They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 139 Relocation
Uncle Liang is truly traumatized.

He was afraid that Xu Zhichun would hold a banquet before his own and make it too extravagant, thus causing his family to lose face.

Unlike her, my family doesn't spend money recklessly.

Xu Zhichun agreed. She had originally planned to hold the ceremony after Liang Cuier's wedding. After all, auspicious days are limited, and the nearest one was Liang Cuier's wedding day. She couldn't very well compete with someone else's joyous occasion for such a significant life event.

Whether she's genuinely happy or secretly resentful is none of her business.

Perhaps Xu Zhichun agreed too readily, which emboldened Uncle Liang, who felt he could do it again.

"Ahem," Uncle Liang cleared his throat, his voice rising a third, "How much silver did you spend to build this house?"

Xu Zhichun paused slightly, then raised her head.

“You’re young and naive, you’ve probably been fooled without even realizing it. Tell me about all the expenses, and I’ll help you calculate it. Mingxuan is attending the county school now, which will cost even more. How much silver do you have left? How much is still with Liang the village head? If you don’t do a proper accounting, I’ll see what you do when you can’t even afford to eat.”

Xu Zhichun: "No comment."

"you--"

"Uncle, don't worry, I won't bother you with borrowing money or grain no matter what."

"No good deed goes unpunished!"

Uncle Liang stormed off with a dark expression and his sleeves twitching.

Xu Zhichun closed the courtyard gate.

Give him face.

They started a dyeing workshop with just a few colors.

How could she possibly forget what had happened before?

She wouldn't dare gamble with her life and fortune. After all, who knows if she'd be so lucky next time?

It cost quite a bit of silver this time. We'll calculate the cost of digging the well after the housewarming banquet, which will be around seventy taels.

Fortunately, even during this period, I didn't miss out on making money, and I still have more than 360 taels in hand.

The autumn harvest is getting closer, and there will be even greater profits then.

Therefore, although it cost a lot, looking at the new house in front of her, which was brand new inside and out, she still felt it was worth it.

While it was still early, Xu Zhichun called Chunfen and they went to the vegetable garden to dig up the flowers, trees, strawberries, and other plants that had been temporarily planted in the corners of the garden when the old house was demolished.

The roses, hydrangeas, jasmine, and other plants had all their branches and leaves pruned off, leaving only stems three to five inches long. When digging them up, the soil was dug quite deep, and then a rather large hole was dug in the vegetable garden to bury them completely. So now that they're being transplanted, providing shade during the day and watering them properly in the morning and evening is perfectly fine.

Both the front and back yards were very large. Xu Zhichun had wide sections built along the base of the wall in the back yard and along the two opposite bases of the wall in the front yard. There were also two small oval flower beds built on either side of the front yard house, providing ample space for planting.

With the help of the Spring Equinox, the flowers and trees were quickly dug up again, roots and all, and Xu Zhichun carefully carried them into a dustpan.

She also pulled up some leek roots and scallion roots to plant, and also inserted some garlic cloves.

The seeds of cilantro, celery, and lettuce have been soaked in water and will be sown tomorrow.

The tomatoes have already flowered and borne fruit; the green berries are gradually swelling, looking like cute little round balls. We already had quite a few in the vegetable garden, and after transplanting the few from the backyard, we didn't want to transplant them back.

The most important ingredient is strawberries.

Xu Zhichun planned to monopolize the strawberry business first. After the seedlings grew, she gave ten seedlings to Aunt Zhu'er and Zeng Xiaoyan each and told them not to give them to others. She decided to earn the money for herself for a year or two before making any further plans.

Who doesn't love small, cute, and sweet strawberries?

They don't cheat ordinary people, they only sell to the rich. Selling it for two taels of silver per catty isn't too much, is it?
To get his son into the county school, Master Zeng generously gave away tens of thousands of taels of silver, which truly broadened her understanding of the locals' wealth.

Even if we only sell to a few companies, that would be enough.

Speaking of which, there are plenty of fresh, big, and bright red strawberries in her cold storage room. With the strawberry seedlings planted in the ground as cover, it's considered to have gone through the proper channels.

The superior strawberry varieties cultivated using modern planting techniques were so large that she was embarrassed to sell them. Before selling them, she had to carefully select each one, choosing only the medium-sized ones. Xu Zhichun dug up all the strawberries that were densely buried together.

With a pair of dustpans and a basket on my back, I filled them all up this time, and that saved me from having to come back again.

"Alright," Xu Zhichun clapped his hands, "Thank you for your hard work, let's go."

"Okay." Liang Chunfen squatted down to carry the basket on her back, but Xu Zhichun quickly stopped her: "You carry the load, I'll do this."

“I’ll do it all. Sister-in-law Zhichun, you probably can’t carry it.”

"Hey--"

With a smile, Liang Chunfen got up without saying a word, picked up her basket, and started carrying the load. "I can really do it. Look, I can do it."

Easily.

Xu Zhichun smiled and had no choice but to give up, "Let's go back."

"Ah."

All the flowers, trees, and vegetables were planted in the flower beds and specially built vegetable gardens in the front yard, while Xu Zhichun planted all the strawberries in the backyard.

Under her meticulous care, the strawberries grew vigorously, with layers of lush green leaves that stretched out. Within a few days, a runner would emerge from the core, burrow into the ground, and grow into a new plant.

The mother plants that first sprout and grow already have flower buds visible in their center. These buds will slowly grow, open one by one, bear fruit, and the fruit will grow and mature.
It's something we can all see.

Even so, strawberries can't compare to cucumbers and tomatoes in terms of speed. From the initial bud to flowering, fruiting, and ripening, it takes at least a month and a half.

We'll have at least another month and a half before we can start selling strawberries.

It won't stop her from eating, but it will stop others from eating.

Xu Zhichun and Chunfen planted all the plants and watered them. Still not entirely reassured, Xu Zhichun secretly added some rooting powder.

After finishing all this, I checked the time and realized it was time to go to Aunt Zhu'er's house to make konjac tofu.

Today was her housewarming day, and she didn't set up her stall. Zeng Xiaoyan and the others came to congratulate her and help her.

They went to dig for konjac, while she stayed home tidying up.

"Spring Equinox, go home and rest. Don't eat dinner at home, come over and have dinner with me."

Liang Chunfen was taken aback. "Really?"

Xu Zhichun chuckled: "Of course it's true, why are you asking this out of the blue?"

Although she doesn't invite her to dinner every day, sometimes Xu Zhichun feels tired and doesn't want to cook, so she just gets instant noodles, ham sausage, and braised eggs from the storage space; or occasionally she'll be really hungry and get vacuum-packed roast duck or roast goose and heat it up, which makes it inconvenient to invite her to stay.

Liang Chunfen scratched his head and smiled sheepishly: "I... I thought Sister Zhichun had a new house and didn't want me to come anymore. Some people in the village said that Sister Zhichun was reluctant to let me live in such a nice new house."

Xu Zhichun was both amused and exasperated. "Don't listen to their nonsense. We live in the new house just the same, don't we? It's so strange to say you can't bear to leave it!"

"Okay, okay, will you come at the same time as usual?"

"Correct."

"Okay."

Liang Chunfen went home happily.

Xu Zhichun belatedly realized that since the completion of his new house, Chunfen had been somewhat absent-minded and depressed, probably because he had overheard some gossip.

There are always gossipers everywhere, but Xu Zhichun didn't take it seriously. She just thought she should tell Chunfen that if she heard anything, she could ask her directly instead of keeping it to herself.

After locking the door, Xu Zhichun went to Aunt Zhu'er's house.

(End of this chapter)