Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 171: Once again experiencing the embarrassment of having no money

Dun Dun smiled and said, "In fact, it is better to know how to read. If you want to record an account, you don't need to draw symbols. Others won't understand what is being recorded when they see the account."

Yutao's face suddenly turned red and she stopped talking.

She secretly made up her mind to learn to write seriously so that she wouldn't have to draw those symbols when keeping accounts in the future and she couldn't let Dun Dun laugh at her again.

Shen Yu found it funny and a little guilty watching from the side.

Since I can’t write, I drew those symbols myself.

When I arrived at the bookstore, I bought the two required books according to the list Mr. Yang gave me.

Dun Dun and Yu Cheng each had an inkstone, which they planned to bring to school. They selected a few cheap, large ink sticks, ten sheets of rough-edged paper, and two brushes each.

It may not seem like a large amount, but it cost two and a half taels of silver.

As Shen Yu took out the money, he thought to himself that no matter how poor one is, one must not be poor in education, but the paper and books were too expensive.

Books at that time were really expensive. Two thin booklets, with less than fifty pages in total, cost one or two taels of silver.

After paying the money, Shen Yu found a row of storybooks and legendary stories on the bookshelf next to him.

I picked up one at random and found that it was thicker than the two booklets I just bought, had more pages, and the paper felt thicker and smoother.

Shen Yu was so scared that he quietly put it back without even daring to ask the price.

I have to work hard to earn money in the future, otherwise I won’t be able to afford the storybooks.

Shen Yu encouraged himself.

Back home, Dun Dun and the others gathered around the small table to cut paper.

Shen Yu was thinking about whether he should ask Li to sew some school bags for the two children out of cloth.

I wonder what kind of school bags children carry to school these days.

Just as she was thinking about it, Li brought two square bamboo baskets and placed them on the square table. She asked Shen Yu, "Do they look good? They are light and square."

Shen Yu picked one up and looked at it carefully. This was probably the schoolbag of this era.

The bamboo is woven into a small rectangular basket, which is slightly larger than a modern schoolbag.

There is an openable lid on the top and two straps on the sides for carrying the bag. They are made of soft rattan and wrapped with thick and soft cloth strips on the outside, so they are not painful to the shoulders at all when carried.

The most interesting thing is that there is an extra layer of support above the bookcase, with a cloth canopy made of blue cloth on it.

When you carry the book box on your back, the cloth canopy is just above your head, providing shade.

Shen Yu smiled and said, "It even has a built-in sunshade, so you can't get in the sun even when you walk."

Li smiled and said, "Yes, when you went to buy books, Sister Jiang and I went to the bamboo shop on the street to pick them out. These two are the right size and the lightest. The price is not cheap."

As he spoke, he twisted the cloth with his hand and said, "It's just that this cloth is a little inferior. The spun thread is too sparse. It's much worse than the cloth woven with the thread I spun myself in the village before."

Shen Yu suggested to Li: "Why not buy some oilcloth and replace it? This way it can block the sun, rain and snow. If it rains, the books and papers in the bookcase will not get wet. Isn't it better?"

Li smiled and said, "Girl, where do you get these ideas? Here's a good idea. After delivering lunch at noon, go to the cloth shop and buy a piece of oilcloth to change into."

Then he added, "I don't know when the government will give us the silver that Mrs. Hu paid as compensation. Zhou Dalang has paid the silver several days ago, so it's time for us to get it back."

"Isn't he going to stop giving me money? These past two days, I've felt like I've been spending money everywhere."

Li was worriedly calculating how much money she would need to buy oilcloth at noon and how many feet she would need.

These days I have to buy books, pens, ink, paper and inkstone, prepare money for my two children's schooling, buy book boxes, and when the classes officially start, I also need money for meals. If I calculate carefully, I will need at least fifty taels of silver.

In this era, studying is a very expensive thing, but if you pass the imperial examination, it is like a carp leaping over the dragon gate, and your life will never be the same again.

Therefore, as long as the conditions permit, every family will actively send their children to school.

After buying the shop, Shen Yu had only thirty or forty taels of silver left. Although he had been setting up the stall as usual in the past few days, the Mid-Autumn Festival had passed and the income from the reunion cakes was gone.

When the two children go to school and I take over the shop, I will have to buy new stoves and renovate the shop before I can reopen it.

You cannot save money on both schooling and shop repairs.

Shen Yu once again experienced the feeling of being stretched to the limit.

Alas, it’s because I earn too little money. If I had more money, I wouldn’t need to be so calculating.

Shen Yu smiled and comforted her: "Mom, don't worry, otherwise, I will use the chicken to make a dish for Mr. Lu at noon, and ask him about the compensation."

"He often helps the county magistrate handle official business. He must know when to pay us the compensation."

I thought of the four chickens that were temporarily tied with ropes by their feet and kept in a corner of the yard, where they were chirping all the time.

Shen Yu said with a headache: "This yard is too small. Hurry up and cook all these chickens and return them to Mr. Lu, otherwise the yard will stink in a few days."

Mrs. Li thought of the four chickens and felt a little amused. She warned, "Mr. Lu is also pitiful. It's a good thing that the county magistrate believes in Buddhism, but you can't let the children suffer with him."

"Be careful when you deliver it. Don't let the county magistrate see it, or Mr. Lu won't be able to eat even this little bit of meat."

Shen Yu is a good cook, but she has never killed a live chicken before.

Just thinking about it makes me a little scared.

Shen Yu said worriedly: "It's fine to use chicken to cook, but this chicken is alive. How can I kill it in such a small yard?"

Li had never killed a chicken before. In the past, she helped do this job when her uncle came over.

Li thought about it and decided to take the job. She said, "I'll take the chicken to a chicken and duck shop in the market. They'll kill the chicken for you and clean it up nicely for two or three cents."

"This yard is too small, and there is no well. If the chicken is killed and there is chicken blood all over the floor, it will be inconvenient to wash it off."

"I wonder how long it will take Mrs. Hu to move out. When we move to the store, there will be a well, and it will be much more convenient to use water."

Shen Yu agreed with a smile, and the mother and daughter went to find a small bamboo basket, ready to put a chicken in it and take it to the shop in the market to kill and pluck the chicken.

Just as I caught a hen and closed the cage lid, I heard someone knocking at the door.

When Shen Yu opened the door, he saw that it was Qixi again.

Shen Yu felt a headache when he saw Qi Xi. Without saying anything, he looked behind and around him, worried that he had brought some unexpected living creature over.

Fortunately, Qi Xi came empty-handed this time, with neither a basket beside him nor a servant following him.

Shen Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Qi Xi smiled pleasingly and bowed: "Miss Shen, how are you? The young master didn't ask me to deliver anything today."

Shen Yu couldn't help but laugh and asked, "So what are you doing here today?"

Qi Xi bowed to Li and Jiang who came over after hearing the noise and said, "Young Master asked me to help."

"Help?" Shen Yu didn't understand what Qixi meant for a moment.