novelraw Chapter 52 Turns out he was nothing more than a royal servant with ingrained servility.
Chapter 52 Turns out he was nothing more than a royal servant with ingrained servility.
The adobe bricks used to build the kang (heated brick bed) were large and heavy. The sisters carried each brick in pairs to the backyard and stacked them next to the red bricks. Tong Yuheng said they would still be useful and told everyone to be careful not to break them.
The kang (heated brick bed) was dismantled piece by piece, until it was very close to the outer wall. Through the gaps in the pried-open kang bricks, Tong Yuheng saw a patch of old, dark red vermilion lacquer!
Hey! There's something hidden in here!
She took a deep breath, calmly put down the tools in her hand, lifted the brick of the kang (a heated brick bed) with one hand, placed the other hand on the wooden box, and with a thought, put it into her spatial storage!
The wooden box was the same size as a brick of a kang (heated brick bed), a flat, single layer. Tong Yuheng carefully continued to pry open the bricks next to him and found several more identical wooden boxes, which he also put into his spatial storage.
When she finished dismantling all the bricks on the kang (a heated brick bed), she found a total of five such wooden boxes! They weren't even stacked together yet; were they afraid that they would collapse under the weight due to years of disrepair?
Tong Yuheng channeled his consciousness into the space and opened the box to examine it. Sure enough, it contained items that the original owner had considered valuable:
One box contained silver dollars known as "Yuan Shikai dollars"; two boxes contained gold, one containing large yellow croakers and the other small yellow croakers. The other two boxes, however, were not valuable to Tong Yuheng, but were extremely important to the original owner's family.
The box contained a thread-bound genealogy book, wrapped in a layer of sheepskin and then an oiled paper. Tong Yuheng glanced at it and saw that it was written in Manchu. It turned out that the first owner of this place was a Manchu nobleman.
Inside the last wooden box were some correspondence from the original owner's family, some written in Chinese characters and others in Manchu. The letter writers included minor officials under warlords and remnants of the old regime scattered in various places.
Tong Yuheng was a Manchu. Her great-grandmother taught her Manchu from a young age, and her mother also knew it. After reading a few of the letters, I learned that this landlord was a bondservant who had been granted a title during the Qing Dynasty. After the feudal dynasty was overthrown, he fled here with his family, still hoping to restore the dynasty and remaining loyal to their master.
The letters express the group's hope for the restoration of the imperial system and their lingering nostalgia for their family's past glory.
"I thought the original owner's family was either a prince or a nobleman, otherwise why would they be so loyal to the corrupt Qing Dynasty? Turns out they were just a royal bondservant with servility ingrained in their bones!"
Is this ingrained servility from their ancestors, a trait ingrained in their very blood? But turning back the clock is certainly not an option; they are destined for a bad end! Perhaps it is this terrifying ideology of restoration that has brought disaster upon this family!
Tong Yuheng kept all of these in her bedroom in the space farmhouse. She usually kept gold and silver in her room; she couldn't spend them freely right now, but seeing them made her happy, didn't they?
The kang (a heated brick bed) was dismantled in just one morning; it seems destruction is always much easier than construction. During lunch break, Tong Yuheng added more spiritual spring water to everyone's hot water, which quickly relieved their fatigue.
"Hurry up and wash your hands, lunch is ready!"
After the children had worked all morning, Tong Jiahui made them braised pork and potato rice. A big pot of rice and vegetables was ready, and she also cooked a pot of seaweed and egg drop soup on the coal stove.
The ingredients were naturally provided by Tong Yuheng. She cut the meat she had stored in the space into chunks and buried it in the snowdrift in the yard, using it as a natural refrigerator.
When Tong Jiahui was cooking, she would just scoop up a piece of snow. Since their house wasn't next to anyone else's, the smell wouldn't travel that far, so she could eat it without worry.
If anyone asks, they've already figured out how to explain: "It's almost Chinese New Year, so let's have something nice to eat to improve our health."
The sisters ate in the west room, and after they finished eating, they sat on the kang to rest. Tong Yuheng told them to take a nap, as they still had to work in the afternoon!
She took the dishes to the main room to wash them, and called Tong Jiahui over. When they arrived at the east room, which was completely unrecognizable, she secretly showed her the box containing small yellow croakers and "Yuan Shikai silver dollars".
Tong Jiahui quickly covered her mouth and cautiously peered outside, afraid someone might see them through the courtyard wall. She swiftly turned her back to the window, using her body to shield the two boxes, and whispered, "Where did these come from? How come there are so many? About a hundred, perhaps?"
"I counted them, ninety-two, less than a hundred. They were found right here on this kang (heated brick bed). There's also a large box with sixteen sticks. I'll hide these and distribute them to my sisters later."
"Won't this be dangerous? Let's not tell them yet. If we accidentally let it slip, people will think we're hiding countless treasures!"
"Don't worry, Mom, no one will know. No one can find what I've hidden! I just wanted to tell you that you don't need to worry about our family's livelihood these past few years. From now on, take it easy when you go to work; five or six work points are enough!"
"Hehehe, I know, we have enough to live on even without these. My eldest daughter is capable! We have money to spend now, so let's not exchange these for cash. It's better to be cautious!"
"Yes, I know. It's not appropriate to exchange it now, and it's even more inappropriate to exchange it on the black market. I'll keep it for now."
Her family is indeed not short of money now. Her father's pension has been withdrawn, and the family has more than 5000 yuan in savings. She transferred four jobs, earning a total of 3600 yuan. She received 1000 yuan for the design fee of the threshing machine. In addition, she sold fruits and vegetables on the black market once, earning more than 3000 yuan.
The trip to the countryside cost around two thousand yuan, including various fabrics. Tong Yuheng still had over ten thousand yuan in cash in his spatial storage. This didn't even include the money, coupons, and other treasures he obtained from Fan Dayong's house and Qian Wenyi.
"Mom, let me give you some more money and tickets. I'll take my younger sisters to the market tomorrow and try to buy as many New Year's goods as possible."
When they arrived, Tong Yuheng put a hundred yuan in each of her younger sisters' pockets, sewn into the lining of their cotton-padded jackets to prevent them from getting lost. She didn't take it back after they arrived; it remained as pocket money for the sisters. Tong Jiahui had over five hundred yuan, ostensibly for the family's expenses.
Tong Yuheng spent 500 yuan on bricks, all paid for by herself. She's now the family's veritable "walking treasury"!
"Okay, it's perfect timing since everyone's buying New Year's goods right now. We have a large family, so buying a lot won't be too conspicuous."
"I'll go get some sand and cement this afternoon, and then I'll work on the floor of the east room tomorrow. It looks like it won't be finished before the Lunar New Year!"
She originally wanted to hire villagers to help build the wall, but the locals believed in not working during the Lunar New Year, otherwise they would be poor the following year. Besides, it was too cold, and the sand and cement would freeze outdoors, making the wall weak and causing quality problems.
Tong Yuheng had no choice but to accept everyone's suggestion to rebuild the wall in the spring, while she and her family would have to work on the house. Anyway, she couldn't stay idle and would provide her family with a better living environment as soon as possible.