Chapter 98

"How can it be done on February 8th? Your car will definitely be used by then. Your Daqing mule is not considered labor? Daqing, look, Brother Jiang Wu said that you are not considered labor, and even your rations will be deducted."

The mule named Daqing shook his head and snorted, which seemed to mean that if he dared to deduct my rations, I would slow down and let him carry it by himself.

Zhao'er laughed loudly, pointed at Daqing and said, "Look, even Daqing protested."

Jiang Wu looked sideways at the girl who was smiling wantonly, with a strange gleam in her eyes. Fortunately, Daqing knew the way and was docile, otherwise he would have ordered all three people in the car into the ditch beside the road.

Seeing this scene, Xue Tingxiang's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

He was both annoyed and angry, he actually forgot about Jiang Wu.

In that dream, Jiang Wu has been coveting Zhao'er.

Jiang Wu was two years older than Zhao'er, but he never married. If Zhao'er hadn't been his child bride-in-law, the Jiang family would have come to propose marriage a long time ago.

Even so, Jiang Wu never gave up, and once even approached him and told him that he wanted to marry Zhao'er, telling him not to be so selfish and letting Zhao'er go free. She also said that she and Zhao'er would support him to study together and treat him like a younger brother, that's how he knew about it.

Shocked and annoyed, he also remembered Zhao'er's reluctance to marry him. He mistakenly thought that Zhao'er had an affair with Jiang Wu, so he borrowed his parents' orders to forcefully marry her. Later, by chance, Only then did he realize that he had wronged her.

This matter has always been a scar between the two, even though it was never mentioned again, there is a gap between them. Afterwards, he was busy starting his career, while Zhao'er was busy running business. The two met only once in a long time, and even when they met, they seldom talked again until he went to Beijing to rush for the exam after winning the exam.

The he in the dream once thought after Zhao'er died, if he hadn't been so despicable back then and forced Zhao'er by his parents' orders, Zhao'er wouldn't have died.

But this kind of thought is like a superficial thought, it just passed by in a flash. At this time, thinking about it, he is probably despicable in his bones. Even if he is not the Xue Tingxiang in his dream, he never thought of letting him go.

She was supposed to be his, and when he still half understood, someone would always point to her and say, this is his future wife, isn't it?

"Brother Jiang Wu, you'd better look at some roads, this road is uneven, don't lead us all into a ditch."

Xue Tingxiang's voice successfully interrupted the chatting and laughing of Jiang Wu and Zhao'er, as if a very ignorant person suddenly appeared, making the already warm atmosphere suddenly cool down.

Zhao'er laughed dryly: "Look at me, I was so focused on talking to you about the business that I forgot that you were still driving the car. Fortunately, Daqing is smart, otherwise I would have fallen."

Da Qing called out, looking very complacent.

Jiang Wu looked back subconsciously, just in time to meet the young man's dark eyes. Those eyes made him inexplicably guilty, but soon he regained his confidence.

He knew that the dogs of the Xue family didn't like to recruit children, and he also knew that the second bedroom couple of the Xue family originally recruited children as daughters, not child brides. The child bride-in-law was only passed on from the villagers to the villagers, and it became true because of the entrustment of the second wife of the Xue family at the end of their lives.

Not only that, but he also knew that Zhao'er only regarded the other party as a younger brother, and had no intention of marrying the other party.

The young man was undoubtedly thin and thin, although he was handsome, there was still a bit of childishness on his face. Such a young man made the strong and powerful Jiang Wu inexplicably feel condescending. He smiled heartily and said indifferently: "Don't be afraid, you dog, Brother Jiang Wu drives the car every day, and you can walk back with your eyes closed."

Xue Tingxiang did not speak, but lowered his head with the corners of his lips pursed.

Seeing this, Zhao'er immediately understood whether the title Gouzi made the little man feel uncomfortable again. But facing Jiang Wu, she couldn't show a cold face, she could only smile and say: "Brother Jiang Wu, let me tell you that the dog has a name, it's called Tingxiang, Xue Tingxiang."

"It's an elegant name."

"Yeah, so don't call me Gouzi Gouzi in the future, it's weird."

While speaking, the car had arrived at Yuqing Village.

Jiang Wu inertially circled to the end of the village before stopping, Zhao'er and Xue Tingxiang got out of the car.

"When will the business be done? Tell me a time, and I will pick you up when the time comes."

"Aren't you going to be busy in the town tomorrow, and those clothes have to be tidied up. When I'm ready, I'll go to your house and give you a letter."

Zhao'er also thought that two days later would be the day when Xue Tingxiang and Xue Juncai competed, and she would not be in the mood to do business until this matter was over.

"OK."

*

Now that the matter was settled, they said goodbye to each other.

Jiang Wu drove the car home, while Zhao'er and Xue Tingxiang went home together.

Xue Tingxiang didn't say anything along the way, but just walked silently.

Zhao'er glanced at him: "What's the matter? You seem a little unhappy. Did Brother Jiang Wu call you angry just now? He didn't know you were famous. I told him that he would never That's what it's called."

He suppressed the jealousy in his heart, and said in a muffled voice, "Why do you know him so well?"

"Brother Jiang Wu, we've known each other since we were young. You forgot that Heizi was brought back by his dog after he gave birth to a cub. Brother Jiang Wu is a very nice person and has helped me a lot."

Xue Tingxiang didn't speak, but stopped.

Zhao'er walked forward for a while, only to realize that he hadn't followed.

She came back in a few steps, and asked suspiciously: "What's wrong with you, why are you so weird?"

He held his breath: "Don't forget, you are a man."

Zhao'er was taken aback for a moment, then looked at him and laughed. But he just smiled and didn't speak, which made Xue Tingxiang angry and annoyed.

Don't think about it, she must have thought of something good.

Seeing his fair face flushed with anger, Zhao'er hurriedly said: "Okay, don't be angry, I know I have a man."

There was a teasing taste in her voice, knowing that she was coaxing him, his heart still jumped several times.

With the experience in the dream, Xue Tingxiang knew that this was not the time to be awkward, besides, there was Jiang Wu watching over him, so he didn't want to repeat the experience in the dream again.

He couldn't help but reiterated: "I'm also doing it for your own good, lest people in the village see and make irresponsible remarks." He didn't dare to look at her, but stared at the ground beside him, with some confidence in his heart. Distracted.

Seeing him confessing himself like an adult, with a fair face and a slightly childish face, I don't know how to trick him and want to rub his head.

She did the same, and said at the same time: "Well, well, you are right, I will listen to you."

He suddenly became more angry, and a sense of powerlessness and discouragement came to his heart.

Why does she always treat herself like a child!

*

Early the next morning, Zhao'er and Xue Tingxiang went out.

When I arrived, Dongliju had just opened, Xue Tingxiang went to the clean room yesterday to continue copying books, but Zhao'er went to the yard behind the shop.

She discussed with Boss Chen and borrowed this place to pack her clothes. Zhao'er had seen those clothes before, they were all old clothes, since she wanted to make money, she couldn't afford to sell them poorly, so she came here today mainly to do this job.

She borrowed the bamboo mat used for drying books from the shop, poured out the big bag of clothes, first sorted them into men's and women's styles, and then divided them into several piles according to texture and thickness, and then began to check the clothes one by one for damage. The place.

If there was a hole somewhere, she would sew it up with the needle and thread she brought. Zhao'er's needlework is pretty good, but she can't do embroidery or something, and she's fine with sewing and making clothes.

She managed to clean up a pile, and seeing that the sun was shining outside, she went to fetch water from the well in the courtyard. There is a pulley in the well, so it is very convenient to fetch water. Zhao'er fetched a basin of water, soaked the clothes in the big wooden basin, wiped the soap locust water and scrubbed it.

After washing and rinsing, the rice soup in the kitchen is also ready.

Although Boss Chen and the others don't cook in the shop, they always need a place to boil water for tea and so on, so the shop also turned on the fire, and Zhao'er borrowed the stove to cook a big pot of rice soup.

She brought out the boiled rice soup, poured it into the wooden basin, and added some water into it, it is most suitable if it is slightly hot. Fang poured all the washed clothes into it and kept stirring with a stick.

Stir well, put half a cup of tea, pick up the clothes from the wooden basin, fetch water and rinse again.

This is the so-called starched clothes. The clothes that have been washed are sticky and sticky. As long as they don't fade, they look like new ones. Some people who are fastidious will iron it with an iron, but since there is no such condition, Zhao'er does not intend to do so.

During this period, Boss Chen came in. Seeing that Zhao'er was in full swing, he pointed to the various clothes hanging out in the yard and said with a smile, "It's good for you, you take my place as your own. You make it look like a laundry room."

Nowadays, there are places like starch washing rooms. Some people don't want to wash their clothes at home, so they will send their clothes to the starch washing room for washing. Inexpensive and saves time and effort.

Knowing that Boss Chen was joking with himself, Zhao'er also joked: "After what Uncle Chen said, it opened my eyes again. When I don't have any business to do, I will buy a laundry room. When the time comes Uncle Chen will bring you the clothes, and I will wash them for you without charge."

"You girl, you are really a good businessman." Boss Chen shook his head and laughed, and went back to the front.

The room where Xue Tingxiang copied the books was in this yard, and the big window happened to be facing the yard, so Zhao'er's every word and deed could be seen by him.

Usually he can concentrate on nothing else, but today he is always going to see her intentionally or unintentionally.

Seeing her tossing around in the yard, seeing her very lively face under the sun, seeing the beads of sweat on her forehead, she had no intention of copying the book at all, and only copied less than two pages in one morning.

Boss Chen walked in to take a look, and followed his gaze to Zhao'er: "You are lucky to have such a woman at the booth."

Xue Tingxiang did not speak.

Boss Chen said again: "By the way, how far have you reached in your studies?"

"I have finished studying the four books, but I can only read them, but I can't understand them."

"It's okay to be able to read but not understand. Now that you have entered the university, you should start to learn Mingjing. However, in that kind of country school, many teachers themselves have only a half-knowledge, and they can't teach anything. You can read more when you have nothing to do. Reading books like "Four Books Chapters" and "Zhu Zi Ji Zhu" can't help you fully understand the scriptures, but they are somewhat helpful. The most important thing is to find a good school with good teachers to guide you. "Boss Chen pointed out.

After a pause, he said again: "I heard from Zhao'er that he wanted to send you to the Qinghe Academy. Instead of spending a lot of money to go to that kind of place, I suggest that you go to the Qingyuan Academy."

"Qingyuan Academy?" Xue Tingxiang asked in a daze.

Boss Chen thought he didn't know, or was deceived by rumors like those ordinary people, and said: "This Qingyuan Academy is one of the oldest schools in Huyang Township, and it used to be famous throughout Xia County. In our township, half of the people who pass the county examination every year come from the Qingyuan Academy, and there are not a few of them who pass the exam. It’s just that the Qinghe Academy has risen suddenly in the past few years, and it seems to have declined.”

Boss Chen's voice was low, as if he was sighing infinitely, and suddenly turned high, quite angry: "Everyone in the world values ​​fame and fortune, and is easily deceived by false appearances. They don't know that the Qinghe Academy is using opportunism. The owner Gao Relying on his relationship with County Magistrate Hu, Youzhi became attached to him, and all the money allocated by the imperial court to the county to support local social studies and village studies flowed into the Qinghe Academy, and the two of them made a lot of money and filled their own pockets.

"And the owner of the Qingyuan Academy is an upright person, and he doesn't want to be with him. In addition, the Qingyuan Academy has a lot of preferential treatment for the children of poor families. Without this silver subsidy, we can only encourage and support it. The county that presides over the county examination Lingdu looked at Qinghe Academy differently, and even the students who wanted to enroll flocked there. This has changed, and the reputation of Qingyuan Academy has gradually declined in recent years."

The books in the bookcase are new and old, some are hardcover, which are worth a lot of money at first glance, and some are thread bound, which look a little rough. Most of them are transcripts of various kinds. Generally, it is not sure that the book will be a good seller. The boss of the bookstore always asks someone to copy it, because if it is opened, thousands of copies will be printed.

Zhao'er was familiar with the boss, and greeted her with a smile as soon as she entered the door. The strange thing was that the boss recognized her, and when he saw her, he smiled and asked her if she came to buy paper for her brother.

Bringing this up is a bit old.

Back then, Zhao'er felt sorry for Xue Tingxiang, so she saved some money to buy paper for him to practice calligraphy. Who would have thought that this paper was much more expensive than she imagined. Even the worst yellow bamboo paper costs 40 Wen a knife, but that day Zhaoer collected all the money on his body, but only 30 Wen.

In order to get the boss to sell the paper to her at a lower price, Zhao'er worked with the boss for a long time. He even made up the pretense of having a hard-working younger brother, but unfortunately both parents died and his family was poor, so the boss agreed to sell it to her cheaply. Later, she came to buy it several times, all at the previous price, but she became acquainted with Boss Chen.

Boss Chen praised her for her noble character, earning hard money, but still supporting her younger brother's education. Usually, when she comes to buy paper, she almost always buys half and gives half away.

Normally, Zhao'er would accept this kind of talk with a cheeky face, but today with Xue Tingxiang around, she was inevitably a little embarrassed, for fear that Boss Chen would slip up and make the little man look down on her for lying.

Zhao'er has suffered, so she knows the skills of survival, but the little man doesn't, especially the scholar is very pedantic, so every time she encounters such a situation where the two people's ideas conflict, she will always subconsciously go away. Avoid these.

Within a day, two people said that they were his younger brothers, which made Xue Tingxiang very unhappy. Naturally, he didn't notice Zhao'er's hidden thoughts. When he came back to his senses, Zhao'er had already talked with the boss, and even showed him the copy of "Hundred Surnames" that he had copied overnight.

"This is your brother? He looks handsome, but a little thinner." Boss Chen is a middle-aged man in his forties, with a goatee and elegant body. Wearing a scholar's shirt, he doesn't look like a business boss, but a scholar.

"He was sick for a while a while ago, and he got better recently."

"No wonder I haven't seen you here for a long time." While talking, Boss Chen took the manuscript that Zhao'er handed over, whether it was bound or paper quality, it was very poor.

He knew in his heart that this kind of peasant boy could not write very good characters, but he admired this young man named Zhao'er, so he planned not to criticize too much even if he really did not do well, just say some mild words and refuse it. up.

If the level is not bad and the words can still be read, it is not impossible to give him some casual work, just as a help.

But when Boss Chen saw the writing on the yellow bamboo paper, he was still taken aback.

"He wrote this word?" Boss Chen looked at Xue Tingxiang in surprise, and went to flip through the manuscript in his hand.

His expression was so weird that Zhao'er had a bad feeling in his heart. She couldn't help wondering if the little man's handwriting was not good, after all, no one had ever praised the little man's handwriting, even Xue Qingshan said that his handwriting was like a spring worm and autumn snake.

Although Zhao'er doesn't know what spring worms and autumn snakes are, she understands the sad look on the little man's face, and she knows it means poor writing.

But she didn't think it was the little man's fault. He even had to pick and use the paper that could practice calligraphy. Can he write well? It was that time that she lost her temper, collected vegetables and sold them in the town, and saved a sum of money to buy Xue Tingxiang's first piece of paper in her life.

It was a whole knife, not a few pieces given as a charity from Xue Qingshan or Xue Juncai.

Zhao'er's head felt cold for a while, and she couldn't help wondering if she was too blind to the little man at ordinary times, or if she flattered her too much. She was not afraid of anything else, but she was afraid that if Boss Chen said something unpleasant later, the little man would not be able to stand the blow.

Thinking of this, she hurriedly turned her back and made a gesture to Boss Chen, leading him aside, then said to him in a low voice: "Uncle Chen, if my younger brother's handwriting is really bad, can you..."

"Can you do something?" Immediately, Boss Chen understood and said with a smile: "You kid too, even if you have a heart of love and affection, you should not deceive him, but point out his shortcomings, so that he will to make progress.”