She started burning charcoal early this morning, calculating that everyone would be able to get up around 9 o'clock in the evening. If the thieves didn't come, she would just burn the charcoal.
She still had seven stoves lit. The firewood and charcoal burned quickly, and she couldn't keep up. By the time she closed the stoves at noon, Yan Dashan and the others had returned.
"How is it? Have you decided on the iron hoe?" Chunxiao was most concerned about the tools.
Yan Dashan just finished taking a sip of water and said, "It's settled. 4 taels of silver. Pick it up in 8 days."
"The firewood and charcoal have been sold today, 25 cents a pound, and there are people who want it in Fuqiu Lane, but it is indeed not as easy to sell as the previous charcoal. Our firewood and charcoal are not bad, and the ones that sell for 20 cents are not as good as ours. This is feasible." Dahe's face was a little dark, and he looked a little silly when he smiled.
"That's good, as long as we can make some money." Zhou brought stools for them to sit on.
"I can only fire seven kilns a day, which yields about 70 to 80 kilograms. I'll see if I can sell it every day or every two days!"
A few people discussed it together and decided that it might take longer to sell the charcoal than before, and the family had to be busy reclaiming wasteland for winter, so they needed more manpower. Finally, they agreed that the brothers would take turns.
Yan Bingfa, the charcoal seller, had originally wanted to join in, but he couldn't leave due to the wasteland issue, so he had to give up. Chunxiao gave them 60 coins each and gave the rest to Zhou Shi for safekeeping.
"Dad, should we still defend against that thief?" Chunxiao was also undecided.
"Just wait for two more days. If nothing works, forget it. The thief must be scared now."
In the afternoon, the brothers and their spouses went up the mountain to chop firewood and sticks, while Chunxiao helped her father clear the border.
This piece of land is not as regular as a football field. It is at most a polygon and has a slight slope. It will take time to level it. It will take several days to clear away all the weeds and branches, and the most important thing is to put up a fence along the border.
In short, it's very tiring.
When the sun set, the entire border was finally cleared, and Chunxiao was exhausted.
She still has to watch over the charcoal stove tonight. This is the first time she has burned a large amount of firewood and charcoal. Although one furnace was successful, the rest cannot be guaranteed to be 100% successful. She has to watch them carefully to be sure.
It was her father and elder brother who came over in the evening. After they gave her a few brief instructions, she hid in the backyard to watch the stove. This thief was really abominable. If he hadn't appeared, no one would have suffered this.
She had thought that the day was over, but just as she was about to light the stove, she heard a noise up ahead, which suddenly grew louder. Then she heard her eldest brother's voice, "Dad, be careful."
Here comes the thief!
She suddenly became excited and nervous. She found a long stick of firewood from the straw shed and hesitated whether to go forward. Then she heard constant noise in front of her. She didn't care about anything else, so she took another burning stick of firewood, opened the back door and went to the front.
Judging from the noise, someone seemed to be still struggling.
She held up the fire stick and called out "Dad". When she reached the front hall, she saw a man riding on her father and punching him.
She instantly became furious and hit the man on the back of the head with a stick. The man cried out in pain and fell to the side. Yan Bingfa quickly turned over and punched him twice, "Give me the rope by the door."
There was a noise outside the yard. It should be her eldest brother. She didn't have time to think about what was going on. She went into the house with a fire stick to get a rope, and soon her father tied up the person on the ground.
"Watch out for him!" Yan Bingfa said and rushed out the door.
The person on the ground was still crying out in pain. Even though he was tied up, Chunxiao didn't dare to go forward. He just stood far away by the door holding a fire stick.
Two of them came at once!
They were careless, thinking that two people would be enough to deal with one thief, but they didn't expect that there would be two people on the other side.
There was a burst of punching and kicking outside, and soon she heard his father calling her to get a rope, which meant he was under control. She was delighted and hurriedly handed the rope out.
"Go light the lamp in the house, then go to the village to find your second brother and ask him to go find the village head and tell him that a thief has been caught."
Chunxiao didn't bother to look at the thieves. She went into the house and lit two oil lamps. Before leaving, she ran to the backyard and knocked open the earthen kiln. If she stayed awake longer than she needed, all the charcoal would be wasted.
She locked the backyard door and saw her eldest brother and father sitting in the main room guarding two gagged and tied-up men. She left with a clay lantern. Unexpectedly, they had actually caught the thief.
She was so excited that if she hadn't been afraid that the lantern would go out, she would have run away. When she arrived at the village, her second brother had left the door open for her.
"Second brother, second brother." She called twice towards the main house.
There was a movement in the room, and Zhang quickly opened the door. Perhaps someone was still awake. Seeing her, she said, "Little sister, what's wrong? Your second brother has gone to bed."
"Second sister-in-law, quickly tell my second brother to get up and go find the village head. Dad and his men have caught two thieves."
When Zhang heard that it was a big deal, she hurried into the house, lit the lamp, and called Yan Dahe.
Zhou and Tian from the next yard probably heard the noise and came out quickly, "Chunxiao, what did you say? Did you say your father and others caught the thief?" Zhou had her clothes draped over her body and probably just got up.
"I caught him. He asked me to come over and inform my second brother to go find the village head."
"Is he from our village?" Tian asked curiously.
"I haven't had time to take a closer look yet. Let's find someone quickly. If he runs away accidentally, it will be difficult to catch him later."
Yan Dahe had already dressed and was ready to go out, and Chunxiao gave him the earthen lantern.
"Dahe, go find the village head. Take the headman's gong and start beating it all the way here, saying we've caught a thief. Whether they see it or not is their business, but we have to let them know."
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