After the workers had their meal and rested for a while, they went back to work.
Manbao and his friends usually feel sleepy at noon, but the wind is howling and there is no shelter here, so they can't take a nap.
So the three children yawned twice in turn and then Zhou Wulang wiped their faces with cold water. They instantly became energetic.
Zhou Wulang asked with a smile, "Are we going home yet?"
"No," Manbao finally remembered the serious matter, "We haven't finished questioning people yet."
Zhou Wulang scratched his head and said, "Okay, then we'll stay here with you."
"Fifth brother, go get some more water and boil it," Manbao suggested, "The bones at the bottom of the pot still have some flavor if we boil them..."
Zhou Wulang was stunned and said quickly: "Manbao, we can't be so unkind. We have already gone through it once."
"I'm not selling soup, I'm giving it to them for free." Manbao said, "They've already had lunch, but there's still dinner. We can't let Third Brother drink cold water for dinner. Anyway, a bowl of hot soup is cooked, and a pot of hot soup is also cooked, so just cook it for them."
Zhou Wulang breathed a sigh of relief, "This is not difficult, just get some water and start a fire."
It's just firewood anyway, just light it and burn it.
But he was reluctant to use salt because it was very expensive.
Zhou Wulang took Zhou Liulang to look for firewood, while Manbao and Bai Shanbao continued to collect information. With so many people, they recorded everything in two thick books, planning to sort them out after returning, and then wait for the teacher to come back to ask him how to write the article.
After asking everyone, Manbao finally had time to observe them working. She asked curiously, why do they have to dig ditches on both sides of the official road, where will the water in the ditch flow to in the end, and what if the soil dug out from the ditch is not enough to fill the pits on the official road?
Who will repair the road if it gets damaged again? How often will it be repaired? Is there anyone to take care of it?
There were all kinds of small problems. When Manbao learned that they would not dig roads tomorrow but would dig water conservancy projects instead, she became very excited and said that she would come to watch the fun tomorrow. Oh, no, to learn.
Zhou Wulang filled the pot with water, covered it with a lid and started to light a fire. Manbao and Bai Shanbao sat in front of the stove, warming themselves by the fire while looking through their records and discussing how to organize them.
Manbao said: "It's better to write them into short stories, so that you can read them as storybooks before going to bed."
Bai Shanbao refused, "I have written it down. I don't want to read it anymore. Just write the article directly."
"We wrote it down, but the gentleman has not seen it."
"Why do you need to sort it out when you can just show it to me?" Bai Shanbao raised his hand and said, "You can't write, and I have to write it all by myself. My hands are very tired."
"Let Bai Er help you."
Bai Jilang refused without a second thought: "No help!"
Manbao felt a little regretful, so he said to Bai Shanbao, "Don't worry, wait until my calligraphy is finished, and I will write with you."
"When will your handwriting be finished?"
Manbao was full of confidence, "It's almost there, it's almost there."
Anyway, she had no shortage of paper now, as she still had a lot of paper from the one she bought in the mall last time. She decided to practice calligraphy seriously when she got back. With her intelligence, she would be able to learn it quickly.
Bai Shanbao was very skeptical about this, because he practiced calligraphy every day and it took him a very long time to learn it.
Zhou Wulang ignored the two children. When the soup started to boil, he turned off the fire and only kept some charcoal at the bottom of the pot to prevent the boiling water from getting cold.
As soon as the bell for dinner rang, Zhou Liulang asked everyone to come and get some hot soup. When they learned that the soup was free this time, the workers were delighted and took their bowls to get the soup. Some even ran back to the thatched hut to get the bamboo tubes they had brought, poured out the cold water inside, and ran to get some hot water.
They decided to stuff the bamboo tube into the quilt, maybe they could have some warm water to drink after nightfall.
Zhou Sanlang also carried a bamboo tube.
Zhou Wulang filled his bamboo tube and whispered, "Third brother, we will come again tomorrow. You can leave some dry food for one meal, and let me take the rest back. I will ask my sister-in-law to reheat it and bring it to you tomorrow."
Zhou Sanlang had no objection. He went back to the thatched hut and got all his remaining dry food, leaving only one piece of bread, and let Zhou Wulang take the rest back .
Because they had the donkey cart, they returned to the village early today. Manbao handed the bookcases containing the books, writing brushes and ink to Bai Shanbao and said, "I will come to you after I have dinner at home, and we will discuss it together."
Bai Shanbao really didn't want to write, but he nodded and said, "Okay."
He looked around and whispered to Manbao, "Remember to bring candy. I like the red kind."
Manbao also lowered his voice and said to him: "Don't tell anyone else."
She is the only one who eats that kind of candy. The ones she usually gives to others are not of that color because they look so different from the candies that can be made in this era.
Fortunately, Bai Shanbao is rather stupid and has limited experience, so he doesn't understand. Manbao is still willing to share good things with his good friends.
Manbao also whispered to Bai Shanbao, "Remember to bring osmanthus cake. The chestnut cake is also delicious."
Bai Shanbao said, "You can only choose one."
Manbao swallowed his saliva, feeling very conflicted, but finally made up his mind, "Then let's eat osmanthus cake today and chestnut cake tomorrow."
"Then I don't want red candy tomorrow. Do you have yellow candy? I want the yellow one."
"Yes, I'll bring it to you."
So the two friends were satisfied and said goodbye to each other.
Daji stood under the car, smiling as he watched the two children whispering to each other in the car.
Seeing that they had finally finished their whispering, Zhou Wulang stepped forward, picked up his sister, and waved goodbye to the two young masters of the Bai family.
The three sisters-in-law of Xiao Qian heard the noise at the door and ran out to see. When they saw them coming back, they helped to carry the cauldron and asked, "Did they sell it?"
Zhou Wulang nodded excitedly.
The Zhou family counted their money behind closed doors.
Zhou Wulang took the bag out of the wooden barrel, opened the bag, and poured out the copper coins inside.
The whole family looked at the small pile of copper coins in amazement. Little Qian exclaimed, "You really made money? How much did you spend on the meat?"
Zhou Wulang counted the accounts for them. After this trip, not counting the radishes and chopped green onions they brought from home, they earned a total of 178 coins.
Even Zhou Silang couldn't help but salivate and wanted to cheat and not go to the Bai family to build a house.
He looked at Manbao eagerly, thinking that his youngest sister was too partial to him, since he and she were obviously the best friends in the past.
Manbao didn't understand the resentment of her fourth brother. She was happily setting aside tomorrow's cost for her fifth brother. Seeing that she had set aside 100 coins, the remaining money was only 60% of the money to be handed over to the government. Qian couldn't help but frown and asked, "Why do you want so much? Isn't it only 20 coins?"
Manbao made a lot of sense. "Since we know how to make money, we can buy more tomorrow. Mom, you don't know how pitiful they are. The government only gives them a steamed bun and no vegetables to eat. My friend said that people will get sick if they don't eat vegetables."