Chapter 189 Then you'll have to change your surname.
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Li Shiyue and Yan Jiuniang didn't stand on ceremony. She took the purse directly, opened it, and looked at it in her palm. It was a small and cute gold leaf shaped like a leaf.
"Okay, you've seen the situation at my house."
If you want to live a slightly more comfortable life, you always have to spend some money.
I won't stand on ceremony with you. I'll take the money and give it to my mother so she can help you buy some things.
If there's anything else you want but you're too embarrassed to tell my mother, just tell me.
The next day, when the sun was high in the sky, Li's mother and Zheng Meiniang closed the courtyard gate and boiled a large pot of water for Li Shiyue and Yan Jiuniang, as the two had traveled a long way and needed to wash away the dust and grime.
The bath tub was placed in the kitchen. Li Shiyue was afraid that Yan Jiuniang would find it disgusting, so she said to her directly: "Although this bath tub is used by our whole family, every time someone uses it, we must wash it clean and dry it in the sun before putting it away."
If you don't like it, just sit inside and splash water on yourself.
Yan Jiuniang was naturally a little unable to accept it, but at this point, she wasn't the type to be picky regardless of the occasion.
Three large pots of water were boiled. Yan Jiuniang used two large pots by herself, while Li Shiyue used less than one pot of water to wash her body and hair.
At this moment, the two sat by the stove, letting Li's mother and Zheng Meiniang dry their hair.
When their hair was half-dry, the two of them took stools and sat in the yard, basking in the warm sunshine.
Basking in the sun, a slight breeze occasionally drifts by, blowing on your face, ruffling your hair, and making your face feel a little itchy;
You can hear the donkey braying and the chicks chirping in the yard, and the four puppies roaming freely in the yard are also running and jumping around. This scene is truly delightful.
“Haha,” Yan Jiuniang suddenly laughed twice, and Li Shiyue looked at her with some curiosity.
Yan Jiuniang, who had her eyes closed, felt someone looking at her, so she opened her eyes and smiled at Li Shiyue, saying, "I never thought that one day I would have such a pleasant time."
Feeling both moved and happy, I laughed.
Li Shiyue stayed at home with Yan Jiuniang for two days, took her to Daheishan Mountain, to the paper mill, and also met Jiang Huai at the school.
Although Jiang Huai was a relative of Jiang Huijun's maternal family, he had never actually met Yan Jiuniang. He did not know Yan Jiuniang or who she was.
The fact that the Li family suddenly had a young girl naturally became the talk of the town in Liujiatun.
Li Shiyue lied to the outside world, claiming that Yan Jiuniang was the daughter of the owner of a bookstore in Qingsong Town. He said that he sent his daughter to visit the paper mill in advance because he wanted to do business with Li's paper mill.
Regardless of whether others believe it or not, that's the pretense.
Seeing that Yan Jiuniang's mood had stabilized, Li Shiyue asked her to write a letter. With the letter in hand, she called Ma Zi, and the two of them, one driving a mule cart and the other riding a horse, left Liujiatun and headed towards the prefectural city.
It was agreed that the paper shop in the prefectural city would take turns paying one person every ten days.
Li Shiyue brought Ma Zi to the prefectural city this time to replace Gou Laosan.
The mule cart was loaded with several large boxes of paper that had been secretly produced in the paper mill during this period.
This time, the two did not stay in Sanshan County, but went directly to the prefectural city.
They spent the night in a village outside the city, and before dawn, the two of them went to queue outside the city and entered the city in the early morning.
They first delivered the letter at the back gate of the General's Mansion, and then headed towards Shuyuan Street.
Yan Jiuniang hadn't just been eating and sleeping at the Li family's house these past few days; she had also given Li Shiyue some advice after listening to what she said.
"Your system of distributing rewards based on work is good, but it would be even better if there were rewards and punishments."
Yan Jiuniang taught Li Shiyue how she had managed the fleet over the years: "Every quarter, every half year, and at the end of the year, we would assess how much money each fleet made and rank them into first, second, and third class. Those at the top would be rewarded, and those at the bottom would be punished."
In this way, rewards and punishments are clearly defined, which is the proper procedure.
Li Shiyue naturally felt that Yan Jiuniang's words made sense, so she added new rules to the paper mill and paper shops.
In paper mills, the quality and quantity of paper produced determine the quality of paper; in paper shops, it is determined by the amount of business an individual takes during their shift.
In the early stages, we'll be busy, with one person working on a ten-day rotation. Once the shop starts to have a proper business, we'll rotate on a monthly basis.
After exchanging Ma Zi for Gou Lao San at the Fucheng Bookstore, they bought a lot of things. Li Shiyue, Li Qiutian, and Li Xiatian, along with Shi Tou, went back to Liujiatun with Gou Lao San.
Since the beginning of July, something truly joyous has finally happened in Liujiatun.
Dog Lao San and Zhao You's widow Zhao Min got engaged and married on the Qixi Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
When Li Shiyue first heard Li's mother tell her about this, she was puzzled. How did these two people get in touch?
"My third brother is busy at the paper mill all day long, how could he have time to associate with women and girls?"
"It's Third Aunt!"
Li's mother looked up at everyone and said this, but none of the blockheads in the family knew to support her. It was Yan Jiuniang who smiled and asked Li's mother, "Auntie, who are these third aunties and third brothers?"
After giving Li Shiyue a reproachful glare, Li's mother turned around and explained to Yan Jiuniang with a smile the relationship between Gou Laosan and his third aunt.
After saying that, Li's mother continued, "When we built houses in our village, your third aunt couldn't stay idle for the past two months. She helped the women who cooked at the crossroads by washing and preparing vegetables."
"And so, she got involved with Wang Cuihua," Li's mother pointed to Li Shiyue, "that woman who complained about you, she's the youngest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family patriarch, the one who only gave birth to a little girl."
When Li's mother mentioned it, Li Shiyue remembered the woman named Wang Cuihua.
"Third Aunt has a good personality, and she can talk to Wang Cuihua and Zhao Min, who come to cook."
Later, it was learned that Zhao Min was a girl from Zhao You's own village. She had married into Qingsong Town, but little did anyone know that after giving birth to a baby girl, her husband caught a cold and died.
The old woman in front of her disliked that she had only given birth to a little girl, saying that her son had been cursed to death by Zhao Min, and refused to let Zhao Min live in their house no matter what.
Zhao Min had no choice but to say that if he wanted her to leave, she had to take the young woman with her, and from then on, the young woman would have no further connection with his family.
"Then you'll have to change your surname."
"If the in-laws don't want the child, they might try to sell him for money when he's older."
Li Shiyue's words were met with nods of approval from everyone, including Yan Jiuniang. These heartless people were truly capable of doing such a thing.
"I don't know if she changed her surname or not, but I heard from my third aunt that the Zhao family is not bad. They called the men in the village to go to Zhao Min's house and take back all of her dowry, and they also took the child away."
So, Auntie San took a liking to Zhao Min and thought she could act as a matchmaker for your third brother.
She always had your third brother go to the place where they cooked to chop firewood and do chores. Over time, he fell for her, and now they're getting married!
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