Although the rumor about the carriage coming to pick up and drop off has not become more outrageous, the villagers still firmly believe that the Chu family's business must be getting better and better!
When Chu Fang heard that the sister-in-law who had returned to her natal family said this, she felt uncomfortable again, and hurried back to her natal family while the child was resting.
"Dad, grandma, where are you people?"
Uncle Chu and his wife were cleaning up the house in the wing at the moment. They were not too surprised when they heard Chu Fang calling someone. Since the Spring Festival this year, my daughter has come back every now and then. Nine times out of ten, she is muttering about the business of the old house. Son.
Mrs. Wang shook off the rag in her hand and walked out of the wing door: "Why are you back today?"
Chu Fang seemed not to hear the impatience in her mother-in-law's words, and only talked about herself: "Is it possible that mother-in-law hasn't heard about it? It's spread in the village that Chu Yi and his wife were suppressed. The big boss at the hotel picked me up to discuss business, and the person who picked him up and delivered him was a horse-drawn carriage! Auntie, tell me, what kind of business is this? It must be a big business with such a big move, why do those two people have to do everything good? It's on the table! How about I go back to my old house tomorrow and ask?"
Mrs. Wang listened to her daughter's talk becoming more and more mysterious, and she didn't believe it at all: "Don't always listen to the wind and rain, and don't listen to your sister-in-law. Besides making coffins and selling paper money, what other big business can Chu Yi do? The big boss of the town came to pick him up, but there is no money for selling coffin paper in that town, so we have to go to him, Chu Yi? You believe it even if I tell you!"
"If you don't believe me, go to the village and ask around. Who doesn't know about this mountain village now? Chu Yi and the others obviously rely on the craftsmanship of our old Chu family..."
Chu Fang was just halfway through talking when she heard her father calling her mother in the house. Wang also heard it. She didn't have time to gossip with her daughter. They had to clean up the house quickly. People might be leaving town in the past few days. Came back.
"What are you asking about? I don't have the time to spare. If you have nothing to do, just get up and go. I'm busy and it will only add to the chaos!"
Mrs. Wang said and opened the door of the wing room, and Chu Fang realized that her mother-in-law had just come out of the wing room: "Mom, what are you doing in the wing room with my father? This house has not been occupied for a long time. "
"Your brother and the others are coming back to stay in the next few days."
When Chu Fang entered the house and saw her parents cleaning up, she was even more surprised: "Brother, they all live in the side room of the main house when they come back. Why are they cleaning up this house? He can't live there for a few days!"
Mrs. Wang sighed: "I'm going to live here from now on, for a long time!"
"Ah? Why, brother is not studying in the town anymore?"
"Of course Aren still has to study in the town! Didn't your sister-in-law and her father break down during the Chinese New Year? He was paralyzed. He said that he emptied his family fortune due to medical treatment and lost his job as a private school teacher. He will not be here anymore. The town is struggling to make a living, so Mingxuan and Li will have to come back to live." Mrs. Wang briefly explained the matter to her daughter while wiping the dust-covered fire bed.
Chu Fang was speechless, but Uncle Chu spoke. He had roughly heard what his daughter had just said in the room: "Fang'er, you are now a grown man. When Mrs. Li comes back in the future, don't be in front of her." It’s not shameful to say that there are some and some are not!”
Chu Fang was so angry that she sat down on the edge of the kang. She didn't care whether it was clean or not. She was very aggrieved: "What's wrong with what I said? Without the craftsmanship of our old Chu family, how could they think of selling paper to make money? If not As for the coffin shop business, how could it be that their stall was so easy to open, and it wasn’t because of the name of the Chu family’s coffins!
Obviously, Dad, you are the boss. If you want to inherit and make money, it should be our family. Who will get Chu Yi's turn? It's a good thing now. They have made money, but they have kicked our family aside!
Dad, do you think I'm happy to have a hot face against someone's cold butt without saying anything about it? Grandpa, grandma, and both of you are here to train me! If it weren't for the hard times and lack of money, if this was my father's business, how could I be like this?
Besides, brother, I can’t use money to take the imperial examination? Didn't I also think that if I followed Chu Yi and the others, I could earn more, and then I could help my brother? "
"Hey..." Uncle Chu stood with his back hunched up against the door frame. He had been learning to make coffins from his father since he was a child. At that time, he always thought that he was the boss and he had to learn hard. When the shop was in his hands, he would definitely make it. Let’s open the old Chu family’s coffin shop bigger and better!
But who knew that among the three brothers, he was the one who gave up making coffins in the end and gave up the shop he had cherished for half his life for the sake of his son's future.
After being married for 20 to 30 years, how could Mrs. Wang not know the knots in the man's heart? Didn't she know that the shop could make money? Don’t you know how good money is? But for her son, she would do anything. She thought that when her son became successful, life would be better, and she would have nothing to lose by then. Who knew that the imperial examination was so difficult, and that something like this happened!
"What's the use of talking about this now? This family has been divided, how can it be reunited again! Your father is right, when we come back, you should stop talking about these useless things!"
A few days later, two ox carts pulled Li Xiucai's family into the village of Kaoshan.
Li Xiucai was lying on the first bullock cart. Li and his mother-in-law, Yuan, were sitting beside her to take care of her. The Chu Ren family was sitting in the back cart, with the luggage of the family of five at their feet. The house and the furniture inside were all covered up. After selling them for money, the Li family only brought back some clothes, bedding, pots and pans.
Li Xiucai was admitted as a first-class scholar, and later moved his family to the town. What a scene it was at that time! Now he can only stay there and sell his property to survive.
People in the village who heard about this incident, especially those who had seen Li Xiucai's success back then, couldn't help but feel a little sad. The experience of Li Xiucai's family became a hot topic in the village for a while, finally overshadowing the previous horse-drawn carriage incident.
At the end of April, Chu Yi went to the town to purchase goods. Since the last contract was signed, Chu Yi had taken the goods directly from Lin Ji's workshop, which was much closer than the shop on the street in the town.
When Shen Luzhu saw the bullock cart stopped in front of his yard, he hurriedly came out of the shop and helped Chu Yi with the moving. He was a little puzzled when he saw there were a lot of rice paper and the like.
“Didn’t there still be a lot of rice paper that came in last time? Why did it come in again?”
Chu Yi looked at his wife and smiled: "It's done, Manager Li said it's done making paper from straw!"
A few steps closer to Chu Yi, Shen Luzhu grabbed his sleeves and widened his eyes: "Really? What are these?"
"Well, these are made of straw. In addition to rice paper, there are also several different kinds of linen paper inside. Master Zeng said to bring them over for us to try."
Shen Luzhu touched the newly brought rice paper. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that it was much smoother than the original one.
After carefully comparing several types of linen paper, Shen Luzhu selected three types, cut them into just the right size, colored them, dried them, brushed them with oil, dried them again, and then folded each into one gold, one silver, and two fat paper ingots. They also compared the hardness, appearance and burning conditions of the finished product, and finally selected the paper to be used to make paper ingots in the future.
"Just this kind, it's suitable for thickness, smoothness and hardness. Let's use this kind of linen paper to make paper ingots from now on!"
Chu Yi looked at the round paper ingots sitting in rows and smiled! I also talked to Shen Luzhu about the new purchase prices of these types of paper.
Shen Luzhu frowned slightly and calculated in his mind: "In this case... our costs can be reduced by at least 30% compared to before!"
Looking at the three white and tender fingers in front of him, Chu Yi stretched out his big hand to wrap them: "Thanks to our A Zhu."
"It's all thanks to the two of us!"
"Well! Thanks to both of us!"
Last time the young couple returned to the Shen family, their second brother Shen Songjie made some fresh turpentine for them. Shen Luzhu followed and watched, from the selection of materials to the heat and distillation time, as well as covering it with ashes to warm it. This process took more than an hour. Caregiving is a process that tests skills, experience and patience.
Shen Luzhu discussed with Chu Yi, and the turpentine will be purchased from the Shen family at the market price. Just like burning paper with copper coins and paper money with banknotes, paper ingots also need to be made by themselves for a while. They will try selling a small amount for a while, and then wait for sales to increase. , and then find someone to do it.
But Shen Luzhu and Chu Yi still need to make banknote paper money, which is sold in large quantities now. Fortunately, it is easy and quick to make, but no matter what it is, once the quantity is large, it will take time. If they want to make paper ingots, , I’m afraid time doesn’t allow it.
The young couple discussed and shared the work of making banknotes and paper money. Now that the cost has been reduced, they are not afraid of paying more wages, as long as the people can trust it!
After thinking about it, Shen Luzhu thought of someone: "Chu Yi, what do you think about leaving it to cousin Jiang Juan? This is easy to do, and the person is trustworthy!"
Speaking of cousin Jiang Juan, since I helped cousin Jiang Juan leave the Wang family last time, my family has gradually resumed contact with Aunt Cui’s family. Later, with the efforts of the young couple to bring together, the relationship between my grandfather’s family and Aunt Cui’s family has gradually become more peaceful. There was an old feud. In fact, both families were thinking about each other in their hearts, but due to their reputation, they had not been able to find a suitable opportunity for many years.
After the Cui family's uncles heard what happened to their niece, they wanted to go to the Wang family again, but they were finally stopped by Chu Yi and Aunt Cui. Recently, cousin Jiang Juan often took Xiaobao to accompany her grandmother to relieve her boredom.
"Of course, listen to A-Zhu."
Before the Dragon Boat Festival, the young couple and Chu Li went to their grandfather's house with gifts. It happened that their aunt's family was also there. Shen Luzhu took advantage of the chat to mention the matter to Jiang Juan.
"What do you think, cousin?"
Xiaobao is getting older and older. In the future, she will have to go to school, marry a wife, and have children. Although Jiang Juan lives in her parents' home, she can't feel at ease with these things. It all depends on her parents and younger brother. Shen Luzhu's job is not easy. It takes a lot of effort, not to mention making money, and it doesn't delay her from seeing Xiaobao. It's just a timely help!
"Cousin, can you really give me such a good job?"
Shen Luzhu smiled at Jiang Juan: "Of course, how can this be false? You don't know, it's not easy for us to do this in front of outsiders. We look at the shop during the day and really don't want to do anything at night. If you can If you agree, you will do me and your cousin a big favor!"
"Well, my cousin really helped me a lot! And what happened last time..."
"Stop it, stop it. Didn't we agree not to mention the bad things before? You have a lot more time than me. If you are willing to help, I don't even have to worry about stocking up before the Ghost Festival! But Don’t feel pressured, don’t count as much as you do, you know?”
"Yes!" Jiang Juan nodded heavily: "I understand, thank you cousin!"
During the Dragon Boat Festival, the uncle's family still spent time at the old house, but strangely, the hall sister-in-law, Ms. Li, didn't come.
The official explanation given by Mrs. Wang, the eldest uncle, is: "Ms. Li took Mingxuan to her parents' house. Didn't they just move back? Besides, her father is like that. She went back to help, which made it more lively."
When Shen Luzhu came back from picking vegetables in the backyard, he accidentally overheard the conversation between his aunt and grandma.
"Because of the pendant, Mrs. Li is probably complaining about me. Ever since she came back from town, she has been arrogant all day long, as if someone owed her money, and she has been leading her children to her parents' house all day long. !”
"With the situation in her family, it's okay to go back from time to time to check it out, but during this big holiday, she took my old Chu family's great-grandson to her parents' house without even showing her face. It's her fault! You are the mother-in-law and she is the daughter-in-law. If you do something wrong, you have to teach her a lesson. How can you allow her to rebel?"
"Aniang is right. I have to talk to her properly when I go back. She was never around me before. Plus Aren is in town and relies on Li Xiucai to take care of her, so I haven't disciplined her much! This is different now. In the future In their family, they might have to rely on us, Ah Ren, and we can’t tolerate her gibbering!"
"Grandma, see if these dishes are enough!" Shen Luzhu shouted first, then pushed open the half-open kitchen door and walked in.
