The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

After returning from the garden, Chunniang was lost in thought for a while.

At this time, all the children had gone to school, and she was the only one left at home.

Chunniang went to check the peonies and roses that her youngest daughter had planted, along with the magnolias.

These plants not only thrived in growth but have also budded.

Previously, she hadn’t paid much attention to the growth of the plants, but today she happened to see other people’s flower seedlings, which were planted this spring, are just as long as chopsticks.

Looking back at her own, she couldn’t help but marvel at how miraculous they were.

“Chunniang, what are you doing?”

Zhou’s wife came in from outside the yard and asked when she saw her sister-in-law squatting by the flower garden in a daze.

Chunniang stood up and smiled, “Nothing much, just smelling the fragrance of the magnolias.”

Zhou’s wife also leaned in to smell and was met with a fresh scent, “Wow, this magnolia is really fragrant, the more you smell, the more you want to smell.”

Chunniang smiled, picked a few from the magnolia branch, and gave them to her sister-in-law: “You can sew them into a sachet.”

Usually, sachets from magnolia flowers are only available in May. Since the flowers were blooming now, it would be nice to make some sachets for the children to wear.

Zhou’s wife didn’t refuse and took a handful of flowers. “Chunniang, I wanted to discuss something with you today.”

Chunniang: “What’s the matter?”

“It’s our Dacheng.” Zhou’s wife sat down under the grape rack in the yard, “Yunniang found a girl for Dacheng in the county town. We were supposed to visit her tomorrow, but Dacheng is refusing to go.”

Chunniang: “Why doesn’t he want to go?”

“Who knows.” Zhou’s wife was bothered by her eldest son’s marriage situation, “He just said he doesn’t want to get married yet and asked us not to worry. But how can I not worry? He is already seventeen this year, and Erquan is fifteen. It seems like Erquan will have to start looking for a wife soon, but how can we let the younger brother get married before the older brother?”

Zhou’s wife was on the verge of tears, “His father doesn’t care about anything and just says to let it be. Chunniang, do you think we can let this be?”

Chunniang felt helpless too.

Ever since her elder nephew was wronged by the Chu’s Family girl, he has been avoiding all girls like they were snakes or scorpions. It’s hard for him to even consider having a marriage meeting, let alone when adults casually mention a girl is good, he walks away immediately with no looking back.

Continuing, Zhou’s wife said, “Dacheng always listens to his uncle. I wonder if you could speak to his uncle and ask him to persuade Dacheng. Not all girls in the world are as unreasonable as the girl from the Chu family. He shouldn’t be afraid of a rope for ten years because he was bitten by a snake once.”

“Alright, I’ll speak to him after he comes back in the evening.”

Chunniang comforted her, “Sister-in-law, don’t worry too much. Dacheng is only seventeen. There are also men in our village who didn’t get married until they were twenty.” Like Chen Zhu, the youngest son of the Clan Leader, who got married when he was twenty years old.

The two of them chatted for a while longer before Zhou’s wife left with a handful of magnolia flowers.

When Jiang Sanlang came back in the evening and heard his wife talking about Dacheng’s issue, he casually replied, “If Dacheng doesn’t want to see the girl, let him be. He must have not met his soulmate yet. These things can’t be rushed.”

Chunniang complained, “Even though it’s not urgent, Elder Sister sent a message, saying they found a girl for Dacheng and we are supposed to meet her tomorrow. If we break the arrangement, I’m afraid it won’t look good on Elder Sister’s part.”

Jiang Sanlang: “If we break the promise, then we break the promise. What’s there to explain? With such a long journey, who can guarantee to be present tomorrow?”

Elder sister Yunniang is indeed too impulsive. She sent over a letter asking Dacheng to go to the county town for a marriage meeting without even mentioning what does the other family do. It’s no wonder Dacheng doesn’t want to go.

Seeing that she couldn’t persuade her husband, Chunniang gave up, brought him a basin of water to wash his face, and casually asked, “What did Chen Changsheng of West Village ask you to do today?”

“It’s still about the Chinese-black mushroom. Many families in their village also want to plant them and they want to buy the spores from me.” Jiang Sanlang picked up the towel to wash his face, after washing it, he poured the water from the basin into the foot-washing tub to wash his feet.

Chunniang handed him a towel to dry his feet, “Did you agree?”

Jiang Sanlang shook his head, “I’d like to agree, but I don’t have any spores.”

All the Chinese-black mushrooms at their home are premium and would never be sold to others.

At the end of February, Steward Zhou came over, took away all of Jiang Family’s premium Chinese-black mushrooms, but never asked about the Chinese-black mushrooms in the hands of other villagers. It seemed that he was not very interested in the ordinary Chinese-black mushrooms.

Before leaving, Steward Zhou also told Jiang Sanlang that there were many empty houses for sale in the county town. If he was interested, he should hurry and buy them. If he was late, the houses would be gone.

Jiang Sanlang did seriously consider it for a while but was too busy and forgot about it.

He remembered a month later, but it might be a bit late if he went to buy them now.

However, his daughter Xiaojie kept urging him to go to the county town to check. She said that if Xiaojie and Huzi wanted to take the Imperial Exam, they must go to the county town to study. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be easy to pass the exam.

Jiang Sanlang dried his feet, put on his wooden clogs and went out to pour out the water.

He went to check on his two sons and saw they were already asleep, then he turned back, glanced at his daughter’s room and saw they have turned off the lights to sleep.

He returned to his room and lay down on the kang bed, thought for a while, and said to his wife, “Chunniang, let’s buy a house in the county town.”

Chunniang’s eyes lit up, “Are you serious?”

There were more than three hundred taels of silver at home. Originally, they wanted to buy some paddy fields, but her daughter disagreed, saying that when there would be a flood in the future, those fields wouldn’t worth a lot of money. Buying paddy fields at a high price now is just throwing money away.

Chunniang and her husband always listened to their daughter’s words, so they didn’t buy them.

But having stored so much cash at home, she wasn’t at ease, fearing that bandits would rob them of their money.

“Of course it’s true.” Jiang Sanlang rested his head on his hands, speaking in a leisurely manner, “Let’s buy a house in the county town, so we won’t have to stay at inns whenever we go there. Moreover, Xiaojie and Yuanbao are going to study in the county town, and it would be inconvenient for us to take care of them without having a house there.”

Chunniang asked expectantly, “When are you planning to buy it?”

“The day after tomorrow.” Jiang Sanlang replied, “The day after tomorrow, I will go to the town to rent a cart to the county town. If things go well, I am considering buying a horse carriage to bring back too.” It was inconvenient at home without having a cart, everybody had to walk long distances for markets or visits. Adults might cope with it, but it was hard on the children.

Moreover, mules and horses could also be used to plow fields. He wanted to reclaim the wasteland by the orchard. Having mules or horses would save a lot of time and effort.

“We should buy a cart for our home.” Remembering her sister-in-law’s words, Chunniang asked, “Are you going to take Dacheng with you? You need to let Elder Sister know.”

Jiang Sanlang: “Whether he goes or not, is up to him. I will talk to our elder sister.”

The sister-in-law is really worried about her son not having a wife.

Putting aside the others, with Dacheng’s handsome appearance, good figure and character, would any girl be missing him? Perhaps he would be like his second uncle in the future, finding a suitable wife for himself.

“That’s fine.” Chunniang relaxed knowing her husband had agreed.

She would tell her sister-in-law tomorrow, complying with her request.

The next morning, Chunniang got up and checked the condition of the chicken hatchlings.

Under the wings of three hens, there were a bunch of fluffy chicks drumbling around.

Chunniang quickly picked them up into a large basket padded with shredded grass, then covered the basket with a small quilt.

Under the stomach of the mother hen, there were still a few eggs that hadn’t hatched, but a small hole had been pecked in.

Chunniang peeled the eggshell bit by bit, took out the wet chick inside, and placed it back under the hen to keep warm.