Luo Biao traveled far north, and the round trip took two months. If there were delays, it could stretch to two and a half or even three months. Lu Gu had never been apart from Shen Xuanqing for so long before.
“Not hunting foxes this year means less income. So I thought of dealing in furs, coming back in time for winter when they sell better in the cold. We do have savings, but Yan Yan’s getting married. Eldest Brother and Mother are contributing to her dowry, and I can’t leave it all to them. With Father gone, there’s no one else to prepare it for her.”
Shen Xuanqing spoke in a low voice, explaining slowly to him: "This is one expense. The money on hand is actually enough. With Brother and Mother, I don’t need to contribute much, just add a little more."
"From what Luo Biao said, the furs we bring back can at least double in value. I want to seize the chance to earn more while I’m still young these years."
"The few hundred taels we have are our family’s foundation. We can’t just rely on those for a lifetime. In the future, Ling ger’s dowry will be a huge expense, we can’t let the child suffer. And if we have a second one, if it’s a boy, marrying and starting a family will cost money too."
"Not to mention food, clothing, schooling, and all kinds of other expenses. The other day, I went outside the town to look. Since we’re living here, why not buy a few acres of land outside the town? That way, we won’t have to haul rice and flour from home anymore. With fields and land, we’ll never have to worry about food and livelihood in the future."
Lu Gu listened quietly. Land was the foundation, Shen Xuanqing wasn’t wrong. And once they bought farmland, even if they were no longer around, it would be passed down to their children as family property and ancestral heritage. As long as they worked hard, they’d never go hungry.
"The north is so far away." He murmured, reluctant at heart.
Shen Xuanqing also couldn’t bear to part with his fulang and child. He sighed inwardly, then smiled and said, "I was just talking, wanting to hear your thoughts. If you don’t want me to go, then I won’t. After all, we can still earn money at home, just like before. We’ll save up bit by bit, life won’t be bad."
"Mm." Lu Gu let out a relieved breath. He truly couldn’t imagine Shen Xuanqing being away for so long.
The wind blew in through the half-open window. Shen Xuanqing stretched out an arm and pulled the person beside him close. Just like before, Lu Gu willingly nestled into his embrace, filling his heart with contentment.
"In a few days, I’ll go ask the carpenter if he can make us a carriage. Once we hitch it to the mule, we won’t have to worry about wind or sun, and we won’t get soaked in rain or snow. Summer is fine, but in winter, the cart is bare, with no cover. It’s really cold riding in the wind all the way."
Hearing this, Lu Gu remembered last year’s deep winter, when they rushed back to their hometown before the New Year. Adults could endure the cold, but thankfully they had bundled up the child—otherwise, Lingjun would have frozen terribly.
"That’s good." He replied softly. Though buying the shop and house had cost over a hundred taels, they still had a few hundred taels left to spare. Making a carriage would be more than enough.
He smiled and said, "After being here so long, how come we never thought of making one before?"
"True. We see so many carriages and horses on the street every day, yet it never occurred to us to make one for our own family." Shen Xuanqing also laughed.
Unable to sleep now, he tightened his arms around the person in his embrace and continued, "Originally, if we went north, I wanted to get us a good horse. A horse-drawn carriage would be much faster for traveling back and forth. Last time the Gu family came, Lingjun saw their big horse and asked me to buy him one."
He was referring to the day Gu Chengyue and Shen Yan met for their matchmaking. Lingjun often stayed in town, and whenever horses passed by on the street, Lu Gu would teach him to recognize them. Though still a toddler, he could already tell the difference between mule carts, donkey carts, and horse carts. Big horses were majestic and beautiful, even a child could see they were special.
That day, when Shen Xuanqing carried the child to the third uncle’s house, Lingjun had shouted, "Big horse, run run!" and even pointed at the horse, asking his dad to buy him one.
Lu Gu knew about this too.
"But we already have a mule. What do we need a horse for? The courtyard isn’t that big, it’s not like home, where we could raise as many livestock as we wanted." Shen Xuanqing added, "At most, we’d just travel from our hometown to here, with the farthest being Yuqing Prefecture. Horses are expensive, not worth it."
So the plan to go north was partly to get a good horse for the family.
Lu Gu thought for a moment and asked, "Are horses cheaper up north?"
"Mm, much cheaper. They breed horses there." Shen Xuanqing tugged the thin quilt lower. Holding each other in summer was already warm enough, covering their stomachs would suffice.
"Besides wanting to buy a horse, what else were you thinking?" Lu Gu also felt the heat and withdrew his hand from Shen Xuanqing’s waist.
Shen Xuanqing noticed the movement and grabbed his hand, placing it back on his own waist. Smiling, he said, "Last year, I rode one of Biaozi’s horses and listened to him talk about the scenery along the way north. It made me itch to go see it myself. After making the trip once and knowing where the good sights are, once the child is older, I’ll take you both out to see them too."
"The northern grasslands are too far, and the journey is tough. We’d just stop halfway to enjoy the scenery, at least beyond Yuqing’s borders. Once Ling ger is a bit older, maybe we could even make a trip to Jiangnan. The roads there are better, and taking the official routes means no fear of bandits."
Having studied, he knew from books and paintings that both the northern frontier and Jiangnan had beautiful scenery. Now that life was better, and he interacted with all kinds of people in town, he’d learned that wealthy families didn’t just visit nearby mountains or temples, even their womenfolk were sometimes taken to the capital or Jiangnan for leisure.
Hearing such stories, he sometimes thought about taking his own family out to see the world. Otherwise, spending a lifetime only shuttling between Qingxi Village and Jixing Town would feel too confined.
"Then go."
Shen Xuanqing was really just talking for the sake of it now, content to indulge in the idea. He was about to say more about the sights of the capital when he suddenly heard this response.
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