139 – Fund a School Construction

“Three years…” Qin Mian scratched his chin, still hesitant. “It’s a waste of time not to open the new shop for three years.”

Lei Tie rubbed his chin against his wife’s head. “I’ll decide. The new shop will open but temporarily won’t sell pastries, only drinks. Simple drinks, easy to teach.”

His rare emphatic made Qin Mian quickly make up his mind, “[I’ll] listen to you. So then, except for grapes, we’ll reserve one-third of our fruits and sell the rest to Nie Heng and Mu Chen.”

“En.” Lei Tie had no objection.

“Aa yaa…” Manman waved his little arms.

Qin Mian crawled over and picked him up. “Son, what happened? Did no one pay attention to you?”

Manman leaned on him, looking very happy, “Yaa yaa.”

Yuanyuan looked at Lei Tie.

Lei Tie also picked him up. The father and son looked at each other, both remained silent.

Qin Mian heartily laughed and went back to Lei Tie. He sat next to the man and used Manman’s small hand to touch Yuanyuan’s hand. “Here, you brothers play together.”

“Yaa…” Manman smiled with eyes shaped into crescents.

Yuanyuan raised his little arms. “Aa.”

Watching them, Qin Mian was overjoyed, while the expression on Lei Tie’s face was flat yet gentle. Qin Mian didn’t notice that Lei Tie’s eyes fell mostly on him.

In the later part of the 5th lunar month, the cherries began to ripen. Qin Mian taught Aunt Fu, Aunt Quan, and Lei-Qin Le’s wife how to make fruit juices and milk tea. A few days later, Glimmer of Paradise Beverage Shop opened for business. Sweet drinks were more popular with women and children and soon became the most popular drinks in town. Every day near noon, there were long lines outside the shop.

It had been a whole year since Double Xiang House was established, which had greatly promoted the economic development in Running Water Town. Following Nie Heng’s transport line, there were two domesticated animal fodder shops, three vegetable shops, and two tea shops established in Running Water Town, as well as many vendor’s stalls selling local specialties, rainwear, and other goods. Not only that, even a shrewd businessman bought a piece of land next to Double Xiang House and built a two-storied general store, which gathered all kinds of goods – wasn’t it the same as a department store in the later generation? It might not be too wasteful of a trip coming to Running Water Town just to have a meal and listen to storytelling in Double Xiang House when in passing, one could buy some goods and bring them back to sell. What could one have against it?

As Qin Mian expected, Running Water Town became more prosperous than before. There were more vehicles and passers-by. Hence, the monthly profit of Glimmer of Paradise Beverage Shop was very impressive.

It was very cool and refreshing to drink a glass of juice with ice, especially as the weather got hotter and hotter. The drinks variety also gradually increased, such as cherry, peach, strawberry, watermelon…

In the 8th lunar month, the grapes in the vineyard ripened; each of them was big and purple, like clusters of beautiful purple pearls hang on the grape trellis, making one’s mouth watery. After picking one to taste, the sweetness made one unable to stop even though one wanted to.

In the sweltering summer at the start of dragon hour (7 am), the sun was unusually blazing.

The servants of Leisurely Farmhouse put on straw hats and came to the vineyard with straw baskets. After finding the ripe grape clusters within the green leaves, they held the vines in one hand, cut the cluster with shears on the other hand, and put them into the basket gently. About an hour later, there would be a cart coming to transport these grapes.

Qin Mian planted the grapes to brew wine. The wine was much more profitable than the grapes themselves. He only agreed to sell 200 jin of grapes with the price of 50 Wen per jin, for the sake of the good relationship with Nie Heng and Mu Chen. This unit price was higher than other grapes, but in Qin Mian’s opinion, it was only a small change [for them].

The rest of the grapes were used to brew wine. Brewing wine was easy. Since the grapes were not sprayed with pesticides, they didn’t need to be cleaned; the white substance on the surface of the grape skin was conducive for fermentation. Once the grapes were picked off one by one into the basin, they were crushed by hand; left in the basin were the grape skin, seeds, and pulp. Next, according to the ratio of 6 jin of grapes to 1 jin of sugar, they were evenly mixed before the mixture was put into a clean container after the sugar had completely melted. In the fermentation process, the grapes produced a lot of gas; it must not be filled too full to guard against explosion. The container had to be sealed. In the summertime, the high temperature quickened the fermentation process. In about 20 days, it could be brewed. After filtering the grape skin, seeds, and pulp with clean gauze, the remaining was the real wine. Finally, the wine could be sold in a customized jar with a capacity of 2 jin. Each jar was priced at 2 taels.

Qin Mian supervised the process once. After he confirmed that the servants had learned it, he handed the matter to Uncle Fu. The main task of him and Lei Tie was to take care of their sons.

The four-month-old Yuanyuan and Manman had grown very strong; not only could they turn over, sometimes they could even sit. With big black eyes, white soft cheeks, and chubby little hands, they looked so adorable after putting on light blue open-crotch bodysuits embroidered with fruits, displaying their pink tender little buttocks. Whether it was a little girl, a woman, or an old lady in the village, whoever saw the two little ones couldn’t help but glance a few more, while feeling their hearts melt, wanting to hold them up and kiss them hard.

Qin Mian wouldn’t give them such a chance. He couldn’t easily let others kiss his sons since there were so many germs.

And Lei Tie was even more unlikely to allow others to kiss his sons.

After dinner that evening, when the sun had just set, the heat dissipated a lot. In the westside, half of the sky was covered in a wide expanse of sunset glow. Countless dragonflies fluttered in the sky, diligently annihilating mosquitoes. The caress of the summer breeze was rather cool and refreshing.

After bathing the two little ones, Qin Mian and Lei Tie dressed them in clean clothes, put them in the strollers, and pushed them out of the house.

White Spot and Golden Fur dawdled at the back.

Made exactly the same, the two baby strollers were specially designed by Qin Mian; they could be separated and merged into one to facilitate the two children’s emotional connection. One side of the stroller’s handle was hung with feeding bottles, and the other side was hung with a handy cloth bag containing clean diapers. Meanwhile, the sunshade of the stroller was affixed with toys in the shape of fruits made from brightly colored cloth.

Yuanyuan and Manman were very smart. When they were put in the strollers, they knew that they were going to go out.

Manman was so delighted that he bounced, “Yii yaa…”

Although it was not obvious on Yuanyuan’s expression, one could still make out happiness on his face.

Perhaps it was truly related to heredity, Yuanyuan resembled Lei Tie to the extreme, having little expression and few ‘’words’’. When Qin Mian found out about that, he wanted to improve it sooner. Hence, he held Yuanyuan most of the time. Every time he held Yuanyuan, he would tease him a lot, but to no effect. Besides, Manman seemed dissatisfied with his partiality, so he had to give up. In fact, it was not so bad to be like A-Tie; he’s just as cute.

After dinner, the villagers went out with big cattail leaf fans and gathered under the trees to enjoy the cool breeze as they chatted.

“Oh, Tie-zi and Tie-zi’s wife are taking the children out for a walk again?”

Qin Mian greeted them with a smile. “Yes. These two little ones like to stroll outside, as though their pairs of eyes can’t see enough.”

When the villagers saw Yuanyuan and Manman’s eyes turning and looking around, they all laughed.

“The children are becoming more and more adorable.”

When Lei Tie saw Li Zheng, he cupped his hands in greetings as he said, “Li Zheng is also here. My wife and I have something to talk to you about.”

The people of peasant households usually had nothing to entertain themselves with, so they all were somewhat gossipy. They looked over, inquisitively.

When Lei Tie said that in front of so many people, that meant he didn’t mind others to know. Li Zheng directly asked, “Tie-zi, what matter is it?”

Lei Tie said, “We plan to fund a school construction in the village.”

The villagers were both surprised and happy, wanting to come near, but didn’t dare to get too close in the end, out of fear of White Spot and Golden Fur.

“Brother Tie, is this true?”

At this point, one had to talk about the situation of Green Mountain Village. Green Mountain Village was situated in a remote location; the soil condition was not good and there was not much yield in the farmland. That’s why, before the construction of the processing yard, Green Mountain Village was relatively poor. Plus, there was no school in the village. If the children wanted to study, they could only go to the school in town. However, Green Mountain Village was an hour away from the town, which was very inconvenient. Like Lei Xiangzhi, when he was studying in the town, he lived in the house provided by the town school, lest he wasted all his time on the road. The villagers felt that it was too troublesome to pick up and send their children back and forth every day. Neither did they felt at ease to let the children go to and from school by themselves in the morning and evening. The daily cost of accommodation also was not small. Therefore, many villagers had to give up the idea of letting their children attend school. Nevertheless, the status of a scholar was always majestic. Who wouldn’t wish for their children to be preoccupied with books, so much so that they embark on an official career one day? At any rate, even without expecting them to take the examination to become a Xiucai, or the Number One Scholar, or something, to be able to read a few words was already a good thing. When they grew up, it would be easier to find a job.

It was conceivable that Lei Tie’s words caused a great sensation. Not a while later, the villagers who got the news came over, all talking at once to make detailed inquiries.

Nevertheless, with a sound of clearing throat from Li Zheng, who had status, everyone sat down and didn’t make any unnecessary racket.

Li Zheng was equally excited, “Tie-zi, please talk about it in detail.”

Yuanyuan and Manman were having fun grabbing and groping White Spot and Golden Fur’s bodies.

“It’s my wife’s idea, let my wife say it.” Lei Tie took out a handkerchief to wipe his sons’ hands, and let White Spot and Golden Fur retreat a bit.

Qin Mian’s heart warmed. All the time, his family’s poker-face tried to improve his position in the village.

“In recent years, our family has been able to get a foothold in the village and live a happy life. It’s all thanks to the support of our fellow villagers. To show our gratitude and make the children in Green Mountain Village more promising than our generation, A-Tie and I have decided to build a school. The school will be set up with two classrooms, one of which is for the children who only want to learn a few more words can call it an ordinary class; the other one is for the children who want to take the imperial examination, can call it imperial examination class. The desks, chairs, and benches in the school are all paid for by our family. The children in the ordinary class only need to pay 20 Wen a month to pay for the teacher’s expenses; the children in the imperial examination class pay 100 Wen a month, which is also given to the teacher. If the sum is not enough to pay for the teachers’ wages, our family will make up for it. As it should be, the fee collection will have to bother Li Zheng take care of.”