Chapter 109 Can’t give birth
Manbao took out the small account book and read it to them.
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang have the same amount of money saved. After all, they have been spending money together and earn the same amount of money.
If you don't count it, you won't know. Once you count it, everyone is shocked to find that Zhou Wulang had saved a total of 3,660 copper coins.
Zhou Wulang couldn't help swallowing his saliva, holding his excited heart and said, "Then, if I save for another year, will it be enough to get married?"
Manbao was so envious that he said, "Why marry a wife? Fifth brother, buy some meat."
"Do you think about anything else besides eating? I'm a man, so of course I have to get married."
"But Fourth Brother hasn't married yet."
"I don't know how long it will take for Fourth Brother to pay back the money, so I won't wait for him," Zhou Wulang had already made plans. "Next year, when I have saved up five thousand coins, I will ask mother to arrange a marriage for me, and I can get married in another year."
"Who do you want to marry?" Manbao was very curious.
Zhou Wulang shook his head and said, "I don't know, it depends on whether my mother likes it."
Manbao: "...You are so keen on getting married, I thought you already have someone you like."
Zhou Wulang had his own ideas. He said, "None of the girls in the village are pretty. I don't want any of them. I'm going to tell you from the outside, Lao Liu, when I get married, you have to get ready too. Don't take it so seriously. I'm telling you, only when you get married will you be considered grown up and have a secure life."
Zhou Wulang said, "Look at Uncle Zhou Liu at the east end of the village. He's a bachelor. Look at the kind of life he leads. If you don't get married, you'll end up like him in the future."
Zhou Liulang opened his mouth wide, shuddered, and said, "I don't want it!"
Manbao asked curiously, "What happened to Uncle Zhou Liu?"
"You are still young, you don't understand." Zhou Wulang ignored her and stretched out his hand to her, saying, "Come on, give me six hundred coins."
Manbao gave him some money and asked, "What do you want the money for?"
"What else can I do? Buy myself some fabric and cotton, of course." Zhou Wulang counted on his fingers and said, "I've never worn new clothes since I was a child. I'm getting married soon, so I absolutely must get myself a new set of clothes for the New Year, as well as new pants and new shoes!"
Zhou Liulang's eyes lit up and he shouted, "I want one too! I want one too!"
Datou, Daya and the others were all interested. They also had some money saved, although not much, but they should be able to buy a set of cloth, right?
Except for Manbao, no one else in the family has had new clothes for years. Even Manbao mostly wears clothes that are smaller than Qian's clothes that have been altered.
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang were even worse off, because they were the youngest and wore clothes left over by their older brothers. When their three older brothers stopped growing taller, they picked up clothes from their fourth brother and wore them, because Zhou Silang was still growing taller.
Zhou Liulang also took 600 coins from Manbao.
Datou and Daya also wanted to, but when they thought that they couldn't go to the county town tomorrow, they put down their shoulders and didn't take the copper coins.
Zhou Silang pushed the door open with a sour look on his face. Seeing so many people in the room, he frowned and asked, "What are you doing?"
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang put away their money and said, "Fourth brother, we promised Datou and Daya to buy them snacks tomorrow. Whatever you want to eat, we brothers will treat you."
Zhou Silang waved his hand and said, "No need, you can keep it for yourself to buy food."
Zhou Silang lay down on the bed. Manbao happened to be sitting on the bed as well. Curiously, he leaned over to look at his face. "Fourth brother, are you sick? Are you still going to dig in the mountains tomorrow?"
"Go! Not only me, but Datou and the others will follow too. Didn't you say that the rotten leaves on the mountain and the soil underneath can be used to fertilize the land? Let's dig them up." Zhou Silang said angrily, "I don't believe it!"
Zhou Silang didn't say anything else, but Manbao and the others were frightened and didn't say anything for a while. After a long time, they gathered together and whispered, "What happened to Fourth Brother?"
"I don't even think about skipping work. How strange!"
"Did his parents scold him?" As soon as these words came out, everyone shook their heads again. Their fourth brother neither forgot to eat nor for being beaten. It was useless to coax or scold him. He would change for a while, but would become lazy and bad again if he was not supervised.
Manbao ran back to her room, which was, of course, her parents' room. She crawled through the screen and tilted her head back to ask her parents, "Dad, Mom, what happened to Fourth Brother?"
Qian was stunned for a moment before saying, "It's okay. Don't go up the mountain tomorrow. It's cold up there..."
"No, I'm going!"
Qian sighed helplessly, "Forget it, go if you want, but don't catch a cold. If you get sick you'll have to take very bitter medicine."
Manbao agreed.
The next day, she followed Zhou Silang up the mountain. She was observing his expression all the way. Zhou Silang thought her gaze was strange, so he couldn't help but patted her head and told her to look at the ground. "Don't you see the tree roots under your feet? Be careful not to fall and roll down the mountain."
Manbao silently withdrew his foot.
This mountain was certainly not the one Zhou Silang had cleared, but the one next door. The mountain was covered with trees, mostly pine trees. The further in one went, the more leaves accumulated on the ground. Manbao dug them up and saw that there was a layer of rotten, slightly gray-brown soil under the leaves.
Koko said that this layer of soil is very fertile.
But this layer of soil is very thin.
Zhou Silang was rare in not being disgusted. He and his nephews and nieces shoveled up the layer of soil and put it into bamboo baskets. They shoveled a large area before barely filling two bamboo baskets. Then he carried the soil down the mountain and took it to his wasteland.
Everyone helped to spread a layer of leaves on the ground, and then spread them over. They also shoveled up a lot of newly fallen leaves. Manbao stepped on them with his little feet and said to Zhou Silang who was looking over, "When they rot, the ground will be fertile."
Zhou Silang handed the soil to Datou and the others to spread, and then he sat on the edge of the field to rest. He asked, "Manbao, there are so many things in the book, but does it mention what to do if you can't have children?"
Manbao's eyes widened, "Fourth brother, you can't have children?"
Zhou Silang said in shame and anger: "I can't have children. Children are born by women. I am a boy, a boy!"
Manbao scratched his head, his little mind remarkably clear. "Since women can give birth to children on their own, why do they need to get married? Isn't it said that you can only have children after you get married?"
Zhou Silang choked and didn't know what to say. Of course, he didn't understand biology and didn't even know how children were born. So he stared at his sister, not knowing what to say.
Looking at the brother and sister staring at each other, Koko couldn't help but explain to Manbao some basic knowledge about sperm, eggs, fertilized eggs, etc.
It knew what happened in the main room last night, so it said to Manbao, "Infertility isn't necessarily a woman's fault. It could also be the man's fault, such as weak or dead sperm. However, the current belief is that infertility is the woman's fault."
Manbao asked Keke perceptively, "Who can't have a child?"
(End of this chapter)
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