Travel back to ancient times and open a Sichuan restaurant

During this year's Spring Festival, Xiaoman, Shitou and the other two had to go to the town to wait for Li Yang and Li Zhi, so they have been preparing to set off in the past few days.

Chen Dongzhi was still somewhat worried, so after discussing with Zhong Ruyi, he paid a high price to hire Master Duan from the escort agency to escort them all the way to Guangning Prefecture.

If they hadn't been busy at home, he and Zhong Laosan would have been able to take them there. After all, they were familiar with Guangning Prefecture and had been there countless times when they were escorting goods.

Master Duan, who was entrusted with the task, readily agreed to the assignment, and he did not refuse the offer of twice the salary. After all, the reason why he chose to go out on a escort mission during the Chinese New Year was to make more money. It was because his wife gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, last year, and there were two more mouths to feed. Shouldn't he make more money?

A few days before Xiaoman was about to go to the town with Shitou and the others, Chen's mother had already packed all the things that needed to be packed. The weather was cold, so they had to bring a few more thick clothes. The child usually wore the same few clothes, and they were all stuffed into the bag that Chen's mother was going to take out, making it bulge out.

"Mom, just bring one piece of thick clothing and buy more when we get there! It's so tiring to carry so many things!" Zhong Ruyi advised her, and Chen's mother was willing to listen to what she said.

So she took out two thick coats from the bag, and the bag immediately became flat.

Chen Dongzhi was explaining to his brother some things that they should pay attention to when going out, such as not to argue with others, not to show off their wealth, and to put their own safety first.

Xiaoman nodded carefully, knowing that her brother had met many different kinds of people and things while escorting the caravan, and what he said always made sense.

The family members told him again and again, fearing that Xiaoman, who had never been far away from home, would suffer any harm outside.

Zhong Ruyi secretly gave Xiaoman five hundred taels of silver, which scared him so much that he kept waving his hands and shaking his head to refuse.

"Here you go! Your brother knows this money. You have to spend money when you're away from home. You have to rent a yard when you get there, right? You have to spend money on food and water. But you have to remember one thing: don't show your wealth to others. There have been many murders and robberies throughout history. You must hide this money well. Buy anything you need for your studies! We have money!"

She gave a stack of fifty-tael silver notes, a total of four hundred taels, and the remaining one hundred taels was given in small change, so that she didn't have to exchange the fifty-tael silver notes for food.

Several of them will stay in Guangning Prefecture for two or three months. What if they don't get enough money and it's not enough to spend?

Similarly, she gave money to Shitou and Xiaohe and said everything she needed to say. You can't say that she is partial and only cares about her brother-in-law from her husband's family, while ignoring her two nephews from her mother's family, right?

When several teenagers set out on their journey, Chen's mother wiped her eyes. This was Xiaoman's first time away from home, and she felt a little depressed.

Xiaoxue stood beside her mother, holding her belly, and was also a little worried. However, knowing that they were escorted by their brother's former colleagues from the escort agency, it would be much safer than traveling on their own. She felt a lot more at ease thinking of this.

After the people walked away, they all went home. Li Guihua walked up to her and said that a few days ago, a family from Yangliu Village came to ask whether they wanted to harvest the two acres of peppers they planted.

"Yes! Why not? As long as his chili peppers are fine, we'll take them. By the way, have the New Year gifts been distributed?"

"I sent it out. I sent it out the day before yesterday. It was just in time for the New Year holiday!"

New Year!

Every household in the village set off firecrackers. The crackling sound startled Chen Miaomiao in the house so much that she hugged her father's thighs.

Chen Dongzhi held her on his lap, fed her a strawberry, and motioned for her to put the cat down.

"...eat!" Chen Miaomiao can now utter a few simple words, such as eat, sleep, and hold, but she still can't call her parents and grandma, and can only call words with similar pronunciations.

"You haven't washed your hands, so Daddy will feed you." Chen Dongzhi dodged the chubby little hand she stretched out and rejected her idea of ​​eating it herself.

She has never put the cat down since she woke up in the morning, and she doesn't know how much cat hair is on her body and hands.

The little white cat, now a little grown up, looked at the ground with one gold eye and one blue eye, where there was a strand of hair that had fallen off when Little Yellow came here in the morning.

According to Zhong Laosan who bought the cat, the vendor said that the cat came from overseas and was a foreign cat, so its eyes had such two colors.

It is indeed very beautiful and very clingy. Miaomiao holds it in her arms all day long, and she doesn't want to let go even when I let her walk around on her own a few times.

When Zhong Ruyi came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of brown sugar rice cakes, she saw her daughter trying to feed half-eaten strawberries to the cat.

"Miao Miao, if the cat doesn't want to eat this, you can eat it yourself. Forget it, don't eat the one in your hand, it will get on the cat."

As soon as she finished speaking, the kitten jumped off Chen Miaomiao, found a corner and began to lick its fur.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Zhong Ruyi took Chen Dongzhi back to her parents' home. As for Miaomiao, she asked her to stay with Chen's mother so that she would not feel lonely with no one at home.

Sun Tao happened to be there too, and when she saw her, she smiled, "Ruyi, it's winter solstice, it's cold outside, come in and warm up."

Zhong Ruyi pulled Chen Dongzhi to sit down by the fireplace in the main room. It was drizzling outside. Although it was not heavy, it was still chilly on the face. The wind was also strong, causing pain on people's faces.

Fortunately, I didn’t bring Miaomiao out. Although she was wrapped in a hat and a thick coat, she was protected from being blown by the wind if I took her out.

Chen Dongzhi talked to Zhong's father about the things that happened in the fields last year, while Zhong Ruyi listened to Sun Tao talking about the children in the family.

But the more she listened, the more she felt something was wrong, and she couldn't help but ask, "Aunt Tao, have you ever thought about asking Jiang Qin for his opinion? Is that girl really that good?" Could she make Sun Tao spend most of their family savings to marry her to Jiang Qin as his wife?

She heard from Sun Tao that a matchmaker in the town had introduced a marriage to Jiang Qin. The girl's father was an accountant at Shiwei Pavilion in the town, with a considerable monthly salary. She had two older and two younger brothers and lived in Funing Street. The matchmaker asked Jiang Qin to visit the girl's home when he was free, but she didn't say it had to be successful, just that he wanted to meet her once.

Sun Tao lobbied for a long time before Jiang Qin agreed.

Although I agreed reluctantly at first, I was still very satisfied when I actually met the person.

The girl was pretty and spoke softly. She said she had studied for two years and could read a few words.

After Jiang Qin came back, Sun Tao hurriedly asked him how he felt and whether they were attracted to each other. Don't think that he was attracted to each other, but she didn't like him.

He snorted and said shyly, "How can I fall in love with her so quickly after just meeting her once?"

The meaning was that they had to meet a few more times. After all, Sun Tao was an experienced person, so he conveyed this message to the matchmaker.

Later, the matchmaker arranged for Jiang Qin to go to the girl's house to do some work. The two would blush whenever they looked at each other. From being shy at the beginning, they were able to talk to each other later.

Just like that, the two families decided on the marriage.

It was originally a good thing, and Sun Tao happily began to prepare for his son's marriage.

But the originally agreed upon betrothal gift was eighteen taels, plus a pair of dragon and phoenix bracelets, which was very decent for an ordinary family.

However, the girl's family asked a matchmaker to come and say that the betrothal gift should be changed to thirty-eight taels of silver and two pairs of dragon and phoenix bracelets.

It’s not that Sun Tao doesn’t have the money. Over the years, she has saved all the salary that Zhong Ruyi gave her every month for the purpose of marrying off her son and daughter.

She was a little hesitant, and she had kept this a secret from Jiang Qin, fearing that he would get upset and refuse to marry her after knowing that the girl had changed her mind.

After gritting her teeth and agreeing, she asked the matchmaker to reply that she accepted the request.

But who knew that the girl would ask for such a huge amount, and then she went back on her word and said that everything she said before didn't count. The amount she asked for this time was even more shocking!