The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 514 - 512 Visitors Have Arrived

Chapter 514: Chapter 512 Visitors Have Arrived

Song Chongjin’s eyes lit up when he heard this, "I’ll go take a look."

He pulled Master Chiang and headed outside.

Considering the current situation of the Wang Family, if Wang Yongzhu wanted to buy such high-quality wood to make furniture, it was likely the Wang Family would have reservations.

But if he bought it and made nice furniture to give to Wang Yongzhu, nobody would gossip.

Before long, Song Chongjin returned, eyes sparkling, followed by two men, each carrying a piece of wood on their shoulders.

This wood, covered with years of dust, looked quite ordinary compared to the rest.

The two men placed the wood in a corner of the courtyard and then went off smiling to have breakfast.

Old Granny Zhang saw this and squeezed through the breakfast crowd to ask, "Why bring the wood into the courtyard when there’s no room left outside?"

Wang Yongzhu smiled at Old Granny Zhang, "This is wood Brother Song bought, future material for making good furniture. It’s valuable, and we were afraid it might get taken if left outside."

Upon hearing this, Old Granny Zhang muttered, "You folks can recognize good wood? Hope you haven’t been fooled." She went over to inspect the wood but couldn’t see anything special about it.

However, her words reminded Old Granny Zhang, "Speaking of furniture, when the new house is up, we’ll need to make a new set for Zhuzhu’s room, just like the girls in the city."

Wang Yongzhu wasn’t particular about this but reminded Old Granny Zhang, "Mother, the furniture for my room can wait for now. But Fourth Brother is about to get married, so we should make a set for his room first. Otherwise, it won’t look good if the room is empty when he gets married."

Old Granny Zhang frowned and after a long pause said, "Alright! Let your father work on the furniture for Fourth Brother’s room at home these days. He’s getting on in years and won’t be much help at the new house, and I’m worried he might get hurt. Your father hasn’t made furniture properly in many years, and his skills might be rusty. Let him practice with Fourth Brother’s room first, then later make a neat set for you."

Saying this, she went to find Wang Laozhu.

Wang Laozhu had finished his meal and was leisurely chatting with a tobacco pipe in hand, hearing people praise the Wang Family and the abilities of his sons and daughters.

Before he had enough of the conversation, Old Granny Zhang pulled him aside, "Old man, I was reminded by our daughter just now. The new house is being built, but we haven’t got around to making the furniture, right? Never mind the rest, but Fourth Brother is getting married, and it would look bad if his room is empty. I thought it over, and hiring someone else is a waste of money, and their craftsmanship wouldn’t match up to yours. Why not start with the furniture for Fourth Brother’s room at home? That way it would look proper for the in-laws, don’t you think?"

Wang Laozhu found the idea appealing after hearing this.

And indeed, his wife made a good point, so he agreed after some thought.

Old Granny Zhang breathed a sigh of relief and instructed Jinguan and the others to assist Wang Laozhu. The weather was clear, and though there wasn’t enough room to spread out in the courtyard, there was plenty of space outside. They could keep Wang Yonggui company and supervise each other.

Once everything was arranged, breakfast was over, and the helpers had gone off to work, the women in the yard also started to get busy.

Jinguan and Jinhua, being older, swept the floor and collected the dishes. They moved them to the kitchen where someone would wash them.

In the yard, long counters were set up, and the dough was being kneaded again. There were hundreds of buns, but they weren’t enough; they had to keep preparing more.

Wang Laozhu also moved out his carpentry tools, which he had not used for a long time, oiled and repaired them, and sifted through the wood pile. He pondered what furniture to make for Laosi’s room.

With Wang Laozhu not overseeing the new house, Wang Yongfu needed help, so Song Chongjin naturally stepped in. Wang Yongzhu wanted to assist, but Old Granny Zhang and Song Chongjin staunchly refused, instructing her to handle the workers’ wages and keep the accounts at home. And if the household happened to run short on supplies, she could run errands.

However, Wang Yongzhu couldn’t simply idle around. With her strength, tasks like kneading dough were perfect for her. The dough she kneaded and the buns she steamed were exceptionally firm and tasted great.

In the past few days, the women who came to help, who had less contact with Wang Yongzhu and had heard of her bad reputation, initially thought she was difficult to get along with.

After the past couple of days, Wang Yongzhu had discovered that the Wang family’s girl was actually easy to talk to, hardworking, and didn’t put on airs. She was sweet-tongued as well.

Besides being a bit strong, she had no other faults.

Moreover, that strength had its advantages. If it were them, with a daughter like that, they would treasure her immensely.

And so, someone started teasing Wang Yongzhu, "Yongzhu, the dough you’re kneading is really top-notch, even better than the men’s. How about helping your aunt knead dough for the flatbreads during the New Year? Your aunt will cook you some tasty treats!"

Wang Yongzhu agreed readily, "No problem at all! Just give me a shout when the time comes."

Others seeing the opportunity also said, "Yongzhu, you can’t be biased, helping your aunt and not helping your sister-in-law."

"Exactly, Yongzhu, you have to come to my place too! I’ll make you something delicious. My specialty is fried hemp leaves, no one in the village does it better than I do. What do you think?"

...

Old Granny Zhang did want to say, all of you are thinking too beautifully, I can’t even bear to ask my own daughter to help, let her go knead dough for you?

But seeing the girl smiling radiantly, not seeming to mind at all, and even appearing somewhat happy, she could only hold her tongue.

After all, as long as her daughter was happy, a mother would do anything! But, when the time came, she would have to go with her, to prevent her daughter, who was not thick-skinned, from being taken advantage of at those women’s homes, having to do more than just knead dough.

Furthermore, her daughter, who rarely offered help, shouldn’t work for nothing. While her daughter was busy helping out, she should also manage to bring back some tasty treats from those women’s homes.

Wang Yongzhu had long realized that because their family was in business, everyone was always too busy to maintain good relations with the villagers.

Moreover, with Old Granny Zhang being overly assertive and Lady Lin already having a poor reputation in the village, Lady Jiang being timid and rarely leaving the courtyard, and herself not in the mood to gossip daily with the group of village ladies, their family’s reputation was somewhat weak.

Since she wasn’t busy recently, she also thought of taking the opportunity to interact with the women in the village and try to improve their impression of the Wang family.

These past few days, she had intentionally been friendly and easy to talk to, and now it was paying off.

Just as the group was chatting and laughing, Old Wang Laozhu’s voice suddenly rang out from the courtyard entrance, "Old lady, we have guests, the in-laws are here!"

Old Granny Zhang was momentarily confused. In-laws? Since when did they have in-laws?

The Eldest Brother’s wife’s Lin family wouldn’t dare to come now, the Second Brother’s parents had run off with him, Laosan’s family hadn’t been in touch for years, could it be Laosi’s in-laws?

The Liu family has sent someone?

Old Granny Zhang and Wang Yongzhu exchanged glances, both thinking it was the Liu family.

Why would the Liu family come at this time?

Feeling suspicious, Old Granny Zhang walked toward the entrance with a smile on her face. She was quite satisfied with the Liu family as in-laws, so naturally, she couldn’t greet them with a frown.

Before she even reached the entrance, she heard a somewhat shrill voice, "Oh my, my dear sister-in-law, I’ve missed you so much, not having seen you for some months!"