Chapter 221 There is no chance of getting lost
"Do you have an aunt?"
On the official road from Jinshi Town to Kaiyang County, Liu Li sat on the shaft of his own carriage and curiously asked Liu Ji, who was driving the carriage in front.
The two families set out this morning and walked on the country road for more than an hour. Now they finally arrived at the wide and flat official road.
From the beginning, the three brothers and sisters of Dalang were extremely excited. After all, it was the first time in their lives to travel far away.
Sometimes he climbed out of the car window to look around, sometimes he crawled to the door and asked all kinds of questions, his happiness was almost overflowing.
But once they arrived at Jinshi Town, they were afraid that the teacher would find out that they were not going to attend a funeral, so they all shrank their necks and hid in the carriage, covering their mouths and not daring to make a sound.
Liu Li and his family's long-term driver Da Zhuang had been following Qin Yao's carriage, watching all the way. When they got here and saw Dalang and his four siblings hiding like this, they couldn't help but ask about the doubts in their hearts.
Most of the people in the village who were familiar with the Liu family's old house already knew that Qin Yao and his wife had brought their four children with them to the provincial examination and had even asked for leave for them, which made the children in the village cry with envy.
And the reason for asking for leave was as surprising as everyone expected.
It is said that the aunt is dead. I wonder if Aunt Liu would be angry to death by this unfilial descendant if she knew about it.
Liu Ji was driving the carriage, feeling the breeze, with his wife sitting next to him, wiping a knife. The atmosphere was just right.
He was humming a strange tune from some unknown village. When he heard Liu Li's question from behind, he turned around and replied with two words in a mean way:
"Guess!"
Liu Li snorted and refused to guess.
The weather was very good today. The sun was shining all the way, and there were mountains and trees on both sides of the road. The temperature was not too hot, so it was a good day for traveling.
At noon, the two families passed through Kaiyang County and drove onto the highway towards the provincial capital.
From then on, they completely left Kaiyang County.
The journey was more than 300 miles, and Qin Yao had made a plan before setting off, aiming to walk 60 miles a day.
This distance is not too strenuous. You can sleep a little longer in the morning before setting off again. You can basically reach the post station before sunset and avoid walking at night.
In addition, they were traveling with four children, so they would rather take the main road than the small road.
The time reserved for this journey is quite sufficient.
Their group set out on April 30th and theoretically should be able to arrive in the provincial capital before May 5th. The exam was not until the 10th, so they still had five days to prepare.
If an accident occurs, it will only delay us for a day or two, so there is still time.
However, there were also unlucky people in previous years who got lost on the road and were unable to reach the examination venue by the time the exam was over, and could only wait for the next one with regret.
Of course, with Qin Yao around, it's impossible to get lost.
Before she set out, she went to see the shopkeeper Wu, asked for the route, and confirmed the details again and again. She even marked which roads had spring water to use, so there was no possibility of getting lost.
Qin Yao used the road map she had bought from the bookstore and the owner's handwritten route map to draw two more detailed and clear maps after returning home.
She took one copy and Liu Li took one copy, and they compared the two copies with each other. Even if they encountered a similar fork in the road, they would not go the wrong way.
When Liu Li knew that Qin Yao and her family were going to the provincial capital, he was extremely opposed to it.
As the relationship between the two families was pretty good, he was too embarrassed to offer any suggestions.
But before setting off, when Qin Yao handed him this map, Liu Li's inner anxiety was greatly relieved.
Looking back on the journey, I saw that the four children stayed in the car obediently and didn't cry or make any noise, except when they had to get out to go to the toilet. I felt completely relieved.
The first day started from Liujia Village. There was a section of mountain road ahead that delayed them for some time, so Qin Yao did not stop at noon. She let everyone eat some dry food and rest for a quarter of an hour. After filling up with natural spring water on the roadside, they continued on their way.
For Dalang and his three siblings, the beginning of the journey was very happy and wonderful.
Especially after leaving Kaiyang County, new things came one after another, the different landforms, accents, and pedestrians dazzled the four brothers and sisters and made them very excited.
Si Niang had a hundred thousand questions, asking along the way:
"Mother, what is that?"
"Mother, look over there!"
"Mother, why are there so many tall grasses in the fields here?"
The sound of "Aniang" lingered in his ears, and Liu Ji, who was driving the carriage, was almost annoyed.
But when he turned his head and looked at the people next to him, he saw that the evil woman who had always been bad-tempered towards him was now holding Si Niang in her arms, with Da Lang, Er Lang and San Lang piled up behind her like a pyramid. She showed no impatience and answered every question.
"That's not grass in the field. It's flax planted by the villagers here. The dam over there is a drying ground for flax. Those white pieces of things that look like vines hanging on bamboo poles are the flax used to make flax clothes."
Si Niang asked in surprise: "How can you make clothes like this?"
Qin Yao explained to her in detail how flax was made into silk threads, how those silk threads were used to make hemp threads, and finally how those hemp threads were woven into cloth using a loom to become clothes for the people.
In the past, the children had only seen their grandmother and aunt in the old house make silk cloth with silk threads and sell them, and they bought linen clothes. This time, after listening to Qin Yao's explanation, they suddenly realized that it was not easy to make a piece of linen clothes.
Jiro sighed, "No wonder linen is so expensive."
Dalang was also very impressed and said: "The hemp rope has to go through so many processes before it can be twisted. I don't know how people in the past thought of it. They were really smart."
Sanlang and Si Niang tilted their heads and asked Qin Yao: "Mother, why do you know so much?" They didn't know this.
Before Qin Yao could answer, Liu Ji immediately took out their books and said, "Look, they are all in the books. Read more books and you will understand them naturally."
"Hurry up and finish today's homework. We will be at the post station soon and we won't have time to do homework later." Liu Ji said with a wicked smile.
Si Niang looked at her father with resentment. She didn't want to move, so she rubbed herself against Qin Yao's arms and barked twice, imitating the puppy of Zhou Saozi's family in the village, which made Qin Yao laugh.
He lowered his head and asked Si Niang, who was twisting and turning in his arms, "What did we agree on before we left?"
The little girl answered clearly, "I read for an hour every morning, take a half-hour nap every afternoon, then get up and continue reading two articles and give my thoughts after reading them."
Qin Yao nodded, "Then how much do you still need?"
"Read two articles and share your thoughts after reading them." The little girl's voice became lower and lower.
Qin Yao pulled her out of her arms and stuffed her into the carriage along with the three Dalang brothers.
He winked at Liu Ji again, "You come too, I'll drive the car."
Liu Ji, who had just been gloating, suddenly uttered a sigh and resigned himself to his fate as he got into the carriage and sat with the four little brats who had laughed at him - to read (gritting his teeth)!