After Ke Chu finished picking the grapefruits, he saw Brother Mu staring at the dilapidated thatched house in a daze. He walked over and raised his hand and waved it in front of Brother Mu's eyes.
Brother Mu came back to his senses and pointed at the thatched hut and looked at him with eagerness in his eyes, "Husband, we can make grapefruit candies here."
When making grapefruit candy in the Ke family, you not only need to guard against the Ke family, but also the neighbors.
Ke Chu looked at the thatched house in astonishment, and the corners of his mouth gradually turned upward, "Brother Mu, you are really my lucky star."
Brother Mu pursed his lips and smiled shyly.
Ke Chu put down his backpack and rolled up his sleeves to tidy up the thatched house.
The thatched house was leaky and there was nothing in the house except a simple stove.
Brother Mu thought for a while, "Husband, I want to buy a pot."
The Ke family only has one iron pot. If they take the iron pot away, Min will definitely become suspicious.
Ke Chu cut off a small piece of honeycomb, wrapped it in lotus leaves and handed it to Brother Mu, "Ask Blacksmith Li, can you use this to offset the money you don't have enough?"
The price of iron is high. If they want to buy a big iron pot, the little money they have left may not be enough.
Brother Mu took the hive, and Ke Chu watched him walk back, feeling a little uneasy in his heart. "If someone wants to steal the honey, just give it to him. Don't resist. Those things are not as important as you."
Brother Mu's heart was burning. He turned around and waved to Ke Chu with a smile, "I know."
With honey in his arms, Brother Mu avoided people along the way. After returning home and getting the money, he went straight to Blacksmith Li's house.
When Li Tiejiang saw him, his eyes were surprised, "It's Brother Mu, why are you here?"
Brother Mu asked straight to the point: "How much does it cost to order a large iron pot?"
Li Tiejiang replied, "Five hundred coins."
Five hundred coins is an affordable price, but Brother Mu only has 310 coins.
He took out three hundred coins, placed the honeycomb wrapped in lotus leaves on the table, and gently opened the lotus leaves.
"Uncle Li, this is all I have, okay?"
Tiejiang Li's eyes widened when he saw the sticky honey in the hive, "Okay!"
This wild honey is a rare thing.
Although the hive brought by Brother Mu was not big, if it were sold in the county, it would fetch at least two hundred and fifty cash. After all, he still made the profit.
Brother Mu requested, "Uncle Li, don't tell anyone else about this, okay?"
"Sure." Li Tiejiang was very strict. He only worked with money and didn't care about anything else.
It was also because of this that Ke Chu dared to order an iron pot from Blacksmith Li.
Brother Mu pursed his lips and smiled, and left after making an appointment with Blacksmith Li to pick up the pot.
As soon as he walked out of the door of Li's house, he saw Mrs. Jia.
Jia is a famous gossip in the village. The Ke family has been making a lot of noise these days. As a neighbor of the Ke family, she can often hear the Min family jumping. When she saw Brother Mu, So he wanted to ask a few questions, "Hey, from the Ke Chu family, what are you doing at the Li family?"
Brother Mu lowered his eyes and said, "I will help people pass the message."
Jia was dubious and wanted to say something, but Brother Mu hurried away.
She clicked her tongue, "You're so sneaky, you must be up to no good!"
Brother Mu didn't go back to Ke's house. He went straight to the grapefruit grove. As soon as he reached the foot of the mountain, he saw Ke Chu walking down the mountain.
Ke Chu took his hand and walked back, "Let's make a few kilograms of grapefruit candies first. I'll try to sell them in the county tomorrow."
It takes time to make the iron pot, so they can't just wait and do nothing.
When they saw the door of Ke's courtyard, Min and others were heading to the fields after lunch break. Ke Chu watched from a distance as Ke Tuo reluctantly followed Min away before dragging Brother Mu into the Ke's house.
Ke Chu locked the courtyard door, put down his backpack, and started to light a fire to make grapefruit candies.
Brother Mu wiped Ke Chu's sweat and handed him some water. Whenever he had time, he started looking for empty jars at home.
He found a total of four empty jars, some large and some small.
Brother Mu dug out all the honey from the hive and put it into an empty jar that was as high as his forearm.
The remaining honeycomb was cut into small pieces and wrapped in lotus leaves. The remaining pieces were soaked in water. The sweet smell made Brother Mu narrow his eyes in happiness.
After the grapefruit candy was ready, Mu Geer put the grapefruit candy into the jar and Ke Chu began to process the pulp.
There was not enough sugar, so Ke Chu took out the sugar that Min had hidden in the room.
The pulp of two large grapefruits is made into honey grapefruit jam, which just fills a palm-sized jar.
It was getting dark, and Ke Chu was busy cleaning up the kitchen again.
When he and Brother Mu hid the grapefruit candies and honey grapefruit sauce, Min and others came back.
As soon as Ke Tuo got home, he was so tired that he couldn't get up from his chair.
Seeing Ke Da sitting on the chair with a dark face, Brother Mu quickly poured a glass of water and put it on the table, "Dad, have a drink of water."
The water contained the last few grains of white sugar at home. Ke Da drank it and tasted the sweetness in the water. He was surprised and said, "How can you make sugar water for me?"
Ke Chu said, "Dad, you are the hardest worker in this family. What's wrong with drinking some sugar water?"
These words touched Ke Da's heart, and his face softened slightly, "Where have you been today?"
Ke Chu looked downcast, "Dad, when I thought about you working in the fields and I couldn't help you, the longer I stayed at home, the more uncomfortable I became. I didn't want to go to the village and embarrass you, so I took Brother Mu up the mountain. "
He promised, "Don't worry, if I can't stay at home, even if I go to the county or the mountains, I won't stay in the village to embarrass you."
Ke Da nodded with satisfaction, "Yes."
Ke Tuo made a fuss about drinking sugar water, but Brother Mu didn't seem to hear him. He sat next to Ke Chu obediently, lowering his head and looking at his nose and heart.
Mrs. Min glared at Brother Mu fiercely, got up and walked into the side room.
After a while, Mrs. Min ran out of the side room angrily and asked, "Where is my sugar? Did you steal it?"
She stared at Brother Mu, "Did you eat my sugar?"
Brother Mu shrank his head and said nothing, while Ke Chu protected Brother Mu, "Mom, I was thinking of your hard work, so I wanted to make water with sugar for you to drink, but I searched all over and found only a little bit of sugar. .”
He frowned and said, "Mom, why do you still hide the sugar in the room? Have you hidden the sugar in other places? In order to save the sugar water for my father to drink, I didn't even have to drink it myself. If you have Just take it out, we are all one family, why are you so fussy about it?"
Min was so angry at Ke Chu that she almost vomited blood, "You, you stole my things and you beat me up! There is so much sugar, why is there not enough for you to drink!"
She slapped her thighs and shouted, "Do you have to make me angry to death?"
Brother Mu's eyes were innocent, "Mom, you used to say this to your husband a lot, but why is it that your husband just beats you up?"
Min was choked by these words. Ke Da drank the sugar water in one gulp and said coldly: "Okay, isn't the work in the fields tiring enough? Go cook as soon as you have the energy to do it!"
Ms. Min had never been so aggrieved. She was cooking with anger, thinking of the big bag of sugar she had hidden, and her face was dark with distress all night long.
The next morning, before dawn, Brother Mu was woken up.
He buried his face in Ke Chu's body in dissatisfaction, grabbed Ke Chu's hand and covered his ears.
Ke Chu looked at his pouted and arrogant little expression and wished he could hold his face and give him a good kiss.
He whispered, "So enthusiastic?"
Brother Mu only releases his natural instincts when he is sleepy. He is obviously not awake at this moment, otherwise how would he dare to get into his arms.
Brother Mu looked up at him in confusion, his eyes gradually clearing up. After a while, he curled his neck and got under the quilt little by little.
Ke Chu smiled and took Brother Mu out of the quilt. Seeing his shy little face turned red, he didn't want to tease him anymore.
"Are you still sleeping?"
"Don't sleep." Hearing the commotion outside, Brother Mu said, "We'll get up later."
He listened to Min's sharp voice and asked, "What are they making a fuss about?"
"Ke Tuo pretended to be sick and didn't go to the fields. Dad saw through it at a glance. Mom was talking to Ke Tuo." Ke Chu woke up earlier than Brother Mu and listened more than Brother Mu.
Half an hour passed, and Ke Tuo was finally pulled out of the door by Ke Da. Mrs. Min felt sorry for her youngest son and cried out sadly, "My poor little son, he still has to go to the fields to help me work when he is sick."
After hearing this, Mrs. Jia smiled evilly and said, "I've never seen a sick person be so strong."
Just now, Ke Tuo almost knocked Ke Da to the ground in order to break away from him.
Little did she know that Min wanted to gain a good reputation for Ke Tuo by saying this, but they were not blind.
Min's face looked ugly. She glared at Jia Shi fiercely and trotted to keep up with Ke Da.
Mrs. Jia glanced at the Ke family and wondered, "This Ke Chu has really changed his gender. He is so capable."
In the past, Min didn't have to work in the fields, but he always showed off in front of them.
However, Min boasted that she never said anything good about Ke Chu, only that she married the right man and gave birth to a good son, Ke Tuo.
These neighbors often felt that Ke Chu was not worth it.
Ke Chu waited until the Ke family was quiet, then pulled Brother Mu to get up. After cooking egg porridge and feeding Brother Mu, the two of them took Uncle Wu's ox cart to the county with baskets on their backs.
It was already bright when they arrived in the county. The morning market in the county was crowded with people, and there was no place to set up stalls on both sides of the street.
Brother Mu's face tightened with anxiety, and Ke Chu took Brother Mu with a calm expression and found an open space less than two people wide outside the busiest teahouse in the county to put down his backpack.
Brother Mu was carrying an empty basket with nothing in it.
Ke Chu turned the empty basket over and covered it on the ground, spread it with linen cloth, and poured the chopped grapefruit candies on the linen cloth.
"Yuzu Candy Yuzu Candy! Fragrant and sweet Yuzu Candy, you can try it for free."
The two scholars who were about to enter the teahouse paused when they heard this, looked at each other, turned around, and came closer.
They asked: "You really don't need money?"
Ke Chu said generously, "No money. If you want the food to be delicious, just buy it back and eat it. If it doesn't taste good, forget it."
The scholars found it novel and directly picked up the grapefruit candies with their hands and put them in their mouths.
The yuzu candies are soft and fragrant, and the scholars are surprised.
Pomelos are everywhere in Juyou County, but no one has ever thought of using grapefruits to make sugar. The taste of the sugar is surprisingly good.
"How do you sell this grapefruit candy?"
Ke Chu responded, "Fifteen cents per catty."
Because it was a trial sale, this time he used up all the sugar and only made five kilograms to sell.
There are still some grapefruit candies left at home, but they are for Brother Mu to eat.
