023, Ways to Make a Living
023, Ways to Make a Living
At night, his father and mother stayed in the house, and Lu Mingfei ran outside and slept with his uncle Chunping on the eaves outside the yard to watch over the cows.
It's not that they didn't trust the owner who took them in, but they were worried that a thief would pass by at night, see a cow tied in the yard, open the backyard door, and take away their cow.
In fact, there are people in their village who are responsible for watching over the cows at night, for fear that the cows will be stolen by thieves if they are not careful at night. Cows are very important assets to farmers, and they would rather lose themselves than lose their cows.
And this cow is borrowed, so we have to keep an eye on it even more.
Fortunately, there were two straw mats in the luggage they brought today. They spread the mats on the ground under the eaves, and each of them slept there wrapped in a quilt.
This was the first time in Lu Mingfei's life that he hadn't slept in the same room with his parents. Now that he was out in the world, he didn't plan to continue sharing a room with them. Before, that was out of the question, but now that he had the means, he wanted to live in his own room. However, they had to wait until daybreak to pawn the jade pendant at the pawnshop to get enough money to rent a room.
Thinking about his future life in the city, he was filled with hope for the future. Now that they had left the Lu family's old house, there were no more eyes staring at the three of them!
The free air is pretty good!
Lu Mingfei thought about his future life, then turned to look at the uncle lying next to him and asked, "Uncle Chunping, you will be back to the village tomorrow morning, right?"
"Well, uncle will be back at dawn. You and your father and mother are in the city..." Lu Chunping originally wanted to let the child take care of his father and mother here, but when he thought about the child being only four or five years old, he swallowed the rest of the words and said, "Listen to your father and mother and don't cause trouble for them."
"I know, I won't cause trouble for them." Lu Mingfei has never been a child who would cause trouble for his parents. In his previous life, he was naughty and mischievous, but in this life, he has been well-behaved and sensible since he was a child.
Lu Chunping also knew that this child had been well-behaved and sensible since he was young. Every adult in the village would praise him as a good child when they saw him. It was a pity that no one knew what Old Mrs. Wang and Old Man Lu were thinking. They didn't like such a smart and clever little grandson, but instead doted on the eldest grandson from the first house.
But that is someone else's business, and as an outsider, they can't say anything.
After thinking it over, Lu Chunping said to the child, "If you can't make it in the city, you can go back to the village with your parents... Life in the village is difficult, but it's better than outside. If you get into trouble, the villagers will help you out." It's not a famine now, so you can't just watch your people starve to death, right? Even if each person contributed a handful of food, it would help Lu Youtian's family of three get through the current difficult times.
However, given Lu Youtian’s physical condition, they didn’t know how much silver it would cost to heal his injuries... They were a bit helpless about this, as none of them had that much silver.
"Okay, thank you, Uncle Xie." Lu Mingfei knew that what Lu Chunping said to him was from the heart. He knew that he was being kind. If it weren't for his kindness, Lu Chunping wouldn't have sent them to the city today.
But he also knew that relying on mountains will cause them to fall and relying on people will cause them to run away. Only relying on oneself is the most realistic way.
For rural people without skills and illiteracy, finding a way to make a living in the city was indeed difficult. Unlike the information age of later generations, where one could simply search online for any craft and learn by watching a video, learning a trade on their own was a difficult task without a mentor. Unless one was truly gifted, they could figure out their own path without a mentor.
But his father is a man of deft hands and quick brains. Many people in their village know how to weave bamboo, but many people just follow the techniques left by their predecessors and don't innovate. But it's different for his father. His father will think of some new patterns and make some small things that are closer to daily use. In addition, he has provided his father with some wonderful ideas from time to time in recent years, so the patterns of the things his father makes are better than those made by others.
Moreover, when he grew up a little in the past two years, he would often accompany his father to set up a stall in the city to help attract business. The business was definitely better than when his father went to the city alone to set up a stall.
If they hadn't given all the money they earned from business back home over the years, the three of them would have been able to save some money. Unfortunately, over the years, his father was always thinking about the family and never thought about leaving any money for himself.
So, sometimes it is not good for people to be too filial.
In fact, today's incident had really woken his father up, which he felt was a good thing. This foolishly filial father wouldn't always be thinking about the family, thinking about supporting his eldest nephew's education to help support their third branch. Honestly, with this money, it would be better to support him in school. At least he would be a hundred times better at studying than that idiot Lu Zhiyuan!
However, if the three of them were to rent a place and live in the city, a small stall selling small items wouldn't be enough to cover their monthly rent. They needed to find another way to earn enough to cover their rent and living expenses.
With his head full of random thoughts, Lu Mingfei gradually fell asleep. Although he had an adult's soul in his body, this body was still too small. When the time came, he could not hold on any longer and fell asleep at any time.
Lu Chunping woke up several times that night. Every time he opened his eyes and saw the cow lying next to him sleeping, he could close his eyes and continue to sleep. The child next to him was already fast asleep.
***
"Boom!—Boom! Boom! Boom!"
"At four o'clock in the morning, in the dead of night, there are no taboos..."
At night, the night watchman walked along the road outside the door, and the "dong dong" sound of gongs and the "dong dong bang bang" sound of clappers rang out, reminding those who were still sleeping at night what time it was.
After the "dong dong duk duk" sounds passed, the lights in many people's houses on South Street lit up.
At this time, Lu Qingfeng and Xu Yueniang in the house also woke up.
"My dear, please sleep a little longer. I'll go outside to mix the noodles." Lu Qingfeng spoke to his wife in a low voice in the room.
Xu Yueniang hummed and lay in bed, not quite wanting to get up.
Lu Qingfeng looked at his wife who was lying in bed and smiled. He was reluctant to let her get up immediately, so he got up first, put on his clothes, tied his hair, lit the oil lamp on the table, and went out holding the oil lamp.
Hearing some noise in the master's house, Lu Chunping, who had already woken up, sat up. He glanced at the child who was still sleeping next to him, but without waking the child up, he lifted the quilt and got up.
“Squeak—”
The door of the house was opened from the inside, and Lu Qingfeng walked out of the house with a lantern in his hand. He heard a low voice from the other end of the corridor calling him "Boss Lu".
"Are you awake?" Lu Qingfeng asked the person walking towards him.
"Yeah, I woke up when I heard the night watchman outside." Lu Chunping hadn't slept well that night. He knew every time the night watchman passed by. Seeing Lu Qingfeng come out so early, he knew that Lu Qingfeng must have gotten up early to make sesame cakes, so he asked, "What do you want to do? I'll help you." The city gates were not open yet, so he couldn't leave the city even if he wanted to. He might as well help the host with some work to offset the cost of the meal he had eaten last night while staying at someone else's house.
"I have to go and knead the dough for making pancakes later. If you have nothing to do, can you help me get a few buckets of water to the front?" Lu Qingfeng asked without being polite to Lu Chunping.
"Okay, no problem." Lu Chunping replied.
A well was dug in their yard. Lu Qingfeng led Lu Chunping to the well, gave Lu Chunping a bucket, and asked Lu Chunping to help fetch water. He then went to the shop in front to work.
Lu Mingfei woke up to the sound of running water. He was stunned for a moment as he opened his eyes before remembering that the three of them and Lu Chunping had come to the city yesterday and stayed at someone else's house. The seat where his uncle Chunping lay was now empty. He sat up and looked towards the source of the running water. He saw his uncle Chunping standing by the well, drawing water. No wonder there was that ding-dong sound.
When he woke up, he didn't lie down anymore, but got up.
He folded up the blanket he was covering himself with and rolled up the mat as well. However, the thing was too heavy for him to carry, so he put it here for now and asked his mother to come out and get it later.
The big black cow tied to the side was still sleeping with its head curled up. It's really cute to see such a big cow sleeping.
Lu Mingfei glanced at the sky and knew it was still early. The moon was still hanging in the sky and it was still dark. In the moonlight, he saw a person drawing water from the well. There was a fire in the stall in front, so there must be someone inside.
"Uncle."
"Are you awake?"
"Um."
Lu Mingfei came over and greeted his uncle Chunping, then washed his face and rinsed his mouth with water. Seeing he couldn't help with the water, he learned that Boss Lu was in the shop up front, so he followed the firelight to find him.
As soon as he arrived, he saw Boss Lu kneading noodles here, so he greeted Boss Lu: "Good morning, Uncle Lu."
"Eh? You're up too?" Lu Qingfeng was quite surprised to hear the child's voice. "Are you hungry? Sit for a while. When the noodles are ready, I'll make some pancakes for everyone."
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