Chapter 163: The Docks Face a Refurbishment
Once the evening chores were completely finished, the large family gathered together in the courtyard of Wen Xiuyi’s new house. On the left sat the members of the Wen family, and on the right stood the seven members of the Lu family.
“Well, about that…” Old Man Wen finally recovered from his shock. Yet the moment he spoke, Lu Feng and the others made a move to kneel again. This gave Old Man Wen such a fright that he leaped straight up. “Whoa, hold on!”
Wen Xiuyi quickly cleared his throat. “Uncle Lu, our family doesn’t have that many rules. There’s no need to keep kneeling and bowing.”
“Yes, Master.” Uncle Lu led his family back into a standing position, looking respectfully at Old Man Wen. “What are the Old Master’s orders?”
Suddenly turned into the “Old Master,” Old Man Wen stood frozen. “…” What was he about to say again?
“What was I about to say?” Old Man Wen turned his head to ask Old Madam Luo.
Old Madam Luo shot him a massive glare. “How should I know what you were going to say?”
Embarrassed, Old Man Wen turned back to face the Lu family. Opening his mouth, he was so afraid they might kneel again that he spoke very directly: “Since Eldest brought you back, just stay here and work properly from now on. You can see our family’s situation; we are all ordinary folks and don’t care for excessive etiquette. Don’t do what you did today ever again.”
Old Man Wen was referring to all the kneeling and kowtowing. Sigh, what a bizarre state of affairs.
Lu Feng instinctively wanted to lead his family down to kneel and kowtow, but remembering Old Man Wen’s words and his reaction just now, he ultimately settled for a deeply respectful bow and answered, “Understood, Old Master.”
“Ahem.” Old Man Wen was still rather unaccustomed to it. He quickly looked at Old Madam Luo. “Do you have anything else to say?”
Old Madam Luo gave a soft snort before looking at the group. “Has Eldest arranged everything for you?”
Lu Feng stepped forward respectfully to reply, “In response to the Old Madame, the Master has arranged everything. This servant—”
“Stop, stop, stop. Change how you address me too,” Old Madam Luo interrupted him.
Lu Feng adjusted his composure before continuing, “Yes. The Master has indeed arranged everything. My sons, Lu Jiang and Lu He, and I will be dedicated to tending the fish pond. When things are quiet there, we will head out to the fields to help the Second and Third Masters with the farm work.
My old woman will follow you, Old Madame, to look after the household. Bing’er and his mother will accompany the Second and Third Mistresses to work at the duck coop and help tidy the house.
Hua’er is still small, but we pray the Old Madame and Old Master won’t dislike her. We will fulfill her share of the labor, and once she grows older, she can help out as well.
Lu He also knows how to drive a cart. The Master mentioned that from now on, the chore of picking up and dropping off the young masters at school will be given to Lu He, so that the Second Master can get more rest.”
Having finished, Lu Feng stood straight and asked respectfully, “The Master said to arrange things like this for the time being. Does the Old Madame find it acceptable?”
Old Madam Luo gave it some thought. Arranging it this way was quite reasonable and neat; every area was properly covered.
Recalling the little girl, Hua’er, whom he had just mentioned, Old Madam Luo looked over at her. A child no bigger than a bean—what could she possibly do? The mere sight of her made Old Madam Luo think of Datou when he was little.
“Let’s leave the arrangement as it is then. You don’t need to intentionally cover for little Hua’er either; our family does not mistreat children. Go get a good rest tonight, and we’ll talk more tomorrow.” Old Madam Luo stood up to leave after speaking, and the rest of the old residence’s family quickly followed suit.
Lady Li and Lady Cai hurried forward to support their mother-in-law as they walked out.
“Mother, ‘Old Madame’ sounds so incredibly grand!” Lady Li burst out laughing.
The corners of Old Madam Luo’s mouth twitched upward slightly, but she still felt the need to lecture her daughters-in-law: “These are people Eldest and the others bought. Don’t you start acting like real noble mistresses. They only ended up here out of dire necessity. Just have them work properly from now on, and don’t start pulling that tyrannical old landlord behavior, you hear me?”
Lady Li nodded repeatedly. “Mother, don’t you know us by now? We won’t do that, rest assured.”
Lady Cai nodded along in agreement.
Only then did Old Madam Luo set her mind at ease, chuckling softly. “Though I must say, so that’s what it feels like to be an old matriarch in a wealthy landlord’s house.”
This made both daughters-in-law laugh out loud. Behind them, Old Man Wen had no idea what they were giggling about, but he knew he had to lecture his own sons. The words he spoke to them were more or less identical to Old Madam Luo’s.
In short, they were just ordinary people and couldn’t put on royal airs.
In the days that followed, the addition of the Lu family members truly made things much easier for the Wen family.
One evening, when Wen Jun and the others returned, the two households gathered together to eat.
Since the old residence was too small, everyone shifted over to the new house, where the Lu family members now had a table of their own.
Midway through the meal, Wen Nong suddenly set down his bowl and chopsticks.
“Grandpappy, Grandma, Dad, Mom, Uncle, I have something I want to discuss with you.”
Everyone looked toward Wen Nong. Lady Li knitted her brows. “Don’t tell me you’re about to say you don’t want to run the food stall anymore.”
Wen Nong waved his hands frantically. “No, no, Mom! I’m completely used to it now. If you didn’t let me run the stall, I’d actually feel lost.”
“Then what is it? Speak up,” Old Man Wen urged.
Only then did Wen Nong continue, “Recently, the County Magistrate suddenly sent people down to the docks to issue a notice. He said that since more and more people are visiting Yunwu Town, our docks can’t remain in such a chaotic state. They are planning to refurbish and reorganize the whole area.”
Hearing this, Wen Yao and Wen Xiuyi exchanged a look. They hadn’t expected the County Magistrate to be so forward-thinking, making preparations the moment he saw Yunwu Town’s popularity beginning to surge.
“Go on,” Wen Xiuyi said, quite intrigued to know what the County Magistrate had in mind.
“The reorganization won’t leave us vendors without a place to set up; they are going to deliberately section off specific zones for our stalls. In addition, they are planning to construct proper storefront buildings by the docks. If anyone wants a permanent storefront instead of running a temporary stall, they can register at the yamen—but the money to construct the building must come out of our own pockets.” By the time Wen Nong reached the end, his voice had shrunk to a whisper.
Beside him, Lady Li slapped him squarely across the back. “Straighten your spine and speak up. What is it you want to do?”
Wen Nong stole a cautious look at the family. After hesitating for a long moment, he stammered out, “Grandpappy, Grandma, Uncle… I—I want to get a storefront.”
“…”
Seeing that everyone had fallen silent, Wen Nong panicked slightly. Yet he still plucked up the courage to argue his case: “Right now, there isn’t a single soul at the docks who doesn’t know about our family’s fried rice, and business is booming. I was thinking that while the County Magistrate is refurbishing the docks, I could snatch a prime location. Once we have a proper shop, we won’t have to haul our equipment back and forth every single day, and we can prepare most of our ingredients right inside the storefront.”
After a long pause, Old Man Wen finally asked, “How much money will it take?”
Wen Nong cautiously extended a single finger.
“One tael?” Old Man Wen was astonished. Was the County Magistrate running a charity?
“Te—ten taels,” Wen Nong’s voice dwindled.
Old Man Wen lapsed into silence. Their family’s current funds had all been poured into the fish pond and the duck coop. If this had happened before, they could have grit their teeth and produced those ten taels. After all, Wen Nong’s stall brought in genuine profit; he would easily make it back, and a permanent shop wouldn’t just vanish into thin air.
Except, right now…
