Farming and reading lady

At her request, Shopkeeper Lin gave her five silver notes of one hundred taels and one of fifty taels, as well as five silver ingots. Gu Xixian happily took them and put them into her small bag, which was just full. The feeling of carrying silver was really great.

Lin Maoming looked at Gu Lieqi who was grinning at the side. He let the child play with so much money. Although he loved his daughter, he was too shameless. Although the little girl was quite clever, she should not be spoiled too much. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but say, "It's better for the child to let the adults keep the money."

But the father unconsciously retorted: "No, no, no, my daughter keeps it better than I do."

Well, what else can he say?

After leaving the clinic, the father and daughter got on the carriage for the return trip. Gu Xixian looked helpless. Even though she repeatedly emphasized that if they were not nervous, no one would know that they had a huge amount of money, her father still felt nervous and thought that everyone who passed by him looked like a thief. There was no way, her one-day trip to the county town was ruined.

This time, Gu Xixian's silver notes and silver ingots were still handed over to her mother for safekeeping, but she had already made up her mind that after her new house was built and she had her own room, she would take the money and keep it herself, so that it would be convenient when she needed it.

Du Xianniang was also surprised that the dowry could be sold at such a high price, but she did not ask too many questions. Instead, she carefully put the silver notes and silver ingots given by her daughter together with the one hundred taels given last time, thinking to herself, it was great that her daughter's dowry was richer again.

Soon it was February. The two cousins, led by their uncle, went to the county to take the exam. Don't think that the Tongsheng exam is easy. You have to pass three tests before you can be finally confirmed. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is like passing five levels and killing six generals. Without a solid foundation, you will only fail.

Another large room was built in the backyard of the old house as a temporary processing workshop. The family's pine flower business was also carried out in an orderly manner. Most of the first batch of eggs were provided by the two aunts. Except for the last part of batter coating, the previous egg picking and egg rubbing work was contracted to the group of little beggars in the town. Not to mention, this group of child laborers is really easy to use. They are all nimble, responsive, and careful, which makes Gu Xixian very satisfied. A meal is provided every day, and the wages are paid daily. The little beggars work so hard that there is no such thing as laziness or cheating. They are led by a beggar in his teens named Brother Yong. No matter how they divide the work, they don't have to worry about it. After they are done every day, they will clean the processing workshop before leaving. This makes Gu Xixian very pleased. This is also the decision she made after thinking again and again that it is better to teach people how to fish than to give them fish. Most of the little beggars in the town are here. She also asked her grandfather to rent an abandoned old house in the village from the village chief as their temporary residence. They start work at chenshi every day and finish work at youshi. They can rest for half an hour after lunch. The wage is fifteen cents a day. Brother Yong and the others are very grateful and secretly vowed to work hard to repay their employer.

At first, there were people in the village who envied and gossiped about it, but Chief Tong stepped in to solve the problem. Gu Xixian didn't know how he solved it, but he never heard those gossips again. Their new house was also under construction. Her grandfather led the whole village to carry out the seedling raising mobilization. Everyone was busy every day, but she was the most idle. So she devoted a lot of time to the great cause of reproducing her memory every day, and copied down everything she could think of in her mind in the form of dictation. Not to mention, her soft brush writing was getting better and better.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, Tong Mingyan came slowly with a group of people. It turned out that after he received the letter from the leader of the Tong clan, he read it over and over again, and after repeated consideration, he hid his little apprentice, asked the old man of the Gu family and Gu Lao San to stand in the main seat, and wrote the matter into a memorial and handed it in. He was a third-rank official, so he did not need to go through the hands of others. The memorial went directly to the emperor of Tianting Kingdom, who was very happy after reading it. The increase in grain production was a major event for the country, and he summoned him to discuss it in detail. When he learned that this method came from his apprentice's family, he immediately decided to let his confidant Wei Da lead the troops to escort him and the Minister of Agriculture back to his hometown to verify it.

When a group of people came to Xiaoyuewan Village, it was the time when the rice seedlings were grown. The adults were busy preparing the fields. There were only a few naughty children running back and forth at the head of the village. Gu Xixian happened to be among them. She was tired from replicating and came out with her third brother to relax. Seeing such a large group of people, she quickly asked her third brother and another clever child to run to inform the village chief and her grandfather, and she continued to play with others.

In order to get the most accurate authenticity, Tong Mingyan was hidden at the end of the team. The chief farmer smiled like a wolf grandmother and said, "Little kid, grandpa wants to ask you something. Is this Xiaoyuewan Village?"

"Aunt Xian, this grandpa who is so well dressed is actually illiterate." Tong Bajin is the nephew of Tong Mingyan. After Gu Xixian paid homage, she became their Aunt Xian.

This old man with a white beard was no ordinary man. Gu Xixian didn't believe that he couldn't read. She wanted to pat Tong Bajin's shoulder, but couldn't reach him. She could only pat his hand and said, "Well, let's go help him."

The Minister of Agriculture sighed that the children in the village were so simple and honest, but the next moment, he was slapped in the face. The soft and tender little girl pointed at the name of the village and said to him: "Grandpa, look, it's written here, Dayangzhi Village! So, you've taken the wrong road."

Wei Da at the back couldn't help but laugh out loud: "I told you to pretend, now you've come to Dayangzhi Village."

The Minister of Agriculture was so angry that he laughed: "Little girl, how can you call a horse a zebra? It clearly says 'Xiaoyuewan Village'."

"Ah, grandpa, you can read? Then why are you pretending to be stupid?" Tong Bajin added.

The other kids also shouted, "That's right, do you think we are easy to bully?"

"He might be a kidnapper who wants to kidnap us." Some kids also started to speculate on conspiracy theories.

"Hahaha..." Wei Da laughed out loud, and the guards behind him also laughed.

The Grand Minister of Agriculture was stunned. Was he pretending to be stupid? Did you know that he was just trying to get close to others? The little kid really didn't know how to behave in society. And that little girl was so mean that she actually wanted to fool him. And what did he mean by maybe he was a kidnapper? Was there a kidnapper as kind-hearted as him? What kind of fools were they?

Tong Mingyan also heard what his little disciple said, what a clever boy. But he didn't plan to step out to help, because these people were so wary of him.

Fortunately, the village chief and his men arrived quickly. When he heard the kid report that a large group of strangers had arrived, he knew what was going on. He quickly followed the kid to the entrance of the village and bowed to the people, saying, "What are you doing here? I am the village chief, Tong Xiaozhong."

The Minister of Agriculture returned the greeting and said, "I heard that your village has a seedling cultivation method that can increase rice production. The emperor sent us here to verify it. I wonder if this seedling cultivation method has been put into practice?"

Village Chief Tong looked back quietly, thought for a moment and said, "My Lord, the rice seedlings have been grown, and we are now preparing to plant them in the fields."

"Oh, that means the seedlings have not yet been planted in the fields. Come on, take me to see how the seedlings are growing." The Grand Minister of Agriculture thought to himself that he had just caught up.