Su Tang continued explaining, “Also, as you’ve heard my master say before, men and women are considered different after the age of seven, and after the new year you will be almost seven years old. On top of that, you’ve already begun your studies, so you can be considered a big child now. Given all that, don’t you think it would be good to live in your own room?”
“Also, when big sister here sends you to school next year, you will definitely be meeting some new friends your age, when that time comes, don’t you think that you’ll want to invite them over to play? Don’t you think it will be better to have your room when that time comes?”
It must be said that, although Su Tang didn’t have any thoughts of settling down and having children of her own, she was still very patient with her little brother Su Nuo. And after she explained everything so carefully, Su Nuo understood what she was getting at, “En, I want to invite Huzi and Dongzi right now.”
“Right! Those two don’t have their own rooms either, so I’m sure they’ll really envy you this time.” Su Tang breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he seemed to be coming around to the idea.
Su Nuo nodded. “Haha, then they should envy me, after all, thanks to sister, my life is getting better and better.”
In the end, he was still a child, so once he was convinced, he was immediately beaming with enthusiasm. And when Su Tang saw him getting happy like this, she was also felt happy inside.
Before the siblings arrived, all of the boxes where the soap was made were being stored in the room in the east wing, and all of the completed soap was being stored in the shed out back. Of course, the courtyard wasn’t very big in the first place and only had a few rooms, so after the boxes were cleared out of the room on the east side for Su Nuo, they could only be temporarily moved into the large study room, which was fortunately big enough to accommodate all of the boxes with room to spare.
Su Tang immediately put her words into practice and allowed Su Nuo to arrange his new room as he liked, only interjecting to make sure that he had left space for his desk and his writing tools so that he would be able to study in his room in the future. As for the boxes for making soap, she just left them in the study for now. After all, she didn’t use the room for anything herself because she went to Song Yi’s place every day and did all of her reading and writing there. She only very occasionally needed to use the study at this courtyard, and she figured that if really needed to write something in the future she could just go borrow the desk in Su Nuo’s room.
After working hard for about an hour, everything was properly arranged and Su Nuo looked around his new room with wide eyes. There was a desk and bookshelf, which was currently empty, along with a kang bed and a small wardrobe for clothes.
It wasn’t much, but for Su Nuo it was the first time he had the feeling that something ‘belonged to him’, so he was wrapped up in a unique sense of happiness.
“It’s a bit simple, but we will live here for the time being. When I’ve saved up enough money we will buy a larger residence in town and, when that time comes, you will be able to decorate your new room to be even better than this one, however you want it to be Xiao Nuo.”
Those weren’t just idle words either, Su Tang truly felt that this courtyard was a bit too simple and humble for her and her brother. After all, when Luo Xingchen rented this place she had only been planning to stay for a short while, so she didn’t look for a particularly good place to rent and probably only the large study attracted her to rent it in the first place, so Su Tang was eager to find something more to her liking.
However, for the time being, it was enough. This place could definitely be considered much better than the old house they had been living in before so, step by step, things were slowly getting better and better for the siblings.
Su Nuo looked up at her and said “En, sounds good!”
Su Tang nodded “En!”
By the time they finished all of this, night had already fallen. This was the first time that Su Tang and her brother had come to the small rented courtyard to stay overnight, so the mother and daughter pair, Zhang Cuilan and Baohe, were a little nervous and ended up specially preparing a few more dishes for the two.
Su Tang had specifically said that she would buy ingredients to feed her and her brother when she was coming home from the Song residence every day, and that there was no need for Zhang Cuilan or Baohe to worry about this aspect, they only needed to cook the ingredients she brought. Other than this, the two could just treat it the same as when the siblings hadn’t been living here.
In fact, ever since Su Tang had bought Zhang Cuilan and Baohe and brought them back they began to live a life where they always had enough to eat and drink, and they never had too many responsibilities to attend to. In the end, they spent almost all of their free time making soap, so nowadays they were able to make 500 bars of soap a day.
They both truly liked their current lives, where there was always warm food, clothing, and no need to fear being beaten. Because of this, the mother and daughter had no desire to go back to their old lives, and they worked very hard every day.
At first, the two were a little nervous after hearing Su Tang’s instructions, but as time went by they found that, just like the little girl said, even though the siblings were living in the courtyard with them now their daily lives were more or less no different from before.
After eating breakfast in the morning, Su Tang would spend a few hours teaching Su Nuo before going to study with Song Yi in the afternoon. Then when she came back from the Song residence, Su Tang would always bring ingredients back with her. Thus, the only change for Zhang Cuilan and Baohe was cooking a few more dishes at night.
