Chapter 140 Charcoal Pencil (Additional chapter for Yunqi's recommendation votes of 95,000)
Daya and Erya got busy, making a fire and burning sticks in the kitchen, while Manbao squatted on the ground, sinking his consciousness into the system to study the pen he had found.
She couldn't chat with the sellers in the mall, but the product pages were very detailed. If she had just looked at the pen tubes, she wouldn't have thought they were made of bamboo. But when Koko mentioned it, she now had a rough idea of how they were made when she looked at them again.
The thing that the Zhou family has the most is bamboo. They have everything, including cut bamboo, freshly cut bamboo, and bamboo that has been dried in the sun.
Manbao took Datou and Ertou into the woodshed to find suitable bamboo, and soon they had cut out several pieces.
When Xiao Qian and the others came back from the vegetable garden, the children's hands, faces, and bodies were all covered in black. As soon as Xiao Qian called out "Manbao", the children all looked up at the door.
Then the four middle-aged women in the house were silent for a moment, and three of them rushed towards them and started beating them with sticks.
Zhou Xi, who was left behind: ...
Manbao was frightened. Seeing her sister-in-law reaching out to hit her, she immediately dropped her things, jumped up, turned around and ran into the house.
After a while, Qian's scolding voice was heard in the room, followed by Manbao's crying.
After beating the children, Xiao Qian and her two sisters-in-law still had to boil water for them to bathe.
Of course, it was impossible to wash so many children one by one. Since they had already been washed once, I simply washed the boys and girls one by one, wiped their faces, hands and feet clean, and then changed their clothes.
There weren't many clothes at home, just for the children, so they only had two extra sets. Clothes would deteriorate faster the more they were washed, so Xiao Qian was very upset.
Manbao looked at his sister-in-law with a guilty conscience and whispered to her that they were going to make pens and not mess around. Xiao Qian's expression improved, and then he said, "Next time, if something like this happens, wait until your brothers come back and let them do it. You're really brave enough to use a knife yourself. What if you cut your hand?"
After talking about Manbao, Xiao Qian went to find Zhou Silang, Wu Wulang and Zhou Liulang and scolded them, "The adults are not at home, and Mom is not in good health. You three are at home and don't know how to look after the children. You let them play with knives..."
Zhou Silang, who was happily lying on the bed holding five coins, said: ...
Zhou Liulang, who was too tired and had fallen asleep with the quilt in his arms, looked at his sister-in-law with a confused look on his face. Zhou Liulang was not at home at all. He went out to play with his friends.
After Zhou Dalang and his friends had dinner, they took all the remaining money from the children and went out to cut bamboo. When they came back and heard that the children not only used knives but also started a fire at home, they immediately said, "Serves them right."
However, Zhou Erlang still helped them make the so-called charcoal pencils. He has always been dexterous, and even the women in the family cannot compare to him.
He also burned a lot of spare charcoal sticks for them. Because the charcoal sticks the children had played with before were all black, he also cut a wider piece of diabolo and covered the charcoal head with it. When they needed to use it, they could just push it open, almost like a plug.
He put the remaining charcoal sticks in a cloth bag, handed it to Manbao, and asked, "What do you want this for? Have you run out of ink?"
"This is not for me, it's for my fifth brother." Manbao took out a piece of white paper and wrote on it. He found that the words were still a little big, but much better than before.
Zhou Erlang also felt that the words were too big and the paper was too wasteful, so he picked up a knife and carefully sharpened the charcoal stick a little bit. This way, when he wrote with it slightly tilted, the words would be much smaller.
Manbao was happy and ran to Zhou Wulang to teach him how to keep accounts.
Zhou Silang was lying in bed and about to fall asleep, but when he heard this, he couldn't help but get up and asked, "You guys want to keep a record of me?"
"Yes," Manbao said as a matter of course, "Not only your account, but also the accounts of Fifth Brother and Eldest Sister going out will be recorded in the future. When they come back, they will share the money with us."
"Oh." Zhou Silang lay down again. He remembered that the ginger seeds in the eldest sister's field were also provided by Manbao, and Laowu and the others also contributed their efforts. It seemed that they had agreed to divide the profits at that time.
Feeling that he was not being treated differently, he felt satisfied and fell asleep again in bed. Manbao pulled him up and said, "Fourth brother, you should get up and listen too. If there are any words that Fifth Brother can't write, you can teach him."
Zhou Silang was overwhelmed and said, "If Lao Wu can't write, then I can't write either."
Zhou Wulang burst into laughter and said to Manbao, "Manbao, don't force Fourth Brother. He used to just lie down and sleep as soon as he got home. He never reviewed his lessons. He doesn't even know as many characters as I do."
Manbao looked at Zhou Silang with disdain, then continued to teach Zhou Wulang. He even wrote an account for him as a reference and asked him to write it accordingly tomorrow.
Zhou Wulang said that it was no problem, he could write the numbers, jin and wen, and he thought there would be no problem.
Manbao ran back to the room, took out four large pieces of paper from the box, folded them into four pieces, cut them with a knife, and took them to sew a few stitches for Xiao Qianshi, and a small notebook was born.
Manbao handed the account book to Zhou Wulang. Zhou Xi came to see them just in time. She wanted them to help her carry a basket of ginger tomorrow. Even if they couldn't sell it retail, it would be good to sell it to the grocery store at a lower price.
Manbao encouraged Zhou Xi, "Sister, why don't you go with them? There's not much farm work to do at home right now, so going out can broaden your horizons."
Zhou Xi hesitated a little, "Isn't this a bad idea?"
"What's wrong with that? You have the fourth and fifth brothers to take care of you."
Zhou Silang perked up and got up from the bed, encouraging everyone, "Sister, just come with us. You don't know, some families are very particular. When we knock on the door, they won't open the door as soon as they see we are young boys. But you are different. You are a woman, so if you knock on the door, people will be less wary."
"Yes, yes," Manbao tempted, "Sister, if you sell it to a grocery store, it's only 35 wen per pound, but if you sell it loose, it's 47 wen, which is 12 wen more."
Sure enough, Zhou Xi felt distressed when he heard this, "Okay, I'll go with you tomorrow."
Manbao smiled and said to Zhou Wulang, "Fifth brother, remember to write down eldest sister's account as well, and keep it separately."
Zhou Xi was confused. "What account?"
"If we record the ginger sales account like this, we can compare it when we come back and know if we have collected the wrong amount of money. We will also know how much money we have earned."
Zhou Xi smiled and said, "Youngest sister still knows more. Eldest sister can't read, so let fifth sister take notes when the time comes."
Manbao said, "Sister, come learn to read with us. I will teach you how to write your own name."
"I'm so old, and I still know how to read?"
(End of this chapter)
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