Transmigration: A Farm Girl’s Brocade
Chapter 145 - 131 Grave with Clothes and Hats_1

Chapter 145: Chapter 131 Grave with Clothes and Hats_1

Old man Qian had already foreseen that the third and fourth households would sooner or later rise up, and he hoped that they could lift up the main house together. As for the second one, he was simply a cowardly fool who didn’t have the guts to stir things up; it was all up to Manjiang to see if he could fight for some respect.

Afterward, the old patriarch began to blame Qian Sangui, "Manjiang buddy died so young; it’s truly pitiful. You should have built a grave for him sooner, allowing his soul to return to his homeland and enjoy the offerings of incense and paper money from his descendants..."

Qian Sangui sighed, "Firstly, my son was in poor health, and then one thing after another happened, leading to the delay. Father is right, we can’t put it off any longer. We’ll take care of it in a few days."

Everyone discussed hustling to set up a grave with clothes and hats for Qian Manjiang before the new year.

As they were leaving, Lady Wong gave them a large package of things brought from the provincial city.

In the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, Shopkeeper Cui went to Capital City as he had wished, with over two thousand catties of sausages, and also brought gifts for Liang Jinzhao and Song Huaijin from Qian Yixiu.

Qian Yixiu thought that Uncle Liang and Young Master Song had made her family’s backbone much stronger, especially during the "poisoning incident," for which, in fact, Uncle Liang deserved the most thanks. Without his instructions, Shopkeeper Cui might not have gone to such lengths to help, nor would they have gotten Huang Tie, who had both Combat Power and the right connections, out of "guilt."

She wanted to bring something for them to express her gratitude and to strengthen the ties further. Unfortunately, there was nothing notable to present at the moment, as the precious commodity, the sausages, no longer needed to be sent by her family.

After much thought, since the noble young masters lacked for nothing and were only after novelties, she took out some of the exquisitely crafted baskets that Qian Sangui made when he was in good health. Qian Xiaoyu embellished them with silk cloth, and they were used to pack some of the new pastries from their home.

These pastries were certainly new to them. Whether they liked them or not, it was the best her family could offer. She also sent several jars of sweet fermented rice.

The next day, the Little Monk came again. He said he was going to Capital City with his master and would not return until after the new year, so he wanted more vegetarian pastries for the road. Xian Yixiu went to the pastry room and made him many vegetarian pastries, filling several large baskets, much to the Little Monk’s delight.

Monkey Brother, knowing his old master was about to embark on a long journey, tearfully escorted him back to Daci Temple and bid farewell to his life-saving benefactor, Master Beikong.

In the blink of an eye, it was the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month. Little Master Qian Yeejin was on winter break until the twentieth of the first lunar month next year. In the afternoon, Li Zhanqiu, who came to pick up sausages at Qian’s Main Courtyard, said that his mother would come to the Main Courtyard the next day to settle the accounts and invited everyone from the third household to have lunch at the Courtyard.

Today was the last day for sausage making. After a month of concerted efforts, they had made over six thousand catties of sausages that had all been sold, even attracting buyers from neighboring provinces.

Qian Yixiu guessed that Qianxiang House must have made a net profit of at least three to four hundred taels of silver.

Pastries had not been made for the past two days. Aside from setting aside eighty taels of silver for renting a shop, buying equipment, purchasing raw materials, etc., for next year, the third household divided ten taels of silver while the main house, the second household, and the fourth household each received five taels. Moreover, Lady Wei, Lady Xu, Lady Wong, Qian Hua, and Huang Tie were each given five hundred wen in wages.

In less than three months, they had earned so much, and several families were truly happy. Next year, if they expanded the workshop and hired a few more people, they could earn even more.

The following day, the younger aunt volunteered to stay home with Cheng Yue, while Lady Wu took her younger siblings and Qian Sangui, who was lying in the ox cart, to Qian’s Main Courtyard.

Daughters of the Qian family who had married out returned with their husbands, probably knowing that today was the day to divide the money and come to collect it.

Qian Manwan of the main house and Qian Manzhi of the second house had both married into Lin Town, which was nearly an hour’s journey away, but for the sake of earning more money, they and their spouses came to work every day.

Both of them were twenty-six or twenty-seven, which would have been prime years in my previous life, but the corners of their eyes were already creased with fine lines and their skin was dark and coarse. It was clear they were no strangers to hard labor outside.

From the occasional conversations among the adults, it seemed that their lives were not easy. They weren’t like Qian Mandua with her own laziness and lack of ambition; rather, it was a case of "a strong person is not stronger than fate."

Qian Manwan’s in-laws were relatively well-off, but she herself was "disappointing," having only given birth to three daughters without a son to date. Moreover, with a sister-in-law who was the niece of her mother-in-law and had a son, she was suffocating under the critical eye of her mother-in-law and the severity of her sister-in-law.