76: Chapter 76: Renovating the Sparrow Courtyard (2)_1 76: Chapter 76: Renovating the Sparrow Courtyard (2)_1 With the door now opening to the outside, there was no need to keep bowing to the people from Old Pei’s House every ti we crossed paths, and with wooden boards pasted on the walls, the room was also cleaner.
The kang bed in the room was re-tiled, and another layer of wooden boards was lined up and nailed to the walls.
A new, sturdy, and firm door was installed on the outside.
The old door panels were repurposed for the small kitchen; one was used as a door, and the other was sawed in half to make a cutting board.
A fence was built around the kitchen to another side, forming a miniature courtyard with two main rooms and one small kitchen.
After tidying up, Pei Qin stood in the yard with hands on her hips, quite satisfied, “Though the sparrow is small, it has all its vital organs!”
But the silver was almost spent!
Si Ya dragged her little face in dissatisfaction and complained.
Lady Chen and Lady Zhu, after hearing the clatter from this side for a whole day, wanted to co over and look but feared being questioned about the division of the family assets.
Pei Wenlee thickened her skin to co and check out what was done, and when she went back, she gossiped that “They must have hidden quite a bit of money!
Otherwise, where would the money co from to buy those things!
Where else would they get the money?
It must be stolen!”
“If the family’s silver hasn’t diminished, then don’t go around spouting nonsense!” Old Pei’s darkened face hadn’t changed all day.
Pei Wenlee secretly pouted, unconvinced.
If they hadn’t stolen the money, where would it have co from!?
She thought about the incident of getting lost while going up the mountain and also about Pei Qin losing her way when going to the market in town, grinding her teeth.
They must have secretly sold sothing to earn money, and then hid the money without reporting it, before they talked about dividing the household!
Definitely!
Didn’t they sell a bunch of pheasant eggs and wild persimmons last ti!?
But now the family had already been divided, and it was too late to say anything.
Smoke from cooking rose in the small courtyard, where Lady Fang and San Ya, together with Si Ya, were all squeezing into the small kitchen.
Pei Qin was outside on the ground, using a stick to teach Pei Wendong how to read.
Millet porridge, corn pancakes, stir-fried tofu with cabbage.
This was the first dinner in the new household.
Although it was a simple al, sitting around a makeshift small table with half a door panel for legs, they couldn’t help but smile.
Because the kang bed had been retiled and was a bit damp, they kept burning charcoal.
After tidying up and lying down on the warm kang at night.
“It truly seems that having endured so many hard days, even this feels like luxury!” Pei Qin exclaid.
Lady Fang’s eyes moistened, “It’s all because of mother…”
“Alright!
Alright!
After a long day, let’s sleep early!
We’ll get up early tomorrow to go up the mountain!
Once we earn so silver, we can live in a big house, wear new clothes, and eat the best food!” Pei Qin said, her ambition apparent as she painted a picture of a comfortable life if they stuck with her.
Lady Fang held back her tears and nodded with a smile, “Mother believes that if we all work hard together, we can certainly have a good life!”
In another room, Si Ya finally couldn’t hold back her complaints that Pei Qin had spent too much money.
There was no need to nail wooden boards all around the room.
It might look clean, but after fixing up the house, the silver was all gone.
Otherwise, two taels of silver could have been used to buy mixed grains and vegetables, and salt, enough to get them through the winter!
Now, there weren’t many bamboo shoots on the mountain, and bamboo rats weren’t caught every ti either.
Lady Fang was already thinking about doing embroidery work.
Though her skills had fallen behind over the years, she could still make so money doing embroidery to buy vegetables and salt.
At this mont, all sorts of strange thods to earn money were popping up in Pei Qin’s mind.
So were not suitable for now, but making small trinkets to sell wouldn’t earn big bucks, but it was still money.
So at daybreak, after getting little harvest from the mountain, Pei Qin brought back a few winter bamboo shoots and asked Lady Fang to fry them for a al; she would go to Sun Tiezhu’s house in the afternoon.
They had already started selling stuff; she wondered how the sales were!?
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