Chapter 38: Completed 3/3

Every morning, she would have breakfast at the Li family’s house and then follow Jin Xiaoye to the county town to collect scraps.

Li Qingzhi asked her about her income from collecting scraps and learned that after half a month, she had earned about fifty cents in total, in addition to bringing back some firewood or other useful items for the family.

The Jin family wasn’t short of money, as Li Qingzhi saw it, so Grandma Jin didn’t need to do this, but Grandma Jin evidently enjoyed it.

All the snails on this side of the river pier had already been collected by Grandma Jin, so she didn’t go into the water; she just sat on the stone steps waiting.

Seeing Li Qingzhi carrying so many things, Grandma Jin asked, “Why are you carrying so many things? Where did they come from?”

Li Qingzhi replied, “Grandma, I won’t be copying books at Zhu’s house anymore, so I packed up my things there.”

“You won’t be copying books at Zhu’s house anymore? Does that mean you won’t be earning money?” Grandma Jin frowned.

Li Qingzhi explained, “Not exactly. I’ve taken on other work, so I can copy books at home.”

“Well, that’s alright… But if you’re not going to Zhu’s house to copy books, then I won’t be able to come to the county town.” Grandma Jin was a bit unhappy.

Li Qingzhi was puzzled for a moment. How could Grandma Jin not come to the county town if he didn’t go to copy books?

But after a moment’s thought, he understood.

Jin Xiaoye went to the county town at fixed times every day, and also returned at fixed times, just to pick him up.

If he didn’t go to Zhu’s house to copy books, then Jin Xiaoye definitely wouldn’t come like this.

For example, today, even if Jin Xiaoye had taken on work near Miaoqian Village, when it was time to come to the county town, he would have to come to pick Li Qingzhi up. But if Li Qingzhi didn’t come to the county town, Jin Xiaoye could just go directly back to Miaoqian Village.

Grandma Jin could hitch a ride with him, but if she wanted Jin Xiaoye to specifically come and pick her up… Jin Xiaoye wouldn’t be happy.

And Grandma Jin didn’t pay him!

As they were talking, Jin Xiaoye arrived.

Jin Xiaoye wasn’t wearing a floral headband today, but the cloth strip tying her hair was very pretty, which she had just acquired yesterday.

In this past half month, Jin Xiaoye’s business had been doing extremely well.

In Chongcheng County, there were many women who could do needlework. Most of them didn’t work in fabric workshops like Mrs. Xu, spending the whole day weaving fabric, but they didn’t mind taking on some work in their spare time to earn some extra money.

Just doing some simple work like this, they could earn two eggs a day, and making egg drop soup for the whole family was something to be happy about!

As for the scraps of fabric… There were many fabric-making places in Chongcheng County, but now they needed large quantities, so they had to spend money to buy them.

After Li Qingzhi boarded the boat, he found that there were many old bricks on board.

Jin Xiaoye explained, “I bought these bricks. Old bricks are cheaper, and I plan to use them to build a hearth.”

For the past half month, their family had been preparing to build a house, and the preparations were almost done. They planned to start building the house tomorrow.

This was also the date Jin Xiaoye set after knowing that Li Qingzhi would soon finish writing the book — when building the house, someone had to be at home to oversee things.

Although Li Laogen said he could help watch over things and repeatedly assured that he would do things well, Jin Xiaoye didn’t believe him.

A few days ago, Jin Xiaoye had already bought a new pot, and now she had bought some bricks so they could build a hearth that could hold two pots.

In these days of earning more money, Jin Xiaoye had also overturned the idea of just building one room — she wanted to add two rooms!

In one of the two new rooms, a hearth would be built on the north side, and a table would be placed on the south side, to be used as a reception room for guests. The other room would be divided in half, with the south side used as Li Qingzhi’s study and the north side having a bed for her and Li Qingzhi.

The other two rooms would also be arranged accordingly. For example, Li Laogen’s room would have firewood piled up on the south side and Li Laogen would live on the north side.

As for the room they currently lived in, grain was piled up on the south side, and Li Damao and Li Ermao lived on the north side.

As for the hut, it would be built behind these four rooms.

Jin Xiaoye had originally wanted to build a pigsty behind as well to raise pigs, but Li Qingzhi didn’t agree.

Their family didn’t need to raise pigs now that they had enough money.

Pigs really did smell!

When they returned to Miaoqian Village, there were still many people gathered at the river pier.

Seeing Jin Xiaoye unloading bricks from the boat, everyone admired her greatly. “Xiaoye, you even bought bricks!”

“Xiaoye, your family’s life is getting better and better!”

“Xiaoye, let me help you carry the bricks!”

Even some people approached Jin Xiaoye, asking if she could get cheap bricks for them.

Jin Xiaoye told them the price she had bought the bricks for, and the person immediately said they wanted to buy some too.

Most of the houses in their village were made of earth walls, but many people would use bricks to build hearths or other things.

“I can help you buy them and bring them back, but you’ll have to pay for the transportation costs,” Jin Xiaoye said.

“That’s fair!”

Since she got the boat, Jin Xiaoye had become more and more popular in Miaoqian Village. Li Qingzhi watched with a smile, feeling that the future was full of hope.

However, while he felt this way, others in the village didn’t share the sentiment.

Seeing Li Qingzhi return with a lot of things and hearing that he couldn’t go to Zhu’s house to copy books anymore, everyone looked at him sympathetically.

How nice it was at Zhu’s house! Not only did they pay a silver coin a day, they even gave Li Qingzhi leftovers.

If Li Qingzhi couldn’t go to Zhu’s house to copy books anymore, could he still make money?

They all thought the Li family was going to become rich and noble, but now it seemed like that wasn’t the case.

Li Qingzhi still brought back some leftovers.

Today, the Zhu family had duck for dinner, and Li Qingzhi brought back all the leftovers, including the thousand-layered duck rolls. He had already eaten, so he didn’t touch them. Jin Xiaoye quietly ate, and Jin Xiaoshu, as usual, praised the dish incessantly, saying how delicious it was.

Except for Li Laogen, who was different from the others.

He looked sorrowful. “This is the last meal. I won’t be able to eat such delicious food anymore…”

What was he saying about it being the last meal… Li Qingzhi said, “Dad, we’ll be able to eat delicious food in the future too. Maybe one day, we’ll be able to eat delicious food every day like the people at the Zhu’s house.”

Li Qingzhi couldn’t guarantee that his imperial examination would go smoothly, but even if it didn’t, he could still write books to earn money.

And there was Jin Xiaoye, her business was doing very well, so she should continue to make money.

In their family… eating meat every day shouldn’t be a problem.