164 Chapter 164: Wife Improved Very Fast
Cao An had indeed put in a lot of effort. The moment the house was put up for sale, he immediately contacted her father.
“Haha! It’s nothing. It’s still fate that brought you to this courtyard dwelling!”
After chatting with the father and son for a while, Qin Xiaoyao got up and went to get some water.
When she returned to the small alley, Madam Liu came to call them in for lunch.
Thus, the whole group proceeded to the hall.
During the meal, the hall was bustling with activity.
Seeing that Qin Dahu was about to force Song Que to drink again, Qin Xiaoyao finally stopped him.
She had no choice but to stop her brother.
Otherwise, she was not confident that she could prevent what happened last night from happening again.
More importantly, she had to take care of her husband’s health.
“Let me drink with Big Brother instead!” Qin Xiaoyao looked at Qin Dahu with a beaming smile. At the same time, she gave him an eye signal.
Qin Dahu laughed with amusement. After looking at his younger brother-in-law with an ambiguous expression, he graciously granted his youngest sister’s wish.
Thereafter, the three people from the Qin family were full of boisterous chatting and drinking.
After the meal, Qin Xiaoyao wanted to keep her father and brother back for a while longer and go to the alley to cool down.
However, the two of them insisted on leaving.
They had imposed upon the Song family two meals in a row. It would not be good if they created too much ruckus and went overboard, thereby making the in-laws unhappy.
Qin Xiaoyao sent her father and brother out of the house before returning.
After that, she returned to her room.
Now that she was free, she naturally had to accompany her husband.
Song Que saw Qin Xiaoyao return with a smile on her face. He patted the seat beside him and gestured for her to come over and sit down.
Qin Xiaoyao didn’t stand on ceremony. She went to Song Que’s side and plonked her butt down.
After that, Song Que began to teach Qin Xiaoyao how to write with great interest.
Qin Xiaoyao’s heart was racing as Song Que held her hand while teaching her.
“Concentrate!” The man was clearly doing it on purpose. In reality, he was very satisfied with the other party’s response, but he still pretended to be serious and reminded her.
Qin Xiaoyao was jolted awake, and she quickly corrected her attitude.
“In the future, I’ll only teach you alone how to write. Xiaomei can learn from Yun’er,” Song Que continued.
He really enjoyed the feeling of holding Qin Xiaoyao’s hands and teaching her how to write.
“Do you… have to teach in this way all the time?” the hapless woman asked.
She felt that if she were to learn like this, her progress would definitely be very slow.
“Mm-hmm.” Song Que’s voice was tinged with a hint of laughter.
“But it’s hard for me to concentrate.” Qin Xiaoyao’s heart was restless.
“It’s okay. You are improving very fast. We can… take it slowly.”
Qin Xiaoyao was speechless…
That afternoon, Qin Xiaoyao didn’t get to take a nap.
By the time Song Que’s interest in teaching her how to write had faded, resulting in him dozing off, and she had to help him to bed, it was already late.
After helping Song Que onto the bed, she fanned him for a while with the palm-leaf fan.
Qin Xiaoyao only left the room quietly after he had fallen asleep.
After that, she carried on making the century eggs.
Thinking of what happened last night and today, Qin Xiaoyao didn’t feel tired at all. Instead, she even laughed out loud foolishly from time to time.
Song Yun and Wang Xiaomei were very puzzled.
“Sister-in-law… what are you so happy about?”
Qin Xiaoyao’s silly expression froze for a moment.
“No… Nothing,” she replied with a smile.
Seeing that her little sister-in-law didn’t believe her and was about to continue asking her, Qin Xiaoyao opened her mouth again.
“Ahem… By the way, your big brother said that Xiaomei would learn how to read and write from you in the future. From now on, you’ll take an hour every afternoon to teach Xiaomei the Thousand Character Classic.”
The two little girls were stunned.
Wang Xiaomei quickly turned to Song Yun, afraid that the latter would reject the idea.
It must have been because her brain was not too good, and she didn’t learn as fast as Mrs. Song, so Big Brother Song despised her.
If Yun’er didn’t agree to teach her, then wouldn’t that mean she wouldn’t be able to learn how to read and write anymore?
“Alright!” To her surprise, Song Yun actually agreed happily.
The business in the market was not as good as before.
Soon, Aunt Big Girl and Liu Xiaomei would join them in making the straw sandals.
Her tasks hereafter would not be as onerous.
Of course, she would be happy to do something else.
...
As for making straw sandals to earn money… Hehe! She could just make an appropriate amount every day.
Wang Xiaomei looked at Song Yun with gratitude.
“Yun’er…” she called out.
Song Yun smiled at Wang Xiaomei.
“I can’t teach you as well as Big Brother. I hope you don’t mind.”
“In addition, after you’ve learned the Thousand Character Classic, you can recognize words and learn by yourself.”
“Big Brother has copied a lot of books recently. You can read them with us. If there’s anything you don’t understand, we can discuss it together. If we still can’t figure it out, we can then ask Big Brother!”
When her father was around, he mainly taught her big brother and Ye’er.
She only learned the Thousand Character Classic with them.
Everything she learned after that was taught to her by her mother in her free time.
Although she wasn’t taught much, Song Yun had been improving herself all the while.
...
In the past, her family was poor and could not afford to buy books.
Therefore, she had no way to learn more.
However, their family conditions were better now.
Whenever her big brother received a job copying books, as long as it was a title their family did not possess, he would copy an extra book to keep at home. Thus, she had books to read now.
Now that there was another person at home learning to read and could accompany her to read and learn together, she thought it was quite a good idea.
“Mm-hmm!” Wang Xiaomei felt quite touched and quickly nodded.
Before long, Big Girl Li and Liu Xiaomei arrived.
Now, the small alley was even more lively. Everyone was weaving straw sandals and enjoying the cool breeze, feeling very contented.
After Big Girl Li and Liu Xiaomei found out that the Song family’s straw was bought from Wang Dashan, and his price was not high, they both had ideas.
Big Girl Li immediately told Wang Xiaomei that she also needed Wang Dashan to help deliver the straw and firewood.
After getting Qin Xiaoyao’s approval, she was even able to store the bulk of her straw in the Song family’s compound.
She did this was because the two of them had decided to come to the Song family’s house often in the future to enjoy the cool breeze in the alley.
Qin Xiaoyao happened to need a lot of straw to build the thatched shed, so she quickly reminded Wang Xiaomei of this matter.
.
She instructed her to tell her big brother to help bring a few carts of straw over first.
Wang Xiaomei smiled and agreed to all the requests.
She felt that her brother’s business would increase substantially by just relying on the Song family and the Sun family next door.
Wang Xiaomei thought of something and said to Liu Xiaomei, “Oh yes, Xiaomei! Last time, Mrs. Song and I discovered that we could set up stalls on the main street at night. Do you want to try setting up a stall with me?”
Liu Xiaomei was taken aback.
She first looked at Qin Xiaoyao and then looked at Big Girl Li with a quizzical expression. Her eyes were filled with anticipation.
Qin Xiaoyao chuckled.
“Forget about me. I almost don’t care about setting up my stall anymore.”
As she spoke, she looked at Big Girl Li.
“Big Girl is pregnant. Although the main street is bright, there are many dark places to go through on the way there. It’s better for Big Girl not to go at night.”
Big Girl Li, who was initially a little tempted, immediately dispelled the idea when she heard this.
“If that’s the case, then you can go with Wang Xiaomei. You two ‘Xiaomei’ can work together and see if you can make more money!” Big Girl Li said with a laugh.
“Great! Thank you, Sister-in-law!” Liu Xiaomei quickly thanked her.
Wang Xiaomei’s face was also filled with joy as she looked forward to the arrival of the night.
After Qin Xiaoyao finished making the century eggs, she made straw sandals with the rest.
When it was dusk, she went to the courtyard to pack up the remaining timber materials and other things for building the shed.
The frame of the shed had been completed, and the next step was to wait for the straw.
When the straw was put over the roof, and the shed’s four walls were sealed, the shed would be truly completed.