Sanni then ran over to the side of the cart to look at this and that, unable to keep herself from muttering, "This must have cost quite a bit of silver, right? Big sister, we need to start saving more, can’t just spend as we please... You see, there was no need to buy this stone mill—our third great-uncle and fourth great-granduncle have one, and so does the village chief. We could have borrowed it... And why buy so many basins? What a waste..."
Yang Ruxin listened and couldn’t help but laugh. She offered no rebuttal, just kept nodding her head, "Alright, little housekeeper."
Seeing that Yang Ruxin’s attitude was so agreeable, Sanni herself smiled and then closed her mouth, taking the lead in running back to the yard to inform her second sister.
Gu Yao, watching the siblings interact, couldn’t help but feel extremely happy, his lips curling into a smile involuntarily as he pushed the cart into the Yang Family’s main courtyard and began unloading the goods, "I need to return the cart to Xiaoliu’s place, you all start tidying up those small things yourselves. I’ll come back later to help you scrub these two jars clean before using them..."
"Thank you, Second Brother Gu, we can manage by ourselves," Yang Ruxin nodded in response.
Once Gu Yao left, they hurriedly closed the gate of the courtyard and started to sort out the items.
They first laid out the cool mats on both kang beds, which meant they now had space in both rooms for sleeping, without all six people having to crowd onto a single kang together.
Although the kangs of this era were exceptionally large, taking up half the room’s area and having more than enough space for ten people to lie side by side, it was nonetheless inconvenient, especially since Xun Hui was still unconscious. Ruxin needed to treat her, so they needed a quieter environment, after all, her abilities were not to be revealed to outsiders.
"This is great," Sini said, happily rolling back and forth on the kang, her giggles infectious.
Soon Xiaofeng was rolling on the kang as well.
"Don’t tear the new kang mats," Sanni couldn’t help but warn them.
"It’s fine," Yang Ruxin waved off the concern, "How could it tear that easily? Go ahead and play." As she spoke, she pulled out two candy pieces and popped them into the mouths of the two little ones.
"So sweet!" Sini exclaimed in amazement.
Xiaofeng, too, was laughing with his teeth showing but not his eyes.
"Big sister, you’re just spoiling them," Sanni eyed her.
"I spoil you all the same," Yang Ruxin laughed, "Come on, roll around a bit too, and I’ll give you a candy as well."
"I’m not that childish," Sanni stomped her foot and then turned around and left.
Yang Ruxin laughed heartily without any sense of propriety.
Once outside the room, Sanni couldn’t help but smile too. Days like these were truly wonderful!
Then it was time to start preparing dinner.
Truth be told, Yang Ruxin felt her cooking skills were quite good. In her previous life, she had even taken up baking, but in this era without electricity or ovens, she couldn’t create those pastries from before. However, she was still able to whip up everyday dishes effortlessly; she just found lighting a fire a bit troublesome, though it wasn’t an issue with several helpers around.
"Big sister, how do we eat these tiny shrimp?" Sanni looked at the big basin full of small shrimp and frowned slightly, "There’s hardly any meat."
"You’ll understand once they are cooked," Yang Ruxin replied without looking up, dividing the shrimp into two portions—one portion to be fried for everyone to enjoy wrapped in pancakes tonight, the other to be ground into shrimp paste.
There were two stoves in the main room. Before, there was only one pot, but with the recent purchase of another, they could now cook with two pots simultaneously.
Yang Ruxin had Erni mix dough and bake pancakes, while Sanni took Sini and Xiaofeng to tend the fires at both stoves, and she herself took charge of the cooking.