Chapter Twelve This is probably retribution

  At the grocery store, they bought necessities like pots and bowls, and Jiuniang's copper coins were almost spent.

  She put away the remaining copper coins, held something in her hand and said to Yunniang: "Sister-in-law, let's go for a stroll up front!"

  "Alright! Is it heavy? Come on, let me help you carry some!" Yunniang said, enthusiastically taking half of the load from Jiuniang's hands.

  "Thank you, sister-in-law!"

  In front of it was a furniture store with a conspicuous sign on the door - Xiang Rui Ju.

  It's been a few days since she arrived here, and Jiuniang still hasn't figured out what dynasty this is, so as not to arouse unnecessary suspicion. She didn't dare ask the people around her, so she had no choice but to find out for herself.

  Each era has its own characteristics, which can be reflected in many things, such as some buildings or furniture.

  The rural houses are mostly very simple and have no distinctive features, so Jiuniang cannot determine which dynasty they belong to.

  She came to the city and carefully observed the surrounding buildings, which made her wonder. These buildings have diverse characteristics, seemingly integrating multiple eras of features, almost traceable back to the Qing Dynasty.

  But judging from people's clothing here, Jiuniang was very sure that this was not the Qing Dynasty.

  What kind of dynasty has she arrived at?

  Could it be that this is a fictional era? Has she arrived in a dynasty that has no records in history?

  To clarify her doubts, she decided to go shopping at a furniture store, because classical furniture also has strong characteristics and the styles of the north and south are different.

  Jiuniang also had another plan, which was to make a living by relying on her own craftsmanship.

  She was a master craftsman in her previous life, and her manual skills were also top-notch. Behind the mountain, there is a large piece of excellent wood suitable for making furniture. She can use it to make some wooden handicrafts to exchange for silver, at least to change the current predicament.

  Two people entered the furniture store, and the young shopkeeper enthusiastically came to greet them: "Welcome, you two! Do you want to buy a bed or a wardrobe, or maybe a dresser? The furniture at Xiangrui Residence is finely crafted, durable, and stylish. If it's for your family's daughter's dowry when she gets married and moves to her husband's house, that would be very respectable."

  The young woman felt a bit uneasy as she listened to the shopkeeper's chatter, and she pulled on Jiu Niang's sleeve, awkwardly saying to the shopkeeper: "We won't buy anything..."

  The furniture in Xiang Rui's residence is notoriously expensive, with even a single piece costing several hundred taels of silver. How can they afford it?

  The shop assistant didn't throw them out, but instead had a very good attitude and smiled: "It's okay if you don't buy anything, just take a look! Maybe after looking around, you'll think about buying again!"

  This made Yunniang feel even more embarrassed, but Jiuniang was watching very seriously, and Yunniang couldn't bear to pull her away.

  After they had looked at all the furniture in Rui's house, the two of them left the shop with a professional smile on their faces.

  "Sister-in-law, what do you think of the furniture in that shop?" Jiuniang asked.

  "Xiang Rui is the best furniture store in our town, and of course, their furniture is very good." Yun Niang replied without thinking.

  In rural families, when a daughter gets married, if there is something from the Dragon and Phoenix Residence among her dowry, it would be such an honorable thing!

  "Our entire Apricot Blossom Village, only your mother-in-law's house has a propitious cabinet. When they first moved into the new house, they invited the whole village to come and drink wine, and specially brought it out for everyone to see..." Yunniang said, suddenly covering her mouth, looking at Jiuniang with an apologetic expression.

  Jiuniang smiled carelessly and said: "At that time I hadn't even entered the door yet!"

  Moreover, the furniture in Xiang Rui's residence didn't seem high-end or classy to Jiu Niang. What she made was many times better than these, nothing worth being proud of.

  The young girl thought for a moment and said seriously: "Jiuniang, from now on, if you have any silver, be sure to hold it tightly yourself, don't let your mother-in-law cheat you out of it again."

  "Thank you, sister-in-law, for your concern. I've taken note of it." Jiuniang nodded, a flash of cold light flickering in her eyes as she thought to herself that if she were to make money in the future and Li Shi dared to come to their door again to extort them, she would definitely make her pay.

  The young girl touched the copper plate in her pocket and said to Jiuniang: "Are you hungry? Let's go eat a bowl of noodles!"

  Jiuniang thought for a moment, then suddenly grasped Yunniang's arm and smiled slyly at her: "We've bought the pot and bowl, why don't we go home and cook some rice to eat? We can save a few copper coins that way! Sister-in-law and Yang Jingge are coming over to my place for dinner, and I have two bamboo rats at home, just right for cooking. If sister-in-law lends me a bit of rice, that would be even better!"

  The young girl smiled and nodded, no longer declining, happily saying: "Last night when I brought back that bowl of meat from your house, my family member smelled the fragrance and said they wanted to eat another meal. They kept saying it was delicious, even better than our rabbit meat! If he knew that rice could be exchanged for such fragrant meat, he might go to your house every day with rice."

  "Haha, that's great! Anyway, my family has no more rice to cook, and you can still help us out!" Jiuniang smiled mischievously: "After lunch this afternoon, let's go up the mountain again to try our luck and see if we can catch any bamboo rats!"

  I'll bring back some wood, exquisite furniture can't be made for the time being, there are no complete tools in hand, and fine carving takes a long time, but I can make a few small handicrafts to exchange for silver at the market.

  The two chatted happily, and although they were carrying things in their hands, they didn't walk slowly. After more than half a time unit, they returned home.

  Chu Dongyang sat in the courtyard, basking in the sun, his eyes half-closed, like a lazy cat.

  He looked at the things in Jiuniang's hand and frowned, asking: "Didn't you get cheated by the pawnshop owner? That was a good piece of jade that could be exchanged for a lot of silver, how did you only buy back a few bowls?"

  "She also bought a pot!" Jiuniang waved the things in her hand and said, "These were bought with money borrowed from the aunt next door. I didn't pawn that piece of jade."

  "Why not?" Chu Dongyang's eyes flashed with a complex expression as he looked at Jiuniang and asked in a clear, cold tone.

  "At least you won't go hungry!" Jiuniang threw out a sentence and took the things to the kitchen.

  In the courtyard, under the golden sunlight, that cold face suddenly flashed a different color, but quickly returned to normal, then slowly closed his eyes to continue sunbathing. However, that laziness was gone, replaced by another powerful aura, making people feel that he was like a sleeping lion at this moment, rather than a cat.

  "Can you come over and help me with the fire?" Jiuniang was in the kitchen, washing the new pots and bowls she had just bought, while cleaning up the two bamboo mouse cubs, and shouted to Chudongyang: "I've invited the couple next door to come home for dinner!"

  Chu Dongyang heard this and slowly opened his eyes, the corners of his mouth twitching. He thought to himself, "Our family doesn't even have rice at home, how can we invite others over just to eat dishes?"

  "Sister-in-law brought over rice, plenty of it!" Seeing Chu Dongyang walking into the kitchen with a long stick, Jiuniang turned around and gave him a triumphant smile, then said with a tinge of melancholy: "It's been ages since I've had rice, I'd almost forgotten what it tastes like! Alas, many things are only appreciated after they're lost! Rice is one of them! In the past, I used to waste food all the time, thinking about it now, this must be retribution!"

  You're talking as if we used to have leftover food! Isn't our family so poor that we had to sell our daughter?

  Chu Dongyang raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiu Niang, with a few more points of inquiry in his eyes.

  Jiuniang knew she had misspoken and quickly changed the subject: "By the way, I saw a dagger in your room. Can I borrow it?"