After a fat year, the family's small and small expenses were soon left with little silver.

Chen Xiucai's injuries in the autumn have been carefully raised, and they have been completely healed, and the injuries have been broken for a hundred days, not to mention that he has cut three big holes in his back, and he has been raised for more than three months.

A showman wants to do business, and it's not good to say it. Li persuaded for a long time: "It's not just a private school in our village, it's all over Xuzhou Mansion, where can you find a place to teach, if you are embarrassed to stay in our village's private school in the face of Huang Xiucai, it is the same if you go to teach in other places." Chen Xiucai thought that it was indeed true that his wife and children had suffered so much over the years, the little girl was almost replaced, and his dead mother could not be sacrificed every year, and one by one it was caused by his previous indifference.

Fortunately, his little girl is a strong one, so young to figure out a way to make money, he is a father who does not stand up, relying on his daughter to show his head outside, he has to poke his own backbone and scold.

He is not the kind of person who waits to die to study, he also worked as a bookkeeper when he was young, touched the abacus and checked the accounts, and his stomach was full of not only sage books but also business scriptures. He discussed with his wife's uncle, eldest brother and Han's shopkeeper, not only to do the salted duck egg business, but also to contaminate other businesses if they have capital.

Chen Xiucai is not like the ordinary villagers who have never been out of Baitu Town in his life, he once followed the horse team to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangzhou, which are richer than Xuzhou Mansion, where silkworms are raised by water, and bamboo is planted and tea is planted in places near the mountains. Xuzhou Mansion seems to be in good weather, and most people only expect to chew in their fields, but there are not many real products. Take Xiaohuai River as an example. No one eats the fish and shrimp inside, and no one grows the soil bags on both sides.

There was a tea seller in the young caravan, and he said that the tea leaves were stored lightly and easier to transport than silk, as long as the porcelain mouth or cloth bag for the tea was tightly tied. It is not damaged by rain and mildew, and it can be sold at a price when it is transported to the north.

The tea of Xuzhou Prefecture is not all transported from the south of the Yangtze River, not only tea, but also silk and other products from the south.

At that time, I was young, and I wanted to find an opportunity to study and move up, but I didn't care about business and wealth.

Now that I see the life of a large family, and the business experience that Xuejiao came up with, the water in my heart is alive again.

So he decided to go to Weishan Lake to sell the duck eggs in person, and make some principal for the future to go to the south of the Yangtze River. Sometime. Without having to let Xue Jiao come forward, Qi An can also take the road of the imperial examination with peace of mind.

Speaking of Qi An, I chatted with Huang Xiucai for half a night yesterday. Qi An is not the person who waits for Zhong Lingyuxiu, his talent is average, but he is diligent and hard-working, and what he seeks is a stable word. The road to the imperial examination is long, requiring extraordinary perseverance and being able to endure loneliness. Qi An has this. This alone is not enough, if you want to cultivate a lifter. All the money spent can beat a man of his height.

He was unable to continue the imperial examination because of his family's poverty, and this time he could no longer let his son follow his old path.

As soon as the beginning of spring passed, Chen Xiu began to set off.

This time, I went to Weishan Lake and walked by water with Li Yuntian. When the bridge collapsed in the town, Chen Xiucai was responsible for writing the notice and became familiar with the master around the prefect. The master specially found a silk merchant who often walked by water, and asked him to take him on the road with him. The shopkeeper originally respected Chen Xiucai's character, and the waterway was light and fast. This businessman wanted to rush the new silk to the market after the Qingming Festival, inspect the market in Shandong, and take advantage of the high price to send the silk from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Since it is the master around the prefect, he trusts him. After eating two meals together, they became acquainted with each other, and specially instructed that the eyes should be on Jiangnan, silk and tea are the big business to make money.

Although spring has begun, the weather is still cold, the snow in front of the house and behind the house has not yet melted, and the ground is frozen hard. Li was afraid that Chen Xiucai would suffer from frost and cause wounds, so he wrapped up all his winter jackets and asked his brother to take good care of him.

Chen Xiucai brought fifteen taels of silver as capital, Wen Ying, Han shopkeeper, and Li family each borrowed five taels, it didn't matter if he left, but the Li family was gone.

The family lost its backbone all of a sudden, and everything was handled by the Li family alone, although they had enough money, they were all borrowed. Fortunately, there are a few children at home who are sensible, and they are famous for embroidering and embroidering for the embroidery workshop in Xuzhou Mansion, and Xueru and Li also help each other and earn a few silver to subsidize the family. Chen Xuejiao was happy to send her father away, after all, the energy of women in this society is limited, and it is much better for her father to come forward to take care of the economy himself, not to mention wealth for the time being, at least the future life will be guaranteed to be worry-free, and in the future, when her father comes back, she will also manage the business of salted duck eggs. At home, she has nothing to do, she is not good at embroidery, occasionally borrowing some words from Zhao Yiming, and the rest of the time is taking Qi Ping to read the three-character scripture, and Qi Ping will go to the private school to study this spring. The mountains and rivers outside are long, and my father is not sure when he will come back when he goes out like this, and the family's money is emptied, so he has to find a way to make a living in order to get by, and Xue Jiao is thinking about making money every day.

On the second day after Chen Xiucai went out, the yellow dragonfly came to Chen's house and brought the last late-blooming green plum in the plum garden. During the Chinese New Year, she ran to Chen's house every day, and after fifteen, she only said that she wanted to mend her father's clothes, Chen Xuejiao went to see her once, only to think that she looked lazy, and thought that she was due to thinking about her mother every festival.

At this time, she was sitting side by side with Jing Haoqi, embroidering a delicate pencil case with stitches and threads.

The pencil case was an autumn-colored silk, and the white cloth was embroidered with two dragonflies flying up and down. One of the eyes of the two dragonflies was embroidered obliquely, and Jing Hao pointed her out, and the yellow dragonfly dismantled and re-embroidered, still oblique. Jing Hao couldn't help but take it from her hand, and embroidered it in three times and two times, the two eyes were the same size, vivid, and added an aura more than before.

The yellow dragonfly seemed to be angry, and re-embroidered the quiet one, and re-embroidered it with silk thread, as if angry, and poked an embroidery needle into the pencil case to make a sizzling sound. Chen Xuejiao smiled at her like this, picked up an orange from the table and peeled it off and handed it to her, she just didn't eat the stalk and said, "I don't believe that I am not good at embroidery." ”

In her heart, Xue Ru and Jing persuaded her that she would not be able to embroider well for a while, and she couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry.

Chen Xuejiao stuffed a petal of orange in her mouth, perhaps because she had kept it at home for a winter. The water of the orange was evaporated, and only a trace of sweetness remained in the mouth: "Who did you embroider this bag for?" ”

The yellow dragonfly was slightly uncomfortable, lowered her head, and her eyebrows were full: "Embroidered for my father." ”

The wave of spring in his eyes did not flow out, and Chen Xuejiao and the others naturally did not notice it.

She embroidered this bag for Qi Lin, and since the beginning of the year, Qi Lin smashed a plum blossom in the snow. The seeds of lovesickness were sown in her heart.

came to Chen's house every day, and used the excuse of playing with Xuejiao just to take a look at him. A black satin robe, a pair of gloomy peach blossom eyes, a straight nose, the young man in the snow held a broken plum blossom and frowned slightly, just that glance fell on the bottom of her heart.

Only then did the two of them really stand together, and the rest of the time she never bumped into him in the courtyard again, and even if she did, she looked at him from a distance through the curtain in the upper room.

Once. He went to the private school to ask Huang Xiucai a question, stood under a plum tree, and smiled at her for the first time.

It was the morning of the 15th Lantern Festival, and he pinched a plum blossom in his hand and asked her lightly: "Don't you go to see the lights at night." ”

Her heart pounded.

She went to town at night to see the lights, just to meet her. In the crowd next to each other, in the brilliant fireworks, she and he stood at opposite ends of the bridge. He smiled at her.

Suddenly, all the crowd poured down. The sky swirled, the bridge collapsed, and she fell into the water.

He burst through the crowd, stepped on the piers, and grabbed her. The newly made garnet red dress on his body was soaked with water, and the bones of the people who were cold in winter were shattered. He took off his cotton clothes and wrapped her tightly, and sent her to the entrance of the village before returning to find his sister Xue Miao.

The yellow dragonfly was only like three souls and six spirits, and its whole body was soft and weak, but its body was full of redness and its hands were trembling. He couldn't lift it in his chest, his heart was full of this person, he actually saved her, and he smiled at her.

On the seventeenth day of the first month, Qi Lin went to the White Horse Academy, and she wanted to ask him with all her words, but he left.

Before he could return his robe, she washed it quietly, folded it under the pillow all day, and in her dreams it was the man smiling at her across the plum blossoms.

Shangfang knew that Chen Xiucai was going out to do business, and he had his own thoughts in his heart.

Old Man Chen thought that there was such a son left in the Liu family in front of him, and taught him to study. Before he died, Liu took his hand and said, no matter how hard it is, let him read it. Thinking of this, guilt poured into his heart, and after Chen Xiucai left, he stuffed 500 yuan for the Li family to live.

Mrs. Chen scolded Li more than ten times in her stomach, saying that she was honest and treacherous in her heart. Take this year's New Year as an example, when she celebrated the New Year together, she was annoyed, and she was even more annoyed when the big house was listed separately for the New Year, all the ideas were instigated by Li and Xuejiao, after Chen Xiucai left, she became more and more reluctant to see the upper room, and secretly cursed Chen Xiucai in her heart to die outside.

Xue Yao's wedding dress was embroidered with only two sleeves unlocked, and she just waited for the spring breeze to come in February. Xue Yao said that the grandmother of Ding Mansion was skinny and couldn't take care of the family, she was a serious second wife, and she would take care of the family when she married. Zhao's eyebrows stretched more and more after hearing this, thinking about letting Xue Yao live in Xuzhou Mansion in the future, she took Xue Miao and Qi Lin to live in it, maybe with the light of Ding Mansion, Xue Miao could marry a good family who was either rich or expensive, so she started to wrap Xue Miao's feet.

But no, Xue Miao is twelve years old, and the girl who has just pulled away is as beautiful as a peach blossom. It's time to say that it's the age of the family, Xue Yao was already the eldest maid in front of the old lady of the Ding Mansion when she was so old.

In order to do work, the countrymen rarely bind their feet. Xue Yao's pair of toes is upturned, and she is wearing soft shoes with red flowers to be more coquettish and coquettish, and her golden lotus was wrapped by the old mother of Dingfu when she was eight years old.

As soon as Xue Miao heard about the binding of her feet, she gasped, she used to dream of entering the rich and noble house like her sister, but since the fifteenth bridge collapsed and met the merchant, she no longer thought about him.

The merchant came every day, and as soon as she heard the shouting, she stepped out. She and the little merchant have been eyebrow-to-eye for a long time, and the spring color that can't be covered by the corners of her eyebrows and eyes.

Zhao didn't notice it at all, she was full of thoughts about binding Xue Miao's feet, and spent a lot of money to find a tooth woman in the town, who was said to be able to wrap a pair of three-inch golden lotuses.

Xue Miao was stripped of her socks and sat on the kang, Zhao pressed her legs and arms, and Ya Po unfolded a long white cloth.

Hearing only a click, Xue Miao's heart-rending cry spread throughout the courtyard. (To be continued......)