The living room is still shabby, but at least it has a decent bed.
Westerners have a weaker sense of gender, so Xia Shang spent an entire night with her.
Both of them were very tired and didn't have any extra thoughts.
Until early the next morning.
It was the little girl who woke up Xia Shang. She also brought two egg pancakes and water.
It can be seen that this is the most sumptuous reception for this family.
It didn't rain for long yesterday. Today is a sunny day. You can feel the scorching heat of the sun in the early morning.
As soon as Xia Shang and Sophia finished eating, the woman from last night came over to collect the water bowl.
The sun illuminated the chapped face on her face, which was not very pretty and a little reserved. She smiled awkwardly: "You should be nobles in the capital. I'm afraid you're not used to the simple life of our family, right?"
"Thank you for saving my life." Xia Shang replied solemnly.
The woman smiled: "It's not as serious as you said. It's nothing. Your tall and thin daughter-in-law is so beautiful, but if she needs to take good care of her, she'd better take her out of the house for a walk. Nothing else.
I’ll just go and do my own thing.”
"Wait a minute." Sophia suddenly said, and then she was looking for something on her body, but she forgot what she had experienced. Everything on her body was gone. Even the clothes she was wearing were old clothes worn by this woman, wrapped in coarse cloth.
With blond hair, he doesn't look like a rich man at all.
She searched all over her body but found nothing. Then she smiled awkwardly and whispered to Xia Shang, "This family is in such a difficult situation. You should give them some belongings."
Xia Shang shook his head: "Just like you, I am penniless."
The woman seemed to understand what they meant, and smiled: "Forget it, our family is used to it. We have saved many people, and we have never thought about getting anything in return."
After saying that, the woman left, leaving the two of them a little embarrassed.
At this time, the little girl from yesterday came in and said to Xia Shang in a crisp voice: "Grandpa said that this sister needs to go to the village for a walk. This way she will get better quickly. I will take you to play."
Xia Shang thought it was not a bad idea. There was nothing to do at this time anyway. He could look around and think about how to get back to the capital.
After leaving the door, I saw the village surrounded by yellow sand. It was desolate and desolate.
There is still no one in the village. I heard that they went to the Yellow River to salvage treasures.
The little girl was very happy and introduced the place names to Xia Shang and Xia Shang as they walked. Xia Shang didn't take it to heart. Instead, he saw the stones that could be seen everywhere in the village, which attracted Xia Shang's attention.
"Little girl, why are there so many rocks in your village?"
"I heard from grandpa that these are scraps that the big men in the capital don't want anymore. They could be sold for money earlier, but now they can't be sold, so they are piled here and no one takes care of them."
"Aren't these marbles?"
"I don't know, I just know that some of these stones can be used to build gardens in big houses in the capital. But grandpa said these are the worst. No one wants them when they are transported to the capital, and then they are thrown outside the capital. We
People in the village picked them up."
Sophia took a look and didn't pay much attention: "It's just a few stones, what's so interesting about it?"
"Wait a minute." Xia Shang stopped and went to a large marble block to investigate.
This stone is indeed marble, but it is not of architectural quality. Its texture is brittle, turbid, and severely sanded.
Seeing this stone, Xia Shang was suddenly inspired.
He cut off a small piece and wrapped it in his arms.
Sophia looked confused: "What are you doing?"
"Don't you want to repay this family? Let's just use this stone."
"Um?"
Xia Shang was in a good mood: "Let's go back now."
Not knowing what Xia Shang was selling in the gourd, the three of them returned to the yard in a hurry.
When Xia Shang returned to the yard, he didn't see the little girl's father. Only his grandfather was drying some herbs in the yard.
The old man smiled happily: "Come back so soon?"
Xia Shang smiled in response: "Old man, did you pick all this yourself?"
"It's nothing. They're not valuable things. I keep them for my family's daily use."
"You are a doctor, so you must know about plaster medicine, right?"
"knew."
"Do you have any? I need some."
"What do you need plaster for?" The old man was a little surprised. "Your wife can't use plaster."
"No, I have other uses."
Only then did the old man see the big stone in Xia Shang's arms. He wanted to ask but didn't, and then went elsewhere to find plaster for Xia Shang.
"Brother, what are you doing?"
Xia Shang threw the stone in the yard: "Make something that will make you rich."
After saying that, Xia Shang found a stone hammer in the courtyard.
Most people in the village have experience in reselling waste rocks, so many households have stone hammers.
What Xia Shang had to do was very simple, that is, smash the stones he brought back into powder.
This seemingly simple task became very difficult for Xia Shang's current physique, so he did not break out too much stone powder this time.
The movement in the yard attracted the woman, and she was also very curious. As she watched, she saw that Xia Shang was sweating profusely and panting like an ox. Then she said, "Have a rest, or I can help you."
?”
Xia Shang took a deep breath, dropped the stone hammer, and held a handful of stone powder in his hand: "Sister-in-law, come here and watch, you will have to make it yourself from now on."
The woman was confused, walked up to Sophia, and asked in a low voice: "What is he doing?"
Sophia frowned: "If I guess correctly, he wants to teach you how to make chalk."
"chalk?"
The woman shook her head, obviously still not understanding.
Xia Shang further sifted the stone powder in a bamboo basket and selected the finest powder.
At this time, the old man also came back with a plaster.
"Put them all in the pot." Xia Shang carried out the next step in an orderly manner, and then said to the woman, "This stone is called limestone. Mix its powder with gypsum, boil it in water, wait for the water to evaporate, and dry it again.
, you can make a rare thing from the West called chalk. This kind of thing is very popular in the capital. You can take the chalk to the capital and sell it, especially to wealthy families. One or two ounces of chalk per piece.
The ten taels of silver are up to you. But remember, don’t be too cheap.”
Before seeing the chalk, these farmers did not understand what Xia Shang was talking about.
But an hour later, when they all got the freshly made chalk by Xia Shang, they were all shocked and didn't know what to say.
"Brother, are you saying that something the size of a finger can be sold for one tael of silver each in the capital?"
"At least one tael, if it's too low you won't make any money."
"At least one tael! The cost of this thing is not even worth a copper coin. If we buy it for one tael of silver, will we not make any profit?"
"Because this method is very simple, it will be discovered by others sooner or later. When more people come to make chalk, its price will continue to decrease. So if you want to make a lot of money, you have to take advantage of the time when no one is making it." (To be completed.)