met free Chapter 9 Counting the Dowry
Chapter 9 Counting the Dowry
The third box contained two pairs of cotton shoes, four bolts of coarse gray cloth, two sets of underwear made of fine cotton, ten pairs of shoe soles, two strings of copper coins, and two large bowls that looked like soup bowls.
The fourth box contained two quilts, two mattresses, two pillowcases, a pack of needles and thread, several hair ties, two wooden hairpins, a comb, and two strings of copper coins.
She didn't know how dowries were given in ancient times. The things her two older sisters bought for their weddings were all delivered by a department store.
But these things really surprised her. The original owner was not favored in the Fang family. Let's not talk about how much money the Fang family gave her these things, but they were quite complete.
She touched those cotton-padded clothes and felt that the inside was slippery and didn't feel like cotton. She had to admit that the Fang family had put on a good show.
Four boxes, that's the dowry carried in four baskets.
One hundred copper coins equal one large copper coin. The copper coin is larger and thicker than a one-yuan steel coin, and each side is printed with a peony flower.
This is just like the copper coins in the chest inside the house.
The copper coin has a round hole in the middle, probably for easy stringing.
One tael of silver is equal to one hundred copper coins. Silver is divided into small pieces of one tael, two taels, and five taels.
One tael is called broken silver, and its size is irregular. Two taels and five taels are generally very regular small squares, strips and small ingots.
Some wealthy families also processed them into melon seeds, buttons, beans, peanuts, etc.
She had just heard these things from Aunt Gu.
It seems that those who have silver and gold in their hands are truly wealthy.
Haha, does that mean she's from a wealthy family too?
Dongfang Jin took everything out of the four boxes, putting all the cloth in one box and the clothes in another.
She didn't put the quilt and mattress in; since Gu Chenglin had gone to pick up the child, the family certainly hadn't prepared anything for the child.
Without even asking, just by looking at the pile of things in her room and the clothes Gu Chenglin was wearing, it's clear that the Gu family probably didn't give Gu Chenglin anything.
Take out the bowls, plates, and everything else and put them aside.
She started tidying up the house, and after she finished, looking at the neat and clean house, she felt much better.
Afterwards, she went to Gu Chenglin's house. When she saw the makeshift bed made of wooden planks, with tattered bedding on it that smelled foul and was covered with straw, she was amazed.
She felt uneasy. This man, covered in injuries, was staying here? A pang of sadness gripped her heart. How much strength did this man possess...?
Pick up the child? Where will the child stay when they come back? Does he even know how to manage a household?
If you don't take care of yourself like this, what will you do in the future...?
You have to understand that if a wounded person lives in such an environment, the wound will get infected very quickly. In ancient times, hygiene conditions were already poor. It was like they were trying to get rid of themselves.
Thinking about it, she angrily carried the tattered quilt and straw outside and threw it away.
She couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want the person to get infected with a wound and develop a fever before they even had a chance to live their life together. Otherwise, she would be labeled as a jinx.
No, I absolutely cannot let this happen. Gu Chenglin, you just wait...
Isn't he afraid of getting lice from being so dirty? Just thinking about it sends chills down her spine. Thankfully, she checked her long hair carefully last night when she showered, otherwise…
She moved the wooden planks aside, cleaned the entire house inside and out, and then, from the perspective of space, she decided to call her home "space."
Take out any usable tools, such as shovels, picks, and spades, and dig up some soil from outside to level the uneven areas on the ground.
She rebuilt it piece by piece with stones, and then added some soil in the middle to reinforce it.
After finishing, the wooden planks were placed on top. Fearing they wouldn't be sturdy enough, Dongfang Jin found some wood in the yard and made two triangular supports to reinforce the bed planks.
Then I pressed it down hard, and laid the straw back down, one layer horizontally and one layer vertically, and finally trimmed the edges with scissors.
Thankfully, she had prepared all her belongings; otherwise, she really wouldn't know what to do.
After everything was done, she returned to her room and brought over the dowry items given to her by the Fang family, including quilts and mattresses, and laid them out. She also took a piece of dark blue coarse cloth and spread it on top as a bed sheet.
She wanted to get some bedding from the family storeroom, but she couldn't get it out right now.
This thing cannot be shown to anyone yet, otherwise she wouldn't even know how she died.
The warehouse has plenty of those things. When we hoarded them, we thought it would be easy for the old ladies and gentlemen to throw them away if they ever lost control of their bladders.
It's better than disassembling and washing; this way it's not only cleaner, but it also doesn't have that old-fashioned smell.
She didn't know if other elderly people had incontinence problems, but her grandmother and maternal grandmother did; they would sometimes wet their pants when laughing, coughing, or sneezing. Sometimes they couldn't even hold it in and would frequently wet their pants.
After finishing here, she came out to check the time, went into her space to eat, rested for a while, and then went back to the kitchen.
The room was only about seven or eight square meters in size, with two small stoves and a rusty pot.
Just now, when she was digging in the yard, there seemed to be a well in the northeast corner of the yard.
Aunt Gu said that almost every household here has a well in their yard, which has solved the problem of drinking water.
But Dongfang Jin did not go to the well to draw water, firstly because he had no bucket, secondly because he had no rope, and thirdly because he had no water vat.
After cleaning up the kitchen, she decisively took the pot and all the tools into her space... to clean her home.
After washing the pot, I took a bath, changed my clothes when they were dry, and came out with the pot. The sun was almost setting.
Gu Chenglin hadn't returned yet, which made her frown. Could it take all day to pick up the child?
Aunt Gu said Xinghua Village isn't far from here, even closer than Fangjia Village. How come it takes a whole day to get there?
Does this mean they'll have to stay there? Or is it that Gu Chenglin's father-in-law won't let the child come back?
Never mind, I took a hoe from my spatial storage, put on gloves, and squatted down in the yard to start weeding.
Aunt Gu said that Gu Chenglin married that woman because the elders of the Gu clan in the village forced his parents to spend one hundred copper coins, which is one tael of silver, to marry her to him.
I heard from Aunt Gu that buying a maid at the brokerage firm costs at least three taels of silver.
What kind of wife can you get for one or two taels of silver?
It was only later that I learned that Gu Chenglin's wife had no mother since she was a child, and her father was a notorious lazy man in the village.
No one wanted this kind of daughter, so she just stayed single. Tian Xiaocao was left unmarried until she was 20.
So, the clan wanted to find a wife for Chenglin, and Aunt Gu's sister-in-law told the clan about it.
The reason the clan took charge of this matter was because Gu Chenglin's second younger brother, Gu Yaozong, had already married and had children at that time.
Gu Yaozu, the third son of the Gu family, was also getting married. An elder of the clan couldn't stand it anymore, so he went to the Gu family for help.
Gu Chenglin's father was named Gu Qingshan. He was an honest man who didn't like to talk.
Gu Chenglin's mother, Gu Yeshi, was from Changhe Town, Xinle County, Yongping Prefecture, a neighboring prefecture. She was the only daughter in her family.
She had two older brothers and one younger brother. Both of her older brothers were students who had passed the imperial examinations, and her younger brother was a scholar who had passed the county-level examinations.
After passing the imperial examination and becoming a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations), the younger brother found it too difficult to take the higher-level exams, so he stopped and opened a private school in town.
Gu Chenglin's second younger brother, Gu Yaozong, was 26 years old when he married the youngest daughter of the Li family in Changhe Town. The Li family ran a restaurant in Changhe Town.