Good Day
The eighth day of March was a good day for construction and groundbreaking. Early in the morning, the mason came with tiles and tools to repair the roof for Shen Yanbei.
In fact, Shen Yanbei wanted to ask someone to paint the wall. But what he had done in the past few days had been conspicuous enough, so there was not much money left at home. Also, if they wanted to paint the wall, it must be pushed back*.
*qián wǎn hòu tuī: with some people drawing in the front and others pushing in the rear.
Master Mason Wang was a man in his forties. He had been in this business for many years. He was among the people who were invited by the original owner to build the house.
It didn't take much effort to just change the tiles. Just took off the broken tiles, put mud on the tiles, and covered them with new tiles. There was no cement in ancient times. The masons here used a mixture of lime mortar and yellow clay as a binder when building houses. Shen Yanbei frowned slightly at the gray mud in the barrel.
When he visited the Great Wall before, he was curious about how the ancients completed such a huge project without cement. So he went online to check how the Great Wall was built without cement. The information on the Internet mentioned how the ancients built walls. The first was to use yellow mud and straw. Later invented lime mortar, but the strength of lime mortar was not high. So it was difficult to build a large building and couldn't be constructed in a humid environment. People tried their best to transform the lime mortar and came up with a way to mix the yellow clay with higher viscosity into the lime mortar. People in coastal areas had come up with another adhesive tile topping agent that had much better properties than lime mortar, called a mirage*. The so-called mirage was the ashes obtained by calcining seashells. The effect of mirage and yellow clay was better than ever!
*shèn huī.
The new lime material that had a better reinforcement effect than mirage was Sanhe soil*. The lime clay and sand were combined with water in a certain proportion to become the ancient Chinese version of "concrete"! This kind of triple soil had been widely used. But later generations discovered a more advanced building material, that was glutinous rice lime paste.
*sān hé tǔ.
The sticky glutinous rice paste was mixed into lime mortar. The glutinous rice acted as a natural binder, which greatly improved the firmness of the mortar. Bridges and walls built with glutinous rice lime mortar, such as the Great Wall, had stood tall for a hundred years.
Shenjia Village was located in the south. Many people planted glutinous rice, but no one used this glutinous rice lime paste to build houses.
The use of glutinous rice lime slurry had been popularized in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Corn and peanuts, which were introduced in the Ming Dynasty, began to be planted in the previous time and space...
Thinking of this, Shen Yan jumped his eyebrows and suddenly remembered something. Corn and peanuts were introduced during the Ming Dynasty, and another crop was also introduced into China during the Ming Dynasty-- pepper!
Shen Yanbei was a little frustrated. There were corn peanuts, why were there no peppers? How come there were no such delicious things such as chili!
Just about to sigh, Shen Yanbei remembered another thing! When the pepper was introduced to the Ming Dynasty, it was not used in the diet, but as a precious plant for viewing!
Shen Yanbei's eyes lit up.
He didn't find the chili in the field. Could the chili at this time be used as a potted plant by a gentry or powerful person at home for a viewing?
Thinking of this possibility, Shen Yanbei was so excited! But reality poured him a bucket of cold water.
How did he, a poor Xiucai, knew any gentry and powerful person?
"Shen Xiucai!"
A shout made Shen Yanbei recovered. Turning around, he saw that the two apprentices of the carpenter drove the bullock cart. There were many plates on the bullock cart.
His custom-made furniture was here! Shen Yanbei hurriedly stepped forward to greet the two.
In the spring, the warm sunshine filled the branches, the breeze blew, the flowers and branches swayed, and even people's hearts were swayed. Shen Yanbei politely asked people to move the furniture into the house, the smile on his face was brighter than that of spring.
The big bed he booked was here! He finally could have a good night's sleep with his wife!
Gu Changfeng was feeding the chicken cubs and ducklings in the backyard. When he heard the movement, he washed his hands to help. But Shen Yanbei stopped him.
"Your internal injury is still not healed, so don't mess around." Shen Yanbei grabbed Gu Changfeng's hand and whispered.
There were people in the room. Gu Changfeng was a little uncomfortable, but he still obediently grabbed Shen Yanbei's hands. Shen Yanbei was afraid because Gu Changfeng had nothing to do, he would be bored. So he said, "Zhou Yu will come over later. You can take him to behind the mountain to practice martial arts."
Gu Changfeng nodded dully. Shen Yanbei scratched his palm and chuckled. "What do you want to eat at noon? I will make it for you."
The palm of his hand was itchy because of being scratched. Gu Changfeng lowered his eyes and said, "I want to eat everything you make."
Hearing this, Shen Yanbei squinted his eyes. "Go. I'll call you to eat later."
Gu Changfeng raised his eyes to look at him, made an "um", and left the door.
The two carpenters and apprentices who were assembling the cabinet looked at each other. Both saw the surprise in each other's eyes.
Wasn't that Shen Xiucai extremely displeased with his husband and made him worked as a slave?
Yes. Last time they saw this Shuānger worked at the dock with their own eyes! But the atmosphere of the two people talking softly just now was not like that at all! Didn't this Shen Xiucai seem to have changed? The last time they looked at him from a distance, they just thought this man was incredibly arrogant. But now...looked old and kind?
...
Seeing the two people set up the cabinet, Shen Yanbei smiled slightly and said, "It's hard work to put the cabinet on this end."
In order to place this new furniture, he specially cleaned up one of the vacant rooms. The windows were bright and clean. It seemed a bit like decorating a new house.
The two were flattered and dared not communicate in private anymore. They carefully moved the cabinet over. These days, there were no nails and screws, but these furnitures were made very strong.
Shen Yanbei was curious about how the furniture was assembled. So he stood aside and watched. After discovering the trick, he secretly praised the wisdom of the ancients. Originally, all furniture was assembled by a connection method that combined concave and convex parts. Without a nail, the furniture could be made as natural, beautiful, and environmentally friendly.
The two apprentices were both skilled and quickly assembled all the furniture.
Looking at the new bed and cabinets, Shen Yanbei was very satisfied. But the eyes of the carpenter's apprentices were not quite right.
This bed was too plain and simple. Just a few wooden boards and beams. Not to mention carving dragons and phoenixes, it didn't even have a carved flower. There was also a small square cabinet on the side of the bed. There was nothing on it. It looked like a box...
What strange was that these simple furniture looked quite simple and stable.
Shen Yanbei also knew that his custom-made furniture looked weird in the eyes of the ancients. But no way! It would take a few months to buy furniture but it only lasted a year or a half for a long time. He was anxious to get a new bed as soon as possible and as a big man, he didn't need such fancy furniture. So he drew the style of modern furniture directly to the carpenter. The carpenter saw it, yes, there happened to be wood. □ □ Heavenly! So he readily gave the money.
Sending away the two apprentices of the carpenter, Shen Yanbei looked up. The sun was rising high and burning.
"Master Wang, the sun is scorching people. Come down and take a break?"
"It's okay. Just 2 pieces remaining left." Master Wang waved his hand politely, his calm expression full of emotion. A long time ago, when everyone came together to build this blue brick house, the Shen's Family was full of spirits. Unexpectedly, the time has passed, but Shen's Family wasn't as glorious as before. Hopefully, it wasn't too late to make it up.
Hearing that, Shen Yanbei could only put the water on the table under the shade of the tree, turned around, and went into the house to continue to clean up.
The paint painted on ancient furniture was a natural paint made from the sap of the lacquer tree. It had no chemical components harmful to the human body and could be used directly without drying it first. Shen Yanbei put new sheets and quilts on the new bed made by the villagers and planned to take a nap here later.
He did not intend to make himself suffering under such circumstances. It was more impossible to let his wife suffering!
...
Chang Feng took Zhou Yu to find a desolate place to practice martial arts. Anyway, today's practice actually was just to watch Zhou Yu doing horse steps.
"Do it for one hour. Don't be lazy."
"Yes, Shīfu!" Zhou Yulang replied, looking straight ahead and practicing seriously.
Gu Changfeng sat down with his legs crossed, trying to exercise his breath. He was injured very badly at the beginning, causing his meridians were blocked. So it made stagnating his breath, that generally no different with a good-for-nothing person. The day Shen Yanbei had just being transmigrated through, he forcibly transferred his internal force to Shen Yanbei, as a result, his injuries worsened. Later, after getting a few packs of medicine in the county medical clinic, it did not cure the symptoms, so the injury did not improve much.
But, Shen Yanbei had taken care of his injury these days, fortunately, it was getting better. Even though he was a man with thick skin, he was treated like a fragile porcelain doll. Although he was not allowed to do heavy work, actually Shen Yanbei did not let him work at all. Instead, Shen Yanbei, a Master Xiucai, who had just recovered from a serious illness was busy cooking for him...
At first, he didn't want to be overwhelmed with this special favor at all. But Shen Yanbei said, I am your husband, as a husband, I must take care of my wife, it was an unquestionable moral truth. But with his stupid mouth how could he refuse Shen Yanbei?
When he heard that he was so happy but at the same time he was frightened. He was always worried that it was just a flower in the mirror, the moon in the water*.
*jìng huā shuǐ yuè: originally refers to the flexible and unpredictable artistic conception in the poem, but later it is a metaphor for the illusory scene.
With a "poof", a mouthful of blood came out.
"Shīfu!" Zhou Yu was shocked.
"I'm okay, it's just condensed blood." Gu Changfeng wiped the corners of his mouth, walked to the stream, and squatted down to wash away the blood on his face.
Zhou Yu still looked at him worriedly. Gu Changfeng stood up. "Is there still a bloodstain on my body?" Zhou Yu shook his head. Gu Changfeng said again, "Don't tell him."
No need to ask, Zhou Yu also knew who 'he' was. "Shīfu, are you really okay?"
Gu Changfeng's answer was directly cut off a tree as big as the mouth of a bowl.
"!!!" Zhou Yu's eyes widened.
"Go squat." Gu Changfeng frowned.
"Yes!" Zhou Yu hurriedly spread his feet shoulder-width apart and squatted down, still felt surprise.
Feeling that the internal force finally broke through the obstacle and recirculated, Gu Changfeng couldn't help but clenched his five fingers. His fingers bones sounded "pa pa", his arm muscles swelled up, full of explosive power...
For a moment, Gu Changfeng exhaled a stale breath, relieved his strength, and the muscles on the body have returned to their normal plump and smooth appearance. The lines on the cold face turned to be soft and Gu Changfeng's quiet black eyes shone with a hint of joy.
Although it was not that great, the internal force was now unimpeded, so to catch two rabbits alive was gonna be so easy!
Yummy Yogurt's thought:
Our Fu Lang is indeed still innoncent~
