287 No Harm
Xue Yan, “Okay.”
“Let’s not go to the village chief first. I’ll ask Qingshu and the rest. It’ll be around 15 coins. It’s hard for them to find work, so let’s try our best.” Xue Erfu said anxiously.
“That’s fine too,” Xue Dafu said.
Therefore, in the afternoon, when Xue Sifu drove his family’s ox cart to town to buy the rest of the ingredients, Xue Erfu went to ask Li Qingshu and the others.
Li Qingshu and the rest were very happy, but they were afraid that it would not be done well. This was because they had never heard of the water workshop.
However, they heard from Xue Erfu that they only needed to build two shelters to shelter it from the wind and rain. There was no other complicated matter, so they all agreed.
After finding the right people, the matter of the workshop was settled. It was set to start work two days later.
Xue Yifu was still working on something, not for the workshop, but according to Xue Yan’s newly drawn structural design, making two tables with mortise and tenon joints that could be dismantled and opened. That didn’t take up much space and was also convenient to carry around.
He was going to bring this table for tomorrow’s business. He couldn’t let others eat their rice noodles standing. They had to have tables and benches for people to sit on.
He had a bench at home, so he didn’t need to make it. However, the table at home was a very ordinary square table. It couldn’t be taken apart or folded, and it was so big that it wouldn’t be easy to bring it to town.
Therefore, Xue Yan drew the structure of this table and asked his brother, Xue Yifu, to make it.
Xue Yifu was also surprised that a table could be so ingenious. It only had one table, four legs, and four supports. It wasn’t complicated at all, but because of the mortise and tenon joints, it only took a little effort to set the table. Not only that, but it was also very solid and couldn’t be broken even if one pushed it.
The table was easy to make, the four legs were easy to make, and the four horizontal supports were easy to make. The only thing that needed to be done was to pay attention to the mortises and tenons, or they would not be built successfully and stable.
By the time Xue Sifu returned from town, Xue Yifu had also finished making these two simple and portable tables. When Xue Sifu saw this, he was very surprised at the ingenuity of the tables.
Xue Yan had finished reading all the books in the Shengming Academy, and he even learned about architecture. Xue Yan had been in a high position in his previous life, so he had seen everything. He had read countless books, so drawing blueprints was an easy task for him.
Xue Yan also drew a foldable, mortise-and-tenon stool, but Xue Yifu didn’t have the time to make it today. He promised to make it in the future.
He would make more tables like this in the future as well. After all, if the rice noodle business really did get better, two tables wouldn’t be enough to hold all the customers. However, this was just the beginning, and there shouldn’t be too many people. Two tables should be enough.
Seeing Xue Sifu learning how to set up and dismantle the mortise and tenon joints on the table, Jiang Yue hesitated for a moment, but she couldn’t help but tug at Xue Yan and whisper in his ear, “Isn’t it weird that Sifu asked you to go to town tomorrow just to go to Yuxuan’s house together?”
Xue Yan nodded in agreement and said in a low voice, “Sifu’s actions are a little strange. Usually, Sifu wouldn’t trouble others with things that he could do by himself. It would be fine for him to leave the things at Yuxuan’s house alone, but he called me along. Although the reasoning checks out, I feel like there’s more to this than that… But I can’t think of any other reason. He won’t harm me anyway, so I’ll just go tomorrow and find out. What, you’ve thought of something?”
“No, I haven’t,” If she had figured it out, she would not have asked him and would have told him directly. “Alright then. If all is well it shouldn’t matter anyway,” she added without waiting for him to speak. After all, it was Sifu. He wouldn’t deliberately harm them.