Missing the scenery of the capital because of marriage, Li Feihu was depressed. As soon as he heard that there was a big business, he jumped three feet high with joy.

Li Zhangnan said disapprerovingly: "Don't go to the capital, you feel that you are amazing, and your tail is up to the sky! If you want to go, let your eldest brother follow Shen Gongzi." ”

Li Dalong had long wanted to do business with Li Feihu and go out to do business, but Li Zhangnan insisted on letting him stay in his school to teach.

"It's not fair!" Li Dalong complained, "Why let my eldest brother do business, but not let me do it?"

Seeing that Li Dalong refused to be a teacher, Li Zhangnan retreated to the next best thing - persuading Li Dalong to work as a farmer at home. Because in China's feudal society, the rulers have always valued agriculture over commerce.

In order to make Li Dalong obedient, Li Zhangnan moved out the classic article of the politician Guan Zi in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period:

"If you don't eat for one day, you'll be worse than the year, if you don't eat for three days, you'll be hungry for the year, if you don't eat for five days, you'll be famine, if you don't eat for seven days, you'll have no land, and if you don't eat for ten days, you'll die ......."

"I know that food comes first, but that doesn't mean that everyone has to farm, and people from all walks of life need to do it!" Li Dalong argued.

"If you want to be literate or not, if you want to be martial or not, what can you do if you don't farm at home?" Li Zhangnan laughed.

"Dada, when you want me to teach, you say that I am educated, and now, you want to call me a farmer, and you say that I am not educated. Aren't you inconsistent?" retorted.

"I mean," Li Zhangnan insisted, "that little ink of yours will be fine for the children in the school at home, and you won't be able to go out." As the saying goes, there are people outside the world, and there is a sky outside the sky!"

"But," Li Dalong said-for-tat, "You also said that the eldest brother is not literate and martial, so doesn't the eldest brother still do business? Why don't you let me do business?"

"As the saying goes, everyone has talent, and everyone has their own talent. To do business, you have to rely on carving and teasing, and you have to be thick-skinned. Your eldest brother can do this, but you may not. Li Zhangnan asserted.

"You often talk about studying and becoming an official, but you don't let me go out. Can I be an official at home? If you don't let me go out to do business, how do you know that I'm not a businessman?" Li Dalong argued.

The father and son had such confrontations many times, and neither of them could convince anyone.

Li Feihu tugged at the corner of Li Dalong's clothes, signaled him not to fight any further, and said to Li Zhangnan: "Dada, I can do such a big business by myself, and I have a companion by my side! Dalong has brains, and he can help me come up with ideas when I encounter things." ”

......

Li Dalong and Li Feihu hurriedly bought grain, dreaming of making a fortune.

Heaven is as people wish. In less than two years, the Li family, who was originally less than equal to the lower in Hekou Street, seemed to have become rich overnight and became the richest man in Hekou Street and even the entire Da Li Village.

The deep-rooted thought in Li Zhangnan's heart - "everything is inferior, only reading is high", began to waver.

However, what puzzled Li Zhangnan was that more and more children came to study at the private school, and some of them were still admired by outsiders.

Soon, Li Zhangnan knew that people were not here to "study to become an official", but to "study to make a fortune".

In the autumn of 1897, there was a famine in the Gyeonggi area, and when Lee Dae-lung learned of the situation, he felt that the opportunity to make a fortune had come, and he was ready to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

This time, Li Zhangnan did not oppose it at all, but resolutely supported it, because he was also intoxicated by the success of his son's first test.

Because Li Feihu had many friends, he went to the countryside to set up a point to buy grain. Li Dalong was listed for purchase in front of his house.

The west end of the street is close to the "Wulongkou" and the Wujiao River lock, the water and land transportation is very convenient, and the merchants gather.

Li Dalong thought that if he rented a house on the west side of the street to set up an acquisition point, the business would definitely be very good. So, he went there to ask who had a storefront room for rent.

Hearing this, Guan Dabao found Li Dalong and said that his yard was very spacious and he was willing to rent it to him.

At that time, most Chinese people held the traditional idea of valuing agriculture over business, and the façade houses on the street were not much more expensive than the houses in the countryside.

Guan Dabao's father killed pigs, and he also did some other business in a timely manner, and when he made money, he bought land and built a house in his hometown Guan Zhuang.

Guan Dabao, who has been eating and being lazy since he was a child, didn't want to follow his father as a butcher, but he was even more reluctant to go back to farming, because farming is heavier and more tiring than killing pigs.

Guan Dabao has been married to Xi Yunhong for four years, but he has no children yet. He usually goes out to collect pigs, and Xi Yunhong is the only one in the family, because his parents live in the countryside.

Xi Yunhong, who has studied in private school for three years, is very shrewd and has given Li Dalong a lot of help - inspection, weighing, collecting money, and bookkeeping.

At this time, Li Dalong only had business in his heart, and he could only maintain a gentleman's friendship with Xi Yunhong, who had become a wife.

As he grew older, Li Dalong became more and more disgusted with the marriage custom of "the order of his parents and the words of the matchmaker", and he had no interest in the illiterate baby fiancée.

Li Dalong even thought about quitting his relatives when he made a lot of money and his waist was hard, or he would leave and go to the outside world to find a soulmate.

I want to think about it, but Li Dalong never dared to take any substantive action. For him, the pursuit of love means the harm of family affection, and the pursuit of truth means the betrayal of the world and rules.

Besides, he had just gotten rid of the confusion of love and marriage, and now that his business was just on the road, he was neither in the mood to seek pleasure nor dare to think anything wrong.

Guan Dabao, who loves money like life, got Li Dalong's expensive rent, and the diligent Xi Yunhong also received a modest honorarium, so the couple was naturally very happy.