Shen family.
Shen Xiaocao took the kitchen knife and chopped the pigweed.
Old Mrs. Yang sat in front of Shen Xiaocao, impatiently complaining that she was not chopping fast enough, and that she was not chopping finely enough.
"If you don't do it faster, my pig will starve. I want you to look good!"
"ah."
Shen Xiaocao accidentally cut his hand.
Old Mrs. Yang rolled her eyes: "It's just a tear. What do you call it? Don't think about asking a doctor like your mother. Your mother spent so much money last time and I haven't settled the account with her yet!"
Listening to Mrs. Yang's words, Shen Xiaocao remained silent, put the cut finger into his mouth, licked it, and continued to chop pigweed.
Shen Qizhu took a handful of melon seeds and ate them while comforting Mrs. Yang:
"Mom, don't be angry. When I get married to the county town, I will take you over to enjoy your happiness."
"My daughter is still considerate."
Old Mrs. Yang began to imagine going to the county town to enjoy the blessings.
At this time, Liu Zhaodi finished cleaning the pig pen and chicken shed.
She came out and found Shen Xiaocao chopping pigweed, so she walked over in three hurried steps followed by two steps.
"Xiaocao, mother, come and chop...what's wrong with your hands?"
"Mom, I'm fine. I chopped pigweed very quickly. Your body is not fully recovered yet. The doctor said you still need to rest. Please rest for a while."
Shen Xiaocao put his finger into his mouth again and licked it. The wound basically stopped bleeding.
"Why don't you rest? There is so much work at home! Washing clothes, chopping firewood, pounding rice, pulling weeds in the vegetable field... Mrs. Liu, you and the loser have to finish all these tasks! Otherwise, you won't be able to eat tonight. Got it!"
Before Liu Zhaodi could speak, Mrs. Yang took the lead in attacking.
Hearing this, Liu Zhaodi gritted her teeth and said, "Mom, I'll go do the laundry later."
After saying this, she hugged Shen Xiaocao away and continued to chop the pigweed.
Xiaocao was still young and couldn't even hold the kitchen knife firmly. She was afraid that Xiaocao would hurt herself again.
Old Mrs. Yang didn't care who among them was doing the work. After watching it for a while, she and Shen Qizhu went into the house to rest.
As soon as the two of them left, Liu Zhaodi quickly chopped the pigweed and poured it into the pot to cook.
Shen Xiaocao helped light the fire.
When the firewood was lit, Shen Xiaocao suddenly raised his head and looked at Liu Zhaodi:
"Mom, can we resist?"
"Resist?"
Shen Xiaocao nodded: "Yes, just like eldest sister. At worst, our family will split up and live alone."
Should we separate it out...?
Liu Zhaodi felt bitter in her heart. This was impossible. First of all, her husband would not agree.
——
After Shen Zhiyao loaded the wooden dinner plates from the valley windmill onto the donkey cart and the ox cart respectively, Aunt Chen also loaded an old hen, some home-grown vegetables and dried bamboo shoots for her.
Then he asked Carpenter Chen to drive a bullock cart to send her off.
The two large carts were covered with linen cloth brought by Shen Zhiyao and tied with ropes to cover them tightly.
When the donkey cart and the ox cart drove out of Lihua Village, some good people in the village immediately came to ask Aunt Chen what the two carts were carrying.
When Carpenter Chen came back from the county, he came to ask Shen Zhiyao and the three sisters how they were doing in the county.
"What does it have to do with you how other people are doing? Just eat carrots and don't worry about them. It's getting dark, so go home quickly."
Aunt Chen didn't say anything and directly sent the troublemaker away.
After the troublemaker left, Carpenter Chen took out a package of things wrapped in coarse cloth.
"What is this?" Aunt Chen opened the cloth bag and saw a lot of seedlings that looked like some kind of vegetables inside, with soil still attached to their roots.
Carpenter Chen said: "This is what Zhiyao gave me. It's called chili pepper. The thing she found in the mountains is more pungent and more flavorful than dogwood. Let us grow some and eat it ourselves and sell it."
"How?" Aunt Chen asked immediately with interest.
Carpenter Chen explained the method Shen Zhiyao told him.
Aunt Chen wrote it down carefully, and then urged Carpenter Chen to make the windmill quickly so that Shen Zhiyao could earn some money.
Carpenter Chen worked hard to make the windmill. In the county town, Shen Zhiyao took the two completed valley windmills to Zhuangzi.
Also got a scale.
When they arrived at Mao Dazhuang and Mrs. Wu's house, Shen Zhiyao easily moved down the windmill and scale.
"Brother Mao, please go tell He Wang and Luo Quan and ask them to move the rice they paid for rent this year to your house now."
He Wang and Luo Quan are two other households of tenant farmers on Zhuangzi.
When Shen Zhiyao bought Zhuangzi, he knew about Zhuangzi's rice production this year.
Twenty-four acres of land produced a total of more than 3,600 kilograms of rice, and one acre of land produced about 150 kilograms of rice.
According to the share, General Shen Zhiyao will harvest about 2,160 kilograms of rice.
Get on the scale and weigh.
Shen Zhiyao quickly weighed the rice collected for rent. The rice given by the three tenant farmers was equal to 60% of the total harvest.
After weighing the rice, Shen Zhiyao scooped out two kilograms of rice and asked Mao Dazhuang to help pound the rice.
After Mao Dazhuang finished pounding, Shen Zhiyao uncovered the linen cloth covering the grain windmill and put the brown rice mixed with rice bran into the grain windmill.
Finally, I got one pound and four taels of white rice.
Well, the yield rate of a pound of rice is about 70%.
Shen Zhiyao knew something in his mind, looked at Mao Dazhuang, He Wang, Luo Quan and their families and said:
"I would like to ask you to help me pound out all this rice. These two machines are called grain windmills. The brown rice can be ground into rice bran quickly using the grain windmills."
"After processing these two thousand kilograms of rice, each of your families can get one hundred and twenty kilograms of rice. Are you willing to do it?"
"Of course, I'm going to say something ugly first. I already know how much rice I can get from these rice fields. If someone dares to embezzle it, I won't let it go."
"My boss, my family is willing!" Mao Dazhuang immediately expressed his stance.
One hundred and twenty kilograms of rice would cost almost one tael of silver to buy.
The boss was very generous to his wife and children, whether it was the wages for cooking or the reward for pounding the rice this time.
Such a good boss, only someone with no conscience would dare to steal her rice.
He Wang and the Luo family are also willing to do it.
Shen Zhiyao asked the three families to supervise each other.
Next, while Shen Zhiyao was busy selling food at the stall, she would come to Zhuangzi from time to time to see the construction of the house, communicate with the craftsmen about the details of the house, and take time to plant all the fruit trees that were moved in last time.
Busy as hell.
Tongfang County Pier.
Shen Zhiyao moved four large pottery bowls and wooden dinner plates to the stall.
The diners looked into the pottery bowl and asked curiously: "Miss Shen, are you not selling Bobo Chicken and Liangpi today?"
"Yes, the dishes have been changed today. We keep selling the same food. I'm afraid everyone will get tired of it." Shen Zhiyao brought up the last plate of golden fried chicken legs.
Today she made dry-pot pork ribs, twice-cooked pork with tofu, stir-fried beans, stir-fried amaranth and ten fried chicken legs.
"Today we sell set meals, one meat and one vegetarian for ten cents, two meat and one vegetarian for fifteen cents, two vegetarian meals for seven cents, and fried chicken drumsticks for six cents each."
After saying this, Shen Zhiyao took out a dinner plate and scooped a full spoonful of vegetables into every groove of the plate.
"The portion size is about this."
