Section 6: The Life of a Xiucai (Part 2)

  He said he would do it, and the next day Shen He went to the thatched hut by the river, took out his writing tools, carried a broken table and chair on his shoulder, and excitedly set up his stall in front of the City God Temple.

  After all, he was a proud xiucai, with a slender and elegant hand, his characters were more beautiful than those of the ordinary writers who made a living by writing, regardless of whether they could read or not. This also belonged to the advantage of misplaced position. Moreover, he was not greedy for money, he would write for 100 wen or 10 wen, if people really had no money, giving him some food or salted meat was also okay, so people were willing to take care of his business.

  Apart from the first day, business exceeded 100 yuan every day starting from the second day, and in just a few days, it snatched up all the surrounding businesses.

  The feeling of being suddenly rich made Shen He somewhat dizzy, and he actually bought a big fat chicken every day to nourish his body.

  Eating the fragrant chicken soup, he was silent but couldn't help asking: "How's Father's business with his fellow merchants?"

  "I don't know?" Shen He said with a mouthful of chicken feathers, not very politely. "But these days, more and more people are looking for me to write for them, they're even willing to wait until the next day for me to finish writing, rather than finding someone else." He couldn't hide his pride as he said: "Chao Sheng, you didn't see the expressions on those colleagues of mine, tsk tsk... I'm sure they're all green with envy."

  His eyebrows furrowed even tighter, and he said in a low voice, "You still need to leave some room for maneuver. Father has just arrived, and if you take over someone else's rice bowl right away, it may lead to resentment."

  "Night air." Shen He stretched out his oily right hand, picked up the wine cup, and drank a cup of yellow wine with a "sip" sound: "Your dad, I didn't steal or rob, relying on my own skills to make a living, what's there to be careful about? As for no one looking for them, it's because their skills are not good enough. Go back and practice that handwriting well, that's the right thing to do. How can they blame me?"

  "My father is a straightforward man," Shen Mo said slowly shaking his head, "But the most difficult to guard against and the one that requires the most caution in dealing with are indeed the petty men."

  "Careful response? Joke." Shen He drank another cup and said: "Still relying on them for help?"

  "Of course, I won't be of much help." Shen Mo said softly: "Just prevent them from doing bad things."

  Shen He was in high spirits, how could he listen to Shen Mo's unpleasant but well-meaning words? He waved his hand, ending the conversation: "Don't worry about these things, your old man is thirty or forty years old, does he need a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old kid like you to teach him?" Shen Mo had no choice but to shut up.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  In the following days, Shen Mo stayed at home to recuperate from his illness. Every day, Shen He would buy chicken, duck, fish and meat for him. Yin Xiaojie's personal maid, Huaping, would often come over, bringing some nourishing medicines. Each time, she would chat with him for a while before leaving, and before she left, she would ask Shen Mo to retell the jokes and riddles he had told her before, saying that she wanted to show off when she got back.

  The woman downstairs also fell silent for a while, and the good food and drink were no longer disturbed. Shen Mo's body recovered quickly, and in six or seven days, he was able to walk with the support of the wall. It seemed that in another ten days or half a month, he would be able to jump around again.

  After being able to walk on the ground, Shen Mo's first thing to do was to go to the door and take a look at the yard where he had lived for seven or eight days, what it looked like.

  He lived in the attic on the northernmost side, which was also the highest point of the mansion. Leaning against the door and looking out, the entire courtyard was at a glance... It could be seen that the mansion faced north and south, covering an extremely large area, with as many as five rows of black-tiled roofs.

  In the distance, two 15-meter-high flags stand upright at the entrance. The two flags are on either side of the central axis of the entire mansion, and the buildings in the courtyard are completely symmetrical from south to north. The main hall is located on the central axis, with wing rooms and annexes on both sides, connected and facing each other.

  It looks like the layout is no different from the familiar siheyuan, only the arrangement is more compact, and the skywell empty space is much smaller. Although the building is exquisite and delicate, it feels a bit cramped, not as spacious and comfortable as those in the north. Shen Mo thought that maybe it was because there were many people and little land in Jiangnan, so they had to save space.

  Although not as good as the northern siheyuan in terms of plane, it is better than many in terms of height. He saw that except for the main hall of the second entrance, all the houses in the backyard were two or three stories high. Each entrance had symmetrical four rooms on both sides, with the front room being the upper house, the east and west being the wing rooms, the south being the inverted hall, and the four sides facing each other, forming a small siheyuan with a courtyard and a sky well in the center.

  From the third to the fifth courtyard where Shen is located, six courtyards with similar shapes but interconnected are separated by a circular corridor. The houses are scattered and well-proportioned, the courtyards are connected, the doors face each other, the corridors are connected, and the roads are accessible in all directions. There are also fake mountains and rivers, red flowers and green willows dotted among the pink walls and black tiles, making people feel refreshed and cool, and suddenly feeling that summer is not so hard to bear.

  Deeply immersed in the appreciation of beauty, Shen suddenly heard a familiar curse from downstairs: "You little daughter-in-law, aren't you supposed to be pregnant? Why haven't you reported it yet?"

  Lowering my head to take a look, it turned out that the fat woman had made a comeback. She was still as plump as ever, wearing a tight dress, holding half a watermelon, with a few black seeds stuck to her face, and staring at me with her neck stretched back.

  She rolled her eyes silently and said condescendingly: "Old hag, I said 'I'm not sick', who told you and your husband to not listen carefully?"

  "What's wrong? You're getting bolder!" The fat woman didn't expect him to be so sharp-tongued, and her fighting spirit surged as she said: "You little scoundrel, always flirting with that little hussy, you're getting more and more shameless."

  He silently turned his back on her and walked into the house, leaving her with a perfect view of his back. When encountering such an unreasonable shrew, if you argue with her, you would be playing right into her hands. Regardless of winning or losing, first being dragged into the ranks of a shrewish woman and a worthless man is already a great insult.

  That woman saw Shen Mo waving his hand, thinking that 'the little girl was born' was afraid of herself, and became more proud, twisting her fat buttocks to climb up, wanting to regain the scene she lost a few days ago.

  It was easy to climb up to the attic, and the fat woman panted heavily as she pushed open the slightly ajar door and stepped inside.

  All of a sudden, there was a loud crash and a strong-smelling liquid poured down from the sky, drenching her completely. Immediately after, a basin fell down and hit the fat woman's shoulder, shattering into pieces on the ground.

  The fat woman was frightened stiff. With a "thud", the watermelon fell to the ground, but her fat hand remained half raised, standing there dazed for a long time, unable to figure out what had happened.

  But then Shen Mo pinched his nose and said: "Ah, you broke the ceramic basin that was passed down in my family, hurry up and compensate me! Hurry up and compensate me!"

  The fat woman finally came to her senses, and suddenly smelled a strong stench. Her face turned green with anger and she shouted: "You little brat, wait for me!" She quickly turned around and ran downstairs... Although she desperately wanted to peel off the skin of 'Little Maiden', she couldn't bear the filth on her body and went to wash up first.

  ----------------------------------------------------- Divider -----------------------------------------------------

  In response to everyone's strong demand, I'll release an extra chapter today, but you must also strongly vote for recommendations!!!!!!!!!!