nucmednet Chapter 258 New Year and Birthday
Chapter 258 New Year and Birthday
The preparations before the New Year are still the same as usual, not much different from last year, except that the New Year's goods are more abundant.
Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, who have become hands-off bosses at home, don't just need to read, practice martial arts and eat delicious food every day. They also have other things to do.
First, they openly provided the orphans they took in with food rations for the next month, as well as new year supplies such as white flour, yellow glutinous rice, red beans, pork, chicken, fish, small green vegetables, maltose balls, couplets, incense, candles, paper money, etc.
The second was to hire someone to make a batch of steamed buns, rice cakes, and tofu, and then secretly take Fang Youfu and others to deliver food, coarse salt, and New Year supplies such as steamed buns, rice cakes, tofu, pork, fish, malt sugar balls, couplets, incense, candles, paper money, etc. to the poor families in the surrounding villages and towns that they had helped before.
The third is to arrange for the staff on duty for the orphans during the Spring Festival. Gu Wenxuan decided to give five times the monthly salary to those who were willing to spend the Spring Festival with the children.
As soon as she finished her bold words, the group of people who usually surrounded her and Bai Jingzhou immediately began to compete for the job.
In the end, Gu Wenxuan selected Bai Jingshan's family, Yang Wandong, Chun Ni'er and her siblings, as well as some survivors and farmers from the bandit camp who had been carefully selected by Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou and had been taking care of those children for a long time.
Bai Jingshan's family, Chun Ni'er's four siblings, and the farmers all went there with their families. To them, it was not important whether they could celebrate the New Year in their own house or not, what was important was that their family members were well fed and clothed.
Yang Wandong and the survivors of the bandit camp were all alone. For them, it would make them feel more comfortable to celebrate the New Year with those orphans.
After arranging the important matters, Gu Wenxuan also gave New Year gift packages and year-end bonuses to all the people who usually helped them run errands.
People like Fang Youfu, who had accompanied her and Bai Jingzhou through thick and thin, received year-end bonuses from Gu Wenxuan in the form of six small silver ingots weighing one or two taels each.
For the lower class, such as the heads of various villages and some survivors of bandit camps who had contributed a lot to various events this year, Gu Wenxuan gave two small silver ingots weighing one or two taels.
The second-class rewards were all 500 copper coins without exception, which was considered to bring some joy and fortune to the majority of people who had made contributions, but their contributions were not particularly outstanding, during the New Year.
Because of her generosity, she and the group of people under Bai Jingzhou had a happy and high-spirited year, and Gu Wenxuan did not treat herself badly.
This year, the Gu family not only prepared an unprecedented sumptuous New Year's goods and dishes, but also prepared fine cloth clothes, shoes and socks for the whole family.
Although this was the second time that they all wore new clothes during the New Year, the children were still very excited and cheered with great joy.
On the second day of the first lunar month, Gu Wenxuan and her two siblings followed Jia Guizhi and Gu Yongming to Jiajia Village. While everyone was gathered together for dinner, Gu Wenxuan suggested that Jia's father and mother take Jia Yuelan to move to Baijia Village.
The first reaction of Jia's father and mother was to look at Gu Yongming's expression. Seeing that he was looking at them expectantly like Gu Wenxuan, the old couple immediately realized that this was not something Gu Wenxuan mentioned casually on a whim, but something that their family had discussed in advance.
The old couple were very happy, but they did not agree immediately.
Grandmother Jia smiled and waved to her daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren and granddaughters, "Forget about moving. We can still move, Yuelan is very hardworking, and the clansmen are also very caring for us."
Thanks to their granddaughter Gu Wenxuan, Jia's father and mother, who already had very good relationships with people in Jia Village, have now become even more popular in the eyes of the Jia family members.
Especially the patriarch of the Jia family, in order to have a good relationship with Gu Wenxuan, a girl who he thought would have a great future, he directly and privately instructed his son and nephew to go to the home of Jia's father and mother every now and then to see if they could help in any way.
The old couple is living a happy life, so why would they be willing to move away from Jiajia Village where they have lived for most of their lives?
Gu Wenxuan's family tried to persuade them but to no avail, so they had to give up the idea for the time being and follow the wishes of the two elderly people, allowing them to continue staying in Jiajia Village.
Not long after the lively New Year period ended, it was the 26th day of the first lunar month, Bai Jingzhou's birthday.
Gu Wenxuan took out the folding fan and jade pendant she had bought in advance, as well as the pencil case and purse she had sewn for him under the guidance of Lin Shuzhen.
"Here, this is your birthday present." Gu Wenxuan said with a smile, "This is a four-piece scholar's suit. Do you like it?"
The folding fan and jade pendant were both very beautiful, proving that Gu Wenxuan had good aesthetic taste. However, the pen case and purse that she had sewed for Bai Jingzhou were a bit ugly. Fortunately, Bai Jingzhou did not dislike them at all. He immediately used them with a look of joy as soon as he got them.
After Bai Jingzhou's birthday, Gu Wenxuan took out some money as they had agreed and asked Old Man Gu to buy more wasteland.
Their family had already bought a large piece of vacant land at the end of the village, as well as several empty houses around it. If they bought the house she liked now, they would not only be able to build a large house, but also one or two workshops.
Bai Lizheng listened to Mr. Gu's purpose of coming, and without saying a word, he allocated all the vacant land next to their house to their family.
After getting the deed, Gu Wenxuan began to consider the location of his house, workshop and pond.
Jia Guizhi realized belatedly that Gu Wenxuan had asked Old Man Gu to buy wasteland again, and she regretted that she was not at home before and failed to stop her daughter from doing so in time.
She said, "It would be great if you could use this money to buy some land."
Gu Wenxuan smiled, "I bought it. I bought it before the New Year."
When she said this, Jia Guizhi immediately remembered the shop and farm that Gu Wenxuan had subsidized the family with years ago.
Glancing at her daughter with displeasure, Jia Guizhi said, "You bought it for your family. I mean you should prepare more land for yourself as a dowry."
Gu Wenxuan still smiled, "I am prepared."
Jia Guizhi said she would not give it to her. If she said too much, she was afraid that her family would suspect that she was dissatisfied with Gu Wenxuan's financial support to the public, so she reluctantly skipped the topic.
Seeing that she was no longer hesitant, Gu Wenxuan smiled and talked about the fact that Bai Jingzhou's family was also going to build a big house next to theirs.
Like Gu Wenxuan, Bai Jingzhou also paid the money himself and then asked the head of the family to do the work.
His father Bai Chong followed his wishes and bought another piece of vacant land next to Gu Wenxuan's house.
Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan planned to build two large houses next to each other. After the houses were built, Bai Jingzhou's family also planned to bring the old couple of the Bai family to their own home.
The general layout that Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou have agreed on is that the creek is next to the pond they dug, the pond is next to the workshop, the workshop is next to Gu Wenxuan's home, Gu Wenxuan's home is next to Bai Jingzhou's home, and a workshop is also built on the other side of Bai Jingzhou's home.