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Chen Feng spent the day playing around with the children and the two parrots. The braised snacks today were particularly appetizing, and if the children behaved well, she would use a small toothpick to give them a small piece. This type of snack particularly suited Qiqi’s taste, as she always wanted to eat more than others, and even put more effort into carrying it, her voice growing louder too.
At the hour of Rooster (5-7 pm), Chen Feng finished work. As she left the gate of the Serene Courtyard, she felt extremely guilty amidst the little girl’s loud crying, almost always feeling this way. She couldn’t bear it, but she couldn’t help it either.
Returning home, Chen Feng saw Chen Ming looking delighted and radiant.
He said that the banquet went very well this time. Except for Wu Chanshen, everyone who was invited came, and later, Steward Luo sent Chen Gui to invite the landowner and village head of Guqiao Village. Steward Luo and his son, Xia Bukuai, the landowner, and other esteemed guests all had a great time.
Chen Ye felt proud and especially happy, and ended up drinking a lot. Dabao and Lu’s performances were particularly impressive, especially Dabao. When he represented his mother toasting, he was not only calm but also eloquent. Steward Luo and others said he would have a bright future…
Chen Ming laughed heartily, “Oh, it turns out Xia Bukuai has eyes on the top of his head. This time, he was especially warm to my brother and me. He even said he would invite Steward Luo and us brothers to his house in the county for a drink another day.”
Lu also commented, “It seems that Hu Laowu used to look down on my dad, but today, he toasted my dad several times and was extremely friendly.”
Chen Feng flattered, “Now, Dad is also a well-regarded figure in the area. Just wait, soon people will call you Master Chen.”
This remark caused laughter among everyone, with Chen Ming’s laughter being particularly hearty.
Chen Feng praised Lu and Dabao again, “You two are great, little gentlemen, helping Dad and Grandpa entertain guests.”
The two little boys grinned with satisfaction.
In the evening, Chen Feng showed Mrs. Wang the two sets of clothing designs she had prepared for the Ni Shang Embroidery Workshop. They discussed the styles, color combinations, made some adjustments, and then began cutting the fabric.
This set includes a stand-up collar, front-opening cotton-padded jacket with a horse-face skirt, and a stand-up collar, diagonally opened short jacket with a pleated skirt.
In this era, stand-up collars existed, but they were typically made with two or three layers of fabric sewn together, and after a couple of washes, they softened. However, the stand-up collars she designed this time were made by starching multiple layers of fabric before sewing, ensuring they remained neat and attractive and didn’t soften easily.
The cotton-padded jacket featured silver-red colored jacquard satin with multicolored floral patterns, with black satin trimming. It featured a pair of golden phoenix buckle fastenings and a row of silver-red colored lute-shaped buttons. The stand-up collar was made of silver-red satin embroidered with golden phoenix flowers. It was paired with a deep purple embroidered bamboo leaf horse-face skirt.
The diagonally opened short jacket was made of lake blue satin, with a collar edge embroidered with green plum blossoms. It was trimmed with moon-white plain satin and featured a row of spring-colored flower basket buttons. The tall stand-up collar was made of moon-white cloud-patterned satin, trimmed with a layer of lace. It was paired with a goose egg blue pleated long skirt.
These two outfits were mostly similar to the clothing of the era, but with the major improvement of the stand-up collars, suitable for the autumn and winter seasons, and the style brought out the prominence of the buttons.
The clothing, of course, was primarily made by the skilled embroiderer Mrs. Wang, with Chen Feng assisting. Making these two sets of clothes was quite complicated, especially with the intricate buttons and the embroidery. It would take at least half a month to complete.
In the blink of an eye, it was October 3rd, Chen Feng’s day off. Afraid the little girl wouldn’t be accustomed to it, she specifically made extra golden cakes and osmanthus pastries the day before and placed them at Tangyuan.
After breakfast, Chen Ming promptly went to Gao Lizheng’s house with a bag of sweets to ask him to measure the land in the nearby grove. It was the boundary under the jurisdiction of Xiangluo Village, and beyond that, it belonged to Shangshui Village.
After about half an hour, Chen Ming returned, saying the land totaled seven acres and three fen. Gao Lizheng suggested rounding it down to seven acres. The wasteland cost two taels of silver per acre, making the total cost fourteen taels of silver. The eastern side, adjacent to Tangyuan, was listed under Chen Feng’s name, and the western side was under Chen Ming’s name.
Chen Feng gave fifteen taels of silver to Chen Ming, fourteen for the land and the remaining one tael for Gao Lizheng to handle the paperwork at the county office. She also made arrangements for clearing the grove in a few days during the agricultural downtime, and she planned to hire more people for the job. Chen Ming wouldn’t need to do anything else, as he’d be busy with this work.
After some calculations, she realized she had 112 taels of silver left, along with forty taels in gold ingots and a dozen or so taels in broken gold. She knew she needed to earn more money. She wondered how much she could earn from the two sets of clothes.
Chen Feng went to Guqiao Village with Zhui Feng to buy meat and then busied herself with preparing lunch after returning home.
Before lunch, Chen Ye and grandma Chen arrived, with Mrs. Hu following behind. They had heard that Chen Ming had bought land and had come specifically for this matter. They had known previously that Chen Ming and Chen Feng wanted to buy land to build a house, but they hadn’t expected the two families to make separate purchases. They scolded Chen Ming for a while, saying that the land was far from the village and worried about Chen Feng and Dabao living alone and what would happen if something went wrong. They appeared to be genuinely concerned about Chen Feng.
Chen Ye said, “Younger brother, Mom and I would never harm you. Why didn’t you discuss this with us before making such a big decision?”
Chen Ming had kept it a secret from them because he was afraid they wouldn’t agree.
Seeing Chen Ye getting a bit angry, Chen Ming hurried to explain, “The money for buying the land and building the house was all provided by A’Feng. She said, since the land is close to Tangyuan, she’s not afraid of others bullying us…” implying that whoever pays for the land gets to make the decisions.
“Close to Tangyuan! Does A’Feng plan to serve the young miss of Tangyuan for the rest of her life? Will Tangyuan protect the two of them forever? The young miss will grow up and get married.” Chen Ye said, taking a couple of puffs of smoke.
Grandma Chen also added, “Yes, A’Feng has a good appearance, and Dabao is still too young. It’s worrying to think of them living alone in such a big courtyard.”
Chen Feng chuckled, “Don’t worry, Grandma, Uncle, when I earn more money in the future, I’ll buy two servants. We’ll be fine.”
Hearing that she even mentioned buying servants, Chen Ye and grandma Chen were taken aback. In the entire Xiangluo Village, only Gao Lizheng’s family had two old servants.
Chen Ye clicked his tongue and gave Chen Feng a thumbs-up, saying, “A’Feng, well done, you’re ambitious.”
He didn’t say anything more. In his mind, he thought to himself that, after all, she was the daughter of Chen, just like his own daughter. She was smart and really had a bright future. Such people should never be offended.
Mrs. Hu, upon hearing that the second branch was planning to buy servants, became envious and started to talk about how much Chen Ye had sacrificed for his brothers. Finally, she said, “Brother-in-law, if you’re all going to buy servants, you can’t watch your older brother working tirelessly at his age.”