Chapter 556 - 338: Peace of Mind
Yang Zhang looked at everything in front of her, her heart warm.
"Da Ni, Madam Jiang and her family are our great benefactors. From now on, I won’t go back. I’ll work for the Jiang family and visit your brothers once a month, but I will never return to that household."
Da Ni’s eyes were still puffy from crying that morning. Hearing her mother’s words, she felt happy but remained anxious.
"Mother, can we really not go back? What if they find my brothers and grandma and grandpa forcefully take you back?"
Da Ni was young but knew quite a lot.
With her and her two brothers gone, there were fewer people to work at home, so they certainly wouldn’t let her mother work here in peace.
How could Yang Zhang not know what Da Ni knew?
But she seemed not to worry at all: "Don’t worry, Da Ni. Mother has a way. Even if they forcibly take me back, I’ll find a way to return soon."
Da Ni still felt uneasy: "Really?"
Yang Zhang divided the vegetables in the basin into two and scooped a large bowl for Da Ni.
"Don’t worry, Old Master Liu from the Jiang family gave me an idea. He is also our benefactor, and you must respect him."
"Okay, I understand." Da Ni nodded earnestly.
Even though they were now sold as servants to another family, her mother had told her the Jiang family was kind. She had also heard it from her aunt and uncle when they came home for the New Year.
Although she was a servant, as long as she was willing to work and didn’t slack off, she could have enough to eat and wouldn’t be beaten or scolded.
Living such a good life, Da Ni was already very satisfied and didn’t care at all whether she was now of humble status or no longer of good status.
Moreover, she believed in her mother and brothers. After a few years, when her grandparents no longer had any ideas about them, they could save enough money to buy her back.
By then, she would only be in her twenties, still young!
These were the words her mother had told the three siblings on the road that morning. Da Ni didn’t trust her father, but she trusted her mother!
Today’s braised bacon with radish was rich, and the radishes grown by the Jiang family were fragrant and sweet, even delicious raw, let alone braised with bacon.
The mother and daughter ate contentedly, even if not wolfing it down.
Da Ni licked her lips: "Even during New Year’s, we didn’t eat this well."
Even on New Year’s, she couldn’t sit at the table to eat, let alone have meat.
Yang Zhang felt a pang of sadness, but more than that, hope for the future: "It’s okay, you can often eat such good things in the future."
"Yesterday, I heard others say that the vegetables and grains grown by the Jiang family taste better than others’. Didn’t Madam Jiang just say it? As long as we don’t waste it, we can eat the vegetables from the field too."
Da Ni nodded vigorously: "And there are two times a month we get meat!"
In all her years, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d eaten meat, and those were secretly fed to her by her mother!
But now, she could have it twice a month!
Da Ni felt that being sold to the Jiang family was great, not only allowing her brothers to learn skills but also letting her avoid beatings and scoldings!
Mother and daughter dreamed about future life, feeling that life was full of hope, as if the gloomy past had completely disappeared.
Earlier, Second Aunt mentioned they could rest after lunch, so Yang Zhang let Da Ni lie on the bed for a rest.
As for herself, once her daughter was asleep, she carefully hid the remaining silver.
She had gone out that morning with so much silver, intentionally having her daughter loudly say she was taking her sons to learn skills, all because of this silver.
Yesterday, Old Master Liu had given her an idea to find a person in town specialized in this sort of thing.
To get the two children apprenticeships, but an introduction fee must be paid to that person.
There were two apprenticeship options: paid and free.
The free one involved being an errand runner for two years, followed by two years of learning, only then starting to be taught. This way, it might take six or seven years to graduate.
And one still might not learn all the skills; perhaps even in six or seven years, they wouldn’t master the essence and techniques of the craft.
However, if they paid for apprenticeship, the price varied according to different choices, but all were expensive.
The advantage was that upon apprenticeship, one could start learning immediately. Even if it ended up taking a long time, the things learned would definitely be more abundant.
Yang Zhang didn’t understand these things. Her first thought was to choose the free option, but luckily she asked Old Master Liu.
Old Master Liu’s suggestion was, naturally, to pay for learning. After all, once you master it, you can find a good way to make a living and eventually earn back the tuition.
Going for a free apprenticeship might waste several years, and one might end up learning only a little, earning just a small amount, and finding it hard to make a lot of money.
Yang Zhang didn’t hesitate and followed Old Master Liu’s advice.
Even so, she only used six taels of silver, bringing back the remaining fourteen taels.
But she didn’t plan to tell anyone about this, not even Da Ni.
If her husband’s family knew about this money, not a cent would be left. But now, living at the Jiang family, outsiders couldn’t just break in.
So the money was very safe here!
If anyone asked her about the silver, she would just say it was all paid for the sons’ tuition.
They wouldn’t know where the two children were, and couldn’t find them if they tried.
Oh, and one more thing.
Yang Zhang took out another half tael of broken silver, intending to secretly visit Sister-in-law, Little Grass’s mother, in the afternoon during work.
After putting away the silver, she got up to find her daughter already asleep, with a look of peace she had never seen before.
Yang Zhang stroked her daughter’s hair, turned, and went out to work. She had already delayed work all morning, so there was no need to rest now.
As for Da Ni, she would call her a little later.