North and South groceries

By the time Luo Yong finished his work on chili peppers, it was almost the fifth month of the lunar calendar.

At the beginning of April, farmers in the suburbs picked all kinds of vegetable seedlings to sell in the workshop, so Si Niang and the others picked two loofah seedlings and two gourd seedlings, and planted them on the side of the courtyard wall.

Now the green vines have climbed up the earthen wall, and they will bloom in a few days.

In addition to loofahs and gourds, there is also a jujube tree in the yard, which was planted by the previous owner of the yard. In the past two years, Hou Lin brought in two grape seedlings and planted them.

It's just that grapes are not easy to grow. They haven't produced a single grape after planting them for so long. Unlike loofahs and gourds, as long as they are watered and fertilized, they will grow upwards when the sun shines, and they are also diligent in bearing fruit.

Two years ago Hou Lin was still planting corn in the yard, but this year he couldn't do so because Luo Yong built a thatched shed in the yard for Si Niang and Qin Niang to study.

The yard of their house is not very big. Once the thatched shed is occupied again, there will be no place to grow corn. However, the price of corn has been getting lower and lower in the past two years. Even if it is planted this year, it will not sell much.

Luo Yong's neighbors also grow vegetables in their own yards. I heard that when the alley outside was not paved with concrete, some neighbors would open a small field under the wall in the alley to grow vegetables.

The streets of Chang'an City are very spacious, even the streets and alleys are quite spacious, the place is big enough, and it is empty if it is empty. Some people who live frugally always want to dig out a piece of land to grow vegetables. For this reason, Tang There is also such a special law in the law, which says that people are not allowed to occupy the streets and alleys to grow vegetables, and they are not allowed to return, but they are repeatedly prohibited.

In the past two years, Chang'an City has been paved with cement roads, and the situation has improved. The people in the city cherish the smooth and clean cement roads, and are not willing to pile dirt on it.

The Feng'anfang where Luo Yong and the others live can be considered a mid-range community. Most of the residents here are from decent families. Since the concrete road was paved, no one has grown vegetables in the alley. From time to time, some people go out with a broom to clean The road looks pretty clean.

I heard that many neighbors have paved concrete floors in their yards. Luo’s house and walks are also paved with cement. In the yard, there is a concrete road leading from the porch to the courtyard gate. The shed is also paved with cement floor, and the rest of the place is still mud floor.

Every spring, it would be nice to plant a few loofahs and gourds in the yard. The kids in the family also like it. Besides, Qiao Junlin still practices martial arts every day.

When Luo Yong is free recently, he likes to sit in the yard and watch Qiao Junlin practice martial arts. Watching him practice from being refreshed to sweating profusely, with wet hair sticking to his cheeks and neck. When it flew up, those beads of sweat were also thrown into the air, bit by bit as if they were glowing...

By the way, why doesn't this kid wear his hair in a bun recently? Every time he practices martial arts, he wears a ponytail, and his long jet-black hair flicks up, not to mention how sexy he is.

"Brother." Si Niang and Qi Niang came back from playing outside at this time, seeing their sullen faces, it was obvious that something unhappy had happened.

"What's wrong?" Luo Yong asked her.

"Cao'er Yeniang asked her to marry the butcher grandson of Da'an Square. The butcher grandson was very old, fat, and full of beards. Because he promised a lot of dowry, Cao'er Yeniang wanted to marry her. She married that man."

At this time, Si Niang was already holding back her words, and Luo used this question to say everything immediately.

The Cao'er that Si Niang mentioned was the third daughter of a family surnamed Shao in their neighbor's family. Her eldest sister was called Hua'er, and her second sister was called Ye'er. She was called Cao'er.

Later, her mother gave birth to a boy again, and she tried her best to give him a noble name. Luo Yong couldn't even write his name, and didn't bother to think about it. The boy couldn't write it himself. Being spoiled by his Ye Niang, she is not a material for studying at all, and she should be a gnawing old man in the future.

"Cao'er doesn't want to?" Luo Yong asked.

"Hmm." Si Niang said angrily.

"Cao'er is crying, and her mother still scolds her." Qiniang also spoke on the sidelines.

It is indeed difficult for a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl to marry a fat butcher with a big beard.

As for the age mentioned by Siniang and the others, if Luo Yong remembers correctly, although the butcher looks old, he is actually in his early thirties, but for Siniang and Qiniang, early thirties are indeed a good age. Get the age right.

If you don't consider the little girl's feelings, then Tuhu Sun is actually a good candidate. I heard that although he looks a bit rough, he treats his wife and children very well, but his ex-wife is not lucky, so he left at a young age. Butcher Sun was left alone to do business and raise children.

From Cao'er Yeniang's point of view, marrying such a person has no worries about food and clothing, and it doesn't count as pushing her into the pit of fire. Of course, the dowry promised by the other party is also an important reason.

"Sister Cao'er, don't you care?" Cao'er Wengpo is similar to Cao'er Yeniang, they all only regard the only boy in the family as their sweetheart, so we can count on the two elder sisters of Cao'er for this matter .

"Hmph, Sister Cao'er is back too, she was scolded by Ye Niang and went back crying." When she mentioned this, Si Niang became even more angry.

"Tsk." Luo Yong always looked down on the behavior of that family, the small family was so used to the son of the family acting like the son of the rich family, but for the girls in the family, he wished he could be a maidservant.

There should be a limit to eccentricity, people's hearts are biased, this kind of thing is inevitable, but as a parent, you should have the appearance of being a parent, no matter what you think in your heart, there should always be some restraint in your behavior.

With their family's approach, the girls and their precious son probably don't have much sibling friendship, and it's not bad if they don't become enemies.

"Brother, Cao'er said she was going to jump into a well..." Siniang said with red eyes.She felt that Cao'er's Yeniang was too bad, and Cao'er was so pitiful.

Luo Yong thought for a while, and said to her: "You tell her not to jump into the well. If you really don't want to marry, you can go to work in our shop. At least you can escape this for a while."

Luo Yong, a little girl named Cao'er, has met a few times before. She has a good temper, is diligent, and has a good relationship with Si Niang.

"Really?" Si Niang was happy at first, and then became a little worried: "What if she, Ye Niang, goes to our shop to make trouble?"

"Brother, Cao'er Yeniang is so fierce, what if they come and scold you?" Qiniang also said.

"Just scold them a few words." Luo Yong said with a smile.

In fact, Cao'er Yeniang not only didn't scold him when she learned that Luo Yong was going to hire Cao'er to work in Beinan Grocery, she was even quite happy.

I heard that after Cao'er went there, she made biscuits in the back room to help one of Luo Yong's disciples. If she did well, she might be able to learn a skill in the future.

The work that Luo Yong arranged for Cao'er was to use a square mold with wavy lines around it to divide the processed large dough into the shape of biscuits.

Speaking of which, North and South groceries are also short of manpower now, and they can't let Luo Yong's disciples do everything by themselves, and it's time to train a group of technicians.

But this Shao Cao'er, before she grows up enough to fight against her Ye Niang, Luo Yong will not let his disciples teach her many skills.

Looking at a person's character, it doesn't matter that she has a kind heart and no evil thoughts. If she is unable to protect the people and things she wants to protect, then this person cannot be trusted and entrusted to her.

Luo Yong didn't tell Si Niang and Qiniang about this, they are still too young now.

As long as the little girls know that Cao'er is now doing a good job in North and South Grocery, and doesn't need to marry that old butcher, and doesn't talk about jumping into the well, they will be very happy.

a few days later.

When Qiao Junlin got up to practice martial arts early this morning, he heard someone muttering outside the yard. It was still dark in the early morning, so it was indeed somewhat intrusive.

Qiao Junlin opened the courtyard door, looked down at the two figures, one blue and one yellow, squatting in front of his house, and asked them nonchalantly, "Who are you and why are you squatting here?"

"Does Luo, Luo Sanlang live here?" The girl in light yellow clothes stood up crookedly and asked stammeringly, looking at her like that, her legs should be numb.

Qiao Junlin gave way to the door and said to them, "Come in."

Then the two limped into the courtyard, Qiao Junlin started practicing martial arts on his own, and the two of them sat on the porch.

When Luo Yong opened the door and came out, he saw two young ladies sitting on the porch of their house, their heads dozing off little by little.

There were obviously no such two people at home last night, obviously they just came here, look at the sky, the door of the workshop has not been opened yet, and look at the dresses on the two of them, there is a lot of plaster on them...Look Later, he overturned the wall.

When Luo Yong had breakfast with them this morning, the two young ladies also ate with them, and by the way, they also explained the reason why they came here.

Nothing new, escaped from marriage, heard about Luo Yong's previous "righteous deeds", and defected to Luo Yong.

After breakfast, Luo Yong led them to North and South Grocery, and arranged for them to pack biscuits.

In addition, a child in the shop was sent to their house, telling them that their lost daughter was working in North and South groceries, and let them figure it out.

A few days later, Luo Yong and Qiao Junlin were about to go out in the donkey cart, and saw a little lady standing outside their house. When the little girl saw him, tears flowed down her cheeks, as if she saw a savior.

Luo Yong: ...

After a period of time, Luo Yong successively picked up many little ladies who sneaked out to escape the marriage arranged by their parents.

After picking up people, Luo Yong arranged them to make biscuits at North and South Grocery.

The biscuits in their shop are very popular. Although in terms of taste, biscuits may not be as good as other foods, but they are cheap and durable. If they are not opened, they can be stored for ten and a half days. Months are fine.

The better the biscuits are sold, the more manpower will be needed. These little ladies may not all be agile, but they are young, as long as they are willing to learn, they will usually be able to get started in three or two days.

After leaving these people in the shop, Luo Yong is sure that someone will come to their homes to notify them immediately.

Some families would chase after them and take them away forcibly, and many families like Shao Cao'er would choose to leave their daughters to work in Luo Yong's shop.

There is no way to take those Luo Yong away, after all, this is the way it is in this era. Marriage has always been the order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker, and there are very few people who can make decisions by themselves.

For those who stayed, it doesn't necessarily mean that their future life will definitely be better than the path arranged by their parents, but at least this path is chosen by themselves, and they are willing to walk on it.

In the current era, a woman with a good life is born in a good family. In order for her to have more status in her husband's family after she gets married, her parents and brothers have to start buying a dowry for her early on.

A wicked woman was born in a bad family, whether she was poor or rich, and in the end she would often be traded for money and benefits by her family.

The marriage arranged by Shao Caoer and Yeniang is no different from selling her daughter. Although the buyer's personality seems to be pretty good, for a teenage girl, this is undoubtedly a nightmare. The catastrophe.

A teenage girl is just at the age of fantasies and longings for love. At this time, you let her marry a fat, unshaven bearded butcher who kills pigs and sheep?When she said she was going to jump into a well, it probably meant that she really wanted to jump into a well.

Luo Yong is not related to these women, but within the scope of his ability, he is also willing to provide them with a little shelter.

The business of groceries in the north and south is getting better and better, and more and more manpower is needed. Anyway, people need to be recruited, who is not needed.

It's just that Luo Yong intends to provide them with shelter, but some people are not necessarily rare.

There were those little ladies who were also the ones who went to Luo Yong crying all the way with Lihua and Yu. Later, they worked in Nanbei Grocery for a few days, and they didn't need their family members to look for them, so they went home honestly.

Recently, there have been rumors in Chang'an City that Luo Yong specially took in these little ladies who had run away from home and coaxed them to work in his shop.

As a result, the little girls who are still working in the shop are all very uneasy, for fear that one of them will get angry and drive them out.

Those rumors don't need to be told by others, they also know where they came from. It's not just those people who have come and gone these days. Luo took them in with good intentions, but he left hatred.

On the day of May [-]th, Luo Yong went to the court early in the morning and listened obediently, and did not show any publicity. Unexpectedly, when the court came to disperse, the old emperor ordered him again. name.

"I heard Assistant Professor Luo recently coaxed many young ladies who escaped from marriage to work in his own shop?" the emperor joked.

As a low-level official who can only participate in the morning court on the day of the moon, many people just sit there and listen every time they go, but there are very few people who can really speak on the morning court and receive attention .

That is Luo Yong, who was named by the emperor again and again, although this time it was not because of any good things.

Many people thought that Luo Yong would definitely speak for those little ladies who left home this time, but he didn't expect him to say this time:

"If they don't let them suffer some hardships outside, how can they know the good at home."

The emperor looked at Luo Yong and didn't say anything more. Afterwards, everyone said some trivial things that were not very important, and soon dispersed, had a meal in the hallway, and then went back to their respective houses.

On the North and South grocery side, Luo Yong also asked his disciples to pay attention to the character of those little ladies. For a hired worker, the most important character is naturally diligence.

Since these little ladies came to this shop, they have been cutting oil-paper-wrapped biscuits from dawn to dusk every day, and sometimes they were even arranged to help make dough. It was a heavy physical effort, and two of the ladies left because they couldn't bear it. of.

In the evening of this day, the work of the day has been almost done, but there are some broken biscuits that need to be packed, and they will be sold at a discount in the special price area tomorrow morning.

These broken biscuits are sometimes mixed with some good ones. The little ladies felt that it would be too wasteful to pack up those whole biscuits and sell them cheaply, so they carefully selected them.

"What are you doing?" Luo asked as he passed by them with two baking trays carried by a disciple.

"There are still many good ones here." A little lady said.

"I know there are good things out there." The disciple said with a smile:

"It's not uncommon for good and bad to mix together. We have so much work to do every day. How can we take care of this? Hurry up and pack up these biscuits. Let's take a rest after dinner. We still have work to do tomorrow morning." .”

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. As soon as Luo said these words of this disciple, several young ladies felt their hearts skip a beat, and their faces were a bit ugly, but he didn't notice it at all, and went to work on his own.

That night, after these little ladies returned to the workshop, some of them said this, and some of them who hadn't thought of this at first also became flustered.

Yes, it is a pity that those good biscuits are mixed with broken biscuits and sold cheaply, but who has so much time to find and pick one by one, with that time, they can definitely make more biscuits .

At this time, they feel like a few good biscuits lying in a pile of broken biscuits, even they themselves are not sure whether they are really a good biscuit, how can he be so busy as Luo Sanlang? Why spend so much energy to distinguish in detail?

Within a few days, there were rumors that Luo Sanlang took them in because he wanted them to suffer a little while outside, and when he knew the family was well, he wanted to go back.

It is also temporary to let them work in North and South Grocery, and they will all be sent home one by one after a while.

"No, Luo Sanlang promised me to work here, so he won't send me back halfway." Shao Cao'er didn't believe the rumors outside.

"..." The other little ladies didn't speak, because when they came here, Luo Yong didn't make any promises to them at all, and this was the main reason why they were so uneasy these days.

A few more days passed like this, on May [-]th, Luo Yong made a rare visit to the grocery store again.

Near lunch time, a child who worked in the daily necessities area upstairs came to them and called out, saying that Luo Sanlang had something to say to them, and told them to gather in the tea room on the second floor.

The goods on the second floor of North-South Groceries are relatively less than those on the first floor. Luo Yong set up a small tea room in the corner of the second floor, which is actually an office.

When Luo Yong occasionally had something to discuss with his disciples, or he needed to discuss with others about the grocery store, he would often do it in this tea room.

A few young ladies entered the tea room anxiously, and saw that besides Luo Yong, there were also two of Luo Yong's disciples, who had more contact with them.

The little ladies were very worried that Luo Yong would call them home, but Luo Yong didn't say much, but directly distributed a labor contract to them and asked them whether to sign it.

"This is..." A little lady asked with her eyes wide open.

"This is a two-year employment contract. The eldest of you is only 17 this year, right? In two years, he will be 19. If you want to get married by then, it's not too late." Come on, [-] years old is too early to get married, but it is still an age of early marriage after all.

"!" Upon hearing this, a little lady suddenly covered her mouth and nose with her palm, and wept in a muffled voice.

"What's the matter?" Luo Yong asked puzzled.

Then a little lady told Luo Yong about their worries these days, and about the biscuit.

When Luo Yong heard this, he also felt a bit uncomfortable in his heart. He said to these little girls: "How can a living person be compared with a biscuit?"

Even if there are ten or eight good pieces in a basket of broken biscuits, Luo Yong will not care at all, but even if there are only one or two good ones in a bunch of bad guys, he will try to identify them with wide eyes.

"If they don't ask them to suffer some hardships outside, how can they know what is going on at home." In fact, there is another sentence behind this, which Luo Yong did not say in the court:

"If children would rather endure hardships outside than go home, then parents should reflect on whether their behavior is inappropriate."

The rumors about Luo Yong cheating the little lady to work have not completely dissipated, and some people will talk about it after a while.

But even so, there will still be some little ladies who are desperate or think they are desperate, who will come to join them, and Luo Yong will arrange them to work in the grocery store. In the end, some of them left, but some stayed.

For these people, what Luo Yong can do, from beginning to end, is to provide them with a job that is not particularly good when they are at a loss for their lives and don't know where to go.

"Bang!"

"Oops! Take it easy, the biscuits are all broken!"

"Hurry up, there are many more behind."

"We're going fast."

"There is no oil paper, I will go to the warehouse and carry a roll out."

"You can't carry it by yourself, I'll help you carry it."

"Where's the warehouse key?"

"The key is in..."

"..."

Time flies by in this day-to-day busyness. These once delicate and helpless girls will one day grow into tough and straight women.

By that time, many of them will become Luo Yong's help.After all, it was this coffin board that gave them a place to shelter from wind and rain.