bayedsolid Chapter 239
Chapter 239
Zhong Ruyi first thought of making ice when Lanlan, her newborn niece, got a prickly heat rash.
The little baby clenched his hands into fists. Compared to the wrinkled look a few days ago, they are now pink, white, tender and very cute.
Zhong Ruyi's heart almost melted when she saw this. It was hot, but they didn't dare to open the window to let in some fresh air. Both mother and daughter felt uncomfortable.
The lovely Lanlan even got a forehead full of prickly heat, which made everyone feel very distressed.
Thinking about what Butler Fang said last time, they have workers specializing in making ice in their house, so it wouldn't be too much for her to make the ice now, right?
She asked Chen Dongzhi to help her go to the town to see if there was any saltpeter. In the evening, Chen Dongzhi really brought it back for her.
She found some time to enter the space and make some ice. She placed a basin of ice next to her second sister-in-law's bed and asked her second brother to sit there and fan the basin of ice gently when he was free, but not too hard. It had to be kept cool but not to freeze her second sister-in-law and Lanlan.
The family was used to her tinkering with strange things, but they were still shocked when they saw this basin of ice.
Now that she had ice, Zhong Ruyi made a lot of cold drinks, such as sour plum soup, mung bean soup, and watermelon juice. After they were ready, she asked Jiang Qin and Sun Tao to deliver them to the new house and the small workshop respectively.
Everyone has drunk sour plum soup, but this is the first time to have iced sour plum soup.
These two iced drinks immediately caused quite a stir in the village. Two children even came to hand in the peppers they had picked and asked if they could exchange a pound of peppers for a cup of sour plum soup.
How could Zhong Ruyi not agree? She gave a cup to each child who came over with picked peppers.
With the ice, Liu Yu Niang felt less uncomfortable. She smiled, picked up her little daughter, and gently touched her little face.
Three days after Lanlan was born, Zhong's mother took Li Guihua and Cuicui to deliver red eggs to every household. Her family did not have the custom of only sending red eggs when a son was born.
Every child in her family would be given a red egg when they were born.
Zhong Ruyi didn't go to the small workshop for several days until the people sent by Butler Fang came to move the first batch of goods.
The Yu family’s goods were delivered last month, and they sent people to Nanzhou early on.
Now, as long as the Fang family doesn’t go to the same place as the Yu family, business should be good.
Just when the Zhong family had just finished celebrating Xiao Lanlan's full moon, news suddenly came from the Fang family that the goods being sent to Nanzhou had encountered bandits on the way.
The goods were escorted by bodyguards hired by the Fang family. Four of them were injured, more than 200 cans of food were broken, and other cloth and porcelain were also damaged.
This was told to her by a worker from the Fang family who came to transport goods for the second time.
Zhong Ruyi was shocked. "How could we run into bandits? Butler Fang told me that they often go to Jinzhou and are familiar with the route."
The workers didn't know the inside story, they just knew that the owner had lost a lot of money this time.
Knowing that he didn't know much about the inside story, Zhong Ruyi didn't ask too many questions. She was relieved only when she learned that Butler Fang did not go with them this time.
A few days later, Butler Fang came over, but nothing could be seen from his expression.
Zhong Ruyi asked directly, "Uncle Fang, last time I heard your workers coming to pick up the goods, they said that your goods were targeted by bandits?"
Butler Fang nodded and told the whole story about the encounter with the bandits that day.
"Originally I was supposed to go with them, after all, some of the goods this time were not familiar to my subordinates. But something happened in the cloth shop in Guangning Prefecture, and I had to go there to deal with it, so I didn't go with them. Who knew that something bad would happen!"
Speaking of this, he felt a little sympathetic and didn't know whether it was better to go with them or not.
According to what the injured escorts said, they came just for the goods. They didn't even look at the cans and only took porcelain and fine silk cloth.
They were able to know so accurately that the goods they were betting were porcelain and cloth, it seemed like they had been eyeing them for a long time.
"Have you reported it to the police?" Zhong Ruyi asked. After all, they suffered a lot of losses.
"We reported it, and the government sent people to search the surrounding mountains, but they didn't find anyone. They only found some broken porcelain on the mountain. They brought it back to us and showed us that it was indeed the goods from our kiln."
Butler Fang was also worried. As many as two hundred cans were broken, plus the porcelain and silk fabrics that were stolen, the loss was at least several hundred taels of silver!
Fortunately, the goods that were safely delivered to Jinzhou were sold at a good price. Except for the canned goods that were not specifically requested by the wealthy merchants in Jinzhou, all other porcelain and silk were divided up by them.
Speaking of canned food, Butler Fang's face was more cheerful. "Although some of the canned food was damaged on the way, all of them were sold out at once. The environment there is more damp and cold, and the locals like to eat some noodle soup or hot pot. The chili sauce was sold out very quickly after it was delivered."
Zhong Ruyi was naturally happy to hear that the canned food was selling well, but she was always worried that if she encountered bandits again next time, then their Yunzhou goods would not be able to be delivered to other places.
The Yu family and the Fang family are taking the same path. This time it was the Fang family, maybe next time it will be the Yu family's turn. It's always worrying if these bandits are not eliminated.
What you fear will come true. A few days after Chen Dongzhi and Zhong Laosan returned home, they went to Guangning Prefecture to escort goods again. When they came back, they needed to go to Nanzhou to bring back a batch of goods.
When he came back, Chen Dongzhi sensitively noticed something was wrong. The bushes on both sides of the road were flattened and there were messy footprints on the soil.
He gave a look to the escort master Duan who was traveling with him. The two of them were originally walking behind, but after looking at each other, they quickly walked to the front and slowly drew out the swords at their waists.
The person hiding behind the tree didn't realize he was exposed until he no longer heard footsteps. He then stuck his head out to look with some confusion.
The convoy had already been stopped by a gesture from Master Duan and stopped where it was. Chen Dongzhi and others were in the front with machetes in their hands, and some people were left behind to protect the goods.
Now that he was exposed, the person behind the tree no longer hid and walked out with a grim smile.
A dozen people came out, all holding axes or sticks. The leader shouted at them, "I know you are escorting goods, I won't make it difficult for you, just leave your goods here, and I won't kill you! Otherwise, hmph!"
"Bullshit!" Zhong Laosan had a bad temper and he had no good face towards these robbers who were so righteous in robbing people. If Chen Dongzhi hadn't stopped him, he would have rushed up to fight with them.
The leader glanced at Zhong Laosan and took note of him in his heart. He would chop this guy a few more times later to let him know what it meant to be ungrateful.
Master Duan was not panicked. He had encountered this situation once before, and that time Chen Dongzhi and three others came to help him.
Seeing that they could not reach an agreement, the two sides soon started fighting.
When Chen Dongzhi attacked, every blow drew blood, and he showed no mercy at all.
More than a dozen people were beaten to the ground. At this moment, another group of people rushed out from behind the tree and started slashing at Chen Dongzhi and others with knives.
Master Duan was unable to dodge and was hit on the hand by one of the men, and blood immediately gushed out.
It was obvious that the new group of people came to help the dozen or so people at the beginning. With their presence, the originally evenly matched situation suddenly turned around.
The leader laughed and swung the hatchet at Zhong Laosan, but Zhong Laosan dodged by turning around.