Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 241
Living in a Mansion
On the road home, Mo Ling discussed with Zhong Cheng, “It’s not a feasible long-term strategy to go back and forth every day, how about we just rent a courtyard and live in town! We might earn less money this way, but the child won’t have to suffer as much.”
Zhong Cheng agreed to see if there are any suitable houses.
Zao’er was a very obedient child. When he didn’t see his mother after waking up in the morning, he didn’t cry, and instead just squeezed Mo Yan’s nose with his little hand to wake her up.
Mo Yan opened her eyes to see the child smile and her. She was in a good mood, so pinched Zao’er’s little nose. “Zao’er, you’ve woken up? How obedient!”
The child neither cried nor made a mess, but there was just one thing. He frantically crawled over Mo Yan’s body, and was about to fall off her. Mo Yan nudged him elsewhere, but he was unwilling to stay there and insisted on crawling back over.
Mo Yan suddenly thought of something she hadn’t done, which was change the child’s diapers at night. After an experimental touch, she discovered that the other side of the bed was soaked.
She couldn’t care enough about being gentle anymore, and pulled off the blankets, yelling, “Zao’er, you wet my bed!”
Zao’er still thought that she was playing with him, and started laughing. With an infant, you couldn’t be impatient or frustrated, so Mo Yan simply put on some clothes, helped Zao’er to dress, and took the mattress out to dry.
“I can’t let you stay here anymore, there’s no way!”
She was in the middle of talking to herself and Ze Wu returned from buying groceries, “What’s the matter, did you spill water on your bed?”
Mo Yan looked at Zao’er, who was currently toddling over clumsily. “It’s him, he wet my bed.”
Ze Wu laughed heartily, “Children will naturally wet their beds! Miss, didn’t you know that?”
“I know! It’s all you little rascal’s fault.”
Mo Yan pretended to rush after Zao’er to beat him up, and Zao’er started running in the courtyard when Mo Ling entered the courtyard. “Who dares to beat up my Zao’er?”
Zao’er ran over to Mo Ling with a smile, and seeing that her son wasn’t crying or throwing a tantrum, Mo Ling calmed down. She hadn’t slept well all night, afraid that the child would wake up in the night and start bawling.
Mo Yan looked at the urine-soaked mattress, “Look, this was caused by your son. He didn’t wake up a single time all night, but when he woke up, guess what I found? Help me wash my bed!”
Mo Ling laughed, “Sure, I’ll help you with that. I’ve talked to your brother-in-law, and it’s not feasible in the long-term for us to go back and forth like this, so we were thinking about renting a house in town. You can’t just live in the workshop, so let’s live together.”
She had heard about the matter between her and Lu Junming a long time ago, but hadn’t asked about it. If she asked, it wouldn’t do anything except dredge up sad memories, so what was the point?
The government official knew which family was renting out courtyards the best, so Mo Yan agreed to go to his office to ask later. Mo Ling was already missing Zao’er to bits after not seeing him for a single night, so picked him up and walked to her shop, giving him kisses along the way.
After asking Liu Fengchun, Duan Caimei’s family was indeed renting out a courtyard. Their family’s ancestral manor had just been renovated recently, and after her grandfather’s official position had been reinstated, their entire family returned to the capital. There were only a few people left here to look after the manor.
The manor was very large, and Mo Yan couldn’t rent out the entire thing. The manor’s owner wasn’t renting out the main courtyard, either, just the two side courtyards. Mo Yan went over to take a look. The side courtyards were connected to the main courtyard via a moon-shaped door, and each side courtyard had a door leading to the outside. After closing the moon-shaped door, it would be a small independent courtyard.
The side courtyards on the east and the west had the same layout, and they were also symmetrical. Mo Yan picked the east courtyard, which was closer to the streets. “Excuse me, but how much would renting his courtyard cost?”
“Five silver taels a year.”
This rent was the same as the Jiaolan Courtyard Lu Junming had initially rented, and both the size and the number of rooms of this courtyard was the same as that one.
Seeing Mo Yan hesitate, the owner said, “This courtyard is much better than the courtyards commoners rent out. There’s a well at the back, so you won’t need to go outside to fetch water. It’s also fine for you to wander around in the garden, as long as you don’t casually enter the main courtyard.”
It was also good to say that they were living in the mansion of an important government official! Mo Yan immediately agreed. “Alright, then I’ll rent this courtyard.”
When it was time to sign the contract, the owner looked at her name and asked, “You’re called Mo Yan?”
Mo Yan nodded. “That’s right! Is something the matter?”
“My family’s young miss has just sent a letter over from the capital, and she’s asked us to deliver it to you. I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet! So you two know each other. In that case, feel free to live in this courtyard. I’m not too bothered about the rent, since I initially just wanted to rent the courtyard out because I was afraid I couldn’t take care of it and wanted someone else to do it in my stead.”
The owner went to fetch a letter before returning. Mo Yan didn’t open it up immediately, wanting to go back and take her time reading it.
The courtyard was very clean, and didn’t need to be tidied up. It even had furniture, so they could move in immediately. Mo Yan called Mo Ling over to take a look, and she was also very satisfied, “Then I’ll pay the rent.”
“There’s no need, it’s just five silver taels a year, I’ve already paid. I’m not doing this for you, but for Zao’er.”
“Zao’er, Zao’er, have you finally picked out a name for my son yet!” [1]
Mo Yan slapped herself on the head. “I’ve already thought of it, I’ll write the options out for you later and let you pick.”
At night, when Zhong Cheng drove his carriage over, the main gate of Duan Manor had already been locked. The side gate couldn’t fit a carriage, so he could only unhitch the horse from the carriage, and leave it outside.
The next morning, the owner noticed the carriage outside, and came to speak to them, “Don’t take horses inside the side courtyard. Aside from the excretion, the hooves will also damage the ground. There are stables in the back courtyard and a well right next to it, so it’s convenient for the horses to drink. If you’re coming back late in the future, come via the back gate. It’s specifically for importing goods so carriages can be driven in.”
When Mo Ling heard this, she was overjoyed. “We’ve really living in a mansion now, so we should also enjoy the days of an official’s family.”
In that case, the moon-shaped door in the middle really couldn’t be closed, since they had to go that way to fetch water and feed the horse.
Mo Yan read the letter Duan Caimei sent over. It said that even though Lu Junming refused the marriage, the elders from both of their families refused to give up, so there currently wasn’t any conclusion to that matter. She also added a bit about the gossip in the capital. Mo Yan returned a letter to her, saying that she had rented her courtyard to live in.
No one had expected Duan Caimei to personally come back after a month. As soon as she entered, she immediately called for Mo Yan. When the owner told her that Mo Yan hadn’t returned yet, she ran over to the shops to find her.
After knowing she had opened a knife shop, Duan Caimei repeatedly praised her, and immediately bought a fruit knife from her shop.
An ox-bone handle, a leather sheath. It was a streamlined and delicate blade with a sharp edge.
Mo Yan naturally refused to accept her money. “You’re currently my landlord, so I naturally have to get on your good grades. How dare I accept your money for such a small item?”
Duan Caimei feigned anger. “You’re talking about me like I’m a heartless landlord? I’ll take this as your apology, then.”
She raised her fruit knife and said, “Everything else is fine here, it’s just missing fresh fruit. Especially in the spring, there practically isn’t any fruit to eat. Don’t you know that women are made of water? We need to eat fruit every day.”
There weren’t many types of fruit in the north to begin with, and that dwindled down to practically nothing in the spring. It would be a while before fruit such as apricots, pears, cherries and nectarines would be available.
In the past, preservation techniques were limited, so fruits which couldn’t be finished were made into dried and honeyed fruit to be preserved easier.
Mo Yan went to the commercial firm to give her some preserved fruits, and Duan Caimei could only accept it.
P.S. Wow, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry for the delay, something came up. Thanks for reading!
[1] Mo Yan was tasked with picking out a name for Zao’er a long time ago.