The Pampered Concubine Gu Jiao Niang

Chapter 34: Buying a Mountain

Chapter 34: Buying a Mountain

  After getting some money, Gu Jiao started to think about what to do with it.

  The next day, when Xiao Liulang returned from school, the three of them sat in the main hall having their meal.

  Although they were called a family of three, they didn't have any actual relationship with each other, but strangely enough, they had a somewhat harmonious atmosphere.

  The old lady gnawed on a big chicken leg and glanced at Gu Jiao, saying, "If you have something to say, just say it!"

  Gu Jiao thought to herself: The old lady has good eyesight, how did she know that I had something to say?

  "I want to buy a mountain," Gu Jiao said.

  "Are you talking about winter clothes or fall clothes?" The old lady gave Gu Jiao a speechless look, as if she was complaining that such a trivial matter was worth making a fuss about.

  "I'm not talking about clothes, I'm talking about a big mountain, the one behind our village," Gu Jiao said. She had been picking wood ears and mushrooms on the mountain and found many valuable things there. If she could buy it, she could not only pick mountain products and collect medicinal herbs, but also cut down trees and hunt. In short, the mountain was full of value and they wouldn't lose money.

  "Buy it then!"

  Surprisingly, the old lady didn't hesitate at all. When it came to spending money, she was really generous.

  If this were the original owner's aunt, Madam Wu, she would probably jump up and scold Gu Jiao: "You little unlucky star, you wasteful woman, you even want to buy a mountain. Do you think money grows on trees?"

  In the eyes of most villagers, mountains were worthless. They were at best a source of firewood and wild vegetables, and although there were also mountain products and game, no one would buy a whole mountain just for those things.

Gu Jiao is knowledgeable and capable of dealing with any danger in the mountains, so that mountain in her hands will be a huge treasure trove. In the past, she would make her own decisions and Xiao Liulang never interfered with her decisions, but since the old lady came, their relationship seems to have undergone some changes.

"Are you talking about the mountain behind Uncle Luo's house?" Xiao Liulang asked.

"Yes." Gu Jiao nodded.

Clear Springs Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and she is eyeing the mountain in the middle, which is also a popular destination for villagers. Uncle Luo's house is at the foot of the mountain.

"Okay, I'll go ask Lizheng later." Xiao Liulang didn't hesitate much.

Gu Jiao scratched her head. Lizheng is her grandfather, and she could have gone to ask him herself. She didn't mention it to make him busy.

After dinner, Xiao Liulang went to old Gu's house.

Zhou Shi and Liu Shi were beaten with thirty big boards by the yamen, and they have been lying low in the house for the past few days. The house is much quieter.

"Brother-in-law! Why are you here?" Gu Xiaoshun opened the door.

"I'm here to find Lizheng." Xiao Liulang said.

Although he and Gu Jiao are now married, he has always addressed the old man as Lizheng.

"Oh." Gu Xiaoshun was only surprised that his brother-in-law would come to their door, but not surprised by his address, after all, Gu's family forced him to marry his sister-in-law first and squeezed his hard-earned money later, all of which were debts.

"Grandpa, Brother-in-law is here!" Gu Xiaoshun led Xiao Liulang to Lizheng's room.

Lizheng was somewhat surprised to see Xiao Liulang. If he remembered correctly, this was the first time Xiao Liulang had come to Gu's old house since his marriage to Gu Jiao.

"It's so late, what's the matter?" Lizheng asked.

Xiao Liulang said nonchalantly, "I came to ask Lizheng how much the mountain behind Uncle Luo's house is worth?"

"You're asking about this for what? Does someone from your academy want to buy a mountain?" Grandpa Gu couldn't have imagined that it was his own granddaughter who wanted to buy the mountain. "That mountain costs a lot of money... and it's not something anyone can just buy. The mountain doesn't belong to our village or the county government, it belongs to the temple."

"Temple?" Xiao Liu Lang furrowed his brow slightly, unaware that there was a temple here.

"Exactly, the temple. You haven't been there yet since you arrived here, have you? It's on the other side of the mountain, about an hour's walk from the foot of the mountain. If someone from your academy wants to buy the mountain, they will have to talk to the abbot of the temple."

Thinking of something, Grandpa Gu continued, "Come to think of it, Jiao Niang was born in that temple."

After Xiao Liu Lang returned home, Gu Jiao came to greet him and asked, "How did it go? What did the Gu family say?"

Xiao Liu Lang repeated Grandpa Gu's words.

"It belongs to the temple..." The original owner hadn't been to that temple, no, according to Grandpa Gu's words, she was born in the temple, so that counted as going there. "Did they say how much silver is needed?"

"They didn't say specifically, but it's probably not enough with just one hundred taels." Xiao Liu Lang said.

"Oh, I still have some." Gu Jiao said, taking out a handful of silver ingots from her pocket and putting them on the table.

The old lady, who was cracking melon seeds, stopped in her tracks.

However, it didn't end there. Gu Jiao grabbed another handful, and another, and another.

Both the old lady and Xiao Liu Lang were stunned. These silver ingots must be worth at least twenty to thirty taels each, where did she get them from?

Xiao Liu Lang regained his composure and asked, "Did you earn all of these by selling mountain goods?"

"Yeah!" Gu Jiao tried to widen her eyes, looking sincere, "I absolutely did not get them from fighting!"

Xiao Liu Lang: "..."

In ancient times, there were not many holidays for studying, except for the ten-day xun holiday, the field holiday during the farming season, and the clothing holiday in September. The annual holiday used to be in the first ten days of the twelfth lunar month, but this year it has been delayed until the latter half of the month, and there will be no more xun holidays for the next half month due to the upcoming annual holiday.

Gu Jiao did not want Xiao Liulang to ask for leave from the academy for this matter, so she decided to go to the temple herself. Considering the lesson from last time, Gu Jiao did not leave the food in the pot for the old lady this time, but found Xue Ningxiang and asked her to take care of the old lady.

"You, aunt..."

"Her illness is not serious and is not contagious."

"Ah, that's not what I meant."

Gu Jiao knew about Xue Ningxiang helping her to cover up the truth, and naturally guessed what Xue Ningxiang had figured out. However, Xue Ningxiang did not report her and did not distance herself from her.

Xue Ningxiang did not ask Gu Jiao how she cured the leprosy, she just had to trust Gu Jiao: "Don't worry, I will take good care of your aunt."

shishiballs note:

Grandpa Gu: is also Gu Louye, old master Gu and Lizheng

don't be confuse the names will sometimes change because the nature of the contex, location, rankings of the person, and how they are related to the said person thus

shishiballs:

I will be releasing all the chapters that I have been working on for weeks as I just discovered that someone has been working on this story since 2021

All of it will be half baked or half raw as I will no longer revising it sorry if while reading it and you find a lot of mistakes