Farming Family's Pocket Dimension: A Charmed Little Lady Comes to Farm

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: I Want to Take a Bath

"Then... how about half price? The little kids don’t take up much room," the village chief pleaded.

The Shopkeeper said impatiently, "Alright, alright, alright."

The village chief mumbled to himself, taking ages to figure out how many Copper Coins he owed.

Just as the Shopkeeper was about to ask how many people were in his family, Gu Fei spoke up from the side. "Grandpa Chief, your family has six adults and two children, plus a bucket of water. That will be one hundred and forty cents."

The village chief stared at her in astonishment. "You know how to do arithmetic, girl?"

"Is that calculation correct?"

The Shopkeeper glanced over at Gu Fei. "The girl’s right. It’s one hundred and forty cents."

The village chief handed over a string of one hundred cents, counted out forty more, and quickly called his son to go fetch the water.

Gu Zhang looked at Gu Fei. "What are the arrangements for our family?"

It didn’t really matter to Gu Fei where she slept, but she desperately wanted to take a bath.

’She hadn’t had a single bath since arriving in this world!’

The meager amount of water they had was barely enough for the family to eat and drink, certainly not enough for a bath. She didn’t dare make such a clearly unreasonable request.

Gu Fei pulled her father aside. "Dad, I was thinking... why don’t we get a private room? I have to take a bath. My wounds are almost healed, but now my whole body is itching."

Gu Zhang had no objections. "Alright. You women can stay in the room tonight. If there aren’t enough beds, you can make pallets on the floor. Your brothers and I will stay in the communal sleeping quarters."

"But what about Uncle Ma—"

As he spoke, he glanced over at Uncle Ma. Seeming to understand, Uncle Ma smiled at Gu Zhang. "I’ll be fine in the communal sleeping quarters."

He had slept in the wild plenty of times in his youth.

Gu Zhang nodded. "Then I’m sorry to impose on you."

Gu Fei quickly paid the Shopkeeper the silver and bought several extra buckets of water, planning to heat them later so her family could wash up.

Gu Qing and his younger brothers had already built a simple stove out of dirt clods. Gu Fei, putting on a show of rummaging through the cart, pulled out a large iron pot, followed by two water buckets.

Mrs. Chen sidled up to her and whispered, "Daughter, I was just thinking... everyone saw our family eating white flour noodles at noon. I’m afraid they might be feeling a bit resentful. Why don’t you take out some meat? We can make a big pot of meat soup and give a bowl to each family."

Gu Fei was truly impressed with her mother. ’Her social intelligence is seriously high.’

She nodded and, pretending to rummage in the cart again, took out a piece of meat, along with a cutting board and a kitchen knife.

Gu Erlang went to fetch water, while Gu Qing and Gu Sanlang took a lantern into the nearby fields to look for dry firewood.

Mrs. Chen placed the cutting board on a waist-high earthen wall and began to chop the meat.

Over with Ms. Qian’s family, however, things were a mess. Gu Zhong never did chores at home, and he wasn’t about to start now. He just wandered around with his hands clasped behind his back.

Ms. Qian hadn’t even managed to build her earthen stove yet. She was too busy ordering Xing’er around, sending the girl running in circles to fetch this and that.

Bao’er and Hu Zi were playing with the village chief’s grandchildren, a boy named Shanyao and a girl named Lianqiao.

The old matriarch watched Gu Fei’s family. They had already built two earthen stoves and brought over water. Li Chunhua was stirring a piece of alum in a bucket to purify it, while Mrs. Chen chopped meat.

Gu Fei and Lan Zhi were cleaning the wild greens they had picked along the road, removing the roots and yellowed leaves.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

The other families also had everyone, young and old, pitching in. The village chief’s family had even started kneading dough.

The old matriarch hurried over to help Ms. Qian. She was afraid her eldest son and precious grandson wouldn’t get to eat dinner.