Cowardly Stepmother Dressed As the Hero

Chapter 39



Zhou Xue and the others also stepped forward to look at the printing plate, and were amazed at this novel tool.

Suddenly, one of the blue-clothed women said on a whim: “This… Princess, can printing only print words? If you engrave paintings on a printing plate, can you also print paintings?”

These women masters have their own unique skills, and the woman in blue who spoke at this time happened to be a character with both calligraphy and painting.

Hearing her thoughts, Cao Mi smiled: “This is natural, as long as it can be engraved, it can be printed.

“But for paintings, in addition to skills, they pay more attention to aura. Paintings printed with printing plates may only have their shape and not their spirit.”

The female masters listened and nodded thoughtfully.

A woman who had a good relationship with the woman in blue on weekdays joked: “Linger works **** weekdays, and I have to wait for half a month to ask her for a small image. I thought that with printing technology, we could have one for each hand. Linger’s masterpiece, now it seems that this expectation will also be in vain.”

Zhou Xue and the others smiled kindly when they heard the words.

The blue-clothed woman was so irritable that she rushed over to cover her friend’s mouth, and said shyly, “I was too busy and forgot. If you want to rush me, why don’t you hold on to you first!”

Hearing her say this, the other women stopped begging for it with the blue-clothed woman.

While they were playing, Cao Mi had an idea.

“Although the printed paintings have lost their spirituality, but…” she said thoughtfully: “Not all paintings need to be full of spirituality, right?”

When everyone heard the words, they turned to look at her.

Cao Mi had picked up the filial piety scriptures that everyone was eager to read, pointed to the lower right corner of the paper, and asked, “If you print the appearance of children serving their parents on the edge of the paper, and lining the filial piety scriptures, wouldn’t it be unique? flavor?”

Zhou Xue and the others gathered around her, unable to understand what she meant for a while.

Cao Mi simply asked Zhang Mao for pen and ink, and asked the girl in blue to draw a few strokes in the blank space in the lower left corner of the Book of Filial Piety according to her idea, and draw a small portrait of “filial piety of a mother and a son”.

Since the habit of writing in this era is still from right to left, the position of the small statue can only be arranged in the lower left corner, which is somewhat unaccustomed to Cao Mi.

But Zhou Xue, who were born and bred in ancient times, obviously understood the fun of this painting in an instant.

The woman in blue said, “I have only seen words add brilliance to paintings in the past, but today is the first time I see paintings that add interest to words.

Her friend was holding the book of filial piety and begged to Cao Mi: “None of you should argue with me, princess, please give me this page of the book of filial piety.”

Cao Mi smiled and shook his head, said “Okay” and let them go.

After everyone had read the book of filial piety, Cao Mi called everyone and put forward his own idea: “You said, if the government prepares a batch of paper, use the pre-prepared printing plate, and print the snow moon flowers and birds on it, How about even selling small statues such as beautiful women?”

The women looked at each other.

Zhou Xue was the first to answer: “If the painting was made by Ling’er, even if the aura was lost due to printing, it would still have seven points of color. The little girl would like to buy such a paper for collection.”

Cao Mi was waiting for such an answer.

She smiled and said, “If that’s the case, then it’s worth a try. If it doesn’t work out by then, we’ll stay in the mansion and we’ll use it ourselves.”

When everyone heard this, they all laughed.

“How is it possible that it won’t work?” Zhou Xue boldly joked: “I’m afraid there won’t be enough to sell by then, and the princess will even take our share.”

Cao Mi shook his head helplessly.

She has been short of money recently. After all, the funds she uses to turn around are all the thousand taels of silver that Qi You “lent” to her.

This printing technique was hard to come up with, and she naturally found a way to make money from it, so as to raise funds and continue the next step of research and development work. The way of printing books is just a routine operation, and it is impossible to gather a lot of wealth for Cao Mi at once, but a novel and beautiful thing like paper paper is very likely to enter the aristocratic class in one fell swoop and become a cornucopia of money.

After thinking about this, Cao Mi turned his head to the blue-clothed woman named “Ling’er” and said, “In that time, if you have time, paint some plants and birds, or come out with beautiful portraits, and then let Zhang Mao come out. They print a batch and we’ll see the effect.”

The woman in blue shyly replied “yes”.

Cao Mi also reminded: “After the graphic is printed, the entire image will be turned over. When you are drawing, you must keep this in mind… In short, you can find Zhang Mao and the others and draw according to their guidelines.”

The woman in blue nodded, and naturally continued to respond.

After solving this matter, he ordered some other trivial matters, and Cao Mi left first.

Zhang Mao took someone and sorted out some of the suggestions she said today, preparing to continue to optimize the printing technique.

——

A month later, Rongguang Villa received the good news of preparing for the autumn harvest.

It just so happened that the masons who had stayed in Kangcheng and built the kang for the palace and other noble families ended their work, so Cao Mi simply stopped the construction of the restaurant and asked these people to return to the villa to help with the collection.

It was at this time that Wang Shu returned to Rongguang Villa with the other masons under the arrangement of the steward of the palace.

Because of his strong body and willingness to work hard, he was selected by the North Temple a few months ago to learn the craft of building a kang from the cement factory.

During the time he was away from Rong Guang, he was also very concerned about the crops in the field. After all, when they started to reclaim the land, they were the ones who rushed forward and sowed the seeds in the ground.

The seedlings planted in summer time have grown into golden ears of wheat after months of cultivation. The whole field was filled with the smell of a good harvest, and even the chilly north wind in the late autumn did not quench everyone’s enthusiasm.

The golden wheat was harvested one by one and piled up on the edge of the field. Adult hands and feet kept reaping. The children who had temporarily stopped their studies were in the crowd, the older ones were doing trivial chores within their power, and the younger ones were looking for the fallen wheat ears and beans in the fields.

At noon, the women came to the edge of the field with the prepared meals and greeted people to come and eat.

Wang Shu raised his head from the field, hammered his waist and took a deep breath.

He deliberately delayed for a while, and when the people in the field were almost gone, he walked slowly to the pick-up point, lining up at the end of a queue that he had observed for a long time.

Although the queue was long, the women who beat the rice were also quick. They knew the hard work of harvesting. When scooping the food, they did not hesitate to add to the bowl until they could no longer be piled up. , I have enough food for the past few days!”.

Soon, the team gradually shortened, and it was the last Wang Shu’s turn.

Mr. Bai, who was in charge of the meal in this row, glanced at him, took a large bowl, and quickly added the food.

Taking advantage of the queue, Wang Shuben pondered what he was about to say, but when he really came to her, he still stuttered.

He coughed lightly and said, “Cough, Bai, the lady of the Bai family is really good at craftsmanship. Today’s food smells even better than yesterday.”

Bai Shi smiled, but didn’t take credit: “Today’s food is really good, but it’s not my credit.”

“Hehe.” Wang Shu scratched his head, “Everyone knows your craftsmanship is good, why is it not your credit?”

During the conversation between the two, Bai Shi had already filled the empty bowl to the brim.

She handed the spiky big bowl to Wang Shu and asked, “Today, the village killed six pigs, and they were all talking about it. Didn’t you hear it when you were in line?”

When queuing up, Wang Shu was thinking about his own business, but he really didn’t pay attention to what others were saying.

Hearing Bai Shi’s words at this time, he widened his eyes in astonishment, and after regaining his senses, he asked anxiously: “Six pigs? How many pigs were raised in the villa? Killed?”

Bai Shi nodded: “Yes.”

Seeing Wang Shu frowning, she explained, “Don’t think about it, the princess specially sent someone here, saying that it was hard harvesting during this time, and she killed a few pigs for the big guy to eat meat.

“The princess also sent some new rice. In short, when you finish up this last piece of land in the afternoon, you will be able to eat a feast tonight.”

“Oh, that’s what happened.” Wang Shu finally felt relieved when he heard that it was the princess’ order.

Bai Shi pointed to the bowl in his hand again, and said, “The pig hasn’t been killed yet. I used some lard for lunch today, and it probably tastes good. You… If you like it, eat more.”

Wang Shu nodded and smiled until his eyes narrowed: “What you make is naturally delicious.”

Bai Shi blushed slightly, but glared at him shyly.

Seeing that there was no one behind, she prepared to pack up and leave.

Wang Shu was trying to help, but was teased by a few acquaintances who were eating next to him: “Brother Wang, what are you doing? Why do you circle around the lady of the Bai family all day long, and come here after dinner.”

Their remarks made both Wang Shu and Bai’s face blushed. Wang Shu glared at them, turned around and walked towards the other side: “What nonsense!”

After he left, the Bai hurriedly packed up and left with the other women working in the kitchen.

The men teased Wang Shu a few more times, and when they saw that Wang Shu was a little embarrassed, they turned the topic away.

“Hey, I’ve been tired for days, and I can finally eat meat for dinner.” A thin man sighed.

“Yo, this is unbearable?” Beside him, a dark-skinned man sneered: “It’s just because the harvest has been busy for a while, and I was at my own house in previous years, so it’s impossible to eat meat at this point.”

“I know.” The thin hemp pole took a bite of the rice, letting the long-lost aroma of lard burst between his lips and teeth, “Don’t say you don’t crave meat.”

“I’m greedy, I’m so greedy!” The dark-skinned man swallowed a mouthful of bean rice, “I haven’t smelled meat for a long time!”

Seeing that they were discussing vigorously, Wang Shu joined in the fun and said, “The princess is still kind-hearted and remembers us. In previous years, I would occasionally go to the rich man’s house to help out at this time. Although I can eat enough, I have never seen a special Kill a pig for this.”

Sitting around were some men who were used to living a hard life and finally ended up being displaced. Hearing his words, they all felt a little emotional.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment, and someone else said: “However, looking at this autumn’s harvest, at least we won’t be sad this winter!”

“Yes!” said the dark-skinned proudly, “It’s not me, it’s the first time I’ve seen so much grain in one acre of land! It’s all done. Is the granary in the village enough?”

Everyone laughed when they heard the words, some said it was definitely enough, and some said it wasn’t enough and just built another one.

On the other hand, Wang Shu was still awake.

Looking at the dark skin, he remembered that he was not the one who harvested the field, but the one who was in charge of threshing, so he asked worriedly: “Hey, old Hei, here in the field, we are done this afternoon, It’s all collected. Didn’t you transfer to threshing some time ago? How is it? Is it going well over there? It’s late autumn, don’t delay until the snow falls.”

Dark-skinned glanced at him and smiled disdainfully.

After a long while, he saw that everyone was waiting for him to answer. He finally reacted and asked with some doubts: “What’s going on? Haven’t you heard about our threshing team?”

“Ouch!” Shou Mazhu glared at him, “These days, the big guy is so busy, he will come to the field at dawn, pack his things and go back to sleep when it gets dark, the old **** is tired these days. I don’t even take a shower, and the whole house over there is the smell of his sweat, who would want to inquire about your threshing side.”

The dark skin scratched the back of his head, Hanhan smiled and said, “Yes.”

He then explained: “Don’t worry, we are fast over the threshing side, and we will definitely not delay the day.”

Seeing his confident appearance, Wang Shu was a little confused: “It’s really like we haven’t threshed. I’m still thinking that the harvest is over here, and tomorrow I will take the initiative to apply for help from your side.”

He has the strength to do these heavy farm work faster than others.

The dark-skinned “hehe” smiled and said mysteriously: “No, no, you don’t know this.”

There was an impatient person next to him who didn’t want to see him betray him. He gently kicked him and said, “What’s going on, don’t hide it!”

The black-skinned person was honest, and said, “Remember that Liu Jiang from the palace when we reclaimed the land before?”

“That…the one with a prosthetic leg?” Liu Ge’s appearance was very special, and someone immediately remembered it.

“That’s right! It’s him!” Dark Skin nodded, “The kind of plough he brought when we started reclamation helped us to turn the ground in three or two strokes, you remember. Threshing this time, that Liu The craftsman also brought a few big ones, which he said were called ‘threshers’.”

He said brightly: “Anyway, I don’t know how the big guy did it. Our threshing team doesn’t have to work hard like before, like a fool, just use those machines, and we can easily The grains have come off.”

Everyone looked at each other in dismay when they heard the words, and they couldn’t believe it for a while.

“This… so powerful?” Wang Shu couldn’t imagine the picture he painted at all.

“Yes!” The dark skin became more and more excited: “I didn’t believe it before, until I saw it with my own eyes, I didn’t know how powerful these craftsmen are!

“But there are only a dozen machines, and our threshing team is full. If you help out, you won’t be able to get involved.”

He smiled: “You may be able to help with something else then.”

The people around nodded.

The thin hemp pole said “tsk tsk” twice: “Of course it’s okay to do some other things, our brothers have strength, but I really want to see what you said, what kind of thresher, is it really that magical.”

The dark-skinned winked at him proudly: “Okay, you will come when the time comes, brother will show you the experience!”

While everyone was eating, they were making jokes, and the time passed quickly.

At dusk, Wang Shu and others finished harvesting the last piece of land, bundled the ears of wheat, and stacked them among the ridges of the field.

A woman came over to spread a message and told them to clean up, wash their hands and faces, and go to the No. 3 courtyard for dinner.

Thin hemp rod walked beside Wang Shu, walked with him to the river, sucking saliva while walking: “Brother Wang, I’m afraid there is really pork to eat tonight, right?”

“What’s wrong?” Wang Shu looked at him amusingly, “Don’t you think about it during lunch? Why are you suspicious now?”

The thin hemp pole smiled embarrassedly: “Oh, I’m not… haven’t I seen the world?”

He murmured: “I’m not afraid of your jokes, Brother Wang, our family has been poor for several years, and even during the New Year’s Day, we don’t even want to eat a piece of meat.

“At that time, there was no way out, and I came here with the princess with the idea of ​​dying anyway. I thought I could live a few days, so I would live a few days…”

While talking, they had come to the river.

The thin hemp pole squatted down with Wang Shu, and lifted the river water to wash the palms covered with mud spots.

The thin hemp pole said while washing, “Afterwards, when I stayed in the villa, even if I couldn’t collect the food, I could eat enough every day. You think it’s unusual? Isn’t the princess keeping us in vain?”

Wang Shu smiled and said nothing.

So the thin hemp stick continued to sigh on his own: “Then today, I finally got the food, and the other side said that I can eat meat…”

After saying this, he scooped up a scoop of river water with his hands and splashed it on his face.

When he spoke again, he choked up first: “You said this day, why is it like this? When the spring starts this year, I really can’t even think about it!”

Seeing his appearance, Wang Shu quickly patted him on the back and made fun of him: “How can a piece of meat make you so greedy? Stop thinking about it, you are not happy if you have a good life.”

After the thin hemp rod washed his face, he looked at Wang Shu with reddish eyes: “Hey, I’m not…”

Wang Shu didn’t wait for him to finish, but interrupted him with a smile: “Okay, let’s go, if you don’t hurry, the meat you’re thinking about will probably be robbed by those gangsters!”

Hearing the words, the thin hemp rod paused for a while, and when he turned his head, he saw that the two of them had fallen behind, and quickly dragged Wang Shuchu back away: “Hey, didn’t you remind me sooner? Hurry up, let’s go quickly. !”

After the two cleaned up, packed up some important tools, and finally rushed to the No. 3 yard.

The closer they got to the meal, the more pronounced the smell of meat.

There were obvious sounds of swallowing saliva one after another, and everyone’s footsteps accelerated in unison.

In the third yard, the women’s busy day’s pork feast had already been brought to the table.

Pigs in this era are not as fat and strong as they are in modern times. Although Cao Mi told Beisi to raise pigs when he delivered the piglets earlier, it was probably a genetic problem. Due to the size limit, a few pigs still couldn’t keep up with them. The meat and pig ratios in Cao Mi’s impression.

However, because they were raised properly and they were fed the feed that Cao Mi had specially explained, the weight of these pigs, in the eyes of this group of people from Sheng Chao, was a tonnage that could only be achieved by “God bless them”.

The refugees who took care of these livestock watched the pigs grow up day by day, and ran to the North Temple every day in amazement, saying that something miraculous had happened. This time Cao Mi ordered the pigs to be killed, and he felt distressed for a long time.

But in short, a full six pigs can finally give a thousand mouths to the villa.

After Slim Hemp and Wang Shu sat down, they couldn’t take their eyes off the dishes on the table.

Soon, the banquet began, and everyone couldn’t wait to move their chopsticks.

The pork was cooked very well by the chefs such as Bai’s, and it was made into different flavors. The most amazing thing is that there is no smell of mutton in the entrance of these pork, all of them are slowly meaty.

Wang Shu stuffed a piece of five flowers into his mouth, and when he took a bite, the oil in the meat exploded in his mouth like a pulp, and the fragrance made him take several mouthfuls of rice.

He originally thought that there were too many people like thin hemp poles, and this meal was estimated to be carried out in a noisy environment.

But after he actually started it, he realized that the surroundings were eerily quiet.

The people in the whole yard were silently eating the food in front of them, and there were even several, like thin hemp poles, with their heads low, and their eating movements were not fast.

Wang Shu glanced at the thin hemp pole with some worry, and clearly saw that the corners of his eyes were red again.

After dinner, everyone went back to the house in twos and threes.

Finally able to take a breath, the person who returned to the room lay down on the bed, and did not want to move at all.

Seeing the thin hemp pole lying on the bed, Wang Shu smiled and said, “Can you still move? Don’t get hurt.”

His words caused a burst of laughter from everyone in the room.

The thin hemp stick was not annoyed, and after they finished laughing, they said slyly: “If this kind of life can continue forever, let alone hurt, I am willing to eat to death.”

“If you die, you won’t be able to live a good life like this.” Wang Shu also got on the kang, kicked him and motioned him to move to the side, so as not to occupy his own bed.

It was a leisure time after the meal. I ate pork tonight, and everyone in the room was excited. Instead of falling down and falling asleep in the past, they chatted about the harvest in the fields and the pork tonight. arrange.

Wang Shu lay in his place, and occasionally responded with a few words, taking advantage of the dim sky to cultivate his drowsiness.

Suddenly, the thin hemp rod leaned in his direction.

Wang Shu pushed him with some disgust: “What are you doing? Go aside.”

The thin hemp pole said embarrassedly: “Brother Wang, don’t be like this, it’s autumn, I’m a little cold. You are strong and full of anger, I’ll lean on it.”

Wang Shu gave him a funny look, and finally stopped refusing.

The thin hemp pole slept next to him and said with emotion: “Hey, Brother Wang, do you really like that lady of the Bai family?”

Wang Shu recalled Bai’s appearance in his mind, without denying it, he gave a generous “um”.

“Bai’s is a widow, so it’s good to be matched with Brother Wang.” The thin hemp pole complimented: “The manager above… Oh no, didn’t the team leader say it? As long as you work in the village for a few years, you can make a piece by yourself. Land, did it myself.

“Brother Wang, you are the hardest I’ve ever seen, so there’s definitely no problem.”

“Yeah.” Wang Shu remembered this matter in his heart, and after hearing the words, he echoed: “Princess Bodhisattva’s heart will definitely not lie to us… If you work hard, you will have opportunities in the future.”

“I, I can’t!” The thin hemp pole raised his thin arm, “I don’t want to be lazy, but no matter what I do, I can’t compare to you and Lao Hei.”

Wang Shu was about to comfort him again, and suddenly he heard him say: “Fortunately, Brother Wang, you haven’t left yet, so I can still rely on you to keep warm. When you and the Bai family are separated, hey… I’m having a hard time. suffered.”

Wang Shu pushed him a little funny: “Emotionally, are you thinking about yourself?”

The thin hemp rod shrank a little embarrassedly.

Wang Shu thought for a while and said, “Did you forget that the heated kang was not repaired in the villa before the autumn harvest? After the weather cools down, won’t it be warmer if you burn the kang?

“You don’t have to squeeze me in your face. That’s more angry than me.”

The thin hemp rod looked at him suspiciously.

The heated kang was built by Wang Shu himself. He knew a lot more and knew the power of the heated kang.

For those who were not clear about the thin hemp poles, they thought that when the villa was renovated with great fanfare, a few rows of beds were padded for them.

“That thing… can really keep you warm?” The thin hemp pole asked dubiously.

Wang Shu nodded.

His drowsiness was dispelled by the commotion of the thin hemp pole. Seeing that there were several people around who caught the movement on their side, they all looked over curiously. .

Hearing his remarks, everyone exclaimed from time to time. When he stopped, someone boldly concluded: “In other words, when it snows, our house can be as warm as those landlords who can afford charcoal fire?”

Wang Shu nodded: “That’s almost what it means.”

Seeing his confirmation, everyone became more and more excited.

The thin hemp pole showed a look of anticipation: “Then I won’t go out this winter, I’ll freeze to death if I go out.”

Several of his family members froze to death in the winter, and when it snowed, he began to panic.

Wang Shu patted his shoulder soothingly, turned to lie down, and continued to prepare for sleep.

Near Huaitong, which is dozens of kilometers away from them, Mrs. Zhang led people to set up a bonfire, preparing to take a rest on the spot tonight.

Bags of sacks full of wool were piled up on the convoy behind her, ready to be delivered in the direction of Cannes.

The author has something to say: thanks to the little angel who threw the grenade: Zhen Zhen 1;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: yyy1 bottle;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!


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