My domineering ex-husband is living off his wife in ancient times.

Chapter 99 Luring the Dog In and Slaughtering It

The next afternoon, after hearing the carpenter calculate how much all the furniture in the house would cost, Si Erlang let out a sharp explosion.

"What?! You want thirty taels?! Just for some wooden cabinets and tables, you want thirty taels?!" Si Erlang felt like he could hardly breathe.

He glared at the carpenter with resentment, gritting his teeth as he said, "You can't just try to play tricks on me because we're new here, can you? We're all from the same village, we'll see each other all the time."

That expression and tone really did carry a hint of threat.

The carpenter got annoyed and started counting on his fingers for him:

"Five large wardrobes, seven wooden shelves, seven large chests, five square tables, one eight-immortal table, one desk, one bookcase, six chairs, and ten stools—where can you get all this stuff for less than thirty taels of silver?"

Besides, you need to expedite things. Once your house is built in ten days, I will hand over the things to you.

Just because we're from the same village, I didn't charge you for express delivery, and you're accusing me of being dishonest?

Master carpenter Niu is a family heirloom craftsman. His two sons and his son-in-law, who moved in with his family, were all trained by him and work as his assistants.

Master Niu was one of the first to settle in Daxi Village with Village Chief Liu. He has excellent skills and uses high-quality ingredients.

For families with really poor conditions, he would have them cut down their own trees and exchange the new wood for the wood that his family had dried.

So whenever anyone in the village needed to make any furniture, they would go to him.

It can be said that he had a very good reputation and was respected in the village. Who would have thought that he would be suspected of playing tricks by Si Erlang?

After saying that, Master Niu immediately refused to accept it and turned to leave with his two sons and son-in-law.

He'll go back and tell the village chief what's wrong with this family that they need help with?

They're even stingier than other down-on-their-luck people!

People are so poor they can't even afford to eat, so they're stingy. This family has three horse-drawn carriages, yet they're still so stingy. And to make matters worse, they speak rudely!

When Li saw that the carpenter was about to leave, she quickly came to persuade him. As a woman, she couldn't go up and pull him away, so she asked Ershuan and Erzhu to hold onto Master Niu and his eldest son's legs.

"Master Niu, Master Niu, don't be angry, my wife didn't mean it that way..."

Niu Er's face turned red with anger. "What do you mean, 'that's not what I meant! He said it himself!!"

It's an insult to honest and hardworking craftsmen to be accused of "playing tricks" in their livelihood!

Li smiled apologetically, "No, no, I... he... my husband ate too much pork lard rice at noon and his brain went blank! Please don't hold it against him, we're all neighbors..."

Si Erlang was so angry at her words that he almost fainted.

This woman still dares to mention the pork lard rice she had for lunch!

What kind of situation is this at home? How dare you let Lin cook pork lard rice on such an occasion?

Even though it's 90% brown rice and 10% white rice, it's still a luxury!

But it was good that Li helped persuade the carpenter, lest his impulsive words be spread and sound bad.

Si Erlang took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Yes, yes, I was just out of my mind. I felt so uncomfortable and short of breath that I spoke without thinking. Master Niu, please don't take it to heart... Let's discuss it again and see if we can get the whole house furnishings down to twenty taels of silver, okay?"

Master Niu really didn't want to take the job from this family anymore, but Pian Si Erlang brought up the village chief's words again: "Village Chief Liu has told you all, right? Our family came here as refugees, and we really didn't bring any of our belongings with us."

Don't be fooled by the fact that my family has a horse-drawn carriage. It was bought with the money from my mother's, my younger siblings', and my wife's dowry to escape the plague. It was all for the sake of saving our lives.

We'll have to rely on this carriage to make a living in the future, so... naturally we want to save as much as possible..."

Master Niu still looked unwell, but ultimately didn't say he was leaving.

"We really can't lower the price. Why don't you reduce the amount of items?"

Upon hearing this, Si Erlang's eyes darted around, and Li Shi quickly tugged at his sleeve and whispered, "We can't reduce it any further! These are all provided for each room. You can't let Da Niu, Da Hu, and Da Hua, who are all that big, live in the same room, can you?"

"We can't let Ershuan and Erzhu live in the same room as us, can we?"

Excluding the main room, woodshed, kitchen, and outhouse, the house consisted of nine rooms in total, with two rooms per room, plus the room for the Zhao family.

The foundation was dug out over an area of ​​two acres, but it was not built according to the layout of a four-courtyard house like those in the city.

The plan consists of five parts, with the main hall and the main house in the middle, which is where the Zhao family lived.

The four families' houses were built symmetrically to the main hall, so it looked like a large whole at the moment. But when they divided the family property, they simply built a wall around each house so that they wouldn't disturb each other.

Li then advised him, "Husband, you've only just taken over managing the household, you can't go too far, can you? The rooms have all been assigned, you can't leave any room without any furniture, just a kang (heated brick bed)!"

Although she also wanted Si Erlang to take charge and bring more benefits and profits to their branch of the family, she couldn't go too far or be too inhumane, could she?

"You said it yourself! There's also the cost of setting up the kang (heated brick bed). I've already paid a deposit for seven kangs. Once they're set up, I'll have to pay them thirty-five taels of silver!"

Do you know how much money is left in Zhonggong's coffers? If this furniture is made like this, I won't be able to pay for the kang (heated brick bed)!

Li was shocked: "Five taels of silver for a kang?!"

Isn't that something made of mud bricks?

It can heat things up, so why is it so expensive!

It's more expensive than building a four-poster bed in the countryside!

Seeing that the couple was discussing endlessly, Master Niu thought they probably really had no money, so he suggested, "Why don't you just not make tables, chairs, or stools? You can use wooden planks and some mud bricks as tables."

Replace all the wardrobes with chests and cages, and put mud bricks under the chests and cages so that they are raised and less prone to dampness.

It's also because Daxi Village is mountainous and prone to dampness before and after winter; otherwise, you wouldn't even need to make chests and cages, you could just make clothes racks..."

Niu Er grumbled from the side, "Dad, don't bother calculating it. Otherwise, people will say you're too cunning. You can't possibly get away with losing thirty taels of silver. And don't forget, they still haven't had their doors and windows fixed!"

Si Erlang: "What?! We have to pay extra for the door and window frames?!"

Li: ? ?

No, what are you so shocked about?

Haven't we always known that?

Before she could ask, Si Erlang said, "The door and window frames won't take much effort. I'm thinking we can find the wood ourselves. Master Niu, you can make them while you're making the furniture."

Master Niu's eyes widened in surprise.

Anger surged within him, but he just couldn't think of a way to curse this stingy bastard!

"You...you are simply..."

"Shameless!" Niu Er cursed directly on behalf of his father. "Dad, we're not doing this business anymore, let's go! Brother, brother-in-law, let's go! Seriously, how can there be such people!"

"This is your own house, how come you're thinking of squeezing money out of us?"

"The village chief assured us before we came that this business wouldn't let us lose money, but what happened? They lured the dog in and slaughtered it!"

Cheng Ruoan, who had just returned from collecting herbs in the morning, heard Niu Er yelling and cursing from afar.

Every single member of the Si family was out working, so Cheng Ruoan already knew who Niu Er was cursing before she even got close.