stingy landlady

Chapter 3 Freshmen

At night, amidst the chirping of cicadas, wisps of smoke rise from chimneys.

Except for the third and fifth sons, everyone else in the family started eating dinner. Nothing special happened; life was just like any other day, except the two elderly people seemed a little quieter.

Guizhi's mother kept the children quiet, not daring to make a sound. After dinner, Daya, Erya, and Guizhi cleaned up the dishes as usual.

Grandpa spoke up: "Second brother, fourth brother, your eldest brother has asked to move out and live separately." His words shocked the second brother's family, and the fourth brother's mouth dropped open.

"Eldest brother, we shouldn't separate the family while our parents are still alive," the fourth brother said to the eldest brother.

"Over the years, my eldest brother has been unable to have children, and he has only had a few daughters. As he gets older, it's hard to say whether he will be able to have a son."

My second and third brothers' nephews will be able to take care of many things in a few years. My fourth brother is also getting married and having his own children. Your eldest sister-in-law and I will take the girls and move out to live separately; we don't want to be a burden on the family.”

The second son and his wife looked at each other, but this time they didn't say much. They just looked at the two elderly people and then at the eldest brother's family.

"It's up to my parents to decide."

"Eldest brother, we have fifteen mu of land at home, and we'll give you two mu."

There are twenty taels of silver. Fifth Brother needs a lot of silver for his studies, so I'll give you two taels.

I'll set up a stove for you tomorrow so you can cook for yourself. I'll give you 100 jin of corn, and we can eat the vegetables from the garden together until the autumn harvest.

Let's use the tools together for now, and you can get the rest gradually when you have the means. I'll give you two hens, but we won't share the pig; we'll slaughter it for the New Year and give you the meat.

The three little geese are the same; they'll share meat during the New Year. Our family's circumstances are limited, so this is about it. Just live in this house for now; you can build another one when you're wealthier.

We two old folks are getting on in years. Now that we've separated our households, you have to provide for our retirement. You should give us 50 coins a month, either monthly or all at the end of the year.

In the future, when the family splits up again, the pension fund will be paid according to this amount first!

If either of us elderly people gets sick and needs a lot of money, the eldest child should also help out appropriately.

Does anyone have a problem with this?

Everyone expressed no objection.

The family's situation was clear: many people, little land, low grain yields, and they had to scrimp and save to support a student, hoping he would pass the imperial examination at the county level to be exempt from taxes and perhaps even become an official. The fifth son had passed the county-level examination and was still studying at the academy, so they had no choice but to continue supporting him.

They've separated, and their thoughts are all different. The second son and his wife feel they've finally gotten rid of this huge burden. The fourth son doesn't seem to care at the moment. Whether they separate or not, they're still his older brother and sister-in-law.

Guizhi's father and Guizhi's mother felt lost about the future, but the thought that the whole family would no longer be scolded made them feel relieved.

The three sisters chattered excitedly, saying they wouldn't have to do so much work anymore. Now that they had some free time, what should they do?

“Go make money!” Guizhi said.

"How are we going to make money? What can a few young girls like us do?" Daya whispered.

"Big sister, second sister, let's go to town to sell things."

"What are you selling? What are you selling?"

“We cook and sell our food, which doesn’t require much capital. After setting up the stove, we cook our own food and put it in lunchboxes. We buy a few kinds of vegetables and meat, stir-fry them, and put the rice and vegetables together in the lunchboxes. Then we take them to town to sell.”

"Will anyone buy it? What if it can't be sold?"

"Eat it yourself! Hahaha!"

"Shh! Don't make a sound. Tomorrow we're going to make bamboo chopsticks, a lot of them. We definitely need chopsticks for people to use when we sell food, otherwise how are we supposed to get them to eat with their hands? Haha!"

"Mmm! Sanya is so smart!"

"Sanya's brain got sharper after her trip to town. Hehe."

The next day, the old man asked the village chief to bring over the documents, and the division of the family property was officially formalized. Everyone had no objections, and each person signed the documents, making three copies: one for the grandfather and one for Guizhi's father, and one for the village chief.

Several men began building a stove in the outer room of Guizhi. Originally, there were only two small stoves for heating the kang (a heated brick bed), but now it was quick to dismantle them and rebuild the stove.

Guizhi's house was simple. Upon entering, there was a small kitchen with a large pot and a stove for cooking. Both kang beds were heated at the same time. There was another door leading to the inner room, with two kang beds, one large and one small, on the north and south sides. In the middle was a passageway, and a square eight-immortal table was placed against the wall, where some water cups and other sundries were placed.

Because of poverty, they had practically nothing. The south kang (heated brick bed) was the large one, where Guizhi's parents and Siya slept, while the north kang was the small one, where the three sisters slept together. There was a cabinet on each kang for storing clothes. The quilts were neatly folded and placed on top of the cabinets.

Guizhi's father went to Uncle Carpenter to have a small wooden table made, about a foot high, which could be placed on the kang (a heated brick bed) for eating.

Imagine the whole family sitting together on the warm kang (heated brick bed) for a meal – it sounds so cozy. Although it's summer, it's still quite cool in the north in the mornings and evenings, so cooking at night is essentially heating the kang, saving firewood.

Today is the first day after the family split up, and also the first time Guizhi's family has cooked a meal together. They invited her grandparents, the village chief, and two uncles to their home for dinner. This symbolizes everyone's support for a prosperous future.

Second Aunt and Guizhi's mother went to the garden and picked green beans, pulled up a few potatoes, picked a few cucumbers, and pulled up a few scallions.

Daya went to the tofu shop and bought several large blocks of tofu. Guizhi's father killed a hen that had just been slaughtered, simply because Guizhi said:

"Dad! Keeping two chickens is a waste of food. When we have more money in the future, we'll buy lots of chicks to raise, and then we can sell them when they grow up!"

Guizhi's father thought it made sense; they didn't even have enough food for their own family, so they decided to kill a chicken first. That way, they wouldn't have to buy any more meat. There were four dishes in total: stewed green beans, chicken stewed with potatoes, cucumber salad, and tofu with scallions.

The meal looked quite lavish, presentable enough to impress. The village chief briefly inquired about the reasons for the family separation, and the grandparents explained that they were simply living separately and remained a family. They added that they would help each other out in times of difficulty.

Everyone enjoyed a delicious meal with meat and vegetables.

The next morning, Guizhi's family got up early as usual, but suddenly felt that there was nothing to do.

The clothes for several people are easy to wash. There's not much work to do in the fields right now, and breakfast is just for the few of them in the family—simple and simple. Guizhi said:

"How about we go back to town and find out more?"

Er Ya said:

"Didn't you say you were going to sell food? Going to town would cost a lot of money. It would be different if we sold food!"

"Then you need food containers to sell meals, otherwise how can you carry them by hand?"

Guizhi then added:

"We need to go to Uncle Carpenter's to order it first!"

Guizhi's father agreed. So he took Guizhi to the home of Xu the carpenter, where they used to have a cooking table.

"Brother Wang, you're here! Now that we've separated and are living separately, is there anything else I can do for you?"

Carpenter Xu greeted him with a smile.

He and Guizhi's father are good friends; they grew up together, and he didn't charge them for the last meal.

"My girls want to order some food boxes. They're thinking of doing something themselves to see if they can earn some money to buy hair accessories."

Guizhi chimed in, "Uncle Xu, I'd like to order a smaller food box. How much would it cost per one?"

"That depends on the type, whether it has carvings or something, and what kind of compartments it has inside."

Guizhidao:

"Uncle Xu, keep it simple, no carvings, just one partition inside, one side for rice and the other for vegetables. It doesn't need to be too tall or too big."

Guizhi held up the carpenter's wooden board to compare it to the size of a modern 1980s aluminum lunchbox, and then communicated with Carpenter Xu. She also asked if they had any chopsticks.

Xu the carpenter had ready-made planks; all I needed to do was cut them to the right size and assemble them, and there were no restrictions on the quality of the wood. I immediately set to work and made one; the lid was a sliding type, which was both airtight and insulated, and convenient.

"Sanya, your uncle doesn't need much. I'll give you a pair of chopsticks for two coins for the food box."

"Dad, let Uncle Xu make thirty sets first. Uncle, can he finish them today?"

Guizhi's father smiled and said to Carpenter Xu:

"Brother Xu, look at this kid, he's so impulsive. He doesn't even give people some time."

They were the same; once the family separated, they didn't know what to do.

Carpenter Xu smiled:

"It's nothing, Brother Wang, we're like family. It's such a small thing, I'll get it done for you tonight. The planks are all ready, it'll be quick."

After the food boxes were ordered and the two returned home, Guizhi said to her family:

"Mom and Dad, we need to go to town today to buy some rice and millet. We'll also process our corn into small pieces to make mixed rice. We also need to buy some vegetables; it'll be easier to sell rice if we have vegetables to go with it."

Daya spoke up: "We still have a chicken at home, let's kill it and make a dish."

"Hmm, let's go to the vegetable garden and pick some green beans and dig up a few potatoes. Let's avoid spending money if we can!" Er Ya suggested.

"Let's buy a small pot so we can cook on the stove, and some eggs too. We need to figure out how many dishes we'll make and how to arrange the thirty food boxes."

Guizhi's mother spoke up: "Stewed chicken with potatoes, buy some pork, stew pork with green beans, and there are still chives in the garden, so stir-fried chives with eggs. That makes three meat dishes. We'll also make a vegetarian dish."

"Let's make cucumber salad, stir-fried bok choy, and some tofu," Daya said.

Guizhi made the decision and said:

"Let's start with this for the first day. We'll put one meat dish and one vegetable dish in each box. With that, we can have thirty boxes and choose whatever we like."

The group immediately sprang into action. Guizhi's father and Guizhi took one tael of silver to town to buy rice, meat, and seasonings.

Rice costs 20 coins per pound. I bought 5 pounds and spent 100 coins. Millet is a coarse grain. It costs 10 coins per pound. I bought 5 pounds and spent 50 coins.

I bought five catties of lard for 100 coins, and another 100 coins of pork belly, but I only received less than three catties of meat. However, they gave me two large bones with no meat on them.

They bought salt and soy sauce, spending fifty coins, and then bought two pieces of floral cloth for thirty coins to make a basket cover. The father and daughter gritted their teeth and bought six steamed buns for the family, one for each person as a treat. It was a good thing! Because they had a lot of things, they had to spend two coins to take an oxcart home.

That evening, Carpenter Xu delivered thirty sets of food boxes with chopsticks and paid the bill.

Yesterday, we were busy with the division of the family property, and the sisters didn't have time to make the bamboo chopsticks they had promised to make. Today, Daya and Erya took some time to quickly whittle about ten pairs of chopsticks. Guizhi and her two older sisters boiled water and scalded the food containers and chopsticks, and put them away for tomorrow.

The next day, before dawn, the whole family got up. Guizhi's mother cooked two kinds of rice in a big pot, Guizhi boiled water on the stove, and Guizhi's father killed a chicken. Erya went to buy tofu, and Daya went to the garden to pick vegetables. The whole family was mobilized.

Siya would play by herself in the room, and when she got tired, she would cry a few times. When no one paid attention to her, she would fall asleep again.

After cooking and packing the food into containers, it was already past 7 AM. Having been busy all morning, Guizhi's mother suddenly remembered and said:

"Oh no! They didn't cook for us!"

Guizhi pointed to the dishes she had prepared today and said:

"Is that all you're going to eat, Mom? There's still so much left!"

Guizhi's mother, Li, said:

"But those are meant to be kept for resale!"

Guizhi's father made the final decision:

"Let's eat our fill before we go to town!"

The head of the household spoke first, and the whole family tasted the food they were preparing to sell. Er Ya said:

"Mom, I think this is the best meal I've ever eaten!"

Siya, her mouth glistening with oil, exclaimed, "Delicious! Mom, you eat!"

Seeing his family working happily and eating joyfully, Guizhi's father's confusion after the family division vanished instantly. This was the new life he wanted!