"Mom, are there any backpacks for sale in our village? I want to buy a few, preferably bigger ones."
"Just go buy them from the bamboo craftsman. They're 8 wen each, and the bigger ones are about 10 wen. How many do you want?"
"Two big ones will do. They are more convenient for storing things." Chunxiao thought that when she went to the town, she could use the big backpack to carry the charcoal. She had no other means of transportation, so she could only rely on manual transportation.
"Okay, I'll get two for you tomorrow."
"Please help me advance the money first, and I will pay you back after I change the money."
Seeing that her daughter-in-law was busy with work, Zhou took the initiative to go to the kitchen to cook, and Chunxiao followed to help.
After returning home, Chunxiao went to the backyard again. She decided to burn two earthen bags today. One earthen bag was too slow, and it would be even more inconvenient if it rained in a few days. Whether to sell or use it herself, it was always necessary to prepare some more.
With her previous success, she felt confident this time. After making one earthen mound according to the previous steps, she moved on to the second. To keep the timing consistent, she lit both mounds on fire. Only when smoke billowed from both did she feel relieved. She sat by the fire, looking at the smoke-filled earthen mounds, as if she saw hope in her life.
She stayed up until 12 o'clock that night and only went to bed after successfully sealing the tops of the two mounds.
Although I really didn't want to get up the next day, I still got up with my strong willpower.
Today, their task was to dig up and clean all the soybean roots, a much harder job than harvesting them. The children stayed home to help sift the soybean shells. There were only two hoes in the house, but four people showed up. Tian and Zhang stayed home to process the soybeans and cook.
Yan Bingfa decided to dig one acre at a time.
"It's really a waste of time not having the tools."
"Who says it's not? But these tools are really expensive, and I don't use them when I'm not working on the farm. I don't have the spare money to keep them at home."
"Mom, you're not right. You should have some for common use. If one breaks, you won't be left with nothing, right?"
"You can tell me this when you have some spare money. It's like everyone knows it. If you have money, who wouldn't want to buy more? The key is that you don't have enough money."
Yan Dahe sighed and said, "Every time I mention having no money, I lose my motivation. Mom, you never say anything nice."
Zhou hit him angrily and said, "The less motivated you are, the less money you have. All the money is accumulated by hard work. Don't talk about being a coward like your father. I hate to hear that."
"I'm not a coward. I'm supporting a family of four."
"You're quite good at flattering yourself," Zhou finally smiled. "There's nothing I can do about the lack of tools. Buying them will cost me nothing for a year, so I'll just have to make do with what I have." After about an hour, Chunxiao took over from Yan Bingfa, and Dahe took over from Dashan. This rotation was tiring, but not too exhausting.
In order to save time in tilling the land today, Zhou went back to get lunch. At lunchtime, the fields were full of people carrying baskets to deliver lunch, and the scene was quite lively.
A few people had lunch in the field, and Zhou took the bowls back.
They continued to work. They looked like they had many people, but there were only two of them, so they only managed to tidy up about half an acre in a day. That night, Chunxiao built two more mounds. When the time came, she removed the two that had already burned. As luck would have it, the charcoal from those two mounds was still very successful. She felt completely confident now. This was experience; future burns would be almost as accurate.
I will go to the town to get the pot the day after tomorrow. I have already brought back the backpack. When the time comes, I can carry about 40 kilograms of coal to explore the way.
The next day was the same as the day before, and they only dug an acre and a half in total. At dinner that evening, Chunxiao told them that she had to go to town to get a pot and wouldn't be able to go to the field. They didn't say anything more. After all, they had more people and didn't need her.
In the evening, Chunxiao started two more charcoal kilns and then collected two more. Now there are about a hundred pounds of charcoal burned at home, but after it is burned today, the raw material wood will be gone, and she will have to go chop it when she comes back tomorrow.
The next day, she got up at dawn. In addition to carrying a basket of charcoal, she also took the remaining three taels of silver. If the charcoal was sold successfully today, she would use the silver to buy an axe. If the charcoal was not sold today, there was no rush to buy the axe.
Although it was very early and she would hardly run into anyone in the village, she chose to go around Tiangen out of the village out of caution. She didn't want the villagers to see her carrying charcoal and then ask questions. She hadn't even mentioned this charcoal burning thing to her family, for fear that if they asked her how she learned to do it, she wouldn't be able to explain.
The air in the early morning was very cold, and there was white frost on the weeds on the road. Chunxiao's heart was really burning at this moment. Carrying the frame of charcoal was like carrying all her hopes.
She felt that she should make herself a coverall so that she would not easily dirty her cotton gown. Even if it looked weird, it didn't matter as long as it was convenient for her to wear. At most, she could make it according to the style of the outer hexagram.
When the sun came out, more and more pedestrians appeared on the road. Chunxiao had been to the market by herself before, but she felt like it was her first time. In short, she had an indescribable feeling.
She felt tired after carrying the basket for so long, so she put it down to rest after a while, and slowly made her way to the town. She had a goal in mind: she would go directly to Fuqiu Lane to find the same family she had met last time. Since they bought coal, they were a perfect target customer. She just didn't know if they had collected enough, or if they would continue to do so.
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