"Uncle Zhuzi, are you here? I'm looking for you! ”

Gao Xiaosan stood outside the courtyard wall through the chest-high earthen wall and shouted two or three times, but no one in the courtyard answered or answered, only a skinny puppy lying in the shade by the threshold of the hall, his head resting on his two front paws, drooping ears, and squinting with two half-open eyes.

It seems that there is no one in this house.

Gao Xiaosan wiped the sweat on his forehead and face with his sleeves, lifted his eyelids, looked around, and saw that every neighboring household could not see a figure; Under the blazing sun in the sky, everything shimmered with a dazzling white light. Far and near, they were lying deep in the hidden leaves, and the high and low chirps came and went. Even the soil under his feet was a little hot, and after standing for a long time without moving, a hot smell gradually soaked up through the soles of his shoes. He swallowed his saliva, moistened his thirsty and smoking throat, thought about it, and prepared to go home first, and it was not too late to come to Liu Laozhu to talk to him after the night meal was over.

Before leaving, he shouted again: "Uncle Zhuzi, are you here?" I'm looking for you! ”

"Who?" Suddenly there was a sound in the hut on the right, and then the window was lifted in half, and there was a shadow behind the window looking out. "My father has sent the official to Guangliang, and he won't be able to transfer back until the beginning of next month......"

Gao Xiaosan asked, "It's Yue'er sister in the house, right?" ”

Yue'er probably recognized Gao Xiaosan from the gap in the window, and shouted in surprise: "Oh, it's the third brother of the Gao family!" I saw the window slam shut, and Yue'er said in a loud voice in the room, "Third brother, please come in and sit!" Come and sit in the hall...... I was so busy just now that I was stunned, I didn't hear it was you......" As she spoke, Yue'er had already trotted out to greet her, opened the door of the courtyard that was not locked, and let Gao Xiaosan enter the hall. As soon as Gao Xiaosan sat down, Yue'er handed him a puff fan that was tightly wrapped around the hemp rope and thin thread, and took the jug and clay bowl to pour water for him, and explained embarrassedly with a red face, "I just sat on the kang to do needlework, and I fought straight while doing it, and somehow I fell asleep - I also heard the two calls you called before, and I thought I was dreaming, so I didn't respond...... The third brother has been here for a long time? ”

"I'm new here, too." Gao Xiaosan shook the pu fan in his hand and said that it was okay, took the water bowl and drank it all in one go, wiping his mouth, but he felt that he did not quench his thirst, and his whole body was still hot and dry. Yue'er poured him another bowl, he still drank it in one go, until the third bowl of water drank a little half, he felt thirsty and burning throat and stomach feel better, then took out the shelf of the big guy in the warehouse, the thumb pressed the bowl along the index finger and the middle finger ring finger of the bowl to support the bottom of the bowl, gently sucked two sips, then put the bowl on the table, changed the fan hand, pulled the sleeve and wiped the sweat on the forehead, when the arm was put down, quietly wiped the water stains from the corner of the mouth, and peeked at the two new huge rice noodle jars in the corner of the house. He smiled and asked, "Why did my uncle go to Guangliang again?" "He is a buddy in the county store, and he knows a little about the affairs of the yamen, since he entered the ambush, there are no people from Huojiabao among the people requisitioned by the government, but those who are farther away from the county seat, why did Liu Laozhu go to the official office again at this time?

"People who are unwilling to respond to the errand have paid the money to the official, and the official will take out the money and hire people......"

Hearing Yue'er say this, Gao Xiaosan also understood what was going on. The government took the money from those who were supposed to do the errand, and took out the money to hire people to pay for the errand, like Liu Laozhu happened to have a pack horse, and this pack horse could top two or three laborers, even if the official paid Liu Laozhu's strength money and the pack horse's hiring money plus the horse's chewing money, there were still some benefits left in the bag, this kind of convenient and cheap thing, the official could not miss it; Besides, Liu Laozhu's family is poor and has no land, so he doesn't have to worry about the crops in the field at all, and there is no saying that the farm is busy and idle, and it is the top priority to earn money and food and clothing, so as long as the official confides in the rumor that he wants to hire someone, Liu Laozhu will definitely run faster than anyone else. Besides, Liu Laozhu and Huo Qiqi are so close, maybe Liu Laozhu has not yet gone to the official to sign up for the recruitment, and Huo Qiqi has already done this for him properly......

“…… As soon as the official posted a notice in the city, Uncle Seventeen registered for my father. Yue'er said, "I heard Uncle Seventeen say that this errand will take a long time, and Zheng Guangliang in the south and north and Fucheng will have to run back and forth many times, and it may not be possible to complete it until the spring of next year." As she spoke, she couldn't help but show a look of longing and happiness on her face. For her and her father, this kind of busy days are the happiest days, and busyness means harvest, food and clothing......

Gao Xiaosan nodded in understanding, picked up the bowl and took a sip of water. After saying a few words to Yue'er, the water he had just drunk turned into sweat and soaked out, so that the cool breeze brought by the fan blew, and he suddenly felt cool and comfortable all over his body; Sitting in the gloomy hall again, the sun outside the house was scorching and the room was dark and moist, looking at these diametrically opposed two worlds, I suddenly felt cool and calm. He frowned and smacked his mouth, curled his tongue to taste the taste in his mouth, looked at the bowl in his hand and looked at the clay pot on the table, and suddenly asked, "This water, I'm afraid it's not water from the well, right?" He had just noticed that there was a difference between the water in the bowl and the well water, and although it was cool and thirst-quenching, it did not have the cold chill of the well water that soaked from his throat to his lungs.

Yue'er bit the two rows of scallops, her white and neat fine teeth, and smiled, and said: "The third brother is still well-informed, how many people have come in and out of this house, and no one has tasted that this water is very different from the well water, and even Uncle Seventeen has not eaten the Xuan Ao Yi This is not the well water that has just been hit, it is boiled water, put it in a jar and then put it in the water tank to soak it in the cool Brother Monk said, this can remove the fire in the boiling water, and drink it to quench your thirst." He said that when people are very thirsty, they suddenly drink cold well water, which will make their stomachs cramp and contract, and they will fall ill after a long time......

Yue'er's words, Gao Xiaosan understands half and is half ignorant. He can understand that boiling water is put in a water tank to remove the fire, and he knows that drinking well water is easy to cause problems, but there are no impurities and bacteria in the boiling water, so what's going on? He stared at the bowl of water in his hand, and after a while, he asked Ai Ai, "Fine...... What are bacteria? Small...... Small...... Creature? Microbe...... What's that? ”

Yue'er couldn't answer this question, so she had to deal with what Shang Cheng told her.

"Bacteria and microorganisms...... It's all things we can't see, tiny, tiny, tiny things," she said, not knowing how to describe them, so she pinched the tips of her ring finger, "much smaller than this, much smaller than a grain of broken rice." She didn't look at Gao Xiaosan frowning and imagining how small those things were, she just copied everything she heard at the time. The most in the well water, the river water, and the raw water are these things that we can't see, we drink them into the stomach, they will settle in the stomach of people, and then multiply, and finally our body can't resist their intrusion, and we will get sick, like a stomachache or something......" When Shang Cheng talked about these things with her and the eldest girl and the second girl, he also said a lot of things and told them a lot of things that made them both novel and incomprehensible, but now all she can remember is these, Regardless of whether the preface and the words are remembered or not, Gao Xiaosan understands it or not, he just cares about saying everything he can recall.

"After the water is boiled, ...... bacteria, and those microbes...... Where have they gone? ”

Yue'er had asked Shang Cheng this question at that time, so she could now tell Gao Xiaosan the answer very succinctly: "They were all killed by the high temperature." ”

All killed? Where did you die? Gao Xiaosan swallowed his saliva, stared at the clear water in the bowl with a bowl, and didn't know if he should drink this bowl of water full of "killed bacteria and microorganisms", and unconsciously asked again: "Drink this kind of boiled water, you really won't get sick again?" ”

Yue'er smiled and said: "People eat whole grains, where is the reason not to get sick?" It's just that if you pay attention to food hygiene and drink less raw water, you will naturally get less sick. She bit the words "pay attention to food hygiene and drink less raw water" to death. This is also a fresh word she heard from Shang Cheng.

These words made Gao Xiaosan understand again. He held the bowl in his hand for a moment, but in the end he could not resist his thirst, closed his eyes and plucked up courage, and poured half of the bowl of water into his mouth tragically. He put the empty bowl on the wooden table, and no longer had the courage to glance at the empty clay bowl. After staying for a long time, I found that since he entered the door, the little girl Yue'er had been standing in the ground to talk to him, and hurriedly said: "You also sit, standing is weird and tired......" Seeing Yue'er sitting down on the small wooden bench by the door of the hall, she said without words: "The merchant brother is going to work again?" ”

"I've been out for more than ten days. During this time, they were all grabbing wheat harvest in Lijiazhuang. ”

Gao Xiaosan nodded. This year is a rare good year, the wheat is ripe, a few days ago, from the county seat to Huojiabao on both sides of the official road, all yellow and clear and golden, even the air is filled with a pungent fragrance of wheat. Because of the heavy labor of the government this year, a lot of labor was requisitioned, and in order to rush to collect and seize the sun, the officials mobilized almost all their forces, and the officials and scribes went out to the nest, and even the county magistrates and county lieutenants took people down to several understaffed townships to supervise the wheat harvest. In this case, a strong laborer like Shang Cheng is naturally not afraid of having nothing to do, and he is afraid that someone will come to the door early to talk about the item before the wheat harvest season. But now that the busiest time of the wheat harvest season has passed, why hasn't Shang Cheng come back yet?

Seeing that Gao Xiaosan was puzzled, Yue'er explained to him: "After being busy with the wheat harvest, he picked up a few odd jobs in Lijiazhuang. ”

"Did Brother Shang come back with a message, saying that he didn't say anything about the affairs in the Li family's Zhuangzi, when will he be able to finish it?"

"Five days ago, I asked someone to carry the message, saying that it would be done in three or four days, and let me find someone to dry the wood again," Yue'er said, gesturing into the corner of the courtyard. "When you get back, I'm going to cover up the hut first."

"Build a house?" Gao Xiaosan was stunned, looking at the piles of wood piled up against the mud wall of the stove room in the direction of Yue'er's finger, and couldn't help asking, "What kind of house to build?" "It's not a trivial matter to build a house, although the Liu family's situation this year is much stronger than in previous years, Liu Laozhu has even paid off the accounts he owes for six or seven years, and he shouldn't be so rich, right? Can you build a house? However, after thinking about it, he felt that the Liu family might have the financial resources to Liu Laozhu or not, but Shang Cheng, a monk who was a monk and a layman, was different, and this ability that suddenly appeared out of nowhere might make the Liu family exhale in this town......

Yue'er saw the first confused and then abrupt look on Gao Xiaosan's face, and knew that he had thought things wrong, and hurriedly said, "It's not about building a big house, it's just about building a hut." She pinched her fingers, not knowing how to explain it clearly, and then bit her lip and said, "I can't live at home......"

"Oh? Can't live at home? Gao Xiaosan turned his face and walked back and forth in the inner rooms on the left and right sides of the hall, and then looked at Yue'er, who had low eyebrows and drooping eyes, before he understood what was going on. Although Shang Cheng, a monk of unknown origin, is in the name of a distant relative of Liu Laozhu, he can deceive others but can't hide it, but he accompanied Shang Cheng from the mountains to Huojiabao, from the gossip along the way to Liu Laozhu's respectful attitude towards Shang Cheng, he can conclude that Shang Cheng and the Liu family have nothing to do with each other at all! All of this is Huo Shiqi's tricks in it, making up a relative's nonsense so that Shang Cheng can get away with it in the official! As for why Huo Shiqi made up such a lie, why Liu Laozhu was willing to take the risk of hiding Shang Cheng, and why Shang Cheng suddenly reported to the official and returned the vulgar, he vaguely guessed some inside information...... However, even if Shang Cheng and the Liu family are relatives, it is not suitable for a man like him to live in the door of the Liu family for a long time, because Liu Laozhu also has a thirteen-year-old daughter, so he has to talk about taboos and avoid it; If Shang Chang had been in and out of this house for many years, even if nothing happened, the gossip on the streets and alleys would have taught the father and daughter of the Liu family to be so ashamed that they couldn't raise their heads...... Yin asked with a smile: "Sister Yue'er is thirteen this year, right?" ”

"Not yet. …… It's only thirteen after the Mid-Autumn Festival. ”

"Is there a ......" Gao Xiaosan originally wanted to jokingly ask her if she had a suitable person, but she started talking, but she felt that this should not come out of his brother's mouth, but he couldn't help but continue the words, so he had no choice but to make a hard detour, "Is there a ...... Your father, I mean, my uncle and the merchant's brother, have you ever thought of finding a house in this market town to buy? After saying this, his mind also became smart, and the words in his mouth also slipped smoothly, so he said, "Granny Liu of Huaihua Lane died last month. She is a lonely widow, and she has always been supported by the official on a quarterly basis, and if she has no house, she will naturally be disposed of by the official. A few days ago, there was a word in the yamen that the courtyard was going to be sold, and you asked the merchant's brother to ask the price to see if he could buy it, so that the merchant's eldest brother could also have a shelter from the wind and rain, and he would settle down safely......" He also left a word. Shang Cheng bought a house in Huojiabao and settled down, with his ability and ability, there will definitely be matchmakers who will come to him to tell him about his family; Shang Cheng married a daughter-in-law and started a family, and after a long time, people naturally regarded him as a local, and no one would stir up trouble in the matter of his previous monk and monk...... This is actually a matter of concern in his heart, he knows a little about the law, and knows that it is a serious disaster for the monk to lose his degree, and Shang Cheng, a monk, has a strange identity, and he inexplicably hooks up with Liu Laozhu, if someone is looking for it, Shang Cheng and Liu Laozhu will have to suffer a lawsuit, and even with him and his father-in-law's family and a few brothers can't escape right and wrong, so Shang Cheng can sit on his identity and let him get rid of a piece of his heart.

Yue'er heard him say this, twisted the corners of her clothes for a long time before she said: "We also know about Granny Liu's house, and before the official issued a notice, Uncle Seventeen told us about it...... But the official price of the house was thirty-five ......."

Gao Xiaosan immediately came up with an idea: "Isn't the seventeenth uncle of the Huo family doing things in the yamen?" Let him go and talk to the official handlers about good things, maybe it won't cost so much money. ”

"Uncle Seventeen has asked someone to say that he has agreed, and the people in the yamen said that the price can be a little cheaper, but it can't be less than thirty times, and some miscellaneous money is almost thirty-two or three times...... Where can the family get so much money? Yue'er pursed her lips and said.

Having said that, Gao Xiaosan couldn't help but ask: "How much is it missing?" ”

"The family and the borrowed money can be put together, and there is still a long way to go......"

Gao Xiaosan immediately had a bitter face when he heard this. If there is a difference of thousands of dollars, he can still help make up for it, maybe he can get 1,500 yuan, but with so much difference, he can't help much. But he was reluctant to say comforting words that were not relied upon on all sides; And since he brought the topic to the matter of buying a house, he couldn't help but make some expressions, sighed and said: "In this way, I still have the usual surplus money at home, so I'll ask your sister-in-law to send it to you." He waved his hand to signal Yue'er not to speak in a hurry, and continued, "You take them one by one, if you can get the money together, you can buy the house, after this village, there is no such shop, and it is not easy to buy a house in the market town." Besides, I won't be able to use the money for a while anyway, so it's a good thing to be able to do the merchant brother a favor......"

Although the money has always been useless, after all, this money is Gao Xiaosan's heart, and Yue'er didn't push it back, but just stood up gratefully and poured a bowl of water for Gao Xiaosan, and said: "Then I'll thank the third brother on behalf of my business brother." He sat back on the small stool by the door and asked casually, "In the past, the third brother only came back when it was dark, why did he come back so early today?" She looked at Gao Xiaosan's dusty, sweaty, dusty appearance, and estimated that she hadn't returned home yet; What did he have to say about coming in such a hurry?

Gao Xiaosan was stunned, and then remembered that he came to the Liu family today to have something serious to tell Liu Laozhu, so he put down the water bowl in his hand, smiled self-deprecatingly, and said: "Look at me, I actually forgot about the business, and I have something to tell your father." But your father is not at home, and the eldest brother of the merchant is not there......" At this point, he stopped talking and stared at Yue'er to see how she replied. If Yue'er answers, it means that she can make up an idea about this matter, and if Yue'er doesn't speak, he is ready to make up a random reason to sit for a while and go back.

Of course, Yue'er didn't know that there were so many ways in the half of the guy's words in the warehouse, so she only smiled and said: "Come and listen, my father is not here, I can make up my mind about all the big and small things at home, if I can't make the decision, when the merchant brother comes back in the next day or two, he can also make up his mind." ”

Since Yue'er said this, Gao Xiaosan also continued his words: "I came here to see if my uncle is free to do things for our warehouse for a few days." Since my uncle has already taken over the work of the official, this matter naturally cannot be said, but if Brother Shang can spare time for a while, it will become a ......."

Yue'er lowered her eyes, thought for a while, and said, "Brother Shang hasn't done it in the storehouse, I'm afraid I won't be able to make a living here." ”

Hearing Yue'er say this, Gao Xiaosan knew that she had misunderstood what she meant, so he interrupted her with a smile: "I said it wrong." Yiyi didn't ask Brother Shang to come to the warehouse to do things, but wanted to ask him if he had time to work for a short time......"

In the first half of the year, a large merchant in the plain of Shangjing received a large number of goods, and there were always 100 packs of cloth, fur, medicinal materials, and some 20 or 30 horses, which were planned to be transported back to Shangjing after the autumn cool, but some time ago, it was rumored everywhere that the imperial court was going to send troops to fight the people of Tuji, and the merchant was also frightened by the news that there was no root, and he ran to the warehouse three times a day, and dragged the warehouse to him to immediately arrange manpower to transport all his goods. The warehouse had no choice but to allocate manpower to help him dispose of the goods. At that time, it was said that the warehouse would send all the goods to him in four times, but the first batch of people who went to Shangjing had not returned, and things had changed again, and the merchant did not know where he got the news, saying that the Admiral's Office was about to issue a decree, and all military-related materials on the ground of Yanshanwei must be sold to the government at an official price. Is this still worth it? When the merchant heard about this, he was anxious. The largest items of his goods were cloth and medicinal herbs, and even if the cost of warehousing and storage was not counted, the cost of buying them alone was two or three percent higher than the market parity announced by the government. He found Liu Ji Warehouse overnight, and would rather pay 30% more freight, but also ask the warehouse to find a way for him, and help him transport the goods out of Yanshan no matter what.

"And your warehouse agreed?" Yue'er asked curiously.

Can you not say yes? The merchant was the big customer of the store, and in order to pull his business from the opponent, the inn had spent a lot of effort, how could he push people towards the opponent now? Even if you lose money, you have to take this business, not to mention that people are willing to pay an extra 30% of the freight? The business is simple, but it is just two mouths touching and then writing an agreement, but it is really necessary to implement it but there are problems everywhere. Because there are too many merchants who have found the inn in the past two or three days, all of them are familiar customers of the inn, and everyone is willing to spend a lot of money, just asking the inn to deliver their goods to their destination safely. It is originally a good thing for business to come to the door, but at this time, this kind of business must not have anything to do with the word "good". It's just that these business warehouses can't be pushed and refused, because the warehouse has the rules of the warehouse, and they are customers one by one! There is no such thing as rushing the guests out of the door. But if you really promise all these businesses, where will you find so many people in the warehouse at once? So Gao Xiaosan, who is a big guy, came up with two ideas for the anxious shopkeeper: first, the goods will not be delivered to the destination, only Yanshan, and all the goods will be sent to the Quzhou warehouse branch closest to Yanshanwei; Second, in order to replenish manpower, the warehouse temporarily hired people to hire pack horses, all of which were paid according to the market price plus 20%, and there were additional dividends after being sent to Quzhou......

“…… In addition to the 300 wengong money, there is also a 50 wen reward, and the owner of the goods may also have a reward. Gao Xiaosan said, "I think that Uncle Zhu and Brother Shang are idle at home, why don't you go to Quzhou, and you can easily earn four or five hundred yuan in the twenty days before and after, isn't it better than staying at home?" ”

It's good, but it's ......

Yue'er said embarrassedly: "My family's pack horse let my father rush to do things for the official, and Brother Shang has no horse, I'm afraid he won't be able to do this job." ”

"Can Brother Shang drive the pack horses?" Gao Xiaosan asked. He usually eats and lives in the warehouse, and can only go home once a month, and Shang Cheng has not met in the past two or three months, all the news related to Shang Cheng is all he heard from others, others only say that Shang Cheng, a monk, can do this and that, but no one has ever mentioned to him whether Shang Cheng can drive pack horses. Anyone can lead a pack horse to drive, but not everyone can walk down the road one day and serve the animals.

Yue'er nodded and said, "This business brother can do it." Last month, my father's leg was sick, and it was Brother Shang who went to the official office on his behalf, and he went back and forth from the county to Beizheng. ”

"That's good!" Gao Xiaosan patted his thigh and said.

"But I don't have many pack horses at home......"

"There are a lot of pack horses in the pack horse storehouse, and they are the ones who are worried about not driving the pack horses." Gao Xiaosan pondered and thought, "The first pack team will leave early tomorrow morning, and it will definitely not be able to catch up...... You find someone to give a message to the merchant's eldest brother, and ask him to come to the Liu Ji Warehouse in the county town the day after tomorrow. ”

"How can it be so fast? Brother Shang is a village warrior, and he has to report to the government when he leaves the Yanshan Realm, otherwise he will have to suffer a lawsuit......"

"The warehouse is his guarantor!"

Before going out, Gao Xiaosan repeatedly told Yue'er to find someone to go to Lijiazhuang to find Shang Cheng back......