Zhang's hands were shaking. This was another ten taels.
Chunxiao gave Zhou another tael of silver, "Mother, 650 wen for the winnowing basket, and the rest for you to buy snacks." She didn't stop there, she gave Yan Bangfa another three taels, "Dad, this is the wages from Uncle Yan Wu."
"How can I pay him more than three taels of silver? If it's that expensive, I won't hire him."
"Take it. Keep the extra for yourself. I haven't paid you yet."
"You're more like the boy who distributes money around the God of Wealth. Okay, I'll keep it. You should go to bed quickly. Or how about asking your mother to make you something to eat before you go?"
Chunxiao waved her hand. "No, I'll go wash up and go to bed." She carried the money jar into the house, and Zhou fetched water for her to wash her feet. The others collected the money and went back to work.
Chunxiao washed up, closed the door, dug out her money box, and counted it. Good thing she now had over 64 taels of silver. She put 60 taels of silver into the box and buried it again, and put the rest into the money jar. She climbed into bed with peace of mind. Now that the seeds were in place, with this money, digging a deep well would not be a problem. Everything was going smoothly according to plan.
She slept soundly that night, and wouldn't have woken up if she hadn't been incredibly hungry. When she woke up, it was already late afternoon, and her father's chicken coop had already been built. She checked, and it was big enough to hold 100 chickens.
Zhou called her to eat.
"Hurry up and eat. I made you some pork rib soup." Zhou looked at her distressedly. "Look at you. Your eyes are all blue from staying up all night. I've told your brothers and others that we won't be burning charcoal for the next two days. You should take a good rest."
"It's not that serious. I'm just burning charcoal. I don't do any heavy work. It's not as tiring as my brother and sister-in-law. I haven't even done any work on this land myself."
"Your brother and sister-in-law got the money yesterday and are very happy and energetic. You are no exception." He poured her a large bowl of pork rib and radish soup and said, "Eat it quickly. You are already thin, and now you look even thinner."
"Mom, you're really exaggerating." Chun Xiao ate the spareribs. "Sometime, bring Feng'er and the others over to play with us. It's not okay for me to stay alone all day."
"When your Aunt Fang is free, I'll ask her to help me look after them and bring them over for a look." Zhou sat beside her. "Your brother and the others have agreed to buy a cow before the New Year."
Chun Xiao was stunned. "Didn't you say we'll talk about it after the new year? Why are you buying it so soon?"
Zhou stroked her hair. "They said they're worried about prices going up in the spring, so they think it's easier to negotiate a price during the New Year than in the spring. And the main thing is that they have money on hand now. It's just that we don't have enough space over there, so they'd like to discuss building a cattle shed here with you."
"Build it. I have enough space here anyway. Besides, I will also need the cow, so it will be convenient for me. What is there to discuss?" Today's pork rib soup is probably because it was boiled for a long time. It is particularly soft and tasty. It tastes good!
"As long as you don't mind, the land at the back has been prepared, and we'll start the front almost tomorrow."
"Tomorrow I'm going to dig a hole in the middle of the prepared land at the back to ferment the fertilizer."
"How big a dig do you want? One person can't do it. Ask your brothers to help you. The cow is settled. They will definitely need to dry bricks and build a cowshed tomorrow. The cow may be sold at any time. Your father said he will go with you to sell charcoal in a few days. We should also stop by the market."
"Mom, it's already the twelfth day of the lunar year. When will we prepare New Year's goods?"
"Why should I prepare New Year's goods? I've already pickled the meat and made the clothes. What else do I need to prepare for the New Year?"
Well, she should prepare the money herself, "Where do I put my seeds?"
She drank the last mouthful of soup and looked around the main room, but didn't see the big sack.
"Your father put it in the utility room. I brought it out for you. There's still some in the pot. Hurry up and have another bowl." Zhou entered the room and dragged out a sack in a moment. "What do you want to do?
"The winnowing basket that the bamboo craftsman has is just right. Please pour these seeds into the winnowing basket for me and put it in the main room." Chunxiao finished his meal in no time and took a small stool to look at the seeds in the main room. Sure enough, these seeds were not all good varieties. Many of them were not suitable for planting, so the good ones had to be picked out.
"Mom, call the kids over tomorrow. I have some work for them to help me with."
"Okay, I'll talk to your sister-in-law later and ask her to find Aunt Fang and bring everyone to you tomorrow morning. Is this not okay?" She saw Chunxiao frowning early in the morning.
"This kind of seeds must be picked carefully, otherwise the harvest from the fields will not be good in the future."
"Okay, okay." Zhou knew it was a big deal, hearing it related to the harvest. "Let them come and pick it for you tomorrow. Did you get enough rest today? You don't have to stay up all night. Go to bed early tonight. You're already feeling all upside down."
"I just woke up and you let me sleep again. It's so early today and I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep." She found a small winnowing basket and started sitting in the main room to pick seeds.
The person preparing the land soon finished work. Shuwen looked at her preparing cotton seeds and asked, "Auntie, what are you doing?"
Chunxiao raised her head and greeted everyone. "Auntie is picking out seeds. Some of these seeds are unusable. I just made an agreement with your grandma that all of you kids should come and pick out seeds for me tomorrow."
"Okay." Shuwen squatted beside her. "Shufeng was complaining to me this morning about the housekeeping. They wanted to come over a long time ago."
"We'll pick out the ones that work and the ones that don't." Dahe grabbed a few seeds from the small winnowing basket. "Do you want these plump ones?"
"You've over-engineered it. These smaller ones will do. Don't you have to build the cattle shed tomorrow?"
"Did mom tell you?" Dashan and his wife put their tools in the utility room and came out just as they heard Chunxiao talking about the cowshed.
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