allonlinenovel Chapter 177 Three Mountains of the Old House
Chapter 177 Three Mountains of the Old House
The rumor that the third branch of the Ye family had received help from a noble person spread quickly throughout Shanglin Village like wings, and was also spreading rapidly to the surrounding villages.
At the Ye family's old house, ever since Ye Xiaowu's incident broke out, Liu was forced by the old lady Guo to take care of all the housework at home alone. In just two months, Liu had obviously lost weight.
The round face and plump waist are long gone. The fleshy fingers now have clearly visible finger bones, and the knuckles of the palms are covered with a thin layer of yellow calluses.
After Ye Xiaowu and Erlang were released from the county government office, they had been working in the milk processing workshop, doing heavy physical work such as carrying bags. The originally listless Ye Xiaowu now seemed to be more energetic, and Erlang had obviously become much stronger. It seemed as if in just these two months, he had changed from a reckless young man to a taciturn young farmer.
Although Ye Xiaowen also worked in the milk processing workshop, he did the easiest job in the family. He was mainly responsible for counting and recording the numbers every day. He had not changed much as a whole. Xu and the eldest girl did their job well in the packaging workshop. The mother and daughter, who were already nimble, were among the most efficient workers in the packaging workshop. They even received awards for model workers in the first month of the year.
Dalang and Silang took turns studying in different workshops. After experiencing Ye Xiaowu's experience, both of them seemed to have grown a lot. Dalang became more mature, while Silang became much more humble.
Although the old lady no longer had the service of her maid Ping'er, she still directed Liu around every day, and it seemed that her mood had improved a lot. Her old problem of headaches had rarely occurred recently.
The family had some savings left after selling the land to pay off debts, but this big family had many other places to spend money besides daily living expenses. Now another year had passed, and Dalang was about to reach the age of 20 in two months, and Erlang would also reach the age of 20 next year. However, there was still no arrangement for the marriage of these two young men.
The eldest girl is already seventeen years old this year, and has been a 15-year-old for almost two years, but no matchmaker has ever come to propose marriage. The second girl from Diao Dezhu's family in the village, who is one month younger than the eldest girl, married to the neighboring village. When she returned to her parents' home on the second day of the Lunar New Year, the fat boy who could walk now surrounded Diao Dezhu and kept calling him grandpa, which made Diao Dezhu so happy that his teeth were grinning.
Now, the marriages of these three children have become three huge mountains placing in front of everyone in the old house.
The old lady no longer had any extravagant hopes of finding girls from the county town for Dalang and Erlang. If she could find a clever and skillful girl from the town, she would quickly burn a stick of incense to the old man and thank him for his blessing. The old lady also did not dislike girls from farm families. As long as they were hardworking and decent looking, she would be willing to meet them.
Originally, the old lady still had some expectations for the eldest girl. She hoped that she would find a family with a better financial situation in the county town, and she also expected that the eldest girl would help her parents in the future. But seeing that the eldest girl was already seventeen years old and no one had come to propose marriage, the old lady became a little anxious.
The old lady now feels that if the eldest girl can marry into a family with a more affluent family, she can accept it even if she becomes a concubine. If she cannot even find the opportunity to become a concubine, she can only lower the standard and see if she can find a family with a decent financial situation. The old lady's bottom line is that the eldest girl cannot become someone's concubine, but she seems to have never considered letting the eldest girl marry a peasant like the second girl in Diao Dezhu's family.
Once Dalang and Erlang talk about marriage, they have to talk about the betrothal gift. If Da Niu marries a decent family, the dowry cannot be too shabby. The family situation is like that, so the old lady has to control the money as tightly as possible.
The family's food was the area where the old lady focused on cutting back.
That night, everyone who had worked in the milk processing workshop all day returned to the old house. When they saw the bland dishes on the table, they all missed the days before the New Year when the processing workshop provided meals.
The family sat around the table. Seeing the dishes on the table, none of them had much appetite. However, after a busy day, everyone in the Ye family still held their bowls and concentrated on eating.
Liu held the bowl in her hand, raised her eyes and glanced around secretly. Seeing that everyone was concentrating on eating, she looked at the old lady with a mysterious face and broke the silence first.
"Mom, I heard that the big house behind the processing workshop was built by the third family."
"You hold a big bowl full of food, but it still can't stop you from talking. And you don't know when you ran out to be lazy, and you only hear nonsense coming back."
Seeing the old lady glaring at her, Liu didn't take it seriously and continued speaking with a solemn promise.
"Mom, I'm not lazy. I was at the well when I went to fetch water and heard everyone talking about it. They said they saw four or five ox carts running back and forth several times today, pulling furniture from Carpenter Liu in the county town to the yard behind the workshop, and the money for the furniture was paid by Sanlang's senior brother."
Liu's words made Ye Xiaowen, Xu and Da Niu from the first house all perk up. They also saw ox carts transporting furniture back and forth several times in the processing workshop today. They also saw Sanlang at the scene and thought that Sanlang was helping Boss Zhong to inspect the furniture.
But just now Liu said that it was Sanlang's senior brother who paid the money. This seems a little unreasonable. If Sanlang helped Boss Zhong to inspect the furniture, either Boss Zhong had already paid the money, or Boss Zhong would send someone to the carpentry workshop to pay the money. In the most unlikely case, Sanlang should have taken out the money that Boss Zhong gave him in advance and paid it to Carpenter Liu.
How could it be that Sanlang's senior brother went to pay? This doesn't make sense! Ye Xiaowen, Xu and the big girl, all with puzzled faces, pricked up their ears, ready to listen to what Liu said next.
"Now that the house is built, they have to buy furniture. Such a big house requires a lot of trips by the oxcart. You just like to listen to nonsense and just want to be lazy."
When the old lady saw Liu's confident look, she knew that her habit of listening to gossip had come back again.
"Mom, you didn't understand. Shouldn't Boss Zhong be the one to pay for the furniture? But the villagers who went to watch the excitement today saw with their own eyes that it was Sanlang's senior brother who paid, and he paid with gold ingots. Sanlang's senior brother has no relationship with Boss Zhong, so why should he pay?"
The old lady was so impressed by Liu's gossiping habit that she didn't grasp the main point of the matter. Hearing Liu's question, the old lady also felt that something was a little strange.
Seeing the old lady giving her a puzzled look, Liu smiled slightly and continued.
"Now the rumor in the village is that Sanlang has met a great benefactor and found a good teacher. This senior brother is also a rich young man from a wealthy family. He not only paid for the renovation of this huge house for the third room, but also paid for a whole set of new furniture for the third room."