Chapter 135
As the evening heat faded, the tangerine sunset quickly dipped below the horizon, and a cool breeze swept through. Lu Gu wiped his hands clean, hung the towel on the wooden rack, and returned to the house. He had already tidied up the stove, and now Shen Yan was inside boiling water for their baths.
Shen Xuanqing sat at the table, having emptied several coin pouches onto its surface. There was a large pile of copper coins, along with a fair amount of loose silver.
This was the earnings from today’s mutton sales. The moment Lu Gu stepped into the room, his eyes locked onto the pile of money, gleaming with excitement. At some point, counting and organizing their earnings together after each sale had become a habit between them.
“I’ve cut the hemp cord and strung them into full strings of a thousand. We’ll exchange them for whole silver when we go to town,” Shen Xuanqing said with a smile.
“Mm.” Lu Gu pulled out a chair and sat down beside him.
They first picked out the loose silver from the pile of copper coins, gathering it into a small heap at the edge of the table. The clinking of copper coins was even more pleasing to the ear than the crisp chirping of birds at dawn.
Shen Xuanqing silently threaded the coins while counting in his head, while Lu Gu sat across from him, murmuring numbers under his breath, just loud enough for himself to hear, so as not to disturb Shen Xuanqing.
As they counted, Lu Gu’s face broke into an irrepressible smile.
After stringing three full sets of a thousand coins, Shen Xuanqing took over the remaining copper coins on the table. Once finished, he looked up and said, “We’re thirty short.”
“I’ll get them.” Lu Gu stood and went to the bed, retrieving a coin pouch from beneath the pillow, the one they used for daily expenses.
After adding the thirty missing copper coins, the last string was complete.
Four full strings in total, each worth a thousand copper coins, or one tael of silver. The loose silver piled at the edge of the table added up to two taels. Shen Xuanqing set down the last string and grinned. “Today went well. Just thirty coins short of six taels, and since we’ve made up the difference, let’s call it six.”
Lu Gu naturally agreed, his smile never fading since they’d started counting. “Should we exchange the loose silver for whole ingots too?”
“No need,” Shen Xuanqing replied. “We’ll keep the loose silver for daily use. Two taels will last us a long while. We’ll just exchange these four strings, and the four taels will go straight into savings.”
“Alright.” Lu Gu nodded, carefully placing the loose silver into a small embroidered pouch, the one they kept accessible for either of them to use.
Earning money was an incomparable joy. Nowadays, Shen Xuanqing only went up the mountain once a month, but each trip brought in five or six taels, a very decent sum.
As they packed the strings of coins into a larger money bag, Lu Gu said, “We’re running low on wild soapberries at home. I was thinking of going up the mountain tomorrow to pick some. If I gather enough, maybe we can even sell some.”
“Fine by me. I’ll go with you,” Shen Xuanqing agreed.
The mountains stretched deep and far. The wild soapberry trees on the front slopes were often picked over by villagers, leaving only smaller fruits. Ever since moving down to live at home, Lu Gu had taken the dogs deeper into the mountains to search for more trees and had since located several good spots.
Once the money was put away, Shen Xuanqing pushed the table against the wall and moved the bathtub out from the corner. After a long day of slaughtering sheep and traveling, they were both drenched in sweat, a bath was a necessity.
Since the weather had turned hot, they bathed every other day, and the tub hadn’t left the room since.
Water wasn’t an issue, every family fetched it from the river, but firewood was different. Even though they could gather it from the mountains, many families used it sparingly. Bathing as frequently as they did was already rare in the nearby villages.
Back in the Lu family, Lu Gu had rarely had the chance to bathe. Afraid of being called filthy, he could only chew willow twigs to clean his teeth and wash his face carefully with river water.
Now that he bathed often, dirt rarely clung to him. And whenever Shen Xuanqing was in the room during his baths, he would inevitably stare at Lu Gu’s damp, pale back and shoulders for a long while.
Lu Gu glanced out the window at the clay stove and earthenware pot boiling water in the yard. “The pot’s boiling. Do you want to wash your hair first?”
“Sure.” Shen Xuanqing nodded.
The wooden basin and rack were outside. As he stepped out, Shen Yan called from the kitchen that the bathwater was ready, who would draw the first bucket?
Hearing no response from Wei Lanxiang, Shen Xuanqing said, “You go ahead and bathe in the room. I’ll wash my hair first.”
“Mm.” Lu Gu followed him out to fetch water.
With the doors and windows shut tight, the bathtub was soon filled. Lu Gu quickly sank into the water.
The comfort of hot water enveloping his body made him relax without realizing it. The fatigue of the past two days melted away as he leaned against the tub’s edge, resting for a while.
After his bath, it was Shen Xuanqing’s turn. Lu Gu went out, ladled water from the pot, and washed his hair.
The clean, refreshed feeling after bathing was pure bliss. Once his hair dried, lying down was even better. The faint, fresh scent of wild soapberries lingered in the air, and as the night cooled, the slightly chilled bamboo sleeping mat brought deep comfort.
Tonight wasn’t too bad, not as sweltering as before. Lu Gu rolled to the side and, with practiced ease, nestled into Shen Xuanqing’s arms. The porcelain pillow they’d bought earlier hadn’t suited him, so he’d given it to Shen Xuanqing and switched back to his soft rush-stuffed pillow.
Compared to the sweaty heat of the day, Shen Xuanqing now carried a pleasant scent. Lu Gu secretly sniffed lightly twice, his ear tips turning faintly red as he realized what he was doing. He didn’t dare voice his thoughts, keeping them quietly to himself.
Shen Xuanqing tightened his arms around the person in his embrace and said in a low voice, “Tomorrow, let’s stop by Uncle Jinhu’s place to check on the puppies. See if they’ve fattened up. We’ll pick two and bring them home in a couple of months to raise properly.”
Most villagers fed their dogs scraps, and Uncle Lin Jinhu’s big yellow dog was no exception. But puppies still needed their mother’s milk, taking them too early would make them hard to raise. Waiting until they were three months old, then bringing them home to feed them well, would ensure they grew up strong.
Lu Gu gave a soft “Mm” in response. Thinking of the puppies reminded him of Guaizi as a little pup, he was chubby, round, and plump. Even as someone inexperienced, he could tell the family in Niujia village knew how to raise dogs well. Of course, he also knew it was likely because wolfhound mastiffs were valuable.
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