Zhulan burst out laughing, “She bought it for fun, but she spent a lot of money. It hurts to spend too much money!”

Zhou Shuren, “It’s your fault!”

Zhulan, “.”

This person had a very narrow mind. He was very petty.

Ming Teng rushed in, “Grandma, grandma, what did you buy?”

Zhulan was used to hearing her grandmother’s words, so she pointed at the table and said, “There are little lanterns and sugar figures on it. You and Yulu can share them!”

Ming Teng said “Oh” and ran happily to the table to look at everything. Ming Teng’s smile was exactly the same as Li Shi’s, and he almost laughed his eyes out.

Ming Teng held the sugar man and thought to himself that it would be best for him to follow his grandparents. They would play all the way to the capital, where there were so many fun things. He must show off to Yu Shuang when he gets back!

Xuehan came in holding Yu Lu, and Ming Teng waved to his sister, “Come here quickly.”

Xuehan carried Yu Lu to the table, and Ming Teng distributed each to her sister.

Zhulan looked at him with a smile on her face. It was good that the boy didn’t eat alone. He got the last one and obviously liked it very much but still gave it to his sister.

Li Shi would never think of buying toys for her son and daughter. She bought toys for herself. What a generous mother!

Zhulan sent the two children out to play and asked Xuehan to keep an account of today’s expenses.

Xuehan did some mental calculations while keeping the accounts, and took a breath, “Mom, I’ve spent fifteen taels today.”

Zhulan smiled and said, “You can’t calculate it like that. We bought a lot of food today. It’s enough for several months. It can’t be counted as one day’s spending.”

Xuehan was still scared and still felt that the cost of living in the capital was too expensive.

Zhulan took out some small change put it in a small wooden box and handed it to Xuehan. “You will be in charge of the household expenses in the future. Oh, and you will also be in charge of the monthly wages for Xinghua and the others.”

After buying maids and servants, they also needed to be paid monthly wages. Ma Qiang and Ma Wei couldn’t help much, but they couldn’t be treated badly. They were paid 300 copper coins a month. Ma Eryue and Xinghua got 100 copper coins, Lichun and Yushui got 350 copper coins, Jingzhe and Xuehan got 200 copper coins, and Chunfen was too young to help, so she didn’t need to be paid monthly wages.

The Zhou family’s monthly wages also increased. The four sons of the Zhou family received one tael of silver per month, and the daughters-in-law also received one tael. The grandsons and granddaughters received half a tael of silver. As the daughter of the family, Xuehan also received one tael of silver, and Rong Chuan received the same as Zhou children.

When it came to monthly allowance, Zhulan thought of Dong Shi’s monthly allowance, which was not at all like the monthly allowance of a lady from an official family. Later, she couldn’t help but ask Dong Shi and found out that the monthly allowance was set by Old Master Dong. Granddaughters got 50 cents and grandsons got 100 cents. In order to let his descendants know that earning money was not easy, the old man hoped that his descendants would be thrifty in the future.

Although the rules are good, there are countermeasures for every rule. Dong Shi said that the children in their family had never relied on monthly allowances since they were young. The New Year’s money they received was a lot, which was basically enough for a year.

The rules of the Dong family did have a certain effect. The children of the Dong family all knew that their monthly allowance was small, and they reminded themselves every time the allowance was distributed that money was not easy to come by.

Xuehan was a little excited. She was going to help her mother with the household. This was the first time she could help her mother since she was a child. “Mom, I will take care of it.”

“Mother believes you.”

Half an hour later, the eldest Zhou and his wife came back. Lunch was their first meal since arriving in the capital, and because the end of the war in the northwest was worth celebrating, Li Shi bought a lot of meat and vegetables and prepared to make a sumptuous meal.

It was not yet winter, and there were plenty of green vegetables in the capital, including spinach, chrysanthemum, rapeseed, etc. Li Shi bought some of them.

The capital city had the most varieties of meat. In the shops specializing in selling meat, as long as you had money, you could buy the meat you wanted. Deer meat was also available, but the price was very touching.

Li Shi bought ten pounds of fat meat for frying, five pounds of pork belly, two pounds of lean meat, ten pounds of ribs, and ten pounds of mutton.

Li Shi also wanted to buy lotus roots, but they were a bit expensive, so she didn’t buy any.

She cooked eight dishes for lunch, with rice being the staple food.

Zhulan’s family and the Ma family ate separately. Zhulan gave the Ma family one month’s worth of food every month and vegetables every day, which the Ma family cooked themselves.

Servants don’t eat like this now, but when there would be more slaves in the future, there would be a special place for servants to eat.

After lunch, there was still a lot of work to do. Fortunately, they brought Eldest Zhou and Li Shi, plus Xinghua and the others, so Zhulan and Zhou Shuren didn’t have to do anything. They just had to talk.

In the afternoon, all the lanterns that were bought were hung up, the grass in the yard had to be cleared, and the firewood in the woodshed had to be chopped.

Zhulan’s family was busy for two days before they finally tidied up their house in the capital.

The house had just been cleaned up when the Zhou family received an invitation from Zhao Bo, who was coming to visit and introduce himself to the family.

On the second day, Zhao Bo did not come alone, he came with Deng Xiucai.

Deng Xiucai came with gifts, “After a few months of separation, Zhou Xiucai has become a juren, so a small gift is not enough to show respect.”

Zhou Shuren said politely: “It is a great kindness for Deng Xiucai to come here. Please take a seat.”

Deng Xiucai’s eyes were shining, he hadn’t cheated Zhou Juren for Zhao Bo’s sake. Fortunately, he did the right thing because this man became a juren in a few months, he was a real figure!

Zhao Bo smiled and said, “Brother Zhou’s house is nice, much more exquisite than my courtyard.”

Zhou Shuren, “It seems like I am quite lucky to have caught the eye of Brother Zhao.”

Zhao Bo sighed, “It’s more than good, Brother Zhou, don’t be so modest.”

Zhou Shuren said modestly: “This is all thanks to Deng Xiucai’s help!”

Zhao Bo laughed, “Then you must thank him very much. The price of the house will double in a few days!”

Zhou Shuren narrowed his eyes. Zhao Bo was well-informed. “Is the Northwest war going to end?”

Zhao Bo lowered his voice and said, “Yes, it’s over. The army is coming back to the capital. Moreover, we have captured a leader of a foreign tribe. It’s a great victory.”

He heard it from his clan head who was an official in the court, who also told him that next year’s spring examination might be related to the post-war period!

Zhou Shuren thought of the Yang brothers and wondered how the three brothers were doing.

At noon, Zhao Bo and Deng Xiucai had a meal and wine at Zhou’s house. Zhulan did not ask Li Shi to prepare any dishes but directly prepared a hot pot of mutton and mushrooms.

Zhulan also ate hot pot in the backyard. Zhou Shuren saw it in the store and bought two. She used them today.

It was around three o’clock in the afternoon when Zhao Bo and Deng Xiucai left.

Zhou Shuren also drank a lot. It was obvious that he was trying to get information out of them. Otherwise, Zhou Shuren wouldn’t have drunk so much. Zhulan twisted the handkerchief to wipe Zhou Shuren’s face. “What did you get out of them?”

Zhou Shuren shook his head. “Got a lot out of Deng Xiucai. Zhao Bo is tight-lipped. He will say what he wants to say, but he won’t say what he doesn’t want to say when he’s drunk.”

But what he really wanted was to get information out of Zhao Bo’s mouth. It seemed that Zhao Bo had also received training and his mouth was much tighter than before.

Zhu Lan said, “Zhao Bo and Deng Xiucai must have come here for something!”

Zhou Shuren nodded, “Yes, Zhao Bo wants to buy a yard from our house, the price is based on the current market price.”

Zhulan paused while washing her handkerchief. “Doesn’t Zhao Bo have a place to live?”

(End of this chapter)

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