Chapter 220 (1/2)

Yu Hai carried a load of mud and walked over to the brick wall. He turned his head and said with a smile, ”Father, don't worry! It's all ready and hanging in the well in the backyard! Xiaocao has been preparing the osmanthus duck since yesterday. It should be ready by this afternoon.”

Liu Shuanzhu licked his lips and made a gluttonous look, saying, ”We are in luck! Osmanthus duck is a famous delicacy in Zhenxiu Restaurant. Even if you get in line to buy it, you might not even be able to get it. It's very expensive too! In our village, how many people can afford to spend more than ten taels on a duck? With Xiaocao's blessing, we can also enjoy the treatment of the rich. Xiaocao's cooking skill is as good as the chef of Zhenxiu Restaurant.”

At this time, Xiaocao carried over a bowl of sweet mung bean soup. Upon hearing their conversation, she smiled sweetly and said, ”Uncle Shuanzhu, thank you for your praise. Niece is very happy to hear it! However, we have to be humble to avoid being seen as arrogant by outsiders if they heard us. For the sake of your praise, I must show off my skills tomorrow so that Uncle Shuanzhu will antic.i.p.ate the next meal after finis.h.i.+ng the first meal.”

Liu Shuanzhu smiled brightly and said, ”No, that won't do! If you support my appet.i.te like that, I won't have any excuse to come over to your house for dinner once your house is built. At that time, it'll be so hard to eat your auntie's pig food ah!”

Shuanzhu's wife, who had come over to see if she could help, heard her husband's words. She immediately put on a posture of a teapot, pointed at Liu Shuanzhu, and spluttered, ”Liu Shuanzhu, are you saying my cooking is like pig's food? Then don't eat it in the future!”

Liu Shuanzhu shrunk his neck, approached his wife, and meekly asked in a low voice, ”Wife, why are you here?”

”Why can't I come here? If I didn't come, how would I have known you are insulting me behind my back?” Shuanzhu's wife glanced sideways at her husband. Seeing that he was acting flatteringly and apologizing in a decent manner, she said, ”Recently, our father's appet.i.te hasn't been very good because of the summer heat, and he wants to eat century eggs. Is it true Xiaocao's family have the century eggs and biandan sent from the Zhou Family's factories? I want to buy some for our father and improve his appet.i.te.”

Shuanzhu's wife was talking about Liu Shuanzhu's father, who had gotten ill several days ago. He just got a bit better, but it was still hard for him to eat. It was rare for him to crave for something, and the family's living conditions were better now, so Shuanzhu's wife came with the money.

”Dear, you are so nice! It is the blessing of three lifetimes for me, Liu Shuanzhu, to be able to marry you!” Liu Shuanzhu's wife was a very good person. She treated her in-laws as if they were her biological parents, so Liu Shuanzhu's parents praised their daughter-in-law's filial piety wherever they went.

When Shuanzhu's wife heard this, she smiled and said, ”My parents pa.s.sed away early, so I couldn't treat them well. Father-in-law and Mother-in-law treat me as if I were their biological daughter, so if I didn't treat them as my parents, then am I still human?”

Although the ancient people attach great importance to filial piety, there were still cases of the mistreatments of parents-in-law by their daughters-in-law. There weren't many daughters-in-law like the Liu Family's, who got along so well with their parents-in-law.

Shuanzhu's wife bought ten century eggs from Xiaocao at the market price. Xiaocao didn't plan on taking her money, but Shuanzhu's wife insisted, and said that if Xiaocao didn't take the money then she wouldn't take the eggs!

Speaking of the Zhou Family's century eggs, the demand for them definitely exceeded the supply. The shop that sold the century eggs in town had a long queue every day, and they also had to limit the purchase quant.i.ty. Although century eggs factories were also opened in the prefectural city and the capital, the supply still wasn't enough for the capital and the prefectural city. In the entire Dongshan Village, Xiaocao's family was the only ones who didn't lack century eggs. Other people either didn't have the time to line up or were unwilling to buy it; after all, century eggs were much more expensive than duck or chicken eggs.

Thanks to Yu Hai's popularity and the fact that the two meals served each day were dishes that even the rich couldn't buy at Zhenxiu Restaurant, there was an endless stream of people coming by to help. Naturally, the progress of the house construction was much faster than expected!

”With beams on the roof, there will be food in the house. If the roof doesn't have beams, then even the domestic animals won't prosper.” When building a house, installing the beams was just as grand as the ceremonies for marriage. On this day, almost all of the villagers of Dongshan Village had come to celebrate.

Choosing the main beams for the roof was a very important matter. First, when choosing the wood, it had to be hard and durable. It was also important that the trees chosen had the same thickness from top to bottom, and that they were perfectly straight. Even if the tree was just slightly bent, it wouldn't be usable at all. Ever since Yu Hai decided to build a house, he began to walk around the dense forests of West Mountains and chose a lot of trees for making beams.

The highly respected village chief presided over the beam installation ceremony. First, Yu Hai and his family put up offerings, lit incense, and prayed that the beam installation would be done safely and smoothly. On the main beams, there were auspicious sayings such as 'May the household thrive and prosper'. The Eight Diagrams was also drawn on some of the beams to pray for the family's prosperity and safety.