Chapter 534: A fool

At the beginning of October, the weather was already cold.
The steps of winter have come to the capital.
At this time in previous years, many businesses were already preparing to leave the capital. I'm afraid that later on, the river will be frozen and the road will not be easy to follow, which will delay home for the New Year.
But this year, the merchants seem to be in a hurry.
More goods are being shipped to the capital continuously.
The capital is unprecedentedly lively.
Unexpectedly, this season, you can still eat southern fruits, which is really surprising.
"Have you heard that the cement road from Beijing to Luozhou is almost completed."
"I've heard it a long time ago. It seems that the two ends can be closed just a few dozen miles away."
"Recently, the meat and vegetable shops of Sihai Commercial Bank have added a lot of new varieties. It seems that they are all shipped from the south, and the price is not expensive."
"Why not expensive. An orange, so big, costs two cents. Two cents can buy a few eggs."
"I tasted a fresh one yesterday, that orange is really sweet. I heard it is different from ours."
"And dried sweet potatoes."
"I've only heard of someone growing sweet potatoes in the south, but I didn't expect it to be really hungry."
"I heard that sweet potatoes can also be grown in the north."
"Really? You can't talk nonsense about this."
"What nonsense. The cousin of my sister-in-law's brother-in-law's eldest brother-in-law works at the village. I heard that many villagers have grown sweet potatoes this year, and an acre can weigh more than a thousand catties."
"Really? Oh my god, the yield of a thousand catties per mu does not mean that you don't have to worry about being hungry when you don't pick up the green and yellow?"
"It's not okay to just plant sweet potatoes. There is no way to use sweet potatoes to deduct annual taxes and servitude. You have to plant wheat and rice."
"That's true."
"Then sweet potatoes have a high yield per mu and can be used as dried sweet potatoes. Is there anything else?"
"Why not, it's great to feed pigs. It can be ground into flour and be a sweet potato fan. I heard that it can still make wine."
"Sweet potato fruit can really make wine?"
The teahouse owner unexpectedly joined the conversation of several footmen.
"I heard people say that sweet potatoes have a high yield per acre. They can be boiled, steamed, and roasted. They are hungry and have a lot of farts. Feeding pigs is also excellent. Pigs eat sweet potatoes. The meat grows fast. I also said that I can make wine, but I have never seen it."
The owner of the teahouse said: "If I can really make wine, I will also plant 10 acres and 20 acres."
"I don't know if I can really make wine."
"What kind of sweet potato fan you just mentioned?"
"You go to the meat and vegetable shop in Dahuaishu Bazaar, there are some sold there, but it's not expensive. I'll buy half a catty later tomorrow, and try it fresh."
The porters drank a big bowl of tea, rested for half an hour, and went to work again.
The owner of the restaurant noticed what the sweet potato is, and bit his teeth. He still spent money to buy dried sweet potatoes, sweet potato fans, and weighed dozens of kilograms of sweet potatoes back, ready to learn to cook, steam, and roast.
This teahouse is the lowest-grade teahouse on the roadside. It is a grass shed that does not cover the wind, but can only block rain and snow.
The owner of the teahouse has been operating for many years, and he earns hard money.
Finally saved money, bought more than ten acres of sloping land, a few acres of irrigated land, can be regarded as a rich man.
The owner of the teahouse is planning to buy more land while he is still in good health. When he gets old, he goes to the countryside to provide for the elderly. Relying on dozens of acres of land, a family can live.
If the per mu yield of this sweet potato is so high and so good, the teahouse owner feels that the plan to buy dozens of mu of land may be realized in advance.
In the next few days, the owner of the teahouse and his family ate sweet potatoes in different ways.
Not to mention, the taste is really good, sweet and glutinous. Baked is the best and fragrant.
Sure enough, as the footmen said, sweet potatoes are hungry, but they are farts and indecent.
After eating sweet potatoes, the owner of the tea house is looking forward to the day when sweet potatoes can be brewed.
Must be able to make wine.
As long as he can make wine, he will plant all his own hillsides with sweet potatoes.
As for where the seeds come from, the teahouse owner hasn’t thought that far.
Anyway, when it comes to spring plowing, I can always think of ways to get seeds.
...
Balipu, three hundred miles away from the capital, is located on the official road from Beijing to Luozhou.
Since the engineering team that came to build the road last year, this small place in the cove has become lively.
Those who build roads, burn cement, and send supplies...
In the coldest winter, the engineering team didn't rest and was still burning bricks. Said to build a house.
The local people don’t understand what road building has to do with building houses.
They only knew that after the engineering team came, the family life would be better.
The man went to work on the construction site and did two meals a day, with broth and money.
Women help to cook, just as they are paid for with food.
She did not find a living woman, so she took the job of sewing.
The engineering team is full of big masters, earning a lot, with loose hands, and willing to spend money to ask people to do laundry.
The people near the construction site have benefited.
In addition to these, livestock and poultry that could not be sold in the past were required by the engineering team, and the prices were fair. It also set off a small wave of poultry breeding.
The engineering team sells wood, stones, and worthless lime that cannot be shipped.
People's life in Balipu seems to be getting better, but this section of cement road is also repaired.
When the engineering team left, the local people looked regretful and disappointed. The good days left with the departure of the engineering team.
In the days to come, I am afraid that I will go back to the old life of poverty and old-fashioned, unable to eat a full meal all year round.
Unexpectedly, after the engineering team left, there were two more magnificent houses beside the concrete road.
The surrounding land, mountains and forests were also bought.
Soon, a sign was hung on the house, and two rows of tall wooden fences were added to the cement road at the door.
The only child in the nearby village who had read books, pointed to the two signs hanging on the door of the room, and said: "Toll station, rest station."
"What is this stuff?"
"do not know?"
"Is the rest station a post station? It is understandable. What is a toll station? Is it possible that we will have to pay for the way we pass this road in the future."
As soon as they heard of the money, the villagers fled, for fear that a few wicked people would run out of the majestic mansion and ask them for money.
The only child, standing in the wind awkwardly. I wanted to escape with the villagers, but I felt disgraced. Staying here, he was afraid again, and he was about to pee his pants after two battles.
Huh huh!
In the magnificent mansion, a person really came out. A gentle-looking, shrewd young man.
"Hey, don't you run?" the young man asked the old boy.
Lao Tong was born 30 this year, surnamed Wang, and the farthest place he has been to is the county seat dozens of miles away.
He licked his lips and said nervously, "Go, go now."
"Don't be busy." The young man grinned, "I heard you just now, are you literate?"
Wang Laotong nodded, "Have read a book."
The young man looked at the clothes of the old boy and his disheveled face. He was obviously a pauper, and a little inexplicably upright.
"We recruit literate people here, will you come? Pay back your wages if you include food."
Wang Laotong first said "Ah".
The young man chuckled, "Ah what, do you want to eat meat all the time? One tael a month, do you want it? If you do a good job, you will get a reward at the end of the year, and you can buy good things from the owner at internal prices. Really uninterested?"
"What are you doing here?" Wang Laotong was moved, but he still hesitated in his heart.
As the young man guessed, he was a little inexplicably upright. As the only literate person in the village, there is no reason why he can live so poorly.
The young man smiled and said, "You can read, of course, you do copy work. Don't you mean your handwriting?"
"Seeing people, seeing people. Can I think about it?"
"Why are you so dull, our boss went to the county to recruit people. If you don't agree now, you won't have your chance until tomorrow. People in the county are rare for us here."
Wang Laotong suddenly became anxious, "Tomorrow, will you stop hiring?"
"If the people are full, of course we won't. You know, all the people who come from the county seat are familiar and can use them. Just you, it takes half a month of training before you can start."
Wang Laotong didn't understand what training class and what job. But he understood the meaning of this.
If he doesn't agree now, the errand will slip through his fingers.
When there was meat to eat, Wang Laotong swallowed unconvincingly.
The salary of one or two in a month is awkward, and Wang Laotong's heart is jumping. More excited than the first time I slept with the little lady.
He looked at the two majestic houses in front of him. The toll station was a two-story building, and the rest station was a house with deep depths. It's like the courtyard is deep, I don't know what's inside.
The young man just came out of the rest station.
Wang Lao Tongsheng used his not-so-smart head to judge that if he missed the opportunity in front of him, he would never find a better job than this.
He sighed, it was early in the mountain. The chill came a month or two earlier than outside.
The young man didn't urge him, holding a big ceramic bowl, and eating it whirring.
With the white fat flesh, Wang Laotong, who was so greedy for months that he hadn't smelled the meat, had his eyes straightened, and his mouth kept secreting saliva.
The young man asked him: "Want to eat?"
Wang Laotong nodded subconsciously.
The young man grinned, "Now that you have signed the employment agreement, you can also eat this meal."
"Can eat now? Like you so much?"
"That is. We are here as errands, from the station master to the handyman, we are all full."
Wang Laotong didn't understand what the stationmaster was. Regardless, he understood.
"I should work, I will work now. I can definitely eat."
"Yes! Guaranteed to kill you."
Wang Laotong felt his belly so hungry that only spare ribs were left, and he wanted to eat in his dreams.
"Hey..."
He faintly followed the young man into the rest station, signed an agreement, and then ate the white fat.
Wang Laotong cried while eating.
The stationmaster nagged with the young man, "Bring another fool."
"A literate fool." The young man laughed.