"A bowl of ice powder will relieve the heat, and two spoons of brown sugar will make you forget your worries."
This limerick was widely circulated in Nanfu Academy. In just one day and one night, ice powder became a popular food among the students.
As soon as Cheng Wanwan's stall opened, students came over in groups.
There were twenty sets of tableware in total, and five people were working together. In less than a quarter of an hour, a bucket of ice powder had been sold out.
An empty bucket contained all the copper coins earned today. The four boys of the Zhao family had never seen so many copper coins before, and all of them were stunned.
Cheng Wanwan coughed and said: "Pack up your things first, and then find a place where no one is around. Let's count how much money we made in total."
The four boys nodded like garlic, quickly washed the dishes and put them into the bucket. They packed up the wooden boards and put them on the roadside. The group of five people quickly walked towards the nearest alley.
As soon as Zhao Sidan turned around, he paused in his steps. He looked back and saw that the person who had just walked out of Nanfu Academy seemed to be his cousin.
When my mother scolded them in the past, she often said that they were not as good as cousin Cheng Zhao. If there was any delicious food at home, my mother would send it to the Cheng family. In fact, it was to cousin Cheng Zhao.
Cousin Cheng Zhao spent money on his studies, and his mother gave all the money from his father's death in the war to the Cheng family.
I made so many copper coins today. If my mother saw her cousin, she would immediately stuff all the coins into cousin Cheng Zhao's arms.
This is their hard-earned money, so they won’t take it easy on Cheng Zhao!
Zhao Sidan glanced at Cheng Wanwan and saw that his mother did not see his cousin, so he hurriedly left the entrance of the academy.
Cheng Zhao, who had just walked out of the academy, frowned and looked at the five people walking further and further away. Why did they seem to be his second aunt and four cousins?
Why did the second aunt bring her cousins to Hekou Town?
While Cheng Zhao was thinking, several classmates came towards him with sneers on their faces: "Brother Cheng, what are you doing here?"
Cheng Zhao held a few manuscripts in his hand, and he said with a humble attitude: "I'm going to Dehe Hall. Can I go with you?"
"You are copying books in Dehetang. We don't have the luxury." A student clicked his tongue twice, "I heard that copying a book only costs 100 cents. How long does it take you to copy a book?"
Cheng Zhao said calmly: "If you are busy with classes, it will take half a month to copy one copy."
"Hahaha, that means you can earn a hundred cents in half a month."
"One hundred articles can't even afford an inkstone, so I can only buy the worst writing brush."
"Brother Cheng's family is so poor, he might as well go back to farming..."
These people laughed openly, but Cheng Zhao's expression remained unchanged. He turned and left the academy gate, carrying three copies of the book and heading to Dehe Hall.
Cheng Wanwan and her four sons were sitting on the ground in a deserted alley.
The four boys had never learned arithmetic, and they started to get stuck when they counted to ten, scratching their heads and ears.
Cheng Wanwan had to count by himself, and when he finally finished counting, there were a total of seven hundred and twenty-three copper coins.
"Three buckets of ice powder used nearly three kilograms of ice powder seeds and almost twelve kilograms of lanterns. The wages given were twenty-four cents. Brown sugar and peanuts cost a total of eighty cents. Excluding these, how much did we earn in total today? "
She looked at the four boys in front of her with a smile and offered tempting terms.
"Whoever is the first to give the correct answer will be rewarded with a meat bun at noon today."
A few long minutes passed...
Finally someone raised their hand, and Zhao Sidan said excitedly: "Mom, I know, it's six hundred and twenty-nine!"
Cheng Wanwan shook his head: "It's still a little bit short, please do the math again."
Zhao Sidan clasped his fingers and thought hard.
Zhao Ergou's eyes lit up: "I calculated it, it's six hundred and nineteen!"
"Er Gou is good. I will reward you with a big meat bun at noon today." Cheng Wanwan said with a smile, "None of the four of you are good at arithmetic. Starting from tonight, you will spend a stick of incense every day to learn how to do arithmetic."
Zhao Ergou and Zhao Sidan were slightly excited.
Zhao Dashan and Zhao Sanniu had a bitter look on their faces.
Just such a small thing, the characters of the four boys are fully displayed.
Cheng Wanwan put all the coins in his pocket, stood up and said, "Let's go, Mom will take you to eat."
The five mother and son sat down in a wonton shop. The proprietress brought five bowls of wontons and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law bought five bowls in one go. She is a big customer of our store. I gave you some pickles. You guys have a try."
There were some pickles in a small plate, which tasted pretty good.
Cheng Wanwan took the opportunity to teach: "This landlady is a good business person. She gave pickles this time. Next time we want to eat wontons, we will definitely come to their house. In the same way, we sell ice noodles, too. Give the guest a feeling that the other party has made money. Just like today, Ergou was short of a few pennies. If you want to do long-term business, you can't care about such a few pennies. Gains and losses are the way to do long-term business..."
Zhao Ergou nodded thoughtfully.
After eating the wontons, the four boys were only half full. Cheng Wanwan went to buy some meat buns, one for each person and one for Zhao Ergou.
Apart from staple food, there are no other vegetables at home. There is no shortage of wild vegetables and mushrooms in the mountains, but the most lacking thing is meat.
Cheng Wanwan led a group of boys straight to the butcher shop. It was afternoon and there was not much fresh meat left in the butcher shop. There was only one strip of pork belly, some pig offal, pig bones and pig blood left.
Cheng Wanwan bought all these things, pork cost sixty cents for two pounds, pig bones were relatively cheap, ten cents per pound, and pig blood was given away by the butcher for free.
When Cheng Wanwan was shopping, Zhao Ergou was doing calculations beside him silently: "The wontons cost 60 yuan, the meat buns cost 35 yuan, the pork cost 60 yuan..."
He thought slowly and slowly added up the money, and was suddenly shocked.
It looked like I had earned a lot of copper coins, but I only spent less than half of it on such a small amount of things.
How much did Mom earn yesterday? How could she buy dozens of kilograms of rice and flour, so much cloth, twenty ducks and five packs of snacks...
Cheng Wanwan turned her head and heard Zhao Ergou counting money, and her heart skipped a beat.
Among these four boys, the second one is the shrewdest. If the second one settles the accounts clearly, she will not be able to fish in troubled waters in the future.
She said: "The prices of everything in the town have increased. No matter how much money I make, I can't spend it. I still have rice and millet at home, so I won't buy it for the time being. Dashan, this is twenty coins. Go and buy something for Huiniang." Go back and let her have a try."
Zhao Dashan went to do it immediately. The money was just enough to buy a bowl of wontons and a steamed bun.
There were still brown sugar and peanuts at home, so Cheng Wanwan stopped buying them and returned home with her four sons.
Returning to Dahe Village from Hekou Town, we rode a bullock cart for a long time. When the sun was about to set, we finally arrived at the entrance of the village.
At this time, everyone in the village was busy working in the fields. The five mother and son returned home without being watched. The yard at home was neatly tidied, and twenty little ducks were quacking. They were in good spirits.
