69 Chapter 69: The Plan to Build a House

Qin Xiaoyao smiled and patted her mother-in-law’s arm.

“Don’t worry. I have confidence in century eggs.”

Seeing that Madam Liu was still worried, Qin Xiaoyao continued, “The cost should be kept within six taels of silver. When the first batch of century eggs is sold and we make money, the rest will be easy.”

Madam Liu was shocked.

Six taels?

She stared at Qin Xiaoyao.

Qin Xiaoyao nodded.

“We’ll use six taels of silver as capital to buy the eggs. After a month, the profit will at least double. By then, we can earn at least six taels a month by selling century eggs.”

Both Madam Liu and Song Yun were stunned.

“Once the century egg business gets on track, I’ll pay back the money I owe my father. Then we can save money to build a house.”

This time, the mother and children trio were shocked.

“We’ll build the house at the start of autumn and rush to complete the house before the weather turns cold. This way, this winter, our family will no longer have to be afraid.”

In Mountain Spring Town, it would snow in winter, and sometimes there were blizzards.

Once the snow became heavy, the roof beams of the thatched huts might not be able to support it.

In the past, there had been cases of villagers’ houses being crushed by snow. She didn’t want this to happen to her family.

“Besides, Yun’er and Ye’er are all grown up. It’s not convenient for them to stay in the same room with Mother. We’ll build a room for them to live alone.”

Even if it was a thatched hut, the rooms in their house were very limited.

Yun’er was now sleeping in the same bed as Qin Xiaoyao’s mother-in-law. Although Ye’er had his own small bed, it was still placed in the mother-in-law’s room.

There was only a straw curtain separating the two beds. There was almost no privacy.

The matter of building a house had to be resolved sooner or later.

Madam Liu’s heart trembled.

“Building… building a house would require a lot of silver,” she stuttered.

Before the children’s father passed away, they had also discussed the matter of building a house.

Although their family’s situation was better at that time, they still couldn’t gather enough money to build the house.

Now that the family was in such a state, her daughter-in-law made such big plans.

Moreover, she actually felt that her daughter-in-law was very confident of getting this done.

The corners of Qin Xiaoyao’s lips curled up in a smile.

“When it comes to building houses, there are expensive construction methods, and then there are cheap construction methods.”

“However, we’ll have to live in the house for decades after it is built. So I want to build it as well as possible and have everything done right from the outset. I don’t want to waste money on renovation and reconstruction later.

“Then… how much would that cost?” Madam Liu asked excitedly.

“Hmm… If you want to build one with masonry bricks and roof tiles, you’ll need at least a hundred taels.”

In truth, she had not inquired about the price, but a hundred taels of silver converted to the purchasing power before the apocalypse was almost equivalent to a hundred thousand dollars.

For building houses in farming villages, many materials could be excavated from the mountains, and the labor required to build houses was cheaper to hire. Perhaps a hundred taels of silver would be sufficient to get the job done.

Of course, if it didn’t work, she could change her objectives at that point.

In short, she set her goal at a hundred first and would think of ways to earn money.

“A hundred… hundred taels of silver?” Madam Liu’s eyes widened.

She had discussed with the children’s father before, and the most they had calculated was forty-five taels of silver.

Her daughter-in-law was really…

“There’s no need to build such a good one. Based on the wooden structure of the house next door, which has seven to eight rooms, it would only take about forty to fifty silver taels to build.” Madam Liu reminded her.

“We’ll see. When we have more money, we’ll build it better. If we don’t have enough money, wooden houses will do too.” Qin Xiaoyao looked at Madam Liu with a smile and comforted her.

However, she was thinking inwardly that since she was going to build it, she might as well build a good one.

It was only April now. If they were going to start work in September, there were still about five months left.

If she worked a little harder and the whole family worked together, it was not impossible to save enough money to build a house.

“Alright.” Madam Liu agreed and nodded her head.

At the same time, she made up her mind. From now on, she had to be more diligent together with her daughter, to cooperate with her daughter-in-law.

It was night.

As soon as Qin Xiaoyao entered the room, Song Que looked at her.

After more than half a month of recuperation, Song Que’s leg was much better now. He was also in much better spirits, and his attitude toward Qin Xiaoyao improved a lot.

As for Qin Xiaoyao, after she displayed her powerful adaptability, she no longer lost her composure in front of Song Que as easily as before.

“Hubby…” Qin Xiaoyao called out and even smiled at Song Que.

Song Que waved at her without hesitation.

“Why are you so late tonight?” There was even a hint of concern in his voice.

“Oh, the fishing net needs some finishing work, so I weaved it with Mother and Yun’er for a while.”

As she spoke, Qin Xiaoyao went to the bedside.

...

Then, she blew out the light and went to bed.

“Let’s continue. It’s time to talk about the Women’s Kingdom,” she added.

Song Que had tried to prop himself up, but he quickly lay back down to listen to the story obediently.

Only then did Qin Xiaoyao begin to narrate.

“As the story goes, Buddhist monk Sanzang and his disciples left the village and headed west. After traveling for less than thirty to forty miles, they finally arrived at the border of Western Liang…”

In the dark of the night, Qin Xiaoyao’s voice was particularly melodious and captivating.

Song Que was quickly immersed in Qin Xiaoyao’s story.

An hour later, when Qin Xiaoyao reached the part where Monk Tang and his disciples bid farewell to the King of Women’s Kingdom and continued their journey to the west, Song Que even felt a sense of loss.

“In the Journey to the West, Monk Tang and his disciples went through 81 obstacles before they finally obtained the true Scripture. Everyone said that the easiest obstacle to pass was the Women’s Kingdom. What do you think, Hubby?” Qin Xiaoyao suddenly asked.

Song Que was taken aback, and he snapped out of his daze.

His eyes wavered.

...

After a long time, he replied, “Don’t… don’t you think so?”

Qin Xiaoyao turned her head and looked in Song Que’s direction for the first time in the dark night.

Unfortunately, even with her good eyesight, she could not see any other expression on Song Que’s face other than confusion.

She felt a little disappointed.

Then, Qin Xiaoyao turned her head back.

“I guess so. It’s time to sleep,” she said indifferently.

With that, she closed her eyes.

Song Que felt a sudden jolt in his heart, and a strange sense of guilt rose from the bottom of his heart.

He turned over and closed his eyes.

After daybreak, when Song Que opened his eyes and woke up, Qin Xiaoyao was no longer there.

After that, Qin Xiaoyao didn’t come to help him wash up.

After asking, he found out that Qin Xiaoyao had already left for town with Big Girl Li.

Song Que was a little shocked when he heard his sister prattling to him about her sister-in-law’s plan to build a house for the family at the beginning of autumn.

After the shock, he realized that the sense of guilt in his heart had become stronger.

After Song Yun left, Song Que angrily punched the bed.

Damn it! That woman didn’t talk to him about such a major thing last night?

At this moment, Qin Xiaoyao, who had just finished delivering the goods to Fortune Mansion, didn’t know any of this.

She packed some straw sandals for Big Girl Li and asked her to help distribute the sandals to Qin Dazhuang and Aunt Li. Then, she pushed the cart and took the rest of the straw sandals to the market on South Street.

That was right. She was no longer selling her straw sandals in the market on West Street whenever she came to town.

The main reason was to reduce the competition with her father and Aunt Li.

In Mountain Spring Town, the markets on South Street and North Street were actually very lively.

She took turns selling at these two markets, and the straw sandals were sold off quite quickly.