roccoschili Chapter 178 Unpleasant Things
Chapter 178 Unpleasant Things
Thanks to her, Bai Jingzhou no longer had to compete with the naughty kid in wits and courage. He used all his extra free time to copy medical books in traditional Chinese characters.
While copying the book, he was also guiding Gu Wenxuan in practicing calligraphy.
Gu Wenxuan has learned to read and write commonly used traditional Chinese characters. The reason why she takes out half an hour to practice calligraphy every day besides practicing martial arts is because she vows to get rid of the stigma of "even a chicken can write better than you if you scatter a handful of rice" as soon as possible.
These are what her mother Ning Cuizhi said when she disliked her ugly handwriting. These are typical heartbreaking words that only a mother can say.
When she didn't have to go up the mountain, work in the fields, or practice martial arts, Gu Wenxuan would usually stay in the house obediently, trying hard to cover herself up.
Not only was Li a hard-working person herself, she also couldn't stand seeing her family members staying in the house and being lazy and doing nothing in broad daylight. So, within a few days, Gu Wenxuan, who originally just wanted to avoid the wind and sun, was dragged to Lin Shuzhen by her to learn needlework.
Lin Shuzhen was an outstanding needleworker, and had previously taught the original owner of Gu Wenxuan's body how to cut, mend, and embroider.
The original owner learned very well, but it was obviously difficult for Gu Wenxuan to replicate the original owner's needlework level just by relying on physical memory.
Fortunately, she had not done any needlework in the past year because she was too busy. Even if her work was not as good as the original owner's, she could justifiably and legitimately say, "I haven't held a needle for a long time. My hands are unfamiliar."
In addition, Lin Shuzhen had no intention of training Gu Wenxuan to her own level. Whenever Gu Wenxuan wanted to go out to do something else, Lin Shuzhen would suspend her classes without saying a word.
During this period, the Dragon Boat Festival and Gu Wenxuan's birthday arrived one after another.
The Dragon Boat Festival is still a time of exchanging gifts, and every household celebrates the festival according to custom. In addition, Gu Wenxuan's family and Bai Jingzhou's family have prepared a variety of delicious food that is far more sumptuous than last year.
On Gu Wenxuan's birthday, her family, relatives, Bai Jingzhou's parents, grandparents all gave her food, clothes, shoes, cloth, combs, facial cream and other items to celebrate her birthday.
Bai Jingzhou was different from others. He gave Gu Wenxuan a complete set of silver jewelry with special meanings.
He personally drew the blueprint for this set of silver jewelry, and then had it made by a master craftsman in a silver shop. It includes a headdress and earrings that can hide things, as well as two silver bracelets that can fire poison needles.
On Gu Wenxuan's birthday, Bai Jingzhou explained to her the little tricks of this set of jewelry, and then he personally put them on Gu Wenxuan's hair, ears, neck, shoulders and wrists one by one.
Gu Wenxuan liked this set of silver jewelry very much. She smiled and let Bai Jingzhou take the opportunity to get close to her. At the same time, she did not forget to put forward a condition to him, "When we have more money, you can buy me a set of pure gold."
Bai Jingzhou agreed with a smile.
***
After nearly a month of intensive treatment, Han Dajiang and Bai Yu were able to get out of bed on their own and no longer needed their family members to take care of their daily lives.
The moment Bai Jingzhou announced that they could go out to the fields, the Han family and the Bai family reacted in unison - they all had red eyes and shed tears silently.
They were both happy and sad. They were happy that Han Dajiang and Bai Yu were finally okay, but they were sad because of the hurt and hardship they had endured before.
Bai Jingzhou pretended not to notice their red eyes and tears, and only reminded them in a gentle voice not to run, jump, bend over/squat, lift heavy objects, work, etc.
It is worth mentioning that because he has entered the voice change period, Bai Jingzhou has been trying not to speak as much as possible recently.
He kept doing this for about half a year, until his hoarse voice was no longer there, and he finally returned to his former self.
Of course, that’s a story for later. Right now he’s in the awkward situation of trying not to speak.
Even when he went to the farm to instruct the farmers on how to tend cotton, he asked Gu Wenxuan to act as his substitute and tried not to speak in front of the farmers.
Gu Wenxuan took the booklet he wrote and read it verbatim, while he calmed down and carefully observed and recorded the planting methods, growth conditions, shortcomings, improvement plans, etc. of cotton and lotus roots.
Gu Wenxuan let him do as he pleased. As long as he had enough food and drink, Gu Wenxuan was happy to be his bodyguard and mouthpiece.
There was plenty of staple food, vegetables, meat, eggs, tofu, as well as sour and sweet fresh cherries, mulberries, peaches, apricots... After finishing this, there was that, and after finishing the previous meal, there was the next meal. Gu Wenxuan, who couldn't stop eating, felt like a happy groundhog that had fallen into a granary.
With good food, drink and sleep, and her persistent and gradual exercise, her strength has now recovered to about 80% of that in her previous life.
If there is anything in her life that is not to her liking, it is the current turbulent situation.
Thanks to Magistrate Peng, Qingshan County as a whole was relatively stable, and there were no major disturbances that affected the daily lives of the people. However, the taxes imposed by the imperial court were heavier than last year, and Magistrate Peng had no choice but to order their collection.
The only thing to be thankful for is that during the summer tax period, the number of corvée labor assigned was far less than that during the autumn tax period, and there was only one type, namely "gengzu".
The so-called "night guards" are corvée soldiers who serve in the county or prefecture and are responsible for tasks such as carrying sedan chairs for government offices, beating night watchmen, sweeping the floor, and repairing houses. The usual service period is two months, which is barely enough not to delay the large-scale autumn harvest.
After returning from the county government office, the head of the village announced this year's tax amount and corvée quota with a bitter face, and then asked each eligible household to contribute manpower and money.
Gu Wenxuan also went to the threshing ground to participate in the village meeting. When Bai Jingzhou saw her coming, he immediately moved closer to her.
Seeing Bai Lizheng's bitter face, Gu Wenxuan couldn't help but sigh softly, "Wow, this bitter face of the Lizheng grandfather looks so familiar."
Bai Jingzhou sighed at the side, "He's like this every time, how can he not look familiar?"
Gu Wenxuan comforted him, "Wait a little longer, dawn will come soon."
There were many people in the threshing ground, so the two men did not dare to speak too bluntly. After a brief conversation, they went home separately to prepare for paying the summer tax.
It is worth mentioning that this time, the summer tax silver that Bai Jingshan's family paid was all paid by themselves, and not a penny was lent to them by Bai Jingzhou.
In the past year, the Bai Jingshan brothers not only learned a lot of skills from Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, but also earned some money under the deliberate care of Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou.
Especially Bai Jingshan, this kid played a lot of role when he followed Gu Wenxuan and others into the mountains to suppress bandits, so he really got a lot of silver and food.
In addition, his grandmother and mother are both hardworking people, and the family has been trying to find ways to make money. Now they can support themselves.