You are unlucky and I am tough

Mr. Cheng, a scholar, had not planted any spring crops on his land because he was planning to sell it, so he sent his servants to find the village head early the next morning.

When buying and selling land in the village, the land must be measured on site to determine the land area and ensure that it is consistent with the records in the deed in order to avoid unnecessary trouble in the future.

Wei Qinglang also went with them and spent the whole morning measuring with the villagers who came to help.

After measuring the fields, he went to the foot of Zhushan Mountain to measure two acres of wasteland. After the measurement, he paid ten taels of silver for the good farmland and one tael of silver for the wasteland.

After that, the village head would have to go to the county government office in person to file taxes and stamp the official seal.

Cheng Lizheng said that he would go to the county government office in two days. Wei Qinglang calculated that Cheng Shuang would also go to the county town in two days, so he said that he would drive a donkey cart to take him there.

Buying land is a big deal for the villagers. The village head and the villagers who helped today need to be invited to their home for a meal. Cheng Shuang started thinking about how to prepare lunch early in the morning.

There was still a piece of pickled meat, but only one pound was definitely not enough, so she wanted to go to the hunter's house in the village to ask if she could buy some meat. But then she found that all her money was in banknotes and silver, and she had only a few copper coins left.

After thinking about it and remembering her mall account, Cheng Shuang looked for it and found that there was indeed a withdrawal option. She tried to withdraw 100 Wen from the account and it actually worked.

She was overjoyed, thinking that it would be convenient for her to use money in the future, and immediately deposited fifty taels of silver into her account.

After getting the copper coins, Cheng Shuang gave Wei Nanxing a hundred coins and asked him to ask other hunters in the village if they had any prey. If they did, he should buy two more pounds of meat.

Then he asked Cheng Pan to take a hundred coins to other villagers' homes to buy some vegetables.

Wei Nanxing had just planted the vegetable seeds in the vegetable garden at home. He had been eating wild vegetables these days, but he couldn't serve wild vegetables to guests.

The two of them went out with the money. When they came back, Wei Nanxing brought back a wild rabbit weighing about two kilograms. Cheng Pan also bought vegetables, leeks, and bamboo shoots from other villagers.

As soon as they came back, they handed over the remaining money, but Cheng Shuang didn't want it and let them keep it for themselves.

Cheng Shuang began to think about the dishes with these ingredients. The rabbit meat can be added with mushrooms and bamboo shoots to make rabbit stew, and the remaining bamboo shoots can be stir-fried with pickled meat. The leeks can be made into fried eggs and leeks, and there is also a stir-fried vegetable dish.

She didn't know if it was enough to treat guests, but the ingredients were limited, so this was the only way. She couldn't just buy food from the mall and cook it.

There were too few edible vegetables in this dynasty. Her favorite vegetables, such as potatoes, tomatoes, bitter melon, eggplant, and peppers, were not available, and there were also very few types of leafy vegetables.

Now that my family has five acres of fertile land, I can use it to grow some vegetables that were not available in this dynasty. I can eat them myself or sell them for money, but I still have to think about the reasonable origin of the seeds.

Cheng Shuang has rich theoretical knowledge of cooking, but her practical experience is average. In terms of cooking skills, Cheng Pan’s cooking skills are better.

So for lunch she was only responsible for giving instructions while Cheng Pan was in charge of the cooking.

The first thing to make is the rabbit stew. Since the pot at home is not big enough, I first steam the rice and put it in the pot, then cut the rabbit meat into pieces and blanch it.

After preparing side dishes such as mushrooms and bamboo shoots, pour oil into the pan, add rabbit meat pieces and stir-fry over high heat, then add appropriate amount of seasoning.

Next, transfer the rabbit meat to a small pot for steaming rice, add side dishes and appropriate amount of water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat until cooked through.

The task of watching the fire was given to Wei Xinyi and Cheng Chen.

Cheng Shuang also explained to Cheng Pan in detail how to stir-fry bamboo shoots with pickled meat, and then she made scrambled eggs with leeks and stir-fried vegetables.

When Wei Qinglang returned with Cheng Lizheng and two villagers who came to help, the aroma of food from the kitchen had already filled the yard, and the stomachs of the hungry people were growling.

Cheng Daming looked towards the kitchen where the aroma was wafting out. "Qinglang, your wife's cooking skills are really good. This aroma is so fragrant that it makes me unable to walk."

Wei Qinglang smiled and said, "Then uncle will have to eat more later."

"Then I won't be polite." Cheng Daming said with a simple smile.

Wei Qinglang directly moved the table in the main hall to the yard and asked the guests to sit down and drink a bowl of water first. After a while, Cheng Shuang came out of the kitchen.

She was holding a plate of stir-fried bamboo shoots and meat. "Grandpa, the village head, two uncles, thank you for troubling you today. These are all home-cooked dishes, please don't be disgusted."

Cheng Lizheng smelled the aroma and praised, "This meat is fried well, it looks fresh and goes well with rice."

Cheng Shuang smiled and said, "Pan'er is good at cooking, so I'm here to help."

Wei Qinglang also went to help serve the dishes. He brought the pot of stewed rabbit meat into the kitchen, then took it out, and finally served scrambled eggs with leeks and stir-fried vegetables.

Cheng Lizheng saw that there were two meat dishes and eggs, and his face immediately felt painful. "Just make a meat dish and stir-fry some vegetables and eat a few bites. Isn't it a waste to spend money to buy so much meat and eggs for us to eat?"

Cheng Daming and another man from the village also felt that there were too many meat and vegetables, and they felt sorry for Wei Qinglang because meat had to be bought with money.

Wei Qinglang hurriedly said, "How can it be a waste? Everyone has worked hard today, so we must eat well."

Cheng Li was sighing, but it was a great day since the Wei family had bought the land, so he couldn't spoil the fun. He said to the two villagers, "Forget it, sit down and eat."

According to the rules, women are not allowed to sit at the same table with men from other families when guests come to the house, so the Wei Qinglang brothers were sitting at the table outside to accompany the guests.

Cheng Shuang took her younger siblings to eat at the small table in the kitchen, and the dishes were all the same.

During the meal, Wei Qinglang said, "Didn't the village head just ask me what I wanted to do with the wasteland at the foot of Bamboo Mountain? To be honest, I want to rebuild a house."

Cheng Lizheng frowned slightly and said, "Don't you think this place is bad? It would be nice if the roof was repaired."

Wei Qinglang shook his head and explained, "This house has been abandoned for too many years, and it's really troublesome to repair it. The roof is almost completely broken. It's okay when it's not raining, but once it rains, it's completely uninhabitable.

And look at this yard, the wall is almost collapsing, why not build a new house of our own?"

"Building a house requires a lot of money, and we have to hire people and pay them for their work." Cheng Lizheng looked worried, fearing that Wei Qinglang didn't understand the difficulties involved.

Wei Qinglang smiled and said, "We already have the money to build the house. We didn't know the age of the ginseng that Cheng Shuang dug before and misjudged its value. We sold it to the pharmacy for dozens of taels of silver, which is enough to build the house.

I also plan to build a bamboo house. Bamboo in the mountains is free and cheaper than adobe houses. It won’t cost much.”

"If you have money, you should build a house quickly."

When Cheng Lizheng heard that he had money, he immediately felt that it was time to build a house. He nodded repeatedly and said, "I saw several families in the neighboring Lijia Village also built bamboo houses. I heard that they are quite comfortable to live in. Bamboo in the mountains is free, so the houses can be built bigger."

Wei Qinglang nodded in agreement and turned to Cheng Daming, who was concentrating on his meal. "Uncle Daming, I know you can build a house. You have all the tools at home for laying the foundation. I'd like to trouble you with the house building."

Cheng Daming said quickly, "No problem, I'll build it for you. It's just that the bamboo house looks easy, but I've never built one before. How about we go to the next village and ask two skilled craftsmen to come and help build it together?"

"That's what I mean. I've drawn up some blueprints and will show them to you later. Uncle, you know a lot of people, so please ask the neighboring village if there's anyone who can build it and is willing to come. You can also help arrange how many people we need."

"Okay, I'll go to Lijia Village to ask after dinner. Leave this house to me and I promise to build it beautifully for you." Cheng Daming patted his chest and took the responsibility.

After dinner, after seeing off the head of the village and the others, Wei Qinglang told Cheng Shuang what they had just talked about at the dinner table, and then went back to his room to take out the drawings he had drawn last night.

After looking at it, Cheng Shuang made some suggestions. Wei Qinglang revised the drawing again, drew the final plan on paper with a brush, and took it out to find Cheng Daming.