Lian Ou does have a lot of calluses and burrs on his hands. Even though Second Aunt Lian was considered one of the most loving children in the village, the country boy still had to do some chores like cooking, washing dishes, and feeding chickens. Especially recently, everyone in the second branch of the Lian family went to work in the workshop, and all the housework fell on Lian Ou.
He woven it carefully, but his rough hands still scraped off some of the jade thread. Every time this happened, Lian Ou would go to see Shen Qing in panic, but Shen Qing always looked at him with a smile and encouragement, and his heart calmed down little by little.
Soon, Lian Ou had woven a palm-sized butterfly. Except for some threads being scraped off the string, the entire butterfly was compact and well-proportioned. He didn't even need anything to fix the string. With just ten fingers flying up and down like an orchid, a beautiful butterfly with its wings spread out ready to fly was completed.
Those woven with straw tendons can only be considered cute and somewhat wild, but those woven with jade threads can be described as exquisite. Although they are not lifelike, Lian Ou is quite ingenious, using two colors of threads together. It seems that he knew how to do it naturally even though no one taught him. The four-layer butterfly wings are made of alternating pink and purple ropes. If you look at it from a distance and ignore the shaved ropes, it is more beautiful than the knots that some wealthy families in the county wear as jade pendants.
Shen Qing took two more pieces of rope and asked him to string the butterfly on the rope to make a headband, which he also tied on Lian Rong's little bun head. The velvet peach blossoms and the braided butterflies set off each other beautifully. Lian Rong looked at herself in the mirror, feeling so happy that she didn't dare move her head for fear of affecting her look.
"I never thought my Ou'er had such a talent." Second Aunt Lian was surprised. She pulled Lian'er's hand and turned it over and over, feeling distressed and guilty: "If Qing'er hadn't been able to tell by looking at a straw butterfly, his talent would have been wasted! His hands are so dexterous but he has so many calluses!"
With such dexterity, if his family had the means, they would have sent Ou'er to learn needlework and embroidery since he was a child. He would be amazing now!
Isn’t it said that there are many good horses, but few good horse trainers? Shen Qing feels that in fact many people have their own strengths and talents, but they have not been discovered. Some people don’t even realize that they have such talents. Children from poor families have even less opportunities to come into contact with and make mistakes.
He gave the remaining two bundles of jade threads to Lian Ou, walked around the house, took out a few more colors from the space, took out two tubes of hand cream and squeezed them into a small porcelain jar, and took out a pumice stone. He handed a bunch of things to Lian Ou: "Go back and soak your hands in warm water more often. When your skin is softened, use this stone to gently rub the calluses and burrs, and then apply this ointment. Apply more before going to bed. Do less washing dishes and clothes on weekdays. If you do, be sure to apply the ointment after washing. Use these threads for practice, and you can come up with some tricks yourself. When I come back from my business trip, I'll find more tricks for you to learn."
I picked up Lian Ou very carefully and was so moved that I didn't know what to say. The cream in the porcelain jar was white and fragrant, better than anything he used to apply on his face. It was such a big jar that it looked like it was worth a lot of money. He hadn't earned a penny for Qing'er yet, but Qing'er was willing to give it to him like this. Lian Ou secretly swore in his heart that he must practice diligently and repay Qing Ge'er in the future!
"I'll go back and have a good talk with my mother-in-law. Why do we have to pay all the money we earn from working outside to the public treasury, but we still have to share the housework at home? If the money is paid to the public treasury, won't the first wife spend it? They are taking all the benefits!" Second Aunt Lian gritted her teeth and made up her mind: "If my mother-in-law doesn't agree, Yu Ge'er and I will quit our jobs in the workshop and do housework for Ou Ge'er at home. Anyway, we won't get any money, so why don't anyone make any money and let the whole family be poor together!"
Shen Zhiwei's incident is like a stone thrown into the water. It may not seem to cause much trouble, but in fact it has caused countless ripples. As a father and mother, I have to be vigilant, fearing that someone like Shen Zhiwei will emerge. The unfavored children in the family were also more or less inspired, fearing that they would end up like Shen Zhiwei and have to sell their daughters to subsidize the favored children. Testing, concession, striving... these are all happening silently in countless small families in the village.
Shen Qing arranged things here and asked Miao to live in Shiqu Village for a few days. Miao Qiuduo has left. She moved there so that she could supervise the construction of a fried noodle workshop in Shiqu Village and pick up the puppies at the same time.
He went back to the end of the world. All in all, Shen Qing hadn't spent the night there for five or six days, and he didn't know how resentful Song Kaiji was.
However, when he approached the base, Shen Qing saw from afar a large metal cage moving slowly in front of the entrance of the base. He naturally thought it was Song Kaiji and the others. Although he was a little confused as to why they took out the cage right at the city gate, he didn't think much about it.
I ran over happily, only to find that it was a group of strangers. The cage was not controlled by a gold-type mutant, but a pre-made cage with a door on it. There is a pole across the middle of the cage. People can push the pole from inside and the cage can be moved without having to worry about being reached by zombies. Universal wheels are also installed under the cage.
The reason it was moving slowly was that a team of people had tied the cage to the back of a car and were slowly pulling it away.
Shen Qing:?
The car slowly drove away. After a while, Shen Qing saw another cage with universal wheels being pushed out. In just over ten minutes, he saw three or four of them at the city gate. It seemed that this kind of cage was now very common.
He walked straight into the base, and the shop that the military had given him was already open. However, it was broad daylight now, and most of the psychics who could afford to spend money were outside hunting corpses, with only a few people coming in. The people who were looking after the shop were Yu Le and Zhang Sujuan, as well as two girls who looked unfamiliar to Shen Qing. It was not known whether they were recruited by Yu Le or the family members of the psychic from outside the city.
They were all very happy to see Shen Qing coming back: "Qingqing, you're back, you're finally back. My son hasn't smiled in a few days, and he looks gloomy every day."
Shen Qing smiled at Zhang Sujuan embarrassedly: "Something happened and delayed me. I will stay for a few more days this time and accompany him."
Zhang Sujuan is now in the shop and she is indeed in much better spirits. She lost her husband and broke her leg, so she was depressed for a while and didn't like to go out or walk. Now she only needs to collect money when sitting in the store every day. The crystal cores pass through her hands, and her bad mood is mostly dispelled by the power of money. She smiled and said to Shen Qing: "Go back quickly, he is lying at home."
"No mission today?" Shen Qing was a little curious. Before, Song Kaiji would take people out during the day. Just then, another group of people passed by pushing a cage. Shen Qing asked, "What's going on?"
"Our team hasn't been on a mission for three days, and Brother Tang and Sister Weiwei are not here." Yu Le said, "Only Sister Bingbing sometimes takes the team outside for a walk. This cage was built under the guidance of the military when Brother Tang was invited over." Therefore, Song Kaiji had nothing to do every day, and he missed Shen Qing more and more.
Now, because of the seeds provided by Shen Qing and others to the military, the base seems calm on the surface, but in fact, the cards have been reshuffled. Despite opposition, the military built two farms outside the base. These two farms are not within the base walls and may be attacked by zombies at any time.
But the military is mostly made up of soldiers. During the daytime working hours, soldiers who were not on duty surrounded the farm and were ready to eliminate any wandering zombies at any time. The wood-type mutants helped the food grow in the encirclement, and the space-type mutants took it away immediately after it was grown.
This place is close to the base, so there are actually very few wandering zombies, and the soldiers guarding the periphery are not very tired. Besides, this is just a stopgap measure.
"I heard that the military has been recruiting people from the refugees who can't enter the base to build the farm wall." Yu Le said in a low voice. There are people in the military. Among so many soldiers, various kinds of special powers have been awakened, so it is very convenient to make bricks. Once the food is no longer controlled by the base officials, I believe it won’t take long for them to overtake the officials. Furthermore, with so many refugees who cannot afford the entrance fee gathered outside the base, after completing the farm wall, will they really not continue to build other things?
Things are going to change in Hongcheng.
"They invited Brother Tang to teach the military's gold-type psychics, and later they thought that this method could be used by more than just gold-type psychics. So they made a lot of ready-made cages and rented them to psychic teams. As long as there was a wood-type psychic in the team, they could use vines to hold off for a while and then dig for crystal cores. So Sister Weiwei was also called over to train the wood-type psychics. Our own team didn't have enough people, so we didn't go out on the mission."
Some teams are not strong enough, but they are smarter and rent bigger cages. At the moment when the wood-type mutant set up the vine net to isolate the zombies, he brought the zombie's head into the cage and hid inside to dig it out slowly. In short, there are always more solutions than problems, because the iron cage tactics are very safe. No matter how much benefit you can get, you will not die. Many ordinary people outside the base finally plucked up the courage to join the corpse hunting.
"This method is so useful. Now the casualty rate of the base has been greatly reduced. The top management of the base also plans to use this method to exchange some things with other bases. Human security has taken a big leap forward." Yu Le explained, "In order to compensate, um, and for the patent fee, the military gave us another shop, right there." She pointed across the road, "It was just given to us yesterday. Uncle Ge is already renovating it, but he hasn't decided what to sell yet. Brother Song said he'll wait for you to come back and decide. Because not every team has a space ability user, we can only push it or tie it to the back of a car and drag it... I heard that the military is now cooperating with the research institute to install batteries under the cage, making it like the sightseeing bus in the zoo's wild animal area, which will be more convenient."
Shen Qing was confused and didn't quite understand what he heard, but it didn't affect his emotion. There are so many smart people in this world, and it's good to read more books. He chatted briefly with Yu Le and Zhang Sujuan, then went to the shop opposite for a walk. This shop is much bigger than the first one given by the military. Shen Qing thought to himself that it seems that the military and the government have lost a lot of money in the game.
In the villa, Song Kaiji rolled around on the bed in boredom: "It's the sixth day that Qingqing hasn't come home... It's the sixth day that I've been alone in the empty room... It's the sixth day that Qingqing has abandoned me... Wuuuuuu."
When Shen Qing walked outside the door, he heard his groaning and laughed in his heart: "Let me see, who was abandoned?"
"Ahhh Qingqing!" Song Kaiji immediately rushed over and hugged Shen Qing, "You're back! Why did you take so long this time!"
"Something happened at home." Shen Qing tried to speak calmly about Shen Zhiwei's situation. "My mother seemed fine, but I knew she was very sad, so I stayed with her for a few more days."
Including the fact that he later actively helped Lian Ou, besides helping his brother, it was also to divert Miao's attention and give her something else to focus on. I think in the days to come, Miao will often care about how Lianou's hands are doing.
Song Kaiji was stunned. Although he also has an uncle who has always been eyeing his family's property, he only does verbal PUA to his father and kills people... The feudal society is really terrible. He hugged Shen Qing a little tighter: "What about you?"
Are you sad?
Shen Qing was silent.
After the incident, he remained very calm and was even more angry than sad. But deep down, Shen Qing was very conflicted.
Chen Zhang is actually a very good younger brother. It's no wonder that Old Man Shen and Old Lady Shen favor him more than Shen Zhuang. Shen Zhang is really an angel baby, sensible and sweet-talking, but not the kind of slick child. He would save the delicious food that Old Lady Shen gave him, and share it with Shen Qing and Miao without eating a single bite; he would feel sorry for Shen Zhigao, and when Shen Zhigao came back from the fields, he would run over with Miao's handkerchief to wipe his father's sweat; when Old Lady Shen scolded Shen Qing, he would speak softly to her, making her laugh, and then secretly hinted to Shen Qing to run away...
A child of five or six years old is already so smart and considerate. But Shen Qing knew that if Shen Zhang was still alive... he might, most likely, never grow up to be like this.
He should love Shen Zhang very much, because Shen Zhang is really very good to him. He had no doubt that Shen Zhang would grow up to be a brother worthy of his reliance. After all, when he was five or six years old, he could use his own methods to protect Shen Qing in front of Old Lady Shen.
He might grow up to be the common boy in the village, who dotes on and depends on his younger brother, and relies on his younger brother to support him, rather than the boy who fights his way out with his fists. In fact, he did fight in the village after Shen Zhang died.
Many of his thoughts came from the fact that after Shen Zhang's death, he was in adversity and had to struggle to survive. If Shen Zhang hadn't died, maybe... maybe Shen Zhigao wouldn't have changed, and they might have been a common happy family in the village, and I might have grown up to be a little brother like Lian Ou...
He is helping the lotus root today, but if he himself grows into a lotus root, who will help him? Does he not care and does not think he needs someone to come to him?
Shen Qing certainly didn't want Shen Zhang to die, but he also hoped to grow up to be what he is today. These days, when he occasionally looked at Miao's painful expression, he would have a moment of thought: He has given his mother such a good life through his efforts. Will his mother like him now, or will she look forward to the day when Chen Zhang is still alive?
Then he was frightened by his own thoughts. These days he often struggled between his guilt towards Chen Zhang and his determination to do what he wanted. There was no one else in the world he could say these words to. Now that he was telling them to Song Kaiji, he was afraid that Song Kaiji would think that he was not good and that he was too selfish.
However, Song Kaiji only felt sorry for him and hugged him tighter: "Don't think too much, and don't think too much. Shen Zhang's death was not caused by you, but by Shen Zhiwei, and by the excessive partiality of old man Shen and old lady Shen... If you must say, it is because the ancestors of the old Shen family were immoral, and the retribution fell on the grandchildren." And Shen Qing was also a victim of retribution. He had lived a hard life in the old Shen family for so many years.
"Since it wasn't you who caused it, you don't need to feel guilty about a decision that didn't happen. On the contrary, you have grown into who you are today, and you have prestige and power in the village, so you can avenge Shen Zhang. Otherwise, with your village chief's character, he would just muddy the waters and let it go again. How could he support you, an orphan and a widow? If he is still alive, he would be pleased and thank you."
"Besides, Qingqing is so smart. Even if your brother hadn't died, I believe you wouldn't be a muddle-headed little brother. You will definitely find that a brother is no worse than a man, it's just a matter of time. Maybe your brother will support you. He's so good to you, and he will hope and help you become a better person."
Song Kaiji gently touched Shen Qing's hair: "You have never been wrong, you have always done well, and you are never the one who should feel sorry... You don't need to be too demanding on yourself and feel guilty."
Shen Qing buried herself in Song Kaiji's arms and finally burst into tears. This was the first time he cried after knowing the truth about Shen Zhang's death. It was for Shen Zhang and also for his own relief.
The sunlight shone through the window onto the bed in the bedroom, dispelling the haze hidden deep in Shen Qing's heart.
Shen Qing lived in the apocalypse for a long time this time and returned to the village only once a week, mainly to check on the progress of the Shiqu Village workshop.
He needs to be exposed to more modern civilization in this apocalypse to calm his mood.
Shen Qing hadn't figured out what to do with the second shop, so he just randomly assigned two people to set up a grocery store and do it casually. They just put out some of the things they collected from outside to sell, and they also collected things, such as gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, jade, and books. However, business is much worse, especially now that the government is collecting gold, which has led to an increase in gold prices. Most people will choose to trade with the government. I heard that there is also an intention to accept silver now. After all, many machines also need silver for parts. I am afraid that the price of silver will rise soon.
"Everyone is poor now. Business is not good except for food." Song Kaiji said, but they already have a shop selling food, so there is no need to open so many. "You might be able to find some unexpected treasures in this shop."
At this point, Shen Qing remembered: "I remember we searched a bookstore before and there were some books on braiding ropes. Can you help me find them and take a look?"
"What book? Programming?" Song Kaiji was confused. Is Qingqing growing so fast now?
Shen Qing gestured for a long time before Song Kaiji suddenly realized: "Oh, are you talking about this Chinese Knot Encyclopedia?" He searched in the space for a while and found quite a few books of this kind, so he took them all out for Shen Qing to see. In addition to the complete collection of Chinese knots, there are also crochet and sweater knitting methods.
"This is it!" Shen Qing was overjoyed. He could trace the patterns and give them to Ou Ge'er to practice. He has many jade pendants and accessories on his hands, but they always look a little lacking if they are left bare. If he weaves a beautiful knot and puts an exquisite box on them, they will instantly look noble.
Song Kaiji held his chin and listened to him talk about Ou Ge'er and various things in the village. He felt warm and slightly sad in his heart.
He really wanted to integrate into Shen Qing's life completely. Shen Qing talked about the people and things in the village, some good, some bad, some lovely, some annoying, but he could only hear them from Shen Qing's mouth after all, and could not personally accompany Shen Qing to experience them one by one.
He suddenly leaned over and kissed Shen Qing on the face.
Shen Qing blushed and looked around: "What are you doing? We are outside." He paused, "Have you thought about it? Let's talk about it when we get back."
Song Kaiji was happy. He liked the way Shen Qing was shy yet serious when she said those threatening words. He hugged Shen Qing and said, "No, I just want to kiss and hug you, nothing else." He leaned his head on Shen Qing's shoulder and said, "I want to stay with you forever. I want you to stay with me for a while longer."
The two of them were being affectionate with each other when suddenly a few people passed by the shop entrance and snorted in annoyance. Shen Qing:?
Isn’t modern times very open? There were people kissing in the street, but it was nothing serious. They just kissed on the cheek and hugged each other. It was not in the village. Would anyone think they were immoral?
"Ignore them." Song Kaiji snorted back even louder. Those people glared at Song Kaiji fiercely, but left without saying anything. "Those were a few people who were demoted to the bottom level in the research institute. They might know that the seed issue was related to us, and they have been feeling resentful. I have memorized their looks, and will secretly tell Chen Jiaqian to make things difficult for them." Chen Jiaqian is doing well in the research institute now. Both of them are very capable people. Chen Jiaqian has become a small leader, and she used her connections to promote her husband. Now her husband is a small logistics leader in the construction of the city wall, which is a lucrative job. The couple took care of each other and were doing well in the base.
"You'd better go to her less often. Sister Jiaqian wants to avoid suspicion." Chen Jiaqian had conspired with Song Kaiji about the seeds before. If people knew that Chen Jiaqian had known them for a long time, it would not be a good thing for Chen Jiaqian.
"It's okay, I'll teleport to her bedroom." Song Kaiji happily reported the good news to Shen Qing: "I'm so powerful now, I can teleport people!" Although it was only Ge Bingbing's daughter, Nannan.
When Shen Qing was not around, he would practice more when he had nothing to do. After he was able to teleport with the refrigerator, he decided to try it on Nannan. He said a lot of nice things and found a lot of snacks for Nannan before he got the chance to experiment with Nannan. Fortunately, his teleportation failed, and only the child fell to the ground, with no other loss, so Ge Bingbing agreed to his request.
However, there is a difference in difficulty between teleporting with an object and teleporting with a living person. Nannan is smaller than a refrigerator and not as heavy as one. After Song Kaiji teleported with the refrigerator, he thought that he would be successful if he took Nannan with him, but he did not expect to fail. After many experiments, he found that he had to be able to carry things three times the volume and weight as a living person.
"Try Yu Le next time." Yu Le is the thinnest girl in their team.
Shen Qing: ...Will it not affect their married life if you just teleport into their bedroom?
He hesitated to speak.
"It's better not to cause trouble for Sister Jiaqian. From now on, just pretend you don't know each other. Or you can find an opportunity someday and ask Shaonan to introduce you so that you can get in touch again after a clear path." Shen Qing said. Now the military has also intervened in the research institute, and the institute is no longer officially owned. Shen Qingsi and the Golden Tooth people are in collusion in the middle, tying him together with Yang Shuban and Zhubu Lord to form a small interest group, and they think they can do the same in the end times.
They acted as the middlemen. Shao Nan helped Chen Jiaqian expand the research institute. Chen Jiaqian provided benefits to the military to make the research institute lean towards the military. Shen Qing went to another world to find anything that was needed. We can learn to do good things that are mutually beneficial.
At that time, what kind of punishment would it be for those people who rolled their eyes and hummed? They don’t know how many bad things they have done. Sooner or later, they will be kicked out of the institute. When they struggle to survive in the apocalypse like ordinary people, only then will they realize how excessive they have been!
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