Mr. Gu heard Gu Chengyu calling him, and was ready to step forward to assist. But, Yang Laosan called Wang Yue, so Mr. Gu stood motionless.
Wang Yue helped Yang Laosan up, the two said nothing, supporting each other and quickly disappeared outside the Gu Family’s courtyard door.
"Brother Gu, you have raised a good son! In the future, you can just wait to enjoy blessings! Today’s matter is rely a difference in stance, I’m in a difficult position too! I hope Brother Gu won’t be angry, please forgive !" Lin Lize bowed to Mr. Gu, as a gesture of apology.
"What are you saying, village chief? You have your difficulties too!" Mr. Gu said this, but deep down he was already dissatisfied with him. He didn’t believe that Lin Lize hadn’t initially had the sa intentions as the villagers to covet his family’s silver; he just knew how to speak appropriately.
After Lin Lizheng left, the Gu Family finally returned to peace, though everyone was still sowhat indignant.
"Xiao Bao! You need to be careful with the village chief! You’ve offended him again today, he harbors resentnt because of last ti, I feel he holds a grudge against our family, and now you’ve embarrassed him again, there’s no guarantee he won’t make trouble for us in the future." Mr. Gu said as they entered the house, waiting for Mrs. Lv and the others to bring the al.
"Dad! Don’t worry! The village chief values face! He wouldn’t openly deal with our family! Besides, he’s a smart person; our family will get better and better, could he still keep opposing us? If that’s truly the case, he wouldn’t be able to continue as the village chief either."
Gu Chengyu didn’t believe that soone like the village chief, who usually acts by the book, would do so consistently. Once he makes a move, there’ll be evidence left behind, and if he’s tactless, don’t bla him for exposing him.
"As long as you understand!" Mr. Gu hadn’t even noticed that nowadays he wouldn’t keep family matters from his youngest son, and was accustod to his youngest son offering advice—in other words, Gu Chengyu had gained authority in the family.
Gu Chengyi looked at the little one sitting at the edge of the kang. This younger brother was becoming increasingly unfathomable. It seed that no matter what fell into his hands, he could handle it easily, even their father seems to heed his every word. That’s not good! That’s indeed not good. If in the future, the fifth brother sches against them, would dad stop it?
Is it really a good idea to let the fifth brother study? Not to ntion if he can honor the family, the fifth brother was already crafty, now that he’s studying, he’ll only beco more cunning, and then he might play their brothers around.
Soon, Mrs. Lv and the others brought the dishes over; they were prepared earlier and heated in the pot. Who would have known they’d encounter such a matter upon returning; now, everyone felt a bit hungry.
Mrs. Lv instructed Mrs. Fang and the others to serve the dishes on the table. Gu Chengyu glanced at the braised ribs, seeing their bright color but...
Where’s the at on these ribs? Why does he only see so thin at attached to the bones? No wonder Mr. Gu said the ribs had no at, it turns out ancient ribs truly were just bones, unlike in his past life where ribs had lots of at attached, here all the thin at was trimd off and sold separately. It seems if they want to eat ribs in the future, they’ll have to negotiate with the butcher and spend a few extra pennies per pound.
After the family finished dinner, Gu Chengyu began making soap.
First, he put pig fat in a pot to heat it, estimating by touch when it felt warm enough. Here, it could only be roughly estimated. Then, in the heated lye, which was in wood ash, slowly adding pig fat, and continuously stirring.
Gu Chengyu watched as Mrs. Lv and Mrs. Fang stirred almost enough, then had them pour the soap liquid into the prepared molds, which would just need ti to set until they could be demolded and left in a cool place for a month or two to be ready.
Carefully observing the soap liquid poured into molds, he found the color wasn’t as nice as it was in his past life, probably due to the wood ash, without pure alkali in ancient tis, purifying wood ash was very difficult; looking at the yellowing soap liquid, he thought perhaps it would look better with so petals or essential oils added later.
"Xiao Bao! This yellowish stuff, is it really soap as you said? Why does it look like water? And sticky." As Mrs. Lv and the others worked, Mr. Gu and the others watched nearby, worried about whether this soap could be used for bathing and laundry.
"Dad! It’s not dry yet! It’ll be fine when it dries. It must be stored for over a month. It can’t be used now, it’ll burn your hands." Although Gu Chengyu wasn’t satisfied with its appearance, he had no doubts about its functionality.
"And we still need to move the house! What will happen to this soap? Does it also need to be moved to the other house?" Mrs. Lv worried after hearing Gu Chengyu say it needed to be stored for over a month, and worried about the house construction, fearing there would be no place for the soap.
"Of course, it needs to be moved over there! It’s close to the foot of the mountain, where few people go, isn’t it perfect? This way, no one will discover it, we’ll make a few pieces today! We’ll move to the new house in a couple of days, or else making too many and moving them around is troubleso, and being seen by the villagers wouldn’t be good." Gu Chengyu was eager to make a few pieces first, unexpectedly succeeded imdiately, noting down the proportions he experinted with, and would use these proportions in the future.
"Uncle Sun said that the house can be built the day after tomorrow. We need to call so people to help." Mr. Gu said, lowering his eyes in thought.
"Call Chengxiao from the eldest uncle’s house, get a few people from the village. Alas! Calling people to help now, I don’t know if we can summon anyone, considering that many laborers went to serve their feudal duties this ti. While they face separation of flesh, we’re livelily building a house, wouldn’t that be inappropriate?" Gu Chengyi thought about how many labor forces left from the village this ti, making it difficult to call soone, and it might cause so gossip.
"What are you afraid of? Do you think they’re all foolish? Those who don’t want to go, reluctant to sell their children, will sell their land, not many can go. But this feudal duty afterward, our village’s land is probably going to be less, hearing it was all bought by Mr. Zhao, who gave little silver, even if it offsets the duty’s silver, it’ll likely be a severe blow, making life difficult in the future."
Mr. Gu was not afraid of finding strong laborers, today’s rumors say the whole village is selling land, Mr. Zhao is making quite a fortune again. But he didn’t envy this wealth; Mr. Zhao’s way of earning silver is like throwing people into a pit.
Listening to Mr. Gu’s words, Gu Chengli felt empathetic. He loved land and farming the most; seeing so many fields sold cheaply made him feel uncomfortable. But his family couldn’t afford to buy, so he could only watch helplessly.
"Yes! Families with little land, after paying taxes, have no grain left, selling their land ans renting land from Mr. Zhao, presumably even having thin gruel daily would be tough in the future."
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