Chapter 31 Making Ink Sticks
When Gao Zhiyuan returned to the room, he saw that the bookshelf was empty. He was stunned for a moment. After he came to his senses, he ran to ask Mrs. Cui, and then Mrs. Cui remembered it.
Because she was interrupted by her own daughter just now, she forgot to mention the matter of the mouse biting the books.
She pointed to the cabinet at the corner of the bed and said, "Son, there is a bundle in the cabinet. It contains all the things in your room. Go and take them out."
Gao Zhiyuan went to get it, and Mrs. Cui continued, "No one lives in your room, and we dare not go in casually. We only go in every few days to clean it. But a few nights ago, mice came in and bit your books, but not all of them were bitten. There are still a few intact books. Do you think the bitten books are important?"
Gao Zhiyuan's heart skipped a beat. He didn't expect that the few mice his mother mentioned would cause such great destructive power.
He immediately opened the bundle and saw the torn books. He felt so distressed. These were all the books he had saved up over the years and had spent a lot of money on. They were also for show. Some of the books were specially copied by Yunniang from her father's books and given to him.
He flipped through the forty-odd books and found that more than half of them were destroyed.
Gao Zhiyuan gritted his teeth in anger: "Why did a rat suddenly appear when all of a sudden it happened?"
Mrs. Cui was also distressed: "A mouse has dug a hole under the bed in your room. Yuan, you must have studied these books before. If you have, it is not a pity to destroy them."
"I did learn, but... forget it, Mom, have I repaired my house?"
"It's all been repaired. Don't worry, rats won't get in again."
"Um."
Gao Zhiyuan took the books back to the house and put the intact ones back on the bookshelf.
Why are there always unhappy things happening at home recently? It seems like we should add some joy to our family.
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For three consecutive days, Zuixianju ordered 100 kilograms of spring bamboo shoots. Li Wanyue thought that the price would drop on the fourth day, but unexpectedly, four days later, Manager Wu still ordered 100 kilograms, saying that spring bamboo shoots were also very popular in Zuixianju in the county town, and the boss asked him to deliver 70 to 80 kilograms to the county town every day.
Shopkeeper Wu did not have the audacity to say that the county town only served their family. After all, the passenger flow in the county town was incomparable to that of the town.
Through his own efforts, Li Sandong also attracted orders from two restaurants in Shiquan Town and Chunxi Town.
The two towns had 40 kilograms each in the first two days, but it became 20 kilograms on the third day because some people had already eaten in Qingshi Town.
In just these few days, the income from spring bamboo shoots is three or four taels.
Just enough to pay off the debt.
Now we can harvest about 100 kilograms of spring bamboo shoots every day, and the income is pretty good.
The work was enough for their family. In just a short period of time, they had earned what they would have earned in half a year. They were very satisfied.
In addition, without ox carts, transportation would be a problem even if we found new customers.
The two towns that Li Sandong found happened to be on the way to the county town. The village's ox carts carried people to the county town every day. They could put the bamboo shoots on the ox carts and give a few more cents, and they would deliver them.
Let’s do this for now.
Zhao Suying said with emotion: "I never thought that our Yueyue is so capable. She helped us earn in just a few days what an ordinary family would earn in half a year."
Li Youshan nodded in agreement.
Li Wanyue reminded: "Dad, even if this money is enough to pay off the debt, don't pay it off all at once."
Li Sandong was a little slow to react and asked in confusion: "Why? Pay the money back quickly, and we will feel relieved. Why don't you pay it back when you have the money?"
Li Youshan understood what she meant, and he nodded in agreement: "Yueyue is right. We paid back the money before because everyone knew that the Gao family paid ten taels of silver. This is the money on the surface, but if people knew that our family earned three or four taels of silver in a few days, they would be jealous.
Your uncles and aunts will naturally not tell anyone, but if someone in the family cannot keep it a secret and tells others, it might cause trouble.
The remaining few families who haven't paid back have enough money, so we can pay them back a little every few days. It won't take long to pay it back, and it won't attract too much attention."
Only then did Li Sandong understand.
Zhao Suying glanced at Li Sandong and said, "Learn from this."
Li Sandong nodded vigorously, he got it.
In the afternoon, Li Wanyue asked Li Sandong to take out the deer antlers. They had been soaked for ten days and could be used to make glue.
Because the glue had to be boiled for two days without interruption, Li Wanyue borrowed a pot from the village chief. The village chief's family had replaced the pot with a new one some time ago, and the broken pot had not been sold yet.
She and her three brothers took turns watching over it, adding boiling water when the water was almost dry, and cooking for two days before turning off the fire.
Filter the juice with gauze, put the juice back into the pot, add gelatin and cook until it becomes thick.
Pour it into the mold, let it cool and shape, slice it, put it on a bamboo basket and wait to dry.
She asked Li Sandong to go to the foot of the mountain, find a suitable place to dig a cave, dig a small cave, and drill a small hole at the bottom of each jar. From large to small, they were stacked upside down and covered above the cave entrance.
"Sister, what are you doing?" Li Sandong asked curiously.
“Make ink sticks.”
"Ink sticks?" Li Sandong was shocked. When did his sister learn how to make ink sticks?
"Yes, Gao Zhiyuan used a lot of ink in the past, so he knows a little about it."
As he spoke, he asked Li Sandong to put the pieces of pine wood into the kiln to burn.
Several children helped to move the chopped pine wood to the side of the kiln.
They are very curious about how ink is made.
Li Sandong was thinking, last time the guy from Moxiangzhai said the cheapest ink stick was 600 wen, could the one his sister made sell for that much?
After burning for a while, take down the small jar on the top and gently sweep the ashes inside the jar with a feather.
Collect the ashes, repeat several times until you have collected enough ashes.
The next step is to wash the tobacco. The light smoke will float up and the impurities will sink. Take the pine smoke on the upper layer, pour it into a bamboo basket, and put it in a cool place to dry.
In the evening, under the sunset glow, there were two "black men" followed by a few little "black men". Fortunately, everyone had gone back to eat at this time, otherwise they would have attracted a lot of attention.
At the doorstep, Zhou Chen, the second daughter-in-law of the neighboring Zhou family, was talking to Zhao Suying with a basket of pig feed at her feet.
Seeing several figures approaching, his eyelids jumped and he shouted uncertainly: "Yueyue? Third Building?"
"Mom, it's us."
Zhou Chen said, "Oh, you two are taking the kids to dig coal? How did you do that?"
Li Wanyue smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, we are going to make some small things. If we make them well, we may be able to make some money."
Zhao Suying urged, "Go home and wash yourself. You look so horrible now. If it gets darker, you'll scare others."
"Hey, Sister Chen, let's go back first."
After saying hello to Zhou Chen, he returned home.
"Look at you guys. The clothes are in such a mess. I don't know if they can be washed clean. Sandong, has your mother not beaten you for a long time? You brought your sister and nephew to follow you in making trouble."
Li Wanyue quickly explained: "Mom, it was my idea. Sandong is like this because he listened to me."
"So what did you do?"
"You'll know in a few days." Li Wanyue smiled.
Zhao Suying had no choice but to ask the two to go wash up and change their clothes.
Li Wanyue washed herself thoroughly, had dinner, and sat in the yard to digest the food.
The night is starry and the sound of insects can be heard from time to time.
Seeing that the children were bored, Li Wanyue started telling them stories, saying that they could train their ears first and buy books when they earned some more money.
"Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant": During the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan of Wu gave Cao Cao an elephant..."
After the story was told, several children exclaimed that Cao Chong was so smart.
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