Chapter 23 Chapter 23 At the entrance of Yunshui Village, a mule cart was seen in the distance...
At the entrance of Yunshui Village, a mule cart was coming from afar. A familiar figure was on the mule's back. Who else could it be but Shen Xuan?
As soon as they saw Shen Xuan coming back, the villagers gathered around him excitedly. While looking at the expression on Shen Xuan's face, they asked tentatively: "Shen Xuan? Are you really going to set up a stall today?"
"Is business good in Lezhou City?"
"Did you make any money from setting up the stall today?"
…
You have to know that today is the first day that Shen Xuan sets up his stall. Whether those in the village are there to watch the fun or to make fun of Shen Xuan, they have been discussing it all day.
At this point, I naturally want to know the result.
"It's OK." Shen Xuan, driving the mule cart, thought for a moment and answered, "After deducting the cost, I can earn 70 to 80 words a day."
He was deliberately reserved and only said a fraction of the fraction, and did not dare to say that he made no profit at all.
After all, his food, clothing and other expenses in the village will no longer be the same as before. When villagers see him wearing new clothes and buying things, they will know that he has made money by setting up a stall.
I can earn seventy or eighty cents a day, which is on the same level as the village gentry, which is already very good.
Sure enough, as soon as Shen Xuan finished speaking, the villagers opened their eyes wide and shouted in disbelief: "Eighty coins a day? You are not bragging, are you?"
"At eighty coins a day, wouldn't that mean I can earn two strings of silver a month? That way I can earn twenty taels of silver a year, enough to buy four or five mu of land!"
"Is selling tea at a stall so profitable? Shen Xuan, a boy, can actually make so much money!"
"That's because Shen Xuan is capable. He runs a stall and goes to the city all by himself. I can't do that. Those old men in the city make my legs weak when I see them. How dare I talk to them, let alone do business with them."
…
Hearing that Shen Xuan had made money, most of the villagers in Yunshui Village had a big change in their attitude towards him.
Although the village has always valued only men, the fundamental reason is that men have good physical strength and take on most of the money-making tasks in the family, so they have a high status.
Take Aunt Zhang, the tofu seller, for example. She is a woman who is just as good as any man. She makes and sells tofu, and no one in the village dares to gossip about her.
Since Shen Xuan escaped from the control of the Wang family, his life has been getting better day by day. Now I can go out and set up a stall to earn money, which is very satisfying.
The villagers who had originally spoken harshly to him changed their tone and began to praise him.
Especially the elders in the family, they used Shen Xuan as a standard for teaching their daughters-in-law and children a lesson at the dinner table.
When people mention Chen Xuan, they want their wives or brothers to learn from him, so that they can find a rich husband, set up stalls to earn money, and honor their parents.
Shen Xuan's side is so glorious that Wang Xiaolian can be said to be the angriest person in the whole village.
He and Shen Xuan are both brothers, the same age, and have stayed in the Wang family together for such a long time. They have always been the object of comparison among the villagers.
Nowadays, Shen Xuan is often mentioned and praised, and people always say a few words about him afterwards.
Whenever Wang Xiaolian went to the fields to deliver food to her brother, she could hear people talking about how he was not as capable as Shen Xuan.
Fortunately, he was going to get married at the end of this month, and was just waiting for someone from the Sun family to come and take him in as the scholar's husband, so he could endure all the gossip.
Compared with Wang Xiaolian, the one who is even more miserable is Zhong Xiaomei from the Zhong family.
After Zhong Ge'er went missing, the Zhong family said they would pawn her off to the old widower. It was just because she was only fourteen, still too young, that she had to stay at home and work for two more years.
On the dining table of the Zhong family, there was a plate of stir-fried bamboo shoots and a plate of stir-fried shepherd's purse, both of which she had picked in the morning. The bland soup made people lose their appetite. There were four boiled eggs on the table, which added a bit of meat to the dish.
However, Zhong Xiaomei didn't dare to touch these four boiled eggs. This was prepared for her father and brother, two for each. This was the rule of the Zhong family.
Zhong Xiaomei ate a few bites of fried shepherd's purse and took out half a sweet potato from the steamer next to her. This was also what she dug up in the morning. She steamed it with bean rice and ate it as a snack.
However, before she put the sweet potato into her mouth, Aunt Zhong snatched the half sweet potato from her hand and said, "Eat, eat, eat, you only know how to eat!"
"There is only one sweet potato. Your father and your brother each have half. There is no share for you!"
If it was normal times, Zhong Xiaomei would have endured it, but since she heard a few days ago that her family was going to marry her off to the old widower. Zhong Xiaomei couldn't bear it anymore.
She looked at her brother who was eating eggs, and felt wronged. She said, "My brother already has eggs to eat, how can he care about this half sweet potato? This is the sweet potato I dug, so can't I eat it? Why are you so partial?"
"A daughter who is married off is like water spilled out. Sooner or later, she will belong to someone else." When Aunt Zhong heard that Xiaomei Zhong had learned to talk back, she became even more angry and said, "If you want to eat eggs, go to the widower Chen's house and ask for them."
"He has a lot of land and plenty of food. If you can be like Shen Xuan and get him to give you money to buy a mule and a cart, you can also set up a stall to make money, and you can live a good life!"
Widow Chen is eighteen years older than Zhong Xiaomei and looks about the same age as her father.
Xiaomei Zhong didn't want to get married in the first place, and she was even more heartbroken when she heard what Aunt Zhong said.
She couldn't eat anymore, so she threw down her chopsticks and rushed out. It was almost dark at this time, and the woods in the distance were dark and a little creepy, but no one from the Zhong family came out to stop her.
All I heard was Aunt Zhong saying in the room: "She's just a little girl with such a bad temper. When she gets married, let's see how her husband's family will deal with her!"
Then I heard my father Zhong Dalang say, "Don't worry about her. She'll have to come back soon. How can you be so rude when your elders say a few words to you?"
My brother had gone missing, and my parents only searched for him for one day. If I were to disappear, my parents probably wouldn't be sad, they would just regret not being able to get the five taels of silver as a betrothal gift.
Zhong Xiaomei was completely disappointed and walked out with tears streaming down her face.
She didn't know where she was going. The only thing in her mind was what Aunt Zhong said, that Shen Xuan had the ability to set up a stall and make money, so she headed towards Shen Xuan's residence.
Besides, Shen Xuan was busy with the stall these days, and Xue Fenglin's legs and feet had gotten better, so he took the initiative to take on the task of buying vegetables in the village.
Xue Fenglin didn't know how to cook, but he did learn how to wash rice and cook by watching Shen Xuan.
So she would steam the rice at home in advance every day, wash and pick the vegetables, and just wait for Chen Xuan to come back and put them in the pot.
With Xue Fenglin sharing some of the housework at home, Shen Xuan had to admit that he felt a lot more relaxed.
After dinner, Xue Fenglin took over the pots and pans to wash them and stopped Shen Xuan from doing it.
Although it is said that a gentleman stays away from the kitchen, Xue Fenglin felt sorry for Shen Xuan's hard work, so he would not let him come back to do rough work after a busy day outside.
Shen Xuan was relaxed, and after eating and drinking, he went to the yard to take a walk to digest the food.
It was already dark at this time. Apart from the light coming from the house, only the faint light from the moon and stars above our heads, combined with the croaking of frogs and chirping of insects in the grass, made the place seem particularly peaceful.
Shen Xuan was enjoying the cool breeze of late summer when he suddenly heard a faint cry coming from the grass in a corner outside the yard.
The crying sounded particularly sad in the darkness, making people's hair stand on end.
If it were someone else, they would probably think they had encountered a female ghost or the legendary snake beauty.
It was Shen Xuan who was very brave. He immediately went over with the oil lamp in hand and found Zhong Xiaomei crying in the bushes.
When Shen Xuan was stupid before, Zhong Xiaomei often snatched things from him.
So when facing Zhong Xiaomei, who had bullied him before, Shen Xuan really couldn't feel any good towards her.
But now it was getting late and the village roads were dark. Zhong Xiaomei was a girl only fourteen years old and her brother had just disappeared.
Shen Xuan was afraid that she would get lost too, so he planned to take the oil lamp and send her back.
But Xiaomei Zhong refused to leave no matter what she heard. Instead, she knelt down in front of Shen Xuan, hugged his thighs and cried, "Brother Shen, please save me. I don't want to marry widower Chen."
Shen Xuan also heard that the Zhong family wanted to marry Zhong Xiaomei to Chen the Widower. Seeing her crying, he felt quite sympathetic.
Brother Zhong and Little Sister Zhong are also victims of the feudal secularism of the Great Jin Dynasty. As a soul that has received modern education, how could Shen Xuan possibly tolerate this?
But marriages in the Jin Dynasty have always been decided by parents. This is the marriage arranged by Zhong Xiaomei's parents. How can he, an outsider, have a say in it?
So Shen Xuan helped Xiaomei Zhong up and said, "This is your Zhong family's business. How can I save you? You might as well go back and talk to your parents."
Unexpectedly, Xiaomei Zhong said, "Brother Chen, they won't listen! But if I can make as much money as you, they won't be willing to send me away. After all, I can earn money for the family."
"Please, teach me, let me follow you! I also want to learn how to set up a stall in the city and make money like you! My parents are the most powerful, as long as I can make money, they will definitely not force me!"
Shen Xuan couldn't help but fall silent after hearing this, his eyes fell on Zhong Xiaomei's face, and he thought for a long time...
What Zhong Xiaomei said was actually the truth. The Zhong couple married her to the old widower just for the five taels of silver given as a betrothal gift.
If Zhong Xiaomei could earn so much money herself, the Zhong couple would probably hope that she would never marry and work for the family for free. How could they force her to marry someone else?
However, Chen Xuan made money from his stall by relying on his own exclusive recipe, so it was impossible for him to let others learn it, let alone teach it to Zhong Xiaomei?
It's just that Zhong Xiaomei finally had the idea of making money on her own, and she begged him like this. He felt uncomfortable psychologically for Shen Xuan to ignore her, a little girl in junior high school.
After struggling in his heart for a long time, Shen Xuan sighed and said to Zhong Xiaomei: "Well, don't worry, I will help you think of a way to make money first."
After hearing this, Xiaomei Zhong immediately kowtowed to Shen Xuan with tears in her eyes, saying, "I don't ask for great wealth or to earn more than you, Brother Shen. As long as my parents can see it, they won't let me marry the widower Chen!"
After hearing this, Chen Xuan smiled, helped Zhong Xiaomei up and said, "Well, come to my house every day when you are free to help with washing clothes, chopping wood and doing some odd jobs. I will give you two cents a day, which can also shut up your parents. As for other things, I will help you find a way in the future."
Two cents a day was the same wage as the villagers earned working for the gentry, and the work was much easier than farm work.
In fact, there are only two people in Shen Xuan's family, including Xue Fenglin, and they have no land, so there is nothing to do.
Chen Xuan arranged such a job for Zhong Xiaomei. Firstly, he thought Xue Fenglin was the son of a wealthy family, and it was not good for him to chop firewood and wash clothes for him every day. Secondly, he did it simply to take care of Zhong Xiaomei.
In this way, Xiaomei Zhong can earn some money in between her daily work for the Zhong family, and the Zhong couple should not be so harsh on her.
Also, he would never let Zhong Xiaomei get involved in the honey custard tea business, but it was not impossible for her to go to the city to make money.
Chen Xuan remembered that Xiaomei Zhong was quite good at sewing, and she and Brother Zhong often sewed shoe soles for her and sold them at the entrance of the village.
There are many embroidery workshops in Lezhou City. Chen Xuan has seen some wives go there and take things back to make, and they can exchange them for dozens of dollars.
If Zhong Xiaomei could also learn the skill of embroidery, she could go to the city to do some needlework to make money. Not to mention a lot, five or six taels of silver a year is also a good amount of money to earn, so the five taels of betrothal gift from Chen the Widow is naturally not a big deal.
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