As if they had suddenly received some kind of signal, the temperature outside the Great Wall dropped day by day. The cold wind also changed from a small knife to a bone-scraping steel knife. If an ordinary person stood in the wilderness and breathed, the white fog would dye their eyebrows, eyes, and hair white.
More than half a month had passed since they left the first inn they encountered outside the pass. Because he had to take care of Li Yue, who was still a child, Tie Chuanjia deliberately slowed down his driving speed and tried his best to find an inn to rest every day.
Facing such weather, the ordinary Li Yue could not compare to Tie Chuanjia and Li Xunhuan who had internal strength. She was so cold that she wanted to curl up in the carriage and not come out. Even leaving the carriage required her courage. Every time, Tie Chuanjia wrapped her in a cloak and carried her directly from the carriage to the inn's bedroom.
Although Li Yue basically maintained a two-point route between the carriage and the inn's bedroom, and Tie Chuanjia tried his best to not let her see anything that would hinder the growth of a child, this did not mean that Li Yue was really like her shell, an ignorant child who did not know anything.
Along the way, the three of them stayed in about twenty inns of various sizes. More than half of them were rumored to be unscrupulous inns. A few of them were prepared to rob them on the night they checked in. Unfortunately, most of them were killed by Tie Chuanjia. The rest of them decisively put down their butcher's knife the moment Tie Chuanjia rolled up his sleeves and obediently did business in the inn.
The rest of the less clean inn staff recognized Li Xunhuan's identity at a glance. Intimidated by the name "Xiao Li's Flying Dagger Never Misses", they all tucked their tails between their legs.
The fake child Li Yue looked at the underworld bosses who eagerly poured tea for the person who came in third, their exposed skin full of scars and tattoos. She could not help but twitch the corner of her mouth.
Even if these bosses indulged in alcohol and did not care about worldly affairs, they were still bosses whose names shook the underworld.
When the first snow fell outside the pass, the three of them finally arrived at their destination, Shuo Prefecture City. Tie Chuanjia did not drive the carriage into the city, but drove it to a courtyard on the outskirts of Shuo Prefecture City.
This courtyard was originally bought by the Li family when they were doing business in the early years. When the head of the family gave up business and went into politics, the courtyard was left to the management of the caravan. Now that the head of the family wanted to live at the border, the courtyard was naturally taken back.
Almost at the same time the carriage stopped at the entrance of the courtyard, the gate of the courtyard suddenly opened. The steward of the Li family caravan who had been waiting for a long time came over with an old servant.
The first one to rush out of the carriage was Li Yue, who was wrapped up like a round ball. Before the steward could sigh that the young master's child was already so big, Li Xunhuan swayed as he lifted the curtain and walked out. The cold wind blew, and a whiff of alcohol directly entered the steward's nose.
The steward craned his neck to look inside the carriage, but he didn't see the nominal young madam of the Li family. He wanted to say a few words to persuade his young master, but when he saw Tie Chuanjia, who was supporting Li Xunhuan, he felt a little scared. He could only lower his head and obediently follow behind Li Yue, who looked the most normal.
Tie Chuanjia helped Li Xunhuan directly into the master bedroom. Li Xunhuan slumped on the chair like a drunken cat, mumbling incessantly to Tie Chuanjia to bring more wine. Tie Chuanjia and the steward who was standing at the side looked at each other, sighed, and obediently did as they were told.
The atmosphere in the master bedroom was really strange. The steward didn't have the courage to ask the muscular Tie Chuanjia the reason, so he could only ask Li Yue in a roundabout way.
Li Yue was still wearing the boy's clothes that Tie Chuanjia bought, but the outer layer was covered with Li Xunhuan's cloak. She didn't know how to do those complicated hairstyles, so she simply tied herself into a ponytail. Because of her extroverted personality, there was a heroic spirit between her eyebrows that was different from the original owner's. Overall, she looked somewhat androgynous, making the steward, who was full of questions, unable to call her.
The old and the young stood at the door of Li Xunhuan's bedroom, staring at each other. Both of them were silent for a long time. Li Yue first introduced herself.
"Hello, old grandpa. I'm a little errand boy picked up on the way out. My surname is Li Yue. How should I address you?"
The steward could not tell if the child in front of him was telling the truth or joking. He tucked his hands into his sleeves and smiled kindly at Li Yue. "I'm Li Fu, and I'm just taking advantage of my age. You can call me Uncle Fu for now.
This … Brother Yue, do you know what happened to the young master? Why didn't the young mistress accompany him? "
"Oh, the young mistress got married. The groom wasn't the man who came in third, but the man's sworn brother."
Li Yue's simple and crude answer almost made Uncle Fu unable to breathe. The old man patted his chest with great effort and finally calmed himself down. Li Yue coldly revealed another big news.
"Then the man who came in third gave the young mistress all his assets as dowry. That's why he brought Uncle Tie out."
Hearing that Li Yuan was given away, Uncle Fu's vision turned black and he gasped. Even though the doors and windows in the room were closed and the heater was burning, his whole body trembled as if he was shrouded in a cold wind.
To be honest, Li Yue could understand this old man. He worked hard for his boss outside the border for many years. When he got older, he found out that the only heir of his boss had given away the headquarters. He couldn't even scold the heir as a wastrel. No one could accept this.
One of Li Yue's former friends had analyzed Li Xunhuan with her. This childhood idol's saintly character couldn't be better to outsiders, but to his close relatives, especially those who were not strong enough and could not be independent, it was no different from not being able to be a nuisance.
Li Yue actually didn't quite agree with her friend's conclusion. But when she thought of Lin Shiyin who had been cheated miserably, she couldn't refute. Because of this, the two almost parted on bad terms.
Now that she had met the original Li Xunhuan, Li Yue was especially glad that he had a kind heart. After all, if she hadn't met him and Tie Chuanjia, she would have been either a prostitute in a brothel or a corpse in the wild. Because of this, she had an idea. That was, she couldn't let Li Xunhuan become the sickly and miserable middle-aged alcoholic ten years later.
It was a good thing to be motivated, but the body's external configuration couldn't keep up. After half a month of being outside, the child's body couldn't take it. Li Yue slept in the servant's room for almost an entire day before she really recovered. When she woke up, she immediately thought about how to make Li Xunhuan stop drinking.
In order to ensure that her plan could be carried out, Li Yue first found charcoal and wood from the kitchen. She drew some simple strokes and labeled them with simplified Chinese characters. Then, she went to find Tie Chuanjia, who was most concerned about Li Xunhuan's physical and mental health, to help.
Although Tie Chuanjia didn't believe that a little girl could achieve anything, because Li Yue had always been very obedient, he cared for the young (?)
In his heart, he still helped Li Yue find a porcelain craftsman to play with the child.
Li Yue naturally wasn't playing around. Because the alcohol content of the alcohol circulating in the market was generally not high, she came up with a method of "fighting poison with poison" to stop drinking. She would replace the alcohol content that she distilled herself and give it to Li Xunhuan.
Regardless of whether Li Xunhuan was really drowning his sorrows in alcohol or using alcohol to escape, after drinking the alcohol content, he naturally wouldn't care about the low-alcohol alcohol content in his eyes. When the time came, it would naturally be convenient for Li Yue to carry out the next step of alcohol abstinence activities.
The idea was very good, but the difficulty of implementing it wasn't small. Just burning the suitable wine-steaming utensils had almost exhausted all of Li Yue's private savings. When the later stage of the experiment on how to purify the wine, Li Yue's small arms and legs would definitely be unable to do it herself. She looked at the wine bottle outside Li Xunhuan's room for a long time and had no choice but to ask Fu Bo for help.
Fu Bo was experienced and knowledgeable. After seeing Li Yue's intention, his thoughts also spread to a broader place. He first asked Li Yue the reason for steaming the wine. After receiving the answer that "the craftsmanship in my hometown is terrible", he specially found a few old and careful helpers to slowly accompany Li Yue to study the wine steaming.
Because they couldn't find a suitable thermometer, they could only slowly test the purification of the alcohol step by step. At first, Li Yue was worried that she would have to spend too much money, but Fu Bo waved his hand and said that it wasn't a problem. Li Yue felt at ease and continued to watch the helpers purify the alcohol.
Three months later, the first batch of distilled wine was successfully produced. Along with it, there was also something that was suspected of being a modern medical alcohol. Li Yue couldn't help but sigh that the working people of ancient times were far better than she had imagined.
The first batch of distilled wine was naturally supplied internally. Li Xunhuan drank the distilled wine and got drunk. It seemed that because he had completely vented, when he woke up, his whole body didn't have such a heavy aura of depression.
It was rare for Li Xunhuan to be sober and pruning the flowers in the courtyard. Tie Chuanjia was like a foolish parent praising Li Yue. In the end, he took out the wooden board with the wine steaming utensils and notes to prove that he wasn't lying.
At first, Li Yue was like an ordinary child with a silly smile on her face. When the wooden board was in front of Li Xunhuan, she saw with her own eyes that the expression of the man who came in third place changed several times and his face became darker and darker.
Instinctively, Li Yue felt that something bad was going to happen. She smiled and took a few steps back. She turned around and prepared to sneak out of the courtyard. Li Xunhuan stretched out his arm and steadily carried the little girl in front of him. He pointed at the simplified Chinese characters on the wooden board and asked seriously:
"Did you write this?"
"Yes, yes."
Li Yue looked at the extremely ugly simplified Chinese characters on the wooden board and didn't feel that there was anything wrong with it. After all, there were many people in modern society whose characters were uglier than hers. In any case, her handwriting could be considered clean.
It was a pity that she had forgotten that Li Xunhuan was educated in ancient times. He was the man who came in third place in the imperial examination. He had a special respect for words that was unique to scholars, so …
"From tomorrow onwards, you will practice writing for four hours every day. After practice, I will check … No, the strokes are so incomplete … Practice will start from today. Chuanjia, look after her."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xunhuan stretched out his long legs and stepped out of the courtyard. Obviously, he was going to drink the new distilled wine. Li Yue was stunned for a moment and wanted to rush out, but she was stopped by Tie Chuanjia's large hand.