Chapter 57: Qiu Yurou Doesn’t Understand Why Su Yunting…

Qiu Yurou didn’t understand why Su Yunting would have this kind of misunderstanding about her. It wasn’t the right time for an in-depth talk, so she didn’t bring up the reason for his misunderstanding for now. As long as he didn’t object to hiring people to handle household work, that was enough.

Su Yunting told the property agent he wanted to buy a two-courtyard residence. The agent clapped his hands and said, “Just one street over, there happens to be a two-courtyard house for sale. The seller is also a scholar. After passing the provincial exam, he moved to the prefectural city. Since his ancestral home isn’t in this county either, this house won’t be used again, so he entrusted our agency to sell it.”

Mingshun County wasn’t small, but there weren’t many who moved after passing the provincial exam. Once the agent said this, Su Yunting and Lu Yide immediately knew whose house it was.

Lu Yide asked to confirm, and sure enough, it was the man they had guessed.

Lu Yide said to Su Yunting, “His house is actually pretty good it’s an auspicious sign.”

Whether it was auspicious or not, neither Su Yunting nor Qiu Yurou really minded. Still, being thought of as auspicious was certainly better than being considered unlucky.

Together they followed the agent to the next street. This street was clearly wider than the two they had just seen, and most of the houses on either side were two-courtyard residences.

The agent took out the key and opened the gate. Inside the entrance stood a screen wall carved with a large “fortune” character. Past the wall, the whole front courtyard came into view.

The yard wasn’t large, but the rooms weren’t dilapidated either. There was a three-room main hall, two inverted rooms near the gate, and on the west side two wing rooms. In the front stood a parasol tree, while the east had just one wing room, leading to the inner courtyard through an interior door.

Inside, the daily furniture was all complete. The wood was of decent quality, not in use for too many years, and could still be considered nearly new.

They looked through each room. The outer courtyard didn’t have any striking highlights, but also no major flaws.

Entering the inner courtyard through the side door, they first saw a screen wall painted with peonies against the east wing wall. Past that, the inner courtyard opened up.

Compared to the front, the inner yard was larger: a well, flower beds, three wing rooms to the east and west, pomegranate and persimmon trees planted before the main hall. The main hall itself had four rooms with two doors, each leading to two rooms.

The inner courtyard alone was larger than the grand house they had looked at earlier.

Qiu Yurou liked it as soon as she entered. Looking closer at each room, she discovered it was almost like the rented workshop with hardly any furniture inside at all.

Earlier she’d been thinking, no matter what the inner rooms had, she’d replace the furniture in her and her sisters’ bedrooms with all new ones.

Now this was perfect, no need to bother moving old things out.

Qiu Yurou didn’t mind the lack of furniture, but the agent explained, “The furniture in the inner courtyard was all part of the former mistress’s dowry. After so many years, she had feelings for it, so when moving, she couldn’t bear to leave it behind and took it all.”

Qiu Yurou understood. A woman’s dowry is rarely discarded.

The empty rooms weren’t much to look at, so after stepping outside again, Qiu Yurou asked Su Yunting how he felt about it.

In his heart, of course, he wanted to give his wife the very best, but with his current ability; at most this was the level of house he could provide.

This residence; whether location or layout was suitable. Both had no objections. Asking the agent the price, they finally purchased the two-courtyard home for three hundred taels of silver.

After the property transfer and getting the official red deed, two days had passed.

As agreed earlier, the deed was written solely under Qiu Yurou’s name.

If it had been before their engagement, Qiu Yurou would never have accepted it. But now, with him willing to put property in her name, she couldn’t help but feel secure.

Holding the red deed, when they returned to the courtyard again, the feeling was entirely different.

In the outer courtyard’s eight rooms, they discussed arrangements: the three-room main hall; one room will become Su Yunting’s study, the other two as reception rooms.

The east wing would be Yunche’s study.

The two west wing rooms: one for her two disciples, the other a guest room.

And for the two inverted rooms at the gate, Qiu Yurou told Su Yunting, “In a two-courtyard residence, the outer courtyard needs to have someone guarding the gate.”

When she mentioned hiring people, Su Yunting first looked at her face. Seeing her full of spirit and bright-eyed, he realized she truly didn’t mind having hired help and it wasn’t like he had thought before.

Since she could accept it, he ventured, “For household workers, if you want peace of mind, hired ones aren’t as reliable as bought ones.”

Qiu Yurou replied, “Buying people costs much more. For gatekeepers and kitchen work, let’s just hire. But for Second Sister, we’ll buy her a maid to use. Once the workshop’s business is steady next year, then we can add more people at home.”

After she said this, Su Yunting asked with some surprise, “Yurou, you really don’t oppose buying servants?”

In this era where buying and selling people were legal, Qiu Yurou had already lived eight years, and even in her previous life she knew it was historically normal. So for her, having the means to buy someone to work at home was perfectly acceptable.

But his reaction made her curious, “Why would you think I’d be unwilling to buy servants? Last time too, you were so surprised when I said I’d hire help.”

Su Yunting answered honestly, “Because you always treat everyone equally. At home, you don’t treat our younger siblings differently based on whether they’re boys or girls. With outsiders, to you, the clan head and Old Uncle Mao are actually no different. And at your food stall; whether a wealthy traveling merchant or a farmer who only splurges once a year on the cheapest pastries, to you, they’re all the same. In your heart, everyone is equal. So I thought you’d oppose not only buying people, but even hiring them.”

Hearing this, Qiu Yurou realized she had underestimated how well he understood her.

And she couldn’t help admiring those protagonists she had read about in transmigration novels.

She still had all her childhood memories, and after merging her past-life memories, she had already lived here eight more years. Yet even now, Su Yunting could see through appearances to grasp her true inner thoughts.

She wondered: how did those other transmigrators in novels ever manage to hide the truth from the people closest to them?

Now, she was considering why not just take this chance to tell him her secret, the way he had told her about him being reborn?

If she confessed her transmigration, she was optimistic he would accept it.

And even if he didn’t, she could live with that.

After all, by now, he should already know deep down that she was different from everyone else of this era.

Since they had pledged themselves to each other, Qiu Yurou had never once doubted his love.

If he loved her, different thoughts and all, then surely he could accept her story too.

Cultural Notes:

1. Two-Courtyard House: A traditional Chinese residence design where the property has two successive courtyards (outer and inner). The outer courtyard was often used for reception, study, and servants’ quarters; the inner courtyard was reserved for the family’s private living space.
2. Screen Wall / Shadow Wall: A decorative wall immediately inside the entrance of a traditional Chinese home, often carved or painted. It served both aesthetic and practical purposes; blocking direct view into the home for privacy and believed to ward off evil spirits.