When Li Jianguo came to the Gu Family home again, he found the courtyard swept spotless.
The tools for making big Jiji Grass brooms, along with the Achnatherum splendens, poles, wire, and other things that had been laid out in the middle of the courtyard, had all been cleared away.
Some old odds and ends that had been sitting in the courtyard had also been put away.
Gu Boyuan was in the courtyard, using an iron spade to scrape away the grass growing at the foot of the wall.
Like the Li Family's house, the house in the Gu Family courtyard had walls built from earthen blocks, a roof frame of wooden purlins and rafters, then a thick layer of bundled reeds covered with roofing mud.
The courtyard wall, however, was made of rammed earth rather than earthen blocks. The house was seven or eight years old now, and a layer of earth had already peeled off the wall. Quite a bit of soil had been hauled in to fill the courtyard, partly to prevent salt deposits, but now salt was beginning to show at the foot of the wall anyway.
"Well, look at that. Our scholar's turned hardworking," Li Jianguo teased Gu Boyuan. "Your place always looks a mess. This is a first!"
"Heh, you only have it good because you've got a good wife." Gu Boyuan pointed toward the corner. "There's another spade over there. Hurry up and put your things down, then give me a hand."
"Hey, we're not even in-laws yet, and you're already ordering me around. What kind of person does that?"
Despite his words, Li Jianguo put the meat on the rack beneath the shelter, found a basin for the two fish, and poured in some water. Only after watching the fish swimming inside