Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 114 - 59: Dry Tobacco Pipe_3
Lady Zhang needed to nourish her body, and Lian Shouxin, being the primary labor force, needed to eat well too, and the younger ones were also growing, so the nutritional additions had to be substantial.
Lian Manman thus asked Butcher Zhang to weigh out a jin of backyard pork.
Once the fatback was weighed, there was a total of eleven jin and some odd change, which was rounded to eleven jin. At fourteen wen money per jin, it came to one hundred and fifty-four wen money. Three large bones weighing five and a half jin were ten wen money per jin, adding up to fifty-five wen money, plus one jin of the backyard pork at twenty wen money per jin, the total was two hundred and twenty-nine wen money.
"Add one more wen money to make it an even three hundred wen," Butcher Zhang said, and then cut another piece of meat, throwing it into the scale where it tipped over a liang.
Lian Manman agreed and counted out three hundred wen money to give to Butcher Zhang. Butcher Zhang wrapped the bones, fatback, and meat separately with several large leaves and placed them in Lian Manman’s basket.
Lian Manman, along with Xiao Qi, carried the basket back to Zhao’s Copper Workshop, where Zhao the Coppersmith had already repaired the dry pipe. Lian Manman checked the pipe, and the breakpoint had been soldered. A copper hoop had been added and polished until it was very smooth. Then Zhao the Coppersmith took a fine copper wire and threaded it through the mouthpiece to the bowl of the pipe, indicating that there were no issues inside either.
"Third Miss Lian, I also cleaned the oil stains from the pipe for you," said Zhao the Coppersmith.
Lian Manman smiled; in this era, there wasn’t the slogan like "the customer is God," but the attitude and service awareness of business people who survived made one feel pleasantly refreshed.
After paying the agreed price and adding one wen money, Lian Manman gave a total of fifteen wen money to Zhao the Coppersmith, and she and Xiao Qi headed back home from the town. Since they had bought quite a few things, the siblings walked and stopped intermittently, drenched in sweat by the time they returned home.
Lian Manman first put away the purchases, then went to the vegetable garden, opened a jar, and found that the grapes inside had begun to ferment. The people who had gone to work in the Lian Family fields hadn’t returned yet, and those who stayed at home were hiding from the heat inside the house. Lian Manman divided the white sugar evenly into portions, adding one portion to each jar.
To add more complexity to the taste of the grape wine, Lian Manman planned to add the white sugar in several stages. This was the first time; there would be a second time later.
By the time Lian Manman finished these tasks, it was almost noon, and the people working in the fields began to come back one after another.
Lian Manman handed the meat, bones, and fatback to Lian Zhizhi for her to process, and she herself went to find Old Master Lian in the Upper Room.
Lian Xiuxiu was making a fire in the outer room and looked somewhat irked upon seeing Lian Manman arrive.
"What are you doing here?" Lian Xiuxiu asked, glaring.
"I came to see my grandfather," said Lian Manman as she walked straight into the room.
"Grandfather," Lian Manman called sweetly as she entered.
"Manman is here," Old Master Lian was sitting on the kang bed rolling a dry pipe and responded upon seeing Lian Manman arrive.
"Grandfather, look what this is," Lian Manman handed the repaired dry pipe to Old Master Lian.
When Old Master Lian saw the pipe in Lian Manman’s hand, he turned to look toward the windowsill.
"Is this my dry pipe?" Old Master Lian put down the tobacco he was holding and took the pipe. Not only had it been soldered back together, but it was also cleaned of all the tobacco stains inside and out, looking as good as new with its orange shine.
"Grandfather, I saw you weren’t comfortable smoking rolled tobacco, so it’s better to smoke this dry pipe," Lian Manman said.
"Did you have it repaired?" Old Master Lian asked.
"Yes. I know you love smoking a dry pipe, Grandfather, and you love drinking too. When the grape wine is ready, you’ll be the first to taste it," Lian Manman said.
"Good child," Old Master Lian said, affectionately caressing the pipe.
Lady Zhou entered from outside, and Lian Manman smiled and stepped out of the room.
"Oh, has the dry pipe been fixed?" Lady Zhou noticed the pipe in Old Master Lian’s hand.
"Yes, Manman is very considerate," Old Master Lian said. That dry pipe had been with him for nearly half his life, and he was not accustomed to smoking rolled tobacco. Those two preferences were supposedly known by his family. However, even after his dry pipe broke, no one in the family thought to get it repaired nor did anyone consider buying him a new one. In the end, it was Lian Manman, a child, who had the pipe repaired for him.
Old Master Lian loaded a pouch of tobacco and began to smoke slowly.
"She’s considerate alright, with plenty of schemes up her sleeve," Lady Zhou muttered discontentedly.
Old Master Lian, holding the dry pipe, paused for a moment and then suddenly smiled.
"Go and call the second brother, his wife, and all those boys here for me," Old Master Lian told Lady Zhou. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
