Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 132 - 131: Bonus Plus Living Expenses

Chapter 132: Chapter 131: Bonus Plus Living Expenses

Chen Afu returned home, cradling the nearly dead orchid in her arms.

The courtyard was quiet, Dabao was sitting alone under the eave reading, with Zhui Feng and Wang Cai curled up at his feet napping. Seeing Chen Afu returning, he promptly put down the book and greeted her, asking, "Mother, how’s Yan’er?"

Worried about Chu Hanyan, he didn’t take the usual afternoon rest after lunch, instead, he sat there waiting for his mother’s return.

Chen Afu smiled and said, "Yan is fine, she has already had her meal and gone to sleep." She then questioned further, "Why are you not taking a nap? Quickly go and rest a bit more, children need enough sleep to grow tall."

Dabao pointed at the flower and asked, "Mother, why have you brought back a flower that’s about to die?"

Chen Afu responded, "This is an orchid. I want to see if I can nurture it back to life."

Both mother and son then went to the New Courtyard. Dabao returned to the East Room for his nap, Chen Afu sent Zhui Feng and Wang Cai to the East Room as well. She went to the West Room alone. Qi Qi and Hui Hui had disappeared somewhere outside again. She closed all the doors and windows and moved the flower into the space to see if the spiritual energy there could revive it. If not, she would try using Yan Poop.

She looked at Jin Yanzi busily fluffing its tail, and said, "Jin Bao, this flower is something Master Wu Zhi asked me to care for, so don’t eat it."

Jin Yanzi’s small mouth was busy, so it just wagged its long tail, indicating that it understood.

Upon leaving the space, Chen Afu suddenly remembered the wallet that Manager Luo had given her. When she took it out, she found a silver note worth five hundred taels of silver inside.

This huge merit-based reward was not only an affirmation of her work, but also a pre-payment for the young lady’s future living expenses.

Chen Afu smiled, half of this money could be used for building a house and buying furniture, creating a beautiful home. The young lady would visit frequently, allowing her to grow up in a lovely environment. She would also take responsibility for the young lady’s clothing, ensuring she’d look even more beautiful. Furthermore, she would create things that children in kindergarten liked to play with in her previous life...

She put the silver note away and began drawing a few different Hello Kitty designs on a piece of paper. There were Hello Kitty dolls, Hello Kitty purses, Hello Kitty cotton slippers, and Hello Kitty cotton sleep robes. The cotton slippers and sleep robes were styled after her previous life, not only were they visually appealing, but they also prevented cold feet at night. In order to make the sleep robe not look bulky, she even sewed small diamond-shaped pieces onto it.

However, she couldn’t call it Hello Kitty, the name was too unique. Instead, she decided to call it "lucky cat". Although it seemed a little old-fashioned, it would cater to the people’s desires in this era.

After Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Gao finished the two sets of clothes, they would start making these things. They would make two sets, one for the Embroidery Workshop and one for Ms. Chu.

Now, Mrs. Gao would spend at least two hours each day in the second room, helping Mrs. Wang with sewing. She took care of simple tasks like sewing clothes, starching fabric, and ironing, while Mrs. Wang took on embroidery, crafting disk buttons, and sewing crucial parts of the clothing.

In the future, she would speak with Mr. Luo about whether the embroidery shop could provide some accessories for them to make. This would also provide long-term employment for Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Gao.

At dinner, Chen Afu told Chen Ming about Mr. Chu rewarding her with silver. She didn’t specify the amount, she couldn’t share the details about their financial situation, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to make use of the forty taels of gold and all the other precious items in the space.

She also mentioned that Manager Luo hoped they could start building their house soon and make it nice, and informed them that the Chus’ tenants would help clear the shrubs forest tomorrow.

"Father, hire some people tomorrow to clear the forest. It’s not good to entirely rely on the people from Tang Garden. Don’t be afraid to spend money, your daughter is making money now." Chen Afu confidently said.

Then, she handed five taels of silver to Chen Ming, asking him to exchange it for copper coins in the town. This would serve as wages for the laborers clearing the land and constructing the house. They had to pay them higher wages because they weren’t providing lunch.

In the evening, Chen Afu no longer needed to assist Mrs. Wang, so she joined Alu and Dabao in studying and practicing their writing with Chen Ming.

While she was naturally gifted at drawing, literacy and writing required study. Even with photographic memory, she still needed to memorize words before using them.

The very next day, Chen Afu woke up at the crack of dawn, intending to make steamed cake for the children. Ever since becoming a kindergarten teacher, Chen Afu had been as busy as a top, waking each day at the break of dawn and working till dusk, never having the luxury of sleeping in.

She found herself longing for the speedy completion of the new house, where she would build a clay oven. This would allow her to cook a variety of tasty snacks and would be a great convenience.

As she opened the door, a cold gust swept in, carrying with it a flurry of snow.

Oh, it was snowing. It was the first snowfall of the year.

Chen Afu felt a bit excited. In her previous life, she had always lived in the south where it seldom snowed. Even when it did, it was mostly a mix of rain and a bit of snow, nothing as abundant as this.

She walked into the courtyard, spread out her hands, and caught the snowflakes, feeling them melt into drops of water in her palms.

"Daydreaming again? What will you do if you catch a cold? You’d better go back inside." said a voice. It was Mrs. Wang, who was carrying some firewood.

Since they now made snacks in the New Courtyard, Mrs. Wang had boiled coarsely ground rice in a pot at the old courtyard and brought it here to make snacks.

Now that the family was overwhelmed with work and had enough money, they bought the firewood with cash.

Mrs. Wang watched as Chen Afu placed a batter made with eggs, sugar, and some seasoning into a teacup, steamed it, and then turned it out onto a plate. It had magically turned into a light-yellow bubbly dessert. It looked so appetizing and tasted soft, sweet, fluffy, and fragrant. It was incredibly delicious.

Chen Afu smiled and said, "It would be even more delicious with some milk."

Mrs. Wang said, "It’s already incredibly tasty. I don’t know how your mind works, always coming up with such creative ideas."

After finishing the first batch, they started on the second. While Mrs. Wang went to check on the porridge, Chen Afu quickly snuck a piece of cake into the spatial dimension. She didn’t know where Jin Yanzi slept in the dimension, so she quickly put the cake on a leaf and left.

Chen Afu went to Tang Garden and gave one food container to Manager Luo, who smiled as he accepted it. Seeing her carry another food container to the Inner Courtyard, he didn’t feel as embarrassed as he used to.

Chen Afu consciously didn’t take any rest on the fifth day of the month but decided to take a break on the tenth instead.

On the ninth, when Chen Ming and Mrs. Wang learned that their distinguished guest would visit their home the next day, they were nervous beyond belief. They cleaned up both the courtyards and the house, and even Mrs. Wang, who hadn’t been outside for many days, stepped out to go shopping with Chen Ming in town.

At the same time, they also needed to buy some study supplies for Alu, who was going to formally start attending the Private School in Shangshui Village on the eleventh.

On the tenth, Chen Afu woke up early. Firstly, she went to the spatial dimension to look at the orchid pot, which was faring much better than before. The flower stems had turned green, and the leaves had spread open. However, it still wasn’t very robust and needed a few more days of nursing.

Chen Afu was secretly delighted, having found yet another source of income.

From overhead, she heard a voice saying, "Mommy Fu, they only allowed you to bring this flower in because it is an exceedingly rare variety. It does not disgrace Yan’s agarwood. As for other odds and ends plants, don’t even think about bringing them in."

Chen Afu felt a sudden tightness in her chest. How did it know what she was thinking? This little thing could be incredibly crafty when it wanted to be.

Ignoring it, she exited the spatial dimension in a flash.