Slurp!
Whenever Yue Jiuyue thinks of crayfish, she thinks of spicy crayfish, which is her favorite type of shrimp.
It's just too expensive!
Whether it's crayfish or winter plum blossoms, that's something for next year, or even later. Right now, Yue Jiuyue spends her days sitting by the window basking in the sun when it's just right, and the rest of the time she stays on the kang (heated brick bed) inside the house, covered with a quilt, hibernating.
When Yue Jiuyue saw Xiaoman'er crying every day as she had to learn to read and do needlework, she felt exceptionally happy. Yes, happiness, especially happiness built on the suffering of others, is true happiness.
It's that kind of schadenfreude, the kind of joy that comes from thinking, "You've got what's coming to you."
For Xiaoman'er, class time was like torture, but for the Zhou family children, it was their favorite time, and even the two Wan family children looked forward to it every day. The Zhou family children wanted to continue their studies to prepare for the future, while the Wan family children wanted to be able to work independently in the shop, which was the position of manager that Lin Chaobei was looking forward to.
Yue Jiuyue was naturally happy to see this happen. Although she liked making money because it gave her a sense of security, she preferred to be a hands-off boss, sitting back and waiting to collect money without having to work hard herself. This kind of happiness was unparalleled.
As for the Zhou family, at least they are honest and law-abiding for now. As for the future, we'll deal with that later. If any bad signs appear, she can simply return them to the brokerage firm and make another profit.
For Yue Jiuyue, winter brought far less joy than the other three seasons. She was afraid of the cold, she didn't want to move, and outside, besides the northeast and northwest winds, there was only moderate to heavy snow; even light snow was rare. On the rare sunny days, she could only bask in the sun around noon, making it all incredibly boring.
But she's really lazy now, she doesn't want to do anything. Building snowmen and having snowball fights are games for young people and children. She categorizes herself as a grandmother, and people call her "grandma" every day. She feels old because she's being called that, that she's no longer young, so she can't do those things anymore. Yet she also finds this kind of life too boring, which is also worrying.
She felt sad, but she didn't share this feeling with others. There was no one suitable to share her bad mood with, so she had to find ways to cheer herself up.
After being bored for several days, Yue Jiuyue finally came up with a good way to pass the time.
She wants to write a novel!
Whether she can make money is secondary; after all, she was just writing it to pass the time.
Of course, if people actually watch it and are willing to pay to watch it, she would be happy to see that happen.
Writing novels on the spot is too mentally taxing, so I'll start with short stories from ancient legends. They're not very long, and I've either heard or read them before. Writing them down, or more accurately, reciting them from memory, isn't too difficult.
Yue Jiuyue is not good at calligraphy. It's not that her writing is ugly, but the main problem is that while her calligraphy is not so bad that it can't fit a large character on an A4 sheet of paper, she also can't write small characters, otherwise they would just become a mess.
Do I have to practice calligraphy first?
Finally, after trying firewood sticks and Goose Brand quill pens, Yue Jiuyue decided to start by writing from memory with the quill pen, and then practice calligraphy as well. After all, it was just to pass the time. If she could develop good calligraphy skills, it would be another skill she could acquire.
So, while everyone in the family was busy with their own things, Yue Jiuyue finally found something to do: write down a short story from memory every day. When she had enough, she could bind them into a book and then open her own bookstore.
At present, this is just an idea. In addition, Zhou Da is currently reciting "Hundred Family Surnames" and "Standards for Being a Good Student and Child" from memory and selling them in the shop. She can also bring in Huang Banxian. She can also recite poems, home-style recipes, and math addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division from memory... The bookstore will gradually have books.
"Mother, are there really gods in heaven?"
Lin Chaobei put down the two pages of paper filled with writing and asked curiously.
He discovered Yue Jiuyue's writing by chance. After obtaining her permission, he read through her mythological stories, such as "Nuwa Mending the Sky," "Jingwei Filling the Sea," and "Chang'e Flying to the Moon." He immediately became the number one person in the family urging her to continue writing. He would report to Yue Jiuyue's room every day to urge her to continue writing stories, wanting to be her first reader.
This winter's snow is the same as before. It's either snowing all winter long or the snow is melting. The roads are either so muddy that horse-drawn carriages can't walk on them, or they're icy and slippery. So recently he's been just looking after the shop in town and going home on time every day because he's still thinking about the ancient poems written by Yue Jiuyue.
Today, he naturally came to Yue Jiuyue's room to urge her to update the story. There was not only Lin Chaobei in the room, but also Lin Chaonan. However, Lin Chaonan was only brought over by Lin Chaobei for company. He didn't really like these short stories. He would rather go back to his room to rest and get up early tomorrow to go to the shop in town.
In fact, a courtyard in town had also been renovated, fully furnished and complete with everything. Even the heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove) had been rebuilt. To make it easier for them to heat the kang, Yue Jiuyue had also prepared a lot of firewood and charcoal.
They were worried about her being alone at home, so they would rather make the trip back and forth every day, braving the wind and snow. They would only stay overnight in town when the snow was too heavy or the roads were too difficult to travel.
"Well, I don't know either. Maybe it really existed a long, long time ago."
Yue Jiuyue was thinking about whether she should tell him about the origin of humankind.
After thinking it over, Yue Jiuyue gave up. It wasn't because she considered all aspects and found it unsuitable overall; it was simply because she was lazy.
"Well, actually, thinking about it, it's not impossible."
Lin Chaobei nodded seriously, appearing to completely agree with what Yue Jiuyue said.
Yue Jiuyue nodded in agreement; she thought so too, anything was possible.
“Mother, what other stories are there? Write them down quickly! Writing one or two stories a day is not enough! You're idle at home all day with nothing to do. Even if you can write two hundred words in a quarter of an hour, after deducting time for sleeping and eating, you still have five or six hours left. An hour is eight quarters of an hour, so you can write... Third Brother, how many words can you write in an hour?”
Lin Chaobei fiddled with his fingers but couldn't figure it out, so he had to ask Lin Chaonan, who was leaning against the wall and dozing off, for help.
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