Xuemei coughed and said, "Mom, I don't want to come back and live here anymore."
Zhulan was stunned for a moment and frowned, "That won't do. It's not that mother doesn't love you. You and your son-in-law just separated and you live in your mother's house. It's not good for your reputation and family. If you are worried about the child, the child can stay, but you and your son-in-law can't."
Xuemei blushed. She really had no intention of staying at her mother's house. "Mom, I don't mean to live at home. I heard from my aunt in the clan that a family in the clan moved to the county and the house was empty for rent. Jiang Sheng and I decided to live in Zhoujia Village. Not only is it convenient to copy books, but Jiang Sheng can also consult Dad from time to time."
Zhulan suddenly realized. She had been talking about how to live for Xuemei and her husband along the way. The couple had been laughing dryly. It turned out that they had made up their minds. However, it would not be good for their daughter's reputation to live in her mother's village once the family was separated.
Xuemei guessed what her mother was thinking, "Mom, we have enough reasons. Jiang Sheng asked my father-in-law for advice in order to take the exam for a scholar. Besides, we don't have any land anymore. We are really afraid of what people will say. We will come back to help during the spring ploughing and autumn harvest without hesitation."
Zhulan didn't agree blindly, and went out to find Zhou Shuren. She didn't know as much about ancient times as Zhou Shuren did. When she saw Zhou Shuren's gloomy face and her son-in-law lowering his head, Zhou Shuren already knew what his daughter was thinking, "What do you think?"
Zhou Shuren frowned. There was a child husband in the family. It was he who advocated the division of the family. He thought about it and said, "You can live there, but you have to wait until after the spring plowing."
At least if he passes the imperial examination this year, his reason for asking to learn literature will be more convincing, and no one will gossip about Jiang Sheng and his family moving in.
Jiang Sheng thought about it and understood what his father-in-law meant. His father-in-law was more knowledgeable than him, so it was no problem for him to be a scholar. He knew that his idea was not comprehensive, so he hurriedly said, "My son-in-law is too anxious and has caused trouble for my father-in-law."
He was truly impressed by his father-in-law's knowledge, otherwise he wouldn't have had such an idea. He also knew it was not a good idea.
That being said, they still had to buy everything they needed for daily life. Boss Zhou first went to buy a truckload of chopped firewood. After unloading the truck, he took Zhulan and Xuemei to the county.
I bought rice jars, water jars, pots, bowls and chopsticks in the county, and also bought seasonings, and finally fine grains.
Zhulan also paid for eggs, meat, and radishes and cabbages, and filled a car with things before returning to the Jiang family.
Zhou Shuren took Jiang Sheng to the village to buy second-hand tables, chairs, cupboards, water buckets and shoulder poles, etc., trying to buy everything to avoid being ridiculed for borrowing them.
Zhulan gave her daughter two hundred coins of money for things, Xuemei spent about one or two taels on herself, Zhou Shuren gave another two hundred coins, and the whole family spent one or two or four hundred coins to divide the family.
Zhulan and Zhou Shuren tried their best to buy everything for their daughter. They treated their children more and more as their own and wanted to take care of everything so as not to make the children suffer.
This made the Jiang family's wives jealous. They thought that once a daughter is married off, she is like water spilled. But looking at Zhou Xuemei, they felt that they were just picked up. No matter how jealous they were, they could not divide the family property. Since their younger brother's family had the Yue family to rely on, they did not dare to make trouble or make sarcastic remarks.
Are we going to split up the family later? I really don't regret it. If we didn't split up the family, the Zhou family wouldn't help like this. On the contrary, it's not good to put pressure on the Jiang family to support Jiang Sheng's studies. It's better to be free now.
Jiang Sheng stayed at home to keep the house and Xuemei followed him back to Zhou's house.
Later, Jiang Sheng had to copy books at home. Zhou Shuren was worried about the original books, so he took them back to copy. Jiang Sheng copied the first two, and he and Rongchuan copied the remaining two. The one Jiang Sheng took back was the handwritten copy.
In the future, the children at home would read the handwritten copy, which Zhou Shuren originally wanted to seal and keep.
After a good meal in the evening, the two children will go home to live with Xuemei tomorrow. After Xuemei's idea didn't work, she naturally took the children back home to avoid any complaints from her sister-in-law and try not to cause trouble for her parents.
The next morning, Zhulan packed things for her eldest daughter, including the family's clothes, an old quilt, spicy cabbage and sausages made by Li. Zhulan also caught a laying hen, and finally gave her eldest daughter two taels of silver.
Xuemei ate and drank at her mother's house. When she returned home, she blushed and said, "Mother, I feel really guilty. Please don't give me any more money."
Zhulan thought that mothers all have the habit of giving money to their children. She especially understood why the Yang family gave money to her. If she wasn't afraid that her son-in-law would become lazy, she would want to take more. "If you don't take it, it means you think it's not enough."
Xuemei's nose felt sour. "Mom, you know that's not what I meant."
Zhulan smiled, "Mother knows everything. Mother will only subsidize you this year. When Jiang Sheng passes the exam to become a scholar next year, mother will stop subsidizing you, okay?"
He thought it was a pity. Unless Jiang Sheng passed the imperial examination and became a student, he would still not receive any silver or rice subsidies. Every year, only students would be given silver and subsidies by the imperial court.
So Zhou Shuren’s help is still needed!
Xuemei had confidence in her husband and accepted the money knowing her mother's good intentions. "Thank you, mother."
Zhulan did not send her eldest daughter and her family back personally, but asked the eldest and second eldest daughter to send them back together. The grandson and granddaughter had developed feelings for each other, and the two children cried loudly, making Zhulan feel sad. Without the sweet-talking Jiang Du, it was as if she had lost several children. She had no energy to go back and just lay down.
When Zhou Shuren came in with the book, he saw Zhulan's empty eyes, so he went over to sit down and said, "Let's pack our luggage tomorrow and go to Pingzhou."
Zhulan was surprised, "Aren't you waiting until the end of the first month of the lunar year?"
Zhou Shuren said, "No need to wait. It's hard to buy in the shops after the first month of the year."
Zhulan was a little anxious. The rent of the shop was quite a lot. One shop was enough for the whole family. Money could not make money if it was just kept. Only by buying a shop could money be made. "I'll make the arrangements. Shall we leave tomorrow?"
Zhou Shuren smiled and said, "I will go find a carriage and a team tomorrow. It will take a day or two to set off."
Zhulan was no longer anxious. "Who else are you going to take with you this time besides the two of us?"
Zhou Shuren had already thought about it. "When I'm not around, the eldest has to support the family and also manage the Li family. The second child can fill in the gaps of the eldest. Chang Lian and Chang Zhi won't be with them when they study, and Rong Chuan can't be with them either. Rong Chuan doesn't deserve special treatment. We'll only take Xue Han with us this time to prevent Wang Ru from missing her when we're not around."
Zhulan calculated the time. It would take seven or eight days to buy the shop and go back and forth. She had to give Li a good warning when he was away for a while, so as not to let the monkey claim to be king when the tiger is away.
Zhulan and Zhou Shuren were men of action, and the next morning Zhou Shuren went to the county to find a carriage and convoy to Pingzhou, and set off early the day after tomorrow. Pingzhou was a transportation hub, and the north was not as rich as the south. Pingzhou was very stable, and there was no need to worry about safety issues when following the convoy.
Zhulan took out eight days' worth of food from home and counted out one hundred copper coins as emergency household expenses. Zhulan gave the silver and money to Li and the food to Zhao.
Li had a lot of money in her hands, so she wouldn't hold on to the hundred coins stubbornly. Besides, everyone got lucky money, so even if something happened, they wouldn't have trouble with the money. It didn't matter whether Li took the money or not. Zhao had her own plan, so she used the food to check and balance Li. Li loved to supplement her brain, so she must have thought that she secretly asked Zhao to watch her. Zhulan put a lock on Li, so Li didn't dare to do anything wrong when she was not at home.