Blissful Days After Widowhood - Chapter 85

When Gu Yin carried the food box back to Jinyi Alley, her footsteps were very brisk.

Encountering Mrs. Wang who came out of the alley, Gu Yin stepped forward with a smile, “Mom, were you worried? It went well today, and I brought back a lot of meat skewers. We don’t have to prepare supper at night.”

After she finished speaking, Mrs. Wang seemed to have just seen her and said, “Oh, why did you come back so early?!”

Gu Yin said strangely, “You didn’t come out to pick me up, then…”

Mrs. Wang said, “I’m going out to buy some steamed buns and distribute them to the people who work at home.”

As she said that, she also laughed. Her eyes were so full of joy that she couldn’t see, she lowered her voice and said, “There will be a kang (brick bed/platform with heating) in our house!”

There was no kang in the small courtyard they lived in, but a simple bamboo bed, which was usually fine, but it got cold after winter.

Mrs. Wang had asked to get it made before, but there were many people in that line of work, and the price was also high. In the twelfth lunar month, the price had doubled several times.

Mrs. Wang was heartbroken and did not want to give up the money, so she just put a few more mattresses on each person’s bed.

Without waiting for Gu Yin to ask questions, Mrs. Wang took her aside and explained the ins and outs.

It turned out that Officer Caotou came to the house in the morning and asked Mrs. Wang to go to the county office.

She was so frightened that her calf trembled, and she almost knelt down to him, calling that she was wrong, saying that she was a good citizen.

Officer Caotou asked his apprentice to help her up and explained, “You misunderstood, the magistrate heard that you adopted a child on the dock and wanted to reward you. In addition, you have settled in the town, and you have to pay the poll tax.”

Speaking of the second half of the sentence, Officer Caotou was also a little embarrassed. He boasted that he had some ability to manage Hanshan Town into a paradise in this troubled world.

However, no one was allowed to interfere with taxation of the imperial court. So even if he knew that the Wang family’s life wasn’t easy, they had no levy on taxes.

When Mrs. Wang heard it, she exhaled a long breath, and her legs were no longer soft. She got the money and went to the county government office.

The county magistrate was an unassuming, very easy-going middle-aged man.

Mrs. Wang relaxed a little, crying first that it was not easy for her to escape from the famine, and being a widowed mother. Seeing the county magistrate was also embarrassed, she paid the tax for one person of a half tael without hesitation—as for the child, the county magistrate knew that he was a refugee, and he was supposed to be taken care of in the welfare home, but the help of the Wang family in the adoption helped reduce the county’s financial expenditure, so he didn’t get more.

When it was time for the awards, the county magistrate asked Mrs. Wang what she wanted.

Of course, Mrs. Wang wanted money the most, but she really didn’t dare to ask for money from an official. Second, the county magistrate’s clothes were half-new and not old, and he even called her over to pay the tax. She knew that they were not well-off.

Mrs. Wang said, “When I got to the town, we knew what a good life was. We have just arrived, and there are still many inconveniences in life, such as sleeping on a bamboo bed at home, and the wind blowing in the winter. It is really not as good as my hometown. That heated kang was comfortable. It’s a pity that there is no man in the family, and that…”

The county magistrate was a kind person, and he had a good opinion of Mrs. Wang. Their life was not easy, but she did not argue when paying taxes. Fortunately, she adopted an orphan,so he said, “It’s not difficult, the yamen officers are young and strong, but I don’t know if they could do it.”

Officer Chutou said that he knew, and learned from relatives when he was a child.

Since there was a leading person, there was no shortage of people in the yamen to contribute. The county magistrate nodded, and Officer Caotou led the people to build a Kang in Jinyi Alley.

“A few years ago, when I made it, I paid two taels of silver. For our family of three, I paid half a tael of silver, and still saved the other half!”

Gu Yin was stunned —

Old ginger was spicy. She could at most eat and drink at public expense. Her mother even made Kang at public expense. 

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Miao: Old ginger is spicy: Old people have more experience