Traveling through the starry sky just for you, I was a koi in ancient times

After saying that, Wang Jinyi asked the driver, "What's your name?"

The driver was startled, then smiled shyly. "Master, I'm also an orphan from Huaguo Mountain. I only remember that my home is in Luannan County. Steward Chen named me Luanyang."

"Luanyang, go back to Chen Qingyang now and tell him I asked you to lead a group to find the origin of bamboo mats. Zhao Chunming will allocate the expenses separately. Bring more people and search separately. Focus on finding weaving workshops that use rattan in bamboo weaving. Write down the logo of each one."

Zhao Chunming's eyes widened: "Boss? What are you doing..."

Luanyang: "Yes! Does the boss have any other instructions?"

Wang Jinyi: "Keep a record and mark the address! By the way, can you read?"

Luanyang: "The Wang family teaches their servants to read!"

"Okay! Let's get going as soon as possible!"

Wang Jinyi lowered the brim of her hat again and continued shopping with brisk steps.

Zhao Chunming asked tentatively, "Boss, you're not looking for a peddler! You're looking for a workshop to weave bamboo mats?!"

Wang Jinyi did not comment or answer, but just asked:

"Where could those two sales guys have gone?"

Zhao Chunming was stunned at first, then he thought seriously for a while, and the two of them went into a bamboo shop.

The servant from the inner room came running out.

"Sir, what would you like to order? I'll pick the best for you, and the price is negotiable..."

While Manager Shen and Luanyang were busy looking for people and the place of origin, Wang Jinyi led a convoy of cars to Chen Laoshi's house.

But when we arrived at the village entrance, Dongqing pointed to a low shack.

"Boss, Liu Laoshi's family lives in the last dugout!"

Not long after the snow melted, Liu Laoshi's family at the foot of the mountain were clearing the snow from the shed and taking their only two tattered quilts outside to let the air air in and remove moisture.

It was just the four fully loaded carriages that Wang Jinyi brought that attracted the entire village.

The villagers were curious and fearful, and followed from a distance. The large group of people walked to the dugout at the foot of the mountain.

The cold wind in the first month of the year is even more biting, and it is even stronger and more biting at the foot of the mountain.

Wang Jinyi looked in the direction Dongqing pointed. The so-called "dugout" was just a half-pit dug at the foot of the mountain, with a roof covered with a few crooked dead wood. The yellow mud had long been cracked by the wind and snow, and the cracks were filled with cold wind.

Liu Laoshi was standing with his back to the village entrance, bending over and using a wooden rake with broken teeth to clear the remaining snow on the roof. Every time he moved, his back hunched a little.

He was still coughing intermittently - the cough was rough and muffled, as if it was squeezed out from a cracked wooden pipe. When coughing, he had to stand by holding the wooden rake. His chest rose and fell violently, and even his thin short coat was shaking.

Next to the shed, a boy was squatting on the ground, picking up wood chips with his frozen purple hands.

He was wearing a single layer of clothing, revealing only half his arms and legs. His ankles were as thin as dead branches, and his clothes dangled loosely from his body, sticking to his bony frame in the wind.

Hearing footsteps, he raised his head, his big eyes full of timidity.

The boy was followed by a younger girl with two crooked braids, the ends of her hair frozen stiff.

She was standing on tiptoe, trying to block the crack in the shed with a piece of rag, but it was blown away by the wind. She tried several times, her face flushed red from the cold, and snot hanging from the tip of her nose, but she had no time to wipe it off.

At the door of the dugout, there were two piles of belongings. One pile contained two blackened, torn cotton quilts, and the other pile contained a chipped pottery basin and several coarse porcelain bowls. In the two baskets, one contained three bags of grain and the other contained two bags of herbs.

Wang Jinyi bent down and crawled into the dugout, and a mixture of moldy and earthy smells hit her in the face.

It was even darker inside than outside, with only a little light coming in through a gap in a torn oilcloth on the roof. One could see that there were two pits, one higher than the other.

There were several layers of hay on the high ground, and on top of the hay was an old felt patched up with patches on top of each other, which served as a place to sleep.

The only piece of furniture was placed in the corner - a wooden box with a missing bottom, and a few old clothes were hanging on the edge of the box.

The wind blew in through the cracks in the roof, rustling the hay in the corner and making the hut feel cold.

She turned and walked out of the dugout, her eyes fixed on the four carriages. She instructed Dong Qing behind her, "Go and invite the head of the neighborhood, the village chief, and the clan leader first."

Dong Qing: "Dongjia, this is a mixed village where people who fled from famine live together. There is no clan leader, only a village chief."

"Okay! Go and ask for help!"

"Manager Shen!"

Manager Shen, who had been waiting behind the boss, hurried forward.

"You are responsible for inquiring about Liu Laoshi's family's situation with the village chief. I want this family. If it doesn't work out, we can use the supplies we brought to make an exception!"

"Okay! Boss, I understand."

Manager Shen agreed and went to the village.

"Zhao Chunming, get some cotton robes for the Liu family."

Liu Laoshi recovered, took two steps forward, clutching his chest, and asked in a hoarse voice:

"My lord...you are..."

Before he could finish his words, he couldn't help coughing twice, and his face turned red from coughing.

Wang Jinyi helped him sit down on a rock beside the shed. "Do you remember three days ago, at the gate of Qinghe County, there was a man in a mule cart..."

Wang Jinyi deliberately only raised the head to confirm whether it was this person.

Liu Laoshi was slightly startled when he heard this and looked down at the face under the hat.

Wang Jinyi simply pushed his hat back, revealing half of his bald head.

Liu Laoshi: "It's you? You are the little nun from that day? Are you, oh! Is the little master okay?"

"Thanks for sending me to Luanzhou City, thank you very much!"

Wang Jinyi stood up straight, gave a scholar's greeting, and started chatting again.

"Brother Liu, I heard that you are here to escape famine?"

Liu Laoshi: "Yes... Last year, there was a disaster in my hometown, so I settled in Qinghe County."

He glanced at his timid children beside him.

"It's not easy for the whole family to survive along the way!"

He said this with a wry smile on his face.

"Brother, who sent me off that day?"

Wang Jinyi continued to test.

"You were very ill at the time. We wanted to send you to a nunnery, but your wife said that if you woke up on the way, you would go to the county town, so she went..."

"Where is my sister-in-law?" Wang Jinyi glanced at the dugout.

When asked this question, Liu Laoshi lowered his head even lower.

"Someone in the village said the other day that the bamboo weaving workshop in the county town was short of helpers, so my wife went there."

As they were talking, Zhao Chunming came over with a cotton robe. Wang Jinyi took a small one, walked up to the little girl and handed the cotton robe over.

The girl smiled timidly, put on her cotton robe and bowed, "Thank you, my lord."

Wang Jinyi showed her full face and asked gently:

"what's your name?"

"My lord, I am Daya."

Wang Jinyi: "Is that your brother? What's his name?"

Daya replied:

"My brother studied in a private school in my hometown. His name is Liu Cheng."

Wang Jinyi: "Liu Cheng, do you want to continue studying or find a job?"

Liu Cheng asked in disbelief and confusion, "Can I still study? Can I have something to do?"

Wang Jinyi had a plan in mind and nodded with a smile.