HLnovel Chapter 41 Xu Da's Family
Chapter 41 Xu Da's Family
Song Jiaojiao looked at the family and said, "That little girl looks sick. I'll have to spend money on her treatment, and I don't know how long it will take before she can help with the work. Plus, she's so young, what can she do? That boy doesn't look fourteen. He'll need at least two years before he can do heavy work. This half-grown boy has a big appetite. By the time he starts working, I don't know how much food I'll have to eat."
The woman was about to say something after hearing Song Jiaojiao's words when her son stopped her and shook his head at her.
Seeing this, Song Jiaojiao thought to herself, "She's quite clever."
Granny Xu looked troubled. She hadn't expected Madam Song to be so eloquent. She had thought Madam Song was soft-hearted and could fetch a good price. "How much can Madam Song offer?"
"Thirty taels at most," Song Jiaojiao said, staring intently at Granny Xu.
"Madam Song, this is too low! I'm losing money! Add some more!" Granny Xu said, looking at Song Jiaojiao with an incredulous and utterly disbelieving expression.
"Since that's the case, I guess I'm not meant to be with them. Manager Liu, shall we go and look at other places?" Song Jiaojiao said with a relaxed expression, pretending to be about to leave.
Seeing Song Jiaojiao's expression, Granny Xu was unsure whether Song Jiaojiao was satisfied or not. She thought that this family had been with her for quite some time, and they had consumed a considerable amount of food. Besides, although Song Jiaojiao's price didn't offer a huge profit, she was still making some money. It was rare to find someone genuinely interested in buying them, so Granny Xu quickly spoke up.
"Alright, thirty it is, Madam Song, we'll go with the price you said."
"Alright, let's go register now." Seeing that Granny Xu had agreed, Song Jiaojiao thought that since all household servants needed to register with the government, this would be a good way to resolve the matter once and for all.
After registering, Song Jiaojiao led her family to Huichuntang and saw the carriage that Liu Xuewen had sold her. A brown horse was pulling an inconspicuous carriage, and the horse's lines were smooth, indicating that it had been carefully taken care of.
After giving the money to Manager Liu and getting the medicine for the little girl, Song Jiaojiao prepared to leave. "Thank you very much for your help today, Manager Liu. I'll take my leave now."
"Not at all, I wasn't much of a help. Don't forget what the master needs, Madam Song," Manager Liu quickly replied, reminding Song Jiaojiao not to forget to send the persimmon cakes.
"Don't worry, it will be delivered on time the day after tomorrow. Goodbye." After saying that, Song Jiaojiao let the man lead the horse away.
"I forgot to ask your names," Song Jiaojiao said, walking ahead.
The man replied respectfully, "Madam, my name is Xu Da, my son's given name is Sen, my daughter's given name is An, and my wife shares my surname, her given name is Fang."
"Alright, from now on I'll call you Xu Da, and your wife I'll call Xu Fang. Let me tell you about my family. I have two daughters and a son. My eldest son is named Wang Hefan, my eldest daughter is named Wang Muqing, and my youngest daughter is named Wang Muxue. My husband died in battle some time ago."
Our family has severed ties with my husband's family. If they have any ill intentions in the future, don't hesitate to send them away. Your monthly salary is 700 coins, Xu Fang's is 500 coins, Xu Sen's is 400 coins, and Xu An is too young to do much work, so he won't get paid. He gets six sets of clothes a year.
After introducing her family's situation, Song Jiaojiao took Xu Da's family to buy cloth and cotton. The weather was getting colder and colder, and seeing that Xu Da and the others' clothes were not thick enough, she had to buy them clothes first. She bought them linen and cotton shoes that could make three sets for each person, and also bought each family member a set of clothes and two pairs of cotton shoes.
This cost Song Jiaojiao 20 taels of silver. Thinking that she had plenty of grain at home, she went to the general store and bought a lot more grain. She also bought the remaining pork, some steamed buns and mantou to eat on the way, and finally bought two jugs of wine. Thinking that the sweet potatoes in her space were almost full, she went to the blacksmith to make a special spoon. With all these miscellaneous purchases, she had spent almost all the silver she had earned that day.
Song Jiaojiao thought that since the flowers were so short-lived, she needed to find a way to make money quickly.
They bought quite a lot of things, and the carriage was almost overflowing. Luckily, the carriage didn't look big, but the interior was surprisingly spacious. They disassembled everything that could be removed, and just barely managed to squeeze Xu Fang and her children inside. Song Jiaojiao and Xu Da sat on the edge of the carriage, which was a good opportunity to learn how to drive a carriage. It's always good to have an extra skill.
By the time they arrived home, it was completely dark. The late autumn night was still cold, and everyone had eaten dinner and gone to bed early. So, even though Song Jiaojiao returned in a carriage, no one was alerted. It wasn't until the next day that everyone found out that Song Jiaojiao had a carriage.
The new house isn't fully finished yet; it'll probably be done in another three days. In ancient times, there was no such thing as formaldehyde in houses. Once it's finished and ventilated for a couple of days, you can move in on an auspicious day.
The real headache was what to do tonight, since there was nowhere to stay. With no other option, Xu Da had to sleep on the floor in the kitchen with his wife and daughter, while Xu Sen slept on the floor in the main room with Wang Hefan.
Song Jiaojiao left the entire process of feeding the horse and dealing with Xiu Masi to Xu Da.
The next day, when the aunts arrived at Song Jiaojiao's house, they saw four unfamiliar people and assumed they were Song Jiaojiao's relatives. However, when they saw the carriage, everyone was taken aback.
"Jiaojiao, did you rent this carriage?" Aunt Lin pulled Song Jiaojiao aside and asked in a low voice. Ever since Song Jiaojiao gave Aunt Lin the quilt to make, the two families have been visiting each other more often.
"No, Auntie, I bought this. I thought it would be more convenient to have a car, and I happened to come across it, so I bought it," Song Jiaojiao replied with a smile.
"My goodness, that must have cost a lot of money! You're repairing the house and buying a carriage, Jiaojiao, you didn't do anything illegal, did you?" Aunt Lin asked in surprise upon hearing Song Jiaojiao's answer, her voice rising involuntarily. Luckily, they were far away, otherwise everyone would have heard.
Song Jiaojiao knew that Aunt Lin was thinking of her, so she didn't think much of it. She simply told Aunt Lin about buying the recipe, "No, Aunt Lin, it's just that the braised pork was so delicious, so I sold the recipe."
"And those dried persimmons I made last time, I sold them too. Auntie, you know the method, so next year when the persimmons are ripe you can make some earlier and take them to town to sell for some sugar and oil."
"You're quick-witted! We were just thinking about eating them ourselves, we never considered selling them. But those persimmon cakes you made last time were really good, the old folks and kids in the family all loved them. We'll make some earlier next year." Aunt Lin thought about how those numbing persimmons tasted so good after they were made, like eating candy, so sweet. Even if they couldn't sell them, it would be good for them to eat themselves.
"I'll bring some back if I like to eat it," Song Jiaojiao said.
"No way! I can't take what you're going to sell for money. Besides, we found some late-ripening persimmons in the mountains ourselves, and we got quite a few. We'll be able to eat them in a couple of days." Aunt Lin quickly refused. Although she didn't know how much money Song Jiaojiao had made, she knew she had enough at home, so she absolutely couldn't take it. If she took it back, her father-in-law would definitely scold her.