Quick travel: the life of smuggling is so exciting

In the next few days, under the guidance of the Qi family, Lin Xia finally managed to tidy up the one acre of land. Next, he needed to borrow the old ox in the village to carry out the first deep plowing.

There are only two cows in the whole village, and they are currently being used by other families. She needs to queue up if she wants to use them.

In fact, she could also dig the ground herself, but she didn't want to go through the hardship, so she stopped working temporarily and had some free time.

As soon as she had some free time, Lin Xia realized that she had forgotten to grow vegetables. The wild vegetables had been eaten up. It would be impossible for her to eat wild vegetables every day in the future. Going to the village to buy vegetables was even more unrealistic. Which serious farmer would buy vegetables every day?

This way, she found something to do.

Get started right away. Start by digging a vegetable garden. It doesn’t have to be big, just create a yard.

This area was nothing for her, an experienced worker, and she could finish it in one day.

Seeing that the Qi family was also cultivating vegetables, Lin Xia asked them how to obtain the vegetable seeds.

As soon as he finished speaking, a handful of free seeds was stuffed into his hand.

Lin Xia is not the kind of person who doesn't know what's good for him. Faced with the Qi family's friendliness, she naturally took a step closer to them.

But the person with whom she got along best was not Aunt Qi, nor the two daughters-in-law of the Qi family, but Qi Xiuer, the daughter of the Qi family.

Qi Xiuer is 11 years old this year. She looks like an 8-year-old baby, with a big head and a small body, and is skinny. She is a typical child fleeing famine.

She is the only child in her family, and her two younger brothers are from Qi Er's family.

Because she was the only daughter in the family, she was more favored at home and did not have to work and be scolded every day like other girls.

Having witnessed many tragedies of other women along the way, Qi Xiuer admired Lin Xia very much. With her family's permission, she always helped Lin Xia with work and chatted with her. Her words were always full of admiration, which made Lin Xia quite fond of this girl.

Today, Qi Xiuer came to Lin Xia's yard again and saw Lin Xia digging a hole. She picked up the vegetable seeds placed in the pavilion and threw them into the hole with swift hands and feet.

"Xiu'er, just sit aside and play. You don't have to do anything. I'll be done in a moment." Even though Lin Xia was thick-skinned, he felt a little embarrassed to always ask the little girl for help.

"Sister Lin, this isn't even work. I'm just using it to chat with you." Qi Xiuer was helpless about Lin Xia's unfamiliar farming skills. Sister Lin wasn't as efficient at work as she was.

"Sister Lin, my parents, my second aunt and I are going to the county town tomorrow. Do you want to go with us?" Qi Xiuer likes to act with Lin Xia and always feels safer with her.

Her family was renovating the house recently, and the food at home was almost gone. They had to do heavy work to get enough to eat, so her father went to buy food and act as a bodyguard, her mother and second aunt went to buy things for their own family, and she just wanted to go shopping.

Lin Xia was thinking while digging the hole, and decided to go to the county together tomorrow as agreed. He hadn't bought any food for some time, and his family was also short of a large water tank, so he had to buy them tomorrow.

"Okay, I'll go with you tomorrow. What time do you leave?"

Hearing this, Qi Xiu'er jumped for joy and said with a wide grin, "We'll set out tomorrow morning at dawn. I'll call you then."

"Okay, thank you, Xiao Xiu'er." Lin Xia said softly with a smile on her face.

*

Early the next morning,

"Sister Lin, are you up?" Qi Xiuer's clear voice sounded outside the yard.

squeak~

Lin Xia opened the door and said, "Get up, I've packed everything."

Because of meditation, she always gets up early.

"Then let's go, Sister Lin. We have packed up." Qi Xiu'er skipped forward, turning around from time to time to call Lin Xia to follow.

Seeing the energetic Xiao Xiu'er early in the morning, Lin Xia's mood became much better.

The morning sunlight sprinkled on the treetops, ethereal laughter echoed in the air, and the dogtail grass on Lin Xia's fingertips swayed with Xiu'er's spinning and jumping posture.

When Lin Xia and the other four arrived at the city gate, the sun was already high in the sky and everyone was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

The timing was just right. The city gate opened at the right time and several people went straight into the city. The public security in Qingshui County was very good, so unlike other places, there was no need to check identity. You could enter as soon as you arrived.

This was Qi Xiuer's second visit to Qingshui County. The first time, she was extremely confused and anxious about her future life and did not even look around the county carefully.

Now that my life is stable, I have the mood to take a closer look at everything here, and I always exclaim "Wow" along the way.

"Sister Lin, what is that store for? Why are there so many people here?" Qi Xiuer pointed at a bookstore not far away and was stunned.

Not only Qi Xiuer was surprised, Lin Xia and the other three also found it unbelievable.

This is the first time I’ve seen a bookstore so popular, it was so crowded that people were shoulder to shoulder.

You should know that Dajing does not have an imperial examination system at present. Most of the scholars are from upper-class wealthy families. Others can at most be recommended by the academy to become a minor official or village chief.

Even though Qingshui County is a major economic county in this county, it only has a small private school. This is why Lin Xia has not yet found a way to learn to read. It is not a good idea to ask the village chief for help, as that would only lead to rumors.

Several people were curious, so they walked over and stood aside to watch for a while, only to find out that the bookstore had received a new batch of paper yesterday. The price was half the usual price, and the quality was even better.

incredible.

The reason why reading has not developed is not only because of the lack of channels to the upper class, but more importantly, the high cost, expensive paper and few books.

Otherwise, wouldn’t it be better for everyone to study and become a minor official?

Wang Zhaozhao’s figure suddenly appeared in Lin Xia’s mind. Could it be her?

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xia raised her eyebrows. No matter whether it was true or not, she had to buy some paper, pens and books. She had to seize the opportunity when she saw it.

She asked the others to go ahead and said she was going into the store to buy some paper.

Several people shook their heads and said they would wait for her. They were also very curious because they had never come into close contact with reading supplies.

Half an hour later, Lin Xia came out with a stack of jute paper, a book and a set of writing brushes, inkstones and inkstones.

"Sister Lin, is it expensive?" Qi Xiuer asked curiously first.

"It's not bad. I heard it's half the price of the previous ones. The worst one I bought cost less than one or two taels."

"Ah, this is still cheap, it can buy a lot of food." Qi Xiuer was unbelievable. It turned out that reading and writing were really expensive.

"Yes, that's why studying is difficult." Qi Da sighed.

"Sister, can you read?" Qi Xiuer looked at the book in Lin Xia's hand.

"I don't know. Be prepared. This is a children's enlightenment book. Get familiar with it first. Just in case there's a chance..."

Qi Xiuer made up her mind to follow Sister Lin's footsteps, "Then I will also learn calligraphy when I have the chance in the future!"

Although she had no money to buy paper, it did not stop the little girl from expressing her ambitions.

"Okay, if there's a chance in the future, Xiu'er will also learn calligraphy." Qi Da made a slightly solemn promise to Xiu'er, but in his heart he laughed at his own wishful thinking.

"Okay, it's getting late, let's finish shopping and go back early." Qi's wife said gently.

At this moment, a petty official in the distance led a large group of ragged refugees towards the city gate.

"Dad, Mom, Second Aunt, Sister Lin, these people seem to be the same as we were back then." Xiu'er stared at them blankly, as if she were in another world.

"Yeah..." Everyone looked over and murmured.

"But they have less food. What's going on? Are they short of food?!" Lin Xia noticed that some refugees had less than half the food they had at the beginning, and her face looked a little ugly.

The other people's faces also turned bad, and they decided to go to the grain store.

Suddenly, a voice came from the side, "Don't worry about it. Qingshui County has no shortage of food. Those people are going to be sent to other counties. The passenger ship can only go to our county, and they will have to walk the rest of the way. The food is just the fare for this part of the journey."

Lin Xia turned around and saw a young man in a green robe sitting at a stall next to them. He had an arrogant look on his face and glanced at them sideways.

"You have accumulated virtue for several lifetimes to be able to settle down in Qingshui County." The man disdains outsiders like them the most.

"We are really lucky!" Qi Xiuer was very insensitive and didn't hear that the other party looked down on them at all.

The adults smiled at each other, turned around and left together in tacit understanding. Having experienced the harshness of society, they were very stable in their emotions and were actually grateful to each other for answering their questions.

Now it was the man's turn to be dumbfounded. Shouldn't the other party be blushing and leaving in shame and anger?

He stared at the backs of the people leaving, choking and speechless for a long time.