Watching Xiao Changyi cheerfully hand over a tael of silver to the rice shop owner, An Jing, "...", should she stop giving her husband money in the future? Her husband was really good at spending money.
However, she also knew for whom he bought the polished rice.
Every time An Jing thought about Xiao Changyi buying it for her, her heart felt sweet. Her husband didn’t save a single penny and spent it all on rice for her to eat; how could she not feel happy and cherished?
Moreover, their home was not as poor as before; they could indeed afford to eat better.
In the future, they could have thicker porridge!
They could even enjoy a bowl of rice from time to time!
Therefore, when she returned home, An Jing, with a smile, took out another tael of silver from her purse and gave it to Xiao Changyi, insisting he keep it on him in case it was needed.
Since the money Xiao Changyi had was essentially spent on An Jing, and seeing that she wanted him to carry some, Xiao Changyi did not refuse. He accepted it as usual and put it into his purse.
But in his heart, he was pondering what to buy for his wife next time.
After storing the fifty catties of polished rice in the rice bin, Xiao Changyi and An Jing assembled the rice thresher together in the courtyard.
The carpenter and blacksmith’s skills were quite exquisite; the parts of the rice thresher were made exactly to An Jing’s specifications, reducing the difficulty for An Jing and Xiao Changyi to assemble it. It took only about half an hour, and the rice thresher was put together.
An Jing had initially feared that they might produce a mishmash, but seeing that the final assembly looked just like the old-fashioned pedal-operated rice thresher at her grandfather’s house, she felt relieved and jubilant.
"Husband, you see, the drum must turn forward to knock the grains off. If it turns backward, it won’t just fail to thresh the grains, but it could also pull in the straw, and even someone’s hand could get caught and severely injured. So when you thresh, be careful, and make sure you don’t hurt yourself,"
An Jing, holding a handful of straw for demonstration, tread on the thresher while teaching Xiao Changyi how to use it and what to pay attention to.
Xiao Changyi listened very attentively until An Jing finished speaking, and then he nodded, saying, "Mhm."
Once the rice thresher was ready, they didn’t move it inside but left it in the yard. Besides the two of them, no one knew what it was for, and they weren’t worried about anyone stealing it.
What’s more, the device was quite heavy and sizable, so the difficulty of stealing it without being noticed was indeed great.
Then, An Jing started to prepare lunch, while Xiao Changyi took a knife and went up the mountain to cut bamboo. He wanted to find a suitable piece for making a flute.
When Xiao Changyi returned with the bamboo, he also brought back some reeds.
In the evening, Xiao Changyi finally finished two flutes. An Jing had been watching him work on them, and seeing Xiao Changyi make two, she didn’t say anything but just kept smiling at him.
Xiao Changyi, composed as ever, carved characters on each of the flutes, "Changyi" in traditional characters on one, and "Jing Er" on the other.
Seeing the characters Xiao Changyi carved, An Jing’s smile grew even wider, and her heart felt as sweet as could be.
The flutes were finished, but they still needed a membrane, which adjusts the sound of the flute.
Xiao Changyi took a membrane from the reed stem, then pasted it over the second hole from the left end of the flute.
After attaching the membrane, the flute was completely finished, and Xiao Changyi handed the one with "Changyi" inscribed to An Jing.