Courtyard House: Passing through the Silly Pillar, Activating the Blessed Cave Heaven

93

Today, Zhang Hu and five others work at the scrap yard. He Yuzhu even specially invited a master from Panjiayuan to teach them how to identify the age of cultural relics and some simple appraisal techniques.

With formal jobs, all six of them were highly motivated. Every day, they pulled their carts through the streets and alleys of Beijing, secretly competing to see who could find the treasure first.

He Yuzhu went into the warehouse and found that there were very few eggs left. So he took out the eggs that had just been harvested from the Blessed Land Cave and replenished the stock.

He decided that he would no longer sell live chickens on his own initiative, but would only accept pre-orders from regular customers.

Now he works at a steel rolling mill and has more free time than before. He plans to expand his hen farming to about 5,000 hens to achieve a stable daily supply of 500 kilograms of eggs.

After restocking, he left a note for Zhang Hu, asking him to order a batch of rattan baskets.

Afterwards, he took out a bag of accumulated cotton from the blessed land and planned to make a few new quilts when he had some free time—the quilts he already had at home were far too short for him.

He tied the cotton sack to the back of his bicycle, locked the gate, and hummed a cheerful tune as he rode towards Cotton Alley.

"I ride my beloved little bicycle, it will never get stuck in traffic—"

He Yuzhu rode his bicycle to Mianhua Hutong and stopped in front of a small cotton-fluffing shop.

"Master, I'd like to have two quilts fluffed. How much would that cost?"

"If you don't want the cottonseed, we won't charge you for just the cotton being carded."

"What size quilt would you like to have made?" the craftsman asked.

"I have fifty pounds of cotton with seeds in this bag. How much clean cotton can I get from it?" He Yuzhu asked.

"Fifty catties of cotton with seeds can yield about twenty to twenty-three catties of clean cotton," the craftsman replied.

"Then please make me two quilts of equal weight, in eight feet by seven feet."

"By the way, can you help me put on a duvet cover here?" He Yuzhu asked.

"You can wear a cover, but you'll have to prepare the cover yourself."

"The labor cost for putting on the duvet cover is five thousand yuan per duvet," the foreman said.

"When can I come to pick up the blanket? I'll bring the duvet cover over to you in a bit," He Yuzhu said.

"The two quilts will be ready by tomorrow morning."

If the duvet cover can be delivered today, I'll have my family put it on, and you can come and pick it up together tomorrow.

"This is the delivery slip, please keep it safe." After saying that, the foreman handed He Yuzhu a slip of paper that read, "Fifty catties of seed cotton, enough to make two quilts."

He Yuzhu carefully put the delivery slip in his pocket and rode his bicycle straight to the fabric store.

While choosing fabric, he thought that he should buy some new clothes, so he bought a few extra feet of fabric.

The salesperson first cut the quilt cover and lining according to the size of the quilt, and then measured the fabric for making clothes for him.

After paying, He Yuzhu slung his cloth bag over his shoulder and hurried towards the cotton-fluffing shop, his bicycle bell jingling as he hummed a little tune: "Fluffing cotton, fluffing cotton, half a pound of cotton fluffed into eight ounces and eight ounces, old cotton fluffed into new cotton..."

He sang with increasing joy, thinking to himself, "Teacher Wei's song is so catchy. Even if I traveled back to this era, I still can't forget the movie I watched when I was a child."

After delivering the quilt covers, He Yuzhu took out his pocket watch and looked at it—it was almost five o'clock.

He quickly rode his bicycle to Hongxing Primary School, arriving at the school gate at exactly 5:05.

He propped up his bicycle and had just taken a breather on the back seat when a line of students poured out of the school to leave.