Zhou left quickly and came back quickly, carrying a backpack and covering it with her straw raincoat from home. She only felt relieved after checking that it was not wet.
Chunxiao knew her clothes must be wet to some extent, so she pulled her to the kitchen stove to warm herself up, "Let's light up the stove first."
Seeing that only mother and daughter were there, Zhou took off her shoes and began to warm her feet, just like Chunxiao had done yesterday. She placed her shoes aside to dry. "It's really hard to do anything on a rainy day. Luckily, I delivered the cotton I bought yesterday. Your sister-in-law and the others have been making clothes these past two days. I told them not to skimp on the cotton and to make thicker ones."
"That's right, what's the point of making a thin cotton coat? It won't keep you warm."
"Is Big Brother's clothes ready?"
Zhou smiled and said, "Your sister-in-law is not bad. She has made a coat for Dashan. It's not as thick as yours, but it's not thin either. I brought it here. I also brought some underwear and the shoes I bought yesterday."
"Our family is pretty good." Chunxiao took Zhou's shoes and compared the size with her hands, and had a rough idea in her mind.
It was noon when Yan Dashan returned, looking rather disheveled. Zhou and Chunxiao didn't say much, but instead prepared some water for him and told him to go to the kitchen to take a shower and change clothes. The stove in the kitchen was still burning low, as was the stove by the window, so the temperature in the room was quite high.
Yan Dashan felt the temperature only after stepping into the hot water. He took a quick shower and changed into the new cotton-padded clothes Zhou had prepared for him. Only then did he feel warm. He opened the kitchen door, and Zhou and Chunxiao came in.
"Brother, please don't go out yet. I'll add some fire to the stove and you can roast here."
Mrs. Zhou quickly opened the lid of the wooden pot and filled him with a bowl of piping hot dumpling soup. "Eat it while it's hot. You'll feel better after eating it."
Yan Dashan smiled and said, "Mom, you are well prepared. I have recovered." Although he said that, he still picked up the bowl and ate the hot dumpling soup, which was really soothing.
Zhou and Chunxiao cleaned up the bathing area and started eating around the stove.
"If I had known it would rain so hard today, I wouldn't have gone. I'd rather you have suffered so much."
Yan Dashan quickly finished a bowl of dumpling soup and went to the pot to get another bowl. "How can I not go after I promised to do something? Don't worry, the charcoal I delivered today is in good condition. I covered myself with several layers and put on a straw raincoat, so it's not wet at all. It's just that I didn't buy the cotton because I was afraid it would rain heavily when I got back and I wouldn't be able to withstand it."
"It's okay, there's no need to worry about cotton." It's okay as long as people don't go out at home.
Dashan touched the new coat on his body and said, "This is the coat that Tian Fang made for me. It's really warm to wear."
"It was done just in time. Thanks to your sister, everyone can have a new thick coat this year."
"I just came back and didn't even have time to go into the house. Chunxiao, how are your remaining 160 kilograms of charcoal?"
Chunxiao smiled and said, "Don't worry, everything will be fine by evening."
"That's good." Yan Dashan drank the last mouthful of the dumpling soup. "It's really comforting." He stood up and took out a handful of silver from the pocket of his dirty clothes. "Chunxiao, the man said 44 kilograms and gave me this silver. Can you calculate whether it is the right number?"
Chunxiao counted them and found that it was exactly 2 taels, 6 qian and 40 copper coins. "Yes, not a cent less."
"That's good." Yan Dashan laughed.
"Brother, let's divide the money together after the 160 kilograms are paid tomorrow."
"It's up to you. How and when to divide it is up to you. I have no objection."
Zhou finished her meal and boiled another pot of water. She sat at the door of the kitchen to wash Yan Dashan's clothes. Yan Dashan said nothing, obviously used to it. "Oh, it's hard to deliver coal on rainy days, but seeing the silver, it feels worth it. Especially since my mother and Chunxiao have prepared everything properly. I have a good future now."
"When I went over today, your father was also very happy. He said that you really did take back 2 taels and 5 qian of silver yesterday. I scolded him and said that such a thing could not be false. But he just thought it was not true."
"Mom, you can't blame Dad for this. Think about it, we've raised a very good pig for a year, and it's only worth about 4 taels. I only made 2 taels and 5 cents in one day. It would be unreal for anyone. I told Tian Fang about it, and she kept complaining about it for a long time, saying it was like pancakes falling from the sky."
Chun Xiao chuckled, "Sister-in-law is so funny. Big brother, you didn't tell her that you made great efforts."
"I'm not doing anything great. I'm just running errands."
The heavy rain suddenly stopped in the afternoon, and everyone was a little happy. "Is it not raining anymore? It has been raining for seven or eight days."
"Who can say for sure? It rains intermittently, maybe it will rain again soon." Taking advantage of the time when the rain stopped, Yan Dashan went back with his half-dried wet clothes.
Zhou returned to her room to make clothes, this time a jacket for herself. Chunxiao began collecting charcoal from the three mounds outside. Since she had mastered the technique of burning charcoal, she had become increasingly adept at it, never failing. Naturally, she felt a little proud.
After collecting the charcoal outside, she started three more kilns. When it got dark, she collected the charcoal in the main room, and later collected the charcoal in the utility room, and built two more in the utility room. Only after doing all this did she feel truly at ease. She cleaned and leveled the floor of the main room, and everything was back to normal.
"Are you delivering charcoal tomorrow?"
"Go ahead. It's at least 160 kilograms. It's too heavy for my brothers to carry it all." During a break from looking at the charcoal, she went back to the house to see Zhou. "Isn't this cloth enough for my sisters-in-law to make clothes? It looks like there's not even half of it."
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