Hearing Lin Dai call Shen Xi her brother, Shen Mingjun was a little surprised, although this girl looked immature, she was more than a fist taller than Shen Xi.

However, girls develop earlier than boys, so he didn't have the heart to ask what was going on, just at this time the side door of the yard was pushed open from the outside, and then a forty-year-old man with a goatee appeared, the old man came in and narrowed his eyes, looked at Shen Xi and Lin Dai, and then said to Shen Mingjun: "The roof of the backyard house is being tiled, and there are not enough people, you go over to help." ”

Shen Mingjun said respectfully: "Steward Liu, I'll settle down here and go over immediately." ”

The old man nodded, and looked at Shen Xi and Lin Dai again before turning around and leaving.

When the figure of the old man disappeared behind the side door connecting the back garden of the main house, Shen Mingjun touched Shen Xi's head and ordered: "Go to the kitchen and tell your mother, there is something going on at the master's house, and I will come back soon after I go." Eat first when you're hungry, don't wait for me. ”

Shen Xi nodded: "Daddy, go." ”

Shen Mingjun returned to the main room and cleaned up briefly, stuffed a bag into the drawer of the large wardrobe against the wall, and solemnly mattered, there might be something valuable in it.

Shen Mingjun left with his front foot, and Shen Xi, who hid at the door and saw the cheap father's every move clearly, wanted to go over to see what it was, but was pulled by Lin Dai.

Lin Dai said dissatisfiedly: "Brother, you can't just look at it, it's Daddy's thing." ”

Shen Xi looked at the black-bellied little Lori, and asked rhetorically: "Since it's Daddy's thing, it's my own, I'm just looking at it and I don't want to take it, what's not to do?" ”

With that, Shen Xi opened the cabinet by himself, opened the drawer and took out the baggage, put it on the table and opened it. The first thing that caught my eye was two old clothes, which were clean and unpatched, and in which were a small purse containing some loose silver.

Shen Xi has been in this world for more than half a year, and he has basically never seen the appearance of silver, and the copper plates used by the Zhou family on weekdays are all copper plates. He expected that these broken pieces of silver were saved by his father, even if Shen Mingjun was down-to-earth and steady, but he was not pedantic, knowing that in addition to handing over the monthly salary to the old lady, the bits and pieces of silver that the main family rewarded on weekdays would also be hidden and left for his wife and children, which was the main source of the small treasury in Zhou's hands.

Originally, Shen Xi felt that he and the Zhou family had no place to stay in the city, but now that they have a place to live, plus these broken silver, it is expected that the problem will not be very big.

Shen Xi put the things away one by one, carefully restored the baggage, sent it into the big cabinet and stuffed the drawer back, and then said to Lin Dai, who had been supervising him in the back: "Look, I put the things away, so that no one will notice, right?" ”

"Oh."

Lin Dai pouted in response, a little disapproving.

Shen Xi is not afraid of her complaining, children are curious, even if he has seen the things in the baggage, as long as he doesn't touch anything, his parents will not care about him if they know.

Shen Xi saw Lin Dai's sullen appearance, and said, "Let's go, let's go to the kitchen and tell my mother about Daddy's work at the master's house, and then go outside to see what is fun." ”

When he arrived in the kitchen, Zhou was burning a fire, and because there was no hair dryer, Zhou's forehead was stained with some black ash. Seeing his son come in with his little daughter-in-law, Zhou stood up and wiped the sweat beads on his face, and only after asking about the situation did he say, "You go to the yard to play, don't go out." My mother cooked quickly. ”

Shen Xi said distressedly: "Mother, don't work too hard, why don't I help you light the fire?" ”

Zhou's face stiffened: "Han Wazi, don't make trouble, get out quickly." ”

Shen Xi still wanted to insist, but little Lori Lin Dai ran forward and took his hand: "Listen to my mother, let's go outside to play." ”

Shen Xi couldn't screw their mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who had the same temper, so they had to go to the courtyard outside with Lin Dai. The yard is not large, except for one main and two compartments and a kitchen, there is a utility room, in which some planks and carpenter's tools are placed, but these things are covered with dust, and I don't know how long no one has used them.

Shen Xi saw that everything was ready-made, and a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind: "Dai'er, you see that your mother cooks so hard, and you are still shouting to come out to play, this is because you don't know how to be considerate...... Now that you can take a hand, you can reduce your mother's fatigue, are you willing? ”

Although Lin Dai didn't understand what Shen Xi wanted to express, she still nodded and agreed: "Well, as long as it's good for my mother, I'll listen to you." ”

Shen Xi has read a lot of woodworking books, know that China as early as the Warring States period has metallurgical skin, in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Nanyang Taishou Du Shi designed and manufactured a kind of hydraulic blower for metallurgical casting, but the bellows used in the kitchen stove only appeared in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, to the new century in many rural areas are still in use.

Shen Xi is familiar with the structure of the bellows, and now that he has ready-made tools, he will inevitably have some itchy skills, and he wants to try if he can make them.

Shen Xi was only a child less than seven years old, with little strength, and it was difficult for him to use the carpenter's tools normally, and he had no ready-made pen and paper to make drawings, so he could only build a skeleton based on the memories in his head.

It's a pity that the time is still too tight, and by the time Shen Xi found a few planks and pondered how to do it, Zhou had already gone to the courtyard to ask him and Lin Dai to eat.

Shen Xi shook his head regretfully, put aside the tools that he was more handy, it seemed impossible to make a bellows in a short time, but now he had time, and he could take his time.

When he arrived at the house, Shen Xi couldn't help but swallow when he saw the steamed rice and the vegetables cooked with a little rapeseed oil. Such a simple and crude meal would not even be eaten by a monk hundreds of years later, but now it is a delicacy for him.

Zhou brought the dishes up, and when he saw that Shen Xi was about to move his chopsticks, he reprimanded: "There are no rules when you get to the city?" Your dad hasn't come back yet, and we'll have to wait for him...... You have to be a family to eat. ”

Shen Xi retracted his hand and said with a bitter face: "Mother, then Dai'er and I will go outside first and play for a while." ”

Zhou frowned and said, "It's really uneasy to wash your hands and go out." Forget it, go ahead, don't play wild, we'll have dinner when your father comes back in a while. ”

After saying that, Zhou went to the kitchen to clean up again, and the original plan was that she would only stay in the city for two or three days before returning to Peach Blossom Village, but now that she has a place to stay, her mind is also alive.

I don't know how many days the yard given by the lord can live, but as long as the Zhou family lives in, they will treat this place as their own home, and they want to clean it up if they have nothing to do.

Shen Xi looked at Zhou's back and sighed lightly: "Mother is really virtuous!" ”

Originally, I thought that it wouldn't take much time for Shen Mingjun to go to the tiles, but the food on the table was cold, and there was still no one. Shen Xi sawed with a saw in the utility room, hammered with a hammer and nails, and the rudiments of a bellows had appeared.

It is also lucky, there is a dilapidated box in the utility room that is very similar to the appearance of the bellows, he only needs to enrich and improve the structure inside, although the piston and the flap are difficult to fix, but after all, he has the thinking and wisdom of an adult, and he has assembled the bellows of the Qing Dynasty by hand.

By the time Shen Xi had assembled the bellows, more than an hour had passed, and Shen Mingjun still hadn't returned.

Shen Xi came to the yard with the fruits of his labor, and tried to pull the bellows lever while testing whether the wind blew out of the air outlet.

Because the tightness is not very good, the wind is there, but it is not very strong, but it is much better to use it on the stove than to simply blow it with your mouth.

Lin Dai also helped Shen Xi at first, but later she felt that what Shen Xi made seemed to have nothing to do with the stove, so she stood by and watched. When Shen Xi was testing the effect of the bellows at this time, Lin Dai had already dragged Zhou to the courtyard.

"Mother, look, brother, he doesn't know what he's doing, so he got something weird." As far away as Shen Xi, he heard Lin Dai making a small report.

Zhou instructed: "He is younger than you, so you should call him brother." At first, Zhou didn't take it seriously, but when he went to the yard, he saw that his son was beating on a wooden box with a hammer, thinking that his son was making trouble, and he picked up the broom on the side and wanted to go up and beat people, but before the person arrived, the voice had already come:

"You little girl, this is a loan from the master's family for our family to live in temporarily, where are the things in the house that you touch casually? See if the old lady doesn't beat you to death! ”

Shen Xi hurriedly stood up and ran a few steps, then turned around and explained: "Mother, what I made is a bellows, don't beat people without asking for a reason." ”

Zhou took the broom, pointed to the wooden box, and panted and asked, "What do you say this thing is?" ”

Shen Xi walked over and picked up the bellows from the ground, came to Zhou's face, and said: "I saw that my mother was blowing soot on the stove, so I wondered if I could make a bellows instead of my mother blowing the wind, so that my mother would not have to blow the fire with her mouth when she burned the fire in the future, and it would burn very strongly, which would save a lot of work." ”

Although Zhou still wanted to beat Shen Xi, he felt that it was a good thing for his son to have filial piety, and he couldn't beat the broom he waved.

"You little girl, something that adults can't do, what are you fooling around? Why don't you restore things quickly...... If you let the people of the main family see it, then what is it? ”

Shen Xi saw that the old lady was no longer angry, put down the bellows, and said with a smile: "My mother has not used it, how do you know that it is not good?" I'll show my mother, mother, you can pull here, pull and push back and forth...... Look here, the wind is blowing. ”

Zhou didn't believe that his son could do anything at a young age, but following Shen Xi's demonstration, sure enough, Shen Xi pulled the handle, and the wind blew out of the hole next to him, blowing up a lot of dust on the ground.

At this moment, there was a sound of talking at the door of the side courtyard, it turned out that Shen Mingjun had come back from work, and he came back with Steward Liu, who had just come.

The two of them entered the door as they spoke, just in time to see Shen Xi fiddling with his bellows there.

Shen Mingjun saw that his wife and children were in the yard, and hurriedly introduced: "Steward Liu, this is Neizi, this is my son and his adoptive daughter-in-law...... In the future, when we live here, we will ask you to take care of it! ”

When Zhou heard the word "housekeeper", he immediately understood that the old man in front of him was her husband's top boss, and hurriedly stepped forward to say goodbye.

Steward Liu just nodded with a "hmm" and took it as a greeting, his eyes fell on the bellows placed in the center of the courtyard, and he didn't understand the essentials for a while, and asked curiously, "What is this?" ”

Zhou replied nervously: "Back to Steward Liu's words, the child is not sensible, and the things that come out of the blind are called bellows, which can blow wind into the stove." The concubine let him dismantle it and put it back in the room. ”

Steward Liu didn't take his eyes off the bellows, waved his hand, squatted down and looked at it carefully, and then looked at Shen Xi: "How do you use this thing?" ”

Shen Xi hurriedly stepped forward to demonstrate, and as he pulled the handle, the wind blew out of the air outlet.