After Lu Qian left, Zhou Quan accompanied Li Mai and Zhou Heng to their newly purchased courtyard. They let Zhou Heng choose a room to live in, and after tidying it up and arranging it for him in the next few days, he could move in after the clan's sacrificial ceremony.
Zhou Heng chose to live in the main room on the west side, while Li Mai used the two west rooms as an embroidery room and finished product warehouse, and the two east wing rooms as a fabric room and raw material warehouse.
The other main room was Li Mai and Zhou Quan's accounting office; they rested there when they came over.
The two south-facing rooms will remain empty for now. We'll see what they're needed for later and then furnish them.
In the backyard, Li Mai planned to buy two old women to cook and boil water for everyone in the workshop, and to wash clothes and tidy up Zhou Heng's house.
From now on, Zhou Heng will live in this courtyard and look after the fabric workshop. Of course, he will spend most of the day guarding the Red Pomegranate Garment Workshop and will only come back once when assigning tasks.
It takes less than fifteen minutes to go from the shop to the courtyard and back. The distance is very short. Zhou Heng was grateful for the couple's kindness to him. He then asked Li Mai if they still needed to hire embroiderers for their shop. Li Mai nodded, "Yes, we'll hire two more embroiderers and six more who know needlework."
Zhou Heng agreed and went back to the shop to make arrangements.
After Li Mai and Zhou Quan returned to the shop, Zhou Quan went to find Zhou Lin to discuss the matter of cleaning up the doors and windows and furnishing the small courtyard.
Zhou Lin agreed, saying that he could finish making all the materials for the spinning machine his sister-in-law wanted by tomorrow, and he could take it back to the village in a few days and assemble it there.
After he finishes these things tomorrow, he will go over and help his sister-in-law tidy up her place.
Zhou Quan agreed.
Two days later, Zhou Lin had two more apprentices. They were children from the townspeople's families, about twelve or thirteen years old. Their families no longer supported their education, so they were sent out to learn some trades.
Through relatives who were in business, Zhou Lin established a relationship with them. After confirming that the two children were of good character, Zhou Lin asked his elder brother for advice after Zhou Quan returned yesterday. Once he decided to take them on as apprentices, he agreed to accept them.
Zhou Quan felt that his business was growing bigger and bigger, and that he and Nan Su alone couldn't handle it all. He thought it would be better to let Nan Su start training apprentices now.
Six months later, his apprentices also became his helpers.
Nan Su is now very happy. He has become the senior disciple and directs his junior disciples every day, teaching them some simple knowledge in place of their master, starting with recognizing wood, tools, and how to use those tools.
The next day, Zhou Quan rode his horse to the mountains in the morning to check on the progress of Jin Shi and the others. He saw that they had prepared a lot of trees and told them to wait until after the 19th to send them back, saying that they would not be in town on the 19th and they would not be able to enter the Zhou residence if the trees were sent back.
Metal and stone should be used.
Zhou Quan asked Jin Shi if he had enough money, and Jin Shi replied that he had plenty.
He asked Zhou Quan when they would finish work and go back. Zhou Quan told them to come back at the end of October, as it would get very cold in the mountains in November. When they returned at the end of October, they would start preparing for the construction of their own houses, and they would begin building the sect next spring.
Jin Shi was grateful to Zhou Quan for making the plan for him and agreed, saying that he would visit the boss when he returned and ask him to help him plan how to build the sect. Zhou Quan thought about it and agreed on behalf of Li Mai.
I imagine Xiaomai would be happy to help them, after all, he was very happy when he saw Xiaomai drawing when the new village was being built last year, she seemed to really enjoy drawing.
After returning, Zhou Quan spent the rest of his time personally helping Li Mai tidy up the small courtyard of the fabric workshop.
Zhou Lin and his apprentices also helped replace the broken doors and windows with new ones, and then painted them to prevent them from being damaged by insects or wind and rain.
After the doors and windows were finished, the furniture needed by Limaila was made.
Zhou Quan, along with the guards arranged by the steward of the manor, was tidying up the rooms. After tidying them up, they also painted the walls of the rooms white.
Lu Qian brought gifts to see Madam Qi at noon that day. When Madam Qi learned that he had come to see her to meet Zhou Tao, she realized that the young master of the Lu family had taken a liking to Zhou Tao.
She knew that Zhou Quan and Lu Qian had a good relationship. After hearing Lu Qian say that he had come with Zhou Quan's permission, she didn't want to be the bad guy. She asked the old woman who served her to call Zhou Tao, who had just finished practicing the zither and was waiting for dinner with her fellow students.
Zhou Tao was stunned when she saw Lu Qian coming to her door. She didn't know whether to pay her respects to her master or to him.
Madam Qi smiled and said, "Tao Tao, Young Master Lu said he needs to talk to you. You two talk first, and Master will go to the inner room to rest."
She didn't tell anyone, since it concerned Zhou Tao's reputation. She only took the old woman into the inner room and let the two of them talk in the outer room.
Now that it was just the two of them, Zhou Tao was even more at a loss, and she stammered, "Brother Lu, what's the matter with you?"
Seeing the little girl so nervous in front of him for the first time, Lu Qian felt a mix of relief and helplessness.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to come see you. As for those things that were circulating in town about me a while ago, they were all rumors. Someone was trying to frame me, but the matter has been resolved now. Don't overthink it, and don't think of Brother Lu as a fickle person." The two of them were sitting several seats apart, and Lu Qian didn't dare to go over and sit next to her. He just looked at her and explained to her softly.
"Oh, is she really your cousin?" Zhou Tao was curious about how he had resolved the situation.
Aren't we relatives? Does that mean we can't be relatives anymore? What if after I marry Brother Lu, he wants to come into the family as a concubine?
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