"Boss, do you have any new and unusual seeds for sale?" Zi Qing asked.

  The boss thought they were just two little kids and assumed they were fooling around. "Shoo, shoo, go play somewhere else, dont block my doorway."

  "Boss, were really here to buy seeds, not playing a joke on you. Let us take a look if there are any unusual seeds?"

  The boss carefully looked at Zifeng and then took the two of them into the house. A row of small wooden buckets were filled with various seeds, and the names of the seeds were written on the outside of the buckets with a brush. Zi Qing took a look and thought it was quite complete, muttering to herself "This Ah Pos family has, what Ah Pos family has we dont need to buy."

  "Lets just buy them all, in case we dont have many left over. Auntie will definitely want some too, and Mother wont be able to compete with her."

  Then Zi Qing picked some small white vegetables that can be scattered now, cucumbers, loofahs, winter melons, bitter gourds, pumpkins, and celery cabbage to be planted in the spring. These seeds are very cheap, so Zi Qing bought some as well. However, she didnt buy any chili peppers because theyre already widely planted in this humid region where people love spicy food, and she can just ask her aunt for some later. To her surprise, Zi Qing found some watermelon seeds, but not many. The boss said that this is a rare and precious fruit, and these seeds were brought from the capital by the owner to try planting here, and theyre selling the remaining seeds. There are very few people who can plant them in this area, and when they first come on the market, they usually sell for over ten cents per catty.

  Zi Qing was delighted to hear that, in his previous life as a child in the countryside, he had helped his grandparents grow watermelons and watch them. Zi Qing wrapped up the remaining watermelon seeds, and what made him even happier was finding a pile of potatoes in the corner of the wall. The boss said they were foreign potatoes, brought from the coastal area of the neighboring province, where many people planted them, and the yield was very high. However, not many people in Anzhou Prefecture planted them. Zi Qing asked about the price and was surprised to hear that it was five cents per catty. Zi Qing gritted his teeth and bought all of it, which made the boss extremely happy. He didnt expect two children to buy up his unsold inventory, which was a pleasant surprise for him. This time, Zi Qing spent almost 200 coins.

  Back home, Zi Qing called Shen Shi into the room, carefully feeling the silver ingots and looking at them repeatedly, almost biting them, before reluctantly handing them over to Shen Shi. This made Shen Shi and Zi Fu burst out laughing, "This is truly a thoroughbred money enthusiast, completely blinded by wealth."

  Shens family put away the silver ingots and went out to work again. Zilu carried Zixi in, putting Zixi on the bed. Ziqing, Zilu, and Zifu began counting the remaining copper plates. At this time, a noisy sound came from outside.

  Zi Qing stood behind the door and listened, it turned out that Zeng Shi was scolding Peng Shis child again. Peng Shi heard it and the two started cursing each other. Anyway, now that Zeng Shi had no one to back her up, and she didnt have any children of her own by her side, all the familys wealth was in the hands of Peng Shis eldest son, Xiao Fu Sheng. So even if Zeng Shi put on a dignified front, Peng Shi wasnt afraid anymore. After years of being a concubine, she had finally risen to the top, and this outburst of power was also shocking, almost every day there were small quarrels, and every three days there would be a big one.

  Although Ziying was very sympathetic to Zengs family, she couldnt help but accompany her and talk to her. Just then, Ziying heard the noise again and didnt go out, but instead returned to her room with Zifu and Zilu to sort out the remaining copper coins. Adding the money from selling 200 couplets yesterday, the elder brother counted it out one by one, and Ziying strung them together with a thread, surprisingly making 26 strings. After deducting the cost of buying seeds, they actually made more than seven taels of silver this time. When Ziying handed over all the money to Shen Shi, Shen Shi burst into tears. As soon as Shen Shi cried, Zifu, Zilu, and Ziyings eyes also turned red. Just as Ziying didnt know how to comfort Shen Shi, Zeng Rui Xiang walked in.

  "Whats wrong? What happened?" Zeng Rui Xiang looked at the four people crying and panicked.

  "Its nothing, Im happy, the kids are really well-behaved, Im relieved. Guess how much money they made this time?" Shen asked with a smile, wiping away her tears.

  "How much? About five taels."

  "Father, we have seven taels and six cents, and the children also bought back the seeds for spring planting. Father, with these seven taels more of silver, can our family build a house? Its better than the children living in a wooden hut, its still very cold on New Years Day."

  "My father thought for a moment and said, If we want to build a big six-room house, its going to be a bit of a stretch. A four-room house is more manageable. Let me think about it carefully and see how we can build a few rooms first and add more later."

  Zi Qing suddenly thought of his own dream, a northern siheyuan. If he could just build the wing first, wouldnt that be enough? But this was not something he could bring up, so he turned his attention to Zi Fu instead. "Big brother, wasnt it when you were writing couplets that day and flipped through that book of customs in your room? Doesnt it have everything in there? Go take a look and see if theres one on local dwellings, pick one that suits."

  After dinner, Zifeng was still holding the book and studying. Ziqing walked over and saw that Zifeng had turned to the page about Kyoto in the Heian period. It turned out that this dynasty was called the Wind Dynasty, and its capital was called Shangjing. In fact, looking at the architecture, it was a northern siheyuan, but I dont know where history took a turn.

  Zi Fu did not disappoint Zi Qings wish, and took the book to discuss with Zeng Rui Xiang. Zi Qing followed him, and it happened that the whole family was there. Zi Fu expressed his idea, "Father, mother, our family has many people. Even if we build a house like the one we are living in now, which has six rooms, our family will not be able to fit in the future. I think this quadrangle courtyard is quite good, it has a main room, wing rooms, and a back house, which is most suitable for our family with many people. Lets build the wing rooms first, and when we have more money, we can slowly build the whole thing. This way, both sides of the wing rooms can be used as living quarters, and also as kitchens, and the back house can be used as a storage room."

  Zeng Ruixiang said he had been to the north and lived in such a house, feeling that the lighting was better than his current home, but since no one has built this way here before, hes afraid of being gossiped about, so hes been thinking carefully for the past few days.

  As the year-end approaches, everyone is busy. Old Master Zeng and his wife are busy preparing for the New Years goods with Zeng Ruiqing and Xia Yu, Qiu Yu. Zhou Shi and Shen Shi are busy cleaning the house, putting away utensils, checking the food to be served after the New Year, and preparing for the banquet on the first day of the new year. In short, Shen Shi is so busy that she hardly has time to feed her children, and even the childrens new clothes have to be made secretly at night by candlelight.

  The children were idle, and didnt have to go pick cotton anymore. Zi Qing made a shuttlecock with beautiful feathers and would often run to the empty space by the pond to play with her friends, having a great time. It wasnt until Zi Shou asked her that she remembered it had been several days since she last caught bugs for the chicks, and recently only fed them some vegetable leaves. This time, with Zi Fu and Zi Lu being idle, they could be sent to catch bugs.

  Zi Fu listened and asked suspiciously: "Qing Er, who told you to catch insects to feed the chicken? I feel like since you recovered from your illness, youve become much smarter than before."

  "Big brother, didnt you see that when the old lady and big sister were picking vegetables, they saw bugs on the leaves and just flicked them to the ground? The chickens would fight over them. If something is worth fighting over, it must be good stuff. Just look at how Big Hair Brother and the others fought over the meat! Besides, we dont even have grain to feed the chickens anyway."

  Zi Fu thought for a moment, then chuckled to himself, probably thinking that the Mao family had snatched the meat. He hastily reminded Zi Qing not to go out and talk nonsense. Zi Qing knew she was in the clear.