Mr. Shen troubled the old master to invite a painter, and the painter's wages were counted by piecework, because only his family had lacquer materials. Good furniture needs to be painted five or six times, so the price of one bed is 800 coins. The window frames in the house are all done, several doors are also done, and the wooden boards on the roof should be brushed with two layers of clear lacquer. All these are not as troublesome as making furniture, and it will cost three to four silver coins in total.

  Time flies and it's the end of the month again. When Zeng Ruixiang arrived home, Master Xu had already made two complete beds and was now making a dining table and chairs. The eight immortals' table came with eight small chairs, all of which were carved with flowers. Zi Qing felt that they had a somewhat bright and clear style, but to be honest, she didn't really understand it, she just thought they looked great.

  Xu Shifu's apprentice also made ten simple stools and a large round table top using ordinary wood from home, all of which were later collected by Shen Shi. She said that the two houses on either side of the main house would not be occupied for the time being, with the east side used to store grain and the west side used to store miscellaneous items, while the wooden house was used to store farm tools and raise chickens, and pigs would also be raised in the future. Because Zi Qing thought that raising pigs in the new house really didn't smell good.

  The first bed has been moved into the house, and the second one is still in the small courtyard drying. Zi Qing saw that Master Li, the painter, would move them inside on sunny days, but only bring them out to air when the sun went down or on cloudy afternoons. The doors and windows of the house have all been finished, with just a final coat of paint remaining. One of Xu's apprentices has left, while another, Little Liu, is working on the kitchen cabinets.

  The cabinet is a set of low and high cabinets for modern integral kitchen, which can save a lot of space and look more tidy. Of course, this was Ziying's idea. Ziying used branches to explain to Xiaoliu for half a day, after understanding, Xiaoliu said it was very simple and easy to do. It seems that in about ten days, we should be able to move into our new home.

  Zi Qing saw her father return, only to realize it was already the end of October, and the sweet potatoes hadn't been dug up yet. These past few days she had been busy looking at furniture, helping Shen Shi with gardening and cooking, and had truly forgotten about the sweet potatoes.

  Ziying quickly grabbed a small shovel and dug it up, growing bigger than the last one. It seems like there's going to be a big harvest. Ziying excitedly pulled Shen Shi over to take a look.

  This time when Zeng Rui-xiang returned home, he didn't have to work in the fields. The wheat and rape had already been planted by Zeng Rui-yu. It took Zeng Rui-xiang three days to dig up all the sweet potatoes with his family. Seeing the mountain of sweet potatoes, the old man was stunned - this yield is too high! The old man took some back home to eat and said he would send some to Chun-yu's house as well. Shen-shi asked the old man to find a geomancer to calculate which day it would be auspicious for them to move house.

  Before Zeng Ruixiang left, Master Xu said that the eight armchairs and six tea tables in the hall, as well as the long table and the Eight Immortals table, would be best made of red wood. Just looking at them gives a sense of grandeur. Adding the bookshelves and dressing tables in the house, it would be enough to give 100 taels of silver for materials.

  Zeng Ruixiang said: "The original material cost was 50 taels, if you deduct the materials used for the hall furniture, it should not exceed 100 taels? Otherwise, I'll add 100 taels, and you make two more nanmu screens, six in total, and also make six camphor wood boxes, not all camphor wood, but a combination of pine and camphor wood. How about that? I know you have some goods on hand."

  It was unexpected that Master Xu readily agreed. To know, one hundred taels of silver is enough for an ordinary farming family to live for twenty years, and even for a simple urban family with a small population, it can last for more than ten years. So Master Xu did not expect that his accumulated good wood would finally be sold this time, and he was happier than anyone else.

  Zi Qing calculated that there wasn't enough silver at home, fearing Shen Shi would be anxious, so he quickly found Zhou Zhanggui to get rid of the potatoes.

  Shen went to the city to find Zhou Zhanggui, and since it was already agreed upon, the next day Zhou Zhanggui personally led a team to pull it out. It took four or five trips to finish pulling it out. After weighing it, they found that there were over 5,800 catties. They sold 5,000 catties at home, and the rest was used for seeds, food, or gifts.

  Zhou said that now they can only sell it for three cents a catty, because they also sell it outside for four cents a catty. Shen agreed and received fifteen taels of silver.

  Zhou Zhanggui brought a small gift for Zi Qing this time, which was a small glass mirror. Zi Qing was very surprised and asked where it came from. He said that it was brought over by ships from overseas. "Is there one as big as a window?" Zi Qing asked.

  "Yes, there is one in the East House, but it's very expensive. The East House said that there is a workshop on the side of Guangzhou City, which has masters who were invited from overseas at a high price and opened a workshop."

  "Can the shopkeeper of that store know how much silver is needed for a window about yea big?"

  "It's not very clear, I'll go back and ask Master Dong. Next time you come to the city, I'll tell you again. However, little girl, your family's house is built quite well." said Zhou Zhanggui with a smile.

  "It's worthless in the countryside, thanks to Master Zhou for taking care of it." Madam Shen hastily took over and thanked him.

  "Boss Zhou, my family still has a batch of green garlic and celery from last year. Do you want them?" Zi Qing thought that if she could cultivate scapes, they would be more valuable, but unfortunately, she didn't know how. However, she should be able to pull out some garlic shoots.

  "We, the Dong family, send New Year's gifts to Beijing every year. Taking the official road is faster. The north lacks vegetables in winter, so we often bring some green vegetables from here. When it's time, you come and notify us. Don't forget those several dozen capons, our old lady said they taste different from other chickens."

  "Boss Zhou, you're really a blessing to our family. Don't worry, we'll keep ten and you can take the rest away." said Shen. Looks like they need to raise some more.

  After everyone else had left, Shen said to Zi Qing: "It's still suitable to plant this, one mu of land can yield five taels of silver in a season, much better than planting wheat or rice."

  "Zi Qing said, 'I heard that in the south, if you arrange it well, you can harvest three seasons a year. But our family's crops are profitable, and as more people around us start planting, the price will definitely drop. Such high-yielding things can't always sell for such a high price; now is because of scarcity, so let's take advantage of the current high price to sell more.'"

  "How did you know? I find that you're speaking more and more like a little adult." Shen looked at Zi Qing with suspicion.

  It's bad, didn't pay attention to the wording, Zi Qing hurriedly put on a smile and pulled Shen Shi's sleeve, saying: "Mother, you didn't listen carefully to what Zhou Zhuang said, he and his partners were talking about it when I heard him say that in the first half of the year they could still sell for five cents, now they can only sell for four cents, isn't it because there are more people planting?"

  Shen thought for a moment and said, "It's not that simple. In the past half year, we could sell it for four cents, but now we can only sell it for three cents. I'm telling you, young fellow, you don't know these things, you must have heard others say so. It seems that listening to others' gossip isn't always a bad thing."

  Zi Qing let out a sigh of relief, just as Old Master walked in. Zi Qing thought it was good that he hadn't seen Shen Shi sell the fifteen taels of silver. The old master said that the Feng Shui master had calculated that November 8th was an auspicious day to move house.

  Shen thought that the eighth day of the lunar new year was approaching, and if they waited any longer, it would be really cold. So Shen took Zi Lu to the city several times to buy things, including cotton, bedding, fabric, white paper for pasting windows, bowls and chopsticks, which were a bit more delicate this time, and even bought a clay pot and two braziers, among other things, spending over a few taels of silver, mainly on cotton and fabric.

  Zi Qing saw her mother busy running around, definitely didn't think that the sweet potato field at home was idle and should do something. Zi Qing thought about it and decided to scatter some rape seeds, after the New Year's Day, she would pick the tender shoots as vegetables to sell, especially when people in the city wanted to eat some refreshing vegetables after the New Year. After picking the tender shoots, she could turn over the field and use the remaining rape to fertilize the soil, take a break and then plant watermelon.

  Zi Qing thought about it and then brought it up with Shen Shi, but this time she paid attention to her way of speaking and technique. Shen Shi took a look and didn't need to say anything else, just smoothed out the soil a bit and scattered the rape seeds. Originally, there wasn't much expectation for a harvest anyway, so it was also convenient.