Chapter 8: Make a living

"Hey, Brother Cao, what are you writing? Look at the five words in a row. Isn't it poetry?" Wei Manliang came forward and saw it curiously.

"Oh, yeah, it's because I'm bored, so I just wrote the poems I read before. It's no big deal." Cao Muwen replied with a smile.

Wei Manliang's eyes radiated as soon as he heard it, "I often hear that the gentlemen in the countryside sometimes gather together to compare it to a poem?

Brother Cao, please read it to me and let me listen to what those old gentlemen are doing together?

This poem was just written by Cao Muwen. I don't know what I want to write after writing just now. I just feel that Wei Manliang works hard every day and is very satisfied to have a day like this. I unconsciously remembered a poem and wrote it with a pen.

Cough, Cao Muwen read it:

"Grow a millet in spring and harvest ten thousand in autumn. There is no idle land all around the world, and the farmers are still starving to death. This is just a simple five-sentence. It simply expresses that farmers have worked hard for a year and harvested a lot of grain in autumn. The land under the sky is used to grow food, but the farmer will inevitably starve to death. This metaphor expresses the oppression of ordinary people by the court's harsh tax and miscellaneous taxes, and the sympathy and desire for ordinary people living at the bottom.

"Well, what does this mean?" Wei Manliang was very puzzled and asked. I know what spring planting, autumn harvest and so on. What does 'four seas' mean? Farmers know that they are people like us.

"This 'four sea' refers to the bottom of the world." Cao Muwen replied.

"Oh, there is no idle land under the sky. Then how can I starve to death?" Wei Manliang was even more puzzled. If you want to starve to death, I heard that there was not only a drought but also a locust plague in Shandong a few years ago. Although the warehouse was opened and the grain was released, many people still starved to death, but that was several years ago, and I haven't seen it with my own eyes. After saying that, he grinned.

Cao Muwen sighed in his heart and said to himself, "After all, this is the root of the imperial city. At the feet of the emperor, if people are starved to death here, that's okay!" Turning around, I thought, "I remember that I used to hear people say that Chinese people are the best in the world. As long as you can't starve him and let him 'three acres of land, a cow, wife and children', he will die with you. Even so, there is a change of dynasty in Chinese history, so how bad is this ruler?!" Looking at Wei Manliang's simple smile, Cao Muwen's heart was full of mixed feelings, which was very unpleasant. On the contrary, there is some respect for him.

Before that, the sun was getting farther west, and the last afterglow of the sunset was blocked by the low wall in the courtyard.

Wei Manliang hurriedly said, "Look at my practice of calligraphy and even forgot to chop wood to cook." He quickly put down the pen in his hand and walked out of the house.

Cao Muwen also hurried out of the door, hoping to help chop wood. After all, he has lived in other people's house for a few days. In addition to teaching people to write, he is really sorry.

"Brother Cao, you are a scholar, how can you do such a rough job?! Just let me do this." Wei Manliang hurriedly stopped it.

Cao Muwen knows that there is an emphasis on "good men don't enter the stove", but this is only for the scholar class. To truly implement this standard, I don't know how many restaurants at the bottom of that day will have to close down, because from ancient times to the present, although cooking is mostly a woman's job, all kinds of restaurant chefs are basically men. Cao Muwen also knew that ordinary people didn't care about this red tape, so he came to: "Brother Wei, look at me eating and living for nothing with you. I'm really sorry. It's better to do this in the future. I'll teach you how to pay for the house, and I'll cook for dinner, and you can tell me what to do. Do you think this is okay? Cao Muwen has also been thinking about what he can do when he comes to this time and space. Although he used to do some gray work, he is also self-sufficient. But when I came to this dynasty that was too far from the world I used to live in, I didn't know much common sense of life. For example, I used firewood to cook, how to use the stove, when to add firewood, and when to add fire. If you don't even know the most basic food, how can you survive here? You can't go to the restaurant all the time. And I know that I don't have any money now, and the only time I've seen it was in the beggar's broken bowl.

Therefore, Cao Muwen is looking for some opportunities to learn and exercise the social common sense and life skills of the Ming Dynasty. Burning the fire to cook is the first to take the brunt.

When Wei Manliang saw that he insisted and said something, he agreed. He was watching in a group, and Cao Muwen came to make a fire to cook.

Cao Muwen took the axe from Wei Manliang's hand and learned the method he had seen on TV before. He put a piece of wood on the ground, waved his arm down, and the axe blade scratched the air and shivered down. Hearing the sound of the blade, the axe only cut a small corner of the wood, while the axe snapped into the ground.

"Puff," the people who were watching couldn't help laughing and were born with a smile.

Cao Muwen blushed, but he didn't have much to say. He pulled up the axe from the ground, arranged the piece of wood that was missing to chop wood, and there was another axe in the middle. This was much stronger than last time, and the accuracy was much more accurate. The axe blade cluffed down along the thumb texture and got stuck in the middle. Cao Muwen then raised an axe and smashed it to the ground. He only heard a click, and the wood was divided into two. Hey hey, it's not as difficult as I thought. Although I'm not proficient now, I'm a little slower. But it doesn't matter. It will be soon."

Cao Muwen thought with some joy.

Brother Cao, didn't you expect that you still have strength? I thought you had a lot of effort to chop the firewood!"

"Alas? Do I look so weak?" Cao Muwen thought to himself for a while, with a black line on his face.

Wei Manliang saw that Cao Muwen was crancing firewood, so he turned back to the house to wash the vegetables.

In the evening, an oil lamp was placed on the small square table in the middle hall of the room. The faint light reflected two figures. Cao Muwen and Wei Manliang were sitting there eating.

A plate of mixed noodles and a plate of pickled cabbage. Today, when Wei Manliang came back, he actually bought a few cents of sour wine from the restaurant. Now the wine pot is lying in a large porcelain bowl. This is their dinner. Although Cao Muwen used to eat simply, he paid attention to nutrition after all. I didn't expect that in just a few days, the diet had changed so much. This was unexpected to him.

Cao Muwen has been more or less used to it for a few days, knowing that it is no better than modern times in the Ming Dynasty. Especially for ordinary farmers, they have to save grain. First, they should leave next year's seed grain. Second, they should prepare some stock and be prepared for natural disasters and man-made disasters. Although they usually eat less, it's better than starving to death in chaos. Chicken, duck and fish can be used in the Five viscera Temple during the Spring Festival. Such as Chinese cabbage is cheap, and Chinese cabbage that is easy to store during the winter is basically a daily dish of ordinary farmers.

"However, ~~ this." Cao Muwen looked at the plate of pickled cabbage. It's not that he didn't want to eat it, but that he had a bad association. Isn't this just kimchi!" Cao Muwen suddenly lost his appetite when he thought of this.

When I saw the person opposite who was picking up vegetables to eat, I couldn't help feeling guilty. I had to pick up a nest head and eat this half cup of sour wine~~~~

Cao Muwen thought about it and felt that it was not appropriate to go on like this. Now I'm thinking about finding a job to make money. I have no idea what kind of job I can take as a modern person.

But now he wants to make money most. Although he has died for money once before, he still doesn't change it. He claims to be a scholar. Although he reads a lot of books, it is useless now, but now the sage books that readers read are not seen at a glance. Therefore, Cao Muwen didn't even think about "wen, who studied hard in ten years and was named on the golden list". He didn't want to dedicate his precious youth to the ancient "examination-oriented education".

Another day passed, and Cao Muwen became more and more uneasy. After a few days of thinking, I came to this time and now rely on the position that I can write. Anyway, I can not only read, but also read, and can also memorize some poems. At worst, write and sell it! It's good to go out and see the world. I've only been here for several days and only move in the yard. I haven't been out, but I'm a little bored.

When he made up his mind, Cao Muwen suddenly came to his senses and immediately spread the rice paper and dipped his pen in ink. The dragon and snake immediately got up. Without a cup of tea, he has written several poems.

For several days in a row, Cao Muwen went out with great interest and took advantage of the fun, but when the sunset set in the West Mountain, he returned with disilous pleasure. In the next few days, no one has been sold. I didn't understand until I thought about it at night. My own calligraphy is average, and it is even more worthless in the Ming Dynasty. And he went out with Wei Manliang every day. He went to the field, and he either went to the market outside the city or went to the city. Outside the city, most of them are traders, peddlers and pawns, and they can't read. Although Cao Muwen sells them very cheaply, it is useless to buy them. However, there are many people selling calligraphy and paintings in the capital. Cao Muwen also turned around when he was bored, trying to see how the "quality" of the things sold by his peers is. If you don't look at it, it's even more Deeply inferior. A dozen or even dozens of calligraphy is very different from my own calligraphy. Even if it is just a small stall on the street like myself, calligraphy and painting can be regarded as dragon flying and phoenix dance, lifelike.

Yesterday, there was a colleague next to Cao Muwen, who was similar in age to himself and bought calligraphy, calligraphy and painting. When I was bored for a while, I started to talk to him. After asking, I knew that it was the one who went to Beijing to take the exam last year. Because of his careless performance and didn't reach the first place, he decided to stay in the capital for three years to study hard for the next exam. Now I wrote and drew some things to sell in order to make up for some daily expenses.

When Cao Mu's text looked at his ink Danqing, he had a sense of inferiority since ancient times. When the other party asked about himself, he had to excuse himself that he had not read much and had not yet had the idea of getting fame. What's more, he did not dare to show his "commodities". When the other party saw Cao Muwen's face embarrassed, he did not ask more.

Cao Muwen sighed in his heart that he used to boast about how powerful calligraphy was in front of his classmates. After all, it is modern, and not many people know ancient calligraphy, which can also be regarded as a specialty; now, it can only be regarded as a basic skill. It happens to be different from English. Cao Muwen suddenly thought of it.