Chapter 1360: Chapter 1361: The Little Widow of the Courtyard 88 Since she came across them, she certainly couldn’t miss the opportunity, but unfortunately, she wanted to go on a crazy shopping spree. After considering it for a long time, she controlled herself repeatedly. Forget it, being able to buy five paintings is already good enough, and it’s worth over ten million. Zhao Lei watched Zhang Yu carefully put away the paintings, “Mom, are these good things?” Zhao Lei knew a little about the painters of these paintings. “They’re good stuff. Asking them for a painting used to be quite expensive.” “When you guys get married in the future, you can hang them in the house. It gives the impression that our family is not just a bunch of bumpkins,” Zhang Yu persuaded in various ways. She definitely couldn’t say, “Son, this stuff will be worth a lot of money in the future. Even if you don’t go to work, it could let you live comfortably for two generations.” If she said that, she figured it would scare Zhao Lei. “Also, since they’re by masters, if you have children in the future who want to learn painting, they can use them to study.” Zhang Yu found another reason again. Hmph, even if the kids have doubts, they won’t question it. Looking at Zhang Yu’s justified reasons, Zhao Lei felt there was something amiss, but after thinking for a long time, he couldn’t figure out what the issue was. “Yeah, Mom, this price isn’t expensive. If you find a master and learn from them, they might not be satisfied, and it wouldn’t be cheap to learn painting from them either.” “Having their paintings and learning from them is pretty good.” Zhao Hong felt that he and his siblings didn’t like painting, but when Zhao Lei’s children come along, they might like painting. Even when his sister said so, Zhao Lei had some doubts initially, but now they’re completely gone. “Yeah, I’ll go take another look someday.” Zhao Lei thought as long as Zhang Yu liked them, he would buy them. She didn’t have any other hobbies. As for Zhang Yu’s notion that his children would like painting, he thought the possibility was slim. There was no painting gene in the family. Zhao Lei was confident that the likelihood of producing an artist was very low. Taking advantage of no one being around, Zhang Yu hid the paintings. Of course, it was impossible to put them in the basement. Zhang Yu placed them inside a beam on the second floor. If no one pointed it out, no one would think that a part of the beam was hollowed out. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on N0v3l.Fiɾe.net Putting them in her secret space was safe, but for these things that had been through the legitimate way, Zhang Yu didn’t want to put them there. The children were grown up, unlike when they were easily fooled as kids. After placing the items properly, Zhang Yu started cleaning the carpet. “You’re not taking it apart?” Zhao Lei looked at Zhang Yu directly rinsing the wool carpet in the sink, puzzled. “This is Xiao Hong’s favorite, so no, I’m not taking it apart.” If it wasn’t for the little girl glancing at this thing among the many old items, Zhang Yu really wouldn’t have noticed this. Since the little girl liked it, she had to buy it and couldn’t miss it. Zhao Hong initially thought Zhang Yu would take apart all these carpets, but didn’t expect her to leave one, “Mom, you should just take them all apart.” “It’s alright, I bought many.” If it weren’t for worrying about how to take them home, Zhang Yu would really have wanted to buy a few more. But thinking about it later, it’s better to be low-key, not make too much of a show, and leave some for others. With the efforts of the three family members, the carpet was finally cleaned, but looking at the dirty water flowing out, Zhang Yu still felt it was filthy. If there were a large spin-dryer, how great would that be? Just throw it in to spin dry, and then continue cleaning it. Unfortunately, there were no such machines now, and they could only rely on manual labor. “Mom, it’s still a bit dirty.” Zhao Hong looked at the slightly blackish water, feeling this thing couldn’t be laid in her room. The little girl cherished her room, cleaning it every day. As Zhao Hong understood why Zhang Yu said to take apart the carpets, it was indeed only possible to take them apart, otherwise there was really no way to clean them. “Mom, we should just take apart the carpets.” Zhao Hong looked at the carpet with a face full of disdain. Zhang Yu knew the carpet was hard to clean, but didn’t expect it to be this hard, “Alright.” “I’ll get you a smaller carpet, a little more delicate one.” Zhang Yu didn’t know how to crochet carpets, but she could use knitting needles to make one. “Really?” Zhao Hong originally thought her room wouldn’t have a carpet, but didn’t expect Zhang Yu to say she could make one by hand. “It won’t be as exquisite as this one.” Zhang Yu felt this hand-crocheted carpet was very beautiful, and if it was just taken apart , it was truly a pity. But thinking about the upcoming activities, even if she was reluctant, Zhang Yu felt keeping it would be troublesome. People might think this is a sign of bourgeois tastes, but taking it apart to knit into a sweater would prevent any complaints. “Mom, I want to learn how to knit sweaters.” Zhao Hong previously had no interest in learning this, thinking it was really difficult. Now she truly regretted not learning it before. If she had learned, she might be able to knit a carpet for herself now. “Of course you can.” Zhang Yu fully supported her child in wanting to learn how to knit sweaters. The whole family was working hard to tackle the carpet when they heard excited chatter from the front. Without going out, just the sound of excitement let Zhang Yu know that they had gained something this time. “Zhang Yu, thank you so much. When we went, there were still ten or so carpets.” Granny Feng thanked Zhang Yu happily. They had a large family, and items like yarn were in short supply. Although these carpets were a bit dirty, they could be properly cleaned into clean yarn. The commotion in the whole courtyard naturally made the surrounding courtyard residents aware, but unfortunately, when they found out, they could only feel envious. Even if they rushed to the junk shop, all they’d get were words saying there’s no stock left. The neighbors could only watch enviously as Zhang Yu and the courtyard residents happily knitted sweaters, frustrated as they thought that by fall, Zhang Yu and others would be wearing sweaters. They even tried to inquire if there were any new supplies, but the answer was always the same—temporarily no stock. Though disappointed, there was nothing they could do. They were late in getting the news, and especially with such good items, anyone would be reluctant to share. The courtyard residents were now busy, taking advantage of the sunny Da Xia days to swiftly dismantle and clean the carpets. At times, the queue at the tap was endless, from early morning till evening. Zhang Yu saw the situation: after dismantling two carpets, she simply stopped. She casually put one into a cloth bag and stored it in the basement. If someone asked, she’d say she couldn’t finish dismantling. Everyone understood it was because as a working woman, Zhang Yu had no time to dismantle them into yarn. As for drying them, there was simply no place.