The happy little days of the Ye family

Winter passes and spring comes, time flies, and in the blink of an eye, another year is here.

Ye Qingqing is now a 17-year-old girl, and she has become more delicate, beautiful and graceful.

Every time he went out, there were many young men peeking at Ye Qingqing, but unfortunately they were scared away by the taller Tang Xiaojing and Ye Xilin.

Ye Mu also doesn't let Ye Qingqing go out often. If he goes out, he must be accompanied by Ye Xilin or Wang Chunyu.

The Ye family has had many happy events this year. The family's donkey has just given birth to a strong calf, and the other donkey will soon become pregnant.

But the biggest happy event is that Wang Chunyu is pregnant at the beginning of spring, and the Ye family will soon have the fourth generation.

Wang Chunyu is pregnant, and everyone in the family is happy, but the happiest ones are Mrs. Ye and Ye Donglin.

Ye Donglin knew that he was going to be a father. He was stunned at first, then realized what he was doing and hugged Wang Chunyu happily all the time.

Mrs. Ye immediately took Mother Ye and went to the temple to pray for Wang Chunyu and the baby in her belly to have a peace charm.

The Tang family in the next room naturally heard the movement of the Ye family. The father and son were both happy and envious.

Tangshan thought that he was about the same age as Ye's father, and he was even one year older than Ye's father.

Unexpectedly, he was already a grandfather, and his brat was not yet married, so he glared at Tang Xiaojing angrily.

Tang Xiaojing was also sour. He was a few months older than Ye Donglin. He didn't expect that he would become a father so soon.

After three months, Wang Chunyu's belly began to grow slowly.

Starting last month, Wang Chunyu could already feel the baby turning around in her belly.

When Ye Donglin comes home every day, his favorite thing to do is to touch Wang Chunyu's belly and feel the child's little hands and feet moving gently in his palm.

After becoming a father, Ye Donglin was cheerful every day, and the smile on his face made Tang Xiaojing very jealous and wanted to beat him up.

Of course, you can't beat your uncle, you have to hold him up.

Moreover, his brother-in-law is also very difficult to mess with. Guarding against him every day is like guarding against a thief. Every time he and Ye Qingqing get closer, they have objections.

The summer harvest had just ended, and before they had time to rest, the Tang family started to get busy again.

Tang Xiaojing doesn't envy Ye Donglin anymore. In one month, it will be the day to go to the Ye family to hire someone.

The Tang family father and son were busy preparing things for employment.

At night, the father and son began to take inventory of their family property, and also discussed the betrothal gift for the Ye family.

Livestock raised in rabbit huts and pig pens at the foot of the mountain, as well as produce on the two hills above.

Excluding the wages of 13 long-term workers, Tang Xiaojing also earned nearly 90 taels this year.

However, Tang Xiaojing paid 15 taels of silver when doing corvee work before. The other two hills also started collecting taxes last year, and the annual tax cost 8 taels of silver.

Apart from these two sums of money, Tang Xiaojing's biggest expense was to buy some small gifts for Ye Qingqing. Other than that, there was nothing else.

Twelve silver ingots each, five taels each, plus broken silver, filled the small box to the brim.

Tang Xiaojing didn't count the scattered copper plates. All the silver ingots and broken silver were added together. Tang Xiaojing now had a total of 310 taels of silver.

Tang Xiaojing and Tang Shan are each responsible for half of the wages of the long-term workers in the family.

Grain tax started to be collected on last year's grain. After paying the wages of long-term workers, and then paying the grain tax, the family's fields are actually not making any money.

Tangshan only earned more than 40 taels of silver this year by driving cattle carts to solicit customers in the county and town, as well as renting houses in the county and town.

Tangshan counted the silver on his hand twice and found that he only saved 162 taels of silver in total.

Tang Shan looked at the box full of silver in front of Tang Xiaojing, which was twice as much as him, and felt very proud in his heart.

This boy is becoming more and more calm. Sooner or later, the important responsibilities of the Tang family will be handed over to him.

Tangshan took out another small box, which contained 62 taels of silver earned from hunting sika deer.

The father and son had discussed these 62 taels of silver before and planned to use them for Tang Xiaojing's wedding.

Tang Xiaojing looked at the 62 taels in front of him, then looked up at Tangshan.

"Dad, in addition to the 62 taels of silver I earned from hunting before, I want to get another 100 taels of silver to use together to prepare betrothal gifts and betrothal gifts."

Tangshan did not refuse.

Tangshan has also found out from Ye's father that the Ye family is planning to give Ye Qingqing ten acres of paddy fields as a dowry, as well as the small house in Juren Lane.

Father Ye did not elaborate on the other dowry items, but Tang Shan and Tang Xiaojing guessed that there would be many.

Moreover, Ye Qingqing was capable. By making embroidery, he saved money to buy a small shop for rent.

When Ye Qingqing bought the small shop before, he didn't tell the Tang family.

It was when Tangshan asked Father Ye about the dowry some time ago that Father Ye found out.

Although the paddy fields that were part of the Ye family's dowry were reclaimed from wasteland, they have been carefully raised by Mr. Ye for several years, and now they have barely turned into medium-sized paddy fields.

One acre of medium-sized paddy field is worth 10 taels of silver, and 80 acres of paddy field is only [-] taels of silver.

10 acres of medium-sized paddy fields, a small house, a small shop, and Ye Qingqing's dowry were worth 300 taels of silver.

Although the Ye family has always loved Ye Qingqing, Tang Shan and Tang Xiaojing did not expect that the Ye family would give Ye Qingqing such a large dowry.

Knowing that Ye Qingqing would be married into a house, the father and son were a little surprised, but they were not surprised either.

But the paddy field and the shop also gave Ye Qingqing a dowry. To be honest, they didn't expect it.

The Ye family loves their daughter, and the Tang family also values ​​Ye Qingqing, so they cannot be careless about the betrothal gift.

Moreover, Tangshan didn't want to be said that their Tang Xiaojing was a softie, and the betrothal gift really needed to be renegotiated.

Tangshan suddenly thought that he still had two wild ginseng roots that were about 20 years old at home.

"Didn't you come back from Dashan Village at the end of last year with two wild ginseng roots that were about 20 years old?"

"Grandpa Ye and Grandma Ye are old, why don't you give one as a betrothal gift?"

Tang Xiaojing thought this was a good idea and said happily:

"By the way, we still have wild ginseng at home, which can be added to the betrothal gift. Qingqing's sister-in-law is pregnant now and may need it during the birth."

Tangshan analyzed it for Tang Xiaojing: "The Ye family gave Qingqing a paddy field and a house as a dowry. Although Qingqing bought the shop herself, it was also her dowry."

"Qingqing's dowry is too heavy. If we only give some jewelry and fabrics as a betrothal gift, these ordinary things will seem too perfunctory. Let's discuss the betrothal gift carefully."

Tangshan suddenly stood up and took out an exquisite jewelry box from a hidden compartment in the room.

Tang Shan gently opened the jewelry box. There were several pieces of silver jewelry inside. Tang Xiaojing recognized them as his mother's jewelry at a glance.

The silver hairpin in the shape of a butterfly, the small hairpin in the shape of peach blossom tassels, silver bracelets, silver earrings, and silver earrings were all what his mother often wore in the past.

Tang Shan took out a small hairpin in the shape of peach blossom tassels and a pair of small ears.

This was the betrothal gift he gave to Tang Xiaojing's mother when he got married. Tang Xiaojing's mother liked to wear it most during her lifetime.

Tang Shan kept the hairpin and earrings, and pushed the remaining silver jewelry to Tang Xiaojing together with the jewelry box.

"This is your mother's jewelry. You can melt it in a silver house and make a new silver hairpin and a silver bracelet."

Tang Xiaojing refused to accept it, "Dad, I can just spend my own money to buy the jewelry. You should keep my mother's jewelry."

Tangshan shook his head, "These two are enough. Your mother will definitely be very happy if she knows that you are getting married."