Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 487: Manor
Liu Sisi said solemnly, “The officialdom is not like the countryside. One must be extremely careful in speech and action.”

Guihua nodded repeatedly, not daring to speak recklessly anymore.

The newly purchased manor was located not far from the official road leading to Upper Village outside the outskirts of the county town, with continuous mountains on one side and the official road on the other. Half of it was flat land, and the other half was hilly.

Following Guihua’s directions, Old Cheng drove the carriage onto the village road and continued ahead.

After about half an hour of bumpy travel along the village road, the carriage came to a halt outside a manor.

” Right! This is the place. Let’s go down and have a look.”

Guihua got off the carriage first and looked around casually, “I still remember when I was young, I often came to this area to cut pig grass because the land here is fertile, and the pig grass grows particularly well. Look, that’s the manor, and the hot spring you mentioned is at the back of it. We used to sneak in to have a look occasionally.”

As she spoke, Liu Sisi also got out of the carriage and looked at the direction Guihua was pointing to and saw a manor.

Although it was called a manor, it was not as big as Liu Family’s Mansion. However, they could see through the fence a row of ridge beams of the roofs, and apricot trees quietly stretching out their branches in early spring. The plum blossoms inside were even more beautiful.

“Let’s go! Let’s go and see if anyone lives there now.”

Liu Sisi said casually, stroking her already noticeable belly, and slowly walked towards the manor.

“I don’t know if there is anyone living there now, but in the past, there was always an old servant who lived in this manor. But that was already more than ten years ago.”

Guihua had been married for more than ten years now, and most of the things she knew were from that time.

“You can’t see the front of this manor, but the mountain at the back has a large cherry blossom tree. In March, you can see a pink view. It’s so beautiful! When we were young, we used to sneak up the mountain to pick cherries. Of course, not only cherries, but also apricots, peaches, plums, pears, and begonias are almost all on the mountain.”

Guihua spoke happily but also sighed, “We didn’t know who owned this manor when we were young. Anyway, we didn’t see anyone coming all year round. The old man who was watching the manor generally ignored the children who stole the fruit. As long as they didn’t do too much, he wouldn’t chase them away.”

As they talked, they walked into the manor.

Old Cheng quickly walked up to the front of the manor, found the main entrance half-open, and looked back at everyone before he pushed the door open.

As soon as the door opened, the scenery inside came into Liu Sisi’s view. Small bridges and flowing water intertwined with rockeries and pavilions, and the winding corridors were adorned with scattered winter jasmines and calla lilies, just blooming. Stepping inside, there was a whole different world.

The houses were arranged in an orderly manner, with dim and winding paths leading to the buildings inside.

“Let’s go! Let’s go over there and have a look.” Liu Sisi casually pointed to one of the paths.

Everyone followed the cobblestone path, enjoying the scenery on both sides, and soon arrived at the winding rockery. A stream of water gushed from the rockery, its mist enveloping the rockery in a hazy haze.

“Wow! The water is actually hot, so comfortable!”

Playful YingEr had somehow already dipped her little hand into the small pond under the rockery.

Liu Sisi also reached out to test the water, which was indeed hot!

“It really is hot water. This… is simply magical.”

When they carefully examined the rockery, they discovered that the water column it spouted was hot, the water must come from a hot spring!

Several wintersweet flowers were in full bloom next to the rockery, and even some daffodils had just revealed their buds. Some had just opened a few petals, which looked very beautiful.

Going further north, there were longevity pines planted in a circle along the courtyard wall. Following the winding corridor to the south, they arrived at a corner where there was a small pavilion.

The group entered the pavilion and each casually chose a bench to sit on.

“Sisi! Your manor is great, and the scenery is really beautiful. In the future, if we were to live here, wouldn’t it be like living in a palace?”

Guihua sincerely admired, “When I was a child, I only visited the back of the manor, but I never imagined that the front could be so beautiful!”

“It’s indeed beautiful! It’s so beautiful that I can hardly believe all of this is real…”

Liu Zhi’er also mumbled beside them.

“Don’t any of you think there’s something wrong here?”

Liu Sisi frowned deeply, almost knotting her eyebrows, “This manor, along with the fertile land and the hot spring, not to mention the design of the manor, the rockery, and the pavilion – even though we haven’t looked closely inside the houses yet. But just based on what we’ve seen, it only sold for 670 taels of silver in total. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”

“Sisi, why do you think that’s strange? Isn’t it great that the price is so low?” Liu Zhi’er asked curiously.

“You don’t understand.”

Liu Sisi shook her head, “The manor and its fertile land sold together for 670 taels of silver, with the recorded 320 mu of fertile land alone being worth 10 taels per mu, and the 800 mu of mountain land worth four taels per mu. Just adding these two items, the total comes to 640 taels of silver. A manor like this is only worth 30 taels of silver? This…”

Liu Sisi’s words made the smiles on both of their faces fade away.

“Is it possible that there was something…hidden and dark about this manor that we don’t know about?”

By “dark secret,” Liu Sisi meant that there might have been strange occurrences in the manor, or some reason which forced the original owner to sell it at a low price just to get rid of it.

“Is that…possible?”

Guihua was not quite sure, “When I was a child, I often came here, but I never heard anyone mention anything about this manor.”

Liu Sisi didn’t respond to her, but instead exchanged glances with the other two and got up to take a closer look at the surroundings.

Liu Zhi’er also looked around, “Although it’s quiet here without people, it feels comfortable. I don’t think it’s like what you said.”

“Or… we could send someone else to ask around?” Guihua proposed cautiously.

“Yes, Sister Guihua is right. By the way, Sister Guihua, didn’t you say those tenant farmers would come? Where did they originally live?”

As soon as Liu Sisi remembered this, she asked.

“Oh! Look at my memory! My mom told me that they originally lived in the manor on the opposite side. Why don’t we go and take a look?” Guihua suggested.