Chapter 95: Chapter 94: Enlarged Edition Books

For the sake of the villagers, the village chief of Lower River Village made the decision and placed an order with Qin Yao, even prepaying her a deposit of five taels.

The two sides signed a simple agreement as the sun began to set.

Wang Yu enthusiastically offered to drive a bullock cart to take Qin Yao and the others back, but Qin Yao, not wanting to trouble him, politely declined.

The main reason was that she had some matters to discuss with Liu the carpenter on the way back, which were not convenient for outsiders to hear.

Wang Yu had no choice but to see them off to the village entrance, reminding them repeatedly, “Miss Qin, once you finish the drawings of the mill, make sure to send them over right away!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring them over myself once they’re done.” There were some details she felt better handling in person after discussing with the craftsmen.

After hearing Qin Yao’s assurance, Wang Yu breathed a sigh of relief, waved goodbye, and watched the three of them walk away before returning home.

With the orange sunset hanging at the horizon, Liu Ji returned at an unknown time, holding a string of eggplants, and inquired cheerfully,

“Wife, have you settled everything?”

Qin Yao replied with a grunt, questioning where he had just been off to.

Liu Ji raised the eggplants, “I dropped by Shunzi’s house for a look, and his mother gave these to me. Tonight, I’ll make braised eggplant for you.”

That wasn’t a lie, but his real purpose at Shunzi’s house wasn’t just for the eggplants; it was to drag Shunzi aside and scold him for betrayal.

He even said they were brothers through thick and thin, but now that Shunzi has a sister-in-law, he forgot about his brother, so he wanted to break ties with him!

Seeing Liu Ji’s guilty look, Qin Yao didn’t bother figuring out what exactly he did behind her back. She quickly caught up with Liu the carpenter to discuss business.

Liu the carpenter, who could barely contain himself, immediately asked Qin Yao, now that there were no outsiders,

“Isn’t asking for fifteen taels a bit too much?”

He was worried that if the people of Lower River Village found out the actual costs, they might come after him.

Qin Yao, thinking it was no big deal, smiled and said, “It’s not too much at all!”

She calculated for him, “You need money for the wood, right? For so much wood, and we need good quality, four taels of silver is already spent.”

“The deadline is tight; we promised to deliver in half a month. Now, you don’t have any ready materials and have to start from scratch. You alone won’t be able to handle it all, right? We’ll need to hire help, spending at least half a tael for wages.”

“Also, on my side, grinding stone millstones isn’t an easy task. For others, it would take ten men to gather materials and shape them into a millstone, and finally, it needs to be transported from Liu Family Village to Lower River Village.”

“Paying one person thirty coins a day, for half a month that’s four taels and five maces of silver!”

That’s equivalent to them each contributing four taels and five, and the remaining six taels are the profit.

If split between the two, each would get three taels.

Three taels for an exclusive technique is practically a steal.

Qin Yao was correct, but Liu the carpenter still felt something was amiss.

Where was it wrong exactly?

Ah, right, he could use the wood from his own home, use his family for the labor costs, so genuinely calculating it, that seven taels and five maces of silver could all go into his pocket.

“Miss Qin, I truly admire you!”

On the riverbank as they parted, Liu the carpenter sincerely cupped his hands to Qin Yao, then joyfully headed home.

Qin Yao felt the comforting weight of the five-tael deposit in her bosom, which filled her with inner peace.

The couple barely got home when night fully set in.

The main room and kitchen were lit, and hearing movement, Sanlang and Si Niang came running out from the main room, “Mother, Father~”

Qin Yao asked, “Where’s your elder brother?”

The Dragon and Phoenix Twins pointed to the kitchen, and Da Lang and Second Lang were already cooking dinner.

Liu Ji carried the eggplants inside, happily patting his sons’ little heads as he took over the cooking duties.

Qin Yao washed her face in the courtyard, and the four children followed her into the main room, with Da Lang asking,

“Auntie, did Lower River Village promise you to make the water mill?”

Qin Yao nodded with a smile, and the four children cheered, “That’s great!”

With work comes earnings, the kids understood that too.

Liu Ji shouted from the kitchen, “Da Lang, Second Lang, set the table, time to eat!”

Da Lang and Second Lang responded with an ’Oh’, shrugged like little adults to Qin Yao, then ran to the kitchen to grab the dishes and chopsticks.

Sanlang went to herd the chickens into the coop, washed Si Niang’s little hands, and the six of them gathered in the main room for dinner.

Knowing Qin Yao took on the job from Lower River Village, the whole family was delighted, and the dining atmosphere was very pleasant.

It would have been perfect if Liu Ji hadn’t cheekily tried to guess how much money she would earn.

“All you need to do is study hard from now on, don’t worry about the money.” Qin Yao sternly warned him.

Liu Ji thought to himself, if there was a mirror in front of him, his expression now would look exactly like that of a wife resented by her husband!

After dinner, Second Lang and Sanlang were washing dishes in the courtyard. Although the four siblings were supposed to take turns, Da Lang never trusted his younger siblings and always helped wash them.

Si Niang naturally couldn’t allow herself to fall behind, so what was originally a two-person task turned into four people doing it together.

Qin Yao didn’t interfere with the arrangements of the four siblings, as long as they didn’t fight, it was okay.

To be honest, she hadn’t really seen the four of them fighting, they were so well-behaved it was heartbreaking.

Qin Yao’s gentle gaze swept over the four little heads in the courtyard, then turned sharply to Liu Ji, who had finished eating and was lounging on a bamboo chair, napping.

“How many books have you copied?”

Though she didn’t ask loudly, the moment her tone deepened, Liu Ji could feel a chill.

In this summer heat, it was quite refreshing, giving him a jolt as he opened his eyes and sat up straight.

“About three…I think?” Uh oh, he forgot exactly how far he’d copied!

Qin Yao’s eyebrows immediately furrowed, “It’s been a week, and you’ve only copied three books?”

Those nine books, the shortest had over a thousand words, the longest nearly forty thousand, even if he copied for eight hours a day, at a rate of a thousand words an hour, he shouldn’t only have finished three books.

“Bring them here, let me see.” Qin Yao said coldly.

Liu Ji thought this was bad, but didn’t dare disobey. After all, his life was important, so he quickly went to his bedroom to fetch the three copied books.

Fortunately, one of them was the over thirty-two-thousand-word ’Classic of Poetry’.

The other two were the ’University’, with over seventeen hundred words, and ’Zhongyong’, with over thirty-five hundred words.

Adding the original study notes from Mr. Shangding, it didn’t count as slacking off.

Since there weren’t fine ballpoint pens, the smallest brush made Liu Ji’s writing huge, so each copied book was an enlarged version.

The paper size was that of A3 sheets, holding such a book that could entirely cover a person was indeed quite peculiar.

However, it must be said that the large version was much more comfortable to read than the small version, the large text didn’t strain the eyes, there was more space for notes, and it was convenient for making annotations.

Except it wasted a bit of paper.

Qin Yao flipped through them; while the handwriting wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful, it was becoming more orderly, proving that copying books helped improve penmanship.

She returned the books to the uneasy Liu Ji, barely passing him.

With a nod and a lift of her chin, she indicated for him to continue copying.

Qin Yao got up and returned to her room, lighting an oil lamp she usually didn’t dare to use, as she stayed up drawing the blueprints at her work desk.

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