Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

Jinghan listened to Mrs. Tao's words and felt strange. The old lady was quite happy when she came to deliver thorn buds last time. Why is she still like this when she comes to deliver fish today?

How did Jinghan know that this old lady didn't know much about the Xu family's affairs before? Tao Qingnian brought back a lot of firewood from the Xu family, and he didn't tell his family about the Xu family's trip to the mountain. Later, the old lady heard someone mention that the Xu family owed a lot of money, even sold their house, and now went to the mountains to see ginseng. The old lady thought about the day when Zhixin came to Tao's house. She estimated that Zhixin might have come to borrow money from Qingnian, and now she became even more annoyed.

Huixin didn't talk much since she married into the Tao family, and she didn't refuse anything the old lady asked her to do. But Huixin would never do more than she should have done. The old lady looked at Huixin's dowry and wanted to dig out some of it, but she couldn't say it clearly, so she always said something about Huixin. However, Huixin had been at home since she was a child and had never seen Mrs. Chen picking off her daughter-in-law's things, so she didn't understand what her mother-in-law meant. In this way, the old lady did not get any advantage from Huixin, and she became even more unhappy. The old lady didn't know how much money Zhixin had borrowed, but she probably borrowed more, so she was stabbing all day long.

Zhiming didn't look good after hearing what the old lady said, "Auntie, of course we didn't mean that. It's just that the elder brother always thinks about the girl. Okay, auntie, we still have to go to the market. Let's go first. We'll take Huixin back to stay for a few days after the festival. My mother misses her. Anyway, Huixin is pregnant now, so it's time to take a good rest." After Zhiming said that, he led Jinghan. He Wenhan and Wencheng came out of Tao's house and drove the ox cart to the market.

"Third uncle, you said you would take your little aunt home to live with you, is that true?" Jinghan was happy to hear that, since her little aunt got married, she hasn't lived back home yet.

"It's true. Look at the way the old lady from the Tao family looks. She probably knows what our family is like now and looks down on us. Jinghan, Wenhan, and Wencheng, we must make some money quickly and then buy a house and land. Don't let others look down on you." Zhiming secretly made up his mind to live a good life and not let outsiders laugh at him.

"Hey, uncle, don't worry. Our family is working hard. We will be fine in less than two years," Jinghan said. Wen Han and Wen Cheng also agreed.

The uncle and nephew came to the market and started selling fish. Since tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, in addition to making rice dumplings, we also need to make something delicious for this festival. So as soon as everyone saw such a fresh fish, many people gathered around. You take one, I take two. After a while, there were only three or four fish left in the bucket.

Jinghan saw that the bucket was empty, feeling so happy. They replaced the fish in large wooden barrels. There were more than twenty fish in total, and each fish weighed an average of three kilograms. Carp costs 13 cents per pound, fine-scaled fish is more expensive, 18 cents, and two Aohua are also sold for 18 cents. Calculating it this way, it has been sold for about 900 yuan. Jinghan did the math and felt very happy. It would be pretty good if she could do this often. "Brother, can we buy some more meat to take home today? I'm hungry for meat. These fish, crickets, etc., after all, can't compare to meat." Zhiming went to the drug store to sell medicinal materials, leaving the three of them alone. One sells fish here.

Wenhan looked at his sister and smiled, "You are just a greedy cat. Okay, let's go buy meat soon. It's the festival, so it's time to eat something good. If there's no food at this time, we should buy meat buns Dumplings." At this time of year, it's usually leeks, but this year the Xu family went up the mountain and there were no leeks at all.

"I don't dare to think about dumplings. It would be nice to have some meat." Jinghan said with a smile.

Someone came here again to buy fish. "Brother, sell all four of your fish to me. Can it be cheaper?" asked a man in his forties.

After hearing this, Wenhan nodded, "Uncle, if you buy all four fish, you can pay ten cents per catty. We also want to sell them out quickly so we can go home."

"Okay, then weigh it for me. By the way, can you guarantee that you will have this fish every day? I am from Baiweilou in the town. If you can have it every day, send it there. Although It's a little cheaper than what you bought, but I'm sure." The man asked.

After hearing this, Jinghan felt that this was good. After all, there were not many times like today, and it was not a holiday every day. "Okay, uncle, let's make an agreement. Starting from tomorrow, we will deliver fish to you. How much do you want every day?"

The man thought for a while and said, "Let's get ten fish a day first. If they sell well, we'll talk about it later. Our restaurant is the best in town. In the past, we couldn't even sell enough fish."

Wen Han has already weighed the fish, "There are four fish in total, twelve and a half catties. Even if it is twelve catties, it will cost one hundred and twenty cents."

The man handed the money to Jinghan's hand and left with the fish. "Don't forget to send the fish." He warned before leaving.

All the fish had been sold, and Zhiming happened to come back from the medicine shop, "Hey, they sold out really fast. Okay, let's go back?" He also sold all the medicinal materials.

"Uncle Third, wait a minute, we are going to buy something. Buy some meat or something, and let's make something delicious tomorrow." Jinghan couldn't help but said happily. Today, the fish alone sold for more than one tael of silver. , and also decided to send fish every day in the future, which means that there will be income every day in the future, how great. Jinghan told Zhiming what happened just now, and Zhiming was very happy after hearing it.

So, everyone went to buy meat together. When they came to the place where the meat was sold, Jinghan was shocked when they asked about the price of pork, which was thirty cents per pound. "Uncle, why is this meat so expensive? Thirty cents is too expensive, isn't it?"

The butcher laughed and said, "Tomorrow is the festival, and there are many people buying meat. At this time, there are few pigs for slaughter, so of course it will be expensive."

Jinghan gritted her teeth and bought two kilograms of waist meat. The meat was just the right amount of fat and thin, and it was delicious when cooking. Then I saw a set of pig heads and hooves on the chopping board, and asked, "Uncle, how do you sell these?"

When the butcher saw Jinghan asking about those things, he said, "Just give me fifty cents for this whole thing. Most people don't want to take care of it."

Jinghan took a look and saw that there were a lot of dirty things in the whole thing. Although these things couldn't compare with the taste of good meat, they were still good things. Her mother is quite good at washing these things, and the taste is good. It’s better to buy it again so that you can have more meals when you go home. "Okay, uncle, give me all these."

The butcher found some hemp ropes and tied them all together, then handed them to Wen Han and Zhiming. Wenhan took it and put it in the wooden barrel. It happened that there were no fish in the barrel and all the water had been poured out just now. It was just right to put these.

Next, they went to buy some salt, pepper, aniseed and other seasonings, as well as some grain. There is not much food left at home, and there are only about ten acres of land in total. How can there be enough food for so many people in the family? Now, most of the money from selling the fish was spent, and Jinghan began to lament that it was not easy to make money.

The uncle and nephew drove the bullock cart, pulling a lot of things, and walked back slowly. When they returned to Shenchangzi, Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Xue looked at the things in the car and asked, "Zhiming, why did you buy so many things? It's hard to make money these days, so save some money." Bar."

"Grandma, I want to buy it. We live in the mountains and it's already hard enough. If we don't eat something good, how can we suffer? You see, my dad and the others have to get up at night to take a walk. It's a lot of work. Ah." Jinghan said quickly. Walking Chuan'er is an idiom for watching ginseng, which means going out at night and patrolling the ginseng fields. In the soil where ginseng is planted, a long ridge is called a chuan'er, so when patrolling at night, it is called wandering chuan'er.

Mrs. Chen looked at Jinghan's little face, which was flushed, and her forehead was a little sweaty, so she quickly took the handkerchief to help Jinghan wipe the sweat. "You just have a lot to do, okay. Grandma also knows that it's too hard in the mountains. She just wants to save more money. Well, since we bought it back, we should eat and don't tire everyone out. "Meilin, Yingzi, you two quickly take the pig to the water and wash it. If you can't eat it for a while, pick it up and eat it slowly." When Jinghan said this, she naturally felt sorry for her husband and son, and she didn't care about buying these things. Besides, these are all the credit of the children. These children are sensible, so we can’t let the children be too shortchanged.

Jinghan told her grandma and mother about delivering fish to the town every day in the future. Everyone was very happy to hear it, but Mrs. Chen was a little worried, "Jinghan, you promised me, but you didn't think about it. What should I do if I don’t catch ten fish one day? "I dare not say that fishing will be like today.

"Mom, don't be afraid of this. I will go to the riverside to find a place and dig a small pit in a while. If we catch more, we will put it in the small pit to raise. If we catch less, we will fish it out of the small pit. Just come out and deliver it to the restaurant. When brother is free one day, we can dig a place and make a small bubble." Zhiming had already thought of this problem.

When Mrs. Chen heard this, she thought it was feasible and said nothing more. Just when Zhiming was talking about going to Tao's house today, Mrs. Chen said that she wanted to take Huixin back and stay there for a while. "Looking at the way his old lady looks like, Huixin might be angry there, so she might as well take her back and live there for a few days. It's just that the food and accommodation in our mountain are a bit poor, and I don't know if we can give it to the celebration. Forget it, when the time comes Let’s talk about it, it’s better than being angry over there.”

"Grandma, it's okay. There are a lot of good things on this mountain. My aunt will like it." Jinghan was naturally eager for Huixin to come back.