Chapter 65 The Ke Family’s First Bucket of Gold
Su Tai secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and the smile on her lips gradually widened. "Then cousin, you better stay at my house for a few days. After I get married, I will ask my father to take you to the county town to see my uncle. He will definitely help you find a good doctor to cure your cough."
"Yeah." Ke Yunyun's eyes sparkled and her face was full of anticipation.
Only after settling Ke Yunyun did Su Tai push the cart into the yard.
At this time, another wave of villagers came to buy sheep. Most of them wanted to buy rams. Several families would pool together so that they could slaughter the rams and eat the meat during the New Year.
There are still several months before the Chinese New Year, so they don't need to buy fat and strong rams. They only need to buy smaller rams, which can save them money.
Just when everyone was picking and arguing, the Su Changxi brothers arrived.
I guess Huang and Tao told the two of them about the situation in advance.
As soon as they entered the door, they each asked for a pair of sheep, one male and one female. When the villagers who were watching saw that the village chief and the township chief had bought them, they no longer hesitated and went back to get the silver.
By the time it was getting dark, only eight of the thirty-six sheep that the Ke family had driven over were left, including three ewes and five rams.
The Han family directly bought three ewes and three rams. They kept one pair, the Han family gave one pair, and the remaining pair was for Su Tai to take to the Shen family.
As a result, the Ke family had only two sheep left that could not be sold.
Ke Dasong was so surprised by the result that he smiled all day long. His two sons were smiling like idiots.
Su Nizi kept thanking Su Chunlin and his family.
When Han was busy in the kitchen, she followed behind and helped carefully.
Han advised: "Big sister, you must be exhausted after traveling for so many days. Just leave this to Xiaoyu and me."
Su Nizi glanced at Ruan Xiaoyu, with a hint of inquiry in her eyes, "Is this your little girl?"
She remembered that Su Chunlin had mentioned the eldest daughter in the family to her, but did not mention the younger daughter.
Han shook her head and explained openly, "This is Ah Zhan's young wife, and we will let them get married in two years.
Then Han briefly told Ruan Xiaoyu's life story, which made Su Nizi envious. She couldn't help but say, "Why didn't our family encounter such a good thing?"
Han paused and turned around to ask, "Eldest sister, are you talking about the marriage of my two nephews?"
Su Nizi nodded, her eyes full of sorrow. "The ice field is bitterly cold, and it's really not suitable for girls. No one is willing to marry to our side. We don't dare to think about girls from wealthy families, so we're thinking about whether we can find a girl from a poor family who is willing to marry over there. After all, we're marrying a daughter-in-law, and she has to be willing to endure hardships, otherwise we won't be able to keep her even if we marry her."
"What do you mean?" Han's Earrings and Ruan Xiaoyu all looked at Su Nizi.
Su Nizi's expression was gloomy, and she sighed softly, "I won't hide it from you. Many girls who married to the Ice Field couldn't stand it anymore and ran away. Even if they gave birth to children, they would not care about them. What do you think we can do in this situation?"
"She can't even ignore her own children? Is there such a cruel mother in this world?" Han couldn't believe her ears.
Ruan Xiaoyu hurriedly advised: "Aunt, you can sell the sheep this time and make money, and you can move out of the ice field. The people who fled to Dongmen Village with me have settled down here. I think their lives have improved."
She also helped the Ke family sell sheep today. She witnessed the whole process and could roughly guess how much money the Ke family made this time. This money was more than enough to buy some land, build a yard, and marry two daughters-in-law.
Su Nizi smiled bitterly and shook her head, "No, there are not many people on the ice, the governor will not allow us to leave. Only girls are free and can escape from the sea of suffering through marriage. Men are born on the ice and must die on the ice.
Cattle and sheep are worthless on the ice field. Every year we have livestock husbandry tasks issued by the government, such as how many sheep we should raise this year and how many we should deliver before winter. These are all fixed numbers. Often after completing the tasks, we only have a few sheep left. We can't sell them for a good price, and we can't bear to eat them, so our lives are neither good nor bad.
If my younger brother hadn't sent us the food, my wife wouldn't have dared to take the risk of driving the sheep out."
Food is a scarce and precious commodity on the ice field, more valuable than cattle and sheep. Their family used food to exchange sheep with other herdsmen to complete tasks, and only then were they able to get the sheep out of the ice field.
Ruan Xiaoyu curiously asked, "Has Uncle never thought of taking the sheep out of the ice field and selling them before?"
Su Nizi sighed, "I have, but I didn't sell many. We came all the way here to get them, so we don't want to sell them at a low price, but ordinary people can't afford them. It often takes more than half a month to sell two or three. There are also risks on the road, and food and accommodation cost money. There are many other problems. It won't work.
This time, my younger brother assured us that we would be able to sell it. When my wife saw that I gave us so much food, she thought that I would be able to provide us with a safety net when I became rich, so she dared to take the risk.
I didn’t expect that not only I became prosperous, but the whole village became prosperous.”
This was what surprised Su Nizi the most. In her memory, Dongmen Village was dilapidated and backward, and the villagers were all gray and had numb expressions.
There are more people in Dongmen Village now, and the houses are much better than I remembered. The villagers spend money to buy sheep without blinking an eye, laugh and scold, and speak with full energy. Everything is different now.
Ruan Xiaoyu suddenly realized.
Han understood the reason and wanted to lend a hand, so she looked at Ruan Xiaoyu and asked, "I remember that there was a family of five siblings who fled with you. There were two sisters and three brothers, right?"
Ruan Xiaoyu nodded, "Auntie, you are talking about Sister Chunhua and Xiahua, right?"
"Yes, that's right, it's them! I remember they are not young anymore, but they haven't gotten married yet, right?"
Ruan Xiaoyu nodded again and said thoughtfully, "Sister Chunhua is eighteen this year, Sister Xiahua is seventeen, their oldest brother is sixteen this year, and the other two are fourteen and twelve years old respectively."
Han murmured, "It's time for men to get married."
Ruan Xiaoyu pursed her lips helplessly, "That's right, that's why they have been living in the fields almost all year, just to get some food and money for the autumn harvest.
This time they got more than 80 taels of silver from selling the grain. Sister Chunhua bought three acres of wasteland from the village chief and asked people to help build a yard for each of her three younger brothers. She also bought nine acres of good land and twelve acres of poor land to share with her three younger brothers. The remaining silver was divided among the three younger brothers, which was only three or four taels of silver per person. It was enough to buy some furniture, pots, pans, quilts and coats.
Sister Chunhua and Sister Xiahua are now only thinking about finding wives for their three younger brothers, and they don’t even care about their own lifelong affairs.”
When Su Nizi heard this, she seemed to see her past self. However, the two sisters were luckier than her and had a good time. At that time, everyone was in a difficult situation and no one could help her, so she could only marry herself to the ice field.
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