Chapter 19: Settling Down

When Old Lady Zhang saw that Zhang Hongzhuang was pretending to be clueless, she was about to scold him, but Li Sumei quickly intervened and stopped her, saying, “Mother, don’t get upset. Let’s listen to what your brother has to say.”

Su Er quickly asked Zhang Hongzhuang, “Uncle, Mother is asking you how the old house in Chang’an Alley ended up with someone else living in it?”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Hongzhuang, feeling guilty, lowered his head and began to explain.

It turned out that it wasn’t because he gambled and sold the house, but rather because Zhang Li’s family, in order to settle her youngest brother, took Zhang Hongzhuang’s house to house him. By the time Zhang Hongzhuang found out, the house deed and land deed had already been transferred to Zhang Li’s brother.

The current owner of the house said the previous owner gambled and lost the house, referring to Zhang Li’s brother, not Zhang Hongzhuang.

After hearing this, Su Old Lady was so upset that she couldn’t catch her breath.

Seeing her discomfort, Zhang Hongzhuang hurriedly tried to comfort her, “Sister, don’t be angry. I’m useless, I couldn’t keep the house, but I’ve been saving money all these years. I swear, before I die, I’ll buy back the house that belonged to our parents!”

The Su family couldn’t help but feel that their uncle was too naïve.

Su Old Lady sneered coldly without holding back, “Then tell me, how much money have you saved?”

Zhang Hongzhuang shut the door and carefully dug out a jar from under a pile of firewood. Inside the jar was a full silver string.

“Just burn a few more years of firewood, sell some more charcoal, and the money will be enough.”

Su Old Lady rubbed her forehead, feeling a bit regretful that she had raised her brother to be so naïve.

“Do you plan on keeping this money hidden here for the rest of your life? If you take it out, your wife will find it. Do you think you’ll be able to keep this money then?”

Zhang Hongzhuang froze for a moment, as if he finally realized the reason why he had been saving money for years but never seemed to have enough.

He suddenly looked dejected, his previously stiff back sagging in that instant.

He parted his lips and said, “Sorry, Sister…”

Su Old Lady opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing. She waved her hand and said, “Go back and rest. I’ll think of a way to handle the house situation.”

“Oh, then take this money, Sister, use it to repair the house.”

Zhang Hongzhuang handed the silver string to Su Old Lady, afraid that she would refuse, and hurriedly ran out.

Su Er shut the door and set up a fire stove in the empty space inside. “Mother, should we do something about Uncle’s situation?”

Wu Chunhe sighed, “Uncle is really pitiful. He’s so small and skinny, and his son and daughter-in-law are like that.”

Su Old Lady looked at her third, fourth, and fifth sons and their wives, “What do you think?”

“What else is there to say? Since Uncle treats us like family, we can’t just watch him get bullied!”

Su Lao Wu pondered for a moment, “Mother, I feel like Uncle didn’t finish his sentence earlier. Judging by his expression, he clearly didn’t want to sell the house. Although Uncle looks easy to deceive, he’s your brother. He might not be that weak. Perhaps there were other things involved when Aunt Li’s brother took the house.”

Su Old Lady’s face grew darker after hearing this.

“Let’s sleep on it. Once we settle down, we’ll handle your uncle’s house situation.”

The others nodded. The wives took out dried rations from their luggage, heated them on the stove, and shared them with the family.

They originally planned to sprinkle a bit of salt on the rations to make them tastier, but they couldn’t find the salt or sugar jars. Su Old Lady angrily said, “It must have been when the Zhang family rummaged through our luggage earlier. They must have taken them quietly. What a shameless family…”

The family had escaped from the famine, and there were many of them with a lot of luggage. To avoid drawing attention, they only brought some sorghum flour, millet, and wheat bran, with the wheat bran and rice bran for feeding the sheep. People naturally wouldn’t think much of them. The sorghum flour and millet were also limited, and the millet even had sand mixed in. The only things they could have taken were the seasonings.

“Such a wicked family!”

Su Lao San, who had a good temper, finally couldn’t hold back and cursed.

Not giving them food, drink, or a place to stay was bad enough, but now they even stole their seasonings!

Zhang Xiaolan patted his hand and sighed, “Don’t say anything more. Mother’s heart is also heavy.”

Liu Yingying also said, “Yes, as long as we’re alive, it’s enough. Once we settle down, things will definitely get better.”

Su Old Lady’s expression became firm, “That’s right, if we work together, we can live a good life. If they no longer recognize us as relatives, then once we’re well-off, it has nothing to do with them!”

The family spoke and ate their tasteless rations, enduring through the night. The next morning, they tidied up the firewood room, put the firewood back in place, returned the stove, and followed Zhang Hongzhuang to find the village head.

The village head, Wang Baorui, was around forty years old, with a pair of handlebar mustaches and neatly combed hair. He lived in the center of the village in a wooden house. The courtyard of the house was full of cabbage, and when Zhang Hongzhuang and the Su family arrived, the village head’s wife was pickling vegetables, and the village head was shoveling snow.

“Brother Wang.”

Zhang Hongzhuang, carrying a basket of charcoal, entered the house, put it down, and explained the purpose of their visit.

The village head, upon hearing that they had come to visit relatives and seeing Su Old Lady, who was a childhood friend of Zhang Zhaodi, couldn’t help but laugh and invited them to sit inside. He poured them hot tea, “Of course, of course. So your old sister has returned. There’s no problem with settling down here. I’ll write a document for you right away. Once you pay the household tax and settlement fee, it’ll be done. There’s also plenty of vacant land in the village. If you want, I can sell you a few acres. But as for the house, it’s hard to come by. Most of the houses in our village are already occupied, so you’ll have to build your own.”

Su Old Lady replied, “That’s fine. May I ask where the nearest post station is? We have many people, and it’s inconvenient to keep bothering my brother, so I was thinking of having my son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren stay at the post station for now, and then come to the village to build the house during the day.”

The village head understood and smiled, “Old sister, your sister-in-law is indeed hard to deal with, but the nearest post station is about eighteen miles away. It won’t be too bad if you have an ox cart, but without one, it’ll be quite a hardship. Besides, it’s the dead of winter, and it’s hard to find workers in this cold weather.”

Su Er said, “Uncle Wang, don’t worry. We brothers are good at building houses!”

Seeing this, the village head didn’t have much to worry about and nodded with a smile, “Alright, then. Just make sure you count the household tax and settlement fee properly. I’ll write the document now, and later, we can exchange the money and sign the agreement.”

Su Old Lady nodded and quickly called her eldest grandson to help the village head grind the ink.

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Zhang Family’s Thatched House

Zhang Laoda hurried back, running into the main room where Zhang Li was sitting, drinking tea and warming herself by the fire. “Mother! I saw it! I saw it! Father and Auntie are going to Wang Baorui to settle down! Auntie took out a few silver notes from her body. They didn’t bring any copper coins or silver, just silver notes!”

Qian Cuimiao, upon hearing this, became furious, “No wonder we couldn’t find anything when we searched yesterday. Turns out they secretly hid the silver notes on them! Mother, we’ve really been tricked by Auntie. They really have money!”

Zhang Old Lady was also shocked. She quickly took a sip of tea to calm herself and asked Zhang Laoda, “What are they doing now?”

Zhang Laoda replied, “Auntie wants to buy a house, but the village head said all the houses in the village are occupied, and they couldn’t sell one to them.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Old Lady’s mind turned, and she slowly released her grip on him, smiling, “Who says there are no houses in the village? Let’s go, let’s find them.”