After discussing the cooperation with Lin Ji, the life of the young couple returned to peace.
It's only February now, and the paper money business is still very quiet. Apart from taking care of the shop, the young couple focuses most of their energy on paper binding.
Every day, the prepared paper will be moved in and out, trying to allow everyone to slowly adapt to it. At the same time, I will also study some new styles to prepare for future arrangements.
Ever since he thought of making paper, Shen Luzhu felt as if he had been opened up to the world of Ren and Du. All kinds of ideas kept popping up in his mind, including paper figures, paper houses, paper cows and horses, even pavilions and houses, carriages and sedan chairs, furniture and treasures. , once the mind is opened, it seems that as long as there is something in this world, there is nothing that cannot be made from paper.
In addition, there are wreaths, elegiac couplets, incense and candles, and shrouds. Suddenly, I feel that many of these things can expand the business of my shop. I was so full of energy that I wanted to put everything I could think of in the shop at once.
Although they are hot inside, the young couple is still quite sensible. You can't become fat with one bite, and this business has to be done bit by bit. As long as the thoughts and ideas are still there, sooner or later, they can start their own business.
The young couple in the Chu family were busy and busy, but they gradually forgot about what the brothers surnamed Xue had said before. Until late one night in late February, Shen Luzhu, who had been asleep, suddenly woke up. When he came over, when he opened his eyes, he saw Cihua constantly clawing at him with his paws.
Cihua is a kitten who loves to be clean. She usually goes outside for convenience. But since Chu Yi made a small door for Cihua to enter and exit on every door of his house, it has become more and more popular. It's rare that people clamor to go out in the middle of the night. Shen Luzhu, who had just woken up, was still a little confused. He reached out and rubbed Li Hua's head and muttered: "Li Hua, do you want to go out?"
But Lihua ran to the other side and tried to wake Chu Yi up. When she saw Chu Yi sitting up, she called "meow" at the two of them twice, then turned around and jumped to the ground and ran away. He kept tapping the door with his paws, as if he was trying to get out.
"Is the small door unable to be opened?" Shen Luzhu asked Chu Yi upon seeing this.
"A-Zhu, just lie down and I'll go take a look."
Chu Yi pulled up the quilt and covered his wife with it. Then he put on a coat and went to the ground. He stretched out his hand and pushed it gently. The small door specially reserved for Ci Hua was opened, but Ci Hua was not seen going out. Instead, he continued to use his claws. He slapped the door and called "meow" quickly, as if there was something urgent.
There was no wax in the room, and Shen Luzhu couldn't see clearly what was going on on the other side of the door. Hearing Li Hua keep calling, he quickly stood up and asked, "What's wrong?"
Chu Yi seemed to realize something at this time. Maybe Li Hua wanted to ask him to go out for something, so he turned back to the kang and explained to his wife while putting on his clothes: "I just opened the small door, but Li Hua didn't go out. Keep banging on the door, I'll go out and take a look."
As soon as these words came out, Shen Luzhu suddenly woke up and remembered what the two young men named Xue once said: "What happened? Is it a thief, or are the two from before here again? I With you!"
"It's okay, I'll do it myself. A-Zhu, just stay in the house. I'll be back later, don't be afraid."
After Chu Yi said that, he opened the door and walked out. Lihua didn't bark anymore this time, and followed Chu Yi's feet and walked out. Shen Luzhu couldn't stay, but he didn't dare to go out to Chu Yi at will. To add to the chaos, I also put on a coat and went to the ground, picked up a candlestick and held it in my hand. I planned to hide quietly behind the door and watch through the gap in case there was any unexpected situation. It was good for me. Help Chu Yi.
Shen Luzhu hid behind the door and saw Chu Yi holding the stove hook standing by the wall in his hand, and then walked softly towards the yard. In the east courtyard of Chu's house late at night in early spring, he could see through the moonlight Probably, apart from a person and a cat, there were no other living creatures in the courtyard.
I saw Li Hua leading Chu Yi in front, and went straight to the door between the east and west courtyards. This door was added when Chu Yi renovated the two houses, because the west courtyard was only used to store some. There was little access to the sundries on weekdays, and he was afraid that someone might wander by while the adults were not paying attention and cause some bumps and bruises, so Chu Yi tied the door with a hemp rope.
But now, for some unknown reason, the ropes were scattered aside and the two wooden doors were pushed open.
There was a gap that could allow one person to pass through. Li Hua led Chu Yi to the door and rushed in without stopping. Then she heard it growl, as if it was warning something.
Changqing Street was very quiet late at night, and Lihua's sudden cry seemed particularly abrupt and penetrating. Immediately afterwards, two frightened screams and a flurry of sounds came from the west courtyard.
Chu Yi was originally afraid of alerting the criminals who broke into his house in the middle of the night, so he walked very lightly and slowly. The moment he heard this, he rushed over quickly, but he was still a step too late. He only saw two people jumping in from the west courtyard of his house in a panic. Grandma Sun's family is in Kaibu Village next door.
Then there was the barking of Mrs. Sun's wolf dog, a scream of pain and the sound of the neighbors being woken up. Chu Yi quickly ran out of his yard. Shen Luzhu also followed him out of the yard, but he had just arrived. When they arrived outside the gate of Buzhuang, they saw Mrs. Sun and her husband opening the courtyard door and walking out. The two black figures ran away.
Aunt Sun patted her chest with lingering fear and said, "Those two were probably bitten by my dog. Just when your uncle lit the candlestick and came out, there was a pool of blood on the ground!"
After a while, the neighbors all poked their heads out of their yards to check on the situation. They heard that someone from the Chu family and the Sun family had entered, and everyone sighed: "We are next to the county government, and the security has always been very good. Where did this come from? Thief, you are so brave!"
"That is to say, it is really lawless. Chu family and Sun family, you should go back and check quickly to see if anything is missing."
"Yes, yes, yes, go and see if you have lost anything. Go to the yamen gate to report it tomorrow morning. Don't worry, we neighbors will testify for you."
Just as he was talking, Chu Li and others also ran out of the east courtyard and asked in a panic what happened to his brother and sister-in-law.
Seeing that his wife and younger siblings were all a little thinly dressed, Chu Yi stopped talking. After making an appointment with the Sun family to report to the official tomorrow, he took his family back to the east courtyard and explained a few words briefly before urging them. Everyone went back to the house to sleep, and we'll talk about it in detail tomorrow if there's anything else.
There was nothing to say all night. As soon as the yamen came on duty the next day, the Chu and Sun families, accompanied by their neighbors, went to the county yamen to report to the officials. Although there was no damage after the two inspections, such a matter still had to be filed with the government. good.
Even if there was no loss, this incident happened next to the county government office. Such a bold act was simply a provocation to the officials. After asking about the case in detail, Ding An took two officials and followed everyone to the Chu family and the Sun family to investigate the scene. , after extracting three clear footprints and getting the scraps of cloth that Uncle Sun picked up from his yard yesterday, Ding An made a preliminary analysis.
So when leaving, he said to Chu Yi privately: "These two people should have climbed in from the wall in the east courtyard of your house facing the street, and then entered the west courtyard from the east courtyard, and then combined with Brother Chu, you were in the Yamen just now. As mentioned, he probably ran into the Sun family yard by mistake after being frightened and panicking, so..."
"So, these two people came to my house."
Ding An nodded: "I guess I have been more careful recently. I still don't know what the purpose of these two people is. I think it's better to raise a dog in the yard. It can be a reminder if something happens again."
"Okay, I'll go to the market later and have a look. Thank you, Brother Ding."
Ding An patted Chu Yi on the shoulder and said, "You're welcome. I'll pay more attention to this matter. I'll let you know if there's any news. I'll go ahead with official business."
In the afternoon of the same day, Chu Yi went out and bought two half-grown dogs. Shen Luzhu followed the names of Li Hua and also named the two dogs according to their coat colors. One was a wolfdog with black back hair. It has a black back, and the other one's fur is a little brown, like a walnut with the outer skin removed, so it's simply called a walnut.
There were two new members in the family, and the happiest people were Zhengzheng and Lihua. Needless to say, Zhengzheng was very excited when he saw everything, but Lihua spent an afternoon and completely conquered the two big ones. The dogs in his circle became his little brothers and became a veritable boss.
When he was repairing his house, Chu Yi had already heightened the walls of the east and west courtyards, but he didn't expect someone to break in, so he discussed with Uncle Chu whether to heighten the walls further.
Uncle Chu was sitting in the east courtyard. He looked at the walls surrounding his house and sighed, "I'm afraid that if they are higher, they will block the walls."
The sunshine in this yard is blocked, but for safety reasons, it is better to hire someone to raise the height. "
Shen Luzhu was also a little worried about the lighting problem. Moreover, he didn't know if there was any limit on the height of the courtyard wall in this county. After all, it couldn't be increased indefinitely, so he thought of another way: "Maybe It doesn’t matter if we don’t increase the height. We can find some broken bowls, broken jars, etc., and put the broken pottery pieces on the wall. This should also be able to prevent people from climbing over the wall.”
After hearing this proposal, Chu Yi and Uncle Chu thought it was feasible. Chu Yi hurriedly went to find some masons, found some porcelain bowls and pots, and added a simple anti-theft device to the wall of his courtyard.
At the same time, a commotion broke out in the backyard of the Yang family in the same county. The cause was that a man came to the Yang family to ask for medical expenses and compensation from Yang Fangsheng, the third eldest son of the Yang family, while supporting another man with an injured calf.
These two men were brothers, gangsters on the street who used to hang out with Yang Fang's military servants. Yang Fangsheng had a lot of money, so these two men followed him and followed him around to eat and drink, and to help others.
The injured man's face was pale, and his calf seemed to have been bitten by some animal. There was a big bloody hole, and the flesh on it had turned pink due to blood loss. If you turned it outwards, you could still see clear tooth marks. .
"Third brother, you can't ignore this matter. We two brothers had an accident when we were doing things for you. My brother's leg may be disabled from now on. You have to take responsibility!"
Yang Fangsheng was used to being arrogant, but now he just hated these two people for being such useless people. They couldn't do anything small, and they didn't even have a good face. How could they be responsible for this person's injured leg?
"Fart, you two fucking dare to ask me to take responsibility for you. You can't even handle small things like big farts. I've already blown it away, but you just told me this, so get out of here!"
"Yang Laosan! Don't you fucking play the trick of turning your back on me. Just tell me whether you are responsible for my brother's behavior!"
"I'm sorry for you!"
As soon as the two sides disagreed, they started fighting in the Yang family's backyard. Naturally, the rest of the Yang family couldn't hide the commotion. The eldest brother, Yang Fangwen, scolded his third brother with an angry look on his face: "Third brother, why can't you calm down? What’s going on with dad, what are you doing?”
"You two should mind my business!"
Yang Fangwu was not as good-tempered as Yang Fangwen. He still wanted to admonish him and said bluntly: "I'm really too lazy to care about you. You are not my kind. You can tell dad yourself."
If we say that what Yang Fangsheng is most afraid of in this family is also the only thing he is afraid of, there is only Mr. Yang. Hearing this, he immediately shouted: "You insidious villain, you are going to file a complaint again!"
"My good brother, you have brought this good opportunity to my lips. If I don't sue you, won't all your good intentions be in vain? Don't worry, my second brother, I will inherit this family in the future. Karma, I will still reward you with a bite of food."
The boss, Yang Fangwen, was still hesitant when he saw this: "Second brother, dad is bedridden now, I'm afraid he won't be able to..."
Unexpectedly, Yang Fangwu left without looking back before he finished speaking.
