On the 21st, everyone gathered together again to distribute wages. This time, Dashan and Dahe each received a little over 49 taels of silver, while Chunxiao received a little over 66 taels. The whole family was delighted once again. Previously, each family had lent out five taels, but after dividing the money, they no longer thought about the five taels. Each family also gave Chunxiao 200 wen, saying it was the wages for the farmhands to be paid tomorrow.
On the 22nd, Chunxiao paid Wangzu and Dongsheng 700 wen each. Dongsheng returned 200 wen, saying that he would repay the one tael of silver he had borrowed over five months, and that 500 wen a month would be enough for him. When work was over, they both went home happily.
At the end of the month, the cotton branches had sprouted and it was time to start pruning them, so she organized the whole family to pick leaves.
Everyone was puzzled by her request. The cotton was growing well, so why did she have to pluck it bare? How could it survive if it was plucked bare? And this was a full 13 mu of cotton. How long would it take to get rid of it?
Chunxiao didn't explain much to them, just told them to do as she asked.
Several people in the Yan family almost blindly worship Chunxiao. They do whatever she says. Wangzu shakes his head when he sees this, but he is a farmhand and it is not his turn to have any say.
Chunxiao's work wasn't much, but it wasn't too little either. At least the two of them were constantly busy, though the work wasn't heavy. The fields needed watering, and since there was a well nearby, they didn't have to go far to fetch water. They also had to weed from time to time, and when they weren't working on the fields, they went up the mountain to chop firewood. All in all, they were quite satisfied with their jobs.
We have raised chickens at home for more than two months and recently started to let them roam free. We let them forage in the cotton fields on their own. We give them some vegetable leaves at night and they will return to the chicken coop on their own.
On the morning of April 12, Yan Bingfa and Dashan went to get the meat, and Dahe had not returned from delivering the goods. Except for Zhang, who was braising the meat, the whole family was applying foliar fertilizer to the cotton in the cotton field. This foliar fertilizer was made by Chunxiao using eggshells and wood ash. The eggshells were saved by the restaurant owner. They were crushed into powder, mixed with filtered wood ash water, and sprinkled on the surface of the leaves.
While they were working, someone came home.
Zhou saw that this was the matchmaker from the nearby village, and wondered why she had come to their place. She hurriedly greeted her, "You are the daughter of the Shen family, right? You have come to our village to propose marriage before. I recognize you. Why are you here at the end of the village today? Did you take the wrong road?"
The matchmaker surnamed Shen smiled broadly. "Yes, that's right. The place they pointed to is yours. Now, may I ask, is this where Yan Chunxiao lives?"
"It's her place, and I'm her mother."
"Congratulations, sister-in-law. Congratulations, sister-in-law. Someone asked me to propose marriage to your daughter."
Zhou was bewildered. Someone was proposing marriage to Chunxiao? Who?
The matchmaker wanted to continue speaking, but was stopped by Zhou, "Please wait a moment." She called Chunxiao and Tian to the distant fields and asked them to come quickly.
Soon, two people came over, "Mom, what's going on?" Chun Xiao was startled when she saw a person wearing red rouge nearby, "Mom, who is this?"
"She is Matchmaker Shen from the next village. She came here today to propose marriage to you on someone's behalf."
Chunxiao opened her mouth wide and didn't dare to speak for a long time.
"Where did this person come to propose marriage? Is he from our village or the next village? Who is he?" Tian asked with concern.
"Of course it's from your village. It's Yan Dayang from the east of your village. Do you remember him? He asked me to propose marriage to Miss Chunxiao. He said he was willing to pay two taels of silver to marry you, and that you and your husband and wife would live happily ever after."
"Yan Dayang, isn't he a widower, and he's almost 40 years old." Zhou was very dissatisfied.
"Two taels of silver as a betrothal gift, how dare he say that? Nowadays, every family pays five or six taels of silver for a bride. What does he think of our Chunxiao?"
"You two, you can't say that. He may be a widower, but isn't Miss Chunxiao also a divorced woman? Both of them have been married before, so they make a good match. He's older, but he's not even 40 yet. They say older men are more caring, but the main thing is to make sure your daughter lives a good life, right?"
With a single word from a matchmaker, even the dead can be made alive.
"If I remember correctly, he has an old mother who is paralyzed in bed. Are you asking us, Chunxiao, to marry her and serve her?"
"Which woman doesn't have to serve her parents-in-law after getting married? Yan Dayang said that as long as Miss Chunxiao agrees to the marriage, she will be the head of the family in the future, and all the family money will pass through her hands. Although the betrothal gift is a little less, there is definitely a difference between remarrying and getting married for the first time. If you marry him, you won't have to live alone in this village anymore."
"Bah." Zhou couldn't help herself. "I'm sorry, Miss Shen, I'm afraid you've made a wasted trip today. We don't recognize this marriage. Please go back."
"Sister-in-law, you can't do this. You should at least listen to Miss Chunxiao's opinion." She had walked for most of the day and didn't expect this to be the result. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at Chunxiao.
“Matchmaker Shen, my mother’s meaning is my meaning, please go back.”
Seeing that the matchmaker was about to say something, Tian quickly pushed her out and said, "Aunt, please go back and say we don't agree. Not every matchmaking will work out."
The matchmaker had no choice but to leave.
"It's inexplicable." Zhou was furious. "If I had known this would happen, I would have just blocked her out. What's there to see?"
The result was strange. In the next few days, people came to her house one after another, all of them were people from the neighborhood proposing marriage to Chunxiao. Chunxiao was at the sidelines and didn't know how to laugh or cry. She didn't understand how she became so popular all of a sudden. Finally, she could only say that she had no plans to get married in the next few years, and she would directly reject anyone who came to propose marriage.
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