Chapter 265 High Price
Old Zhou glanced at the time and said to Feng, "Go to Zhou Hu's house and ask if your mother is coming back for dinner."
Feng responded.
Qian gave birth to many children. Although she was not a midwife, every time a baby was born in the village, they liked to ask her to sit in the yard. Even if she did nothing, she could just talk to the woman in labor.
Feng came back soon and said, "Not so soon. The pregnancy has just started. It would be great if the baby can be born by tonight."
So everyone stopped waiting for her and started eating with their bowls and chopsticks. After the meal, Feng and the others helped put the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen. Today it was Zhou Xi's turn to wash the dishes.
Then the adults all moved chairs and stools to the yard and sat down to summarize today's work. The children ran around and played in the yard. The older ones took burnt wooden sticks and wrote and drew in the yard, all of which were to remember the words that Manbao taught them.
Manbao taught them another chapter of "The Analects of Confucius". It was not long, with only three sentences. She wrote the words clearly on the ground with a wooden stick, taught them to read it twice, then dropped the stick and came over to listen to the second brother speak.
Zhou Erlang took out all the earnings from this trip to the city, and everyone couldn't help but stare at him, because there were four strings of copper coins in it, and a large pile of unstrung ones, which were estimated to be about fifty or sixty cents.
Zhou Erlang said happily, "Dad, although tofu and vegetables are cheap, a little bit adds up. The wild mushrooms we brought are also selling well. There are fewer people selling wild mushrooms this year, and those rich people are willing to spend money."
Old Zhou was impatient. His family had sold these things before and knew the prices. This was not what he wanted to know most, so he said directly, "Just tell me how much the Poria cocos sold for."
Zhou Erlang couldn't suppress the smile on his face. "You won't believe it, the Poria cocos still had mud on it, but Shopkeeper Zheng bought it all, including the skin, at 80 wen per jin. The two pieces I brought weighed 3.5 jin, so I sold them for 280 wen."
The money he earned from selling just two pieces of Poria cocos was equivalent to the basket of wild mushrooms, two baskets of vegetables and two buckets of tofu he brought with him.
If it weren't for that basket of wild mushrooms, I'd probably have to add another basket of vegetables and a bucket of tofu to match those two pieces of Poria cocos.
Old Zhou was also surprised and asked, "Is this thing so expensive? It's even more expensive than Ligustrum lucidum?"
"That's right. Shopkeeper Zheng told me that some old ladies and young ladies like to use Poria cocos to make snacks and desserts. They say it's a beauty product, as good as bird's nest. That's why a box of Poria cocos can sell for two to ten taels."
Zhou Erlang was a little regretful. "Our Poria cocos is big and white in color. It's said to be top quality. After it's processed, a box can sell for at least five taels. I've seen the boxes they use for Poria cocos. They definitely can't hold a pound. I estimate it's only about seven or eight taels."
Old Zhou started to think, "Should we cut it up and dry it in the sun? Then we can dry it ourselves..."
"Dad, don't think about it. It's not that simple," Zhou Erlang said. "It needs to be processed. This Poria cocos is not Ligustrum lucidum. You just need to blanch it in hot water and dry it in the sun. I heard there are several methods, and each method produces a different Poria cocos, and can treat different diseases. There's one called something called cinnabar preparation, but it's very difficult. I can't remember it anyway."
Old Zhou looked at Manbao.
Everyone's eyes followed his gaze.
Manbao was listening with great interest. Seeing that everyone was looking at her, she blinked and asked, "What's wrong?"
Old Zhou asked expectantly, "Manbao, have you seen any books on preparing medicinal herbs at Mr. Zhuang and Shanbao's house?"
Manbao thought for a moment and said, "It seems Mr. Zhuang has a thin copy."
Old Zhou's eyes sparkled as he asked, "Can you read it?"
Manbao knew what his father was up to and said, "Dad, don't even think about it. It's easy to fail when preparing medicinal materials. We don't have any experienced people at home, and we have to buy cinnabar. What if we can't control the temperature well and the preparation is not good after baking, then not only will the cinnabar be wasted, but the poria will be wasted too. What a waste."
This thing is so hard to find, how can we just waste it?
After Manbao said this, Zhou Erlang immediately came to his senses and said, "Dad, this pound of Poria cocos costs eighty cents, with the skin and mud."
Manbao couldn't help but say, "Second brother, Poria cocos peel is also a medicinal ingredient, so of course it should be with the skin."
"Oh, even the skin is medicinal."
Zhou Erlang was even more reluctant and said, "Dad, even the skin has to be prepared. Even if Manbao can teach us, we probably won't be able to learn it."
Zhou Silang nodded vigorously, "Dad, this thing is not easy to find."
Old Zhou sighed in disappointment, "Okay, then let's find Fuling to sell Fuling."
But Old Zhou was still heartbroken after losing so much money for nothing. He glared at his sons and said, "Look at you all. You've grown up so big but you can't even prepare a herbal medicine."
Brothers: ...If you can do it, then go ahead.
In fact, Zhou Dalang and the others think they are already very powerful. When they were young, which of the things they are doing now had their father done?
In the past, their father only worked in the fields and was happy as long as he could eat without going hungry all year round. The clothes that the brothers wore were all picked up from their uncle's house, and then passed down one by one.
Manbao is as easily satisfied as her brothers. The teacher has taught her and Bai Shanbao more than once to slow down and not to run forward as soon as they learn to walk, and even more so not to think about flying to the sky as soon as they learn to run.
The former will fall hard, while the latter may fall from the sky to the ground.
The former may just be very painful and will go away after a while, but the latter can be fatal. Of course, this consequence is the result reached by Manbao and Keke after an in-depth discussion.
So although she is always full of confidence, to a certain extent, she feels that she is still very humble and self-aware.
Koko: No way!
Old Zhou asked Manbao to get the account book and write down all the money Zhou Erlang brought back today. Then he began to take all the money. After thinking for a while, he counted out ten copper coins and gave them to him. He said, "Since the vegetables and tofu can be sold at a good price, you can continue to the county town tomorrow. Didn't they say that the vegetables in Xiaowan are ready to eat?"
"It's okay, but it's too tender. It's delicious, but it's a bit of a loss for us to sell it at this time."
"Then we'll continue selling vegetables from the garden tomorrow. In two or three days, the vegetables from Xiaowan will be ready. Old family, go soak the beans now and make tofu tomorrow morning."
Xiao Qian agreed.
Zhou Erlang took the ten cents and sighed sadly. It would be great if his mother was at home. You know, now all his income from going to the city has to be handed over to the government, and he doesn't get any share, so his mother would give him fifteen cents every time he went to the city.
In addition to the city entrance fee and protection fee, he could still save about five cents, which he could use to buy a bowl of hot soup and dry food in the county town, or occasionally indulge in a bun.
But his father gave him ten cents today.
Manbao also felt that her father was very stingy. She looked at her second brother with sympathy, patted her butt and went to watch her nephews and nieces write. She took a shower and changed clothes, so she couldn't go out to play today.
(End of this chapter)
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