Chen Xuan hadn't figured out how to talk to Wei Nian about learning foreign languages. After all, it would be very troublesome for Wei Nian. Because Wei Nian had hired Mr. Jiao to teach him, and he had to pay Mr. Jiao three dollars a month. Chen Xuan knew the rules of the Wei family very well in both of her lives. The Wei family didn't need women to take care of business matters, and women didn't go to school. They just had to do housework anyway. Women didn't need to worry about anything else.
Chen Xuan had to rely on old lady Wei to learn how to read, let alone learn foreign languages
Even if she could pay three dollars to hire a foreign language teacher, the Wei family would not agree.
Besides, she doesn't have that much money.
I have to trouble Wei Nian, but I don’t know whether Wei Nian is happy about it.
Although Wei Nian owed her fifty cents before, he later gave her a box of vanishing cream to offset the fifty cents. Now that they both owed her, how could she bother Wei Nian
Chen Xuan couldn't bring herself to say that.
She also felt that what Mrs. Xu, a refined and knowledgeable person, said must make sense.
For a moment, Chen Xuan was worried about this matter.
Although she hadn't thought of a way to learn foreign languages, Chen Xuan couldn't help but go to the western room first. There were several foreign books in the western room, which were used by Wei Nian to learn foreign languages. In the past, Chen Xuan didn't dare to touch them. This time, for some reason, or maybe she knew that she came here for a purpose, her heart was beating fast before she even touched the foreign books. Chen Xuan calmed herself down, wiped the cover of the book with a handkerchief, pretended to clean it, and secretly glanced around. Seeing that there was no one outside, Chen Xuan quickly opened the foreign books and took a few glances. As a result, except for the Chinese notes on them, Chen Xuan couldn't understand a single foreign word.
Chen Xuan was flipping through the foreign book when she heard someone knocking on the window. She looked up and saw Wei Jin looking at her thoughtfully with his eyes narrowed. Chen Xuan felt guilty and quickly closed the book, lowered her head and pretended to tidy up Wei Nian's book before leaving.
"It's already so late, why aren't you making lunch?! Mom told you to roll noodles for lunch! Jie'er's mom doesn't have the strength, and the noodles she rolls aren't tasty, so you go roll them!"
Chen Xuan went to the kitchen to knead the dough and roll out the noodles. While rolling the noodles, she continued to worry about learning foreign languages.
Wei Jin turned around and said to the old lady, "Why did she go to the west wing for no reason? If there was no money in the west wing, I would have thought she was sneaking around to steal our money."
Wei Yinxian couldn't help but roll his eyes, "Sister, what are you talking about? The west side room is cleaned by my second sister-in-law. My second brother needs it every day, so what's wrong with my second sister-in-law cleaning it more frequently?"
"Didn't you see how sneaky she was? She looked guilty. Something must have happened." Wei Jin made his judgment.
Old Mrs. Wei glanced at the large wooden box containing money that was locked tightly in her room and said nothing.
Chen Xuan didn't know that she had been suspected of being a "thief" by Wei Jin. In fact, even if Chen Xuan heard what Wei Jin said, she would feel that Wei Jin was not wrong. However, she didn't want to steal the Wei family's money, but wanted to "steal" some foreign language from Wei Nian to learn.
But when it comes to knowledge, it is almost impossible to "steal" it without someone to guide you.
Wei Nian had no idea that Chen Xuan was targeting him, but a few days later, Wei Nian made a three-piece suit, took it back from the tailor shop, and tried it on in the house for Chen Xuan to see. Wei Nian also asked, "Does it look good?"
Wei Nian was born with a tall and thin body. In the countryside, people like him are called clothes hangers, which means that he is born to look good in clothes. Especially, Wei Nian is not only beautiful, but also good-looking. Especially, it is hot today, so Wei Nian did not comb his hair with hair oil, so now his short hair is fluffy and has a light fragrance of shampoo. Chen Xuan nodded, "It looks good, but it's June, don't you feel hot?"
"Try it on first." Wei Nian looked in the mirror, took off his clothes and hung them in the closet. He saw Chen Xuan fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan beside the small kang table. Wei Nian went over to get some cool air and said to Chen Xuan, "Nowadays, Western-style people all wear Western suits. Zhongshan suits are mostly worn by students."
Chen Xuan saw that the tip of his nose was covered with sweat from trying on clothes, so she moved her fan closer to Wei Nian and fanned him twice, saying, "You look good in that Zhongshan suit. You are tall and good-looking, so you look good in anything."
Wei Nian picked up the honeydew melon on the table, took a bite, and praised, "This melon is really sweet."
"These are the melon seeds that the vendor gave me. The vendor said they were from Xinjiang, not from here. I didn't believe it at first, but it turned out to be true." Chen Xuan made money from growing strawberries this year and couldn't help asking, "Brother Anian, are these Xinjiang honeydew melons valuable?"
Wei Nian laughed, "Are you addicted to selling fruits?"
"If it's valuable, we can sell it and buy some local melons. They're just as sweet."
"The local melons are too watery, how can they be as sweet as this one?"
"Is this melon valuable?"
"Although it's more expensive than local melons, it's not as expensive as strawberries." Wei Nian saw that Chen Xuan was a little disappointed, so he explained the reason behind it to her, "Things are always valuable because they are rare. I heard that Xinjiang honeydew melons were tribute to the capital every year when the Qing Dynasty was still in existence. They have thick skins and are easy to preserve. If a family has a cellar, they can store them until the New Year without going bad. So many merchants travel to Xinjiang to do honeydew melon business, and some fruit farmers near the capital grow them themselves, so the price goes down."
Chen Xuan nodded, "I understand." She pushed the melon plate towards Wei Nian and advised Wei Nian, "Eat more." It's not worth any money anyway, so just eat it.
As it was hot today, the business in the shop was a little slow, which could be seen from the time when Old Master Wei and his son Wei Shi came home. On the other hand, Wei Nian got up late at night and occasionally had social events at night. A few days later, Wei Nian brought back a pair of celadon bowls.
When Wei Nian showed it to Chen Xuan, Chen Xuan took a serious look and said, "This bowl looks better than the ones we use at home." Chen Xuan couldn't see anything special about the celadon bowl, except that there were two bats painted on the bottom of the bowl, which looked pretty nice.
"Not only that! This is a property of the royal palace!" Wei Nian sat beside the small kang table, his pride evident on his face.
Chen Xuan was shocked, "The palace? The prince's palace?" She was very scared. When she watched plays in the countryside before, the prince was the highest official!
"It's called a palace, but where is the prince now? Even the emperor is gone." Wei Nian said to Chen Xuan, "Go and fetch some water."
Chen Xuan went to the water tank outside to scoop some water. Wei Nian took the scoop and slowly poured clean water into the bowl. Then, the two bats in the bowl seemed to move. Chen Xuan's eyes almost fell onto the table. She rubbed her eyes. The bats were in the water and seemed to be about to break out of the water. Even though Chen Xuan didn't have much experience, she knew that this was a good thing. She lowered her voice and asked Wei Nian, "Is this a treasure?"
"Of course."
Chen Xuan asked him again, "Where did you get it from?"
"Looking at you, could it be that you stole it?" Wei Nian said to Chen Xuan, "Ever since Emperor Xuantong abdicated, the warlords drove him out of the palace, and now there are no princes or princesses. This is a young master from the palace. He smoked all his family property with opium and started selling things. This thing looks good to me."
Chen Xuan thought for a moment, "But what's the use of this? We don't dare to use such a nice bowl when we eat. If it gets knocked or bumped, we will be heartbroken."
"For us, it's just a bowl for eating and drinking, but foreigners like it. If we tinker with it and sell it to them, we can sell it for a high price."
Chen Xuan asked, "Brother Anian, you went out late at night these days just to do this."
"I heard there is a ghost market at the foot of the imperial city, so I went there twice. Who knows whether those things are real or fake. If you want to do business, you have to do business with people you know well." Wei Nian poured the water in the bowl onto the green brick floor, wiped it clean with a soft cloth, and carefully put it in a red box with yellow forging, and handed it to Chen Xuan, "Keep it for now, and I'll sell it when I find a buyer."
Chen Xuan quickly put the treasure at the bottom of the box and locked it up.
In Chen Xuan's opinion, Wei Nian is a very capable person.
Because it was July and the summer heat had just subsided, Wei Nian told Chen Xuan to make dumplings at home while he treated everyone to a meal.
Chen Xuan asked, "What kind of filling is it?"
"That's fine. Smith is curious about our country's food. He thinks it's not authentic in the restaurant. I'll invite him to my house to eat dumplings."
"Is he a foreigner?"
"Yes, American." Wei Nian said and went to the shop.
Chen Xuan discussed this with Wei Yin, who said, "Don't those foreigners eat bread and steak? Why do they want to eat dumplings at our house?"
Chen Xuan said, "I thought that if this is breaded steak, Mr. Shi can eat it at home. Dumplings are our food here. I guess foreigners don't eat them often, so they think it's novel. Ah Yin, you're smart, help me think about what kind of fillings to put in it?"
Before Wei Yin could say anything, Old Lady Wei said, "It's pork with green onions. It smells delicious!"
Wei Jin paused what he was doing and said casually, "The mutton and green onion dish is not bad either."
Wei Yin said, "I heard that foreigners like to eat beef, so they often eat steak."
Chen Xuan said, "Then make one with pork and one with beef."
Wei Yin thought it was okay, but Wei Jin looked at Chen Xuan with suspicion, "Are you good enough at this? How about going to the restaurant and hiring a chef to help you mix the stuffing?"
Chen Xuan was also a little unconfident, but she had thought about this before, so she said, "Brother Anian said that Mr. Shi didn't like the food in restaurants, so he came to our house. Even if we invited a chef from a restaurant, what's the difference between that and eating in a restaurant. Sister-in-law's stuffing is very good."
Wei Jin snorted, and continued to work on sewing shoe soles with his head down, not forgetting to sneer, "It's strange nowadays, these foreigners don't like to eat in restaurants, but prefer our country style."
Chen Xuan remained silent. After all, Wei Nian had asked her to do this, so she had to make the decision.
After deciding on the fillings for the dumplings, Chen Xuan started to plan for the meat she would buy tomorrow morning. Chen Xuan also said, "No need for green onions, the green onions in the vegetable garden are enough. How much meat should I buy?" Even for a family like the Wei family, they don't eat dumplings very often except during the Chinese New Year. Moreover, they were making two kinds of fillings. Chen Xuan was really unsure, so she had to ask Mrs. Wei what she thought.
Old Mrs. Wei said first, "This is your family's dinner party. Let me tell you, the money for the meat cannot come from the public purse. You can buy as much as you want. I won't eat your dumplings."
Chen Xuan was a little dumbfounded at the moment. Wei Yin said, "Mom, then my second brother will eat dumplings with the foreigners tomorrow. Will we still have our usual meals?"
Before Mrs. Wei could speak, Wei Jin raised the corner of his lips and smiled at Wei Yin, but he was talking to Chen Xuan, "Your second sister-in-law planted strawberries this year and got a lot of silver dollars, but our mother didn't take any of that silver dollars from her. How much does it cost to buy a few pounds of meat? Besides, we don't eat it, so let your second sister-in-law prepare it herself. There are plenty of green onions in the vegetable garden, and we can save money on green onions. Even the oil, salt, sauce and vinegar in the kitchen are all free for her to use, isn't that good enough?"
Seeing Chen Xuan was stunned by what she said, Wei Jin was very happy. He looked Chen Xuan up and down. The needle he was sewing the soles of shoes with was a little dry. He scratched her hair and became more and more teasing, "Tomorrow we will entertain guests, you have to change into bright clothes, so as not to be impolite. And you have to prepare in advance for serving tea and water." Chen Xuan was just a country girl, how could she have any knowledge? Even though she had lived in Beijing for a while and had some foreign style, she was still a bumpkin. Wei Jin smiled and glanced at Chen Xuan's silly look, "We have never seen foreigners. But since you and my second brother are married, you have to take the lead in welcoming and seeing off guests here."
"Wedding guests?" Chen Xuan discovered that besides making dumplings, there seemed to be other things to do tomorrow.
"Of course! When guests come, why don't you greet them and say a few pleasantries?" Wei Jin sneered, and Wei Yin couldn't understand the sarcasm and contempt. But Chen Xuan suddenly became happy, and then her face was full of smiles, "Yes, yes, if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't know that I had to prepare this. You are right!" As she said that, she stood up and bowed to Wei Jin, "Thank you, sister-in-law!" She finally thought of a way to learn foreign words from Wei Nian!