Chapter 969: Chapter 969: Daniu Only Has Ten Taels of Silver

Zhou Qiao shook her head.

She genuinely felt it was quite nice. She never really liked crowded places, whether it was the village or the county town. Those places were lively, sure, but there were also plenty of meddling relatives who constantly entangled you in idle gossip, eager to interfere in your life.

Married for half a year, they were already urging her to have children, telling her she should be filial to her mother-in-law, asking if working at the shop meant she was rich, and why she hadn’t bought something nice for her family. Occasionally a relative would visit, and without fail, they’d come to the shop to sit for a while–a visit that always ended in either borrowing money or eating at her expense.

Zhou Qiao found it all exasperating. She wished she could just go somewhere secluded with Daniu, where they’d see no one and be entirely undisturbed.

If Shu Yu were still around, she might have understood Zhou Qiao’s predicament.

Sister-in-law clearly had social anxiety.

So when Zhou Qiao heard Daniu say that the manor was quite far away, she actually let out a sigh of relief in her heart.

Only Daniu assumed she was accommodating him, worrying she was deliberately saying such things to ease his burden.

He looked at Zhou Qiao, but she hung her head low, making it impossible to see the expression on her face.

Daniu put down the flower stem he was holding and hurried forward, grabbing her hand firmly.

Zhou Qiao raised her head in surprise, only to hear him say, “Don’t worry. Even though it’s far away, Yu spoke to me today and said the manor would be equipped with a mule carriage. We won’t need to walk to town. Once we’ve saved enough money, wherever you want to live, we’ll buy a house there.”

Zhou Qiao froze for a moment and then couldn’t help but laugh, tears mingling with her amusement. “Living at the manor–I truly think it’s great. Nobody will disturb us, and I’m genuinely happy about that.”

“R-Really?” Daniu noted her expression and finally realized she wasn’t trying to pacify him. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he quickly released her hand.

But Zhou Qiao couldn’t help finding it odd. “Why did you suddenly start talking about buying a house?”

Daniu turned his back to her and resumed working. “Third Uncle came to find Yu today, asking to borrow money to buy a house in the county town. It seems he doesn’t plan on returning to Shangshi Village anymore. Yu also asked me if I wanted to buy a house, and that she’d lend me money if I needed it. I refused.”

He had saved a little silver by now, but not much.

After all, they’d only been married for half a year. The money he had earned before marriage was handed over to Madam Li for the most part. When he got married, he wanted Zhou Qiao to marry with some dignity, so he secretly used his personal savings to buy her a few nice things.

He even went out of his way to hire a mule for the wedding, and for that, he got scolded harshly by Madam Li.

As a result, the silver in his hands now was limited, accumulated mostly over the past half year since their marriage. He became the shopkeeper thanks to Yu, whose wages were high–three taels of silver per month.

For an ordinary household, this was already considered quite wealthy.

But Daniu hadn’t officially divided from the family, and according to the unspoken norms of Jiangyuan County, at least two-thirds of the money needed to be handed over to Madam Li.

However, Daniu and his wife weren’t living with the family. Staying and dining in the county town incurred high costs, so it was naturally impossible to hand over all the money to Madam Li. Eventually, Lu Dasong mediated, deciding they’d only hand over one-third.

Firstly, with one less able-bodied worker in the family, the farm’s harvests had decreased. Secondly, Lanhua was about to get married, and Erniu needed money for his education. As the eldest brother, Daniu couldn’t shirk his responsibilities.

Fortunately, two taels of silver were still enough to sustain their comfortable living.

But it had only been five or six months; by rough calculation, saving ten taels of silver was already quite remarkable.

With just ten taels of silver, how could they possibly buy a house? Yu had her own needs for money too.

Zhou Qiao was still stunned by the fact that Third Uncle wanted to buy property in the county town, but after hearing Daniu’s detailed explanation, she immediately nodded and said, “It was right to refuse.”