Zhao Guihua naturally supported her daughter unconditionally. She glared at her sons, saying, "You blind brats, what nonsense are you spouting to ruin my precious daughter's enjoyment of watching the puppy?"
"Hey buddy, how much is this puppy?" Zhao Guihua asked.
The middle-aged man looked like a hunter. He had spent half the morning at the market without selling any puppies, so he became unusually enthusiastic when he saw someone wanted to buy one.
“I am a hunter from Lijia Village. This litter of puppies was born to my big dog. My family has two dogs, a male and a female…”
After all that rambling, Li the hunter's purpose was to tell them that his two big dogs were very brave and good at hunting. He always took the two dogs with him when he went into the mountains, which helped him avoid a lot of danger and catch a lot of prey.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Erfu and Zhou Sifu became interested. How impressive it would be if they could bring hunting dogs with them when they went into the mountains in the future! Dogs have a great nose and can help them find prey.
At this moment, they no longer cared about eating dog meat; all they wanted was to raise hunting dogs. The two men stared intently at the five puppies in the cage.
"Mom, let's buy them all!" Zhou Erfu blurted out in a moment of impulse.
Zhao Guihua rolled her eyes at him, thinking he was a spendthrift with a loud voice. "No way, we can only buy two at most. Besides, these dogs are for my sister to raise, not for you to use for hunting."
Although Zhou Erfu and Zhou Sifu were a little disappointed, they were not discouraged. These puppies were born from hunting dogs, and they would definitely be fierce when they grew up. They could still take them into the mountains to hunt.
After a heated debate, Zhao Guihua and Li the hunter finally agreed on a price: 180 coins for two puppies, which wasn't cheap.
"Whichever two Xingxing likes, we'll buy those two for our family," Zhao Guihua said, her eyes full of doting affection.
With her eyes crinkling, Xingxing pointed to a gray-white puppy and a black puppy and said, "I want these two. I like them."
So Zhao Guihua picked up the two puppies by their hind legs, took them out of the cage, and put them in her basket. Remembering that Zhou Erfu had been clamoring to buy a dog, she let him carry the two puppies on his back.
Zhao Guihua wanted to buy piglets to raise, but she was already too heavy to carry them all, so she decided to buy them at the next market day.
"Let's go see who's buying the oxcart. If we drive the ox back today, we can plow the fields. We won't have to turn the soil with a hoe every day anymore, and we can even clear a few more acres of wasteland to plant sweet potatoes." Zhao Guihua was so eager to buy the oxcart that she didn't even consider keeping a low profile.
This oxcart was the first ox in Yegou Village that she bought, and others were bound to be envious and jealous. But she didn't care about that. She was tired of tilling the land, and she only had two hoes at home, which were so worn out from use.
A few years ago, she thought how wonderful it would be to have an ox to plow the fields. Now that she has money, she must buy one.
When they arrived at the market where they were buying livestock, the group spent half an hour choosing. The livestock sellers were almost losing their smiles and were about to curse when they finally made their selections.
It was a young, healthy cow that had just reached adulthood, but it wasn't cheap. The sisters Zhao Guihua and Zhao Guizhi haggled with the slave trader for a long time before they finally agreed on a price.
The original asking price was twenty taels, but it was eventually reduced to seventeen taels, and the broker even gave them a carriage as a gift.
Although it cost a lot of money, everyone had a smile on their face when they led the oxcart out.
"We have our own oxcart now! We can finally afford to buy oxen!" Zhao Guihua almost burst into tears of joy.
At this point, no one was in the mood to buy anything else. Zhao Guihua and Zhao Guizhi sat on either side of the oxcart, clumsily trying to drive it. Neither of them had any experience, and after more than half an hour, they hadn't even covered a quarter of the distance.
Finally, Zhou Erfu couldn't stand it anymore and jumped out, saying, "Mom, Auntie, you two are no good. Move aside. I'm stronger than you, so I'll definitely finish better than you."
"You know nothing! You're just talking nonsense. Who told you that being strong means you can drive an ox? Driving an oxcart requires skill; brute force alone is useless," Zhao Guihua muttered to herself.
Zhao Guizhi patted her hand, indicating that she should go sit in the back first and let Erfu try. The main problem was that the two sisters were really too incompetent. They had no method and no one to teach them, so they couldn't learn at all.
"Be careful, don't drive the oxcart into the ditch." Zhao Guihua was worried; as Erfu's mother, she knew best how fierce he was.
“No way! How could I joke about the lives of my whole family? Even if I fall into a ditch myself, I will protect you all safe and sound.” Zhou Erfu was practically swearing to the heavens. He was confident in his strength and could definitely control the oxcart.
"Second brother can do it, second brother is very powerful." Xingxing had a lot of confidence in Zhou Erfu, otherwise she wouldn't have said something like "I'll make my second brother beat him to death" in front of the Song family steward last time.
With Xingxing's support, Zhou Erfu's smile stretched from ear to ear. He sat on the edge of the cart, holding a whip, and began to drive the oxcart in a very professional manner.
Believe it or not, apart from being a little unsteady at the beginning, Zhou Erfu was able to drive the oxcart steadily after a quarter of an hour. He really shouldn't be underestimated.
Seeing this, Zhou Sifu was also eager to learn how to drive an oxcart, but Zhao Guihua stopped him, saying, "Sit still. We've already bought the oxen, what's the rush? You can learn when we get back. We'll let you drive the oxen to plow the fields and you can learn as much as you want. Don't cause trouble now, we need to get going."
“Mother, I just wanted to learn how to drive an oxcart, not how to plow the fields with oxen,” Zhou Sifu said, sounding a little aggrieved.
"What do you mean by 'want' or 'don't want'? Just do whatever we tell you to do, and don't try to bargain with me." Zhao Guihua scolded absentmindedly before becoming thoughtful. Tilling the land is something that needs to be learned; not everyone can pick it up right away.
This ox has never plowed a field before, so we need to teach it. Zhao Guihua doesn't know how, and Zhou Laoda has never used an ox to plow a field either. We'll have to ask the village elders if they know how. Well, we'll talk about this when we get back.
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