When Carpenter Xu arrived, he brought an apprentice. They looked at the wooden windows, doors, four beds, wardrobe, dish cabinet, bookshelf, calligraphy and painting rack, Eight Immortals table, hall's long table, square table, dining table, various chairs, low tables, screens, etc. that needed to be made for the house. Zi Qing couldn't remember everything, but Zeng Rui Xiang had instructed them to make a full set of furniture, and to do it meticulously. Actually, Zi Qing wanted to ask if they could use rosewood, but she thought better of it, as she wouldn't have been able to recognize it herself anyway.

  Who would have thought that Master Xu looked at the house and then at the wood, saying that these woods are fine for making doors and windows, but a bit rough for other things. He still had a few good pieces of wood left, which could be used to make bookshelves and wardrobes with camphor wood added to the Chinese cedar, as the scent of camphor wood would prevent insects from growing, but not too much should be added, one piece would be enough. As for the Bogu frame, bed and other large furniture, they could use Chinese cedar, which is sturdy, durable and beautiful, and a few screens could use nanmu wood, anyway, it wouldn't take much material.

  "Ah, Japanese cypress, Japanese cypress, I'm so excited, I really want to say it, let's just use Japanese cypress, it seems my luck is simply too good. This was something that couldn't even be dreamed of in the past."

  Zeng Ruixiang hesitated for a moment, wondering if the silver at home would be enough to cover it all. He asked, "About how much silver will it take to get all of these?"

  "The materials will cost around 50 taels, and the rest is labor. Master, I'm also impressed by your house, so I decided to do a good job for you, just like a good horse needs a good saddle. You can be assured that once my furniture is placed in your house, no other household in the village will be able to match it. To be honest, these fine woods were collected by me and my apprentices from deep mountains over the years, so this price I'm offering you is absolutely cheap. Looking at these fine woods makes me itch to work on them, but ordinary households can't afford them. I'll put all my skills into play and bring out all the tricks of the trade. How about this: tomorrow, let me send one more apprentice over to start working on the window frames, and I'll take a trip to Anzhou to check out the latest furniture styles in town. You think it over too, and I'll come back the day after tomorrow."

  Xu Shifu said that, Zeng Rui Xiang was somewhat moved, and the others in the family were also somewhat moved. Zi Qing thought about it for a long time, this is still the place where Phoebe zhennan grows, and she has seen many camphor trees, the old house on the other side of her aunt's shop opened its door to face a large camphor tree that two or three people could surround.

  When Master Xu and his family left, Zeng Rui Xiang asked how much silver was left. Zi Qing said 144 taels and 2 mace. The whole family sat together to discuss it, and basically everyone agreed, especially the camphor wood, which didn't even have any insects on it. It would be best if they could also put some camphor wood at the head and foot of the bed for extra insurance. However, Zeng Rui Xiang said that would make it hard to sleep due to the strong smell. "It looks like once this family moves out, our family will be poor again," Shen Shi said. "We originally wanted to buy a few mu of paddy fields, but I guess we'll have to wait until next year."

  "Mom, we can't handle all this land on our own. I think it's better to hire a temporary worker for the heavy work in the fields. Dad comes home exhausted every time, and he wasn't used to doing such physically demanding work anyway. We're not short of money either. Let's find someone from the village who is struggling and honest, and ask them to help us." Zi Qing spoke her mind, to be honest, if she weren't afraid of Grandpa scolding her, she would have suggested that her parents rent out the land instead.

  Shen said, "Actually, I've thought about this too. Originally, it was because of the difficulties at home and your father didn't want to, so I didn't mention it again. Now that everyone in the village knows we're building a new house, there's no need to hide it anymore." She also asked Zeng Rui Xiang if he had any acquaintances who could be chosen.

  "Now that you mention it, I think the third son of San Niang's family is not bad. The couple are honest and down-to-earth, and they have three children at home. San Niang gave birth to five sons, and even if the property is divided among each son, there won't be much left." Rui Xiang said.

  "Not just three, there's a fourth one too. I'll discuss it with San Niang first," said Shen Shi.

  When Master Xu arrived again, his two apprentices had already completed the preparatory work. The workshop was set up in a room south of the east wing, and they were busy during the day in the courtyard. The two apprentices were responsible for the doors and windows, while Master Xu worked on the bed first, as Zeng Rui-xiang wanted to move in early. The wages were 60 cents per day for the master and 30 cents per day for the apprentices, with two meals provided each day. After completing the doors and windows, one apprentice would be left to do odd jobs.

  Zi Qing said he was afraid of mosquitoes, so Master Xu would put a piece of camphor wood on each bed. Unexpectedly, Master Xu said: "When I shave the camphor wood, you collect all the shavings and sawdust, they have many uses. Not only for the beds, but also put some in the cupboard in the kitchen, even cockroaches won't come."

  Ziying was indeed unexpectedly surprised, and asked Master Xu to make a movable hidden compartment at the head and foot of the bed, so that he could put in some camphor wood shavings. Master Xu didn't make things difficult for him and readily agreed. After discussing with Master Xu, Zeng Ruixiang returned to the county town in the afternoon.

  Zeng Ruixiang left, and Shen's family still invited Old Zeng over. It was more convenient for him to help with some trivial matters. Shen didn't have time to go to the fields either. Every day, she had to buy vegetables, prepare meals for four big men, and also prepare some fine wine and dishes for dinner.

  Shen went to San Bao's house and originally San Bao didn't want the money, just saying let her son help.

  Shen said, "It's not just one or two days, it's been a long time. If Third Aunt doesn't accept the money, I can only go find someone else. It's just that I don't want to see my own brother not helping out and instead taking advantage of outsiders." Only then did he persuade Third Aunt and Zeng Ruyu.

  Mr. Shen asked Zeng Ruiyu to replow and flatten both the paddy fields and dry land, Zeng Ruiyu finished it in two days, Mr. Shen gave him eighty cents, Zeng Ruiyu insisted on returning twenty cents, saying that the daily wage for working outside was thirty cents a day.

  Shen also had no choice but to give up, instructing Zi Qing to keep accounts. Zi Qing thought that keeping accounts every day was too troublesome, so she just put the five strings of copper coins in a small wooden box and checked how many were left after five days to know how much Shen spent on vegetables. If there were other expenses, they would be recorded separately, so they wouldn't have to keep accounts every day. Zi Qing also asked Zi Fu to find some red ink, which would be used with a red pen when there were gains, making it clear at a glance. Actually, if she weren't afraid of others peeking, Zi Qing would have liked to use Arabic numerals, how simple that would be.

  Since the land had been tilled by Zeng Ruiyu, Madam Shen would go to turn over the vegetable garden every day. Zi Qing told Madam Shen that it was enough to plant various green vegetables for their own family's consumption, one mu per variety, and plant garlic and celery on the remaining land. Zi Qing remembered that in her previous life, before the Lunar New Year, every household would prepare a large quantity of seasonings for cooking because many guests would come, and basically no vegetables were sold before the eighth day of the first lunar month, so these garlic and celery could still be sold at a high price. Zi Qing thought this should be about right.

  Shen's family also thought so, but during the first month of the lunar year, when guests come to their home, they have to go to the fields to pick scallions and celery to stir-fry with meat or cured meat. Normally, they wouldn't easily eat these things, but during the New Year, they couldn't not serve them to guests, especially in city households. After thinking this through, Shen's wife hugged her daughter Zi Qing tightly a few times before happily going off to work.

  Ten days later, Master Xu finally finished the first bed. Zi Qing thought it was not much different from Shen's bed, both with four pillars, the difference lies in the details, carvings, headboard and footboard shapes. Moreover, Master Xu really had a good brushwork, the work was very delicate, and the patterns were also very exquisite. This bed was prepared for Zi Qing's parents to use, the headboard was a blooming double lotus flower, the bed rail was a picture of babies at play, with vivid expressions.

  Zi Qing really liked it after seeing it, and Shen Shi was also very delighted.