Chapter 325: Take advantage of every opportunity
"Could it be the night-shining pearl from the Dragon Palace in the East China Sea?" Gu Yuexuan burst into laughter, tapping her fingertips on the edge of the bamboo basket. "Chicken, duck, or goose eggs are all fine. We can buy them and hatch them ourselves."
The autumn sun shone obliquely into the barn, and the dust swirled in the beams of light. She squatted down and sifted through the haystack, a few straws sticking to her temples: "I was thinking wrong before. This solar term, everyone is rushing to sell their livestock. How can there be any surplus food to feed the chicks? But as long as the eggs can pass the sieve-"
"No way!" Cheng Jingen waved his hands in panic. "Even an old hen needs to choose the right time to lay eggs. The right time and place..."
Before he could finish his words, Tu Subo poked him in the waist with his crutch, causing him to gasp in pain. Gu Yuexuan suppressed a laugh and straightened her tilted bamboo hat: "Who said we need hens? We have a heated kang under the pen. We can heat up two rooms. It's warmer than a hen's belly."
She picked up a clod of dirt and scratched it on the ground. "There's a certain skill in choosing eggs. You have to pick those with uneven patterns. Just like when we pick salted duck eggs, we pick the ones with green shells. When you hold them up to the sun, the translucent ones are like chalcedony, while the turbid ones are the solid ones."
More and more farmers gathered around, and an old man in a felt hat suddenly cried out, "Ouch!" "Two years ago, my hens were brooding, and only three chicks hatched from twenty eggs. Did I pick the wrong eggs?"
Gu Yuexuan took out two eggs from the bamboo basket and said, "Feel this one. The one with pockmarks on the shell is a good one. The smooth and shiny one..." She flipped her wrist and the egg liquid "plopped" into the pile of hay. "What a waste of firewood."
The crowd erupted in excitement. Tu Subo leaned against the wooden fence, his arms folded, watching his young wife skillfully navigate the chattering crowd. Suddenly, he felt a gentle tug on his sleeve. He turned and met a pair of cunning almond-shaped eyes. "Let's go check on your old rival."
Five chubby piglets were grunting in the pigpen as they ate. Tu Subo flicked a ladybug that had climbed onto his shoulder and said, "Rather than teaching Min Yang to recite the Thousand Character Classic, I'd rather compete with them in a duel of wits and courage."
As he was speaking, Cheng Jingen brought over a pile of hemp paper, the ink still wet. "Sister-in-law wants a shopping list. 1,000 chicken, duck, and goose eggs each? This number..."
"If we can get 60% out of 100, that's good enough." Gu Yuexuan dipped her hand in tea and drew circles on the wooden table. "First, pick the ones with sesame shells. Goose eggs should be bluish-gray, and duck eggs should make a sound when shaken—not the sound of water, but the dull sound of the yolk hitting the shell."
Tu Subo suddenly bent down and picked up a down feather, tucked it into his wife's hair bun and asked, "How do you control the temperature?"
"The first three days will be equivalent to March in spring, and the last seven days will be equivalent to the beginning of summer." She tilted her head back and let him smooth out her hair. "Before the shell breaks, it will fall back to the Grain Rain solar term, competing with the heavens for time."
As the sun was setting, the old masters were still vying for the egg baskets. Gu Yuexuan lifted her skirt and stepped over the haystack when a small boy with pigtails suddenly grabbed her clothes and said, "Madam, madam, can a yellow ball of fluff really come out of an egg?"
She bent down and poked the kid's pigtails: "When the snow falls, I'll take you to pick up some warm ones."
Farmers scattered, carrying wicker baskets, their straw sandals leaving dense footprints on the ridges of the fields. Gu Yuexuan stood by the threshing ground, watching the returning sparrows flutter past the haystacks in the twilight—the sun was setting earlier and earlier.
"If we can filter out 80%, we'll give you 20% of the eggs." When she said this in the morning, Old Zhang was fastening the hemp rope around his waist. "Boss, are you willing to give me that?"
Tu Subo leaned against the granary door frame and chuckled, "Trading eggs for people's hearts, this deal is worth it."
Sure enough, when the first load of duck eggs was unloaded on the threshing floor, several half-grown children scrambled to weave mats out of reed leaves. A girl with pigtails carefully asked Gu Yuexuan for some broken eggshells, "Mom said that grinding this into flour and mixing it with pig grass will help the piglets grow faster."
On the day the oxen arrived in the village, the copper bells on the old ox's neck startled wild ducks from the reed marsh. Ten oxen crossed the wooden bridge one after another, their hooves rattling the planks. Tu Su Minyang chased after the last one, holding a bamboo pole, insisting on counting the twists in the oxen's tails.
"Fifty taels of silver!" Cheng Jingen breathed in as he touched the ox's back. "In my family, this would be enough to marry three wives..."
Before he could finish his words, Tu Subo hit him on the head with his pipe. Gu Yuexuan was tying red silk to the ox horns when she heard this and almost messed up the knot: "Third Uncle is getting married? I'll ask matchmaker Wang to arrange it tomorrow..."
"No, no! Sister-in-law, spare me!" Cheng Jing'en hugged his head and jumped under the cow's belly, causing everyone to laugh.
The piglets arrived at noon. Yu Bo paced in front of the pen, account book in hand. Suddenly, he put his brush to his ear, lifted the corner of his robe, and plunged into the herd of pigs. Tu Subo was about to stop him when he grabbed the lead pig by its hind legs and began to draw a cross in the mud.
"This old student..." Tu Subo looked at the man who was completely unaware of the pig manure on his pubic area and smiled and shook his head, "He is a very honest man."
When Gu Yuexuan handed him the cold tea, Uncle Yu's bun was tilted to the back of his head. He tilted his head back and drank half the teapot, wiping his mouth and saying, "The numbers are correct, but this piglet is more stubborn than a donkey. He kicks me every time he gets the chance."
The thatched roof of the pigsty rustled with dust, and Uncle Yu's hemp robe was stained with grass scraps, with a piece of pig manure stained on the cuff. Tu Su Minyang pinched his nose and handed him a handkerchief, but he tapped the back of his hand with the account book: "What do you know, kid? This is the mark of the cycle of life and death."
When talking about pig slaughtering, Yu Bo's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up: "My wife's uncle has such unique skills, there is no one else like him in the surrounding area. Piglets are more obedient than dough in his hands, with just a poke of the knife..." He put his fingers together to make a knife and gestured at Tu Su Minyang's waist, scaring the boy so much that he hid behind Gu Yuexuan.
As dusk stained the fence red, Gu Yuexuan squatted by the well, washing her hands. Tu Subo pinned a wild chrysanthemum in her hair: "The pig butcher that Uncle Yu mentioned..."
"Let Uncle Cheng go and invite them tomorrow morning." She smiled, shaking off her tears. "And get some mugwort ash for the pigpen—I'm afraid Uncle Yu's clothes will need to be fumigated for three days and three nights before they can be used."
The last rays of sunset fell on the ox's back, and a rustling sound came from the newly built hay shed. Tu Suminyang, holding up his oil lamp, peeked out and was startled to see seven or eight mice scurrying into the egg basket. The young man stamped his foot to chase them away, but Gu Yuexuan stopped him, saying, "Leave them here. Let the cat show you the way tomorrow."
As night fell over the threshing ground, Uncle Yu was still copying the account book under the oil lamp. Ink dripped onto the cinnabar seal of "One Thousand", spreading into a dark red flower.
Before Yu Bo finished speaking, Tu Suting put his fist to his lips and coughed lightly, his ears reddening suspiciously: "Old brother, saying these things in front of the younger generation..."
The copper bells on the eaves jingled in the wind. Gu Yuexuan lowered her head to fiddle with the beans in the sieve, pretending not to notice. Yu Bo scratched his head in embarrassment, "This old man is confused, he deserves a spanking."
"It's not a big deal." Tu Suting looked at the piglets frolicking in the pen, his fingertips tapping lightly on the wooden fence. "If the gelder that Brother Yu mentioned is really capable, we should invite him in to take a look."
Gu Yuexuan tied the dried mugwort into bundles and said, "How about asking Uncle Cheng to pick her up tomorrow with a donkey cart? And bring along two jars of freshly brewed millet wine as a token of our sincerity."
Uncle Yu rubbed his hands with joy, and without even putting on his raincoat, he rushed out into the rain: "No, no, no! I'm going to Xitou Village right now..."
As dusk fell over the fence, the hatch door creaked on its hinges. The blue brick walls suffused with warmth, and where my fingertips touched it felt like a drying yard in the dog days of summer. Tu Suting wiped the sweat from his forehead. "This heated kang is incredibly hot! I'm afraid you'll need to wear light clothing if you come in during the twelfth lunar month."
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