Chapter 3044 Pops Out
Yue Xiu Niang and others sent Zhou Man and the princess out of the door and even sent them to the alley entrance. If sending them back to the county government office did not make them seem too flattering, they would not mind sending them all the way to the county government office.
After all, princesses are not common.
After sending the man to the alley entrance, Zhou Man was about to help Xibing get into the car when two people rushed out from the side. But before they could get close, the guard kicked them with his foot, pulled out his knife, and put it directly on the man's neck.
The other party only shouted half a sentence, "Master Zhou..." and was immediately frightened by the knife on her neck. She had been kicked to the ground and was in great pain, but now she didn't dare to cry out in pain. She looked at the knife on her neck tremblingly and said, "Master, I, I have no bad intentions. I just want to ask the princess and Master for mercy."
Zhou Man and Mingda were both frightened by her, but fortunately someone supported them, so they were just a little nervous.
I saw two people lying on the ground. A young woman was holding a little girl of eight or nine years old in her hands. Both of them fell to the ground.
The little girl fell down because of the young woman, and now she was looking up at them with a pale face.
Zhou Man frowned and asked, "What do you do?"
Jiang Zhiniang and Yue Xiuniang hurried over, glaring at the person on the ground with hatred and fear, then knelt on the ground and said to Zhou Manmingda, "Please forgive me, my lord. This mother and daughter are here to ask for work."
Jiang Zhiniang paused and said, "But we have tested the hands of both mother and daughter, and neither of them is suitable to be a weaver or embroiderer."
The woman said quickly, "Sir, we can learn. We are not afraid of hardship, really!"
Jiang Zhiniang was indignant. "You can't learn this just because you're willing to endure hardships. Your talent is less than others, so we'll have to spend more time teaching you, and you'll waste more thread and fabric."
They have so many choices, and there is no shortage of people. Why don't they want talented people and use them?
It would be fine if it was their own linen fabric, but this belonged to the county government, and it was public money.
The woman ignored Jiang Zhiniang and continued to stare at Zhou Man and Mingda, tears welling in her eyes. "My Lord, Princess, please be merciful and let us into the weaving workshop. We are truly able to endure hardships. We can spend ten or a hundred times more time than others studying and practicing, seriously!"
Si Jing, who was kneeling on the ground with Yue Xiu Niang and the others, became angry when she heard this, but she was born a servant, so she habitually looked up at her master before speaking.
So she quietly looked up at Lord Zhou at this time and saw that there was a strange expression on Lord Zhou's face.
It wasn't sympathy, nor was it anger, but rather... interest. So she lowered her eyes and thought for a moment before finally speaking, "The embroiderers and weavers in our weaving workshop all come from poor backgrounds. Every day, they start learning and practicing making clothes and weaving at dawn, and stop only at dusk. Don't even think about you two mother and daughter trying to spend ten or a hundred times more time than us, even twice as much is impossible. Could it be that you can't sleep or eat?"
The woman immediately said, "I can stay awake."
Si Jing sneered. She had seen many people like this when she was a servant. "You don't sleep, so how can you weave clothes in the dark? You can't light a lamp, right? Do you have money to buy candles?"
The woman choked and decisively left Sijing behind. She continued to look up at Zhou Man and Mingda, tears falling from her eyes.
Not to mention Zhou Man, even Mingda noticed that something was wrong.
She couldn't help but turn her head to look at Zhou Man, and saw that she was watching with great interest, so she couldn't help but reach out and push her.
"Oh," Zhou Man came back to his senses and said quickly, "Since you are so hardworking, come back to the county government office with me. I will ask Zhao Ming to register you. Since you have no talent for knitting, you can go to the farm and grow vegetables and raise chickens."
Zhou Man paused, looked at her with a deep gaze, and asked, "By the way, you can farm and raise poultry, right?"
"Yes," the woman hesitated, but still said, "but sir, I only want to work in the weaving workshop, not in the farmhouse."
"Why is that? Aren't you here to ask for a job?"
"My Lord, you don't know," the woman knelt on the ground and said sadly, "I am now in mourning for my husband. After the child's father died, my parents-in-law disliked me for giving birth to a daughter, so they took back all our land and house. We really had nowhere to go. I heard that Beihai County was looking for workers, so I rushed here."
Zhou Man nodded to show that he understood and waited for her to continue.
Seeing Zhou Man didn't respond, she could only lower her head slightly, wipe away her tears, and continued, "It's not that I'm too ambitious and don't want to farm. It's just that I'm a young widow, and it's not easy for me to go into the farm with a girl and mingle among a group of men."
Zhou Man smiled slightly and said, "So that's how it is. You can rest assured. I can tell Zhao Ming to have the clerks in the county government assign you to a group of women."
She said, "The government farms are currently hiring a total of 128 female workers, and they have been gradually distributed to various villages. Now, there are only 38 male workers left in the farms outside the city, but there are still 42 female workers. There are far more women than men."
Mingda tried to hold back, but couldn't help it, so he covered his mouth with a handkerchief, and his eyebrows curved.
Woman: “…”
She paused for a long moment before gently sitting back, trying to avoid the knife on her neck, but every time she moved back an inch, the knife also moved back an inch, always firmly pressed against her neck.
This time she really cried. She covered her eyes with a white handkerchief and cried, "My Lord, please be merciful. I really can't bear to see my daughter follow me to the village and suffer. She has already lost her father, and I want her to learn some skills so that she can make a living even if she leaves me in the future."
The more she spoke, the more tears flowed. Strings of tears slid down her cheeks quickly, and her pale face made everyone feel pity for her. The people around her, even the women themselves, were softened by her crying and could not help but look at Zhou Man and the princess.
She continued crying, "She has no father or brother to support her, and I have no plans to remarry. She will be the only one left in the future. If she doesn't have some skills, she will be bullied by her husband's family after she gets married. Please be kind and give me some leniency, and let me study in the weaving workshop."
Zhou Man sighed and said, "How pitiful are the parents in the world..."
The woman and the onlookers thought Zhou Man agreed, but she then said, "But rules are rules. Without rules, there will be no order."
Woman: ...
Even the onlookers couldn't help but speak up for her, "Master Zhou, you are always kind-hearted, so just agree to her request. After all, it's just mother and daughter."
"That's right, that's right."
Zhou Man smiled and said, "That's true, but there are countless people in the world as pitiful as you and your daughter. If I take them in without considering the gains and losses or the rules, I'm afraid this weaving workshop will close in less than a month."
"But you are so kind-hearted, so I've decided to find another way to help you." Zhou Man said this, and everyone's eyes lit up, just like the mother and daughter. She smiled and said, "How about this? I'll open a class in Yushan Hall, specializing in knitting. It will be taught by Yue Xiu Niang and Jiang Zhi Niang. There will be a class every three days. Anyone who wants to learn can bring their own needlework and fabric, and then pay the hall forty cents a month in tuition."
See you at 10pm
(End of this chapter)
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