Chapter 636: The Imperial Examination Family-Building System (45)

Receiving this gift, Xie Yang felt equally speechless.

If the Main System hadn't chattered on about its value and efficacy, she never would have imagined in a million years that this seemingly ordinary jade bracelet could be linked to childbirth.

Could he be pressuring her to have children in a roundabout way?

That simply won't do!

Xie Yang cleared her throat and, with a serious expression, began to brainwash him: "Husband, a woman giving birth too early is harmful to her body, and if things go wrong, it could even lead to a difficult labor. I plan to wait until I am over eighteen before considering having children. What does my husband think?"

Song Yanqing was very cooperative: "Everything shall be as my wife wishes."

Xie Yang was satisfied with his compliance, so she tacitly allowed some of his indulgent behavior that night, which resulted in her being so sore and weak the next day that she could barely get out of bed. He, on the other hand, was already sitting at the desk for his morning studies, looking refreshed.

Fortunately, good news followed immediately—the property deed with the completed transfer procedures had been issued!

During this time, the couple Yang Mu and his wife went to the new home every day to clean, scrub, replace old furniture, and add soft furnishings to each room, making it ready for move-in at any time.

Thus, Xie Yang and her party moved briskly from the inn into their new home.

This two-courtyard Heyuan did not have as large a footprint as their residence in Qinghe Village.

The main gate opened to the southeast, and right next to the gate was a row of gatehouse rooms.

Entering the main gate, there was a spirit wall; a small door was opened on the right-hand side, with a cluster of elegant green bamboo at the entrance. Circling past the bamboo, one found the latrine for the front courtyard.

Walking left around the spirit wall, there was a small courtyard of fifty or sixty square meters. Facing the courtyard and sitting north to south were three large rooms that made up the front courtyard. The middle room was a reception hall for guests, and the two rooms on either side could be set up as studies for the children to read and practice calligraphy once there were more children in the family.

On the west side of the courtyard was a moon gate, inside which were the stables and the groom's room.

Passing through the hanging flower gate, one reached the inner courtyard. This courtyard was larger and featured a square koi pond. Beside the pond stood an ancient osmanthus tree; unfortunately, the osmanthus flowers for this year had already withered, and a few scattered, faded blossoms were blown by the cold wind onto the surface of the pond, becoming food for the koi.

Xie Yang leaned against the edge of the pond with great interest, watching the koi play among the osmanthus flowers for a while. She took the opportunity to drip a drop of Spirit Spring into the water, and seeing the little koi swimming even more actively, she smiled and continued walking inside.

The layout of the inner courtyard was very orderly: three main rooms in the center, one ear room on each side, and two side rooms each on the east and west.

Xie Yang kept the east room for her parents-in-law to live in, while she and Song Yanqing continued to live in the west room.

Her sister-in-law also continued to live in the west side room, while one east side room was for Song Yanqing to use as a study, and the other was used as a storeroom.

The kitchen was to the south of the east side room, located between the front courtyard and the inner courtyard.

Yang Mu's family of three lived in the gatehouse rooms. There were three gatehouse rooms: one for Yang Mu and his wife, one for Xiaohu, and one reserved for a future gatekeeper. However, as only a few of them were living there for now, Xie Yang did not intend to hire more servants; she let Yang Mu double as the gatekeeper, checking the door whenever someone knocked, and driving the carriage whenever they needed to go out.

On the day of the move, Xie Yang cooked in person, preparing a sumptuous Warm Pot Banquet.

Yang Mu's family was unwilling to sit at the table, and Xie Yang did not force them; she left them plenty of food and let them decide whether to eat in the kitchen or take it to the gatehouse rooms. She and Song Yanqing set a table in the main hall.

It was nearly dark by the time they finished moving and tidying up, so she didn't make overly complicated dishes. She used the ham brought from home to boil an old duck soup, stewed pork belly with various mushrooms and dried bamboo shoots, and also steamed a piece of pork belly. She mixed a sauce to make a dish of garlic pork slices. When buying meat, she saw someone selling a basin of small, finger-thick miscellaneous fish, and remembering there was a small jar of fermented rice wine from home that hadn't been finished, she stewed a pot of fermented rice wine and miscellaneous fish. Besides that, there were appetizing vegetables like vinegar-stir-fried cabbage and sweet-and-sour radish.

Although these were not stunningly complex dishes, having fish, meat, fresh vegetables, sweet potato starch noodles boiled in the old duck soup, and cornmeal cakes stuck to the side of the stewed fish pot, it was truly quite good!

Song Yanqing ate until his forehead was sweating, exclaiming how satisfying it was: "After eating everything, the food from home is still the most to my taste."

Xie Yang couldn't help but be amused watching him.

She thought to herself that sweet potato starch noodles and cornmeal cakes were hardly specialties of his hometown; once promoted, they would gradually become characteristic ways of eating in the north. The staple food in the Jiangnan region remained rice.

It was just that these high-yield crops hadn't been promoted yet, and Qinghe Village was the first place they had settled in the Ning Dynasty, so they naturally became specialties of their hometown.

"Once it's confirmed that we'll be living in Jingcheng for a long time, I'll go buy a few acres of land outside the city and build a Farm similar to the one at home. We can grow and raise whatever we want to eat. We can have Father and Mother bring the seeds when they come to the capital."

Seeing that she was already planning their life after settling in Jingcheng, the smile in Song Yanqing's eyes deepened: "Good! I have noted it."

It seemed he had to work even harder!

Xie Yang looked at him, puzzled. Noted what? That he would pass the Metropolitan Examination was a certainty; hadn't the Sub-system told him?

Regardless, they had finally settled down in Jingcheng.

After this, Song Yanqing stayed behind closed doors to study hard, while Xie Yang often took Yang Mu and his wife out to wander around, pulling back any suitable New Year goods on a flatbed cart.

They hadn't bought a carriage yet; it wouldn't be of much use during the exam preparation period, so she decided to wait until after the new year to purchase one.

A flatbed cart was enough to push winter vegetables, meat, rice, flour, and cooking oil. As for firewood, Charcoal, and the like, for a few extra coins, the sellers were very happy to deliver them to the door.

During this time, Xie Yang also got to know the neighbors on either side—

To the left lived the family of the Libationer of the Imperial Academy; the owner of the house to the right was the Minister of Rites, but ever since he was promoted to Minister, the whole family had moved to the wealthy district, and his wife had taken charge of renting this courtyard to students studying at the Imperial Academy or Provincial Graduates who came to the capital for the Spring Examination.

A dozen or twenty students lived together in one courtyard, and the entrance was quite lively whenever it was time for students to go to or return from the Imperial Academy.

Xie Yang once heard these students complaining about the food at the Imperial Academy Dining Hall, and an idea came to her.

Since she was idle anyway, she simply set up a small snack stall at her front door, timing it with the schedule of the Imperial Academy to sell hot food.

In the morning, the main offering was Fried Dough Sticks, which were savory, vegetarian-friendly, and suitable for all ages.

It wasn't complicated to make: eggs, flour, chopped green onions, and sesame seeds were all things they had at home. The oil dough for the Fried Dough Sticks was prepared in advance, and in the morning, she could pinch and fry them in minutes. Incidentally, the family could also have a bite of fragrant, crispy hot Fried Dough Sticks.

If she were to sell ordinary steamed buns, meat buns, or noodles to the Imperial Academy students, there might not necessarily be business, as most of those studying at the Imperial Academy were children of officials.

Although these children of officials didn't eat delicacies from the mountains and seas every day, they still had minced meat porridge and high-quality broth noodles; those from prominent families even had Nanyang Bird's Nest soup at every meal. They generally looked down on ordinary food sold on the market.

Moreover, children of officials generally wouldn't rent houses here; they were either picked up and taken home every day by luxurious carriages sent by their families, or they bought a courtyard nearby, served by family servants, with no worries about their three meals.

Xie Yang was targeting that small minority of students—the Provincial Graduates who had failed the Metropolitan Examination in the capital the previous session.