Although Su Nuo was still only six years old, he was actually quite smart. After Su Tang had walked him through decorating his room once before, he now had his own clear ideas about what he wanted in his room and why.
“En, sounds good.” Su Tang nodded along and then looked around at the empty courtyard. After a moment of thought, she called Baohe over and said, “Go to Carpenter Wang’s place and ask him to come over if he’s free.”
Originally Su Tang had planned to go find Carpenter Wang herself, after all, since he had made the boxes for her last time she knew that his craftsmanship was pretty good and that he was also reliable, so she was confident in working with him again.
However, after personally looking around the courtyard and seeing just how much needed to be done, she felt it would be more prudent to ask Carpenter Wang to make the trip over himself so that he could directly take all the necessary measurements while he was here and save them both some trouble.
Baohe hurriedly agreed and headed out to Carpenter Wang’s shop. When Carpenter Wang and his wife heard the little girl asking them to come over and take a look at a house that needed some customized furniture made, seemingly wanting to order more than just one or two pieces, they immediately dropped what they were doing and followed Baohe out without another word.
When they arrived, Su Tang pushed Su Nuo forward to let him explain what he needed himself, and the little guy smoothly told it all to Carpenter Wang.
“Young master, what did that bookshelf look like exactly? And can the desk be made like this? Also, young master, if you want to put a table here then I’m afraid the table can’t be too big, after all, the area occupied by the kang bed isn’t small. However, if you’re staying in this room alone young master, then why not build the wardrobe into the kang bed? That way you would save a bit of space and things wouldn’t be so tight.”
Once Carpenter Wang discovered that Su Nuo was the one who was ordering the furniture, he directly began to seriously treat Su Nuo as an important customer without minding his age at all.
For Su Nuo, who was only six years old, this was the first time he had been treated this way by an adult, as if he were the one completely in charge of the situation. He found the situation very novel, but he also didn’t forget to seriously communicate his wishes to Carpenter Wang.
Su Tang just watched from the side without adding anything. At first, she had intended to give the little guy some gentle reminders if he forgot anything, but she didn’t ever get the chance because Carpenter Wang always took away that job and gave Su Nuo a reminder if the little guy ever overlooked anything.
“Then it’s decided! I will prepare one bookshelf, one desk and chair set, a small table with four small stools, and build a wardrobe into the kang bed. Don’t worry, I’ve properly recorded all the measurements and I pledge to make the young master’s room bright and comfortable.”
Carpenter Wang carefully wrote everything down and spoke up to confirm everything with Su Nuo. Su Nuo had been completely carried away by the excitement of their conversation so when he heard everything that was being ordered, it came as a bit of a shock. He froze and asked hesitantly: “How much will all of this cost?”
When Carpenter Wang heard that question, he looked over at Su Tang uncertainly, but Su Tang just gave him a smile and a nod. Since he had the blessing of the ‘adult’ in the room, he said, “Building drawers into the kang bed will save materiels, so it will only cost two hundred copper coins, but the desk and chair are slightly pricey and will cost four hundred and fifty copper coins together. Then the bookshelf will be one hundred and fifty copper coins, and the table and stools will be three hundred copper coins.”
At first, Su Nuo tried to count along on his fingers, but he quickly got confused and lost track of the numbers. In the end, Carpenter Wang quoted the final price: “The total will be 1100 copper coins, or one silver tael and one hundred copper coins.”
Not even mentioning Su Nuo, even Zhang Cuilan and Baohe were astonished to hear this number. For furnishing one room to cost more than a silver tael, wasn’t it really just too big a price?
And this was without Su Tang requesting any particularly good wood or anything. In fact, if he had wanted to use good materials to make furniture, like the mahogany from the nearby mountains or certain tribute materials, a single piece of furniture could easily cost anywhere from hundreds of copper coins to thousands of taels of silver.
Su Nuo put on a struggling expression and asked softly, “So much?”
It seemed the little guy was still very frugal.
“Well, just write it down for the time being and come take a look at main room over here.” Su Tang didn’t feel there was anything wrong with the price. She didn’t want to live extravagantly or arrogantly, but she wanted to live well, so she knew that, naturally, her consumption would increase.
This was just the natural result of wanting to live better, it wasn’t anything surprising.
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tl begging corner:
Thank you for the chapter!
We finally get the conversion 1000 Cu =1 Ag