As Xianjin expected, when Mrs. Qu heard the white jade paperweight of "winning the first prize in the imperial examination", she agreed to go out on the spot. Mrs. Qu looked at the dark clouds floating in the southeast and advised, "... the clouds are twisting and the rain is pouring. I'm afraid it will rain heavily soon."
Old Madam Qu asked Xianjin to help her change her clothes.
Xianjin stared at the waistcoat under her jacket helplessly, not knowing where to start - she was just a dung beetle, and usually wore a brown coat with a front opening, which was already very worthy of the audience.
This kind of complicated clothing is really far away from her.
Madam Qu opened her hands wide, having given up showing off her wealth, and motioned for Qu Erniang to change, "...Change to that jacket with the ink-colored border, it looks auspicious. Put some dried lily of the valley in the sachet. I don't have time to bathe or burn incense, so I have to use a convenient method."
Qu Erniang said angrily, "It's going to rain, and my mother is going to get married. The white jade paperweight won't run away. You have a hard time walking, so why bother walking so far?"
"This is a good omen!" The protruding cheekbones on Mrs. Qu's thin face showed some liveliness. "Next year, Erlang will take the imperial examination. If there is a good omen, we will report it to the government in time. Even if he resumes school next year, he will get more attention!"
Xianjin waited with his hands down.
She could tell that Madam Qu was truly happy.
Even a woman like Madam Qu, who dared to strike out on her own and made a name for herself among men, would be blindly happy because of the omen that foreshadowed the prosperity of the clan.
Xianjin lowered his head and curled his lips. However, no matter which era, the rise of a clan is based on the sacrifice and dedication of a group of people. For example, Mrs. Qu's leg was said to be broken when she fell off a cliff while traveling in her early years; for example, the father of the star of hope, who worked hard and studied hard but ruined his foundation, and finally died young; for example, Chen Fu, who lacked a sense of security and identity, spent his whole life seeking the emotions that made him most comfortable...
Living people, shackled by the clan, have their desires extinguished, their ideas dispelled, their edges blunted, and they are transformed into the roles required by the clan.
So, what is a human being? Why do we live? Are we really just humans? Or are we just NPCs that help the plot develop?
Xianjin suddenly thought of the Star of Hope under the moonlight, and when he talked about the clan, the veins on the back of his hand bulged from trying so hard to hold the pen.
Haven't seen him for a long time.
......
When they arrived at the Jixi workshop, it had already started to drizzle. Qu Erniang got off the carriage first, held up a large oil-paper umbrella, helped Old Madam Qu hold the walking stick, and she and Xianjin supported Old Madam Qu on both sides as she got off the mule cart.
“Boom boom—”
A flash of white light streaked across the top of Jingting Mountain in the southeast.
Brother Hai Si was waiting at the door with his carpenter's assistant. When he saw Madam Qu coming, he hurried forward and held an umbrella for her. "You should have let me know beforehand. Brother Hai Si will pick you up at the alley entrance."
Madam Qu patted Fourth Brother Hai's wrist and squinted at him in the light, "I remember you. You came to visit Fifth Brother to celebrate the New Year a few years ago, didn't you?"
Fourth Brother Hai hurriedly bowed his head and said, "Yes, yes, yes! You have a really good memory. When Master Chen was the prefect of Chengdu, the courtyard of his home needed to be renovated, and Master Wu asked me to do it. This time, Master Wu also recommended me for the job."
Madam Qu smiled and said, "You have worked hard and done a lot of work for the Chen family."
"No, no, it's just that the Fifth Master is willing to support me." Fourth Brother Hai laughed so hard that wrinkles all over his face.
The rain was getting heavier, and the bean-sized raindrops hit the muddy ground, forming puddles of soil.
Fourth Brother Hai bent over and held an umbrella, and led Madam Qu and Xianjin and his party into the house through the main gate. He first introduced the high-hanging wooden plaque, which was thick and painted smooth and flat with raw lacquer. The front shop had twenty-three chests of drawers built in order of height according to Xianjin's needs, the bricks and tiles were re-laid, and the counter, corner cabinets and high legs were all newly made. Everywhere he looked was neat and beautiful.
The rain outside the window was pouring down, heavier than the rain that night when Yiping went to her father to ask for money.
Old Madam Qu nodded with satisfaction and followed Xianjin inside. The yard was connected to the canal from Longchuan Creek as requested by Xianjin, and even two deep wells were dug. In the yard where a wooden shed was built, a pool of about twelve meters, a pool of about eight meters, and various other pools of about four or five meters were built. Everything looked well organized and in good order.
Behind the yard is the warehouse.
Fourth Brother Hai personally took two keys to open the two huge copper locks, and then respectfully handed the copper locks to Madam Qu, saying proudly, "Just as Shopkeeper He thought, the tiles in the paper storage room are laid in four layers, and the flying corners under the eaves are specially made to be raised so that rainwater will not splash..."
Xianjin touched the wall with one hand and found a very thin layer. He turned around and interrupted Fourth Brother Hai, "How many layers are there on the wall of your warehouse?"
Hai Si Ge was interrupted and was very unhappy. "I made two layers of bricks on purpose!" He smiled at Madam Qu and said, "A single layer of bricks will easily get water in the wall, so I made two layers on purpose..."
Xianjin said, "The paper storage room should be built in three layers, with an outer wall and an inner wall, and a layer of gravel and broken bricks in the middle. This will prevent water from seeping into the wall, causing the ground to sink and causing the wall to crack."
Fourth Brother Hai suppressed the urge to raise his eyebrows and said, "Little girl, don't pretend to know something you don't know!" He wanted to say something else, but he didn't know where to start, so he said, "The wall is not so easy to seep water! The house we live in is only two floors of bricks!"
"There is not so much rice paper in the house where I live! And rice paper is very sensitive to moisture. It happens that it rains a lot in Xuancheng from May to October, so it takes a lot of effort to build a warehouse to store the paper!"
Xianjin lowered his head and pulled out the contract signed early in the morning from his sleeve, pointing it to Brother Hai Si, "Look, it's written in the contract - 'All repair delivery standards are based on the appropriate storage of rice paper'"
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