Chapter 50: Getting the advantage and still acting cute◇

Under Captain Han's brutal but extremely effective individual training, Zhou Jin had recovered 60% to 70% of his previous life's strength in just three months. He had also grown considerably. Although his arms and legs were still thin, the experience he had accumulated from his previous life fighting zombies made him unmatched in individual combat within the entire garrison! Even in a fight with Captain Han, they were evenly matched, much to his surprise!

Zhou Po, the sickly man, also became strong. During the three months of cold winter weather, he only fell ill once. He got better after drinking a bowl of ginger soup. Although he almost lost every battle, compared with a few civilians, he was already the strongest among them!

Moreover, Zhou Po's writing skills were incomparable to those of the other civil servants. Once, Captain Han urged for the New Year's supplies and wages from the Captain's Office no less than ten times, but failed to do so. However, Zhou Po relied on his writing skills and familiarity with the laws of Dayan to make the superiors automatically deliver their supplies with just one letter. After that, Captain Han no longer looked down on him for being weak the next time he saw him!

What's wrong with being sick? He's educated! He can get food and money! You may be big and strong, but besides eating a lot, you're useless!

Therefore, from then on, Captain Han wanted to enshrine Zhou Po, the real intellectual in the captain's office, in a Buddhist shrine. Not only did he not force him to participate in military training, he almost assigned his personal bodyguard Zhou Jin to him.

Only after Zhou Pu refused it sternly did he give up.

Although Zhou Dai wasn't as skilled in martial arts as Zhou Jin, nor as cultured as Zhou Po, Captain Han often forced them to practice one-on-one combat, and stipulated that the loser must give half of their food to the winner. After being forced to endure hunger and starvation more than ten times due to defeat, Zhou Dai finally broke out! He became motivated and strong!

It’s no wonder that although Zhou Dai still couldn’t beat those veterans after working hard, he actually found a way to win through constant exploration.

That means running!

If someone hits him, he runs away. If someone doesn't chase him, he goes to provoke them. If someone hits him, he runs away again...

Finally, when the old soldiers were exhausted and angry, he used the fighting methods Zhou Jin taught him and won with one strike.

It's no wonder that Zhou Dai's self-created method is particularly useful. Somehow, Zhou Dai was born to run faster than others. Coupled with his recent hard work and practice, after three months, none of the more than 120 people in the entire Hundred Households Office could catch up with him!

Even Captain Han felt that Zhou Dai was overqualified as his personal guard and wanted to transfer him to be a messenger! However, Zhou Dai was obsessed with following Zhou Jin, and no matter how Captain Han tried to persuade him, he still refused to let go of the other title of personal guard!

Finally, there was no other way, Captain Han had to add the job of delivering messages everywhere to his personal guard. In name, he was still his personal guard, but in fact, he was doing the work of a messenger!

The three's outstanding performance in the new recruit training made Captain Han and the other soldiers look at them with new eyes. Captain Han, in particular, no longer called them cowards who got in through connections, and he treated them with even more kindness...

Once, after Zhou Jin taught the military boxing taught to him by the special forces instructor in his previous life to all the brothers in the Hundred Households Battalion, Captain Han was so happy that he drank three big bowls of wine in celebration without anyone's knowledge!

Haha, how lucky is he that someone from above could use their connections to send him three golden eggs!

This business of currying favor with the higher-ups and getting three treasures at the same time is so damn satisfying. Please give me more in the future, hahahaha...

………

In this way, the three of them were doing well in the military camp, and in Taohua Village, several families were also doing well in the past few months.

Some time ago, Zhou Li went to the restaurant that Zhou Jin had found for him. Because he was honest and hardworking, and he was good at bookkeeping and accounting, he was highly valued by the shopkeeper Zhang. Not only did he provide him with food and accommodation, but he also paid him one or two taels of silver every month. This was a high salary in the entire Baili Town. As a result, the Bai mother-in-law and daughter-in-law became even more grateful to the Zheng family.

The others weren't idle either. Since it was freezing cold, they couldn't do anything like clearing the land, but they couldn't just sit there and do nothing, could they? Zhou Ruiquan bought two mule carts and had Zhou Zesheng take Zhou Luo and his second grandson, Zhou Gong, who was almost thirteen this year, to work as rickshaws between Taohua Village and Baili Town every day.

All other children under the age of ten, regardless of gender, were sent by him to continue studying with Zhou Zelin. Zhou Ruiquan felt that although their Zhou family was now confused about the future, as long as they had some conditions, they could not give up on studying and learning to read and write. Otherwise, if there was a chance to turn things around, wouldn't it be the same if the children below were blind?

Zhou Yu went with her master, still focusing on collecting and preparing herbs. However, Zhou Ruifeng was old after all, and his legs and feet were not very good. It was also cold today, so Zhou Yu did not dare to let him go up the mountain again, so she took over the work of collecting herbs.

But Zheng was worried about her daughter running into the mountains alone. Although Zhou Yu promised her not to go into the mountains, she was still worried and wanted to go with him. It was not until Zhu Xi, who had been eating free meals at her house for a month, saw her and said that he would go with Hei Yatou that Zheng felt relieved.

During this period, in order to make money, Zheng and the women of other families also picked up the embroidery skill, embroidered purse handkerchiefs and consigned them to the town.

Every morning, everyone gathered at the Bai family's house. Zhou Li now lived and ate in the restaurant and only came back once a month. Therefore, there were only the Bai mother-in-law and daughter-in-law at home. The women felt very comfortable doing the work at their house.

However, after several trial sales, everyone found that the handkerchief purses they embroidered did not seem to be very popular in Liaodong. After more than ten days, only a few were sold.

It was Zhou Yu who saw this and suggested that they buy some coarse cloth to make some cotton clothes and shoes for men, and then sell them on consignment in the town. There were tens of thousands of military households in their Baili Town, and not every man had a female relative to help them take care of these things. Obviously, cotton clothes and cotton shoes were more important necessities than flashy and ambiguous purses and handkerchiefs.

Zheng and the others thought what Zhou Yu said made sense, so they pooled their money and asked Zhou Zesheng and others to go to the town to buy coarse cloth and cotton for them. They came back and made several sets of cotton-padded clothes and shoes according to their sizes to try to sell them. As a result, within two days, when Zhou Zesheng went to the town again, those sets of clothes, shoes and socks had been sold out.

Now all the women in the family were energized and worked hard day and night.

Seeing their eyes black and blue from all the hard work, Zhou Yu suggested that they draw patterns for their cotton-padded clothes and shoes according to their sizes, and then divide the work among themselves: those who cut should cut, those who sew should sew, and those who stuff the cotton should stuff the cotton. Whoever is proficient in a certain area should be responsible for that area.

As a result, this adjustment significantly increased efficiency. Normally, one person could only make half a set of clothes and a pair of shoes in a day. With this, a few people can now make more than 20 sets of clothes, shoes and socks in a day. The best part is, they don’t have to stay up late!

In just ten days, Zheng and his colleagues made 200 sets of cotton-padded clothes and more than 300 pairs of cotton-padded shoes. Each set of cotton-padded clothes was sold for 400 wen, making a profit of 200 wen after deducting the cost. The cotton-padded shoes were sold for 50 wen, making a profit of 20 wen after deducting the cost. Even now, although some of them have not been sold yet, they have made a net profit of nearly 40 taels of silver.

Based on the amount per person, each person received almost five taels of silver!

Everyone was extremely excited, especially the Bai family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Among their families, except for Zhou Jin's, theirs was the poorest. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had saved some money in the past, but it was all gone when the house was searched. Although they had always been supported by Lord Zhou, and Zhou Zelin and his son had taken good care of them after Lord Zhou's death, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were both strong-willed people and did not want to rely on Zhou Zelin and his son all the time. After all, their family was not easy now, especially Zhou Zelin, who had to see a doctor and take medicine all day long, and he had two sons to support!

Therefore, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are eager to earn some money on their own. After all, Zhou Li will have to marry and have children in the future, and there will be many places to spend money!

Therefore, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were particularly enthusiastic about making clothes together and selling them, and they also sincerely liked Zhou Yu for coming up with ideas to make money for their family.

"Oh my! I didn't expect that our little Ayu is not only good at medicine, but also has a good brain for business. How can she be so smart?! We adults are not as good as her!"

Bai's mother-in-law, Wei, had just finished distributing the money when she saw Zhou Yu walk in with his follower Zhu Xi. She hurriedly hugged the little girl in her arms and couldn't help but praise her.

"Haha, that's right. If it weren't for Ayu's idea, how could we have earned so much? Here, this money is my thank you. Save it for some candy, okay?"

Bai even took out two taels of the five taels of silver she had just divided and put them into Zhou Yu's hands.

To be honest, they should get a bigger share of the money they earned from Zhou Yu. Half of the reason they were able to earn so much was because of Zhou Yu's idea. Compared with Zhou Zemao's wife Wang and her two daughters who did not do much work but took away 15 taels of silver, Bai felt that Zhou Yu deserved a bigger share of the money.

Bai had suggested it before, but none of the Wangs said anything, and Zheng also firmly disagreed, so she had no choice but to give up. However, she didn't want to take advantage of it for nothing, so she thought about giving Zhou Yu some money herself.

Zhou Yu naturally didn't want the money. She gave her mother and the others advice only because she didn't want her mother to waste her time. So she wanted to tuck the silver back in. But before she could do anything, a sharp female voice rang out:

"Sister-in-law, what you did is wrong. You said you gave Yu girl some money, what should we do? Are you going to give us the money?

If we don't pay, it will make us look stingy. But if we pay, Yu girl will just talk and give us an idea. We did all the work, so it's a bit unacceptable to expect a share of the money!"

Bai Shi knew who was talking without even looking. Wasn't it Wang Shi, the one she hated the most? She thought to herself, "You're still not convinced? I'm still not convinced that you're leading two pretentious daughters, doing the least and getting the most!"

She has always been straightforward, so she immediately fought back.

"I gave this money to Sister Yu myself, and I didn't ask you to pay for it. Why are you so anxious?!

Besides, if it weren't for Sister Yu's idea, we would still be making purses and handkerchiefs, and we wouldn't make any money even if we worked ourselves to death. Sister Yu gave us such a good idea, so as her aunt, it's only right for me to give her some pocket money!

If you don't agree, then why don't you just take your two daughters and go out on your own from tomorrow? No matter how much you earn, it will be shared by the three of you, so you won't feel unfair!"

Really, he took advantage of others and still acted like a good boy. She would never tolerate such a person!

The author has something to say:

Still asking for collection! Please comment! Please give me flowers!

Cai Cai's new novel, "Fei Shi Yan Ran," has started updating. Please go to the author's column and add it to your favorites, and also bookmark the author! This is a comedic story disguised as revenge, with two female protagonists, and it's still lighthearted. Those interested can check out the introduction.

Also: Cai Cai probably won’t write about tragedy in the future. After all, life is already so bitter, so just add some sugar in other places!