A few days later, Xuanwu led ten men back to Qingshi Town on horseback.
The oldest of these ten people is around fifty years old, and the youngest is twenty-two.
Judging from their clothing, it must have been new clothes they wore for the first time before going out, as there were neat creases on the clothes.
However, judging from their faces and eyes, there was a hint of dejection, suggesting they had been in a state of despondency for a long time. Yet, when they looked at Yun Chang, their eyes shone with light.
Especially when they knelt on one knee in front of Yun Chang, bowed to him, and looked up at him, the light in their eyes shocked Li Mai and Zhou Quan.
Yun Chang stepped forward and personally helped them up one by one. "You don't need to thank me. My sister needs help, and I thought since you're all free anyway, I might as well find you some jobs."
"Yes, thank you, Your Highness, thank you, Miss!" After thanking Yun Chang again, the ten grown men turned to Li Mai and expressed their gratitude.
Li Mai nodded. "Gentlemen, please come inside. We can talk slowly."
When the ten men heard Li Mai address them as "sir," they immediately stopped in their tracks, and the tips of their ears turned red in unison.
The young lady called them "sir".
In reality, they were just a bunch of uncultured men who only knew how to kill and fight. They could write a few words, but they were definitely not worthy of being called gentlemen.
For a moment, the ten men felt that their abilities were unworthy of the title "sir" bestowed upon them by the young lady.
Once inside, Yun Chang explained that they should acknowledge Li Mai as their master, follow her in business, act as her manager, and protect her younger sister.
The ten men responded in unison, knelt down, kowtowed to Li Mai, and acknowledged him as their master.
Li Mai made Zhou Quan sign a contract with them, agreeing to follow them for life and for him to take care of their food, clothing, and lodging for the rest of their lives.
At the same time, if anyone is destined to marry, Li Mai will give them a courtyard and help them with their wedding.
Normally, they are given five taels of silver a month, which they can save up. At the same time, they must also work hard to learn every skill they need to acquire while working.
The ten people agreed, and after pressing their fingerprints, they followed Zhou Quan to the accommodations he had arranged for them to rest.
After Xuanwu went to pick them up, Li Mai and Zhou Quan made some adjustments to their home. Zhou Tao and Zhou Lei moved to Zhou Lin's residence.
Including Zhou's parents, who will be brought over in a few days, they will also be staying in Zhou Lin's courtyard, since it's quite spacious there anyway.
They cleared out the east courtyard and arranged for the ten people to live there. There weren't enough rooms, so two people shared a room.
Zhou Lin was very happy. He and Xu Yue, who had come to help, tidied up the yard for everyone in the family and welcomed them to stay.
Fearing that there weren't enough servants in the mansion, Xu Yue arranged for five of her own people to come over in advance to help manage the mansion with the people Zhou Quan had previously bought for Zhou Lin.
Zhou Lin felt very warm inside because of Xu Yue's magnanimity and understanding, and his affection for her grew even stronger. Whenever he wasn't busy, he would go to see her, or when she came out to see him, he would try to spend as much time with her as possible.
The two of them became much closer, and they had already held hands, hugged, and kissed.
Xu Yue originally wanted to make wedding clothes for Zhou Lin herself, but Zhou Lin said that his sister-in-law had already arranged for a shop to make wedding clothes for the two of them, and had even taken Xu Yue to see them.
Xu Yue embroidered more than her own wedding dress, including the tablecloths and chair covers for their room, all of which she made herself.
While the two were deeply in love, the managers on Li Mai's side had been training for more than half a month, and they were able to handle most of the tasks.
Li Mai selected Liu Yuan, who was skilled in carpentry, and assigned her to Zhou Lin's shop, making her the shop manager. Liu Yuan was responsible for taking orders, entertaining customers, and keeping accounts, while Zhou Lin led his apprentices to make furniture in the workshop.
After Liu Yuan arrived, she helped Zhou Lin tidy up the upstairs. The upstairs was filled with small wooden furniture made by Zhou Lin and his apprentices, ranging from small items like wooden combs and wooden sticks to large items like kang boxes.
Customers who want to buy these small items can go upstairs to select them.
As for the larger cabinets, beds, and wooden couches, they are all placed on the first floor.
Now Zhou Lin has also bought a courtyard behind the shop. It was Xu's eldest brother who helped negotiate the deal. Xu used a small mansion to exchange locations with that other family and made up the price difference, just so that it would be convenient for Zhou Lin to set up a workshop here.
Li Mai and Zhou Quan only found out about this after they had bought the property and finished tidying it up.
Seeing that the Xu family truly treated Zhou Lin like family, the two were relieved. They hadn't expected the Xu family to take such good care of Zhou Lin even before they were married.
After all, the Xu family's reputation in town wasn't that of people who would protect their own. Li Mai felt that it could only be said that Xiao Lin was destined to be with the Xu family, and that he had truly caught their eye.
Zhou Lin really cared about Xu Yue. He personally went back to consult his master and started making furniture for their wedding when there were no customers ordering furniture. The most meticulous thing he did was to make the canopy bed.
I've heard that the most impressive dowry for young ladies in the capital is a canopy bed.
Although the Xu family members don't know how to carpent, he does. He wants to make a canopy bed for his wife that everyone will envy.
The day Xu Yue saw the blueprints, she became excited and looked forward to it; she loved that canopy bed.
Zhou Lin said it was much more complicated, and he would be lucky if he could manage to do it well before the wedding.
After Xu Yue found out, she didn't dare to waste Zhou Lin's time by visiting him often, and told him to focus on making the furniture they would use for their wedding.
After the veil was torn down between Lu Qian and Zhou Tao, their relationship became ambiguous and fraught with tension.
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