Liu Guiyuan didn't pay much attention to the matter of cooperation, and her business could have been done alone. However, obviously, the Tian family did not intend to miss this opportunity to make money, and after about two days, they came to the door in person.

At four o'clock in the afternoon that day, Liu Guiyuan squatted outside the door and rubbed the ice powder a little bit, the eldest sister and the second sister carried water to water the vegetable field, the other fed the piglets to eat wild loquat pulp, and Grandma Luo walked around the house with lotus seeds in her arms.

Liu Guiyuan just rubbed a basin, then poured it into the bucket and covered it, looked outside, and saw the village chief Tian Youren leading the two juniors to walk here.

The village chief Tian Youren looks a little old, looking more than ten years older than Tian Rubai's father, but he has the blessing of Xiucai and the village head, and he is quite majestic when he stops there.

Tian Youren greeted Grandma Luo first, and then explained his intentions: "You are a longan girl, we have tasted the watermelon candy you made, and it is indeed okay, why don't we sign an agreement as you say, and we will make a profit if you make a profit, okay?" ”

The eldest sister and the second sister looked at the village chief and didn't dare to speak, although Grandma Luo was an elder, but she was not from the village, so it was not good to interject in it, Liu Guiyuan was not afraid, and said with a smile: "Okay, if we cooperate, of course I can teach you the craft, but I also have something to ask you, you send someone to wholesale white sugar, and negotiate the price for people, and I will take it from your house when the time comes, okay?" ”

Liu Guiyuan went to the town yesterday and chatted with the store that sold white sugar for a while, and learned that if the sugar was bought too much, the store could get a discount of one or two yuan, and she felt that this money could be saved.

Tian Youren, the village head, touched his chin and laughed heartily, and only after laughing did he say: "You girl, you are really like a monkey spirit, you can think of anything." Okay, I agreed, if you have any other requirements, just mention it, and sign it in the agreement in a while. ”

Liu Guiyuan raised his eyebrows and smiled, and said: "Like wholesale low-priced white sugar, this is a trivial matter, it doesn't matter if it is written in the agreement or not, the most important point is that it cannot be sold in Qinghe Town, did Brother Xiaobai tell you?" ”

Tian Youren didn't speak, Tian Rubai stood up and said: "Don't worry, my eldest uncle will do what he says and will never break his word." ”

With this guarantee, Liu Guiyuan had no objections, and when he saw Tian Rutang holding pen and ink in his hand, he asked them to draft the agreement first. Unexpectedly, Tian Youren said: "Your father and mother are not at home, why don't you call your second uncle to sign on your behalf?" ”

Liu Guiyuan hurriedly shook her head, she was not afraid of the second uncle's coming, the second uncle was still quite reliable, she was afraid that she would alarm Liu Yao's family, and she came over to make trouble and ask the third uncle's family to get involved.

"Village chief, my father and mother are not here, but my grandmother is here, she is also an elder, and it is okay for her to witness it." Liu Guiyuan hurriedly refused.

Tian Youren probably knew about the Liu family, and his nephew Tian Rubai followed up with a few persuasions, so he dispelled the idea of calling the Liu family's elders to come, and asked his second son Rutang to draft an agreement and read it to them word by word.

With the village chief personally making a guarantee, how could Liu Guiyuan not trust it, so he happily pressed his handprint, in duplicate, one for each person. From today on, their family and the Tian family are business partners.

Tian Village Chief and Tian Rutang took the agreement and went back, this time they were four families making watermelon candy together, naturally there were a lot of things to arrange, Tian Rubai was familiar with Liu Guiyuan, and still stayed at her house to say a few words.

"Brother Xiaobai, why is your Tian family so short of money?"

After the head of Tian Village left, Liu Guiyuan finally had time to chat, and while chatting, she asked what she was curious about, to say that the Tian family has a lot of fields and grows many watermelons, so there should be no lack of money to make watermelon candy in partnership with the four families.

Tian Rubai was a little helpless, and said: "Why is there no shortage of money, not to mention that my two elder brothers spend money on studying, the eldest uncle, the second uncle and my fourth uncle's family all provide for scholars, and the daily expenses are very large, so I really can't wait to break two petals of flowers for a penny." ”

Their Tian family has ancestral training, the male in the family must read and write, and can read until the age of 20, if after the age of 20, there is no hope of fame, then retire early to get married and have children, and train the next generation.

"Then Brother Bai, don't you still have nine years to study?" Liu Guiyuan was stunned, what a good family rule this is, she also wants to read more books.

"That's not it, I don't have much talent in reading, according to the family rules, as long as I study in a private school for a few years, I can read and write a little bit of literature and ink." Tian Rubai had long thought that the two elder brothers were a leader when they were studying, and their parents were already old and couldn't afford him at all.

Liu Guiyuan's watermelon sugar business, he wanted to cooperate with her in private, but the capital behind it is not small, and it is not enough to rely on a few dozen dollars in his own hands, and there is such a business, his father knows about it, and he must inform his uncle's family.

For so many years, their Tian family has always been like this, they have money to earn together, and they share difficulties, in order to provide a promising scholar for the four families, and it is best to go all the way from Xiucai to the highest peak.

This is a good thing, but sometimes it is also a bad thing, for example, as the eldest in the family, he has almost no energy at home for him to study, unless he is particularly talented in reading, otherwise it is just two years of reading and literacy.

"Okay, it's not early, I have to go back, so from tomorrow, let's collect watermelon peels together?" Tian Rubai planned to go back, and he saw that Liu Guiyuan's grandmother had already started cooking.

"Okay, it's all charged at ten cents a catty. By the way, Brother Bai, your family collects more watermelon peels than mine, don't grab it with my family when the time comes. Liu Guiyuan was a little worried, she was afraid that she would not be able to compete because of the Tian family.

"Then how can it be, the village must be close to you first, if we can't collect it, we will go to the village outside to collect it."

Tian Rubai's words can be guaranteed, because he introduced the deal to the Tian family, and the eldest uncle allowed him: some small things, as long as he does not lose money, he can take the promise.

"Okay, then when you get the sugar and watermelon rind, send two people to learn how to fry watermelon sugar." Liu Guiyuan was relieved now, and readily asked them to send someone to learn as soon as possible.

From the next day, probably because of the hype of the head of Tian Village, there was a rapid rush of watermelon peel fever in the village, and the children of every household were looking forward to eating watermelons and selling watermelon skins every day.

Liu Guiyuan went to the town to buy some things for this purpose, including a new handful, it turned out that she was borrowed from other people's envoys, and this time she had money, so she bought a handful directly, and it was convenient to collect wild loquat or watermelon peels at home.

It is the season when watermelons are ripe, even if most of the watermelons collected from the ground are sold to the Tianjia or the town, but there are still many small melons that are not easy to sell, and the villagers keep them for themselves to eat.

After collecting watermelon peels for three days in a row, Liu Guiyuan soon encountered a headache, the children who came to deliver watermelon peels were mostly three or five pieces, and it was impossible to just make up ten catties, so she had to bother to remember the amount of each person, and after a long time, her mind was confused.

Liu Guiyuan felt that she had to be literate, otherwise she would not be able to keep accounts, and her eldest sister and second sister also had to be literate, so she found the eldest sister who was embroidering in the hall and said, "Eldest sister, do you want to be literate?" I'm going to ask Tian Rubai to teach us how to write and count. ”

The eldest sister embroidered a stitch, looked up and said, "We don't take the top prize, what's the use of literacy?" ”

There are a few women in the village who can read and write, except for the Tian family, and few of the boys can read and write.

Liu Guiyuan disagreed, saying: "If you don't take the top prize, you can't read and write, who stipulates this?" You see, a few days ago, we signed an agreement, and someone had to read it to us, and at the end we had to press a handprint on it, what a shame. ”

Liu Hongzao thought about it, and it made sense, so he said: "That's okay, it's better to learn to write our names, and you don't need to press your handprint next time you sign something." ”

Liu Hongzao smiled after speaking, it was the first time she could recognize words, and she was a little excited just thinking about it.

When the second er picked up a dung of pigweed, came back from East Lake, and heard the eldest sister and Guiyuan say that they wanted to learn to read and write, Liu Huaanhua frowned and said: "You two learn, I don't learn, it's better to do something else when you have time, it's more troublesome to learn to read and write." ”

Liu Huaanhua is not interested in these crepe things, in other words, he is a modern scumbag, Liu Guiyuan didn't give her a chance to escape, so he said: "You can't read, what if you want to do something business in the future, and you can't read a single big character when you sign an agreement with someone, what should you do if you are deceived?" ”

Liu Guiyuan saw that she was still unwilling, so he shook her arm and said coquettishly: "Second sister, you learn, we can learn together if we want to learn, why don't you learn from us?" Big deal, I'll teach you at night after I learn, what's up? ”

Liu Huahua slapped her hand away, sat on the kang and combed her hair, and said, "You said it simply, where are the three of us girls going to study, is it possible that the private school in the town accepts girls?" ”

Liu Guiyuan was about to speak, when Grandma Luo, who was washing clothes outside the door, shouted: "Guiyuan, Xiaobai is coming to you." “

When Liu Guiyuan walked out of the west side house, he saw Tian Rubai walking in and asked her, "Guiyuan, how are you collecting your watermelon skin?" ”

"Then you have to collect it little by little, and you can't rush it, but yesterday I added today's amount, which is enough to make watermelon candy once, what's the matter, what's the matter with you?"

In order to save firewood and sugar, Liu Guiyuan only stir-fried when he collected a certain amount every time, anyway, he was not in a hurry to sell it now, and he wrapped it in mulberry paper and put it away.

"The price of white sugar has been negotiated, 30 wen per catty, you can save 2 yuan, I will ask when you can learn to fry watermelon sugar."

Tian Rubai's family collected a lot of watermelon peels, and planned to start frying them in the afternoon after learning the craft today, and his family fried them quickly.

"Then come over after dinner, you call two people to come to my house, teach on the spot, and you can also come and learn." Liu Guiyuan invited him and asked him if he could teach them how to read and write.

"Sure, my uncle's house has a copy of "Four Words and Miscellaneous Words", with words and pictures, which is most suitable for those of you who don't know how to read, you wait, I'll go to his house in the afternoon to borrow it."

Tian Rubai has not been going to school recently, so he can teach them to read, but teaching people to read and write is quite boring, if Liu Guiyuan didn't find him, he wouldn't teach others.