Send Li Zhenghou away.
Cheng Zhao is responsible for collecting and washing the dishes. These tasks are done in turns. Today it is his turn to do this. He squats beside the wooden basin, washes all the dishes and chopsticks, and then runs them through the water again, taking them into the kitchen and stacking them neatly. Then cover it with a dustpan to prevent mice from crawling around in the middle of the night.
"Oh, how can we let Cheng Tongsheng do such rough work..."
A woman walked in from the courtyard door. Without saying a word, she snatched the bowl from Cheng Zhao's hand and helped them take it into the kitchen.
Although Cheng Zhao was an adult man, he had been studying and had very little strength, so he couldn't win over this woman.
"Mother Dashu, why are you here?"
Cheng Wanwan walked out of the house, snatched the bowl from the woman's hand, and put it into Cheng Zhao's arms. Cheng Zhao quickly entered the house with the bowl.
The woman smiled and said, "Cheng Tongsheng is such a good boy. He can write and wash dishes with his hands. If someone has such a talented person, it will really be a smoke coming out of the ancestral grave."
Cheng Wanwan said: "You are not a young master from a wealthy family, so you should do some things within your ability."
Dashu Niang's eyes fell on Zhao Ergou who walked in.
At this time, the sky was getting slightly dark. Zhao Dashan, Zhao Ergou and Zhao Sanniu went to the other side of the village to pick up soil and came back. There was already half a person's height of soil piled up in the corner of the yard, and they were ready to concentrate all their time and energy on making adobe after the autumn harvest. .
"Is Dashan Niang planning to build a house?" Dashu Niang said, "It's time to build a new house. Two dogs and three cows will look big. We will get a wife in the next two years, and there will be two more people in the family." I can’t live anymore…”
Cheng Wanwan understood that Dashu Niang was trying to find out about the marriage of Ergou and Sanniu. She remembered that Dashu seemed to have a girl named Cuihua, who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old. It was because of this name that she Only then did I remember that girl. She was very diligent with her hands and feet, but she looked relatively simple and rough. At first glance, she was not Ergou's type.
She said after careful consideration: "Two dogs are still young, and three oxen are even smaller. There's no rush."
"Why don't you be in a hurry?" Dashu Niang slapped her thigh, "Two dogs are already sixteen, and my idiots have already taken wives. Ergou has to catch up quickly. My daughter Cuihua, Dashu Niang, have you seen her before? Yes, you are so diligent, otherwise I would let her try to get along with Ergou..."
"Auntie, I don't want to marry a wife yet." Zhao Ergou said while busy, "Let's wait until after the New Year."
Dashu Niang was worried.
After the Chinese New Year, after Cheng Zhao is admitted as a scholar, Dashaniang's status will rise, and her daughter will be high-ranking if she marries Ergou.
But Ergou didn't want to take a wife, and Dashan Niang also looked like she was letting it go. As an outsider, she really couldn't say anything more.
After Dashu Niang left, Cheng Wanwan called Zhao Ergou over: "Whenever you want to marry a wife, mom will arrange a blind date for you. If you fall in love with someone's girl, tell mom, Mom will check it for you."
Zhao Ergou nodded and came down.
After the busy night, the four boys went to sleep.
Cheng Wanwan was sitting on the edge of the bed thinking about something. Through the crack in the door, she saw Cheng Zhao sitting at the table in the main room reading a book. There was probably only the last half of a candle left in Cheng Zhao's box. He lit the candle and used it. Guang read the book for a while, then blew out the candle, and silently recited the passage he just read in the dark. After memorizing it silently, he lit the candle again, and repeated this many times...
There are no electric lights these days. The most commonly used ones are candles and oil lamps. Candles are something that rich people and educated people can afford. A candle costs one or two hundred cents. Oil lamps use animal oil. Every household is short of oil these days. Naturally, if there is oil, it is used to eat. Everyone is asleep at night, and even if something happens, they basically do it casually in the dark or by moonlight.
Cheng Wanwan walked out of the back room.
Cheng Zhao raised his head and looked over: "Did I disturb the second aunt to sleep?"
Cheng Wanwan said softly: "When I was collecting pheasants during the day, I boiled some pheasant oil and I made an oil lamp for you."
She went to the kitchen to get a small bowl, then bought animal fat at the mall, and then bought a piece of cotton thread and put it in the oil bowl, and the oil lamp was made.
Modern oil lamps use kerosene, which has less smoke and is bright enough. Animal oil lamps are the oldest lighting method. They produce some smoke, have an unpleasant smell, and the light is unstable. You need to pick the wick from time to time.
Even so, Cheng Zhao was already very satisfied, his dark eyes flashing with fire: "Thank you, Second Aunt."
"Don't look at it for too long. Go to bed early."
Cheng Wanwan patted his shoulder and walked into his room.
The three children on the bed were already sleeping like Piggy. They snored one after another, and they couldn't even wake up.
She gently opened the cabinet door, and there was nearly two hundred taels of silver inside, including the remaining silver from selling ginseng and the silver rewarded by the county magistrate. Putting these silvers together, they were a bit dazzling even at night.
In the past, the money earned through the mall was not visible to the public. Now that I have money that can be seen, I am afraid of being taken advantage of by thieves.
Cheng Wanwan sighed loudly. It would be great if the mall had space for storage. She hid the books under the bed board, the silver and milk bottles in the cabinet, and all kinds of things that should not appear in this era. Things can be hidden in space...
【Ding! 】
[The storage function of the mall has been opened, and you can get the locker function for 1,000 taels of silver. 】
Cheng Wanwan's eyes widened.
She immediately brought up the void panel, and sure enough she saw the locker. It was a square cabinet. Although it was not big, it was enough to store some personal belongings.
However, it actually costs one thousand taels of silver!
She had worked tirelessly in the ice powder industry for so long and only earned more than thirty taels of silver.
Cheng Wanwan was lying on the bed, thinking about how to make quick money. She quickly came up with a feasible method. Before she fell asleep, she heard Xiao Hei's whimpering sound coming from outside.
She immediately got up from the bed and walked out.
Xiao Hei was running around in the yard. There were four wild wolves outside the yard, eating food from the wooden basin.
Cheng Wanwan walked out, picked up Xiao Hei, and said softly: "Xiao Hei, otherwise let your mother stay."
Her family has a huge sum of money, and she is really afraid of someone breaking in in the middle of the night. Even though there are wires on the wall, and even though San Niu has a long knife, she is still afraid.
If a wolf were released in the yard, it could give early warning and attack, and she could sleep until dawn.
The four wolves were successful in catching the bandits last time. No one in the village would be blind to trouble the wild wolves...
Xiao Hei jumped with excitement.
Cheng Wanwan opened the courtyard door and let Xiao Hei out.
The four wolves surrounded Xiao Hei and licked him until he was all wet.
Then she saw the wolves whining and howling, and the last one left was not the female wolf, but a male wolf cub. Cheng Wanwan guessed that this should be Xiao Hei's brother, who was probably one year old. He was very cute. Lively, running around in the yard.
"Chi chi chi chi!"
"Quack!"
The chickens, ducks and geese in the yard were making restless noises.
Cheng Wanwan silently decided to give extra meals to the chickens and ducks tomorrow. In order to protect the family's money, she could only temporarily aggrieve them.
It's just dawn.
Zhao Sidan found out that he had a new companion at home. His newborn calf was not afraid of tigers, nor was he afraid that wolves would bite people, so he had the courage to touch the wolf's head.
He said with a smile: "You have a white spot on your forehead, let's call you Xiaodian, okay?"
The wolf did not understand human speech and had no objection.
"Hehe, you will be Xiaodian from now on. You are the older brother of Dahei and Xiaohei!" Zhao Sidan nodded with great satisfaction, "Xiaodian, you can take your brothers to the backyard to play. You are not even a chicken or duck here. Dare to come out."
The three little guys rushed to the backyard to play.
The chickens and ducks that had been shivering in the yard all night finally came out of their nests. They looked left and right and saw that there were no wolves, so they dared to look for food everywhere.
The sky is getting brighter and a busy day has begun.
This is the last batch of ice powder at Cheng Wanwan's house. After finishing it today and delivering the goods tomorrow, the business will not be done this year.
As soon as she opened the door to the courtyard, she saw Zhang Baitai's wife walking to the door with a little girl.
