, wonderful and free of pop-ups! Yang Ruoqing secretly longed for that warm bucket when she thought about it.
But the warm bucket is troublesome to open.
"Dad, Mom, we can't get a hot tub right now. How about we get a brazier first?"
Yang Ruoqing suggested.
The brazier is not difficult to make.
Find an old iron pot and put some hardwood, pine cones or something in it.
Get a wooden frame underneath to stabilize it.
Once you put it indoors, the temperature of the entire room will increase accordingly.
"Qing'er, this is a good suggestion."
Sun said.
"Just when we separated last time, Dayun brought an old pot over. I'll bring it over later."
Yang Huazhong nodded: "That's all we can do. When my leg heals, the first thing I will do is to warm it up!"
"Mom, after lunch, I will go pick up pine cones in the woods behind the village." Yang Ruoqing said.
"I chop firewood, chop hard wood to light the fire." Da'an said.
"You are weak, be careful of the ax hitting your foot, wait for my family to come and chop you." Yang Ruoqing warned.
"Then I will go pick up pine cones with my sister."
…
During dinner, the brazier was lit.
Sun used split hard wood to put in the basin, and grabbed a few handfuls of pine cones and put them in.
The brazier was crackling and sparks were shooting out.
Yang Huazhong cuddled up on the bed as usual, and Mrs. Sun and her three siblings, Yang Ruoqing, sat around the brazier with bowls in their hands.
Mrs. Sun said: "Yes, this brazier lasts a lifetime. It saves all the soybean oil lamps in the house. It's great."
Yang Huazhong said: "We should have built this brazier two days ago. The children have been freezing for several days."
Sun smiled and said, "It's not too late now."
Yang Ruoqing felt the warmth brought by the brazier, but there was another layer of worry in her heart.
The house is low and small, and the wood is burning.
Will the released carbon monoxide poison my family?
When she saw the finger-width cracks in the door and the holes in the windows.
I felt relieved again.
Ventilation is also good.
…
While cooking breakfast the next day, Yang Ruoqing noticed that Mrs. Sun coughed from time to time.
"Mom, why are you coughing? Are you catching a cold?"
Yang Ruoqing asked worriedly.
Mrs. Sun shook her head, "Mom is fine."
Yang Ruoqing was a little surprised. Logically speaking, there was an extra brazier in the room and the temperature rose a little.
You shouldn't catch a cold!
Da'an on the side said: "Last night, my mother helped us bake our shoes on the ground, so I'm afraid they might have caught the cold."
So what happened?
Yang Ruoqing understood.
The sun has not risen for several days, and my shoes are wet.
There happened to be a brazier in the house, so my mother sat there and roasted it with her hands, turning it constantly to prevent it from burning.
"The brazier is not as useful as the warm bucket!"
Yang Ruoqing thought to herself.
If there is a heating bucket, you can put the family's shoes on the wire mesh before going to bed at night.
It will definitely be warm the next day.
Mom doesn’t have to sit on the ground and watch over her.
"Qing'er, mother is really fine, don't worry."
Seeing that Yang Ruoqing didn't bite, Mrs. Sun said again.
Yang Ruoqing came back to her senses and nodded.
"Bake some brown sugar and ginger water later and drink it to relieve the cold." Yang Ruoqing said.
Sun smiled and nodded: "Okay."
"Sister, that brazier is warm, but it takes a lot of firewood." Da'an muttered there.
"The basket of pine cones we picked up together yesterday burned almost to the bottom overnight," he said.
Yang Ruoqing said: "It's okay. Let's pick them up after the burning. There are plenty in the woods behind."
If that doesn't work, go to town and buy charcoal.
Yang Ruoqing really didn't know the price of charcoal in this era.
"Mom, how did we spend the winter when we were not separated in previous years?"
Yang Ruoqing turned around and asked again.
Mrs. Sun was making noodle soup, and she pursed her lips and smiled when she heard this.
"How are you going to live? Just live like this."
She continued: "There is a heating bucket in your sister-in-law's house, and there is a charcoal brazier in your cousin Yongxian's house."
"Others, please soak your feet more."
"But at that time, the house we lived in was better than the one we live in now. There was no draft in the house."
Yang Ruoqing nodded.
"Is it just my cousin who burns charcoal in his house? Why don't other people burn charcoal in their house?" she then asked.
After hearing this, Mrs. Sun couldn't help but laugh again.
"You silly girl, why do you need to ask? You can't afford to burn it!"
"Your cousin wants to study, and grandma is afraid that his hands will be shaky and he won't be able to hold the pen steadily."
"Even so, I will only give him five kilograms of miscellaneous charcoal in his house in one winter." Mrs. Sun said.
"How much does a pound of miscellaneous charcoal cost?" Yang Ruoqing asked persistently.
Sun stopped what she was doing and thought about it seriously.
"It seems to be divided into grades. If you buy ordinary miscellaneous charcoal, it costs twenty cents per pound."
Yang Ruoqing did the math.
Yang Yongxian spent a hundred pence to burn charcoal in one winter.
Tan's grandson is really reluctant to let go of one of his eggs!
"I heard from people in the village that fruit charcoal is more expensive."
Sun's chat box was also opened.
"It is said that the lowest-grade fruit charcoal can cost several kilograms of ordinary miscellaneous charcoal."
"We've never had a fever, and we don't know what's good about it..."
"I heard that the only people in our village who can burn fruit charcoal are the Li Zheng family and Lao Mu's family..." Mrs. Sun said.
"Mom, when we go back to town next time, let's buy some charcoal to burn." Yang Ruoqing suggested.
Now he has a fortune of four taels of silver.
It's still affordable to spend one or two hundred coins to burn charcoal for the winter.
But Mrs. Sun shook her head: "I don't agree with buying charcoal."
"Why?"
"The charcoal fire always bursts out and sticks to the table and clothes, which can burn holes." Mrs. Sun said.
“When I washed Yongxian’s clothes last winter, there were so many holes in his clothes that were burnt by the charcoal fire. I couldn’t even mend them!”
That's it...
Yang Ruoqing thought about it, after all, the heating bucket is still the most ideal heating tool!
However, Dad can't do it for the time being.
Uncle Wu is busy building furniture for his wedding on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so he can’t spare any time!
Ask Tang Yazi to help warm the bucket?
Forget it, he doesn’t even have a brazier at home, not to mention a heating bucket!
After breakfast, Yang Ruoqing was about to take Daan to the woods to pick up pine cones.
Sun folded Luo Fengtang's cotton-padded clothes and put them into the basket.
The woman sent Yang Ruoqing and Da'an to the door and told her: "First give the cotton-padded clothes to Tang Yazi, and then go pick up the pine cones."
Yang Ruoqing nodded: "Mom, I understand, let's go to your house."
Just as I was about to leave through the back door of the yard, I heard the sound of wooden wheels grinding against the ground from the side door of the alley over there.
"Sister, look, it's brother Fengtang here!"
Daan suddenly shouted excitedly and ran towards the side door.
Yang Ruoqing was stunned for a moment.
When did this kid get so excited about Luo Fengtang's arrival?
She also looked towards the side door over there.
At this sight, she also became excited.
Even more excited than Daan!
Over there, Daan gathered around the wheelbarrow and watched Luo Fengtang untying the things on the wheelbarrow.
"Brother Fengtang, are these heating barrels for our family?"
Daan asked excitedly.
