shut. "My izi is just a simple, happy-go-lucky girl, without a calculating bone in her body. I worry about how she’ll manage when she marries into another family. And Gou Dan? I’m worried sick about him, yet you praise him. He’s not even half as good at studying as Little Shitou. I’m just waiting for him to have that mont of enlightennt you ntioned."
Mother Yang smiled. "I swear, you were born to worry. Why would you worry about a wonderful girl like izi? Whichever family she marries into will surely dote on her. I love it when she cos over to play with my Juhua. My Juhua is a quiet one, but she’s gotten much better playing with your izi and the Liu family’s i. We’re about to have so free ti, so let her co over whenever she’s free. It’s no problem if they get a little noisy here—her father and I don’t mind at all!"
Gou Dan’s mother was absolutely delighted to hear Mother Yang’s words. She could tell that Mother Yang genuinely ant it and wasn’t just being polite.
She chuckled. "Didn’t she go with Juhua to gather water bamboo shoots today? She only really gets along with a few girls in the village, and they all click. I’m not just sending her over to play, you know. I’m always at ease when she’s at your house—you and Brother Changhe are such honest people."
The two won grew more and more cheerful as they chatted. If Qin hadn’t urged her to leave, Gou Dan’s mother would have kept talking for half the day.
After the couple left, Zheng Changhe smiled. "What were you two talking about? You seed to be having such a lively conversation."
Mother Yang laughed. "What else? Just the usual village gossip. It’s strange, though. She seed especially warm today."
Zheng Changhe said, "Gou Dan’s mother is a shrewd woman. Perhaps she wants to ask us for a favor?"
Mother Yang replied, "We’re just farrs. What could she possibly need from us? Her family is doing well; they’re not poor."
As they spoke, Qingmu returned for a second load. The three of them then packed up and headed ho together.
Juhua had already set the table for dinner. The main dish, freshly stir-fried, was the water bamboo shoots. The green shoots turned a pale purple after being stir-fried with red chili peppers and garlic, even staining the bowl red.
This was from the juices of the water bamboo shoots.
After a whole morning of picking water bamboo shoots, Juhua’s fingers were stained just like they would be from peeling Shanyu vine skins—this ti, a purplish-red that was almost black.
Qingmu lit a bundle of dried mugwort leaves. The mosquitoes at this ti of year were vicious, and a single bite would leave a huge welt. Juhua also placed a basin of water to the side.
As Zheng Changhe ate, he let out a comfortable sigh. "The busy season is finally almost over. We can take our ti with the rest."
Mother Yang laughed. "You wish. Have you forgotten about the house? If we don’t rebuild it soon, it’ll be unlivable. The last ti it rained, the back of the kitchen leaked and got the rice grains all wet."
At the ntion of building a house, the whole family grew excited.
Juhua said, "I’m looking forward to building the house, but I’m also scared! Building a house will be a huge hassle for days on end, with so much to do. Just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle."
Qingmu quickly reassured her, "That’s why we’re waiting until after the autumn harvest to start. It’ll be more convenient to hire help then. We’ll need to ask a lot of people to help, and we’ll have to hire soone to cook, too. We definitely can’t let you do all the cooking alone. That would be exhausting."
Juhua said, "That’s easy for you to say. It’s our own house we’re building. How can we rely completely on others? We’ll have to oversee everything, won’t we? It’s going to be total chaos."
Qingmu said, "It won’t be. Don’t you worry about it so much. Dad and I are here. I’ll do the accounts in a bit and buy the bricks and tiles first. Then we’ll find a good day to start construction."
Zheng Changhe added, "Daughter, building a house is a big deal. The villagers will all co to help. As for you, just help your mother however much you can. Leave the rest for your brother and to manage."
Mother Yang said, "If we let a little girl like you worry about such a big affair, then what are we for? Your uncle and your cousin Laifu will be coming to help. And what about your Third Uncle Zhao, Uncle Zhang, and the Liu Family? Aren’t they all coming to help? We know all these people well, and we can trust their work."
Juhua thought about it and realized it was true. There were indeed many families who could help. ’As for the cooking, hmm, I have to get Liu Xiaoi to co keep company. Otherwise, if it’s all married won helping, I’ll feel awkward being stuck in the middle.’
So, after dinner, while Mother Yang cleared the dishes, and after Qingmu helped Juhua apply an egg-white face mask, he sat down under the lamp to calculate the cost of building the house. With Zheng Changhe and Juhua constantly asking questions and offering suggestions, they finally ca up with a small construction budget.
Building a brick-and-tile house, and six rooms at that—they also had to prepare rooms for when Qingmu got married—was no small expense. After much calculation, no matter how they tried to save, it would still cost around twenty-so taels of silver. If they were a little more lenient with the budget, it would be thirty taels.
Mother Yang finished washing the dishes and ca over to listen to the three of them do their accounting. When she heard the total, she felt a pang of heartache. "We don’t have much silver left. Aren’t we just eating into our savings?"
She was terrified of spending too much of the family’s surplus silver. She never again wanted to live those days of having just enough to get by, with no room for error.
Zheng Changhe said helplessly, "This is already very frugal. We’re buying the wood cheaply from the village, cut from Little Qing Mountain, and the village chief isn’t overcharging us. For the pigsty’s adobe bricks, Qingmu and I will start making them tomorrow, and we’ll use thatch for the roof. The stones for the courtyard wall are ones we’ve gathered ourselves, so we don’t need to buy bricks. We’ve also saved a lot of pork, so we won’t need to spend much on buying food." He had cut the lumber long ago and piled it up on the mountain.
Qingmu added, "It’s mainly the bricks and tiles that cost silver. If we were building ramd-earth walls, it really wouldn’t cost that much."
Juhua comforted Mother Yang, "Once this house is built, we’ll be living in it for a long, long ti. Besides, the two pigs we got last year are ready for market. I don’t think we need to wait for the New Year—pork prices are lower then. If we slaughter and sell them now, won’t we make so silver back? Then we can just get new piglets to raise. It’s all the sa. As long as we have inco, there’s nothing to fear. The real fear is idly eating away our savings until there’s nothing left."
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