Taking advantage of Long Linyuan's entry into the basement to work, when Xiao Yun was about to deliver food to Long Linyuan at noon, Long Chen, who had been planning for a long time, played a child's stubborn temper once, pretending to cry and make trouble to see Long Linyuan, but Xiao Yun really had no choice, and it was impossible to call Long Linyuan out at such a time, so he had to take Long Chen down with him.

Although it was a bit naïve to do this, Long Chen really couldn't find any other way, because he had tried to ask Long Linyuan if he could take him to see it, but Long Linyuan didn't take him seriously at all, the reason was of course because he was too young, Long Linyuan only treated his words like a child to a toy.

At this age, Long Chen naturally showed his ability to stand and walk boldly, but Xiao Yun still habitually held him, and Long Chen had nothing to do about it.

After walking to the entrance of the basement in the backyard of the house, Xiao Yun opened the wooden door of the cabin, held Long Chen in one hand and twisted the food in the other, and walked towards the basement on the stone stairs very skillfully, without the need for lights to shine at all.

After walking a few steps, Long Chen suddenly asked in a low voice, "Will he be unhappy?"

How did Xiao Yun know that Long Chen just didn't want to wait for the meeting, and was hugged back by her before he could see what was inside, and he thought that her son was a little afraid, so he smiled and said softly: "No, the baby is so sensible, how can Daddy blame you?"

Long Chen knew that Long Linyuan must have heard the conversation, so he continued to ask, "Then if I want to stay by his side for a while longer, will he drive me away?"

Hearing her son's words, Xiao Yun couldn't help but feel a little sour in her heart, her husband really hasn't been with her son much in recent days, and she knows the reason very well, but her son doesn't know all this, besides, even if she tells her son about those things, can Long Chen, who is only two years old, understand?

Xiao Yun kissed Long Chen's forehead and said softly, "Don't worry, Daddy won't drive the baby away." ”

Long Chen knew that his goal had been achieved, so even if Long Linyuan felt that he was in the way in the basement, he would not rush to drive him away, and he would have enough time to figure out what Long Linyuan was doing.

After a while, Xiao Yun took Long Chen to the basement, Long Linyuan obviously heard the conversation between the mother and son just now, stood up from the position of work and greeted him, hugged Long Chen in his arms, rubbed Long Chen's head melon seeds, and said with a smile: "You kid, try to come down and take a look, this is not a fun place, go ahead, don't mess around." ”

After Long Linyuan bent down and put Long Chen down, he walked to the entrance of the basement, took the food in Xiao Yun's hand and devoured it, while Xiao Yun poured water on the side and waited.

This basement is only about ten square meters, the light is not very bright, the walls are surrounded by flat bluestone, and there is a skylight on the dome more than ten meters high, and a touch of sunlight pouring down from the skylight shines on a milky white square stone.

This is a milky white stone with a side length of about fifty centimeters and a thickness of about ten centimeters, which looks like uncut tofu, and below it is an uneven bluestone pier about one meter high to form a sharp contrast, and a wooden chair is placed in front of the stone pier, Long Chen guessed that this should be the location where Long Linyuan worked.

There were also several large wooden boxes in the basement, as well as a very peculiar iron processing machine, which looked a bit like the old-fashioned stone-crushing machine he had seen on TV, with a funnel on it, sealed in the middle, and I don't know what mechanism it was, with a handle on one side and a thin pipe sticking out from the bottom of the right side.

Long Chen walked to the front of the machine, turned his head to look at Long Linyuan and asked, "What is this for?"

Long Linyuan snorted and shaved two mouthfuls of rice, took the tea handed by Xiao Yun, and explained casually after taking a sip: "Smash the stone." ”

"Oh. ”

Long Chen didn't continue to dwell on this issue, but turned to tiptoe, looked at the layer of gray-green thick liquid sticking to the milky white stone, and then changed his gaze to look at the small table on the right side of the bluestone platform.

On the table was a delicate wooden box, which was open, and in it lay several pages of somewhat rough gray paper, which was a little thick, and looked like a lambskin at a glance.

The size of the delicate wooden box is about the same as the black forbidden book that Long Chen has seen the most in the past two years, and the paper contained in it is a little smaller than the box, and the corners of the pages inside are cut neatly, which can almost reach the level of cutting in the previous life, and there is a circular emblem in the center of each page.

The strangest thing is that the emblem in the center of the page looms and slowly squirms, some like an invisible projector projecting on the page.

Long Chen looked to the left at the milky white platform, then at the strange pages of paper in the delicate box on the right, and at the pile of broken gray-green lumps contained in the large wooden box under the wooden table, and after a little thought, he guessed what Long Linyuan's job was.

Perhaps Long Linyuan's job was to make the strange pages in the delicate box, but Long Chen always felt that something was missing.

According to his vague memory and cognition, if he wanted to make paper, shouldn't he put the pulp in a container and press and dry it? But he searched and searched for it, but he couldn't find any tools related to pressing and drying, not even the tools to cut the paper and remove the corners.

After thinking about it, Long Chen was finally ready to ask a question, he leaned on his toes on the low wooden table, stared at the strange pages in the delicate wooden box, and asked, "What is this? Is this what you did?"

Hearing this immature question, Long Linyuan was slightly stunned, he turned his head to look at his wife, and found that his wife was also surprised, and after turning his head, his eyes towards Long Chen changed a little.

"Son, come here. ”

Long Linyuan beckoned, Long Chen obviously didn't notice what happened just now because he had his back to Long Linyuan before, he obediently walked in front of Long Linyuan, with a pair of round black eyes full of doubt.

Long Linyuan put his hands on Long Chen's small shoulders, looked into Long Chen's eyes and smiled lightly: "Tell me, why do you think that was done by your father?"

Long Chen didn't expect that his side knock would attract Long Linyuan's questioning, but he instantly found the most suitable explanation, and replied crisply: "I saw you go out with this box, and when you come back, your mother will buy me delicious food; just like Uncle Zhang on the opposite side of our house, every time he goes out with a basket of fish, he will buy candy for Qiangzi when he comes back at night, Uncle Zhang sells the fish in the basket, I think, are you selling the paper in the box?"

Long Linyuan was stunned again, and then laughed, although Long Chen's explanation sounded a little naïve, it was not unreasonable, he thought to himself, maybe the child thought that things were so simple, but let Long Chen, who was only two years old, guess his job.

However, only two years old can connect these things together, Long Linyuan felt that his son's head could really turn, hugged Xiao Yun and smiled: "Yunyun, our Chen'er is really smart, and there will definitely be a future in the future." ”

Xiao Yun looked at Long Chen with a loving face, leaned over and gently touched Long Chen's head and praised: "Of course, our baby is the smartest child in the world. ”

Long Chen breathed a sigh of relief, where had he seen Long Linyuan go out with any box? Long Linyuan had always been very secretive in this regard, Long Chen only recognized that Long Linyuan was not true to him, so he dared to make up such a naïve explanation.

After eating, Long Linyuan started working again, and Long Chen was also taken out of the basement by Xiao Yun, and after a brief observation, he generally knew how Long Linyuan made that strange page.

It's just that, as for the purpose of that kind of paper, Long Chen can't think of anything.

And Long Chen simply calculated, today is not a few days away from the end of the month, there are only seven or eight pages in that exquisite box, and Long Linyuan will go out at the end of every month, and then come back after four days.

On Xiao Yun's ledger, Long Linyuan's income has hovered between twenty and twenty-five silver coins in recent months, and one page can be sold for three silver coins, which made Long Chen very surprised, as far as he knows, the income of ordinary families in Xinling Town is only ten silver coins a month, how can he not be surprised that Long Linyuan can sell so much for a piece of paper.

However, if you take a look at Long Linyuan's income last year and the year before that, it is easy to find that the situation is not good.

Through the information collected in the past two years, Long Linyuan should have gone to Qingtian City, which is about two days away from Xinling Town, and the year before last, Long Linyuan also earned at least fifty silver coins every month, but last year it was reduced to forty, and this year it has dropped by half, only twenty.

In fact, he can earn more than 20 silver coins a month, which is already a very good income in Xinling Town, but Long Chen did not see satisfaction in the eyes of Long Linyuan and Xiao Yun, but often saw a thick melancholy, every time Xiao Yun was in the accounts, Long Chen found that the balance of the family on the account book not only did not increase, but was rapidly decreasing.

The normal expenses of the family are actually not much, and the silver coins consumed every month are even less than those of ordinary people, Long Chen guessed that there should be an expense at home that he did not know, and it was this expense that made the family's economy more and more embarrassed, if he was pessimistic, I am afraid that it would not take a few years for the family to face the point of not being able to open the pot.

It's just that even if these things are known, what can they do? With Long Chen's current age, he has no ability to improve all of this.

So Long Chen felt that time passed too slowly, he hoped to grow up as soon as possible, but this was obviously not in a hurry, the more he looked forward to the time passing, the slower the time passed.

The boring days passed slowly, and Long Chen's age also increased by a year, and he got along with Long Linyuan and Xiao Yun for three years, and he was always under their doting care, Long Chen had gradually regarded Long Linyuan and Xiao Yun as real parents from the bottom of his heart, but even if he could speak casually, he was never used to saying the two titles of father and mother from his mouth.

These two titles are really a bit heavy for Long Chen, who was once an orphan.