Chapter 353 Sun Xiucai

"Oh, look at what happened! If I had known earlier, I should have asked someone to find out! It's really wasting your time!"

Shopkeeper Chen felt annoyed after getting on the carriage.

He had only heard from the diners at Juxian Building that the two scholars were looking for errands. Just when Qiao Ran came to ask him, he enthusiastically took Qiao Ran to the approximate address they told him and asked around. Only then did they find the homes of the two scholars.

But I didn't expect that one of the two people was so mature and still wanted to make money, and although the other wanted to find a job to make money, his airs were raised to the sky. It simply made him, Old Chen, lose his face and did bad things with good intentions.

Qiao Ran saw Shopkeeper Chen's annoyance and comforted her: "Shopkeeper Chen, you don't have to be like this. People and things in this world are full of strange things. You are also kind-hearted, so I can't blame you. In fact, I also know that if you want to find a suitable wife, it is indeed necessary." It’s difficult, I’m mentally prepared.”

Shopkeeper Chen was still embarrassed and said: "It's still my fault. I took you there without asking questions clearly and wasted your time."

"My time is not tight. I feel embarrassed that shopkeeper Chen took time out to help me despite his busy schedule."

Shopkeeper Chen was really embarrassed. After returning to Juxian Building, he immediately ordered his waiters to pack the exquisite pastries made by the restaurant chef and a basket of fresh fruits, and stuff them into Qiao Ran's carriage.

Qiao Ran couldn't refuse, so she had to accept it.

Now that she had decided to set up a school, Qiao Ran went straight to buy a few large pieces of linoleum cloth, planning to take them back and build a few tents, which would have classrooms for classes and a small tent for the master to live in.

Since we are going to set up a school, we need to purchase tables, chairs and benches for class use.

Although a lot of wood was cut when cutting the isolation belt in Devil's Valley, it takes at least half a year to a year for the wet wood to dry. Wet wood cannot be made into furniture. After the water evaporates and dries, it will deform and break. .

Therefore, when purchasing tables and chairs, it is best to check whether they are readily available.

But Qiao Ran also knew that in this era there were no furniture stores like in later generations, where there were many ready-made furniture for customers to choose and buy directly.

When people here want to buy furniture, most of them go to a carpenter's shop to customize it, or have a carpenter come to build it.

Qiao Ran went directly to two carpenter shops in the city and asked. As expected, there were no ready-made tables and chairs. If needed, she could only pay a deposit first and let the carpenter shop build them within the specified time.

After comparing the quality and workmanship of some samples placed in the store from the two shops, I found that they are not much different.

Being pressed for time, Qiao Ran simply placed orders with two shops and asked them to make thirty sets of tables and chairs respectively.

She wanted to save several sets of these tables and chairs for her family so that her younger brothers and sisters could practice calligraphy at home when they came back from school.

I originally thought that I was going to a school in another village, but the journey was too far, so I didn't plan to let Qiao Bei, Qiao Xing and Qiao Yue go to school so quickly.

But since the school is now open in my own village, and it's only a few steps away, I might as well let the three little guys go with them. It would be better to start their education early. The memory of children at this age is actually at its best.

In modern times, children aged five or six are about to enter elementary school!

It is not too early for enlightenment at this time. Children from wealthy families start to be enlightened by private teachers when they are three or four years old.

So after Qiao Ran made suggestions to her family, although Mrs. Qiao and others felt that it was a waste of money for such a young child to go to school, they originally wanted the three little guys to wait another two or three years before going to school.

But Qiao Ran tried hard to convince everyone, and now the family is more accustomed to listening to Qiao Ran's words, so in the end everyone agreed.

Qiao Ran drew pictures of the style of tables and chairs she wanted and gave them to the shopkeepers of the two carpentry shops. It was the first time for the shopkeepers to see such a desk with a hole in the table and such a high table and chair, and they all thought it was very novel. .

In schools and academies of this era, the desk used by students was a very simple long table with no holes and very short.

Sometimes there is no need for a chair, and you sit cross-legged on a mat on the ground, or on a futon made of grass. Only high-end schools and academies will have chairs or benches made of solid wood, but they are all short. .

Qiao Ran drew the drawings based on the desks and chairs she used to use when she was in school. She thinks this kind of desks and chairs are comfortable and practical.

Qiao Ran also asked them to make two sets of tables and chairs for the Master, one set for the classroom and one for the tent where the Master lived.

After paying a deposit of two taels of silver respectively and agreeing that the two shops would deliver the tables and chairs to the outside of Devil's Valley half a month later, Qiao Ran drove the carriage back.

In the next few days, Qiao Ran went into the city several times and inquired in more than a dozen villages outside the city, but could not find a suitable candidate for his wife.

During this period, naturally, I also heard about several scholars who were looking for something to do at home, so Qiao Ran came to visit them.

But when some scholars heard that they were refugees who had escaped from a difficult situation, they felt that they must not be able to make friends with Shu Xiu, and they were using him to make fun of him. Qiao Ran was rejected before he could even finish his words.

Some people wanted to take the job, but when they heard that they were going to Devil's Valley, their faces turned dark and they hurriedly drove them out like they were guarding against the plague.

Qiao Ran also understood these people's fear of Devil's Valley, but she was a little unhappy after running into walls again and again.

Fortunately, at this time, Fang Lisheng's uncle Sun Xiucai arrived from Luoyang Mansion!

After Sun Xiucai received his nephew's sincere letter, he thought about it in silence for a whole day.

Early the next morning, he packed up his belongings, locked the door, took a few changes of clothes, his four treasures of the study, and more than three taels of silver that he had saved over the years from copying books, hired a carriage and rushed directly to his nephew. It’s the Devil’s Valley on the outskirts of Beijing.

When Sun Xiucai arrived, it was dusk and the women in Qingshui Village were preparing dinner.

Outside a large tent, smoke curled up from the stoves set up by various families. There was a faint aroma of rice and even vegetables in the air, including the mouth-watering aroma of meat.

In the open space outside the tent, a group of children were playing the game of eagle catching chickens. Behind the team of chickens, there was actually a chubby little white dog with stripes.

The cheerful laughter and the screams of being caught made the valley lively and not desolate at all.

Sun Xiucai did not expect that the scene he saw was completely different from what he imagined.

In just a short period of time, Sun Xiucai fell in love with this place.

He has lived in Luoyang Fucheng for so many years, and the superficial bustle and bustle of Fucheng seems to have nothing to do with him.

He was extremely poor and used to living alone.

Except for picking up book copying jobs at bookstores and academies, and going to the vegetable market to buy the cheapest vegetables every few days, he hardly went out. He read, copied books, and prepared medicine at home every day.

Life was monotonous and boring, but he gradually got used to it.

But seeing the happy and life-like atmosphere in Qingshui Village, he suddenly felt that it would be good to live in such an environment.

He is just used to loneliness, not in love with it.

Who can resist a comfortable and warm living atmosphere?