On the early morning of the 28th, the young couple made an appointment with Chu Ping and Zhao Cheng, and took a walk to Wufang Village.
The money given by Xu Shi was in place, and the Hu family worked particularly hard to find idle men. They went to Wufang Village to see the excitement along the way. People gradually gathered and flocked to the Hu family from all directions. No need to ask now, just look where the people are. If you have more, just go wherever you want!
Someone also spotted Chu Yi and his wife on the road. Seeing that the four of them seemed to be heading towards Wufang Village, they were suddenly aroused to gossip.
"Isn't this from the Chu family? What are you doing here?"
As he spoke, the man glanced at Zhao Cheng and Chu Ping behind the young couple, and elbowed the people next to him. The meaning was self-evident, and he almost shouted, look, the Chu family is not going to go. It's a mess!
There is not much entertainment in the village on weekdays. They are all chores for the owner and the Li family. Otherwise, a shop cannot be opened, so so many people come to watch.
When the people around heard that people from the Chu family's paper money shop were there, they all smelled the lively atmosphere of gossip, and they all stopped and looked at Chu Yi and the others.
Shen Luzhu smiled at the man: "Auntie, you are really joking. Of course, I went to watch the excitement like everyone else. I didn't mean to invite a lion dance team. I have never seen a lion dance in the village in my life. !”
The aunt curled her lips, obviously not believing what Shen Luzhu said: "Hey, don't tell aunt, you don't know what kind of shop the Hu family runs in Wufang Village!"
These people just want to watch the excitement, and it is best to go and cause trouble themselves, and then make others turn upside down, which is what they want in their minds.
Although Shen Luzhu felt really uncomfortable when he first heard about it, he couldn't let outsiders see it as a joke. He just didn't want them to get what they wanted!
Shen Luzhu blinked his innocent eyes and asked curiously: "Auntie, what kind of shop is this? I was only thinking about the lion dance team. If you didn't tell me, I really didn't pay attention! But what gossip is there that I don't know about? Auntie Tell me quickly and let me listen and be happy!"
The aunt who looked contemptuous just now asked again with half-belief: "You really don't know?"
Shen Luzhu, as if he couldn't wait any longer, urged: "Oh, Auntie, don't be too secretive. It's still a secret. You can't keep any gossip to yourself. Tell us quickly and let everyone know. I've never seen so many people. Just waiting!"
The aunt's face was stiff, and she didn't know what to say for a moment. She looked around and saw that everyone around her seemed to be really looking at her. For some reason, she suddenly felt that she was the one being watched. Now she was not interested in anything. Unable to speak, he hurriedly grabbed the people around him and hid in front of him.
"Hey, aunt, why are you leaving? The gossip hasn't been revealed yet!"
Now there was no one around who didn't look at them, and they came to ask Chu Yi what they were doing!
Chu Yi and others set out not too late, but when they arrived at Hu's house, his yard was already surrounded by villagers on three floors inside and three outside who came to watch the fun.
Because he had Shen Luzhu with him, Chu Yi was afraid that his wife would be injured, so he didn't push too far toward the center. Chu Ping and Zhao Cheng didn't have any worries, so they pushed through the crowd and moved toward the center little by little.
Chu Yi looked around and found that there were many poplar trees planted on the dirt road not far away. The terrain there was relatively high, and there were already some people like them who didn't want to be squeezed. They started to go there. Chu Yi took his wife and walked away. Go over and stand next to a thick poplar tree.
Holding Shen Luzhu's arm, he brought the person in front of him, supported his wife's shoulders and asked her to stand with her back to him, then lowered his hands, clamped Shen Luzhu's armpits, lifted the person up with force, and then slightly He tilted his head to the right, letting Shen Luzhu sit on his left shoulder, stretched out his hand to support the poplar tree on the left, and hugged her legs with his right hand to protect his wife between him and the poplar tree.
His body suddenly lifted off the ground, and his field of vision suddenly broadened. Shen Luzhu let out an uncontrollable "yeah", but fortunately the sound was not loud and did not attract the attention of the people around him. He then covered his mouth and looked down at Chu Yi.
"Chu Yi, put me down quickly, it's too heavy, your arms will be sore!"
Chu Yi didn't do anything, just asked her: "Can you see clearly?"
Shen Luzhu didn't dare to make any big move, so he could only tap Chu Yi's shoulder with his right hand: "Did you hear that? Put me down quickly!"
"It's okay. I'll be able to hold on for a while. I'll let you down after the lion dance."
Fortunately, after a while, firecrackers exploded in front of the Hu's courtyard, and then the lion dance team also performed. Several people came out of the Hu's courtyard, carrying things like melon seeds and candies, walking through the crowd and giving them to everyone. Distribution, please take care of their business in the future.
Shen Luzhu sat on Chu Yi's shoulder and had a particularly wide field of vision. Not only could he clearly see the lion dance team's performance, but he even spotted Chu Ping and Zhao Cheng on the side near the door of Hu's courtyard!
At this time, Zhao Cheng was taking candies, melon seeds and other things from the Hu family. Chu Ping was beside him. For some reason, he saw him staring at the man handing out candies, and everyone walked back to the yard to get them. Something is gone, Chu Ping is still looking at it.
Although Shen Luzhu was a little puzzled, he didn't stare all the time. His eyes returned to the lion dance performance in front of the courtyard. Seeing that the performance seemed to be coming to an end, he hurriedly urged Chu Yi to put him down.
This time Chu Yi no longer insisted. He clasped his wife's waist with both hands and used a little force to hold her back to the ground: "Does it look good?"
"nice!"
Chu Yi was already tall and standing on a high ground. He could clearly see the scene in front of the Hu family courtyard. He just wanted to know more about Shen Luzhu's feelings. Seeing his wife smiling with crooked eyebrows made her happier than watching the lion dance all day long.
While the young couple was talking, Chu Ping and Zhao Cheng also withdrew from the crowd in advance. They looked around and found Chu Yi standing by the tree. They hurriedly pushed aside the crowd and ran over!
"Cousin! That person just now..." Chu Ping was just halfway through speaking when his arm was pulled by Zhao Cheng beside him, and Chu Ping looked to the side.
Zhao Chengchong shook his head at Chu Ping: "Let's talk about it when we get back!"
Only then did Chu Ping realize that there were too many people here and it was not a good place to talk. Several people left Wufang Village early before the crowd dispersed.
As soon as he returned to the shop, Chu Ping immediately couldn't help it anymore: "Cousin, the person from the Hu family who distributed sweets to me and Zhao Cheng is the same person who inquired about the news that day and the one who drove the car!"
"Can you see clearly?"
"You can see clearly, cousin, he is right!"
Shen Luzhu really didn't expect that when they went to join in the fun, they actually solved the mystery of the previous day. After that day, she also thought about which shop in the town the man came from, and he came all the way to their village. It’s not too much trouble to inquire about information. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be the village next door to them!
When Chu Ping thought that the two recent bad things were actually done by the same group of people, he became even more angry: "It turns out that they had planned it in advance. They just wanted to learn from people who opened a shop to sell paper, and they still dared to do it. Come and hang out in front of the real master! I don’t know how long you have been following us?”
"It's okay. We sell ours and they drive theirs. You can't learn everything!"
Zhao Cheng had also heard from Chu Ping before. The man came to buy paper money and inquired about the purchasing channels: "Yes, it's okay to learn a little bit. The paper money in Ayi is all designed by my brothers and sisters, and the molds are also A Yi did it all, how can it be so easy for them to learn it!"
While the villagers were still discussing the Hu’s shop in Wufang Village, Chu Ren, who had been away from home for more than a month, finally returned in a bullock cart. Uncle Chu’s family also went to Wufang Village today to see the excitement. As soon as they walked into their home In the courtyard, I saw the eldest son standing in front of the chained courtyard door, with bookcases and luggage at his feet.
"A-Ren! It's me, A-Ren, who's back!" The eldest uncle, Wang, was the first to react and ran over in a few steps.
"Son, you have lost weight. Did you not eat well or did you not rest well in the inn?" Mrs. Wang looked at her son's haggard face and felt a little distressed. This imperial examination is really torturous!
"Auntie, I'm fine, I'm just a little tired!"
Mrs. Wang unlocked the door and hurriedly pulled her son into the courtyard. Uncle Chu and Mrs. Li took the bookcase and luggage and followed behind.
Uncle Chu put down his bookcase, looked at his son who was drinking water and asked, "How did you perform this time? Will you announce the results at the same time as before?"
Chu Ren put down the porcelain bowl in his hand: "It's okay, my son has tried his best. This time is the same as before. The results will be released in mid-September, and our town will hear the news almost ten years ago. Dad, you guys were together just now go out?"
"A new paper money shop opened in the next village, and we went to join in the fun."
When Mrs. Wang talked about this, she smiled with some schadenfreude: "There were firecrackers and lion dancers in this battle, and candy cubes and melon seeds were given out to those who came to join in the fun. I heard that there was a person in the Hu family. You are a relative of a big boss in the town, look at this move, how generous it is! Look, Chu Yi's shop is probably going to be closed this time, with what little they have, how can they compare with other big bosses!"
"Really, that's quite a pity." Chu Ren said thoughtfully.
It's almost September, the weather has turned colder, and the Shen family's mosquito repellent business has also stopped. The day Shen Songjie sent the oxcart back to the Chu family, he also had a carload of food and clothing expenses, some of which were made by himself. Yes, some of them were specially bought by Shen Songjie and Shen Zeqi in the town.
He said that he prepared it because he thought that his sister and her husband would be busy again and probably wouldn't be able to take care of it. In fact, he had the idea of thanking Shen Luzhu for helping him buy mosquito repellent and borrowing the car from Chu Yi.
Shen Songjie was afraid that Shen Luzhu would say that he was cheating on her again, so he came up with this excuse.
Shen Luzhu and Chu Yi are already preparing for the upcoming Winter Clothes Festival and Spring Festival, just like last year.
For several days, Chu Yi drove an ox cart to Lin Ji's workshop to purchase goods. The paper ingot making workshop also reopened. However, the villagers who were expecting to come to work and earn money this time were all disappointed. Shen Luzhu did not expand the enrollment. , there was no substitution, the same ten people were used!
The newly opened paper money shop of the Hu family in Wufang Village seems to have had no impact on the couple's business except for the initial sensation and the subsequent occasional good letters, inquiries and gossip.
In the courtyard of the Hu family, Huang Liang has been staying at Hu Shun's house since the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, he did not come forward to open the paper money shop. Hu Shun was taking care of it on the surface, and he only needed to be a behind-the-scenes person. The boss will do it.
"I'm not asking you to find two strangers to stare at the Chu family. Do you have any news?"
Hu Shun thought for a while and realized that there was indeed something wrong: "There was nothing wrong with him at the time. It was the man from his family, Chu Yi, who often drove the bullock cart out recently. He probably went to buy goods. He said that he would drive the bullock cart when he came back. Get a full car.”
Upon hearing this, Huang Liang hurriedly asked: "Do you know where he buys the goods?"
"I do not know."
Huang Liang pointed at Hu Shun's nose and cursed: "Are you stupid? You saw him going to buy goods, why didn't you let someone follow him?"
Hu Shun touched his nose and explained: "It's not my cousin. When we found those two idle men, we only told them to keep an eye on them. We didn't ask them to follow us if we came back if anything happened. Besides, what about Chu? Yi is driving a bullock cart, and those two can't keep up even if they just walk!"
"You're so stupid. Why are you looking for someone to keep an eye on? Don't you know? Isn't it just for the purpose of purchasing goods? You can only watch people buying goods without knowing how to follow them. What else can you be used for?"
Hu Shun lowered his head and said nothing.
Huang Liang got so angry when he saw his cousin acting like that that he couldn't do anything!
"Find someone to drive the bullock cart tomorrow and wait on the road out of the village. If Chu Yi passes by, follow him. If you can't find the goods, don't come back!"
