To get rich quickly, you need to be simple and rough

Housekeeper Liu was a capable man. After seeing Li Wenting off, he went to the accounting office and leaned on a chest of drawers, carrying a duckbill porcelain pot, drinking tea while calculating on an elm abacus. A group of servants were arguing with Housekeeper Liu. Old Sun, the coachman, came to get his whip whipped, Old Jin, the cashier, came to collect his bills, and the kitchen staff came to ask for sesame oil. There were also those who came to pay rent, grain, loans, interest, wedding invitations, fruit boxes, and gifts. The noise was dizzying. In the Li family, Housekeeper Liu was the one who could make the most of everything, big or small. He was very clear about all the assignments, spending what was necessary, accommodating what was necessary, and going along with what was not, only to receive empty favors.

After sending this group of people away, Butler Liu left the accounting office, passed the front courtyard, the east and west wing rooms, out of the front living room, around the moon gate, over the second gate, through the back courtyard, passed the big kitchen and the small tofu room, and finally came to the back room.

The houses in the backyard are all built with stone foundations, polished bricks, porches in front and rooms in the back, red-painted railings, and blue window frames inlaid with bright glass.

There was a grape vine in the yard, which the old lady had chosen to represent the blessing of having many children and more blessings. The Li family had only four people in total, but they had dozens of houses.

Butler Liu sometimes wondered if he could live in all the boss’ houses.

When housekeeper Liu saw his wife, Aunt Zhang, doing needlework outside the corridor, he hurriedly asked her to inform her.

After a while, the maid lifted the door curtain, Xu Huizhen sat on the armchair, and Xiao Lingzi moved a square stool for Butler Liu.

Xu Huizhen looked at the housekeeper Liu who was only halfway seated and said with a smile: "Uncle Liu is not a stranger, there is no need to be so reserved in front of me. You are an elder in the family, and the master and I cannot do without you wherever we go.

This year is not a good year, and the Japanese are constantly active in the Xiaohe area. My master and I discussed and decided to move south. Uncle Liu, please tidy up the house and decide who to take with you so that we can move south together.

Butler Liu nodded and said: It is indeed difficult now, the master and the mistress will decide, and I, Old Liu, will follow the master and the mistress through thick and thin.

Xu Huizhen nodded in satisfaction and said, "I'll ask Aunt Zhang to take back two taels of Longjing tea I just got this year. I know you like it very much.

Li Wenting came to Fengtian and lived in his own mansion. He called a meeting of shareholders overnight and expressed his ideas, which made the shareholders furious.

Shareholder A: "Uncle Wenting is a few years older than you. This Fengtian is just a minor incident. We've also experienced the war between Japan and Big Nose. The Marshal's 300,000 elite troops stationed here must be impregnable. Wenting, you're worrying too much. Our business has been running for so many years and it's not easy. Relocating means we have to open up a new market. It's really not worth it."

A group of shareholders argued from beginning to end, but could not come up with a serious idea. Li Wenting made the final decision:

"I've made up my mind to leave. How about this, if you don't want to leave, I have an idea: I can sell all my shares to you. After all, we've been friends for so long, and it's best to keep the wealth within the family. You can negotiate a price and buy my shares."

Another round of extreme tug-of-war: "All of the Li family's shares were divided among the shareholders for 80 yuan.

Li Wenting then dealt with the land. The Li family had too much land, so they broke it up and sold some of it. Land was the bulk of the Li family's property, and now the land price hadn't dropped. Li Wenting sold 4000 mu of land for 120 million yuan.

It was two months later when Li Wenting had taken care of the family business.

Li Wenting was exhausted both physically and mentally these days, and he was bargaining and signing documents every day. It took him another half a month to finish dealing with the small mansion in Fengtian.

Li Wenting dragged his tired body into the red trolley and hurried home. His followers and the horseman knew that their boss was upset recently, so they didn't dare to say a word along the way.

When the red-towed cart pulled into Sanjiagangzi, everyone in the village was stunned. It was true that wealth doesn't last for more than three generations. What kind of trouble had Mr. Li gotten himself into? Had he actually sold all his land?

Land is the foundation. I usually think that Li Wenting is a useless pretty boy. Those who have studied abroad are just out of touch. He doesn't act like a good person and is a second-rate person who ruins his family and career.

Rumors are flying everywhere now. Some say that Li Wenting offended the Japanese and was thrown into prison, some say that Li Wenting was blackmailed for fighting with the Marshal for a woman, some say that Li Wenting's family became poor because of smoking opium and playing mahjong, and some even say that Li Wenting is addicted to gambling (a form of gambling in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, generally participated by everyone), and that Li Wenting bet on his young wife Dan Qingyun every day, and lost every time he bet, and lost four thousand mu of land.

Anyway, everyone talked about all kinds of things. When Li Wenting returned home, Butler Liu and his men were waiting for him at the gate.

Li Wenting came to the upper room in the backyard. Xu Huizhen and Li Yujin were waiting for him. The bath water was ready in the big kitchen. The follower Lao Zheng rubbed his back and Li Wenting washed away all his fatigue.

After changing clothes, the small kitchen was set with food: a dish of braised pork with green beans, a home-cooked cold dish, a dish of dried tofu in a traditional broth, and a dish of stir-fried cuttlefish. After the family of four finished their meal, the servants cleaned up, and the family sat down to drink tea.

Li Wenting wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Everything is done. We need to come up with a plan for who to take with us. We also need to decide who to hire to look after our ancestral home and graves."

Xu Huizhen: "You don't even need to tell me this. It's all done."

The Li family was busy packing up and arranging vehicles, but they never expected that the usually docile Liu River would suddenly flood.

Li Wenting was fine when he came back in the morning, but in a blink of an eye the weather turned cloudy. Swallows flew into the sky, willows by the river swayed in the wind, and the green velvety grass rolled in waves. The flowers, plants and trees all knew that the weather was about to change. Steward Liu looked to the northwest and saw a cloud growing over Liuhetaozi. It was black and looked like a crow's wing. It flew over in the fog and entered the river beach.

Housekeeper Liu hurriedly called out, "It's going to rain! Cover the sauce jars quickly and put away the laundry. Old Zheng, take the people to the granary to check if there's anything unstable. And the firewood pile! Oh, don't forget the firewood pile! Bring some dry firewood, or everyone will have cold water to drink tonight."

As Mr. Huang in the kitchen put the lid back on the sauce jar, the sky darkened even further. Thunder flashed, and thunderclouds rolled over the horizon. The wind was like the head of the rain, making the leaves tremble and the corn stalks rustle.

The thunder rumbled continuously, and raindrops hit the ground like popcorn. There were bursts of smoke and dust, and nothing could be seen.

The people in the village ran home as fast as they could, and the children followed them shouting, "It's raining, it's bubbling, and Brother Turtle is wearing a straw hat."

The heavy rain, bubbling, fell faster and faster. It landed on the tops of pickle jars, on the piles of firewood, on the pumpkin vines. The wind passed, the thunder faded. The dark clouds in the sky merged, turning a pale white. The rain continued from sky to sky, and from sky to rain, forming a line with no end in sight.