This time I was just lucky, and I only made a few taels of silver. What I usually earned was not enough to give my mother medicine, let alone the more expensive scientific examinations.
When his father was a scholar, he almost wiped out all the grandparents and uncles in the family. Just when they finally came to the end of their hardships, he left again and never came back. Because of his disappearance, the family's farmland, which was originally tax-free, began to pay taxes as usual. .
After hearing this, Chu Yue felt a little sour in her heart.
He must have given up his dream of taking the scientific examination for the sake of his mother and two younger brothers.
As the eldest son and brother, this is his unshirkable responsibility.
It would be nice if I could think of some way to make more money.
When Chu Yue was deep in thought, Lu Xinghe suddenly raised his head and looked at her: "How did you think that there would be a famine if the drought continued like this?"
Many people, when their stomachs are full, only think about what is in front of them. He is quite curious that a girl of thirteen or fourteen years old can be so far-sighted.
Chu Yue looked calm.
"Isn't this an obvious thing? There has been a drought for two months. Not only the fields but also the ponds in Niutou Village have dried up, and the rice husks are all flat. I am afraid that this year's taxes will have to be paid on top of the original income. Next year it will be even harder.”
Lu Xinghe nodded.
"That's right."
Chu Yue noticed that the cart was slowing down and knew that it was starting to go uphill. She quickly jumped out of the car and helped Lu Xinghe push the cart home.
The two chatted wordlessly while walking, and before they knew it, they arrived at the entrance of the village.
Chu Yue hurriedly pulled the rice platycodon that was originally pressed underneath to cover the grain. Lu Xinghe knew what she was thinking, so he helped cover it together.
After building it, the two took a slightly longer route to their home, avoiding the onlookers of the villagers in the village.
Yun Cuihe saw the two of them through the window and hurriedly shouted: "Xingping, go help quickly, your eldest brother and sister-in-law are back."
When Lu Xingping heard the sound, he quickly opened the courtyard door and helped Lu Xinghe and Chu Yue push the cart through the door.
"Brother and sister-in-law, what did you buy that is so heavy?"
"food."
Lu Xinghe said as he picked up two large bags of old rice and a small bag of brown rice covered by straw.
"Xingping, please return the cart to Aunt Lin's house first."
"okay."
Seeing so much food, Lu Xingping felt happy. This meant that his family would not be hungry for a long time.
As soon as Lu Xingping left, Yun Cuihe frowned and asked in a low voice: "Xinghe, why did you buy so much food? Hasn't all the money you earned today been spent?"
Lu Xinghe moved the food into the house.
"Mom, don't worry so much. I know it in my heart. Anyway, these foods won't go bad for a while, so I'll stock them up and eat them slowly."
Since Lu Xinghe said that he had a plan in mind, Yun Cuihe didn't ask any more questions. He just said that he must not tell anyone about his family's food supply, so as not to make others think about him.
Chu Yue put away the condiments, medicines and two pieces of cloth she bought before putting the remaining three taels of silver into Yun Cuihe's hands.
"Mom, keep the remaining money."
Yun Cuihe looked at her hand, a little surprised in her eyes.
"So many."
Chu Yue smiled and said: "Today we made a total of more than five taels, otherwise we wouldn't have dared to buy so much food."
Yun Cuihe nodded, counted out two hundred copper plates from a pile of silver coins, strung them together and stuffed them into Chu Yue's hand.
"You take these as your pocket money, and mom will save the rest together. If you run out, you can ask mom for more. We will have a lot of money to spend as a family in the future."
"good."
Chu Yue did not refuse, took the two hundred coins back to the house, found a hidden place to put them, and left the house.
She took out the pig's large intestine that Lu Xinghe had washed with plant ash yesterday, cut it into a third, and put it into a large pot. She poured water to cover the large intestine, and added a few pieces of ginger. She boiled it first and planned to make it for dinner. Stir-fried pork intestines.
She rubbed the remaining large intestine with some salt and hung it on the beam, making it into smoked sausage and eating it slowly.
"Sister-in-law, let me light the fire."
Lu Xingan saw Chu Yue busy in the kitchen and hurried in to help.
Lu Xinghe put away the old rice and went to the fields with the bucket. The weather was too dry, and the water for watering the fields yesterday was probably almost dry, so he had to carry more water to pour it in.
But when he came back in the evening, his face looked a little dull.
Chu Yue felt something was wrong and didn't dare to ask, just mindlessly doing her own thing.
However, Yun Cuihe said with a puzzled face: "Xinghe, what's wrong with you?"
A trace of anger flashed across Lu Xinghe's eyes: "I carried more than twenty loads of water to water the fields yesterday. The water in the fields should be enough for today. I don't know who pouted it, and all the water flowed into other people's fields. ”
When Yun Cuihe heard this, she was very angry.
"Who is so shameless? They worked so hard to carry water, why should they pout? This is obviously to cut off their source of water, and they will be punished."
Lu Xinghe glanced at Yun Cuihe and said comfortingly: "Mom, don't be impatient. Fortunately, we have been watering the fields before, and the soil is still wet. I have just picked up a few loads of water to water the fields. , I will continue to fetch water early tomorrow morning."
Yun Cuihe held her chest and sighed.
"It's not because of this. Mom feels sorry for you. Since the water from above stopped coming down, you have been carrying water for more than a month. You are working hard here to carry water to irrigate the fields. Those lazy and lazy people just care about you. It’s so girly to just sit back and enjoy the results.”
Chu Yue, who was cutting ginger and garlic, put down the knife in her hand.
"Mom, don't be angry. You will be so angry that you will suffer. We will also have to worry. It won't have any effect on the bad guy who stole the water. It's not worth it." She said, looking at Lu Xinghe said, "Ms. sir, why don't I go to the fields with you tomorrow?"
She wanted to see how full the millet husks were in the field. If after so much effort, the harvest was far from what it took to carry water and maintain it for so many days, she might as well take advantage of this time to do something else.
If about half of them are full shells, it will only be twenty days before the harvest anyway, so all you need to do is spend some effort to cope with it.
Lu Xinghe glanced at Chu Yue. He wanted to refuse, but he nodded by mistake.
"good."
After cutting the ginger and garlic, Chu Yue took it in and fried the fat sausage. The fat sausage originally had its own unique taste, but now with the aroma of ginger, garlic and peppercorns, the smell spread out and made people drool.
Especially the mother of Sun Dazhu’s family next door.
Mrs. Li wanted to beg for a piece of meat yesterday, but in the end Lu Xinghe and Lu Xingping did not send it to his family, which made Mrs. Li feel sulky at home for another day today.
At this moment, he could smell the aroma of fried pork intestines wafting from Lu Xinghe's house, and while swallowing his saliva, he looked at Sun Dazhu and Luo Shi cursing.
"If you ask me, the Yun family are all ungrateful people! It's such a big pig, and the neighbors from door to door are sharing the meat. Why can't they give you a piece? You don't help them enough on weekdays?"
