【Quick Wear】My Years as a Mother-in-law

"Yun Xi is a bit crazy about marrying Lu Zheng. The rumors are all over the place. She spends all her money on Lu Zheng. How could she have any private money?" Zhao's mother sighed, "I've never seen such a stupid person."

"But Aunt Lu is rich now!"

Yun Xi didn't know that the mother and daughter next door were discussing her. At this time, she paid the clerk in the grain store to help clean the house.

The house has three main rooms, one room and one shed on each of the east and west wing rooms, and two back rooms at the gate. The yard is about 250 square meters, with a pomegranate tree planted in the middle.

So is this house a Siheyuan? No, it can only be called a Sihefang. A Siheyuan needs to have corridors and plants to be considered a Siheyuan. More sophisticated houses also have screen walls.

Yun Xi decided to bring the two girls to live in the east room and asked the carpenter to assemble three beds in it. The three boys would live in the west room, also with three beds. The advantage of these two bedrooms is that they are very large and have a small living room, which is more than enough for three people to live in.

After cleaning the place, the two shop assistants helped to mount the big pot on the stove. Each of them received 20 cents as wages and left happily.

Soon after, the carpenters finished their work and left together.

Yun Xi called Zhao Taoyao for help and helped the children to their respective beds.

"Taoyao, could you please help me find a doctor? Their injuries need to be treated." Yun Xi frowned and looked up at the leaky windowsill. "What a mistake! I forgot to buy windows. I have to go to the carpenter's shop."

"Okay, I'll go right away."

When Yun Xi brought the carpenter back, the female doctor was bandaging the children.

"You are the children's mother, right? I have cleaned and applied medicine to the children's wounds. Don't let them touch water for the time being. Change the medicine once a day. I will come for a follow-up visit in half a month." The female doctor whispered.

"Thank you, doctor. How are the children's fevers? How much are the consultation and medicine fees?" Yun Xi reached into her purse and asked the carpenters to install the doors and windows as soon as possible.

The doctor looked at her and said, "The fever has almost subsided. The original medicine is quite effective. Just take it for another day. The consultation fee is ten coins. One bottle of the gold wound medicine is two hundred coins, and two bottles are four hundred coins. No credit."

"it is good."

Yun Xi readily took out the copper coins to pay the doctor and sent the doctor out the door.

Turning back to the courtyard, Zhao Taoyao came out of the kitchen. Seeing her, she hurriedly said, "Auntie Lu, I just went to my house to get water and firewood to cook rice. Besides, there is no water tank or vegetables in the kitchen."

Yun Xi held her forehead, she was so busy that she was dizzy. "I know. You watch the craftsmen install the doors and windows. I'll go out for a while."

Pushing the cart onto the street, Yun Xi went to the grocery store and bought five small clay pots (500 ml), two medium-sized clay pots (one liter), and two large clay pots (three liters), one small clay pot each of soy sauce and vinegar, one small clay pot of vegetable oil, and two large water jars. There was no vegetable seller here, so after paying, Yun Xi pushed the cart to find a vegetable stall on the street.

Finally, at the end of the street, I saw a few people selling cabbage and radishes, and a group of people squatting by the wall selling firewood. They asked for 100 kilograms of cabbage and radishes. There was a man selling pork next to them, who asked for 5 kilograms of lard and 5 kilograms of pork belly.

"The guy selling firewood over there."

Yun Xi shouted to the man squatting by the wall guarding the firewood.

"Here I come, how much firewood do you want?"

The woodcutters came over and asked in a somewhat humble and flattering manner.

Yun Xi asked: "How much is a bundle of firewood?"

The woodcutter replied, "Five coins for a bundle of firewood. Look, they are all very solid firewood."

Yun Xi checked and found the quality was indeed good. "I want 20 bundles. Can you deliver them to my home?"

"Ok, Ok."

"Then follow me."

Yun Xi calculated that it was only the fifth day of November. If she burned half a bundle of firewood a day, twenty bundles would only last for forty days, so she had to buy more.

The winter in the capital will not warm up until mid-March to early April next year. If there is a late spring cold snap, it may still be cold in May. Even if the weather warms up, firewood will still be needed for cooking, but less will be needed. One bundle of firewood for four days will be enough.

After arriving home, Yun Xi asked the ten people to put the firewood into a back room.

Yun Xi took out copper coins and paid everyone one by one. Ten people each carried two bundles of firewood, earning ten cents. The entrance fee to the city was one cent, so she could only earn nine cents on this trip.

"I still need a lot of firewood. Please chop some and send it to me. If you have a cart, I'll pay you forty coins per cart. Please send it as soon as possible. The wind and snow are getting stronger."

Wind, sand and snow are the main themes of winter in the capital, but this year seems to be even colder. The price of grain has quietly risen by several cents, which is not a good sign.

"Do you really need that much? Can ten carts hold it all?"

One of the woodcutters said excitedly.

"Twenty carts? I can handle thirty or forty carts. Just send them to me." Yun Xi promised.

"Okay, each of us will deliver two trucks to you per day, and we'll finish the delivery in two days."

The ten woodcutters hurried away and ran towards the city gate, determined to go back and chop wood.

Zhao Taoyao ran out of the house at this time, "Auntie Lu, Brother Lu and the others' fevers have subsided. Do they still need to take medicine?"

"Don't eat it for now. Eat it again before going to bed."

Yun Xi looked at the carpenter who was installing windows and doors in the wing room.

"Masters, how much do eight doors and six windows cost?"

"A door costs two hundred coins, a window costs one hundred and fifty coins, and installation is free." The carpenter was busy working with his tools in hand, his movements skillful.

"Okay, I'll prepare the money first."

She did not choose ordinary doors and windows. She chose the thickest doors and hexagonal hollow windows. The hollow areas were covered with window paper and there were wooden covers on top of the windows. If the window paper could not withstand the cold wind, she would close the wooden cover. However, after covering it, the room would be completely dark, and the price was not cheap.

Yun Xi asked Zhao Taoyao to help sew the quilt. "Can you ask your mother to come and help as well? It would be best if the quilt and cotton clothes are finished before this afternoon. I will pay each person two feet of blue cotton cloth as a reward."

Zhao Taoyao shook her head and said angrily, "Why would you ask for a reward for such a small favor? I'll ask my mother to come over right away."

"Hey? Not eating lunch?"

"No, two meals a day is enough."

During the time when Yun Xi was getting closer to Taoyao, she learned about her family situation. There were five people in the Zhao family: Zhao's father and mother, the eldest daughter Zhao Taoyao, the second son Zhao Deping, and the third son Zhao De'an.

Zhao's father was a blacksmith and helped out in the blacksmith shop. When his sons grew up, he brought them over to learn the craft. The three of them earned a thousand coins a month. Was this enough to live in the capital? In times of peace and prosperity, it was enough.

The gold-silver exchange rate during this era was similar to that of the Qing Dynasty, but the price of grain was very low. This might be because many silver mines were discovered during this dynasty, but gold was in short supply.

Tao Yao said that the lowest price of rice in the past was only three cents. What does this mean? If one cent is calculated as one dollar, then a catty of rice would only cost three dollars. However, most of the time it was maintained at four cents per catty. For some reason, the price of rice and wheat this year has risen to ten cents per catty.

Zhao Taoyao said that her family usually stores food after the autumn harvest. At that time, the price of food is the lowest, so the Zhao family has already stored food for the winter. They don’t need to buy vegetables, they can just grow them in the yard.