Qin Fang listened, feeling rather helpless. He half-crouched, pulled a wooden box from his arms, and handed it to Yang Haiyan. "May 18th is your birthday. I was in the barracks and couldn't come back to celebrate it with you, so I'm making up for it with this gift. Yanyan, happy birthday to you." He was a little nervous when he handed it to her, worried she might dislike it. That day at the market, he'd seen an old man buying wooden hairpins, and he'd thought of carving one himself for her.
However, ordinary wood was not suitable. He had heard that there was a kind of wood that had a fragrance, so he asked General Ao to go to the county town to help him look for it. General Ao asked Ao Yiren to help him look for it, and they looked for it for more than a month and found it.
Over the past month or so, Qin Fang had spent every spare moment learning to make wooden hairpins, and he finally mastered the art. Fortunately, Qin Fang was also skilled in knifework, so carving wooden hairpins wasn't that difficult.
But these past few months have been difficult for him.Yang Haiyan looked at the wooden box in a daze.
She hadn't received a big gift for a long time.She was a little distracted, so Qin Fang asked,
"What's wrong? It's okay if you don't like it. I'll choose something else next time."
Yang Haiyan shook her head, her smile a bit forced, but it was filled with joy and emotion. Since she'd traveled through the book to this point, she hadn't paid any attention to the original owner's birthday, and so she hadn't celebrated any birthdays. And in her previous life, she didn't even know when her birthday was. When her grandmother was alive, she'd celebrated her birthday every year, but that birthday was the child she'd found, not her real one.
After all, who could know the true nature of an abandoned child? After her grandmother passed away, she hadn't celebrated any more birthdays, because they weren't her real one, and she felt there was no point in celebrating any more.
Or maybe, she was still feeling angry and didn't want to live like that.
But she hadn't expected Qin Fang to prepare a gift.She opened the wooden box, and a faint fragrance wafted from it, not like sandalwood, but with a sense of timelessness. Yang Haiyan took out a wooden hairpin, a black hairpin, low-key and mysterious, with a flying swallow carved on it.
When Yang Haiyan touched it with her hand, it was very smooth, and it must have been polished very well by Qin Fang. "Sir, please put it on for me." She handed the hairpin to Qin Fang.
Qin Fang's heart finally relaxed. He inserted the wooden hairpin into Yang Haiyan's bun. There was nothing in her bun originally, but with the wooden hairpin, it looked a little different. Qin Fang said,
"Okay."
Yang Haiyan reached out and touched it: "Go get a mirror so I can look at myself."
Qin Fang went to her dressing table and brought back a mirror. Actually, the bronze mirror wasn't as blurry as people thought. The person reflected in it was still very clear, but not as bright as a modern mirror.
Qin Fang asked nervously, "How is it?"
Yang Haiyan said, "It looks great, thank you, sir." Wearing the wooden hairpin, she looked even more gentle and elegant, and she liked it very much. "I will wear it every day from now on."
Qin Fang's mouth corners slowly rose: "Okay."
Aunt Lian stood at the door and asked, "Madam, is it time for dinner?"
Yang Haiyan put on her slippers and said, "It's time for dinner." Her ankle still hurt a little. When she walked, she felt like the snake's saliva was flowing all over her body. The aftereffects were quite severe.
Han family
Yang Dahua had been pregnant for seven months, and this was her eighth month. Because goat milk and eggs were both nutritious, she was feeling well.
Her belly was a bit bigger than other women who were also seven months pregnant, but not particularly large.
It was fine when the month was young, but now that it's advanced, Han Zhen runs back and forth to the barracks family quarters, worried about Yang Dahua. Tonight, Han Zhen finished his night shift and returned early. He caught up on some sleep in the morning, and the couple had lunch together at noon.
Han Zhen said, "I'm free these two days, and your belly is getting bigger, so let's hire someone to take care of you for six months, until your confinement is over."
Yang Dahua listened and felt reluctant: "Doesn't this cost more money?" After the confinement period, she also had to take care of the child. In the next ten years, she would not be able to earn money. So for her at the moment, she was reluctant to spend even
a copper penny.
Han Zhen: "The money can be earned, but what if you have 10,000 yuan? When I'm on duty during the day, I come back at night, and you can still feel at ease. But when I'm on duty at night, l'm not at home. Listen, I'm going to hire someone."
Yang Dahua understood this logic, but she only grumbled a few words and didn't refuse, because she cared about her child more than anyone else.
"Well, but I have an idea."
Han Zhen asked: "What's the idea?"
Yang Dahua said, "It's too troublesome for us to hire someone. Why not ask the sister-in-law next door to take care of it? I'll give her some money every month. We can trust someone we know well. It's much more reliable than someone we find outside."
Han Zhen listened and thought it made sense.
After lunch, the couple went to discuss the matter with the wife of the centurion next door. The centurion's wife listened and agreed. She lived next door, and she could still take care of Yang Dahua while still taking care of her family. So, she negotiated a price: two hundred wen per month for the wife to take care of Yang Dahua's three meals a day, including grocery shopping, laundry, and cooking.
Yang Haiyan knew about this immediately.
The day after his day off, Qin Fang took Kun Shi and his other guards to the mountains. Burdened with a debt of six taels of silver, Qin Fang felt the pressure, and even the diligent and hardworking Qin Fang went out to earn money. Qin Fang had only one way to make money: hunting, hunting, and more hunting.
However, the private guard's family was very happy because when the adults went hunting, it meant they had meat to eat.
In fact, other captains would occasionally go hunting with their personal guards, but none of them were as active as Qin Fang.
Qin Fang left early, and Yang Haiyan didn't care about him when she woke up.
"Madam..." Aunt Fan rushed over after delivering goat milk to Yang Dahua. Yang Haiyan was having breakfast and drinking wonton soup. She bowed and said, "Madam, when I was delivering goat milk to Madam Han today, I saw that Madam Han's family had invited someone."
Yang Haiyan didn't understand for a moment: "Hire someone?"
Aunt Fan said, "That's right. Madam Han is pregnant and will be pregnant in a few months. It's inconvenient for her to do the work herself, so she asked the centurion's wife next door to take care of her. It costs two hundred coins a month."
Yang Haiyan said: "That's as it should be. Pregnancy is a big deal for a woman, and she needs to be taken care of more carefully when she's pregnant."
Aunt Fan said, "That's right."
Aunt Fan and Nanny Lian both knew that Yang Haiyan and Qin Fang had not had sex. She didn't know whether there was a wedding night or not, but since she was bought by the Madam, the Madam and the Master had not had sex. As someone who had experienced it, she knew it just by looking.
Aunt Fan was puzzled as to why the Madam and the Master hadn't had sex, but Aunt Lian knew that it was bad for a woman to get pregnant too early.
Even if many women knew this, they would still rush to get pregnant after marriage, in order to win their husband's heart and stabilize their position in the husband's family.
Nanny Lian felt that it was better for her wife to live a carefree life. Although the position of a captain was low, it was a well-known position in Yongzhou, in the family housing, and in the county town. No one would give her wife a hard time.Besides, the Qin family was from the countryside, and the elders behind them wouldn't oppress the mistress, nor could they. Furthermore, the mistress had her own means and abilities, and could earn money. In Nanny Lian's opinion, this was a good life.
For the past six months, she had lived a life free of intrigue and joy with the mistress.
At noon, after Qin Shoucheng finished his meal, he looked at Yang Haiyan hesitantly, wanting to say something but feeling embarrassed.
Yang Haiyan was startled and asked curiously,
"Shoucheng, do you have anything to say?"
Qin Shoucheng said: "Sister-in-law, the latter is the cousin of my classmate Wei Yanglin, and he invited me to his house to play."
Wei Yanglin is the grandson of the town's wealthy family. He is eight years old this year. Qin Shoucheng's classmates are all younger than him because he started school later.
The Wei family did not engage in business, but because they had many children, their family was quite famous in the town.
Yang Haiyan was delighted to hear this and said,
"Since my classmate invited you, of course I have to go." She was delighted that Qin Shoucheng had made friends here. Furthermore, Qin Shoucheng was a well-behaved child, so she didn't have to worry about anything. Whether he was studying at the private school or practicing martial arts with his private guards, he was very dedicated. Besides taking care of his three meals a day, Yang Haiyan didn't have to worry about anything else.
"So, should I prepare any gifts?" Qin Shoucheng was very nervous and concerned about being invited for the first time. When he went back to his hometown, he didn't need to prepare anything when his friends invited him to play, but he also knew that classmates were different.
Yang Haiyan said: "Of course we have to prepare. Do you have any ideas in mind?"
Qin Shoucheng: "I'm going to give you a pen. I went to the study to look at it when I came back from school today."
Yang Haiyan said, "Then let Aunt Lian give you some money later so you can go back and buy the pen."
Qin Shoucheng hurriedly shook his head and said,"No need, sister-in-law. I have money. I haven't used the monthly allowance you gave me yet."
Yang Haiyan would give him a monthly allowance of fifty cents as his pocket money.
Qin Siya didn't know about this. She gave it to Qin
Shoucheng because he was well behaved. In addition, sometimes classmates in the private school would socialize and buy food. If he didn't have money, it would be difficult to socialize. Qin Siya gave it to him as a reward for learning to read, not as a monthly allowance.
In fact, it is also a monthly salary that has changed, but in a different way. After all, Qin Shoucheng has no rewards for learning to read. Different people have different methods.
Yang Haiyan smiled and said, "Okay, go prepare it yourself. If you don't have enough money, tell my sister-in-law." She didn't force her.
Qin Shoucheng's sister-in-law did not object and said happily: "Yes, then I will go back to the east wing."
Yang Haiyan nodded and said, "Go ahead."
After Qin Shoucheng left, Yang Haiyan said to Nanny Lian, "It's a rare occasion for Shoucheng to be with classmate. We can't lose face for him. We have to prepare a gift. Nanny, what do you think?