Winter is coming. Compared to later generations where the seasons are unknown, the climate here is more pleasant in spring and autumn, and the hot summer is cool without air conditioning. However, the winter is unusually cold. The early morning in Yunmeng Mountain was shrouded in a thin, suffocating thick fog, and it felt like my lungs could freeze my lungs with my breath.

As the planner of this remote mountain village, Wang Xu did not quarry early in the morning to build roads, as everyone else does. Instead, he hid in the blacksmith shop and was lazy. He seems to have said that as long as it doesn't snow in winter, doing some physical work is good for the body. At this moment, he is standing by the furnace of the blacksmith shop, pretending to help others add firewood to make a fire.

"The widow in the village, Zhang, is good-looking, 28 years old, with a 14-year-old daughter. I told her about you, guess what they said? ”

Fengjiao asked shyly while knocking on the copper sheet on the iron felt:

"How?"

"People said to carry two chickens, take two pieces of cloth to propose, and they will go with you immediately."

Wind Horn's ears moved slightly. The whole moment I blushed like a monkey's butt. He didn't make a sound, just kept tapping the brush that Wang Xu had given him to make.

"What are you shy? Do you see how active people are? Hey... If you can really form a family, Shu'er will have an extra grandmother and a cheap mother. What a beautiful thing to do! You said no? ”

Wang Xu couldn't stop squeezing his eyebrows. The affection for the blind date is actually to find a nanny for his little granddaughter. Fengjiao's face turned redder and a little purple. He put down the work in his hand and clasped his fist at Wang Xu.

"It's all up to adults."

"That's right! You can rest assured! We're buddies. I'll take care of this happy event, and you can wait to be the groom's officer." ”

Fengjiao frowned. This generation sounds a bit messy. If you are really a brother and brother with Wang Xu. That Li Cang is also his brother, and when he sees him on weekdays, he shouts that his uncle is coming. How should this be counted in the future? Fengjiao lowered his head and blew on the brush in his hand, and the crumbs of bronze dispersed. He patted the two brushes at each other, and then handed them to Wang Xu.

"Try, sir, is this brush still suitable?"

Wang Xu took out a ball of kapok from his sleeve and rubbed it back and forth in a brush. After a while, the cotton wool was pulled for a long time. He smiled happily:

"The master's shot is perfect!"

"Lord Xie's praise."

After scraping back and forth a few times, I found that the bronze thing was no worse than the iron tool.

Wang Xu lived in Jiangnan in his previous life. It is inevitable that you will encounter the problem of receiving customers. In some cases, they also have to personally accompany the high-ranking officials and their families. When you meet elderly customers, it's always difficult to take them to places where young people are playing. Therefore, arranging to live in the ancient town, admiring the small bridge and flowing water, and visiting the garden art has become a standard hospitality model.

Especially those ancient textile history museums, he almost vomited after all the museums he had attended. Among them, there are tools used to stretch cotton or wool into long fibers with an iron brush, and then spin the yarn. Of course, most of it is still the process of making silk. At this time, it is even more common to buy some silk scarves, silk quilts or silk pajamas to make customers happy.

At first, Wang Xu was thinking that since the iron brush can pull cotton fibers, the shorter kapok fibers can also be pulled out. So he ordered Feng Bo to make two. Try it today, and you are more convinced that the kapok business can be done. If the filling of quilts and cotton clothes can be solved, such cheap raw materials can be turned into treasures. There is no kapok cloth on the market, but the cotton wool is too short, and the cotton cloth made is uneven and time-consuming. Although it feels much stronger than linen, the price is not competitive.

He grinned at the thought of this. Instruct Fengjiao Road:

"Make another hundred. I took the sample first. ”

After speaking, Wang Xu walked out of the blacksmith shop. He turned back to the wind horn and made a cheering gesture, and shouted:

"Come on! Wait until the beginning of spring to drink your wedding wine. ”

Feng Jiao laughed dryly. The old man blushed and continued to work.

He had seen Widow Zhang, and she was a good woman. He also praised his good iron-striking skills. The woman's husband fell ill and died while being conscripted into labor. It's really not easy for her to pull a girl alone. The family only relies on the mother and daughter to cultivate three acres of thin land for a living. Life is very hard. I remember that he helped the woman make a bucket hoop, but he took pity on the other party's difficult life, so he did not collect the money. I don't want this to be fateful. Even if Lord Yin doesn't come forward, he will take the initiative to probe the other party's tone first. Unexpectedly, the other party agreed at once, and Fengjiao felt happy in his heart. They are all over half a hundred years old. If it is placed in the past, the etiquette of old husbands and young wives is not tolerated.

According to the rules of the Great Zhou Dynasty, a woman cannot marry after the age of 20, and a man cannot marry a wife after the age of 30. This is a rule that has been set by the ancestors since the ancestors to ensure the reproduction of the population and restrict the powerful from taking concubines. Now that the royal power of the Zhou family has fallen, no one has obeyed the Zhou rites. If the old man has a son, the incense of the Feng family can be passed on. Even after death, he is worthy of his ancestors. Feng Jiao picked up the hammer hard, and his dark skin was covered with beads of sweat, as if he couldn't feel the cold of winter.

"Woooooooooo

Before he reached the door, he heard the crying of a child. Wang Xu hurriedly ran a few steps, pushed open the courtyard door suddenly, and saw Shu'er squatting in the courtyard crying. Li Cang's youngest son stood beside the girl, muttering something in a helpless voice.

There were piles of sticks and rattan-like things scattered on the ground. Shu'er's hand gently wiped her tears, looking very aggrieved. while in the other hand holds a round stone shard. A small hole in the middle of the stone slab is interspersed with a slender wooden stick. Seeing Wang Xu come in, the boy was stunned and took two steps back. Panicked shouted:

"Brother Cicada!"

When the little girl saw that the savior was coming, she immediately ran behind Wang Xu and called out.

"Your Excellency..."

The girl was still whimpering, and Wang Xu touched Shu'er's head. Leaning down and asking:

"Shu'er! Don't cry. Did this stinky boy bully you? Tell my brother and I'll beat him. ”

Before the words fell, the little boy on the side began to cry. The boy's name is Li Zhong, the same age as Feng Shu, and he always likes to pester Ah Ji. This cry, Wang Xu was embarrassed. What I said just now was just to scare the child, and by the way, to coax Shu'er. I don't want both kids to cry now. Wang Xu's home is only separated from the Li family by a fence, and if Li Cang heard it and rushed over, it is estimated that he would mistakenly think that Wang Xu was bullying his children. Although it is not a big deal, it is inevitable to be ridiculed. Such a big person still cares about children who have not dried up. It won't be good to spread the reputation. After all, before Wang Xu, he had a bad reputation. belongs to the child king in the mountains, bullying children, and robbing people of sugar gourds to eat.

"Alright, alright. What do you cry about? I didn't really beat you. Look at your cowardice. ”

Wang Xu said angrily. Feng Shu was obedient and stopped crying. But Li Zhong cried even more fiercely. While crying, he trembled and begged for mercy.

"Woooooo Brother Cicada, don't beat Zhong'er. ”

Wang Xu who watched it only felt funny. Are you so fierce? Can you scare a child like this? Looking at this posture, it is estimated that the psychological shadow left by the previous young cicada monarch on the child is quite large.

"Tell me. What the hell is going on? ”

He didn't try to comfort Li Zhong, anyway, if he did something wrong, this kid must be right. Crying for a while is all punishment. Feng Shu pointed to the things scattered on the ground, and said in a choked voice:

"My lord! Li Zhong broke my mat. ”

Suddenly the little boy stopped crying, and anxiously defended:

"I didn't mean to! I told her it was too slow to spin the mat like this. She just wouldn't listen, and I kicked her loom in annoyance. ”

Wang Xu was a little stunned and looked at the wooden sticks scattered on the ground. No matter how you look at it, you can't tell what the loom looks like. And where the woven thing looks like a mat, it's clearly a hard rattan. If this is made into a mat, it is estimated that the ass will also suffer. Since the two children are no longer crying, let's sit down and talk about the cause and effect of the incident.

It took a while to figure it out. It turned out that Ah Ji learned spinning and weaving from Li Zhong's mother, so he taught Feng Shu. The two didn't dare to hold the twine, so they tried it directly. It is estimated that I am afraid that the technology will not reach home and waste twine. So Ah Ji cut some bark, tore it into slender fibers, dried it and let Shu'er try to practice. You can learn to spin and practice weaving.

It just so happened that Aji was going to the mountains to collect medicine today, so it was inconvenient to take the girl with him. So she practiced at home, saying that she could weave mats with tree bark and could use them at home. The little girl was overjoyed to hear this, and went on her own. The stone chips and sticks in the hands are simple spindles. However, as soon as the two groups of lines were made and the mats were compiled, Li Zhong ran in. When I saw the girl spinning thread with a spindle, she had to keep turning it up and down. He said on a whim.

"The waterwheel can rotate all the time, so why not make a wooden wheel to spin the thread? That's so convenient. Let's do it together. ”

"Nope."

Li Zhong is smart, and when he sees a waterwheel, he can think of a hand-cranked spinning wheel. However, Feng Shu is a shy and sensible child. She wanted to complete the task assigned by Sister Aji and surprise the other party, and she didn't want to accompany this kid to mess around. But he didn't want Li Zhong to be in a hurry, so he kicked the simple loom she made.

During the Spring and Autumn period, weaving was done by fixing wooden sticks on the ground and then interspersing and winding the threads to form warp threads. The threads on the spindle are then strung together as weft threads to weave the cloth. Backward tools have seriously affected the efficiency of weaving, so much so that skilled workers can only weave one meter a day. The process of weaving cloth is extremely cumbersome and very demanding for workers. In ancient times, the length of one piece of cloth was about 13 meters in modern times, so a skilled worker could not produce three pieces of cloth in a month. The market price of a piece of linen cloth is 100 yuan, and that of kapok cloth is 180 yuan.

Things are finally working out. Wang Xu said softly to Feng Shu with great interest:

"Show your spindle to my brother."

The girl obediently handed over the spindle in her hand. Wang Xu took the spindle and looked at it carefully. After a few moments, he ran into the house and retrieved the kapok that Aji had stored. Just listen, sting! Sting! Two sounds of metal grinding. The kapok was then stretched into a long batting.

"Shu'er! Try this kapok, can you spin the thread? ”

He handed the spindle back. The girl immediately began to spin the yarn with the cotton wool. Wang Xu was surprised to find that the cotton threads were not cross-braided. It's actually made by rubbing it in one direction. Except for the spindle that needs to rotate dozens of times and then release the cotton thread for winding, the rest of the action is basically efficient. He could understand that the purpose of letting go of the cotton thread was to reduce tension and make the wound thread appear to be of uniform thickness.

After a while, Feng Shu spun five or six meters of cotton thread. Wang Xu tried to pull it, and found that the rope was both soft and strong. I couldn't help but sigh in my heart:

"Hmmm! is worthy of being a child of the old Li family. The kid was right, the spinning wheel could solve the problem of the spindle releasing tension. ”

Then he burst out laughing.

"Hahaha... Hahaha..."

The sudden laughter frightened the two children. You look at me, and I look at you. I don't understand why Wang Xu is so happy? Just when he was puzzled, he saw Wang Xu stand up suddenly and said loudly:

"You two are awesome! A quarrel can solve the village's problems. My brother invites you to eat hot pot. Walking. Hey! ”

The excitement at the moment is hard to express in words. He ruffled the hair of the two children and pulled them through the door. He earnestly invited them to sit at the table, and he held a charcoal basin in one hand and a clay pot in the other.

"Wait a minute. My brother went to prepare the meal. Have a big meal today, and there will be meat. ”

When the two children heard that there was meat to eat, they danced happily. Sitting at the desk, he is as well-behaved as a schoolboy listening carefully. How would they know that today's crying scene opened a life for Wang Xu to make a fortune.

"Two hundred and sixty thousand! Get rich! ”

I feel like my life has reached its peak in an instant. The market price of a piece of kapok is 180 yuan. He sells it for 150 dollars, which is enough and competitive. Excluding the cost of labor, raw materials and machine loss, it will cost less than 30 yuan. So the net profit is 120 dollars. 10 pedal looms operate at the same time, producing 5 pieces of cloth a day. In this way, I will make 600 dollars a day. A well-meaning boss decided to give his employees five days off in the spring and autumn period. In this way, the net profit per year is 216,000 yuan. It is only the result of spinning and weaving kapok. If you add the free wool provided by Ji Lan, wouldn't selling some high-end carpets make money like grabbing money?

"You're welcome! Despite eating, there is not enough yet. Hahaha. ”

At the moment, the appetite for eating is gone. Wang Xu's mouth has never closed since he opened his grin. The two children were confused, and they stuffed the bacon one after another into their mouths without getting out of the pot. Shu'er's eating appearance is very shy, not like Li Zhong's gobbling up. Wang Xu asked puzzledly:

"Doesn't Shu'er like to eat meat?"

The little girl lowered her head and stammered:

"Shu'er eat less. Can you let Shu'er bring some for grandpa to try? ”

Unexpectedly, the girl was so filial. Wang Xu was very pleased and patted the little girl's head gently. What a sensible child.

"Let go of eating. After a while, each person will bring two catties home. My brother is going to prepare. ”

"Master Xie."

A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. I didn't eat or drink, and I felt that my strength was nowhere to be released. Wang Xu hurriedly ran to the kitchen to cut meat. As soon as I stepped out of the door, I saw Ah Ji who had just returned home with a bamboo basket on his back. The girl also saw her brother from a distance, and she didn't have time to put down the bamboo basket on her back and gave Wang Xu a slight blessing. The girl was stunned and frowned.

"Aji! Get rich! Get rich! ”

Caught off guard, he was picked up by his brother who came running. The other party excitedly hugged her and circled in place. As he turned, he grinned. The saliva hanging from his mouth was about to come out. Ah Ji's hands were held around his brother's waist, and he couldn't pull them out for a while, let alone help him wipe off the halazi on the side of his mouth.

"Brother! What's wrong? What makes you so happy? ”

"You can't think of it. Thank you so much for that. ”

Aji doesn't know why his brother is so happy? I don't know what this matter has to do with me. In confusion, his cheeks suddenly cooled. The girl's mouth suddenly opened slightly, and her lips trembled slightly. Her brother actually pecked her lightly on the face. After the surprise, two peach blossoms printed on his cheeks. The flush then spreads and extends to the neck. It was red and spicy, and even the saliva on the skin was hot. Then her brother took her hand and ran towards the house. She wanted to tell her brother that the bamboo basket on her back had not been removed. The medicinal herbs contained in it need to be dried as soon as possible. The sick villagers are still waiting to recover after taking the medicine early.

That's what I thought in my heart, but why didn't my body seem to listen to me? Let each other hold hands and run together. At this time, Aji felt very happy. Don't understand that this inexplicable happiness is happy for my brother? Or was it that intimate contact just now? She could hear her own heartbeat. Thump! Thump! It seems that except for the sound of heartbeat, the laughter around him gradually fades from the ears.

The elder brother smiled brightly and kept putting vegetables in the children's bowls. And he seemed a little strange, every time he picked up the dish and was about to put it in his mouth, he suddenly stopped. Instead, he put the food into Aji's bowl and smiled at Aji. He wasn't eating, and the smile on his face was as happy as chewing food.

Ah Ji looked down at the bowl full of slices of meat, and then raised his head to look at the three people in front of him. They all had beads of sweat on their foreheads. It felt warm in the room. It doesn't seem like this winter is so cold either.

"Hahaha! Zhong'er! Shu'er! From now on, you will call me big brother. As long as my brother has meat to eat, you will have meat to eat. ”

Li Zhong pursed his oily little mouth and said:

"Brother Cicada! How have you changed? ”

"Really? So you tell me, is it getting better? Or has it gone bad? ”

The boy's big dark eyes blinked. Then he moved his ass and leaned towards Aji beside him.

"Hey, hey! It's stupid. ”

"Looking for a fight! Brat! ”

"Sister Aji! Help me! ”

Li Zhong hugged Ah Ji's waist and hid behind the girl and kept coquettish. also stuck out his tongue at Wang Xu and grimaced. The flavor of provocation is full. To his surprise, Wang Xu didn't care.

"Let go of your sister Aji, don't disturb her eating."

At this time, Li Zhong, Feng Shu and Wang Xu seemed to realize that Ah Ji was in a daze. The girl has pink faces, and the wooden look is silly and cute. Li Zhong stretched out his little hand and waved it in front of Ah Ji, and the other party came back to his senses. The little boy puffed up and said:

"Look! After staying with you for a long time, even Sister Aji has become stupid. ”

Wang Xu glared at him angrily, this kid is really a living treasure. One set in front of people, one set in the back. Not at all as rigid and upright as his father. Think about it not long ago, he was crying in the yard and begging himself not to beat him. actually thought that the previous young cicada Jun often bullied this child. It turned out that the other party was acting, and this ability to adapt to the situation was the same as what he had.

"Brother Cicada is not stupid."

Unexpectedly, Feng Shu, who had been silent, actually opened her mouth to speak for Wang Xu. The little girl tried her best to defend it, and said:

"Grandpa said that the person who can make a waterwheel is the smartest and kindest person in the world."

"Humph! Your grandfather doesn't know that Brother Cicada likes to peek at girls taking a bath. He's not a good guy. ”

It's hard to stop. Don't bother arguing with children. But I don't want Li Zhong to slander in public, and I won't give him face as a big brother. Wang Xu glared angrily.

"Boy! What nonsense are you talking about? When did I peek at the girl taking a shower? You make it clear. If you can't tell, be careful with my fists. ”

Li Zhong stuck out his tongue at him again without fear.

"The summer before last, you threatened Zhong'er to take you to take a peek at the Niu family's second girl to take a bath. Don't you remember? ”

"Oh? And this kind of thing? Then you kid is also an accomplice? ”

"I don't have it! The second girl of the Niu family always likes to pick the boogers with her thumb. Brother Cicada also went to peek at people's baths. It's disgusting, and I'm not ashamed. ”

Wang Xu was shocked. Is there something wrong with this character? Shao Cicada's taste is really a little unusual, and the taste is outrageous. I only heard Li Zhong say again:

"Zhong'er likes Sister Aji! In the future, I will marry Sister Aji. I won't peek at girls taking a bath like you did. ”

It's really a big ghost. Children with older farts know how to behave in front of the opposite sex, and do not forget to damage those who threaten them. The beautiful image that Wang Xu maintained in front of the girls was instantly ruined by Li Zhong. Feng Shu still didn't believe Li Zhong's nonsense, and she didn't let go of the embarrassing things the other party had done. That's what Sister Aji told her. The girl looked at Wang Xu a few times from time to time, then blinked and asked:

"Brother Cicada! He's talking nonsense. Is that right? ”

Looking at the girl's aggrieved appearance, it seems that the person who was said was not Wang Xu but herself. At this moment, Aji is surprisingly calm. Maybe the previous young cicada king was really such a stubborn erection.

After a full meal, the two children bounced and returned home with the bacon given by Wang Xuxiang. Aji was not worried about Shu'er, so he accompanied the girl. Wang Xu stood at the gate of the courtyard and watched them leave. Through the fence, I only heard Li Zhong whispering:

"Brother Cicada! What the hell is wrong with you? Why is it different from before? ”

The quirky little fellow, after handing over the meat to his mother, ran out again. The two stood by a low wooden fence, one high and one low. It's like a kid next door asking for a big brother's studies. Li Zhong kicked his calves, and the fence shook slightly. Wang Xu lay lazily on the fence, one hand supporting his chin. As if enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun, he slowly opened his mouth and asked:

"Tell me about it! What kind of person was I before? ”