Chapter 7: Getting Busy
What the hell is going on in the room?
Zhou Yuan’s three sisters-in-law looked into the room from time to time, wanting to know what was going on in the room, and also afraid that Mother Zhou would take all the good things on the table back to the room without giving them anything.
“We should have a share of everything on the table, right?” Zhou Yuan’s second sister-in-law, Zhou Yang, was excited when she thought of the pastries, candies, and dried fruits on the table.
“Should be, with mother-in-law’s temperament, she will give us some.” This is Zhou Yuan’s third sister-in-law Zhou Wang.
The three sisters-in-law of Zhou Yuan, the elder sister-in-law Zhou Li loves small profits and small favors and is quick at grasping small opportunities, the third sister-in-law is virtuous on the surface and doesn’t talk much, but she plots the most.
Zhou Li was scratching her head, wishing that all the things on the table belonged to her, when she suddenly thought of something, “Tell me, where did the things on the table come from?”
Zhou Yuan’s sister-in-law’s words instantly aroused their curiosity, gossiping and gossiping, they all guessed, is someone coming to the house to propose marriage?
Before they could say a few more words, Zhou Yong came out of the house and called people in. Once they were able to go in, Zhou Yuan’s three sister-in-laws stopped chatting and hurried into the house, fearing that if they missed a step, they would take less.
When they went in, they were very happy when they heard that they were going to cook meat today.
They haven’t eaten meat for more than a month, so how can they not be happy?
Mother Zhou gave some candies and dried fruits to each room, divided the two boxes of pastries equally, and took the two boxes to the main house as a tribute. She left two boxes of pastries and a bag of candy for her ger.
“The things on the table are brought back by Yuan Yuan, and should be kept by Yuan Yuan.”
Zhou Yuan’s three sisters-in-law could only murmur dissatisfiedly in their hearts, they are all a family, shouldn’t Zhou Yuan get things equally, why should he get more? However, they didn’t dare to speak out. If they had any objections, Mother Zhou would definitely take back their share.
They are all wives, so they do know most of these tricks.
Two catties of meat are cooked, adults and children are happy.
The Zhou family eats at two tables, one for the men and one for the women, and prepares pickled vegetables and stewed meat. A large plate is divided into two plates, one for each table, and the portions are almost the same.
In the Zhou family’s style, there is no distinction between men and women, everything is eaten together by the family, and when the farm work is busy, the men who are the labor force of the family work hard, and they will have a bigger share.
“Yuanyuan, you need to eat more of the stewed meat today, and make up for your lost weight recently.” Mother Zhou put a piece of meat for the youngest son into his bowl.
“Mother, I’ll do it myself.” Zhou Yuan said softly.
“Come on, you’re all focused on eating vegetables, but you didn’t pick up any of the stew.”
Mother Zhou added a few more meat to the youngest. Her actions made Zhou Yuan’s three sister-in-laws murmur in their hearts. They were very dissatisfied but did not dare to say anything.
Zhou Yuan’s clear eyes moved slightly, and he quietly glanced at his sisters-in-law, looking at Mother Zhou helplessly.
His mother protected him from the bottom of her heart, and he felt warm in his heart, but he didn’t want to have differences at home because of his affairs.
He will be nineteen in a few months. At his age, he has not yet been married. There are many people in his family, and he is also nervous about eating for free. It is common for his sisters-in-law to feel dissatisfied.
At least the sister-in-laws at home didn’t talk about him to his face
Mother Zhou understands her ger’s thoughts, he is soft-tempered and doesn’t want to care about it but her ger did a lot of needlework to supplement the family’s income, and also went to the fields to help the family with work, all this apart from housework. These three wives dared to be dissatisfied with her ger when they returned home with a few pennies of subsidy.
Mother Zhou decided today that she should give them a good beating.
“You little ones are happy to eat meat. The meat and today’s pastries and snacks were all brought back by your uncle. Remember to thank your uncle!”
“Understood, Grandma, thank you, uncle!” Several children said in unison.
The eldest son of the Zhou family gave birth to a boy, the second son gave birth to a boy and a ger, and the third son gave birth to a daughter not long after they were married. They have many grandchildren, and the whole family is complete.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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It is already rare for a family to not treat girls and gers badly, and even if there are some families that do not treat girls and gers badly, they will favor boys.
Daughters and gers are not valued by their mothers. Their mothers secretly leave all the delicious food to their sons. Fortunately, they are protected by their grandma and grandpa, and they can grow up happily.
Mother Zhou’s words were meant to speak to the children on the surface, and Zhou Yuan’s three sisters-in-law knew in their hearts that it was Mother Zhou beating them, so they immediately restrained their thoughts a lot.
They are not ill-intentioned people either. The Zhou family is a large family and is nervous about food supplies- seeing the unmarried ger who is almost past the age of marriage at home, they still give him a share of food and drink. If he gets married, it will be a mouth less to feed and family will also be better, and with the gift money received, the food at home may be improved.
In the evening, after returning to their rooms, Zhou Yuan’s three sister-in-laws all inquired about what happened today, and Zhou Yuan’s three brothers still did not hide it under the attack of their wives.
Besides, their mothers didn’t say that they couldn’t tell their wives.
This led to rumors spreading.
Zhou Qiu brought back a box of pastries, and her parents were equally surprised. Zhou Qiu didn’t hide it from her mother. Her mother and Mother Zhou were like sisters, and they were fair and strict in their actions. As for Zhou Qiu’s father, although he liked to drink a few sips of wine, this middle-aged countryman has a relatively quiet temper and always ignores women’s gossip.
Zhou Qiu’s family has a simple population, with her parents and an older brother who works part-time in the county. He will not be at home this time, so she and her parents are the only ones at home.
Zhou Qiu told his parents what happened in the county and the source of the box of pastries.
Zhou Qiu’s mother pulled her daughter and asked, “Did the man in the county like Zhou-ger?”
Zhou Qiu thought for a while, then shook her head, “I don’t know either.” She was somewhat sure that Wei Cheng was definitely interested in Yuan Yuan, but she couldn’t be sure if no one came to propose marriage, “Mother, you can’t tell anyone about this matter, this is not good for Yuan Yuan.”
Zhou Qiu’s mother, “I know how important it is. This matter has not been set in stone yet, so how can I talk about it?”
“Yuan-ger’s marriage has been full of twists and turns, this year he turns nineteen, life will be more difficult in the future.”
Gossip hurts people the most. She also has her own children. She also watched Zhou Yuan grow up. When he was a child, he was white, tender, and well-behaved, and he was sweet-tempered when he grew up. She thought that he would be a sweet ger when he grew up so marriage would be a breeze.
When he grew up, he was tall and slender, as a ger, he was petite and cute, and he still worked in the fields, he didn’t dress up, and he dressed more like a man. Everyone in the village is talking behind their backs that Zhou-ger will not look good when he grows up, and it will be difficult to find a husband’s family when he gets married in the future.
They don’t know who spread the word, saying that Zhou-ger doesn’t look like a ger and that he looks like half a man. As time goes by, everyone’s mouth is full of opinions, which leads to the matchmakers failing several times, and they all refuse for this reason. It also attracted men with bad intentions, who took the opportunity to make bad excuses and marry others by force.
Fortunately, no matter it if was Father Zhou, Mother Zhou, or the three sons of Zhou’s family, they sincerely protected and loved Zhou Yuan. He is their only ger, how can they let others bully him? The three brothers, who are always hardworking and energetic, came to their doors directly with their tools to vent their anger for their youngest sibling, and those families with bad intentions backed down.
In fact, Zhou-ger has handsome features, is kind-hearted, hard-working, and is good at doing farm work, not to mention embroidery and needlework. Zhou Qiu’s mother wanted Zhou-ger to be her daughter-in-law, but her son’s heart already has another.
“Yuan Yuan is so good, he will definitely find a good man to marry.”
In Zhou Qiu’s heart, Yuan Yuan is a kind-hearted person with a gentle personality. He knows how to sew and cook. Those guys have no vision.
Zhou Qiu’s mother thought that her daughter is not young anymore, and marriage should also be considered, “Qiu’er, you are sixteen, we should talk about your partner, do you have a guy you like, and don’t have a mother to pay attention to you.”
Zhou Qiu rolled her eyes in her heart. She wants to get married, but she still wants to do it next year, “Mother, you are not bothering about my elder brother’s marriage. My marriage will not be too late next year. Are you afraid that your daughter will not be able to get married?” She also wants to have a man but whether the pursuit is good or not, she still wants to investigate as she doesn’t want to marry casually.
Zhou Qiuniang glared at her daughter, who was stubborn, and thought that next year she would definitely find various excuses to make her entrust her marriage to her, and she would not be worried about her daughter’s marriage. She had inquired secretly but was shunned by her daughter.
The son’s matter is even more troublesome.
Zhou Qiuniang sighed and sighed again at the thought of her eldest son’s marriage.
“Your older brother is admitting death and not turning around. The other party’s family looks down on your brother’s poverty. They asked for twelve taels of dowry before they’ll agree to the marriage. Otherwise, why would your elder brother work so hard and go to the county town to do odd jobs before dawn and then come back late at night?”
Both of her children are not reassuring.
Zhou Qiu was silent.
The girl her older brother likes is also from the same village, Shangtou Village, and her surname is not Zhou. Her elder brother and his future sister-in-law grew up together as childhood sweethearts.
His elder brother has a generous personality, grew up well, and is capable. Many girls in the village like his character, but the eldest brother is planted on a tree and will not move his nest. As for her future sister-in-law, she was also considered her a friend, and they used to have a good relationship. Later, because of her elder brother’s marriage, her family was disliked for being poor, so she was alienated by her future sister-in-law.
She doesn’t like this future sister-in-law’s family, but she has no problem with the future sister-in-law. The future sister-in-law is also a gentle girl, and this is her family’s request for ten taels, and she can’t decide it herself.
The eldest brother is working hard outside to get enough money to marry her, so Zhou Qiu was hoping that she will not disappoint the eldest brother.
Zhou Muzi went home. His family was on the edge of the village, living in a dilapidated mud house at the foot of the mountain. Zhou Muzi’s family was very poor and had no land. The source of income was to grow vegetables on the side of the house or go to the mountains to find some wild vegetables and fruits, or if they were lucky enough to meet pheasants and ducks, they take the wild fruits and vegetables down the mountain and sell them for money to live on.
There are his mother and father in the family and a six-year-old younger brother. His younger brother was not raised well from birth. He has always been thin and malnourished.
Although Zhou Muzi is also thin and small, he often works and climbs with his family, and his body is stronger. He is a ger, but fortunately, he has a childhood sweetheart who treats him well, and his sweetheart can help with the family situation, so life is not so bad, he is already engaged and will get married next month.
Zhou Muzi took back a box of pastries, making his honest parents dare not take such a valuable thing, and asked him to return it.
He said that his younger brother was thin and malnourished, and he had never eaten pastry, so he could only look at the pastry with a timid look, so Zhou Muzi’s parents accepted the pastry.
There are six cakes in a box, and the family eats them separately. After eating the sweet cakes, their yellow and dry faces are all smiling happily.
Zhou Muzi was eating sweet pastries, and he was very happy that his friend Zhou-ger’s affairs had been settled.
Zhou-ger never disliked him for being poor, and even made friends with him, and later introduced Zhou Qiu to be his friend, which was great!
Although he didn’t know the person Wei Cheng at first, after all, he was single all his life, and it was his first time trying to like someone.
…
Seeing Zhou Yuan being bullied and being pointed at and scolded, he felt a fire in his heart. He felt distressed and wanted to teach those who bullied Zhou Yuan a lesson.
It doesn’t matter if the other party is a girl or anyone else!
It turned out that he cared about a person, and when he saw his figure, he suddenly wanted to get closer.
He couldn’t help being nice to him, he didn’t hesitate to buy him a bunch of snacks.
It takes a single moment to know.
Thinking back now, he fell in love with a man without him noticing it, even if the other party is a ger, he is still a man in Wei Cheng’s thoughts.
He also realized that liking someone is a joy from the heart.
According to today’s abrupt behavior, it seems that his parents should go to propose marriage soon.
In this ancient etiquette, reputation is very important.
Although he heard a little bit, he also knew that the last blind date caused Zhou Yuan some troubles. Today, when he delivered something to Zhou Yuan in the street, he still did it in front of his fellow villagers, so as not to spread it back to Qinghe Village and make people misunderstand that Zhou Yuan was a casual person or a ger who takes a man’s things.
He also considered that since Zhou-ger can go on a blind date with him, he can also go on a blind date with others, if someone else gets ahead…
That’s not okay, he’d better come to the door to propose a marriage and make a decision.
Only……
After seeing that there is nothing in the house, only a few broken tables, and old wooden beds, the house is barely ventilated, and a large piece of the yard wall is broken… He doesn’t have much money in his hands, he still hasn’t paid for the cart, and he has business materials he also wants to buy, and today he was impulsive and spent a few hundred wen, and after calculating it, there is not much left in the ten taels of silver, so how can he have money to get married?
Money! He needs money!
However, he can propose a marriage first, earn money and then marry the person after.
Thinking about it this way, making money is imminent.
Wei Cheng then started to get busy, preparing all the things that needed to be prepared, not only buying things but also preparing the seasoning, this is the key ingredient.
He also needs to buy a ceramic jar for seasoning, and also buy a few small ceramic jars for business.
He has to customize the stove, tools, and miscellaneous things, which cost more than three taels. In addition to the expenses of the past few days, the remaining money is not enough.
It took a few days to get everything ready.
For the customized cart, a few days have passed, and the carpenter should have finished the cart, he plans to bring the silver, and Wei Cheng will go out to the carpenter’s house.
If he has a trolley, he can start working and making money.
The carpenter was waiting for him at home, and when he saw Wei Cheng coming, he was very enthusiastic.
Wei Cheng was very puzzled, and he didn’t know the reason for his enthusiasm until the carpenter said he wanted to buy the blueprint of his cart.
“Your style of trolley, I made it and tried it. It is more convenient than the previous trolleys. It saves effort when people push it. It can be pushed on flat roads, and it can be pushed on muddy roads. Especially this wheel that can be used in all directions. You must sell the blueprint to me.” The carpenter said very excitedly, holding the blueprint in his hand, he wished that the blueprint belonged to him.
The blueprint drawn by Wei Cheng is for pushing and pulling goods. He also improved it. The cart originally had two rear wheels. It is convenient to use on uneven roads, the front wheels are easy to pad, and it is also convenient to push on flat roads.
Wei Cheng was short of money, he didn’t need the blueprints for the cart, so he might as well sell it to a carpenter.
“The blueprints can be sold to Uncle Zhao, Uncle Zhao, you can pay the fee for the blueprints.” Wei Cheng didn’t care how much the piece of paper could sell, and he didn’t know the market, so he asked Uncle Zhao, the carpenter, to make an offer. It was also good to be on good terms with many people.
The carpenter’s surname is Zhao, and everyone who knows him calls him Carpenter Zhao.
Carpenter Zhao was taken aback by Wei Cheng’s truthful words, as he asked him to ask for a price, he made it clear that he would not take advantage of this, and he was not afraid that he would say the price was low.
Of course, he, Carpenter Zhao, is also a reasonable person. He never cut corners in his workmanship, and he never yelled random prices. Since the tall, young man in front of him was honest and was deliberately giving him a favor, it is even more impossible for him, Carpenter Zhao, to make the price too low.
Carpenter Zhao patted Wei Cheng on the shoulder, laughed and said, “You are a nice young man. Uncle Zhao has made this friend, and still don’t know your name?”
“This one is called Wei Cheng, hello, Uncle Zhao!” Wei Cheng shouted.
“Wei Cheng, that’s right. Uncle Zhao will give you a sincere price for this blueprint, ten taels of silver.”
“Okay!”
Carpenter Zhao laughed again, “You’re a straightforward boy, are you not afraid that I, Uncle Zhao, will lower the price.”
“Since everyone said to ask Uncle Zhao to set the price, Wei Cheng can trust it.” Wei Cheng said calmly.
In fact, Wei Cheng had already thought about it in his mind. The cart is a new model, and the number of people who can buy it is limited. A cart needs materials, labor and handwork. Even if one earns one or two and a half taels, it will sell for more than a dozen. He can earn back his capital only if he has the skills and connections, and he may not be able to sell it.
Ten taels of silver is also a conservative price.
“Okay, I will accept your favor, and I won’t charge you for the cart this time.”
“Thank you, Uncle Zhao!”
With a bag of silver in his arms, Wei Cheng pushed the cart back home.
The stroller doesn’t cost a single penny, and he earned a few extra taels.
He won’t need to be too cautious, and he can add a few more pots and pans to his home, and he can also replace broken tables and chairs.
There is no need to buy new tables and chairs, he’ll go to a second-hand store to buy a set, and then replace it with a new one when he earns enough money. Now, in addition to keeping the business capital, he has to repair the leaky places in the house. If the leaks are not repaired, when it rains, there will be dripping.
The outer wall of the yard also needs to be repaired, and when he starts to do business- if other people peek through the broken wall, he will be unable to guard against it.
In life, when Wei Cheng had no money, he would always plan carefully.
Thank you for the chapter~
I want to cry for all my poor bubus (〒﹏〒)
Thank You for the new chapter ♡(ӦｖӦ｡)
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the update ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for the chapters!
The journey to become a merchant starts now ~