flstandardbreds Chapter 119: The porters are not dead?
Chapter 119: The porters are not dead?
The porters seemed very happy, talking loudly and laughing heartily from time to time.
"We are really shameful! I have never offended such a big person because of drinking in my life!" said a porter.
Another porter took chopsticks out of the chopstick cage and said, "The steward's wine is really strong. He passed out after drinking just one bowl."
"We can't help it. We haven't had a drink in a while. It's embarrassing to get drunk. One bowl is enough."
The man that Li Yuer and the others met in the temple before came out of the kitchen with an apron on his body.
"Brother Dali, why are you two here together today?"
From their familiar way of speaking, it is not difficult to tell that they are old acquaintances.
For a porter who earns more than ten cents a day, the big bowl of noodles is not cheap. A bowl of noodles costs eight cents. A person spends all the day's wages on a bowl of noodles. How can his mother, wife and children at home not eat or drink?
Therefore, porters generally do not eat noodles with meat. When they go out in the morning, they bring water and dry biscuits from home, which they have for lunch and wait to eat again when they return home in the evening.
Ge Dali seemed to be in a good mood. He had been smiling since he entered the room. "We got a job. The boss is very generous and kind. After work, we came together to have a bowl of noodles."
As a long-time neighbor, Zhao Changgeng was happy for them and said, "Okay, I'll get it down for you right away. It will be ready in a moment."
Then he called his daughter Zhao Yanyan: "Yanyan, get some hot water for your uncle Dali and the others. They must be thirsty after working for most of the day."
"Come on, Dad."
Li Erlang whispered, "What on earth is going on?"
Shitou shook his head. "Could it be that we were dazzled before?"
Li Erlang tapped him on the head with chopsticks. "Stupid! Have you ever seen seven pairs of eyes dazzled at the same time?"
Li Yuer said, "Hush! Listen."
She pointed to the porter at the next table and said.
So Li Erlang slowed down the speed at which he ate the noodles, counting them one by one, just to listen to the call.
Ge Dali's hearty laughter came from the next table. "As expected of a big businessman from Jiangnan, he didn't ignore us even when we were drunk, and even gave us a room at the Mazu Temple. He's such a good man. No wonder he made a fortune. This is called good things happening to good people."
"That's right. I didn't expect him to give me a reward. A whole..."
"Hey!" Ge Dali patted his shoulder, signaling him not to show off his wealth, "Walls have ears, be careful."
Ge Dali looked towards Li Yuer and her group warily, but when he saw that they were a group of children, he looked away and continued chatting.
It was past dinner time, and there were only two of them left in the store, making them an obvious target.
Li Yu'er could roughly guess what happened. The porters saw something they shouldn't have seen and were knocked unconscious by the drugged wine. The other party was not a wicked person. After their goods were far away, they sent the porters to the Mazu Temple and left a lot of reward money. It was probably considered as hush money and compensation.
"Let's go." Li Yuer stood up and said.
Li Erlang quickly slurped up the last piece of noodle and stood up. He had been eating this noodle for a long time just to delay time.
After Li Yuer and the others left, Zhao Yanyan came over to clean up the dishes. She was slightly surprised to see the clean dishes. It was the first time she had seen guests eat so cleanly, without even a drop of soup left.
When they passed by the market, they went in for a look because the New Year was approaching and a separate area for selling couplets had been set up in the market.
Li Erlang liked a couplet and wanted to buy it.
Li Yuer secretly thought that her elder brother definitely had a talent for shopping.
She quickly spoke up to stop Li Erlang, "Brother, my cousin can write, and his handwriting is better than this. We don't need to buy couplets."
"Oh yeah, look at my head, I saved some money again."
The group bought some food, vegetables, meat, eggs and other ingredients, and then returned to the village.
As soon as he came back, Li Yuer asked Cai Junyi for some paper, then went to the kitchen to burn some branches as charcoal pencils, and began to draw furiously.
What she wanted to draw was not something else but a pulley. When she saw the box fall at the dock today, she thought of the pulley in her previous life.
If there were pulleys, transporting things from high to low would be much easier and less labor-intensive.
So, I drew the design of the pulley and took it to the town to make it when I had time.
She doesn't draw particularly complicated pulleys, only the simplest ones.
Then, she prepared a lot of colored glue and asked Cai Junyi and Guo Qingran to write and paint on all the oil lamps. Of course, they could not compare with the special-grade oil lamps, so they just wrote auspicious words such as "Good luck", "Congratulations on making a fortune", "Have a son soon", "Successful in the imperial examination", and then painted one or two appropriate flowers, or simple patterns such as magpies.
She also asked Li Laosan and Li Erlang to help cut the paper, and then asked Guo Qingran and Cai Junyi to write couplets.
Guo Qingran's handwriting was elegant and graceful, while Cai Junyi's was vigorous and dancing, both were beautiful. Li Yuer was very happy when she saw them. Similarly, she asked them to draw auspicious pictures at the beginning and end of the couplets, which were also simple flowers, plants, birds or fish.
Li Yuer is not so easy to defeat. As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome. If one way doesn't work, just take another one.
The next morning, a group of people came to the town with oil lamps.
They went to Nongchaolou first. Because of his contribution in hosting the Whale Tasting Banquet, Manager Qian would lead his cronies to the new store in the county town to be the head manager after the new year.
Shopkeeper Qian was naturally happy to see Li Yuer and the others, and treated them like his own relatives.
"Yu Baoer, Erlang, Lao San, you are here to see Uncle Qian."
After spending several times together, Li Erlang and the others are now much more natural in front of Manager Qian.
He greeted with a smile: "Of course. I haven't seen you for a few days. You look younger." Li Erlang had a sweet mouth and could coax anyone he met.
Li Laosan greeted Qian Zhang politely.
After the greetings, Li Yuer took out his oil lamp.
Shopkeeper Qian showed some reluctance in his eyes. There were many oil lamps appearing on the market recently. He had known for a long time that the owner behind them was the Wan family.
This matter, actually, has something to do with him.
At the beginning, when Li Yuer and his friends sold the shell oil lamps to Nongchaolou, their boss immediately sent someone to send one to the young ancestor of the Wan family, Young Master Jing.
As a businessman, you may not know when your son’s birthday is, but you must know when the county magistrate’s mother’s birthday is.
Although the merchants are rich, they are not noble. Any small official with a little ability can easily find a reason to ruin a merchant family.
Their boss had been in Xinpu Town for so many years that he naturally took into consideration all the noble people he could think of. When he heard that Young Master Jing liked to collect rare objects, he immediately presented the one-of-a-kind whale shell oil lamp to him.
Who would have thought that Wan Fu, as the largest businessman in Ningzhou Prefecture, had a keen eye for business opportunities. Within a few days, he had figured out how to make shell oil lamps. He also improved on Li Yuer's method, mass-produced it, and sold it in various stores.
When seeing Li Yuer taking out the oil lamp, Manager Qian felt guilty and thought that this time he was the one who took charge of collecting their oil lamps for Nongchaolou, so they could still be used in Xinpu Town.
He didn't dare use Li Yuer's oil lamp in the new store in Huihai County for fear that the Wan family would have objections.