Chapter 20
No matter what, Manbao decided to do it herself, so she asked Keke not to take the picture away. She then clumsily arranged her flower basket according to the picture.
Erya saw her aunt destroying the flowers and had forgotten to learn bamboo weaving. She ran over and asked, "Aunt, what are you doing?"
"I want to arrange the flower baskets."
Erya said, "You've ruined all the flowers."
Manbao blinked, decisively threw away the flowers, and moved his butt back to let Erya go up, "I'll teach you."
Everyone found it funny. She could make the flowers like this by herself, so why was she teaching Erya?
However, Manbao really taught Erya. Although she was not dexterous, she had a lot of ideas. She instructed Erya to wrap the flowers around the bamboo basket.
Erya didn't want to do what she said, but Xiaogu was the kind of person who would keep nagging in your ears and force you to listen to her if you didn't do what she said.
Erya had no choice but to think that there were plenty of wild flowers on the mountain. If there were not enough, she could go up the mountain to pick more, or she could pick some on the way tomorrow.
Thinking of this, Erya wrapped the bamboo basket as she was told. As she wrapped it, she found that the bamboo basket became a little different.
After it was wrapped, a few flowers were put in it. Erya was stunned when she saw the ugly bamboo basket made by her grandma.
"Oh my god," Erya couldn't help but exclaimed, "I'm so powerful!"
Manbao clapped his hands happily, trying to take credit, "It's mainly because of me. I taught you. Of course, Erya, you're also very good. You can do whatever I tell you to do."
Old Zhou also noticed the flower basket and nodded slightly. "It looks okay, but it's not something you can eat or drink. It's just pleasing to the eye. Who would buy it?"
Qian also liked it very much and said, "This one is not well woven, so I won't take it away. Leave it at home for your aunt to play with."
Erya responded crisply and began to arrange other flower baskets.
I was not very good at it the first time, but I became more familiar with it the second time. Manbao also has other styles. By adjusting the position and method of wrapping, and changing the color of the flowers, it becomes a different kind of flower basket, which is also very beautiful.
Manbao felt that he had to take Erya to the county town tomorrow, because in this way, if the flower basket was broken, it could be repaired, and his fifth and sixth brothers did not know how to tie flowers.
This is what she thought, so she told her father the same thing.
Old Zhou thought, since his daughters had already been sent away, it wouldn't matter if he had another granddaughter.
But thinking that Daya is older than Erya, it doesn't make sense for Erya to go and Daya not to go, so he waved his hand and said, "You take both Daya and Erya with you."
Daya and Erya couldn't help but cheer. Datou and Ertou were extremely envious and pestered Old Zhoutou, "Grandpa, Grandpa, what about us?"
"You stay at home and help your fourth uncle open up wasteland, cut grass, and pick up some stones. So many people go to the county town without food or water. Your father and the others have to take care of you and don't have time."
Datou immediately said, "We don't want to eat bread, we can just drink water. We don't want Dad to take us with us. We have Uncle Five and Uncle Six."
Old Zhou refused cruelly, "No, it's such a long journey back and forth. If you don't eat, you'll starve and have to pay for medicine later."
They both looked at their aunt.
Old Zhou also glared at Manbao.
Manbao was very sensible. She felt that she couldn't push her luck any further, or else her right to go out might be taken away. So she quietly comforted Datou and Ertou, "I'll give you some candy when I come back. If I make money this time, I'll definitely take you out next time."
Big Head and Second Head could only lower their heads in disappointment, "Okay, little aunt, you have to keep your word."
"Don't worry, when have I ever broken my promise?"
By the time the family returned from the fields for dinner, Old Zhou and Qian had already woven twenty-five bamboo baskets for them.
Manbao happily wanted to wrap flowers around all the bamboo baskets, so Daya stopped learning bamboo weaving and came over to help Erya.
Seeing his eldest and second brothers, Manbao pulled them in without hesitation and asked them to continue helping to weave the small bamboo baskets.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang also felt that this was a waste of time and bamboo sticks, but because Manbao insisted and his parents personally came out to coax their youngest sister, they had no choice but to follow suit.
Soon, Zhou Erlang's discarded bamboo strips were all used up. Manbao then looked at the intact ones. Old Zhou said sternly, "Those are the ones your second brother hasn't used yet. You can't waste them. Besides, you've made fifty of them already, which is more than enough."
In fact, if she could sell one, Old Zhou would think it was a miracle.
Manbao had to give up the idea of continuing to make trouble for her second brother by making bamboo sticks, and worked with Erya and Daya to make beautiful flowers. Of course, she was responsible for the mouth, while Daya and Erya were responsible for the hands.
The flowers and plants they had picked at noon were quickly used up, but there were still about twenty bamboo baskets that hadn't been decorated with flowers. Old Zhou waved his hand and said, "Okay, wait until after dinner to pick them. It's still a long time before the sun sets."
He also warned, "You must return home before sunset and don't let the dew hit you."
Everyone responded happily, quickly finished their dinner and ran up the mountain. Of course, Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang followed.
Seeing Silang's dying look, Old Zhou scolded him, "You're going too! Your sister is going up the mountain, and you, as her brother, don't even bother to take care of her?"
Zhou Silang had been working in the fields for three days in a row, doing the most physically demanding work of land reclamation. Once he sat down, he didn't want to move. Now that his father had scolded him, he could only slowly get up from the stool and stagger out.
Old Man Zhou was furious when he saw him like this. He turned to Zhou Dalang and the others and said, "From now on, you must keep a close eye on him. He is not allowed to go to the county town for the next two years. If you find him gambling again, chop off his hands."
Zhou Dalang, Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang all responded.
"Okay, it's been so long now, you've calmed down, you should think about saving some money to pay off your debt," Qian said. "Big brother, tomorrow you go to the county town and ask if there's any work. If there is, you don't have to come back, just take the job there. Have the fifth and sixth brothers bring the children back."
Zhou Dalang said, "I'm afraid it's hard to find work in the county."
"If it's hard to find, you should try looking. We can't just sit there and eat up all the money," Qian said. "We don't know what the weather will be like next spring. If the weather is good like this year, even if we can't save any money, at least we won't have enough to eat or wear. But if there's a drought or a flood, that would be difficult."
Old Zhou touched his pipe and said, "Don't worry, I asked my third uncle, and he said that even if it's not as good as this year, it won't be much worse."
Qian heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Uncle San is the best farmer in the village. As an old man who has been farming for a long time, he can basically see the weather for the next six months.
Since he said that, the storm next year shouldn't be too bad.
Qian was very satisfied. Manbao, who had picked a lot of wild flowers and grasses from the mountain, was also very satisfied and felt that tomorrow would definitely be a beautiful day.
The system just watched quietly without saying a word.
However, the next day, when little Manbao got up from the bed and ran to see the flower basket she had packed, she found that in the dim firelight, all the flowers in the small basket she had placed below were broken or wilted.
I had a dream last night. In the dream, I was down and out and setting up a stall. I don’t remember what I was selling because it’s not important. What’s important is that a handsome policeman found me, gave me a photo, and asked me to pay attention to this person. He was a drug dealer and might come here to meet someone soon. He asked me to take a photo of the contact person.
I agreed, and then the man came and bought something behind me. I was so scared that I didn't dare to take a picture, and planned to wait until he left.
After he left, I forgot whether he was buying something in the row behind me or in the second row? Did he talk to the three people on this side or the three people behind me?
So I was confused and woke up from the dream in a panic.
(End of this chapter)
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