Chapter 13 Not Enough Money
When Feng brought over a bowl of boiled eggs, the group of children had already finished their candy and were surrounding Manbao to look at her four cents.
When Feng saw the money, she was stunned for a moment and asked, "Auntie, where did you get the money?"
Manbao looked up proudly and said, "We earned it ourselves, from selling candy."
Feng thought it was the candy her husband had bought for Manbao before, and said helplessly: "Why don't you eat it, but sell it instead? It's for your health."
Every time Zhou Erlang came to the market, he would buy a penny's worth of candy and only take out one to dissolve in syrup for the children to drink. The remaining four would be full of treasures.
It’s not that they particularly dote on Manbao and don’t love their children.
Instead, it was a sentence that Manbao's doctor said when he was young, "This child has a weak spleen and stomach, shortness of breath and fatigue. He should eat more eggs and honey."
The family situation was not very good at that time. Manbao was only a few months old and could not swallow the bitter medicine, so he could only be fed with egg water and honey water.
Old Zhou had to ask for help from several people in nearby villages before he could buy the honey at a high price. It was hard to find, scarce, and extremely expensive.
Later the doctor said, "If you don't have honey, maltose will do. They both benefit the lung meridian and strengthen the spleen and stomach."
It can be said that the eggs and sugar in the family have played a big role in Manbao growing up so big and so white and plump.
Because Manbao has been getting healthier in the past two years, the Zhou family felt that the doctor's words were absolutely right. They could not give Manbao other good things, but the eggs were laid by their own chickens, so they still had money to buy candy.
There is an episode every three days, and she can get four candies every time she goes to the market, so in Manbao's heart, she really has no shortage of candies. So when Koko first met her and tried to bribe her with candies, she was not very receptive.
Later, after eating the candy given by Koko, she still complained that it was too sweet. In the end, as usual, she shared some with her nephews and nieces.
Seeing that their eyes were narrowed with joy, Manbao became good friends with Koko who suddenly appeared.
Manbao has no shortage of sugar, because in addition to the sugar bought by her family, Koko also rewards her from time to time, but Feng doesn't know.
She glared at Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, who didn't know how to persuade her, and handed the bowl to Manbao, "You must be hungry. Second sister-in-law cooked eggs for you. Come and eat them."
Manbao held the bowl and invited Feng first, "Second sister-in-law, you should have a bite too. You didn't eat the cake just now."
Feng smiled and pushed it back, saying, "I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat with your elder and second brothers when they come back."
Manbao didn't doubt it because she also liked to eat with her family. Hey, why did she eat the cake without waiting for her elder and second brothers?
I feel a little sorry for them.
Manbao thought as he passed the eggs to Datou and the others.
Everyone shook their heads. They ate the candy but refused to eat the eggs. Although they wanted to eat them, they knew that the eggs were not eggs to their aunt, but medicine.
Manbao then ate all the eggs and asked Feng to take her to buy medicine for her mother.
Feng patted her head and said with a smile, "Second sister-in-law doesn't have any money with her. Let's go after your eldest brother and the others come back."
Manbao handed over the handkerchief and said, "I have money!"
Feng sighed, "This is not enough."
My mother-in-law takes medicine all year round, but in fact she takes the cheapest medicine, which only treats the symptoms and not the root cause. She can only take care of herself slowly. I don’t know how much it will cost to cure it completely.
Qian had two prescriptions for medicine that she often took. One could be bought from a doctor in Dali Village, the only doctor in the four nearby villages. Except for some of the medicine that was bought from the pharmacy, most of the medicine was collected by the doctor himself from the mountains.
If you buy medicine from him, a prescription only costs eight cents, which is already very frugal for their family. A prescription of medicine will be decocted four times, which is enough for Qian's family for two days.
If Qian's condition worsens, she will have to go to the pharmacy in the county town to buy medicine from another prescription, which contains a more expensive medicine that costs twenty cents per set.
Feng really had no money. All the people who came to buy baskets and winnowing baskets today were bartering. She did buy a lot of eggs and grain, but she didn't pay a penny.
There was no choice but to squat behind the stall and wait for Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang to come back.
It was past noon when Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang came back pushing the cart with grim looks on their faces. The two large bags of grain were still on the cart.
Feng was startled and trotted over to help push the cart over. She asked, "Why didn't it sell?"
Zhou Erlang said with a grim expression: "The price is too low, only eight cents for a bushel of grain."
Feng couldn't help but shout, "Only eight cents? Wasn't it ten cents before?"
Zhou Dalang squatted on the ground and said, "The grain has all arrived. The harvest this year is pretty good. They say the grain store is no longer short of food."
They were all from the same village. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang negotiated with each other for a long time but failed to raise the price. Their family was really short of money, and the two brothers were reluctant to sell the grain at such a low price, so they took it back.
Feng couldn't help but tear up, "What should we do then?"
Zhou Erlang squatted on the ground for a long time and said, "There are people in the market who want to exchange for linen cloth. We can take grain to them, and cotton cloth for shoes can also be exchanged for grain, but mother's medicine must be bought with money, so we still have to sell grain. No, we can go to the county town tomorrow to see if we can get a better price than at the market."
Manbao immediately took out his four coins and said, "Brother, brother, I have money!"
Seeing the four coins, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were stunned for a moment and asked, "Where did you get them?"
“Selling candy!”
Zhou Dalang took it, sighed, and said, "I'm still short of four coins."
Manbao was wondering if she should peel twenty more candies to sell, but Zhou Erlang had already stood up and said, "I'll take something to trade with someone."
Zhou Erlang had many acquaintances in the market. He took out some of the wheat that Feng had harvested, estimated its weight, and left.
Soon he came back with five cents.
Zhou Dalang was very curious, "Who did you exchange it with?"
People who come to the village market spend very little money.
"I traded it with Old Wang, the candy seller. He needed wheat to make candy, so I sold it to him at the regular price."
Zhou Dalang breathed a sigh of relief and handed Manbao's money to him.
Zhou Erlang used the money to buy a prescription. The number of people in the market began to decrease, and no one was in the mood to set up stalls anymore. Zhou Erlang went to find someone who was familiar with the place to exchange cloth and bacon, then packed up and went home with everyone.
The cloth was given to the old woman, who assigned the tasks to the people to make clothes, while Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang went to talk to Old Zhou.
Manbao followed behind and went in.
When Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang saw her walking behind them with her hands behind her back, imitating their father, they couldn't help but sweat. They simply picked her up and put her on their laps, and then reported the situation at the market to Old Zhou.
When he heard that the grain couldn't be sold at a good price, Old Zhou wanted to smoke again.
He sighed and said, "We need to have some cash at home. Not only does your mother need medicine, but she also needs emergency care."
Zhou Erlang also nodded. "I've accumulated quite a few eggs from the market lately, and I need to take them to the county town to sell them."
Although there were occasional people buying eggs at the Dali Village market, they mostly exchanged them for grain. In the end, Zhou Erlang still had to sell grain to the grain shop to get money.
Therefore, Zhou Erlang seldom sold eggs at the market, but took them to the county town, where eggs sold better than grain.
Old Zhou nodded, stroking his old pipe and said, "The day after tomorrow, you two will follow me to take Manbao to the school tomorrow."
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang agreed.
Manbao then expressed his opinion, "Dad, I want to go to the county town too."
I like you to praise her, but I also like you to praise me.
(End of this chapter)
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