After dressing as a widow

"We couldn't go to Luozhou, and we could sell our goods back in Yongzhou, but the drought in Yongzhou was severe, and we couldn't sell our goods there, so we made a detour to Luozhou."

"Severe drought in Yongzhou?" Lin Zhen frowned when he heard the news. Yongzhou was not far from Luozhou, and it formed a three-state stand-off with Bingzhou.

This fall, Gu Lin will take the provincial examination. If he passes the Juren examination, he will go to Kyoto to take the general examination and palace examination. Yongzhou is the most convenient way. If he takes a detour, the time spent on the road will be more than half.

Moreover, the distance between Yongzhou and Luozhou, if the drought lasts for a long time, there will definitely be refugees flocking here, and life here may not be so peaceful by then.

However, Lin Zhen just thought about it. Whether it is the drought or dealing with refugees, it is the business of the officials in the imperial court in Kyoto. He, a commoner with a flat head, can't worry about it. Instead, he asked about Ah Er's interesting story on the business road .

Ah Er and the others run around all the year round, just to make Lin Zhen find it interesting to say it casually.

Ah Er said frankly: "Could it be that Boss Lin also wants to go into business?"

Lin Zhen smiled and said: "Maybe, the children in the family are not too old now, so we will make plans when they grow up."

"Hahahahaha, it's not that I look down on Boss Lin, you are a brother, you can't bear the hardships of being a businessman, don't look at us making a lot of money, but be careful of robbers on the road, if you want to eat and sleep in the open, if you are not careful, you will take it." Get into a fight with a stick."

"At that time, no one cared about anyone, and it would be nice to save my own life." If it weren't for the hardships in their place, Ah Er and his party would not do business.

Lin Zhen naturally knows how hard it is to do this job in this era. There is no fast transportation, only cattle, horses and mules, and very few waterways. In modern times, it takes several hours to get to a place that can be reached in a few hours. Dozens of times the time, not to mention the harsh external environment.

If he does it, he will set up a business firm, and all the goods from all over the world will be gathered in the firm, and he will pay himself a good net profit, and then run the business route by himself, just like in his previous life.

Although he doesn't think there's anything wrong with earning a few hundred taels of silver a month now, in his heart he likes to go out and do things as he pleases.

Moreover, the rule that business students cannot take scientific examinations is really restrictive. The shops selling milk tea and small cakes are basically closed after half a month of operation.

Anyway, you can't die from starvation, and you don't have to do anything you want.

Lin Zhen led Ah Er to the store, settled the money and sent him out.

Gu Lin, who followed him with few words, suddenly asked: "Uncle Lin, do you want to go to other places in the future?"

When Lin Zhen spoke just now, he didn't hide his intentions from him. He said that he wanted to wait for the child to grow up, and wanted to go out for a run and look around. Gu Lin just listened, and only he knew how he felt.

Lin Zhen walked into the counter and said, "I do have this idea. If I stay in one place for decades, I will get moldy."

"Then..." Gu Lin wanted to say what about me, then he sneered in his heart, understanding Lin Zhen's thoughts.

In his eyes, at that time, he had some fame and fame, married a wife, had his own children, and lived a peaceful and happy family life. He could do what he wanted and liked to do without restraint.

If Gu Lin didn't have that kind of thought, it would naturally be as he thought, but something went wrong in the middle.

And this trouble is not tolerated by the world, whether it is him or Lin Zhen, they will be crushed to pieces.

So Gu Lin tossed and turned, engraving herself on the boundaries of Lin Zhen's children, this is the best result.

But when he heard that Lin Zhen wanted to stay behind and venture into his own world, he felt as if he was thrown into the room when he was young when he was tied hands and feet by Ma Shi and Zhou Tao. It was so dark and cold. The warm hands that held him, the hot body that did not inherit.

Gu Lin took a deep look at Lin Zhen, then turned and went back to the backyard.

Lin Zhen felt that the child seemed to have something to say, but seeing that he didn't want to say it, he stopped asking and asked Xiaoer to do something.

Spring in Luozhou is rainy. In the past few years, every household had to scoop water outside at this time, but this year the rain is thin. The sun is getting hotter and hotter from morning to night, and the sky is blue and cloudless. .

Normally, everyone would be happy with such good weather, but seeing the temperature getting higher and higher and the price of ice rising, they finally began to complain.

As soon as Lin Zhen brought up a bucket full of sour plum soup, the guest couldn't help but said, "Give me two bowls of sour plum soup, it's so hot in this damn weather!"

"Yesterday afternoon, there was thunder and lightning again. I thought it would rain, but I didn't know there was nothing but light and sound."

"No, the water in the city is getting more and more expensive."

"..."

Now the topic of conversation is the weather in Fucheng, and he will get angry when he talks about it. Lin Zhen's drink shop is doing very well.

He and Xiao Er sold out more than a dozen cups of sour plum soup, and closed the business. If they continue to sell, the profit this month will definitely exceed.

Xiao Er wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said to Lin Zhen: "Boss Lin, there are only two barrels of water left for us to buy today. I'm afraid we'll have to go there early tomorrow. There are so many people in the city who want water, so we won't be able to catch up if it's too late."

Lin Zhen nodded to show that he knew, and asked Xiaoer to go to the backyard to get the sour plum soup and two cups of iced milk tea that he had left for him. He looked at the hot sun outside, and felt a little suspicious in his heart. He always felt that the rain this year was really Less, more sunny days.

It is now May, and there are only three months left for the home test. Huaishan Academy's homework has suddenly become very heavy. Sometimes Gu Lin doesn't even come back to eat at noon, and it will be later in the afternoon.

Lin Zhen closed the window to block the sunlight from entering the shop, and went back to the backyard.

Lin Xiaoyao was so hot that she fanned herself with a palm-leaf fan, when she saw him coming in, she handed him a palm-leaf fan.

Lin Zhen sat next to him, frowned and said, "There is too little rain this year."

"That's not true, but the biggest rainy season in Fucheng hasn't come yet, and it's about to rain yesterday, it should be about ten days and a half months away."

Lin Zhenxin was not so optimistic in his heart, the prefectural city was prosperous, there was a big river running through it, and several small water systems, so although the people in the city complained, they compared the situation this year with previous years.

But outside of Fucheng, those peasant households who live on the fields, what are they like?

Lin Zhen couldn't help but think of what the merchant named Ah Er said two months ago, that there was a severe drought in Yongzhou.

It was spring at that time, and they were able to discover the severe drought in Yongzhou, which showed that the severe drought in Yongzhou started last year, but the drought has not eased after a few months, and the situation in Yongzhou is really not optimistic.

Lin Zhen, who lives in modern times, has never really experienced what drought is like, but he has heard of related film and television works and words.

When a person does not have a grain of food in his stomach, what he can do is by no means what he can usually think of.

Lin Zhen couldn't sit still anymore, and said to Lin Xiaoyao: "Xiaoyao, I think this year's situation is a little bit wrong, you get up and go back to Liyu Village tomorrow, so that father and father don't want the grain from the seller, it's best to buy it quietly Come back with some food, dig a cellar and store it well."

Thinking about the drought in Fucheng, it is really impossible to tell Lin Zhen to do nothing.

Lin Xiaoyao didn't expect that Lin Zhen would let her go back, and said, "Third Brother, you mean there will be a drought?"

"This is just my guess, but a merchant who passed by Yongzhou told me that the drought in Yongzhou was severe in the spring. From this, it is estimated that the drought in Yongzhou may have been last year. Not only did it not ease, but it was even worse."

"Fucheng is not far from Yongzhou, so it's hard to guarantee that it will spread here."

Since following Lin Zhen, Lin Xiaoyao had never seen him do anything unreliable, and knew that if he hadn't noticed something, he wouldn't have done this.

Although Lin Xiaoyao has never experienced drought, he understands the feeling of not being full from snacks, so he no longer thinks about it: "Okay, I will rush back tomorrow."

"Third brother..."

Lin Xiaoyao looked at Lin Zhen: "I'm leaving, you help me take care of Mrs. Chen and Zhong Yan. Their mother and son have no acquaintances in Fucheng. If something happens, I'm afraid they will be overwhelmed."

Lin Xiaoyao likes Zhong Yan, and naturally knows Zhong Yan very well, that is, he is a scholar who is extremely smart in reading, but has no strength to restrain a chicken, and his strength is not as strong as her own.

He was worried that if something happened in Fucheng, something would happen to Zhong Yan and Mrs. Chen.

"No problem, if the momentum is not right, I will take them here, and I won't leave their mother and child alone."

"It's a long way from Fucheng to our village. You must be careful not to reveal your wealth. You'd better dress yourself up a bit rougher."

"If nothing happens, I'll write to tell you to come back."

"it is good."

The two brothers have been together for many years, and they are reluctant to part at first, but someone has to do things.

In the evening, Lin Zhen asked Lin Xiaoyao to go back and told Gu Lin the reason why he went back. Now that he is 14 years old and almost 15 years old, putting something on his shoulders can be regarded as training.

The next day, Lin Xiaoyao went out after breakfast with a bundle. Lin Zhen sewed coins into the corners of his belt and clothes, and took them home to buy more food for storage.

In fact, he also wants to go back, but the provincial examination is about to arrive in three months, so he must accompany Gu Lin.

In the blink of an eye, another two months have passed.

Gu Lin was pushing a trolley, and Lin Zhen was beside him. They specially pushed it to fetch water. Three or five days ago, there were very few people selling water in the city.

But the water could not be cut off at home, so the two had to find a cart and pull water with a few buckets.

And there are many people like them beside the riverbed that has mostly dried up, men and women, old and young, densely packed.

Lin Zhen licked his dry lips, frowning tightly, looking at the river that was about to expose the river bed, feeling terrified.

His previous worries came true. In the rainiest season, Fucheng still did not rain. The residents in the city have become more and more irritable from sitting and waiting at the beginning. Recently, we can often see government officials in the city Figures of people catching trouble everywhere.