Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty

Chapter 39: Chapter 38: Superficial Chapter 39: Chapter 38: Superficial Dinner was thick corn porridge, braised meat, stir-fried cucumbers, and roasted eggplant.

They had initially thought that Mrs. Chen would come, but she didn’t. Chen Ming had Chen Alu deliver half of the braised meat to Chen Ye’s house, and also invited Chen Ye and his son to come for dinner the next night to discuss building a house the day after.

Chen Alu took a quick glance at the food on the table and hurried off with his slight limp.

Mrs. Wang called out to him from the door, “Don’t rush, we will wait for you.”

When Alu came back, the family sat down on the bed and began to eat.

Seeing the two little boys devour the braised meat like they wanted to swallow their own tongues, and even Chen Ming was thoroughly enjoying himself, Chen Afu wondered, was the braised meat really that delicious?

Chen Afu tasted a piece and, while fragrant, it didn’t quite taste like the braised meat from his past life; rather, it was more similar to red-cooked meat.

Chen Dabao smacked his lips contentedly and declared, “Being rich is great. You can eat to your heart’s content and even have braised meat.”

Chen Alu asked Chen Ming, “Dad, are we living like petite bourgeoisie now?”

Chen Ming laughed and said, “A little bit. If we were to convert all our silver into fields, we should be considered well-off.”

Chen Afu smiled, “Then let’s work hard to become petite bourgeoisie, then bigger bourgeoisie.”

He thought about the wallet of broken gold and pearls; even if they sold just a few, they should be able to rise to the level of petite bourgeoisie. Only, with the panic caused by Jin Yanzi among the capital city’s Silver Towers, which had spread to nearby county towns, they dare not sell these things now.

That girl is a real troublemaker.

Mrs. Wang laughed, “I wouldn’t dare to dream of becoming landowners. I’m already very content with our current life.”

Chen Dabao had always trusted Chen Afu, and stated, “Grandma should trust my mom. If mom says we can become landowners, then we can.”

Everyone laughed at his words.

The following morning, when Chen Afu got up, she saw Mrs. Wang already busy in the kitchen.

Chen Afu saw that Mrs. Wang had only boiled one egg, so she took four more eggs from a small basket and boiled them, saying, “Our family has sick and young members, and Mom and I work hard. We have to eat well too. Don’t worry about running out of money. We’ll just earn more when we do.”

Not only did they wash the pickles and mix in some sugar, they also had Chen Dabao pick a couple of cucumbers from the field. They smashed the cucumbers and mixed them to eat.

Though Mrs. Wang felt they should be more frugal, she didn’t object to her daughter’s suggestions.

After the meal, Mrs. Wang had to go to the county town’s Embroidery Workshop to pick up some embroidery work, Chen Afu persuaded her to take less work so she wouldn’t strain her eyes in the evening. Chen Ming also asked her to buy three catties of Xiao Yuanchun wine which Chen Ye liked, one catty for that night and two to gift him.

If it weren’t for Mrs. Hu’s greed, Chen Ming would have liked to send some gifts to his mother and elder brother too. For now, he just had to bear with it.

Furthermore, Chen Afu asked Mrs. Wang to buy a set of brush, ink, ink-stone, and some letter paper as she felt it was time for Alu and Dabao to learn how to write, and she wanted to learn as well.

Though Mrs. Wang was budget-minded she was still willing to buy the writing supplies. She too hoped her children would read more books and have a successful future.

In the late afternoon, Mrs. Wang and Chen Afu got busy in the kitchen. They were making dumplings with chives and pork filling, Mrs. Wang rolled out the dough and Chen Afu stuffed it.

This was the first time their family made dumplings. Not surprisingly, Dabao was excited, but even Alu was unusually excited.

As the family were chatting and joking, Mrs. Chen arrived.

She spoke as soon as Mrs. Wang entered the room, “That Mrs. Hu sure is a nosy one. She caught wind yesterday of your family making big money selling sewing baskets, and by late afternoon she wanted to bring her entire family over for dinner. Your eldest brother scolded her, which unfortunately meant I couldn’t come over either.” She then lowered her voice, “People in the village are saying that your family made four or six taels from selling sewing baskets, is that true?”

Chen Ming replied with a smile, “Hmm, that’s about right. Once we’re done building our house, we’ll bring Alu to the capital city for medical treatment.”

Mrs. Chen laughed, her face filled with wrinkles, “Those baskets are pretty, but I didn’t think they would sell for so much.” She then asked Chen Ming, “Do you have enough money? I heard the treatment at Qianjin Medical Clinic is expensive, it costs at least five taels. I have over one tael saved up, you can use it for Alu’s treatment. As long as Alu’s leg is cured, I can die in peace.”

Chen Ming hurriedly replied, “That money is for your final expenses, mom. You keep it, we have enough…”

Mrs. Chen took a closer look at Chen Ming, pulling him towards the doorway for better light, “You seem to be looking much better, don’t you?”

Chen Ming replied with a smile, “Hmm, I have been feeling better these days. My breath comes easier, and I cough less.”

Just at that moment, Chen Ye and his son, Mrs. Hu, Chen Dahu, and Chen Daya arrived.

As soon as Mrs. Hu entered the room, she complained to Mrs. Wang, “She’s family, she knows how to make those sewing baskets, why didn’t she teach me and let us earn some more money?”

Afu quickly explained, “My mother has been busy with embroidery work, she didn’t have time to make sewing baskets. My father and I made those baskets, and we didn’t expect them to sell this well, so we didn’t tell anyone. If Auntie wants to learn, I can tell you today.”

Mrs. Hu protested, “Do I still need you to tell me now? The entire village knows how to make them now. Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

Usually, Mrs. Chen would save face for Mrs. Hu and replied, “Old sister-in-law, it was me who didn’t let my second daughter-in-law tell you. It’s not that we don’t trust you, but we don’t trust your family. Whenever something good happens, you can’t help but go back and talk about it, and none of your family members ever do any hard work. If they heard of this idea, wouldn’t they start looking for others to do it? If everyone knows about it and starts making a fuss, how would my second son’s family continue making money? Alu’s leg cannot be delayed any longer.”

Chen Ye also scolded Mrs. Hu with a frown, “You are so short-sighted for a woman, my second brother’s family made a bit of money for a change and you meddle in it.”

Afu found it somewhat amusing; thankfully Mrs. Hu was overshadowed by these two dominating characters and couldn’t cause any troubles.

Mrs. Hu began to animate her grievances of how Chen Ye, being the eldest brother, provided for Chen Ming’s education, and how she, being the elder sister-in-law cared for her younger brother-in-law, “… It’s pitiful how hard we’ve worked, yet we have never worn silk clothing.”

Chen Ye was initially pleased to hear her words, but her last sentence made him blush and he retorted, “What do you think you’re saying, woman? We peasants do manual labor every day; we’re not the kind of people who wear silk clothing, are we?”

Chen Ming quickly handed Chen Ye the jar of Xiao Yuanchun liquor, “We did earn some money this time, but we have to take Alu for his leg treatment in the capital city. I know you’ve helped us a lot over the years, so I bought a couple pounds of Xiao Yuanchun. In the future, when we have earned more money, we will let mother and elder brother, elder sister-in-law wear silk clothes.”

He didn’t want to bring up Mrs. Hu, but in order not to embarrass Chen Ye too much, he mentioned her after all.

Chen Ye blushed and tried to refuse, but Mrs. Chen said, “Just accept it. It’s from your younger brother, he is truly grateful for your help over the years.”

Only then did Chen Ye accept.

During lunch, they discussed repairing the house the next day.

In the evening, after Dabao had gone to bed, Afu drew rough sketches of the Bird’s Nest and the Sydney Opera House. She wasn’t used to using a brush, so she used charcoal. The Bird’s Nest was simpler and looked almost like the real thing. As for the Sydney Opera House, she could only draw from memory, but it didn’t matter since Jin Yanzi hadn’t seen the original anyway. She drew late into the night, then put the drawings into space, but Jin Yanzi hadn’t returned yet.

That little creature, he didn’t even come home yesterday. Who knows where he went off to.

The next day, The Chens’ second house was bustling with activity. Because the courtyard wall had to be built with mud bricks, they hired an extra person, making a total of six people.

Mrs. Wang had to do embroidery work, so Afu took on the task of preparing lunch.

……
Thank you for the sachet from skyblue08 and the wallet from Snow Fox and Hera. Many of you have said that updates are too slow. This is mainly because I am spending a lot of time revising “The Peasant Girl’s Splendidness”. Once this is done, I will be able to devote all my energy to the new novel. Sorry, please be patient for a bit longer, it will be better next month.