Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

This made the smile on Liu Sisi’s face disappear.

At the end of the month, when settling the accounts, she received more than 1200 taels of silver from her share of the wine-house, Silver Pavilion, and bookstore’s profits during the Spring Festival. This terrified her!

However, after some thought, she realized that businesses like wine-houses and silver shops usually have their biggest profits before and after the Spring Festival. On normal days, they mostly consume their own capital or even lose silver. With this in mind, she could understand.

Of the 1200 taels of silver, she kept the small change and invested the remaining 1200 taels in the two shops. She had initially invested hundreds of taels of money when she started the business, and now she received so much in return, she felt a little embarrassed and naturally invested the money again to supplement her initial investment.

At that time, Di Yelei just watched and didn’t say anything.

She always thought that he didn’t care, but after hearing Old Cheng’s words, she realized that he had been concerned about this matter all along.

The carriage bumped along the official road and followed it to the small town. Upon arriving, she didn’t go straight home, instead, she asked Old Cheng to park the carriage in front of the blacksmith’s shop.

There were only two blacksmith shops in the small town, and business at this one was relatively slow. However, it was closer to her home.

As the carriage stopped, they could hear the sound of iron forging from inside the shop.

“You go back first, prepare dinner, and tonight you can take a horse to deliver it to the Old Master; I won’t go.”

“Yes, Madam!”

Old Cheng agreed and drove away.

Liu Sisi entered the blacksmith shop and saw various iron tools hanging on the walls, such as hoes, sledgehammers, iron plows, sickles, kitchen knives, spatulas, planers, door rings, bubble nails, and door bolts. She even saw bows and arrows and knives and guns on the wall!

It is worth noting that weapons like knives and guns were regulated at that time, and being able to see them in this small shop showed how far they were from the Emperor’s reach!

She stood in the shop for a long time, and apart from the sound of forging inside, no one came out to greet her. Out of curiosity, she peeked inside.

In the courtyard inside, there was a huge iron stove with a sweating blacksmith hammering a hot iron block in his hand.

“Is anyone here? Shopkeeper!”

Liu Sisi called several times before a married woman carrying a child came out slowly.

“Customer, what do you need? I apologize, the kid who used to sell ironware here has been conscripted for service, so our shop is short on hands…” The woman said with a shy smile.

“Don’t worry, Madam, I want to customize some iron tools. I wonder if you can make them according to my design? Oh, we can negotiate the price.”

Seeing the woman’s hesitation, Liu Sisi quickly added the last sentence.

Indeed, the woman thought for a moment before hesitating to say: “I can’t really make that decision. How about this! I’ll get the houseowner to talk to you, Madam.”

As she spoke, she went inside to call someone.

Liu Sisi waited for a while before the man came out wiping sweat from his forehead. He spoke with a foreign accent.

“Madam, the government has recently requisitioned a batch of tools for embankment construction, and I really don’t have time to make anything else. What do you think…”

“There’s not much profit from the government’s requisition of tools. Wouldn’t it be just right to make up for the household expenses by taking on some private work?”

Liu Sisi’s words hit the shopkeeper’s heart.

He said helplessly: “Madam, what kind of tools do you want to customize?”

Liu Sisi confidently smiled: “Do you have paper and pen here? I’ll draw it for you. Just make it according to my requirements, and I’ll definitely not treat you unfairly regarding the wages.”

…

Not knowing when, the drizzle began to fall again, accompanied by a bone-chilling wind that made people shiver.

Liu Sisi left the blacksmith’s shop and walked slowly along the street, checking out the shops in the small town. Now that she has rented a shop, she needs to find a business to open as soon as possible.

As she walked and looked around, she came to the end of the street and was about to turn back when a familiar figure caught the corner of her eye.

Hey! Isn’t that Shou Hou?

At this time, shouldn’t he be in the bookstore watching the shop? Why would he come here?

Out of curiosity, Liu Sisi turned her body and followed Shou Hou as he entered the small alley.

Shou Hou didn’t notice anyone following him and walked quickly. He soon stopped in front of a small house, pushed the door open, and disappeared inside.

Liu Sisi hurried to the front of the house, tried to push the door, and found it had been bolted from the inside, leaving her stomping her foot in anger.

From inside came a woman’s sobbing, which stopped Liu Sisi in her tracks.

She listened carefully and heard a woman’s crying indeed.

Why would Shou Hou enter a house where a woman lived and lock the door right away upon entering?

For some unknown reason, Di Cheng’s words came back to her ears.

Feeling a sudden urgency, she quickly looked around and saw a gap in the fence not far from the main entrance. Delighted, she rushed over, placed a brick under her feet, and peered over the fence into the yard.

It was indeed Shou Hou!

At the moment, Shou Hou was frantically pounding on the room door, shouting non-stop: “Tong! Tong, please open the door! Listen to my explanation… I really had no choice! Tong…”

The room door was suddenly pulled open from the inside, and a beautiful woman appeared.

Liu Sisi took a closer look; the woman was young but looked sad, her tear-stained face making her feel pitiful.

As soon as Shou Hou saw the woman, he was overjoyed and hurriedly called out: “Tong! Did you forgive me? I knew you were the best, Tong! I…”

Before Shou Hou could finish speaking, an oil-paper package flew out from inside, hitting Shou Hou’s face directly. The package broke open, revealing a fragrant roast chicken dripping with grease, which splashed all over Shou Hou!

“Take your roast chicken and eat it with her! I can’t stand it anymore! Wuu wuu…”