The daily life of a space tycoon raising children, doting on his husband, and farming.

Chapter 30: Let's start practicing today.
“I asked Uncle Zhang, and he said that red bricks are cheaper than blue bricks. Building five red brick houses would cost at least forty taels of silver. The cost of building a kang (heated brick bed), repairing the fire wall, building a stove, and so on would probably be fifty taels. If you include the furniture, it would be sixty taels or more.”

“More than that,” Shang Wan said. “There are five of us. Regardless of the size of the rooms, there will be five bedrooms. If you include the main room, study, and kitchen, there will be eight rooms in total, not to mention the pigsty and the outhouse.”

Xiao Huan felt that Shang Wan had miscalculated. "Sister, we only need three bedrooms. Yuan Yuan is still too young to live with you, and Shi Tou and I will each have a room, so that's three rooms in total."

"What about Lu Chengjing?"

Xiao Huan: "Of course, young master will share a room with you."

Of course, husband and wife should live together.

Shang Wan: Would Lu Chengjing, that innocent boy who can make her blush with just a few words, be willing to sleep on the same kang (heated brick bed) with her?

Thinking of that person's truly handsome face, Shang Wan scratched her right cheek. "First, calculate how much it will cost, based on what I just said?"

Xiao Huan calculated for a long time before saying, "It's about a hundred taels."

"How much money do you and Stone have left?"

"You gave us a total of twenty taels of silver. We spent seven taels and three mace on house repairs, one tael and four mace on wine, fifty cash on city entrance fees, and five mace on medicine. We have four taels and three mace left."

Shang Wan had twenty-five taels of silver given to him by the government and three taels left over from selling the wild boar, totaling less than forty taels of silver.

Although the Chen family still owed her fifty taels, it still didn't add up to a hundred taels.

Even if we have enough, we can't use all the money to build a new house; we still have household expenses.

If we live like this now, we only need two bedrooms, which would indeed save the cost of building a new house. However, since we've already built a new house, Shang Wan still wants everyone to live more comfortably.

Hunting is a quick way to make money, but she just sold a wild boar a few days ago. She can't exactly carry two more to sell, can she? That would be too conspicuous.

She couldn't sell the small animals for a good price, and she couldn't go into the mountains every day to cause trouble.

Shang Wan scratched her head, realizing she needed to quickly find a sustainable, legitimate source of income for her family.

The little turtle leisurely crawled past her.

Shang Wan squatted down and poked it, "Aren't you the guardian turtle that protects the house? Come on, conjure up two pieces of gold and let me see."

The little turtle retracted its head into its shell, ignoring the strange human.

Shang Wan tossed it back to where it had crawled from, clapped her hands, and called to the kitchen, "Xiao Huan, Shi Tou, come to the side room for a meeting right away."

Three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang. If we brainstorm together, we can always come up with a reliable way to make money, right?

The four family members gathered in the side room, sitting on either side of the kang table.

Shang Wan said seriously, "Building a new house requires one hundred taels of silver, but our family doesn't have enough money. Let's all think together about ways to make money."

Stone raised his hand, "Go to the city to carry heavy loads, twenty coins a day."

Shang Wan: "Too few, next one."

Xiao Huan suggested, "I can sell embroidery. I can embroider ten handkerchiefs a day. Each handkerchief costs fifteen coins. After deducting the cost of the handkerchiefs, I can earn one hundred coins a day."

Shang Wan: "You embroider so many handkerchiefs every day, don't you want to lose your eyes and hands? Next one."

Stone and Little Ring lowered their heads and pondered deeply.

Shang Wan nudged the absent-minded person next to her, "What talents... uh, skills do you have?"

Lu Chengjing pondered for a moment, then said, "Calligraphy and painting."

Shang Wan was surprised: "You can write and draw with your left hand?"

Lu Chengjing: "I can start practicing today." Shang Wan's lips twitched. "You should rest, old man."

When will I be able to go after I've mastered the skills?
“Sister, the young master’s calligraphy and paintings are very popular at the county school,” Shi Tou couldn’t help but interject. “A single piece can sell for several dozen taels of silver.”

Shang Wan's eyes lit up. "Really?"

“It’s true. Young Master reads quickly, and buying books is expensive. When Madam doesn’t give him any, he exchanges calligraphy and paintings with the shop owner, which saves him a lot of money.” Shi Tou revealed his young master’s secrets. “When Madam punishes him by deducting his monthly allowance, he sells calligraphy and paintings, and people from the county school are all eager to buy them.”

Shang Wan thought of the pile of paintings in her space and turned to look at Lu Chengjing, "Can those calligraphy and paintings in your study be sold for money?"

"Of course!" Stone answered quickly. "The calligraphy and paintings in the study are things the young master is reluctant to sell; they're very well done!"

"Wait for me a moment." Shang Wan rushed out of the door, ran to the bedroom, took out all the scrolls from the space, and then ran back to the side room with them.

"Eight paintings in total." Shang Wan placed the scrolls on the kang table and smiled at the three of them. "Tomorrow we'll go into town and sell the paintings at the entrance of the county school."

Even if each painting sells for twenty taels, eight paintings would amount to at least one hundred and sixty taels, more than enough to build a new house.

Lu Chengjing glanced at the scroll on the kang table, his eye twitching slightly. "You haven't opened it to look at it?"

What's so interesting about paintings?

Shang Wan glanced at him suspiciously, then casually picked up one and opened it.

Xiao Huan and Shi Tou both came over to look.

"Where's the painting?"

The three of them were dumbfounded.

The scroll was completely blank, without even a speck of ink.

The three of them quickly unfolded the other seven scrolls, only to find that they were all blank.

Lu Chengjing said helplessly, "Those paintings were taken away by Father...Master Lu sent people to take them away long ago. All these scrolls in the study are newly bought by me."

The three who were initially pleased were left speechless.

Seeing that the three people who were just excited were now looking like wilted eggplants, Lu Chengjing coughed lightly: "Actually, I have a way to make money."

Shang Wan tossed the blank scroll aside, walked back, and sat down.

Xiao Huan and Shi Tou sat back down and listened intently to what was to come.

“I know a little about processing medicinal herbs,” Lu Chengjing said. “We can go up the mountain to collect herbs, process them, and then sell them to pharmacies. As long as we don’t dig them all up, the herbs will grow every year, which is a way to make money continuously.”

"Moreover, there are many medicinal herbs on this mountain, including precious herbs such as ginseng. If we can find them, the money to build a new house should not be a problem."

“I can look for them,” Shang Wan said, shrugging. “But herbs and weeds are the same to me. Which of you two recognizes them?”

She immediately ruled out Lu Chengjing. Given Lu Chengjing's current state, with a broken hand and a limp, how could he possibly go into the mountains with her to find herbs?
Xiao Huan shook her head. She could identify wild vegetables and mushrooms without any problem, but distinguishing herbs? No way.

Stone opened his mouth, but then swallowed his words back, as if remembering something.

Lu Chengjing glanced at him and said to Shang Wan, "Shitou often gets medicine for me and prepares it. He knows all the commonly used herbs."

Shang Wan was somewhat surprised; the young man had this skill?
"Young Master, I can't do it." Shi Tou waved his hands repeatedly. "The processed medicinal herbs look different from the fresh herbs. I'm always careless. What if I find the wrong ones? Wouldn't that be a waste of effort?"

"Experience comes from real combat. Just be careful and learn more, right?" Shang Wan encouraged, gesturing towards Lu Chengjing. "His leg injury hasn't healed yet. Do you want him to come into the mountains with me?"

(End of this chapter)