Traveling to ancient times with a sign-in system

Chapter 131 The Serving Girl

But the old ox just wouldn't listen. Her father whipped it a few times, but it didn't move. No matter how much he scolded it, it was useless. The ox just kept walking on its own, neither fast nor slow, which was really heartbreaking to watch.

Gu Lianshan didn't dare whip the cow too hard, for fear of scaring it late at night.

Seeing that I couldn't control it, I had no choice but to let it go.

It took the old ox two quarters of an hour to walk from the inn to the new yard. It was so slow that Gu Tang wanted to get off and run by himself!

After entering the yard, Gu Tang felt that all the heat in his body had disappeared, his feet were so cold that he had lost all feeling, and he felt like he had just crawled out of an ice cave.

Seeing that Gu Tang was very cold, Gu Lianshan asked Gu Ping'an to tie up the cow, while he went into the house to light the oil lamp, and then lit the stove, and let Gu Tang sit in front of the stove to keep warm.

After Gu Ping'an came back from tying the cow, Gu Lianshan took him to the kitchen again. The father and son simply cooked a pot of porridge and had a meal to warm themselves up.

After dinner, Gu Tang calmed down. She took the oil lamp and went to check on the chickens and ducks in the yard.

Gu Ping'an also followed. He had been thinking about these chickens and ducks these days, wondering if they had laid eggs.

The water troughs and feeding troughs in the pen were half empty, all the chickens and ducks were crowded into the nests, and the ground was covered with chicken and duck feces.

Gu Tang stopped immediately, not wanting to step on the feces in the middle of the night, so he handed the oil lamp to Gu Ping'an and asked him to go into the pen and touch the chicken and duck coops to see if there were any chicken or duck eggs inside.

Gu Ping'an really liked picking eggs. He rolled up his sleeves, took the oil lamp with excitement, and started to search the chicken and duck coops one by one.

When he reached into the first chicken coop, Gu Pingan quickly shouted out happily: "There are eggs! I touched them!"

Because it was not the brooding season, the hens did not protect the eggs, so Gu Ping'an still took the eggs away without pecking his hand.

Gu Ping'an handed the egg to Gu Tang and asked her to take a closer look.

Gu Tang took it and found that the egg was still warm. He guessed that it had been pressed under the hen.

You can't keep them under your body all the time. If their claws break the eggs, all the eggs will be wasted.

She returned the eggs to Gu Ping'an: "Wait here for me, I'll go get a basket and you can pick up all the eggs in the basket later."

She remembered that the last time she bought something, she bought a pair of small, pot-bellied bamboo baskets. At that time, her father disliked the baskets because they were too small and couldn't hold many things. But Gu Tang thought the baskets were cute, so he agreed and bought a pair for her.

Now that I think about it, that basket is just right for storing eggs. One basket can hold about fifty or sixty eggs.

After taking the basket out from the backyard, Gu Tang happily took the basket back to the second courtyard and handed it to Gu Ping'an, asking him to pick up all the eggs quickly.

Oh, yes! There are also duck eggs. She happened to buy a pair, one basket for chicken eggs and one basket for duck eggs.

Gu Ping'an took out chicken and duck eggs from the chicken and duck coops, counting them quietly.

Gu Tang was very willing to feed these chickens and ducks. Although they were not away for the past few days, she provided them with enough food in the trough, and now half of it is still left.

It can be seen that these chickens and ducks have never been hungry.

The food was good, and the eggs were laid more, and soon the two baskets were full.

After checking all the chicken and duck coops, Gu Ping'an reported the final number of chicken and duck eggs: "Twenty chicken eggs! Eighteen duck eggs!"

Well, not bad! More than she expected.

Gu Tang nodded, very satisfied with the number of chicken and duck eggs.

These chickens and ducks are all original species, not those that have been improved and evolved from generation to generation in the previous life. The number of eggs they lay each year is not that many, so it is very good to have these now!
Hearing the number his son reported, Gu Lianshan, who was boiling water in the kitchen, poked his head out and said to the siblings happily, "I'll make you omelets tomorrow morning. They're Dad's specialty!"

Gu Ping'an responded, smiling from ear to ear, and was very much looking forward to it.

He handed the oil lamp to Gu Tang, picked up two baskets and left the chicken coop.

Gu Tang held the oil lamp behind him, closed the chicken coop, and followed him to the kitchen.

The kitchen in this courtyard is located in the east wing of the main hall. The room is very spacious and has two large stoves and two small stoves.

When she was arranging the yard, she specially placed two large vats in the kitchen, one for well water and the other for rice and other food.

After entering the kitchen, Gu Tang took the chicken and duck eggs, put them into the jar for storage, and sent Gu Ping'an to wash up, and then sent him to bed.

He was told that he had to get up early to feed the chickens and ducks, and that he should continue to check the chicken and duck coops tomorrow, as the chickens and ducks might lay eggs again.

Gu Ping'an didn't think much about it. He happily poured hot water to wash his face and imitated Gu Tang to clean his teeth with salt.

Gu Lianshan glanced at his silly son, then glanced at his clever daughter, without saying a word, he just sat in front of the stove and warmed himself with the remaining fire.

After Gu Ping'an washed up and left the kitchen, Gu Lianshan asked, "What do you want to say to Dad?"

Gu Tang first smiled and praised her father: "Your eyes are really sharp, nothing can be hidden from you!"

After praising her, she changed the subject and talked about the east ear room: "During the day, I dug out two boxes of rare items in our east ear room..."

Gu Lianshan suddenly looked up, his eyes sparkling. "Rare item? Is it valuable?"

Just as he finished speaking, he realized his daughter was wrong: "Wait a minute! You said you dug it out? Dad asked you to go to the east wing to look for things, not to dig. What were you thinking? Why did you think you were going to dig underground?"

Gu Tang told her father what she had seen in the east ear room, and explained her own inference, trying to explain why she wanted to dig underground.

Gu Lianshan's eyes burned with excitement as he heard this: "It's hidden so secretly, it must be something valuable! My dear daughter, tell me quickly, have you opened those two boxes? What rare things are inside?" Gu Tang paused, not knowing what to say: "Wait here, I'll go get the two boxes, you should see them with your own eyes..."

After saying this, she hurried to the backyard and took out the two boxes from the system backpack.

Gu Lianshan calmed down. His daughter didn't look like she had dug up anything valuable.

When Gu Tang turned around, he had two more boxes in his hands.

Even though he had a bad premonition, Gu Lianshan was still excited for a few moments and kept staring at the box in his daughter's hand.

There was a small table in the kitchen, which was used for the servants to eat. Gu Tang pulled it over, put the box on it, and opened them all for her father to take a look.

Looking at the things in the box, Gu Lianshan was stunned. He rubbed his eyes for a long time to make sure he was not dazzled!
"Stop rubbing it, Dad. You saw it right." Gu Tang took out everything in the box, took out the scales, and weighed the silver first.

"Tsk! Our family is truly wealthy! No wonder we can afford to support two scholars! Look, there's a full eighty taels of silver!"

Gu Tang handed the scales under her father's nose and signaled her father to look carefully.

The Gu family's two elders treated their second wife harshly, not because they were poor, but because their Gu family was very wealthy! They even had eighty taels of silver hidden away!

At this moment, Gu Lianshan didn't even look at the silver. He stared at the gold and silver jewelry on the table, stunned.

"Is this true?" His voice was trembling, and his outstretched hand was shaking.

Gu Tang put down the scales and nodded: "I bit it a few times with my teeth, it should be true."

She casually picked up a hairpin and pointed to a spot for her father to examine more closely. "It has the word 'Chen' engraved on it, so it must be a surname. I've heard before that wealthy families would mark their jewelry with a name, such as a surname or title."

Hearing this, Gu Lianshan finally understood what his daughter wanted to say. He took the hairpin and looked at it under the oil lamp. Sure enough, a very eye-catching word "Chen" was engraved on the hairpin.

Gu Tang glanced at her father and asked tentatively, "Dad, among our relatives and friends, have you ever heard of anyone with the surname 'Chen'? These things definitely weren't stolen by my grandparents. They don't have the brains or the means to do so. I'm wondering if our family hid them for someone else, or if this 'Chen' family has some connection to ours?"

"Chen?" Gu Lianshan looked thoughtful, some distant fragments flashing through his mind.

He seemed to have heard of this surname Chen...

Gu Tang raised her eyebrows. Looking at her father's expression, could it be that he really knew something?
After searching his memory for a long time, Gu Lianshan finally remembered something, but he had overheard it and didn't know whether he should tell his daughter.

Gu Tang was sharp-eyed and noticed the hesitation on her father's face. She was delighted. It seemed that her father really knew!
"Dad! If you know the origin of these jewels, you must not hide it from me!"

Gu Lianshan paused for a moment before continuing, "When Dad was seven or eight years old, I overheard your great-grandmother and your grandmother arguing. Your great-grandmother said your grandmother had worked as a servant in a wealthy family, and that she was a liar who had concealed the fact. While they were arguing, Dad seemed to hear something about the Chen family."

"Are you sure?"

Gu Lianshan hesitantly shook his head, "I'm not sure. This happened over 20 years ago. I'm lucky I can remember it. I definitely can't remember more details. But I can be sure of one thing: your great-grandmother said she used to be a servant girl!"
Dad thought, if that's the case, then these jewelry were most likely given to your grandma by her master when she redeemed herself, or they were just gifts from her master during her years as a maid, and your grandma slowly accumulated them."

Gu Tang was speechless: "More than half of these jewels are made of gold! And jade! The various jade stones inlaid on them are rare items. Which master would be so generous as to reward a maid?
Even if they really gave it as a reward, they wouldn't give jewelry with a surname engraved on it to a girl! Besides, with my grandma's flamboyant personality, if the master really gave her so many good things, she wouldn't bury them underground. She would just adorn her head and body with these jewelry and show them off!"

Gu Lianshan couldn't refute this.

Indeed, given his mother's indescribable personality, if these things really came from legitimate sources, they would have been stuck all over her head long ago.

Now they are buried underground and never see the light of day. Needless to say, these things must not see the light of day!
Gu Lianshan sighed, put down the hairpin in his hand, and asked Gu Tang what his plan was: "It's useless to say anything now. Now that you've dug it out, what are you going to do?"

Gu Tang picked up the jewelry and put it back into the box. He said matter-of-factly, "Leave it here and continue to hide it. If you need money in the future, soften the gold and silver with fire and beat them into gold and silver cakes with hammers. Then, take them out and spend them. No one will recognize them."

She doesn't care whether these gold and silver jewelry come from legitimate sources or not. That is Feng's own problem. Now that they are in her hands, they are hers!
It's impossible to return it, don't even think about it!

Coincidentally, Gu Lianshan thought the same.

"If these things are left in your grandma's hands, who knows whether they will be of good or bad use in the future. It's better for us to spend them without anyone knowing. This will help your grandma solve a problem. It's been so many years since you've kept them hidden. It's really a waste!"

Gu Tang nodded, her father was absolutely right!

The Feng family has been hiding these jewels for all these years. I guess the biggest reason is probably that Mr. Gu doesn't know about the jewels.

Old Master Gu loves to show off and care about face even more than Mrs. Feng. If you remove the inlaid jade pieces, these gold and silver jewelry would be worth two or three hundred taels of silver by weight.

If Mr. Gu really knew, he would have spent the money long ago and bought a house and moved to Bei'an City!
"Hide yourself carefully and don't let anyone see you." Gu Lianshan warned him worriedly.

Glancing at the silver in the box beside him, he picked up a piece of silver and put it in his arms, then said, "You should also keep this silver. If the family is divided, your grandfather and grandmother will definitely give our family a share. With this silver, our family will be more comfortable in the future."

"Didn't Grandma clamor for meat yesterday? I remember she loves pork, and always picks out the fat. Tomorrow we'll go to the inn and pay them some money so they can give her a bowl of steamed meat every day. No lean meat, only fat. Grandma loves the fat!"

Gu Tang bent down to pick up the silver while pretending to be cheerful and successfully fooled her father.

Gu Lianshan knew that Feng only bought the fattest meat, but he really had no idea whether people liked eating fat meat or not.

But after hearing what Gu Tang said, he suddenly realized that if you buy fat meat, you must like to eat fat meat.

Not to mention making lard, his mother could buy fat about ten times a year, but only make lard two or three times.

There is no need to think about the remaining fat, it must have been eaten secretly.

"I'll listen to you and give your grandma more good food. As the saying goes, if you eat well and take good care of yourself, your illness will heal faster! If your grandma can stand up again in the future, it will be much easier for us to take care of her!"

Gu Tang raised his head and smiled: "Don't worry, since you took so much money from my grandma, I will give you plenty of fat pork!"

If the money is not enough, she can give more money herself, and she must make sure that Feng eats it every day!
After putting away the silver and jewelry, Gu Tang left the kitchen carrying the box.