Her husband is a fisherman and goes out to sea with the village's boat every few days. During the day, he loads a cart of seafood, walks for several hours to the town, and sells it to restaurants in the town to make ends meet.
There are seven people in her family, so even though her husband is somewhat capable, he is still struggling.
Despite the poor conditions at home, when her second brother was beaten to death and her father was killed by pirates, she still stayed with her mother for a day and night to comfort her and occasionally bring some wild vegetables to her family.
"Hey!" Aunt Zhang agreed and took out two small tender fish, each weighing just over half a catty, from the wooden bucket and put them into her bucket: "Come with me when you go out to pick up shrimps and crabs in the future, so you can have a companion when you get married. If you are married, your family's life will get better and better."
Compared with Aunt Qian's sarcastic smile, Aunt Zhang really believed that this was a good marriage, and she was marrying to become a young mistress and enjoy the blessings.
After all, they have only seen the scenery of the landlord's house and don't know the intricacies inside.
Yan Qingyao waved her hands subconsciously: "Aunt Zhang, give this fish to your younger brothers and sisters! My mother and I can eat two meals by picking up some shrimps and crabs."
"It's okay. This fish is not big, and I guess no one is willing to buy it to help you and your mother. What woman these days has to work in public like her! Alas." Aunt Zhang pulled Yan Qingyao away. Go aside and wait for the second high tide to recede.
"If you have any inconvenience, just tell Aunt Zhang. After all, there is a man in my family, and everything is more convenient than you."
Yan Qingyao thought for a while and nodded: "Okay, thank you Aunt Zhang."
Today came early. After the high tide receded, Yan Qingyao picked up more than half a bucket of shrimps and crabs, as well as several fatter fish. Compared with yesterday, the harvest was quite rich.
After everyone left, she walked along the beach and picked up oysters and sea urchins, as well as some scallops and sea cucumbers.
This sea cucumber looks like a caterpillar, and at first glance it seems that no one knows its edible value.
Yan Qingyao also frowned before picking up all the sea cucumbers into the bucket. Without any effort, there was another bucket full of seafood.
The third time she went out, she brought back two full bamboo baskets half dragged and half carried. In order not to show off, she deliberately covered them with rags and brought them back.
The original sea is better! Octopus, conch, large yellow croaker, seabass, shrimp, crab, abalone, everything is available in the bamboo basket!
"Be a good boy!" When Zhao Cuihua came home and saw countless seafood in the barrels, tubs and bamboo baskets at home, her eyes widened in shock.
She had only seen this scene from vendors. When had her home ever looked like this?
Seeing Yan Qingyao classifying the seafood, she quickly joined in. The two women quickly classified the seafood, although she didn't recognize some of them.
When lunch was served, there was another dish she had never seen before. Yan Qingyao said it was sea cucumber.
Zhao Cuihua smelled the extremely fragrant smell and couldn't help but stretch out her chopsticks to take a bite. The taste was like fairy food from the sky, full of color, fragrance and flavor. She couldn't hold it back and ate a bowl of semi-solid rice.
After eating, Zhao Cuihua felt a little regretful: "Although so many shrimps and crabs can be sold for a lot of money, we still have to live frugally. Brown rice has risen to thirty cents per pound."
"It's okay." This was Yan Qingyao's first time making sea cucumbers according to the video recipe provided by the system. She didn't expect it to be so successful. She is indeed talented.
"We will sell more shrimps and crabs and save money to rent a piece of land. When the harvest is good, we will have rice to eat."
Yan Qingyao saw grains for sale in the store. Modern hybrid rice was many times more advanced than the rice of this era. As long as the land was rented, they would definitely have no shortage of grain.
In the early stage, she could use money to buy some ready rice, but in the later stage, it was unreasonable for her to have rice to eat even though her family had no land.
"It's not that easy to rent land!" Zhao Cuihua looked sad. How much she wanted to rent a piece of land!
"The annual rent for just one acre of land costs one tael of silver. Other people's frugal expenses can only save two taels of silver a year, let alone our orphans and widowers."
"After renting the land, it costs 300 cash to rent an oxcart and farm tools, large and small. We also have to pay taxes to the landlord for the two bumper crops a year, which is either 300 cash or 100 kilograms of brown rice."
In this era, the maximum yield of rice from one acre of land is only about three hundred kilograms. After doing this, one hundred kilograms of brown rice will be given to the landlord first, and then one hundred kilograms of brown rice will be sold to keep some copper coins for household use, and another one hundred kilograms of brown rice will be left for the family. Living a tight life will only make the poor poorer and the rich richer.
Alas, Yan Qingyao couldn't help but sigh when thinking about the landlord reform of China's historical policies. This era will either be destroyed, or a saint will come to carry out reforms, and then there will be a way out.
At this moment, she didn't know that this saint was actually herself, who had no ambitions and only wanted to improve the situation at home.
"You don't understand even if I tell you so much."
Zhao Cuihua and her husband do not have the idea of valuing children over daughters. They treat the several children in the family equally. They take good care of them and rarely let them make any contribution to the family situation. That is why they are such loving mothers. Bai'er made Ergou get involved in gambling that he shouldn't have.
"It's just that there are too many shrimps and crabs. If I sell them all to the village chief, I'm afraid the village chief will get to the bottom of it." Zhao Cuihua looked at the piles of seafood and was so excited that she forgot about this trouble.
"I met Aunt Zhang when I went to catch the sea today..."
"Aunt Zhang!" Zhao Cuihua's eyes lit up when she heard this: "Okay, Aunt Zhang. Her husband sells seafood. I'll go talk to her and ask her husband to help us sell some."
Zhao Cuihua was impatient and wanted to do what she said immediately. Before Yan Qingyao could react, Zhao Cuihua had already left the door and hurried towards Aunt Zhang's house ahead.
After coming back, Zhao Cuihua grinned extremely happily. She had eaten well and was in a good mood these two days, and she began to feel that she had hope in life.
"Aunt Zhang agreed. It just so happened that your Uncle Chen made an appointment with a few people to deliver goods to restaurants in the town in the afternoon, and he said he could bring us with him."
After saying that, she packed up all the items she knew could be sold in wooden basins and barrels. Some of the items she didn't recognize were put into bamboo baskets.
"In the town?" Yan Qingyao's eyes lit up: "Mom, I also want to visit the town."
"Wait for the battle!" Zhao Cuihua said quickly without looking back: "This time it's just you, Uncle Chen, and a few grown men. If you, a little girl, go with them, people will talk about you."
After a while, they might be able to rent some land, so she asked Lao Chen to take her and Si Ya to the town to buy rice seeds.
Faintly, her desire to rent land became even more urgent, and she wished she could go to the village chief tomorrow and ask him if he had any extra land that could be rented to her.
When they were dragging the seafood over, Aunt Zhang was chasing her naughty son with a branch in her hand.
