CHAPTER 213: CHAPTER 213 QIN SAN LANG’S GIFT

Hua’er hurriedly stopped Gu Yumei from shouting loudly to avoid attracting neighbors: "Miss, there’s no need to call at the door. I’m just here to deliver a gift and will leave immediately. If you have anything you’d like to know, you can ask my mistress when she visits another day."

"What? Your mistress is coming to visit me?" Gu Yumei was so excited she almost fainted. As a farm girl, she never imagined she’d be visited by an official’s daughter.

Hua’er said softly, "My mistress is bored in the village, so she thought of visiting families with daughters in the village."

Hua’er, wary of being noticed by neighbors, handed Gu Yumei a box: "It’s all things fit for a young lady. They are specially from my mistress for you, Miss. Please keep them to yourself."

After saying this, Hua’er bowed to Gu Yumei and hurriedly walked away with her head down.

Gu Yumei held the box, her heart brimming with joy.

Brother Fa opened the yard door, saw his cousin giggling foolishly, frowned slightly, said nothing, and turned back to continue grinding his spices in the yard.

After a while, Gu Yumei came back to her senses, hurriedly carried two bags of spices into the yard, dropped the load as soon as she entered, ran back to her room, opened the box, and took out the items inside.

Inside the box were twelve differently colored silk flowers, each made of chiffon, stunningly beautiful.

Gu Yumei, overwhelmed with joy, hugged the box and laughed in her room, her laughter loud enough that it scared Brother Fa grinding spices in the yard, who muttered quietly: "Brother was right, Sister Yu Mei really is crazy, I better not play with her."

Because of the gift from the official’s daughter, Gu Yumei was overjoyed for half an hour until Mrs. Chen closed her stall and went home. Only then did Gu Yumei come out of her house and begin to prepare the spice blends.

However, her joy made her forget the proportions that Gu Jinli had mentioned, which angered Mrs. Chen who scolded her, "You can’t even remember the amounts. What are you good for? Xiao Yu took great effort to share the spice mixing proportions with us, and you, you fool, forgot them in an instant."

After scolding Gu Yumei, Mrs. Chen ran to Gu Jinli’s house to ask again about the spice proportions before returning home to mix cinnamon and cloves with Gu Yumei.

As dusk approached, Gu Jin’an and Brother Cheng called several families to invite them to his home for a meal, giving a send-off for the Qin Brothers and Luo Wu.

Families brought their households to Gu Jinli’s home for a meal.

At dinner, Mrs. Cui presented Gu Jinli with a bowl of noodles on a wooden tray along with two red eggs, and everyone realized it was Gu Jinli’s eleventh birthday.

Gu Jinli was born on the nineteenth of March. She remembered her own birthday, but as far as she recalled, Mrs. Cui never celebrated it for her. Neither had Mrs. Cui celebrated Gu Jinxiu and Gu Jin’an’s birthdays in the first month. Gu Jinli didn’t want to make a fuss, so she hadn’t mentioned it. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Cui had also made longevity noodles and red eggs for her.

"Xiao Yu, Mother made these especially for you, eat them quick, or they’ll get cold," Gu Jinxiu urged beside her.

Gu Jinli looked at Mrs. Cui and smiled, "Thank you, Mother."

Even though she didn’t particularly like noodles and Mrs. Cui’s noodles weren’t tasteful, she quickly finished them.

She ate the two red eggs as well.

It was only now that Qin San Lang realized it was Gu Jinli’s birthday today. He greatly regretted that if he had known earlier, he could have prepared a birthday gift for Gu Jinli.

"So it turns out that today we’re not only giving a send-off for Er Lang and San Lang, Brother Wu, but also celebrating Xiao Yu’s birthday," Gu Dalin said laughingly: "Then I must have a bowl."

Saying this, he already picked up a bowl and said to Gu Dashan, "Brother Dashan, come, let’s have a drink."

Gu Dashan laughed warmly and drank a bowl of wine with Gu Dalin.

Several families happily ate a meal together, and after finishing, they had conversations and instructed the Qin Brothers and Luo Wu on things to pay attention to before starting to calculate today’s street vendor earnings.

Now, Gu Jin’an was busy; knowing that Gu Dexing wanted to assist him with the accounting, he had said on the opening day of the workshop that Gu Dexing should handle the accounts of the tofu stand in town.

From then on, Gu Dexing was responsible for the town’s tofu stand accounts, while Gu Jin’an focused only on the workshop’s accounts.

This made Gu Dexing happy and eased Gu Jin’an’s workload, allowing him more time to study.

Gu Dafu was very grateful for this arrangement, and privately thanked Gu Dashan. Once back home, he lectured Gu Dexing and told him to earnestly learn from Gu Jin’an, urging him not to waste such a good opportunity.

Gu Dexing agreed; these past few days, as soon as Gu Jin’an returned home, he would come to the Gu Family and learn accounting methods from Gu Jin’an. He was now getting the hang of it and was no longer as flustered as he had been initially.

After the families divided the money, they each returned to their own homes.

Luo Wu did not want to go back; he tried several times to talk to Gu Jinxiu, but was held back by Ms. Chu. Ms. Chu glared at him, warning him not to do anything foolish.

With so many people around, if he conspicuously tried to talk to Sister Xiu, and if later things did not work out, would it not ruin Sister Xiu’s reputation?

Warily aware of Ms. Chu’s attitude, Luo Wu refrained from speaking to Gu Jinxiu and sulkily went home.

The families planned to see off the Qin Brothers and Luo Wu tomorrow, so they all went to bed early. The four siblings of Gu Jinli’s family played a set of martial arts in the courtyard and then took baths and went to sleep.

However, in the middle of the night, Gu Jinli heard a strange sound of crowing.

At first, it sounded like a rooster crowing, but listening closely, it was clear it was a human voice, and someone familiar.

She got up, dressed, went outside her house, and walked to the back of the Qin family’s house, where she indeed saw Qin San Lang.

Yawning, she said, "Brother Qin, why aren’t you sleeping and imitating a rooster at this late hour?"

Hearing this, Qin San Lang hesitated, clutching something in his hand, unsure whether to give it to her or not.

Under the moonlight, Gu Jinli noticed something in his hand and reached out, asking, "What are you holding? Is it a birthday present for me?"

"If you came to give a birthday present, just say it. Why hesitate, are you afraid I won’t accept it?"

And that bag looked quite large; probably the gift was not small.

Upon hearing this, Qin San Lang had no choice but to look up at Gu Jinli and said softly, "Indeed, I came to give you a birthday gift, but this gift is quite unique, and I don’t know whether I should give it to you."

"You called me out here without deciding? I was just falling asleep," complained Gu Jinli, then asked him, "What exactly is the gift that makes it so difficult for you to give?"

Qin San Lang explained, "It’s an Iron Scroll, which can control my family."

"If my family becomes wealthy, you can use this thing to exchange for endless gold and silver from my family; and if my family faces disaster, you can take this to the government office, and it will grant you no small merit."

This was his way of using her, compensating her by pulling their families into the quagmire together.

"What kind of gift is so mystical?" Gu Jinli’s eyes glimmered as she stared at the bag in Qin San Lang’s hand, "Stop the chatter, open the bag, and let me see."