When she reached the end of the village, she saw her father cutting branches in the wasteland in front, and her mother sitting outside in the yard in the sun sewing a sheet for her.
"Are you awake? Have you eaten?"
"After eating, Dad is starting to reclaim the wasteland." How can this person do that?
"He's in a hurry. Brother and your wife, go chop firewood for the next two days. Then the whole family will come together. Your father said we should clear the edge first so that we can build a fence for you later."
"I was just saying it was a fence, but it would take a lot of effort to fence off these ten acres of land."
"That's all right. We can just cut the branches in the field and plant some trees along the edge. If we don't plant them while we're clearing the land, we'll have to go out and cut the branches later, which will be troublesome. We can then open a fence gate at the top of the slope so that we don't have to go through the village to go to town."
Chunxiao brought a stool and sat next to her, "You guys have planned everything."
"This kind of land is a big deal. Your father has a lot to worry about." Zhou scratched her head with a needle. "Your father said there was no movement last night. Did the thief hear about the silver?"
"Who cares if he heard it or not? If we can catch him, we'll catch him. If we can't, forget it. We'll just keep him around from now on."
"By the way, your brother said there were 121 kilograms of charcoal today, and he gave me 7 taels, 2 cents and 60 copper coins. They went to sell charcoal today and told several customers that this kind of charcoal would be delivered for the last time tomorrow, and there would probably be no more after that. Several families wanted the ones for tomorrow, but unfortunately there was not enough charcoal. Oh, look at how good the business is." Zhou was still lamenting.
"Mom, don't even think about things that can't be done. Let me calculate how much to give to my brothers."
"No, your brothers said you should keep the money from the last two rounds. They don't want it. We'll divide it up later." Zhou brushed her hair off her forehead. "Your two brothers are kind-hearted. Don't refuse. Keep the money yourself."
"Will the sisters-in-law have any objections?" Chunxiao was a little hesitant, after all, it was agreed upon before.
"What's your opinion? You've made a lot of money with them. They know it and want to follow you to make more. Otherwise, they wouldn't want the cotton field. Don't worry, everyone has their own little thoughts. As long as they're not bad, it's fine."
"Mom, my brother and sister-in-law are all doing well. I know that. You should keep the money for me and give it to me after I have sorted things out."
Today, some people came to the end of the village, but they didn't come in groups. They probably wanted to see how big the wasteland Chunxiao and his friends bought was, so they came from a distance to take a look. When they saw someone sitting at the door, they took a quick look and left.
Zhou was very alert, "Is this someone coming to scout the place?"
Chun Xiao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. "Mom, I just came to take a look. After all, this is such a big place. Don't treat everyone like a thief and make a fool of yourself."
"The people who come to our place now are suspected of this. What's so good about this barren wasteland?"
"Well, I saw several people before and after. Who do you think it is? It's hard to say whether they are from our village or not."
"It must be one of them." Zhou stared around. "Dongsheng sent another rabbit today. I saw you weren't around, so I took it and pickled it for you. I didn't want it at first, but since you like it and we had nothing left at home, I kept it." Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she said, "Do you think it could be..."
"Oh, mother, don't make random guesses." Chun Xiao quickly interrupted her, "Don't wrongly accuse anyone."
Zhou shut up angrily, "That's what I said."
The afternoon sunshine was so nice. Sitting in the sun and talking, she felt lazy all over. She felt like she wanted to sleep again, "Brother and the others must have chopped a lot of firewood." "Chopping firewood is a piece of cake with an axe."
"The utility room over there is full. What your sister-in-law and her friends chopped this morning is all piled up in the thatched shed in the backyard. Did you test the charcoal?"
Chunxiao made a bitter face and said, "No, I have burned out two kilns, but I have probably figured out some tricks. I will try opening the kiln again in two hours. If it doesn't work, I will try one more kiln and it will be almost the same." As Chunxiao was speaking, he saw Yan Bingfa coming from a distance holding something.
"Dad, what's wrong?"
When I walked in, I found that he was holding a bloody rabbit. Yan Bingfa's hair was a little messy at the moment, but he was smiling happily, with wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. "I just accidentally knocked over a rabbit nest and found a nest of rabbits. I almost killed one with my hand, and the others ran away." After saying this, he threw the rabbit to Zhou, "Hurry up and deal with it. This rabbit just died and is still warm."
"If you had it earlier, I wouldn't have taken it away in the morning. Look, you made it all bloody and scary." Zhou moved it with her foot. It was quite big.
"If I hadn't been quick, the rabbit would have gotten away. You're still complaining about the blood? Go ahead and clean it up. I'm leaving now."
"Our dad is really awesome."
"What's so great about that?" Zhou said, but she smiled and started moving, handing the sheet to Chunxiao. "Finish locking the edges, and I'll go to the river to clean out the rabbits."
Chunxiao took over Zhou's work and sewed sheets under the sun. Halfway through, her two sisters-in-law came down carrying firewood, greeted her, said a few words, and then left.
Yan Bingfa cleared half of the border today, and will be almost done with another day tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, he will go up the mountain to chop firewood for a day, trying to pile up more firewood for the straw shed. The rest of the time will be used to slowly clean up the wasteland.
Chunxiao thought that there were only three hoes at home, and with seven adults in their household, everyone would have to work all the land. She had to ask her brothers to go to the blacksmith shop tomorrow to order four more hoes. It wasn't urgent, so it was better to order them in advance. Since her brothers hadn't asked for a share, it wouldn't be a big deal if she bought the tools together.
When it was almost dark in the afternoon, Chunxiao dug up the pile of firewood charcoal. Fortunately, it was finally burned almost completely. The only problem was that the charcoal in the kiln originally weighed more than 20 pounds, but after shaking it, it was only about 10 pounds at most. There was no other way, the weight of different woods also varied greatly.
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