Chapter 852

At six in the morning, Li Ye climbed out of bed half an hour early, didn't turn on the light, and groped to put on his clothes and get out of bed.

The snow outside the window had stopped. In this day and age, snowplows weren't that plentiful, and the small street at Li Ye's door couldn't be taken care of, so he had to manually clear the snow so as not to delay the travel of the surrounding neighbors.

In the mainland, if a pedestrian fell at your door because the road was slippery, they wouldn't find a lawyer to sue you for a big profit like in the Lighthouse Country, but a loud-mouthed scolding that you were a lazy bum who would have no descendants was inevitable.

Li Ye had a son, how could he let him be scolded?

Although Li Ye didn't turn on the light, Wen Leyu still heard the movement and muttered groggily: "Mm, has the snow stopped?"

Li Ye said: "I just looked out the window, it should have stopped."

"Then I'll get up too!"

Wen Leyu got up with sleepy eyes and yawned twice in a row.

The couple had been tossing and turning a bit late last night, so the little wife was still sleepy at this point.

There was really no way around this; men's dopamine secretion has the characteristic of "post-ejaculation shutdown," so they fall asleep quickly after pleasure, but women have a long aftertaste, so they are prone to sleep deprivation.

So Li Ye reached out and pressed Wen Leyu back down: "Why are you getting up? You stay in the room and watch the child, I'll be done sweeping in a while."

But Wen Leyu shook her head and said: "Xiaojuan and mother-in-law will definitely get up to sweep the snow today. If I, the daughter-in-law, am lazy, wouldn't people laugh at me?"

Seeing Wen Leyu so persistent, Li Ye couldn't stop her; if this little wife became stubborn, she was not just ordinarily stubborn.

Sure enough, before the couple could put on their cold-weather gear, Han Chunmei had already taken her two daughters, Lijuan and Li Ying, to start sweeping the courtyard.

Seeing Li Ye and Wen Leyu open the door and come out, the little sister Li Ying hurriedly said: "Brother, you're up! Youan is about to wake up, can you let sister-in-law help watch him for a while?"

【This sister of yours is indeed on the ball.】

"Yes, why not!"

Li Ye smiled and assigned Wen Leyu: "Go, take Youan and Xiaobao together, if all three wake up later and you're too busy, just call us."

But Wen Leyu rolled her eyes at Li Ye and snatched his broom: "Youan is closest to you! You stay in the room and watch the child!"

"..."

Wen Leyu knew that the whole family took care of her, but the more this was the case, the less delicate she became.

I, the dignified Wen Leyu, can hold up half the sky.

However, Wen Leyu only swept a few times before Grandma Wu Juying came out.

"Chunmei, you sweep the courtyard, Li Ye, you take Xiaojuan and Li Ying out to sweep the snow, I'll watch the child, Xiaoyu, you go cook."

"Mm, okay grandma."

Wen Leyu helplessly went to the kitchen; grandma's care still had to be gladly accepted, because the old lady's arrangements represented fairness within the family.

Li Ye took his two sisters out the door and saw that the neighbors nearby had already started sweeping the snow, but they were groups of seven or eight people sweeping a few dozen meters, while their own door only had the three siblings.

【Having a big house also has its troubles!】

Who let Li Ye's family occupy a large courtyard! Other courtyards were occupied by seven or eight households, which were crowded when living, but at this time, it was a case of many hands making light work.

Fortunately, Li Ye had people make a few snow shovels according to the drawings of later generations, one of which had wheels, similar to a small cart, which made shoveling snow twice as effective with half the effort. Combined with the big brooms of the two sisters, they should be able to clear a path before dawn.

However, just as Li Ye had shoveled less than half, Aunt Wang from the neighborhood and several neighborhood staff members arrived.

The public servants of this era still had a strong sense of serving the people; this kind of bad weather was a good time to test them.

Aunt Wang saw Li Ye's snow shovel and said in surprise: "Comrade Xiao Li, this snow-shoveling thing of yours is really good! We rushed over to help, but didn't expect you to be almost done!"

Li Ye smiled and said: "Hey, our family has few people, so we have to put some effort into tools, right? We can't drag down the whole neighborhood."

"This isn't a matter of a little effort, this is the ability of a smart person..."

Aunt Wang circled Li Ye's snow-shoveling cart twice and said with a smile: "Comrade Xiao Li, our neighborhood's small hardware factory has no production tasks now, can you let them study this new gadget of yours?

If it sells well, let them give you some kind of invention fee, and it will also solve the living difficulties of dozens of people, a good thing that kills two birds with one stone."

Li Ye said readily: "What patent fee or not, just take it away after you're done! I'll just have someone make another one."

"No, no, everyone is making patent inventions now! If it really works, I guarantee you won't be short of money."

"..."

Aunt Wang's persistence made Li Ye a bit surprised.

In this country where knockoffs were rampant, could something with no technical content really earn a patent fee?

However, it seemed that because the legend of getting rich through patents in the West had permeated in the past two years, the idea of getting rich through "invention patents" was very prevalent in the mainland.

Li Ye remembered that in his previous life, there was a period when patents were in vogue; many people just came up with an idea and couldn't wait to apply for a patent, then waited for big bosses to wave money at their door to buy it.

Small inventions like sitting posture correctors and ping-pong ball pickers were all patented, but in the end, he didn't see anyone become a millionaire through inventions.

They didn't think about it; Tesla helped Edison earn 50,000 dollars, and Edison didn't share a cent of profit with him. Are the legends of Westerners credible?

If you want to turn patents into wealth, either you have capital yourself, or this technology is something others can't play without you.

That was why Li Ye generously handed the snow-shoveling cart to the neighborhood hardware factory to copy; this thing had no technical content, as long as you looked at it and pondered it, you would understand it, so it was better to sell a favor.

"Comrade Xiao Li is really generous. You guys, hurry up and put in some effort! Watching the little girl work so hard, are you big men embarrassed?"

"Aunt Wang, what you said, are there any lazy people in our neighborhood? You rest with those two girls, we'll have it cleaned up for you in a while."

Several neighborhood staff members joked while swinging the brooms in their hands until they were almost smoking, each one working harder than the last.

Lijuan and Li Ying had already grown into two beautiful girls; in front of beautiful sisters, how could men lose face?

Li Ye glanced at them and directed the two sisters to work around, absolutely not letting them form any bad habits of dependence like the "little fairies" of later generations.

At this time, Aunt Wang suddenly asked Li Ye in a low voice: "Comrade Xiao Li, I talked to your grandma for a while the other day, I heard you are the deputy factory director of the Beijing No. 2 Auto in Haidian?"

Li Ye was a bit surprised. Aunt Wang knew about Li Ye's situation at the Light Auto Company; after all, they usually checked and screened the people in the neighborhood every few days, so why did she suddenly ask today? What was her intention?