I played as an assistant in ancient times

Shen Changshou placed the three small wooden boxes with names on them in the big wooden box on the square table, and the three of them solemnly worshipped in the middle room of the west wing.

After Shen Xiaoye came out, she pressed her eyes with cold water and was seen by several family members who came in through the small door in the east wall.

Grandma Lin was laughing happily at this moment, "What's wrong? Are you being pretentious when you see grandpa and uncle come home?"

"Xiao Ye, are you ashamed? Look, when I saw grandpa and dad coming back, my eyes and eyebrows were smiling." Shen Cungeng ran over to tease her.

Being pushed back by his father’s big hand on his forehead, he said, “Daddy, Daddy, I missed you so much.”

"I believe you." Shen Changshou followed his wife's eyes. After not seeing her for two or three months, he felt that she had lost a lot of weight.

Huang was busy in the kitchen with a smile on her face. It was great that she was finally back! She had just added water to the big pot, and a pair of big hands took the ladle and said, "Take a rest, I'll do the cooking."

"Yeah." The couple smiled at each other in the kitchen and talked about endless parental trivia.

Several people in the yard had already accompanied the two old people back to the main house. Shen Changsui was quick to bring warm water to the old man for him to wash his hands and face.

Shen Xiaoye and her cousin poured tea and opened snacks for the old man. Grandma sat in the chair and watched with great joy.

After a while, the three little ones were driven out of the main room by the old man who took off his bags. The old couple had something private to say.

Shen Xiaoye turned around and heard her grandfather say, "Sold them all."

"Go filter the water first, and try to finish adding lime and making indigo before dark." Shen Changsui turned her head back and took the two of them back to the indigo dyeing pool in the east yard.

It can be said that this place is now full except for the house. Half of the yard is covered with grass planted by Shen Xiaoye, and there are also two rows of fields where they planted the woad roots they picked out a few days ago.

But these grasses suffered a bit in the past few days. Many villagers could not see clearly because of the obstruction of the wall, so they asked Huang to come to the east courtyard to see how the dye was made. As a result, a lot of grass was trampled down.

Fortunately, when the old man was renovating the west courtyard house last year, he used the remaining soil and stones to build the east courtyard wall, and also inserted small thorny shrubs on the wall, which really served as a wall to filter out some people who were embarrassed to come in and see the novelty.

Otherwise, the few things Shen Xiaoye planted would not be able to withstand the enthusiasm of the villagers to watch the fun.

Shen Xiaoye put on a mask and said, "Let's quickly move the woad to the compost pile. The smell is a bit too strong."

"We had agreed that Geng Ge'er and I would carry the water out while you filter it first." If the old man hadn't come back, they would have already sent out a lot of it by now.

Woad leaves can also be used for cooking, so I scooped out a pool of softened leaves that had been soaked for almost four days. The smell was quite pungent in the summer.

Normally, soaking woad in a temperature above 30 degrees for one or two days is enough, but there are mountains and forests near Jiuli Village, and the temperature is low at night, so the fermentation time of the raw materials will naturally be longer.

At this moment, the pond water, which is no longer indigo, has turned blue, but is also turbid.

All Shen Xiaoye needed to do was to filter out the blue juice in the pool. Buckets of water flowed into the urn below through the large basket under the filter cloth.

This method is very effective in removing raw material residues. As long as you have the strength, this job can be done quickly.

By the time Shen Changsui and his nephew had finished cleaning the "soft leaves", she had already filtered out three or four jars of blue water.

Shen Cungeng said, "That's fast enough. How about I mix all the lime?"

"Go ahead." Shen Changsui nodded in agreement. The quicklime blocks bought this time did need to be melted.

Shen Xiaoye instructed: "Weigh them separately and add water to dissolve them."

"I remember that one stone of water contains five liters of lime." Shen Cungeng had his own little thoughts. This guy returned to the west yard and quietly approached the kitchen, wanting to hear whether his mother had reported him.

Unexpectedly, when he was crouching under the window and putting his ear to the window, his father grabbed him by the collar and said, "You little bastard, what are you doing again?"

"Dad," Shen Cungeng leaned against him.

Shen Changshou was so disgusted that as soon as his hand loosened, he jumped up again and said, "Xiao Ye asked me to come back and mix the lime."

Shen Changshou shook his head and laughed, then he went over to help his son straighten his clothes, "Where is it? I'll get it."

"It's right at the door of the main room." Shen Cungeng said as he walked towards the main room, and then he saw a golden light on the table.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but was grabbed by his father again. Shen Changshou said, "Go to work."

"Dad, did you and my grandfather make a lot of money?" He couldn't help asking while mixing lime. Shen Cungeng wouldn't be wrong, what grandma picked up just now was the gold leaf.

Shen Changshou frowned and said, "Your grandfather sold the house and land in Qiu County."

Shen Cungeng stopped asking questions and focused on weighing the lime.

From ancient times to the present, buying a property is a symbol of family prosperity, while selling land and houses is considered a waste of money. In other words, everything in Qiu County was earned by the old man, and it would be a waste of money for his children and grandchildren to sell it.

He melted more than a dozen basins of lime and asked, "Move them all to the east courtyard?"

Shen Cungeng quickly stopped him: "No, you have to do it quietly here, these are secret recipes that cannot be passed on to others.

I'll go see if Fourth Uncle and Xiaoye have finished their work."

"Let's go together." Shen Changshou took his son in his arms, and the two of them walked towards the east courtyard, talking and laughing like brothers. Huang came out of the kitchen and couldn't help shaking her head.

Lin in the main room could see it, of course. She packed her bag and glanced at her husband, "Look how close those two are. Sui Ge'er would be envious if he saw them."

"Tsk, how old am I? How long will I live? Don't keep thinking about that nonsense.

You can arrange these cloths for the children and make new clothes for them. I see that Xiaoye's sleeves are a bunch shorter." Shen Shanyou took a sip of water and said:

"You should make two for yourself. You have enough money. You buried all the money in the past because you were reluctant to spend it. Now you can spend it."

"You say it as if it's a lot, but if converted into silver it's only a few hundred taels." Lin picked up the bag and went back to the inner room.

Shen Shanyou wiped his mouth, stood up and said, "Two houses, plus more than fifty acres of land, and more than three hundred taels of bills."

"Two houses and more than fifty acres of land? Did you also sell your daughter's thirty acres of dowry land?" Lin rushed out from the inner room and asked him sternly.

Shen Shanyou suddenly realized that he had let something slip, and his mind raced, "We have to sell it. It has been uncultivated for the past two years and has been taken over by others as wasteland. It won't be ours in the future.

As for the houses, you knew when you left that some of them were burned beyond recognition. Why don’t you sell them and let them collapse?”

"Where will the girl live if she returns home?" Lin's voice suddenly became sharp, startling Shen Xiaoye who came back to get the rope.

She ran to the door, "Grandma, what's wrong with you?"

"Xiao Ye, come here." Shen Shanyou took two quick steps and led her into the house, saying, "Look, grandpa has sold your house and land, and put the bill of exchange with your uncle. He will buy you land later."

"Hmph!" Lin glared at him, flicked her sleeves and went to call her eldest son. It was not right for Huang to come out of the kitchen, and it was not right for her to just stand there.

On this side, Shen Xiaoye stopped her grandfather who wanted to chase out the door and asked, "Are you going to tell grandma today?"