Chapter 321 Raising Geese
"Yes, yes, we don't have to go back to catch them," Manbao said, "and the insect eggs and grass seeds in the ground have all been eaten. This way, there will be even fewer insects and grass next year."
Manbao lamented, "It's a pity that chickens can't swim, otherwise we could raise them in the fields. They love to eat snails so much. If we release a group of them, we won't have to worry about them eating the rice."
Zhou Silang: "It seems that ducks can swim, but I wonder if they can eat rice."
Zhou Erlang: "Where can we find ducklings? The number of families raising ducks in the surrounding villages can be counted on one hand, but there are quite a few raising geese. Why don't we bring some geese home to raise?"
"No," Zhou Dalang said without hesitation, "If I put a goose that big in the field, would it eat the snails or crush the rice? It would ruin the crops."
"That's right, that's right." Everyone agreed, and the matter was left unresolved.
Manbao remembered the roast goose he had eaten at Shanbao's house. He couldn't help swallowing his saliva, and then looked at his fourth brother vaguely.
Zhou Silang met her gaze and blinked, not understanding what she meant.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. After everyone leaves, Manbao will go to him to discuss raising geese.
Zhou Silang said, "Big Brother and the others didn't agree. Who will take care of it if I buy it?"
"We'll raise them," Manbao said. "They won't throw the geese away anyway. If we buy them, we can put them in the river instead of in the fields."
"Brother, roast goose is delicious, very delicious," Manbao said. "The chicken coop is behind the house anyway, so we can just build a straw shed next to it for the goose to live in. It's so big that mice can't bite it and weasels can't steal it."
Zhou Silang felt that what she said made sense. He rolled his eyes, glanced at his three busy brothers, and said in a low voice, "Old Five and the others are here to handle this matter. We can't let the eldest brother and the others know about it."
"Buy the goose first."
Zhou Silang held out his hand and said, "I don't have any money."
Manbao gave him a look of disdain and said, "Fourth brother, you are already married, why don't you save a penny?"
"I would like to save it, but I don't have the chance to go to the county town. Every time I pick poria cocos and wild mushrooms, my second brother always brings them to the county town."
Moreover, my father had already said that because of the flood, all the money earned from now on would be handed over to the government. Even if my second brother went to the county town, the money he earned would not go into his own pocket, unless...
Zhou Silang stared at Manbao and whispered, "Little sister, Fourth Brother wants to discuss something with you."
Manbao hummed, "What's the matter?"
"Could you please buy some more candy from Mr. Zhuang? I'll go to the county town and sell it. How about we split the profits in half?"
Manbao said seriously: "Mr. Zhuang didn't give me the candy, but a friend of mine."
Zhou Silang nodded perfunctorily, "Okay, okay, I get it. Then go tell your friend that your fourth sister-in-law is pregnant, and I wanted to buy a piece of cloth for the baby in her belly, but Dad took away the wages that Master Bai gave me. I, your fourth brother, can't really use your fourth sister-in-law's dowry, can I? That would be so embarrassing."
It is shameful to use the daughter-in-law's dowry, especially in the first year.
Manbao nodded reluctantly and said, "Okay, but Fourth Brother, you have to take Datou and the others with you."
Zhou Silang was stunned and asked, "What are you taking them for?"
"They have candy to sell, too."
"Okay, take them with you. I'll bring the goose back to you when I get back from the county town."
Manbao, who was about to pay for his fourth brother, immediately stopped when he heard this and nodded, saying, "That's a good idea. We can buy geese after selling the candies. That way, I won't have to spend any money."
Zhou Silang, still holding out his hand: ...
Manbao patted his hand and said, "Just wait, I'll give you the candy tonight."
The chicken coop was not difficult to build. Since Lao Zhou had a large family, it was completed in just two and a half days. Considering that the number of chickens would increase, he made it a little bigger on purpose.
Xiao Qian drove all the chickens into the new chicken coop and bought ten chicks. She took care of them carefully for two days, and after seeing that they were familiar with the new chicken coop, she stopped paying much attention to them.
The chickens were handed over to the children below, who drove them to the fields every day to eat insects and grass. The family also gave them some vegetable leaves and rice bran as a meal, and the chickens became very fat.
When it comes to breeding, the Zhou family seems to be naturally good at it, and even the younger children can do it quite well.
Datou confidently handed the chickens to his younger brothers and sisters, and took turns with them to go to the county town with Zhou Silang to sell candy.
After walking through several nearby mountains and failing to find any Poria cocos, Zhou Silang stopped going up the mountains.
As autumn wore on, vegetables in the county town became scarcer, and Old Zhou's vegetable business flourished. Little Qian's tofu was especially popular; even though they brought two plates every day, it was still not enough to sell.
When Old Zhou saw this, he immediately decided not to sell any of the beans this year and to keep them for making tofu.
Many families made the same decision as Lao Zhou's, but they saved the beans not to make tofu, but to cook bean rice during the lean period next year.
Normally, grain prices would fall after the autumn harvest, but this year the situation is just the opposite. After the grain shops failed to collect enough grain, they had to transport grain from other places. As a result, the grain prices rose again due to the pressure of tax exemption documents.
As a result, vegetable prices have also increased.
Originally, the price of grain in the grain shop was none of the Zhou family’s business. After confirming that they would not have to pay taxes this year, Zhou felt that this year’s harvest would be enough to last until next year’s winter wheat harvest.
Since he doesn't have to buy food from the grain store and he doesn't know how to sell food, there is no need to keep an eye on the price of food.
But the Zhou family still knew the daily changes in grain prices clearly because Zhou Erlang would tell them about it every day when he came back.
There's nothing he can do about it. When he goes shopping with people who buy vegetables, they always complain that the price of food has gone up again today...
The price rose so high that even Old Zhou, who always kept a tight rein on his food supply, couldn't help but be tempted and wanted to take the opportunity to sell some of his food.
But as long as he looked up at his children and grandchildren sitting at two separate tables at home, Old Zhou could only let out his anger, sigh and stop thinking about it.
There are too many people in the family and they eat too much. If we sell the food at a high price now, and then there is no food at home, won’t we have to buy it back at an even higher price?
That's a pitfall.
Manbao knew nothing about this. Her mind lately has been focused on studying and earning points.
Mr. Zhuang's class was very important, the classes in the classroom were also important, and trading in the forum to earn points was also important, so much so that she was very busy for a while and felt that she never had enough time.
Later, Koko recommended a book to her - "How to Plan Your Time Efficiently". It was a very thin book and very cheap, costing only three points.
It is the cheapest book that Manbao has bought so far.
(End of this chapter)
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