Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 245
Repairing the Courtyard Wall
The manager had the carpenter of the shop do a rush job. In three days, they had completed a baby stroller, although they hadn’t brushed tung oil on it.
Zao’er saw the baby stroller in the storefront opposite them and kept wanting to go over there day after day. Mo Ling became irritated by his struggling, and carried him over to the carpenter’s.
“Manager, we don’t need tung oil brushed on this stroller, I’ll just take it now.”
Mo Ling paid the rest of the money and placed Zao’er in the stroller, pushing it back to the storefront. Zao’er was so happy that he started bouncing about in the stroller.
After a while, Mo Yan came over to pick Zao’er up, and pushed the stroller towards the courtyard they had rented. When she passed Mo Feng’s shop, Xiuying snuck a glance. The model of Zao’er’s stroller was similar to that of Mo Jing’s, but the railings and the wooden boards used to make it were all thicker than his.
After closing up shop for the day, Xiuying and Mo Feng pushed Mo Jing back home. At the dinner table, Mo Zenian handed his wallet to Mrs. Liang. “Have we earned enough money to repair the courtyard wall? If we have, let’s start on the work!”
Mrs. Liang said, “Do you want walls made of azure bricks or clay? If you want them made of clay, you might not need to buy bricks, but we don’t have much of a labour force and will need to hire people to help. After tallying it up, we’ll spend roughly the same amount of money.”
“Then build them out of azure bricks, it’ll look more prestigious!” Mo Zenian replied.
“Alright, I’ll go and buy azure bricks tomorrow. You go and ask the bricklayers in town when they’ll be available.”
There were many houses built during the spring, and all of the bricklayers in town were very busy. Hiring their services would require waiting at least a month.
Mrs. Liang didn’t want to wait anymore, so found a few people who knew how to lay bricks in the village and a few other helpers to serve as a makeshift task force. They were just repairing a courtyard wall, so they didn’t need to be too skilled. It just meant that it might take a bit longer to complete.
To spend less money paying them, Mrs. Liang decided to make them lunch every day. Buns made of white flour, a few casually-made dishes, alongside some of her specialty side dishes and some porridge was a decent meal.
Initially, Mrs. Liang had said that Mo Feng and his wife didn’t need to go to town, but Xiuying said, “Someone needs to take care of the child anyways, and I won’t be able to help out much at home. How about I take my son to the storefront? We might be able to earn a few dollars.”
Mrs. Liang thought that what she said made sense, so agreed.
After a day, the courtyard wall was half a man’s height, and the bricklayers said to Mrs. Liang, “Considering the progress so far, I’m afraid the bricks you bought won’t be enough. This courtyard wall needs to be at least taller than a person! See here, the wall’s only half that tall, but most of the bricks have already been used up. The entrance hasn’t been built yet!”
“I can also see that. I’ll go out to buy them early the next morning, how much more do you think is necessary?”
“Prepare a few hundred more bricks! If that’s too many bricks, you can get a refund.”
Mrs. Liang had Mo Feng do a quick calculation. A few hundred bricks would cost ten silver taels, give or take. The entire family only had a few silver taels left right now, and they didn’t know if that’d be enough if all of it was taken to buy bricks. Besides, Mrs. Liang had spent long enough in fear of the days when they were penniless. [1]
While packing up, she complained, “None of you have ever run a household, and none of you know the cost of daily expenses. We only have a total of this much money at home, and you still want to rent a house in town, you still want to buy such a useless stroller. All you know is how to waste money.”
As she was speaking, Xiuying had pushed Mo Jing inside. After hearing her complain about her wasting money again, Xiuying’s belly of fire could no longer be contained. “Mother-in-law, I’ve already not rented the house when you said not to, and I’ve gotten the deposit back. This stroller wasn’t bought by me either, but was bought by Yan’er.”
“Isn’t her money also the family’s money? Everything has a cause and effect. If you spend too much money on a day-to-day basis, you won’t be able to take out any money at the end of the year, and it’s a load on your back.”
Xiuying’s eyes darkened, and she said, “She also bought a stroller for Zao’er! It’s even better than Jing’er’s.”
How could Mrs. Liang not tell that Xiuying was tattling right now? When she heard this, she also felt furious, but she couldn’t rant about her daughter in front of her daughter-in-law.
“Tomorrow, go to town and tell her to come back. Say that there’s something urgent to deal with at home.”
At the dinner table, Mrs. Liang asked Mo Zenian how much money he had left, and he placed his wallet in front of her. “I just have this much left, you still need to leave me some money to give change to customers and import goods! Otherwise, the amount of goods in the store will dwindle day by day, and we’ll have to close up for good before long.”
Mrs. Liang looked at the money in the wallet, before handing it back to Mo Zenian. Mo Zenian said, “Why not ask Yan’er to hand some money over?”
Mrs. Liang said the same thing as before, that she didn’t have much money due to spending so much normally, but Mo Zenian replied, “When Lu Junming left, he handed all of his businesses over to her to manage. Besides, the new storefront she opened solely belongs to her, and it’s incredibly popular!”
“She opened a new shop?” Mrs. Liang hadn’t known about this, and when Xiuying heard about it she regretted not telling this to her mother-in-law.
She hurriedly added, “That’s right! Didn’t you know? It’s a shop selling knives, and it’s so popular that many people have handed in deposits to pre-order them!”
Mrs. Liang suppressed the fire in her heart and she said, “Hasn’t she not come back in a while? Does she not have any time for us anymore? Tell her to come back home tomorrow!”
The next day, when she saw Mo Yan, Xiuying said, “Yan’er, mother-in-law wants you to go back home!”
“Did something happen at home?”
“Nothing special, she just said that she hadn’t seen you in a long time and misses you.”
This was a complete fabrication, and Mo Ling, who was opposite her, cracked up. “Xiuying, how about you just directly say that something’s happened at home and how much money you need. It sounds much more real to our ears.”
Mo Yan knew that Xiuying couldn’t disobey Mrs. Liang’s orders, and didn’t want to trouble her, “Alright, I’ll come over once I’m done here.”
It didn’t take a genius to know that the urgent situation at home was repairing the courtyard wall. When Mo Yan returned home, she only left ten silver taels and a few dollars in her wallet.
As soon as she entered, she saw Mrs. Liang busily working both inside and out of the house. “Mother, I’ve returned. Why didn’t you tell me you were repairing the courtyard wall? I’ve come back to see if there’s anything I can help out with.”
The way she said this prevented Mrs. Liang from swearing at her. “There aren’t enough bricks, go and buy a few hundred.”
Even the bricklayers felt awkward when they heard this. Her son was right there, but she had to wait for her daughter to return to buy bricks.
Mo Yan quickly responded, “Alright, then I’ll go first. I still have work to do in the storefront, so I’ll go straight back as soon as I’ve bought the bricks. After all, they’ll send them over by themselves.”
After seeing her leave, Mrs. Liang felt like she’d been played for some inexplicable reason, but couldn’t pick out a flaw in her actions. The bricklayers all praised her for having a filial daughter, and Mrs. Liang felt more relaxed after hearing that, so didn’t think about it anymore.
It took five days to make the courtyard wall along with an entrance. Mrs. Liang was tired enough just making lunch every day, and she might have forgotten to eat her medicine again, because she’d cough from time to time.
Mo Zenian’s words were much sweeter than in the past. When he came back home, he kept praising her for working hard every day and for being capable. He no longer dared to boss her around and wait for her to serve him like in the past.
Mrs. Liang had waited for over a decade for him to be like this. But now, when she hadn’t longed for it for a long time, she had finally gotten it.
How could Mo Zenian not notice that the current Mrs. Liang wasn’t the same as the Mrs. Liang of the past?
P.S. I feel some foreshadowing, hopefully. Thanks for reading!
[1] No way they don’t have at least 10 silver taels. They earn like half a tael every day.