Since the family had already decided to hire people to build the house in the next few days, there were naturally quite a few things they needed to buy. Li Dazhu, Li Menglan, and their group first went to the rice shop, purchasing one hundred jin of rice and fifty jin of flour; besides that, there were also oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and other items.
"Girl, have we bought everything? It’s getting late, and didn't you say we were going to your maternal grandmother's house today once we got home?" Li Dazhu was an honest, straightforward man; the moment he stepped out of the rice shop, he looked up at the sky.
"Mhm... almost done." Li Menglan nodded and said, "Dad, have Big Brother and Second Brother take the rice and flour to the ox cart first; then we'll go buy some meat and pig offal."
Li Menglan thought to herself that since they were hiring people to build their house, even though they would be paying wages, they couldn't let the workers eat nothing but greens and radishes every day!
She would go buy a dozen or so jin of pork, plus a few sets of pig offal; as the saying goes, an emperor doesn't send hungry soldiers, and her family wasn't short of that bit of money now anyway.
"Alright, we'll do as you say, girl." Li Dazhu nodded.
"Uncle Zhou." Li Menglan gave Butcher Zhou a sweet smile.
"Little girl, it's you!" Butcher Zhou recognized Li Menglan at a glance; after all, a girl who knew how to do business like this was truly rare. Butcher Zhou could be said to have a deep impression of her.
"Little girl, what are you buying today?" Butcher Zhou was fine when he wasn't smiling, but when he did smile, the flesh on his face trembled, making him look even more frightening.
But Li Menglan didn't mind. Whether a person's appearance was good-looking or not was secondary; what mattered most was... whether his heart was good or bad?
"Uncle Zhou, I'm buying quite a bit more meat from you today; how about you just give me the pig offal?" Li Menglan said with a smile, cutting straight to the chase.
"Sure, how much meat do you plan to buy, little girl?" Butcher Zhou answered very readily. Anyway, there weren't many people who bought that pig offal. In the end, he mostly ended up throwing it away.
"Uncle Zhou, cut me fifteen jin of pork belly, five jin of fatty meat, and five jin of lean meat." Li Menglan thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Uncle Zhou, I want those two pig heads as well; also, Uncle, sell me the pig trotters and pig tails too!"
"Coming right up!" Butcher Zhou had originally thought the other party buying three to five jin at most would be good. He never expected she would truly be a big customer; the expression on his face grew increasingly scary, uh... it should be called a smile instead.
Right away, Butcher Zhou nimbly weighed out the various meats Li Menglan wanted. "Little girl, five jin of fatty meat is one hundred wen, fifteen jin of pork belly is two hundred sixty-four wen; five jin of lean meat is seventy-five wen, so altogether that's four hundred thirty-four wen. Little girl, do you see if Uncle has calculated correctly?"
"Uncle Zhou, you haven't counted the pig heads, pig trotters, and pig tails yet," Li Menglan reminded him.
"For the two pig heads, eight pig trotters, and two pig tails together, Uncle will charge you sixteen wen, so that makes exactly a round number of four hundred fifty wen." Butcher Zhou said in a good mood, "Little girl, how about this? Uncle will throw in two more large bones for you to take back and boil into soup."
"Thank you, Uncle Zhou. Next time I'll come buy meat from you again." Li Menglan took the four hundred fifty wen that Li Dazhu handed her and placed it on the chopping block. "Uncle Zhou, here's four hundred fifty wen; count it and see if it's right?"
"It's fine, does Uncle not trust you, little girl?" Butcher Zhou put the meat he had weighed for Li Menglan into the basket carried on Li Dazhu's shoulder pole. "Little girl, wait here a moment for Uncle." After putting his own pig offal into the basket, Butcher Zhou suddenly turned and went to the butcher next door.
"Little girl, looks like you quite like pig offal; there are two more sets here that Uncle will give you." Very quickly, Butcher Zhou came back from next door carrying two sets of pig offal.
"Uncle Zhou, thank you!"
Li Menglan was deeply moved. Wuwu... what a good person! Truly a good person!
..............
Since it was getting late, Li Menglan suggested that her father simply drive the ox cart to her maternal grandmother's house first, pick up Grandma and Grandpa, and go back to their home together; after all... with the ox cart it was quite convenient!
Li Dazhu, Li Zhiming, and Li Zhihao—the father and sons—had always been very convinced by their daughter's (sister's) words; naturally, they passed it unanimously without any objections.
The grandmother's family lived in Xialiang Village, separated from Shangliang Village by the Yun River; because there were no bridges over the Yun River and they had to detour around the mountain road, there was still quite some distance.
Going to Xialiang Village from Qingshui Town was actually a bit more convenient than returning to Shangliang Village.
The Li father and sons didn't rest along the way; shortly after noon, they had already reached the vicinity of Xialiang Village.
Li Dazhu pointed from afar with his finger at the few thatched huts at the foot of the mountain and said, "Girl, look, Grandma's house is almost there."
When Li Menglan saw those dilapidated houses that were no better than her own family's, she couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Ai... truly in-laws, both families are evenly matched, neither better than the other."
This ancient era had good mountains and good waters, but was just a bit too poor!
Though the house was dilapidated, it was cleaned very neatly and orderly. In the courtyard, an old lady with worn clothes and graying hair was basking in the sun; the clothes rack already had dried laundry hanging on it. Li Menglan pushed the gate from outside, "Grandma, I'm here!"
The old lady was precisely Li Menglan's maternal grandmother, Wang Shi. The old lady looked at the entering Li Menglan with a face full of pleasant surprise, "Lan girl, why have you come? Are you alone? How could your father and mother rest assured?" Seeing her family's only treasured granddaughter, the old lady was still quite happy in her heart.
"Old woman, who are you talking to?" An aged voice came from inside the house; that was her maternal grandfather, Old Man Zhang.
"Who else could it be? Old man, hurry out, your treasured granddaughter is here." Wang Shi called out loudly.
"Grandma, there's us too." The brothers Li Zhiming and Li Zhihao jumped in from outside the gate, grinning as they said, "Grandma, our dad came too; he's outside watching over the things. Dad told us to let you know."
Old Man Zhang had originally been lying on his bed, but upon hearing his treasured granddaughter had arrived, he immediately couldn't lie still anymore. "Has Lan girl come?"
In just a few steps, Old Man Zhang walked out from inside the house, and with one glance saw Li Menglan nestled beside his old wife.
"Lan girl, is your body fully recovered?" Old Man Zhang pulled Li Menglan away from beside his old wife and looked her up and down carefully. "Mmm... your spirit looks good, there shouldn't be anything wrong now."
Back then, that serious illness of Li Menglan's had truly frightened Wang Shi and Old Man Zhang badly; fortunately, with the Heavens' protection, good people are rewarded in the end—she was fine now.
After learning Li Menglan had recovered, Wang Shi hadn't chanted Amitabha Buddha any less!
"Where's your dad? Why hasn't he come in?" Old Man Zhang asked Li Zhiming.
"My dad is outside guarding the ox cart." Li Zhiming scratched his head and said simple-mindedly.
"Ox cart? Lan girl, since when does your family have an ox cart?" Old Man Zhang found it very strange. Since when did his son-in-law's family have an ox cart? How come he didn't know at all?
"Grandpa, it's not our family's ox cart." Li Menglan reached out to massage Old Man Zhang's shoulders attentively while saying with a smile, "Early this morning we went to Qingshui Town; this ox cart was borrowed from Uncle Tiezhu's family."
"I said so. Since when did your family have an ox cart? How could I not know?" Old Man Zhang said with a face full of sudden realization.
Wang Shi was attentive. "Lan girl, you all came directly from Qingshui Town; you haven't gone home yet, right?"
Wang Shi had heard her grandsons say their father was watching over things outside and immediately connected it to the fact that they hadn't gone home yet and had come straight here.
"That's right! We came specially to pick up Grandma and Grandpa to go to our house." This time, Li Menglan, Li Zhiming, and Li Zhihao were actually quite of one mind, speaking in unison.