Chapter Seventy-Six
"mother."
Zhou Lin carried a pile of firewood and placed it next to the stove in the dye shop. When he saw Zhou Wushi follow him in, he called out softly.
Zhou Wushi's eyes swept around the dye house, looking at her increasingly robust eldest son.
Suddenly, I felt like I was in another world.
"How much silver did this dye shop cost?"
Zhou Lin neatly arranged the chopped firewood. "Qi Qiu and the others did most of the work. I really don't know how much money they spent."
Zhou Wu scoffed lightly; what she disliked most about Zhou Lin was his silly and simple-minded appearance.
When she was pregnant with Zhou Lin, it was her first child, and she naturally had a lot of expectations for it.
When Zhou Lin was born, he was so big that he almost died and suffered a lot.
When he was a child, Zhou Wushi and Zhou Laosan still loved this first child.
Unfortunately, Zhou Lin believed everything he was told, and he was only good at doing chores; he was incredibly simple-minded.
On one occasion, Xiao Zhou Lin Zhi poked the cooled flour oil with his finger.
Enraged, Zhou Laosan said sarcastically, "Poke, push harder, poke deeper?!"
Even when Zhou Lin was older, he couldn't really understand sarcasm, let alone when he was still a child.
Upon hearing this, he poked even more enthusiastically.
Zhou Laosan was furious and had nowhere to vent his anger. He threw down his chopsticks and got a scolding from Zhou Wushi, who said, "You really gave birth to a fool!"
Zhou Wushi couldn't lift her head until she gave birth to Zhou Ming, at which point she was able to straighten her back.
Later, when there were more children, each one was smarter and more considerate than Zhou Lin, and knew how to coax her.
Gradually, my heart strayed, and I could never straighten it back.
Zhou Wushi didn't think it was a big deal. All ten fingers are different lengths, and which couple doesn't favor their eloquent and clever child?
Even though Zhou Lin's life has gradually improved, in her eyes it's just that fools are lucky.
It wasn't that her eldest son, whom she looked down upon, was capable at all.
“You and Jin’er help each other so much with these two boys who aren’t related by blood, but your own younger brother is at the academy, and because his family has no money, he’s not eating or sleeping well, and you, as the older brother, haven’t even gone to see him.”
Having lived a comfortable and carefree life for too long, Zhou Lin felt a deep-seated aversion to speaking to Zhou Wu Shi.
Each time, for some reason, he would feel sad for several days.
In the past six months since the family separated, I've also been working in town.
His master taught him by example, and Mu Jin, both openly and secretly, refined his words, actions, and attitude, much like pruning cotton.
Zhou Linzhen really learned a lot about human relationships and social skills.
Nowadays, he rarely listens to what people say without thinking; he will think about it a little.
"Mother, it's not like we're short of money at home. Why is my fourth brother not getting enough to eat or wear? Aren't you the one who loves him the most?"
However, once someone uses their brain, the things they say are even more infuriating.
Zhou Wu choked, "The family...the family needs money for everything. We've spent all the money we have, where would we get any more?"
Zhou Lin was helpless. The taxes in the Qi Dynasty were not heavy, only one-tenth of the total. Even if wheat was grown on an acre of dry land, it would yield more than one tael of silver.
The family's dozen or so acres of dry land had just been harvested with wheat not long ago, and besides, there was still cotton, rice, potatoes...
Zhou Qiang received four taels of silver a year for tuition, which allowed him to bring food and eat at the academy. No matter how Zhou Lin calculated it, his family would never lack money.
"Is there anything else, Mother?"
Zhou Lin didn't want to say anything more to Zhou Wu Shi. After finishing his work here, he had to hurry to his master's place to work.
Zhou Wu was speechless. Her eldest son, who used to be eager to stay in town and do odd jobs to supplement the family income whenever she complained about being poor, was completely unmoved by her words just now.
It's as if there was something important that she didn't cherish before, and now it's gone.
After calming herself down, Zhou Wu said slowly, "It's a good thing to have a dye house at home. In the past, the cotton cloth that your fourth brother exchanged for in the village had to be taken to town to be dyed, which was a waste of money."
Zhou Lin nodded, "It's more convenient than going to town."
"Brother-in-law, come quickly and help me move the cloth into the dye house."
Bai Qiqiu, carrying two or three bolts of cloth, saw Zhou Lin being entangled by Zhou Wushi and, fearing that his honest brother-in-law would be bullied, quickly called out.
Zhou Lin hurried over, took the cotton cloth from his hands, and carried it inside.
Feeling rebuffed, Zhou Wu glared at Bai Qiqiu and went home.
After she and Mu Qing left, Mu Jin's lips curled slightly.
Zhou Lineng gave Wu Shi whatever she wanted, and he believed in whatever she wanted. Mu Jin was already very satisfied.
Zhou Lin helped out for a while, and seeing that there were fewer people and that Mu Jin could manage, he left.
The autumn breeze caressed my face, and after a busy morning, the courtyard finally quieted down.
Excluding Mu Nianjun and Zhou Si, the five bolts of cloth that Mu Mian and the others brought, and about ten more bolts from other families in the village.
Mu Jin recorded the colors they wanted to dye in the ledger. The deposit for each bolt of cloth was fifty coins. This morning, they received eight hundred and fifty coins, nearly one tael of silver.
Because Wen Zhaoran paid him, Bai Qiqiu only assigned him light tasks such as tending the fire.
Practicing bleaching, preparing dye, dyeing, fixing the color, and drying—step by step, Mu Jin and Bai Qiqiu did it all in an orderly manner.
Colorful fabrics gradually floated in the courtyard, shimmering in the autumn sunlight.
Looking at the cotton, linen, and fine cotton fabrics in the courtyard, all of uniform color and without any flaws, Mu Jin felt quite emotional.
After seven or eight days of hard work, we finally managed to dry the cloth that the first few households had brought.
After taking the cloth down from the drying rack and folding it carefully, Mu Jin delivered it to each household, following the marks made on the charcoal sticks.
While we're at it, let's collect all the outstanding payments.
The fact that Mujia Village had opened a dyeing workshop was widely known in the surrounding villages due to marriage ties.
Mujia Village is close to the town. Villagers from villages further away from the town often travel halfway there, but since they don't have anything to buy in town, they skip it and go to Mujia Village instead.
As a result, Bai Qiqiu has collected another six or seven bolts of cloth in the past few days.
The dyeing workshop's business gradually stabilized. Business would pick up when the seasons changed or when there were weddings or other happy events. They would sell about four or five bolts of dyed fabric a day, and sometimes as many as seven or eight.
Apart from that, it was rather quiet; they could only collect five or six bolts of cloth every six or seven days.
As the weather gradually turned colder, Mu Jin didn't take the two bolts of cotton cloth she bought to town; instead, she dyed them at home.
Seeing that the purple dye turned out quite beautiful, they dyed the cloth that they originally intended to dye apricot yellow purple instead.
In autumn, more and more fruits and dried fruits in the mountains slowly ripen.
Since there are many places in the house where firewood is used, when Mujin went to the mountains to collect firewood, she also picked up a lot of wild fruits along the way.
Acorns, walnuts, akebia quinata...
The autumn forests are like a selfless benefactor, generously bestowing gifts upon the villagers they protect.
Living off the mountains, many villagers search for food in the forests.
Whenever Bai Qiqiu and Wen Zhaoran had free time, it was as if they were rooted in the mountains. They wouldn't go home until they had collected a whole basket of dried fruit.
With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, Mu Jin selected three bamboo baskets of walnuts and acorns that were of uniform size and in good condition.
When Zhou Lin went to town to deliver vegetables in the morning, he was instructed to also bring a few packets of jujube paste mooncakes and send a basket each to the rice noodle shop owner, Steward Zhao, and Old Madam Zhao.
Mu Jin packed the remaining dried fruit and fresh fruit along with the jujube paste mooncakes that Zhou Lin had bought, intending to use them when she returned to her parents' home and the Zhou family home in a couple of days.
Unexpectedly, before Mu Jin could even visit her relatives, Mu Qing went into labor and gave birth to a boy in the middle of the night.
In the middle of the night, Zhou Wushi and Zhou Laosan, filled with anticipation, were chilled to the bone by the cold autumn night wind.
Before Mu Qing could even wake up, the two of them went straight home without even saying a word to Zhou Ming.
Let alone taking care of Mu Qing's postpartum period, it's already good that he didn't lose his temper on the spot.
Zhou Ming was also very disappointed, but looking at the baby with his eyes closed, who was born at full term and was fair and tender, he still felt some joy in becoming a father for the first time.
Mu Jin had been thinking that if Zhou Wushi were to hold a full-moon banquet for the Zhou family's eldest grandson, he, as the uncle, should send a gift.
With Mu Weiji's patchwork garment already in the making, Zhou Wushi will likely give him a lecture again.
Unexpectedly, after Mu Jin and Zhou Lin finished visiting their relatives before the festival and delivered the gifts to the Zhou family, neither Zhou Wushi nor Zhou Laosan said a word.
Mu Jin understood; she figured Mu Qingsheng must have given birth to a boy.
He had no intention of kicking someone when they were down, but Zhou Wushi was on his side and scolding Mu Qing, and he didn't feel happy about it.
The young man, having just given birth, is already suffering from the cold treatment he receives from his in-laws.
He would not sympathize with Mu Qing, who loved to stir up trouble, and he disliked Zhou Wu's behavior even more.
Mu Jin disliked Zhou Wu Shi, so she put her things down and went home with Zhou Lin.
It was much shorter than the time he spent with his grandparents in the Zhou family.
In his mind, it was enough that he could maintain a superficial relationship with the Zhou family.
On the way home, Mu Jin asked Zhou Lin, "If our first child is a boy, would you be disgusted?"
Zhou Lin gripped his hand tightly, and her eyes crinkled into a smile upon hearing this.
"Someone like you, I'm already in so much pain, how could I possibly dislike you?"
Mu Jin smiled gently, "What if it were like you?"
Zhou Lin frowned slightly, and Mu Jin felt a little uncomfortable upon seeing this.
They are all your own children. Whether you like them or not, you can't decide based on their appearance.
If Zhou Lin acts this way, he'll just be like Zhou Wu Shi. Who knows how he'll show favoritism when they have a second child?
Zhou Lin sighed, “If my son were to marry me, he would have a hard time getting married. We need to save up more money for him. If he doesn’t want to get married, we can find a husband for him. I’m sure no one will bully our son.”
Mu Jin felt a sudden sense of relief and chuckled, "You've thought quite far ahead."
"That's how it should be, but if it's a young man, it's better not to follow my example."
The thought of his own burly, immature son, who was still nowhere to be seen, filled Zhou Lin with anxiety.
Mu Jin slapped him and said, "What's wrong? A man like me, if he gets married, don't you feel sorry for him? Aren't you reluctant to let him go?"
Zhou Lin said helplessly, "I was just saying that, whether my son can get married or not, I would naturally prefer to find a son-in-law, but what good man from a good family would marry into another family?"
Even he himself, at such an advanced age and still unmarried, never considered marrying into the family.
There was another guy before, who saw that he was capable, so his parents came to arrange a marriage for him, asking him to marry into their family.
If his family hadn't offered too little to impress Zhou Wushi, Zhou Laosan would have felt ashamed to have a son who married into the family.
Zhou Lin is probably the third man in the village to marry into another family.
Mu Jin thought about it and agreed. She glanced at Zhou Lin and also began to worry about the fictitious boy.
The couple looked at each other in silence and sighed in unison.
Parents who love their children plan far ahead for them.
However, Zhou Lin and Mu Jin were both worried about this unfounded matter, which was perhaps a bit too far-fetched.
"Brother Lin."
The couple were worrying when they heard a soft, gentle voice calling out to them.
Hearing this gave Mu Jin goosebumps, and she immediately snapped back to reality.
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