Chapter 119: Buying A House
Translator: Flying Lines
That night when they were about to go to bed, not knowing why, Li Hongmei called Xian to her room. She said that since Baozhu had left she wanted Xian to keep her company.
When Li Hongmei was looking for Xian, she shouted to her at the door of her room. She deliberately made Ye Xiaoxian and Xiao Baoshan hear her.
Ye Xiaoxian thought that what Li Hongmei was doing had an ulterior motive, as if she was trying to create a condition for her and Xiao Baoshan to get together alone.
But Ye Xiaoxian was not in the mood after having just experienced the matter of Xiao Baozhu. She did not think that Xiao Baoshan was in the mood either.
After Ye Xiaoxian had dinner she just washed up and then went to get ready for bed.
When she closed the door, she was just about to take off her clothes and go to bed but she heard a knock at the door. Intuitively, Ye Xiaoxian felt that the one outside was Xiao Baoshan.
Her heart suddenly fluttered. What was he doing? Should she let him in? When he came in it would just be the two of them alone in the same room, so what would happen then?
Ye Xiaoxian was struggling with what to do when the knocking came again.
Ye Xiaoxian did not hesitate for long and went to open the door. Outside stood the large, tall figure of Xiao Baoshan. Against the dark night his eyes looked like stars in the sky.
“Little Ye, can I have a word?” asked Xiao Baoshan.
Ye Xiaoxian thought: Where? Should we chat in the room?
What would happen after the chatting? Well, she did not believe that a man and a woman would just chat away late at night, unless the woman was on her period and the guy was impotent, otherwise something must happen between them.
However, Xiao Baoshan pointed up at the roof. “Let’s chat up there.”
Well, we can do that.
After a while, the two of them flew up to the roof. Once again Xiao Baoshan held Ye Xiaoxian by the waist and flew her up.
They sat down and then Xiao Baoshan took off the cloak he was wearing and put it on Ye Xiaoxian. The cloak was still very warm from being on him which produced some subtle chemistry between them.
Ye Xiaoxian did not know what to chat about so she rubbed her hands together and blew some warm air on them.
It’s really cold on the roof. Well, if I knew this earlier I wouldn’t have come up here and we might as well have just talked down there.
“Little Ye, are you cold?” asked Xiao Baoshan again.
“It’s alright, I’m not that cold,” said Ye Xiaoxian.
“Right.”
“By the way, when you went to see Baozhu, did you also fly to the roof to see her?” asked Ye Xiaoxian.
Xiao Baoshan nodded. “It can save a lot of trouble.”
“I’m also to blame for what happened with Baozhu. I actually found out that she likes Mr. Wong long time ago but I didn’t take it seriously, just reminded her a bit. I didn’t realize she liked him that much and would end up doing this.” Ye Xiaoxian said sorrily.
“It’s not your fault. It’s Baozhu not being sensible. It must be hard for you managing the restaurant on your own, so you can’t attend to everything perfectly. If anything, I’m the one to blame and should take the responsibility.”
“You’re a man and are not always at home. Why should you take responsibility? We are at home all the time but we still couldn’t stop her.”
Xiao Baoshan sighed slightly. “Let’s not talk about Baozhu. Little Ye, how are you lately?”
“Baozhu’s matter is a headache to me, but apart from that I’m alright.” When news of Baozhu spread, the business of the restaurant had been affected and they lost a lot of customers. Only after the scandal had blown over did their business start recovering.
“You’ve done a good job!” said Xiao Baoshan.
Xiao Baoshan then handed a bag of money to Ye Xiaoxian. “This is what I’ve made lately and I’m giving it to you to look after.”
The bag of money was heavy. This money has been earned by his hard toil.
Ye Xiaoxian took it and weighed it roughly in her hand. It seemed to be more than ten taels of silver.
Xiao Baoshan said again, “Little Ye, if we have enough money, you and Ma can look around in town for somewhere with a house to let. We can buy a new house so that the whole family won’t be cramped together living in the backyard.”
Ye Xiaoxian said, “Yes, I know. I’ve been saving some also over the past months and with yours we can afford to buy an ordinary house.”
The two of them were sitting on the roof for a while longer but there still wasn’t any solid progress. Finally Ye Xiaoxian yawned, so Xiao Baoshan carried her down and they then left for their beds.
At night, Ye Xiaoxian was lying in bed thinking about the scene just now when she and Xiao Baoshan sat together leaning against one another. It was quite strange as she did not feel anything at the time but every time they came down from the roof she would miss him a bit. She really was slow in love.
…
As usual, this time that Xiao Baoshan had come back home he still helped Ye Xiaoxian tend to the fire and did the chores like last time. Sometimes he would look at Ye Xiaoxian quietly. Whenever Ye Xiaoxian spotted his gaze her hand would shake subconsciously which made her get splashed by the oil twice.
Ye Xiaoxian was extremely uneasy. She did not expect that Xiao Baoshan, a man as strong as an ox, would be such an introvert when courting a woman. She would rather he just threw her down.It was just that she felt too shy to say it.
Luckily Xiao Baoshan only stayed for a couple of days and then left again. After Xiao Baoshan had left, Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei went to look for houses whenever they were free.
Qinghe County was tiny and they did not have estate agencies or anything in this era, so they could only wait to see if there were any empty houses for sale or if someone might gamble away their house.
They went to two places and were not satisfied. One was too far from the restaurant and the other one looked too old, requiring a lot of time and energy to reconstruct it.
One day, Li Hongmei heard from a diner that a house with a small yard was for sale. This house was where a scholar used to live. Then the scholar was hired to be an official in the provincial capital, so he went there and had also taken his old parents with him, so this house was going to be sold.
Li Hongmei asked about it earnestly, so the diner took them directly to see the property.
Houses lived by scholars were always more expensive than ones of merchants. The house with a small courtyard was priced at eighty taels of silver, though the yard was very delicate and serene. Ye loved it the moment she saw it. Also, the layout of house was square like a Siheyuan (a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China) and also had five rooms, which would be sufficient to allow them all a room each.
One of the rooms was a study still containing a lot of books which had not been moved, so she could let Xiao Baofeng live there. This way he would not have to bunk up with Little Five and Little Six.
The rarest thing was that there was a small fish pond in the middle of the yard where several koi were kept. There were also some orchids planted around the fish pond which looked very cultured.
When the original owner of the house left he handed the key and the property deed to the diner. Li Hongmei and Ye both saw the deed and also asked someone else to check it to make sure that it could not be counterfeit.
Ye Xiaoxian counted the money she had saved together with Xiao Baoshan’s salary and she found it happened to be just the right amount, eight taels of silver. They then went to find that diner, saying that they were going to buy the house.
Many procedures were required to purchase a house in ancient times. They had to go to the government office to register, sign and wait for the scholar to come back. It took half a month longer before they finally acquired the house.
When Li Hongmei and Ye Xiaoxian moved into the house they quickly got to work tidying it up. The house had been kept in very good condition. It was clean and spacious inside and even the furniture was classic and elegant. They just needed to move their clothes in.
Ye Xiaoxian gave the room towards the east to Li Hongmei and she took a small one towards the west. Xiao Baofeng and Xiao Baoshan had one each and they kept one empty as a guest room.
As for Little Five, Little Six and Xian, they were still living in the rooms in the backyard of the restaurant. In this way the owners and the employees did not have to cram together.
…
There was also something going on with Xiao Baozhu. Scholar Wong had been locking himself away in the study all day long recently but he did not really read many books.
What had happened with Xiao Baozhu made him feel terrible and he also had to get married in several days. During this time the whole Wong Family were decorating and busy with his wedding. Sometimes the butler came to him and asked his opinions of, for example, the style of his wedding gown and what kind of lanterns he wanted for the wedding day.
He was going to spend the rest of his life with another person so how could he be in the mood for reading books while all he could think about was his marital life.
Xiao Baozhu had also gradually lost her faith during this time.
When she had first arrived at the Wong’s, the family still looked normal. Now, with the wedding day of Scholar Wong approaching and red lanterns and ribbons being put up everywhere in the family, she still seldom met Scholar Wong.
The day before yesterday Little Five came to pass on a massage for her, saying that her sister-in-law had bought a new house and asked if she would be free to come back or just simply wanted to return home. She almost cried at that time and wondered why she was suffering so much with the Wong’s.
Women were like this. Sometimes they suffered and toiled away, not to make others feel moved but to feel moved themselves. They preferred suffering even though they had already suffered a lot.
When Little Five came back, he told the family about what happened to Baozhu.
Including the fact that Baozhu had wasted away. When she left home she was ninety jin and now she seemed to be only eighty jin.
Li Hongmei and Ye Xiaoxian heard this and it made both of their hearts ache.
…
Ye Xiaoxian was anxious about how to go and meet Xiao Baozhu when the Wong’s butler came in.
Last time, Ye Xiaoxian had cooked the birthday banquet for the tax official which had drawn a lot of people’s attention. They all asked him which chef had prepared the meal. The tax official simply told them that it was Ye Xiaoxian from “The Xiao’s Cuisine” who cooked it.
Now the Wongs were going to hold a wedding banquet and Lord Wong had found a lot of cooks, but most of them did not satisfy him. Later on he heard that the tax official had held a birthday banquet which had received many positive comments, so he asked Butler Wong to inquire about it. Finally they went to find Ye Xiaoxian.
If it had been at another time Ye Xiaoxian would not agree to take this job, but now the price the Wongs offered was handsome, and moreover Xiao Baozhu was also there, so Ye Xiaoxian found it a good opportunity. She quickly agreed.
In the blink of an eye the wedding day of Scholar Wong had arrived.
On that day Ye Xiaoxian came to the Wongs early in the morning.
The ingredients had been listed days ago and the Wongs were asked to purchase them. After checking the ingredients she asked the people in charge of the kitchen, “Can you ask Baozhu to come and help me? She used to help me a lot with the work back home, I’m used to ordering her around.”
Before long they brought over Xiao Baozhu.
Ye Xiaoxian looked at Baozhu, feeling both furious and pitiful. She looked very shabby. It was winter and she did not even have a pair of cotton shoes. Her cotton jacket was also gray and the material was thick and coarse. Furthermore, Baozhu had lost a lot of weight.
Ye Xiaoxian could not help but walk towards Xiao Baozhu. “Baozhu, you’ve been acting unreasonably for quite some time. Come home with me tonight!”
“No, I won’t!” Xiao Baozhu still refused.
There were a lot of people in the kitchen and it was not convenient for Baozhu to explain. She said briefly, “Sister-in-law, don’t force me. I can help you do the work but I won’t go back with you.”
“You…gosh!” Ye Xiaoxian was really powerless and could not force her right now, so she said, “Just do the work then.”