"Actually, it's a little cold now when I take a shower in the yard at night."
Li Qiao trembled as he thought of what happened in the shower in the past few nights.
He and Tao Zhu used to take a bath in the yard, but the temperature has dropped recently. If a small breeze happened to blow by while washing, they would really shiver all over and get goosebumps.
"I'll buy a bathtub tomorrow. You have to study every day and don't catch the cold." Tao Zhu said quickly when he saw him shaking.
"Don't you feel cold?" Li Qiao was a little surprised.
"I'm used to it, I don't feel cold anymore." Tao Zhu shook his head, wondering where he was now.
"...Okay. But if you use a bathtub, you have to boil water, pour water, and clean the bathtub. It's too troublesome. I think we should hire a permanent worker."
"ah?"
Tao Zhu was stunned and even stopped moving his hands. Hiring a long-term worker to clean the bathtub?
What a joke!
But before he could speak, Li Qiao added: "Besides, once we move to the new house, someone must guard the old house, otherwise I'm afraid that our bullock cart will be stolen."
"Even this iron pipe now costs seven or eight taels of silver. I'm afraid it will be stolen."
Tao Zhu: "..."
His expression became serious, and he was right.
"Then starting tomorrow, we will look for suitable candidates."
"But, this requires money. Don't you still want to raise some livestock? We don't raise many, but just raising any pigs and chickens will cost money."
"It doesn't cost much."
Tao Zhu said this, but as soon as the words came out, he raised his eyebrows: "What exactly do you want to say?"
"I want to say that if I really find a way out for sweet potatoes, it will not only benefit the villagers, but we can also make a lot of money, just like corn."
"So I hope you won't be angry anymore. I'm not just thinking about this for the sake of the folks, I'm also thinking about it for ourselves."
"I know you feel sorry for me, but I don't want you to waste your emotions on this matter anymore. Seeing you angry makes me anxious, and I want you to be happy every day."
Li Qiao straightened his expression and said seriously.
Tao Zhu: "..."
He pursed his lower lip and lowered his eyes, feeling a little uncomfortable: "I asked you to spend all your time coaxing me. I'm no different from Uncle Dashan. I'm all causing you trouble."
"……No!"
Li Qiao quickly shook his head. He dropped the shovel in his hand, walked to Tao Zhu in two steps, and hugged him: "Do we still need to say such things? We are too different!"
As he spoke, he couldn't help but stretched out his hand to pinch the soft flesh on Tao Zhu's cheek and pulled it out. He felt helpless: "I found that since I started studying, you have treated me like a glass person and you are always careful with me."
For example, as long as he is studying, Tao Zhu will not go near the main room, nor will he let anyone else get close to the main room. Unless he comes out on his own initiative, Tao Zhu will never disturb him.
There are also daily chores. Except for making meat floss, he doesn't have to do any housework now.
He used to do everything, such as washing clothes, sweeping the floor, wiping the table, pouring vegetables, etc. Anyway, it was all easy and small tasks.
But now Tao Zhu won't let him touch it at all.
Does this mean he is a giant baby?
"You study so hard, I don't want to affect you."
Tao Zhu nodded and admitted after being pricked in his mind.
As he spoke, he also threw away the shovel in his hand and raised his hand to hold Li Qiao's big hand that was making trouble in his face: "It's so difficult to take the imperial examination. Brother Wen has been studying for thirty years and still hasn't been admitted as a scholar. Of course, you must be better than Brother Wen is smart, but I don’t understand the imperial examination and can’t exert myself. All I can do is do other things well so as not to distract you.”
He looked serious, but there was disappointment in his tone.
He knew nothing about the imperial examination, and he and Li Qiao had no other topics except talking about how expensive books, pens, inks, paper and inkstones were...
He can no longer participate in Li Qiao's career.
He can't just follow Li Qiao and support the family business with Li Qiao like making snacks.
There was really nothing he could do about the imperial examination.
Li Qiao did not miss this trace of Tao Zhu's loss.
After a moment of silence, there was remorse on his face: "I'm sorry, it's my fault."
"What's wrong with you?" Tao Zhu was surprised and his eyes widened a bit.
"My mistake was that I didn't communicate with you, which caused a gap between us. I should have told you more about the imperial examination."
"...Even if you say it, I don't understand." Tao Zhu pursed his lips.
"No, the imperial examination is not as sacred as you think. You must understand. Just like the two real policy questions that Brother Wen showed me before..."
Li Qiao began to talk about the current emperor's preference for writing short essays, and the evil examination questions that tortured Zhuang Wen until he could sleep at night.
This was the first time Tao Zhu heard these things. He was surprised at first, but soon became interested.
These things were a whole new world to him.
"We don't have typhoons in Pingcheng, but there are some in the test questions. I understand that the Holy Master wants to be down-to-earth, but for our Pingcheng candidates, this question is not down-to-earth, but a connection to hell."
Li Qiao couldn't help but complain.
Tao Zhu: "..."
He was stunned for a moment, and then he burst into laughter, his eyes sparkling: "You should speak softly, so that no one can hear you."
"Don't worry, I'm just complaining to you. I would never dare to say it in front of others."
"Now you know what is tested in the imperial examination. It is not sacred at all. You can understand it too."
"If you don't mention the big principles in the book, then I do understand this policy topic."
The smile on Tao Zhu's face did not fade away.
Li Qiao's words were like a rope, pulling him, who was far behind Li Qiao, to Li Qiao's side.
"Then I will tell you more about this aspect in the future. I went to the bookstore today to buy books, specifically local chronicles and travel notes that record the situation in various places..."
Li Qiao talked about his response ideas again.
Tao Zhu listened very seriously. When Li Qiao finished speaking, he couldn't help but praise: "This is a good idea. No matter what the next test is, let's make complete preparations first."
"Look, you can give me advice. I was wrong before and ignored you."
Li Qiao said and couldn't help but hug him tightly.
Unbeknownst to him, Tao Zhu must have been in a lot of pain these days.
Tao Zhu smiled when he heard this: "You did a good job."
Which scholar in this world would take out the imperial examination questions and chat with his husband like this?
Anyway, no scholar he has ever met is like this.
This man not only pulled him side by side in business, but now even in the imperial examination. He was so happy that he didn't know what to say.
"Let's bury this iron pipe quickly, and then you go back to study, and I'll make snacks and think about who to find as a long-term laborer."
In the end, he chose to be pragmatic.
Although I am happy, I still have to work.
Listening to his brisk tone, Li Qiao couldn't help but laugh too: "Okay."
Next, he will also toss the sweet potatoes.
In fact, if you want to consume sweet potatoes in large quantities, the method is very simple:
Vermicelli.
There are many ways to eat sweet potato vermicelli. Each one is delicious and can be stored for a long time. It is perfect for consuming sweet potatoes.
However, he cannot come up with such a good method easily. He has to "test" it.
In the next few days, Li Qiao continued to concentrate on reading, but in the evening when Li Dashan and Li Chuntao left, he would chat with Tao Zhu about the contents of the books he read that day.
Not only will we talk about the contents in local chronicles and travel notes, but we will also talk about the contents in the Four Books and Five Classics.
Of course, he won't talk about big ideas, but will bring up some interesting points.
Tao Zhu wanted to keep up with him. Even if what he said was not interesting, Tao Zhu listened with interest.
The relationship between the two of them was better than before. Tao Zhu seemed to have let go of all the knots in his heart. He was no longer cautious towards Li Qiao, and he had a lot more smiles on his face.
However, at noon that day, Tao Zhu couldn't laugh anymore.
Because Mrs. Tao is here.
In fact, Mrs. Tao came over from time to time before, asking Tao Zhu for snacks, meat, money, and even letting Tao Zhu pull the Tao tree.
Tao Zhu refused all of these.
Tao Zhu refused, and Mrs. Tao either cried or cursed.
Tao Zhuquan pretended not to hear these.
If Mrs. Tao dares to pull him, he will hide.
If there happened to be villagers there, they would take Mrs. Tao away.
In short, Tao Zhu did not let Mrs. Tao take any advantage.
But this time, Mrs. Tao didn't come here to act like a monster. She came to announce something big: from now on, Tao Zhu would provide her and Old Man Tao with three meals a day.
When her family ran out of wheat, Tao Shu and Lai Dongmei went to Lai Dongmei's parents' house to collect sweet potatoes. She and Old Tao had nothing to eat, so they had to come to Tao Zhu.
Tao Zhu was unhappy, but he did not refuse.
After all, he had said before that he could take care of Old Man Tao and Old Mrs. Tao's meals.
After Mrs. Tao left, Li Qiao pulled Tao Zhu into the room: "It's just vegetable nests and wild vegetable soup. It's not worth a lot of money. Don't be unhappy. Come on, give me a smile."
"...I'm not unhappy because of those few people."
Tao Zhu frowned.
"What's that for?" Li Qiao asked.
