The sun sets.
Orange light falls on the fields, and the fields, ridges and mountains are covered with a warm halo, like an oil painting.
Before the afterglow faded, Zhao Ergou came back with his carriage.
Cheng Wanwan was sitting in the yard playing with the little wolf and the puppy. When she looked up, she saw the second son jumping out of the carriage and walking in leading the horse.
Her eyes stopped on the carriage for a moment. Although it was blocked by the curtain, she could feel that there was still a lot of cloth left in the carriage.
She didn't ask about these things. She stood up and said, "Hurry up and wash your hands when you get back. I'm waiting for you to eat."
Zhao Ergou silently led the horse to the stable at the back, silently sat down at the table, and ate silently, saying nothing from beginning to end.
Shen Zheng felt something was wrong and bumped his shoulder: "Hey, Ergou, why don't you say a word?"
"A little tired." Zhao Ergou put down his chopsticks, "There is still firewood in the yard that has not been chopped. I will go chop it."
Zhao Sanniu stood up immediately: "Second brother, this is my job, don't take it from me."
Only then did Zhao Ergou come to his senses: "Aren't you supposed to be in the martial arts training? Why are you back?"
"This..." Zhao Sanniu scratched his head, "I'm back anyway. The work of chopping firewood was mine before, and it's still mine now!"
He ran out quickly and grabbed the ax in his hand, fearing that his job would be taken away.
Cheng Wanwan said: "The ratoon rice will be put away in a few days, and I will have to be busy for more than half a month. Take advantage of this time to collect and chop more firewood. Ergou, put your business aside for a while." Let’s go and do something for the family.”
Zhao Ergou's lips opened.
He suddenly realized that in fact, his mother knew everything, but she just didn't want to expose the face he deliberately maintained.
Since he started doing business, it has been smooth sailing and basically he has not encountered any problems.
He thought that this matter would be resolved soon, but two days passed and he had no clue.
He poured in nearly ninety taels of silver. With this money, he could build a big house like theirs... This was a huge amount of money that no one in Dahe Village would be able to earn in his lifetime.
After making so much money, he started to feel restless. His mother warned him and Miss Yingying reminded him, but he didn't take it seriously.
So, he fell hard.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hidden it..."
Zhao Ergou lowered his head with guilt on his face.
"This is your own business, there is no need to say sorry to me." Cheng Wanwan said softly, "And this is only the second day. After two consecutive days of failure, you can't stand it anymore?"
Zhao Ergou said: "I have visited all the villages in Baiyun Town today. The cloth market is saturated and not a single piece of cloth can be sold."
Because he sold cloth twice in a row, the people in the village of Baiyun Town saw the business opportunity. Four or five bold people were the first to pool their money to enter the market. They made half of the profit as soon as they changed hands, so more and more people began to get involved. In just one or two days, most of the market in Baiyun Town was saturated. He was not the only one who had his hands smashed by cloth, but also many local households in Baiyun Town.
These villagers went to the cloth store in Ping'an County to return the cloth. The shopkeeper's purchase price was less than two cents. How could it be possible to recycle the two cents, so those villagers could only lose half of the cost.
The money invested by those people was small, and a loss of half would only be one tael of silver at most. But here, a loss of half would be more than forty taels of silver.
He couldn't afford to lose this money.
So, he brought back all the goods in the entire carriage.
"I have inquired about it. Nanyang is not suitable for growing ramie and castor. The price of coarse linen over there is higher, and can cost six or seven cents per foot." Zhao Ergou said, "Mom, I want to go to Nanyang. .”
Cheng Zhao said: "When I was at Nanfu Academy, I followed my husband to Nanyang to buy books. We took a carriage for three days and it was not peaceful along the way."
Nanyang does not belong to the boundary of Huzhou, it is another province. It is a big deal to leave the province, and you have to go to the government to apply for various documents.
Cao Yingying was always quiet, so she couldn't help but interrupt at this time: "Nanyang is a bit far. Even if we go by water, it will take a day and a night."
Cheng Wanwan pointed his finger: "Ergou, are you sure you want to go to Nanyang?"
Zhao Ergou nodded: "There will be a merchant ship out of Hekou Town Pier the day after tomorrow, and it will pass through Nanyang. I want to take the goods with me and go there. Mom, do you think it's okay?"
The farthest place he has ever been is Hekou Town. He has never even been to Huzhou, let alone Nanyang.
When this idea came to him, he actually resisted it from the bottom of his heart. But after he came back, looking at his mother's gentle face, he firmly believed in this idea - he couldn't always let his mother worry about it.
Cheng Wanwan hasn't spoken yet.
Cao Yingying said: "Most of the merchant ships on the dock in Hekou Town belong to the Cao family. The Cao family's merchant ships will indeed take people with them when they go out, but these people need to register their information at the Cao's firm at least one month in advance, otherwise they will not be allowed to board the ship. .”
In other words, if you want to go to Nanyang, you have to wait another month.
"But my dad should be back soon." Cao Yingying laughed, "When my dad comes back, I'll go and tell you that you can get on the boat at any time."
Cheng Wanwan said at the right time: "Ergou, you go to Cao's to register your information tomorrow. The coarse linen will not wear out in a short time anyway. Don't think about the cloth for now. Our family is not short of money to run things." "
Zhao Ergou came down in response, turned around and went out to stack dry firewood.
Cheng Wanwan was not worried about the cloth hitting her hands, but instead started to worry about her second son traveling far away.
She didn’t have a map and didn’t know how far away Nanyang was. Yingying said it would take a day and a night by boat, and she felt a little panicked just thinking about it.
But the child is already sixteen years old, and it's time for him to go out and make a living. As an old mother, she can only support him.
Cheng Wanwan heated up hot water and began to take a shower and wash her hair.
The wooden bucket for bathing is so big that you need to carry two buckets of hot water and three or four buckets of cold water to fill it up.
Such a waste of water means she doesn't wash in a wooden bucket every day. She only needs to use it once every seven or eight days. Sitting in the bathtub, she feels comfortable both physically and mentally.
She uses soap bought from the mall to bathe. Other children are not so comfortable. She uses clean water, dry cleaning and scrubbing to bathe. It is better to wash her hair with rice water, and use plant ash to wash clothes... As for bath beans, this It is something that only the upper class can afford, but ordinary people have no place to buy it.
Cheng Wanwan was thinking while taking a bath. Now that the standard of food, clothing, housing and transportation has improved, daily cleaning should also be raised to a higher level.
It's okay to buy it from the mall to fool a few sons. With Shen Zheng and Cao Yingying here, many things cannot be explained. Maybe she can try making soap.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to do it, just read and learn slowly.
At night, Cheng Wanwan closed the door, turned on a lamp beside the bed, and read by the light.
You don’t know it until you look at it, but you realize that making soap is so simple, and you can complete the entire process using local materials.
When she got up in the morning, Cheng Wanwan planned to try it first to see if she could succeed. What she learned on paper was shallow, and she knew that she had to practice it. She understood this truth deeply, so any knowledge she learned from books, she You need to practice it all before you can draw a conclusion.
While she was getting raw materials from the stove, Aunt Wang's voice sounded: "Da Shan Niang, that person is awake!"
