In ancient times, I just wanted to be a salted fish

Chapter 28 Grandparents and Grandchildren

Before dawn, the chickens, ducks, geese and dogs shouted at people to get up. Chen Ruotong was woken up, but she didn't want to get up. She wanted to sleep a little longer. For some reason, this bed was very comfortable. She felt very at ease sleeping on it and slept very soundly. She still remembered what the original owner said to her in her dream, to take good care of her family.

Chen Ruotong went to the space to wash up. She imitated the old lady Chen's method and combed her hair into a double flat hairstyle, tied a pink headband, and inserted a pearl flower on each side. Not to mention that it looks quite real, it looks pretty. Then she left the space and found a goose yellow dress in the closet, with a pair of white and red flower embroidered shoes. She is beautiful and cute, playful and sunny. She likes herself so much! Tsk tsk, who doesn't love a young girl?

She lifted her skirt and walked to the front yard. The whole family got up and washed up. They were really hardworking. She saw the family brushing their teeth with pig bristle toothbrushes dipped in coarse salt, so she turned back, went back to her room, entered the space, took out five boxes of tooth powder, tore off the packaging, and hurried back to the front yard.

"Grandpa, grandma, mom, big brother, second brother, I'm giving you tooth powder. It's very useful when you brush your teeth with it. I bought it in Pingyang City. How about trying it?"

How many people took the tooth powder? When they opened the box, a refreshing fragrance filled their hearts.

"It smells so good! It seems like the perfume powder used by women." The second brother said with a smile.

After brushing their teeth, everyone agreed that the tooth powder made their teeth whiter, cleaner and their breath fresher.

"Little sister, this tooth powder is not cheap, right? This business must be easy to do. Everyone has to brush their teeth, so there must be a lot of people buying it." Chen Erjiang asked.

Chen Ruotong was surprised and asked, "Second brother likes to do business?"

"You really don't care about my second brother. When he doesn't have work to build houses, he works as a peddler. Have you forgotten?" Chen Erjiang said aggrievedly.

Ah, it's almost exposed! Chen Ruotong felt a little guilty and said, "Being a peddler doesn't count as doing business. I mean opening a shop to do business."

Old Mrs. Chen said, "Grandma plans to save some more money and buy a small shop for your second brother in the county town next year. He can open a grocery store or something. Building a house is hard work, and being a peddler is not a long-term solution. It is more stable to have a shop."

Chen Ruotong nodded and said, "Grandma is right. Grandma is very far-sighted. We should open a shop. So what does eldest brother want to do? Do you want to open a shop with second brother?"

"I don't like running around, I just like farming. In the future I will buy more land and grow more crops, which can be sold for money. It will be no problem to support a big family." Chen Dahai said with a silly smile.

"Well, it's not bad to be a big landlord like grandpa, with a house, land and food, so you don't have to worry about food and drink!" said Chen Ruotong.

The family was talking and laughing, the scene was warm, Zhang came over to invite everyone to the dining room for dinner. The dining room was next to the kitchen, Chen Ruotong helped Zhang to get the bowls and chopsticks from the kitchen and serve the food.

Old Mrs. Chen smiled and said, "Xiaotong, be careful, don't get burned."

"Don't worry, grandma. I'm already so old. How can this little bit of work be difficult for me? Just indulge me, okay?"

Old Mrs. Chen looked at her granddaughter, who was pretty and lovely, and was not affected by the broken engagement. She was still cheerful and happy. She felt very fond of her and her eyes were glued to her granddaughter.

Breakfast was white rice porridge, pickled radish, last night's leftovers, and a small bowl of boiled eggs.

Chen Ruotong said mischievously: "I feel very happy to be born in the home of Landlord Chen!"

Old man Chen narrowed his eyes and said, "That's right. Ask the villagers, who eats breakfast? Other families have two meals a day, and some families don't even have enough to eat. Only we have three meals a day, and we eat well. We should learn to cherish our blessings!"

"Grandpa is right. We should learn to cherish our blessings."

After dinner, Chen Ruotong said to Old Lady Chen coquettishly, "Grandma, my granddaughter wants to go to the city for a stroll and buy some things."

"Okay, let's go to the city and visit your third brother. Grandma will buy you some beautiful jewelry with pearls. What do you like? I'll buy it for you."

Chen Ruotong shook her head and said, "In the past, grandma always bought things for her granddaughter. Now she is rich, so she wants to buy things for grandpa and grandma."

"What money do you have? Even if you have money, keep it for yourself and save it for your dowry."

Chen Ruotong took out five hundred taels of silver from her sleeve and put it in Old Lady Chen's hand: "Grandma, this is a gift from your granddaughter to you. You must accept it."

Old Lady Chen flipped open the banknotes, five of which were worth one hundred taels. She shook the banknotes and said exaggeratedly, "Granddaughter, how can you have so much money? If someone gives it to you, you want it? What if someone kidnaps you to be your daughter-in-law?"

"Grandma, this is what I deserve. I was a man at that time. Who could have kidnapped me? If you don't accept me, your granddaughter will be angry, and your filial piety will be in vain." Chen Ruotong frowned, squinted her eyes, and pouted her lips angrily.

"Okay, I'll keep it for you and save it for your dowry. You're so smart and cunning, you won't tolerate any loss."

"When has your eldest granddaughter ever suffered a loss? It's good enough that she doesn't let others suffer a loss."

After that, Old Lady Chen quickly got down to the ground and said, "Old man, let's go to the county town now. There is a big market today. Let's go shopping and buy something for our granddaughter."

Old man Chen harnessed an ox cart and rushed to the county town with Old Lady Chen and Chen Ruotong.

Chen Dahai and Chen Erjiang went to work, and Zhang stayed at home to look after the house.

The three generations of grandparents and grandchildren talked and laughed all the way. After more than an hour, they arrived at the county town. It was already past eight o'clock, and there were quite a few people going to the market in the city, so it was very lively.

Old Man Chen drove the ox cart to the only big silver shop in the county. They wanted to see Chen Sanhe and then buy some jewelry for Chen Ruotong in the silver shop.

"Little sister, you're back. Grandpa and grandma, why are you here? Come and sit here." Chen Sanhe showed his little white teeth and smiled while pouring tea for the three of them.

"I came to see you. I haven't been home for almost a month. How is the jewelry store business?" Old man Chen said after taking a sip of tea.

"Master, business is not very good. There are only so many people in the county. Who can buy gold and silver jewelry every day? The shopkeeper said that the wages will be reduced by 100 cents this month. The profit is a bit too little. I don't want to work after this month." Chen Sanhe had a face full of bitterness and resentment.

"Third brother, how much is the salary?" Chen Ruotong asked.

"It used to be 600 wen, but starting this month it will be 500 wen."

"I only earned six taels of silver that year. Isn't that a little too little?"

"Working as a laborer at the dock only earns 600 wen a month. You are protected from the wind and rain, so 500 wen is not a small salary. Just go ahead and do it. With your small body, how can you do farm work?" Old man Chen comforted.

Chen Sanhe was speechless and could only stand aside awkwardly.

Chen Sanhe is about 1.7 meters tall, thin, fair-skinned, and looks very similar to Chen Ruotong. He is a young scholar with a refined temperament, but he is not good at studying. However, he is very good at accounting and is very interested in mathematics. He is a serious student with a bias in one subject!

Old Man Chen wanted to train Chen Sanhe well, at least to train him to be a scholar, so that he would not have to pay land taxes or perform corvée labor, and he would be more confident. But Chen Sanhe was not up to the standard, and he got a headache when reading the Four Books and Five Classics, so Old Man Chen loved and hated this grandson, and wanted to say something to him whenever he saw him.