At sunset, the sky hung low, and the clouds in the distance formed a faint gray, and at the edge of the gray area, there was a faintly visible fiery red sunset.

In front of the iron shop, the red lantern is hung high, the year has not yet arrived, and the festive New Year's painting is posted early, after the merger of the two shops, it is more than doubled the original, Mo Xiaohe saw that there were fewer guests, and he also went in to see it curiously.

In the lobby, there are various specifications of ironware, farm tools, and iron basins, etc., on the right side, a row of wooden shelves are nailed to the wall, on which knives, spears, bows and crossbows are placed, and under the reflection of candles, it emits a cold cold light.

There are daggers, carving knives, and red clay small stoves below, and the prices are marked on them, an ordinary short-handled dagger costs 200 yuan, this price makes Mo Xiaohe surprised.

On the way back from Kyoto, she once bought a dagger in Luzhou City, saying that it was a dagger, it was not too sharp at all, and it was protected by a leather case outside.

"Cousin, is the dagger so expensive?"

The handle is wooden, the workmanship is rough, there is no pattern, the wood on it does not seem to be smoothed, the thorn is easy to pierce the hand, Mo Xiaohe has suffered such a loss before, or the husband Gu Zheng said that the wood thorn is in it, after a long time, his fingers are red and swollen and pus, he insisted on picking it out with a needle, thinking of the pain, she shrank down.

"Where is the dagger expensive!"

Li He shook his head, a few months ago, the shop sold iron pots for less than 50 Wen, and now it is nearly 200 Wen, but unexpectedly, the price of iron has skyrocketed, and the people are even more convinced.

There is a special rest area in the lobby, with tables, chairs, benches and tea, Li He poured tea himself, and pointed to a few big words on the wall that seemed sharp, "Lin Xiucai is good at learning, and his words are also good, and they all say that words are like his person, I believe in his character, Xiaoxiu married him, it is really high." ”

After speaking, as if he agreed with his words, he nodded matter-of-factly, "The rest area is also what he meant, I'm a rough person, how can I understand this?" ”

"Cousin, did you talk like that? How did you say that, grow the morale of others, and destroy your own prestige. ”

The Lin family has a simple population, a harmonious family, Lin's father and Lin mother's reasonableness, and Lin Shuang's temperament is refreshing, it is indeed a good family affair that is difficult to find with a lantern, but it can't be said to be high, if Li Xiu goes to Dayue Kyoto, relying on the Mo family, it doesn't take much effort to find someone.

"Xiaohe, I didn't know him before, I thought he was a pedantic scholar, and he may not have any real talent to learn, who would have thought that he was not only good at learning, but also business-minded."

When it comes to Lin Xiucai, Li He has a lot of words, full of beautiful words, the Lin family wants to marry Li Xiu as soon as possible, so that in August next year, to catch up with the triennial autumn boudoir, Lin Xiucai will try it out, start a family, and have no worries.

The three of them sat together, basically Li He and Mo Xiaohe talking, Gu Zheng listened carefully, silent, bowed his head and pondered, if it is said that the soaring price of grain is a malicious increase in the price of grain merchants, then the price of iron tools has also risen, which can explain a lot of problems, it is no coincidence, but the two countries of Dawu and Dayue have coexisted peacefully for more than 20 years, and the people have long thought that they are living in a peaceful and prosperous world, and their vigilance is low.

The flames made a sizzling sound, Li He poked it with a wire, and suddenly slapped his head, "Patronizing and talking about my own business, brother-in-law, why did you come back from Sweetwater Village?" A few days ago, the officials selected strong men from every house, and those who celebrated the New Year did not let people live in peace. ”

Because of Lin Xiucai's channel, Li He got the news one day earlier, but this time the conscription has nothing to do with him, his father Li Dazhuang was injured, and he is the only laborer, not within the scope of selection.

In the past, Li He always felt that he was the only man in the family, and he had no brothers to help him, but at this time he knew that only he was not without any benefits, at least at this time, it was not his turn to suffer.

"The yamen has a policy that those who report those who have escaped from forced labor can be exempted from forced labor."

Gu Zheng had a straight face, his voice was a little low, he asked a friend for news yesterday, it was almost as he expected, with Aunt Lan taking care of him, Li Er and the old goddess were in prison, and they could barely get by, and they didn't suffer for the time being.

"Li Er and that old pious woman of the Li family are both black-hearted!"

Li He pursed his lips, although the two families have the same surname, they are not related to each other at all, and the eighteen generations of their ancestors have nothing to do with it.

Mo Xiaohe and Gu Zheng went back to the town, they didn't see Feng Dachun, they heard that his injury was not healed, so they secretly went out to find work, just when Li He's blacksmith shop was going to expand, so they found him a light job, looked at the warehouse in the backyard, and stayed there at night.

Every year at the end of the year, the people's purchase ** day is stronger than one day, the town has a set of five days, has been shortened to three days, the people in the surrounding towns and villages, the mighty come to the town to buy, there are also sell their own local products.

At the end of the year, the business was good, and after the busy farming, there was a nimble person who began to do a small business, and the food he bought was basically his own unique job, Mo Xiaohe also tried to sell the biscuits he made, in order to reduce costs, the material was not enough, but compared with the market, the taste was much better, she made the twenty catties of biscuits every day, and was almost immediately robbed by madness when she went to the market, because of her beautiful appearance, she got the nickname of Biscuit Shih Tzu.

The consumption power of the people in the bazaar is limited, Mo Xiaohe makes egg biscuits and soft old-fashioned biscuits, biscuits are also made of noodles, the price rises, excluding the cost, she can only earn 100 wen a day.

One hundred wen is not enough to buy a good piece of material, but Mo Xiaohe has a sense of achievement, the source is not to make a small amount of money, but that the things she makes are praised by others, perhaps because the people have not eaten fresh styles, and it has also attracted the officials in the yamen to buy it.

On the evening of the seventeenth day of the lunar month, Li Xiu came to the door with a small basket, the basket was the eggs laid by the chickens and ducks at home, and the osmanthus bean buns made by Wen's, she stood at the door, screamed, and saw Gu Zheng open the door, her body shook unconsciously.

Although the two are relatively familiar, but in the face of Gu Zheng, Li Xiu has a sense of oppression for no reason, especially the hideous scar on his face, he can't bear to look at it directly, I really don't know how his delicate cousin can endure it, she has seen it many times, but she is still not used to it.

In my impression, Gu Zheng is silent and basically doesn't speak, but you can't ignore his existence, his face is condensed, his face is expressionless, he is tall, and he forms a shadow wherever he stands, and only in the face of Mo Xiaohe, his eyes will become soft, he won't say anything, but he can do a lot of things for her quietly.

Li Xiu was a little stunned, and because of this, she felt that a taciturn man was more reliable, and a person who could just play tricks seemed frivolous, and began to know Lin Xiucai, and the two families were interested in getting married, and what he did, he would tell her directly.

Whenever that time, Li Xiu is a little entangled, she is not deaf and blind, Lin Xiu has done it, why do you want to say it? Isn't it good to moisturize things silently? Later, the two families got married, and Lin Xiucai gave her a solution, this is a way of expression, husband and wife communicate more, not to invite credit and do superficial work, Li Xiuyi pondered, it made sense, it seems that it is nothing good to find a stuffy gourd.

"Cousin, I'm thinking about going to you tomorrow!"

It was windy last night, Aunt Zhang forgot to close the cotton curtains, her arm was affected by the wind, and it hurt one by one, Mo Xiaohe just applied ointment to her. It's still Yingluo's strength, almost the medicine is cured, but there are not many ointments at home, she wants to find a chance to go to the black market to see, and by the way, she writes a letter to Yingluo, not long after they separated, she misses this sister a little.

"My father broke his leg and is still recuperating, his mother takes care of him, and the family temporarily depends on me alone, and I have to ......"

Speaking of this, Li Xiu's face turned red, and she said shyly, "I still have to embroider the quilt surface, and there are still two pillowcases missing." ”

The silk quilt and pillowcase are all bought by Mo Xiaohe in Luzhou, and they are slippery to the touch, which is good material at a glance, and what is more expensive is that there are faint gold threads inside, which can only be seen under the reflection of candles.

Dawu is not without better silk, this weaving technique is not common, Luzhou has another kind of material called floating brocade, which is illuminated by the rising sun, the brilliance is shaken, the viewer is dazzling, and it is famous all over the world.

Li Xiu is so big, she has never seen such a nice satin, if it weren't for Mo Xiaohe, she would have nowhere to buy silver if she had silver, every time she thought of this, she was a little more grateful to her cousin.

"It's cold outside, let's get inside!"

Mo Xiaohe cleaned his hands first, and then couldn't wait to put the osmanthus bag made by Wen's in his mouth, there are no osmanthus flowers in this season, they are all saved in autumn, with sugar osmanthus as filling, eat in the mouth, sweet silk silk with a strong aroma.

"Xiaohe, come this time, ask you for some help."

Li Xiu sat on the chair, a little restrained, she always felt embarrassed to come to the door and bother her cousin to be tired.

"You say, if you can help, you must help."

Mo Xiaohe went out from the inner room, gave Gu Zheng a coat, and held him with his delicate little hand, the touch was cold, and he said distressedly, "Husband, there is enough firewood at home, you better go into the house to warm up." ”

"These old things are placed in the firewood room to occupy space, so they will be split for a while."

Gu Zheng let go of his mother's hand, afraid that the cold air on his body would pass on to her, until Mo Xiaohe opened the door curtain and entered the house, he hooked the corners of his mouth and chopped firewood hard, as if he didn't feel tired at all.

"The biscuits you sent over last time, Lin Shuang liked them very much, and it happened that some officials bought them, and they were full of praise."

Li Xiu paused, secretly observed Mo Xiaohe, and saw that she was holding her cheeks, her eyelashes were long, and she flickered and left a row of dense silhouettes on her lower eyelids, as if she was listening carefully to her own words.

"I'll do some, you can send it to Lin Shuang."

When the sister-in-law wanted to please the future sister-in-law, Mo Xiaohe expressed her understanding, at the beginning in Kyoto, as long as Zhang Xianxian found anything fun and delicious, she didn't care whether she liked it or not, and sent someone to send it over, and the maid almost broke her leg.

"It's not this, it's that the yamen wants to send things to the scribes, the officials, and the catchers, and the master is very good at reading the cookies, so he wants to take over the deal."

Of course, he was referring to Lin Xiucai, and Li Xiu didn't expect that the future husband was shrewd, and with the idea of dim sum, the yamen would need about three hundred boxes, and all of them would use better boxes, and each box could earn fifty or sixty wen, which was nearly twenty taels of silver.

Lin Xiucai is in Yamen, and he only has one or two taels of silver a month, so he very much wants to make this business and find Li Xiu as a lobbyist, just to ask Mo Xiaohe's opinion.

"I will use it on the twenty-third day of the lunar month."

The town is the twenty-fourth lunar month of the New Year, the day before the new year, the Yamen Xiumu, these gift boxes, equivalent to modern employee welfare, a few days to make three hundred boxes, relying on Mo Xiaohe himself is a little difficult, if the cousin can come to help, it will be half of the light.

"I can help you do some rough work."

Li Xiu remembered that when she came, Lin Xiucai once said that she should avoid taboos a little, after all, the biscuit recipe and the pastry shop were willing to pay dozens of taels of silver to buy it, and her brother settled the accounts, and told her not to use help as an excuse to peek into the secret recipe.

"It's all my own speculation, it's not worth anything."

Considering that there has been nothing at home recently, Mo Xiaohe quickly agreed, less than twenty taels of silver, maybe not much for her, but the money is accumulated bit by bit, she warned herself that she must not have the problem of having a good eye and a low hand.

Women are not afraid of spending money, the key is not to lose, have the ability to make money, so that they can prove their worth, more than a dozen taels of silver, buy all kinds of food during the New Year, give gifts to people, but Jinhua, at most you can go to a fraction, and save the rest to go to Dawu Kyoto in the coming year, as a coil on the road.

This book was first published by Lewen, please do not reprint!