Chapter 184: Interested idiot, do you nod to everything I say...
Zhou Ye was truly flattered by the word "brother-in-law," so much so that he spoke more to Lin Xiaopu than usual. "Last time, I went to the county to sell black bears. Their bones and fat can be used to make medicine, so I sold them to two of the pharmacies. Those pharmacies don't look much bigger than the ones in town, but they have their own dedicated herb warehouses. I think if you have any medicinal herbs coming to them, they'll buy them."
What Zhou Ye didn't mention was that the owners of the two pharmacies knew of his skill as a black bear hunter and were willing to befriend him. It was hard to say whether the pharmacies would accept anyone else's medicinal herbs, but if he went, those two pharmacies, considering his black bear hunting skills, would most likely accept him.
When Lin Xiaopu heard this, he was immediately overjoyed.
She felt that it was okay to play, but not to play blindly. If she could lead her younger brothers to make money while playing, and then take the opportunity to consolidate the arithmetic she taught through practice, that would be perfect!
Zhou Ye supported Lin Xiaopu's idea and offered his opinion: "You guys can save up these cicada sloughs and locust seeds and flowers together. Once you have enough, I'll take you to the county to sell them. All the money will be yours, but you have to cover my travel expenses. How about that?"
Lin Xiaopu's excitement subsided slightly as he inquired earnestly, "Brother-in-law, how much does a oxcart trip from Jingxi Town to the county cost? How much will it cost for the two of us to go back and forth? If we bring enough dry food, will it be enough for a round trip? If not, I'll have to pay for your meal. A meal in the county is definitely not cheap, so please don't object if I treat you to the cheapest steamed buns. Also, when we get to the county, shouldn't we first inquire about the purchasing prices of cicada shells, locust seeds, and flowers at the pharmacy..."
Seeing that Xiao Pu and A Ye were actually discussing this matter, Lin Shu and He Guixiang laughed and said, "Mother, why didn't I realize that Xiao Pu is a little money-grubber before? Listen, he talks about making money so clearly and logically."
He Guixiang was also delighted. "Money never passed her by before, so how could she be so obsessed with money? It's all because of you. You gave her 10% of the profits from the ice jelly, and later you even gave her a share of the profits from the chicken mushroom sauce. When my mother was her age, she had never touched money. Unlike Xiao Pu, she had saved more than two strings of coins for her own use."
Lin Shu smiled and said, "Xiao Pu helped me a lot, and she deserves it."
Being a hands-off boss is wonderful. Lin Shu is willing to delegate any work that can be done by others. She doesn't ask for help for free; she pays for it. So far, everyone seems very satisfied.
Moreover, after Xiao Pu started to make money, her arithmetic skills improved by leaps and bounds. It was probably because she made money herself that her enthusiasm increased greatly, so she became a small teacher and wanted to motivate her group of younger brothers by making money.
It wasn't long before Lin Xiaopu and Zhou Ye reached a consensus. This money-grubber Lin Xiaopu calculated the accounts clearly, not taking advantage of Zhou Ye, nor putting himself at a disadvantage.
Zhou Ye thought for a moment and said, "Before your sister and I get married at the end of the month, I'll go to the county and avoid the big market at the end of the month. You can collect as much cicada sloughs, locust seeds, and flowers as you can. I'll take you to try selling them first."
Lin Xiaopu jumped up with joy, "I'll tell Wang Yingen and the others the good news after the lecture tomorrow!"
Hearing this, Lin Shu smiled and said, "First, gather your daoist tools. Cicada sloughs are fine; you can pick them up from the ground. But the locust beans are harder to pick. The locust trees in the village and on the mountain are all tall, and since you can't climb trees, you can attach an iron hook to a long bamboo pole and tie it with wire."
At this point, Lin Shu asked Zhou Ye, "By the way, Aye, can the blacksmiths in Jingxi Town make these iron wires?" The Dayan Dynasty already had lanterns made of iron wire. Iron wire is iron wire, and the craftsmanship is already very advanced, but that is the capital after all, and it is not known whether the blacksmiths in small towns can make them.
Zhou Ye nodded and said, "No problem. If the blacksmith in town is unwilling to do it, I will borrow his space and do it myself."
When Lin Shu heard this, she remembered that Zhou Ye used to work as a blacksmith. According to Zhou Ye's character of quietly doing great things, the "OK" he said meant "very OK".
"Aye, is this iron wire easy to make?"
Zhou Ye replied: "It's easy to do, but it takes some effort."
In reality, making iron wire isn't as easy as Zhou Ye suggests, especially in a small workshop without a waterwheel. Wire drawing is a labor-intensive process, not to mention refining the wrought iron and forging the billets. The wire drawing itself is incredibly challenging. After sharpening and filing one end of the forged thick iron bar, Annie passes it through the holes in the wire drawing board and manually pulls it. This step requires immense physical strength, requiring at least two strong men to accomplish. The wire needs to be re-clamped after each stretch, and frequent annealing is required, making it extremely inefficient.
The holes on the drawing board are large and small, and the smaller ones are more difficult to draw.
Zhou Ye didn't say these things, so outsiders like Lin Shu and Lin Xiaopu naturally didn't understand.
Lin Shu couldn't help but tease him when she heard him speak so lightly, "No wonder you're so confident. Who in this world can match your strength?"
Lin Xiaopu suddenly interrupted with a long sigh, "Sister, I don't want to bother you, but I'm a living person standing here, and you're treating me like I don't exist. You're already saying sweet nothings. How am I going to live after you get married?"
Lin Shu pretended to hit her on the forehead, and Lin Xiaopu dodged nimbly as usual, but this time she miscalculated and was hit by her sister.
Lin Xiaopu didn't even bother to cover her forehead. She stared in astonishment and asked, "I couldn't dodge it?? Sister, when did you become so agile?!"
Lin Shu laughed out of anger. This was a blatant insult to her.
"Do you think I really can't catch up with you normally? It's just that I'm too lazy to catch up."
Although her strength has decreased and her body is not as strong as in her previous life, the actual combat experiences and brushes with death in her previous life are real. The combat experience and skills she gained during that period have been engraved in her mind and become an instinct. How could she really be a weakling? It's just that Ping'er never uses all her strength in anything she does, and always wants to dodge even when fighting.
In addition, after coming to Tianshui Village, she would go up the mountain and down the water from time to time - picking mushrooms and wild vegetables on the mountain, catching loaches and snails in the fields, fishing and catching shrimps in the water, cooking when she was free, and playing with bamboo slingshots and water guns with Lin Xiaopu, Wang Yingen and a group of little kids when she felt like it... Jumping around every day, the physical fitness of this body has improved a lot without her realizing it.
Lin Shu took the opportunity to pinch Lin Xiaopu's earlobe and twist it gently, humming, "So you know, don't talk nonsense so carelessly in the future, or you'll lose your forehead and ears."
Lin Xiaopu's expression changed instantly, and he immediately bowed down and said, "I was wrong. I won't dare to do it again. Please forgive me this time, sister."
Even He Guixiang was amused by this.
How did Ah Shu say, "A red flower becomes redder when it is near a red flower, and a black flower becomes blacker when it is near a black flower?" Xiao Pu has been with Ah Shu for a long time, and not only has his temperament become more cheerful, but he has also become more and more clever.
Although Lin Shu said that she had to make an iron hook before she could start working, she was so excited that she didn't even wait for the hook to be made. She immediately called Zhou Ye and her younger sister Lin Xiaopu, and the three of them went to the back mountain to pick locust beans.
There are actually not many locust trees in Tianshui Village, and they can even be said to be rare. After all, this is a tree species native to the north. But the ancients loved locust trees, so it is not surprising to see locust trees everywhere. In addition to the old locust tree in the village that the women like to use to cool off, there are also a few in the back mountain. On the contrary, they are not seen in the rolling mountains.
Lin Shu speculated, "Who knows, maybe our Tianshui Village was a secluded place for some elegant family hundreds of years ago."
Hearing this, Lin Xiaopu said, "That's really possible. Sister, I heard from my mother that a long time ago, Jingxi Town didn't exist. Later, the county magistrate hired people to open up the wasteland, and that's how Jingxi Town and the dozen or so villages below it came into being. It's possible that before the land was opened up, a few hermits and masters lived there. After all, the scenery here is beautiful."
Lin Shu was slightly surprised. "No wonder so many villages under Jingxi Town are filled with mixed surnames."
Lin Xiaopu: "That's right, so maybe our ancestors were also famine refugees from somewhere. Look at other towns, the villages below them all have the same surname, like Lijia Village, Wangjiagou, Gaojiashan, every household in the village is related to each other, and each village is a large clan, just like the village that Brother Aye described."
At this point, she looked up at the tall man and said, "Brother Aye, your village is not called Zhoujia Village, right?"
Zhou Ye suddenly asked back, "Why don't you call me brother-in-law now?"
It was rare for him to make fun of others like this. Lin Xiaopu was stunned for a moment and almost thought he had heard it wrong.
After coming back to her senses, her face flushed instantly. "You haven't paid me the money to change my name yet. Only after you pay me can I keep calling you brother-in-law. Otherwise, it seems that being a brother-in-law is too easy for you. Is that right, sister?"
Lin Shu's eyes flickered with a smile, but she didn't get involved. "If you think it is, then it is. Don't ask me."
Lin Xiaopu was furious. "My sister hasn't even gotten married yet, and she's already starting to act like a spoiled brat."
Before Lin Xiaopu could jump away, Lin Shu quickly grabbed her and flicked her on the forehead before letting her go. "To put it nicely, I'm the one getting married, but everyone knows that it's Aye who's marrying into my family."
She raised her eyes to Zhou Ye and said, "Aye, what I said is correct, right?"
Zhou Ye's dark face showed a gentle expression, and he hummed, "That's right."
Seeing his reaction, Lin Shu burst into laughter. "Idiot, do you always nod and agree with everything I say?"
Zhou Ye looked at her and said seriously, "You are indeed right. I am not kidding you."
Lin Shu was smiling so much that her eyes were about to overflow with laughter. She took the opportunity to ask, "Then if our future child has my last name, do you have any objection?"
As soon as he said this, Zhou Ye was suddenly tripped by a branch under his feet, causing him to stagger slightly.
When Lin Shu looked over, his face looked normal, but there was a faint redness in his dark skin.
Then look towards the roots of the ears——
As expected, it was bright red, and even the neck downwards were gradually stained red.
Lin Shu often thought that if Aye had a complexion as white as jade, he would be like a cooked shrimp when he was shy, with his whole body red, and it would be more fun to tease him.
"Ashu, it's all fine. You decide." Zhou Ye acted calmly.
But Lin Shu didn't know him yet. To him, the key point was not whose surname the child would take, but the word "child".
Lin Shu didn't want to have a baby at the moment. She felt that she was still a baby. How could a baby have another baby? Of course, she was just teasing Ah Ye.
Seeing Zhou Ye's reaction, she rolled her eyes and said, "But I don't want to have children right now. Ah Ye, I want to live with you as our own. How can we live with a child?"
Zhou Yewei paused for a moment and replied, "Then don't give birth for now."
Lin Shu asked again: "I'm afraid of pain, so is it okay if I never have children?"
Zhou Ye paused a little longer this time, but still said: "It's okay, it's good not to have children."
Lin Shu couldn't help herself and moved closer to hug his waist. "Aye, you are so kind. The wedding will come soon. I want to marry you soon."
She wanted to love this man who indulged her without any bottom line.
She knew A Ye. He was not a person who would make promises easily. If he had responded without hesitation when she asked those questions just now, she might think that he agreed to everything in the heat of the moment. But he paused, which meant that he had thought about it seriously.
Lin Shu had felt sorry for others before in her life, but this was the first time she felt sorry for a tall and strong man with healthy limbs.
It is said that feeling sorry for a man is the beginning of misfortune. Lin Shu used to agree with this. After all, women are more infatuated and men are more unfaithful. There are really not many good men in the world. Most of them are the kind who are very good at first but turn bad and change their hearts later.
She didn't know whether Aye would change his mind in the future, but at least at this moment, she felt that the man in front of her who was patient, restrained and infinitely indulgent towards her deserved her to treat him better.
Zhou Ye put his arm around her and whispered, "Ashu, it's almost there."
He also wanted to marry Ah Shu as soon as possible, thinking about her all the time.
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