Chapter 99 Planting Ginger
Manbao was sent home crying by a maid from the Bai family. In order to coax her, Liu also packed a lot of cakes for her. However, Manbao took the cakes and still insisted on not forgiving Bai Shanbao and decided not to be friends with him anymore.
Zhou Family: ...
After listening to how Manbao quarreled and fought with the young master of the Bai family, they ignored it. Isn't it normal for children to quarrel and fight?
Even Qian didn't comfort her much, she just asked her to go wash up and go to bed.
Manbao's attention was quickly diverted, and when he woke up from a sleep, he forgot everything.
When she got up, Zhou Erlang had already taken Zhou Wulang to the market. Today was not a market day, but there would be a meat stall in Dali Village. If she wanted to buy meat, she could either go to the county town or go to Dali Village.
Manbao had nothing to do, so she took out two pieces of ginger she bought yesterday. She decided to try to see if she could grow them, and leave the rest for spring.
Of course, Manbao couldn't do something like planting ginger alone, so she found Daya and Erya.
The two sisters didn't know that ginger was more expensive than meat. When they heard their aunt say that she was going to the vegetable garden to plant some new seeds, they took their aunt with them.
Manbao kept muttering, "I want fertile land, fertile land..."
Daya pointed to a piece of land and said, "Plant it here. The soil here is thicker and must be fertile."
Then Manbao took out the ginger and gave it to them, pointing with his little finger: "Cut it into pieces, cut it here, cut it here, and then they will all sprout, and you can plant many pieces."
Daya asked, "Can we grow crops in such a cold weather?"
Manbao scratched his face and said, "Who knows? Let's give it a try."
Keke was a little helpless and suggested: "You can put straw on it to keep it warm."
Manbao was surprised, "Straw can keep out the cold?"
"Of course. Some families even use straw as their beds to keep out the cold."
Manbao was lost in thought. "Then leaves can also keep out the cold? So can grass, and so can reeds... Oh, there are so many things we can use."
Manbao, Daya and Erya dug a hole and planted the ginger, then watered it a little. Then they ran home together, got a handful of straw and spread it densely on the ground to keep them warm.
In order to make them cover themselves more tightly with the straw quilt, Manbao stepped hard on the straw twice.
Daya and Erya saw it and thought it was a characteristic of ginger cultivation, so they stepped on it twice.
Koko, who witnessed the whole process:...Forget it, it won’t sprout if I bury it now. I’d better wait until spring and then remind the host to loosen the soil.
After Manbao finished planting the ginger, her second brother and the others had not returned yet, and Zhou Dalang and Zhou Silang had already gone to the Bai family to start work. She had nothing to do, so she took out her book and ran to the school to study.
As for why she had to go to school to study, it was of course because of habit. The teacher didn't close the door anyway, so the classroom door was open and she could just go in and study.
As a result, when he ran outside the classroom, he heard the sound of reading inside. Manbao ran in curiously and saw Bai Shanbao sitting in his seat reading.
He looked up and saw Manbao, then curled his lips and said, "You are so lazy. I have already read three texts."
"You're lazy," Manbao said, "I've already planted tons of ginger since I got up this morning."
Manbao ran over and sat down, and Bai Shanbao pushed a paper bag to her, "Here, this is the osmanthus cake you wanted to eat."
Manbao swallowed her saliva and opened it. It was her favorite sweet-scented osmanthus cake. She took a bite and found that the cake was still warm. She was even happier. So she took out a handful of candy and gave it to him. "Here, there are red and yellow ones. Don't tell anyone."
Bai Shanbao also became happy. He hid the candy in his pocket and nodded vigorously.
The two children became friends again.
Manbao said, "I'm going there today, what about you?"
Bai Shanbao said, "I'm going too! My mother even prepared a food box for me with lots of delicious food in it. I'm just afraid of the cold, but I told her that we have a fire so we're not afraid of the cold."
Manbao nodded and said, "My second brother and his family will cook today. If your food gets cold, I'll ask my second brother to heat it up for you."
Bai Shanbao expressed his gratitude.
The Bai family still sent Daji and a donkey cart to follow them, but Zhou Erlang still went to borrow a cart, and the children rode on the donkey cart. They couldn't put all the things on it, after all, it was their own business, right?
Bai Erlang didn't want to go, but was forced by his father to climb onto the donkey cart crying, which aroused the unanimous contempt of Bai Shanbao and Manbao.
You're so old and still crying, how shameless!
Mrs. Bai didn't understand this. She felt sorry for her son and couldn't help but tell her mother-in-law, asking her mother-in-law to plead for her son.
As a result, just as Mrs. Bai opened her mouth, Mr. Bai said, "Mother, I am doing this for the good of the child. Instead of staying at home fighting cats and dogs, it is better to go out and see the world."
"What's the point of watching a bunch of laborers working?" Old Mrs. Bai said, "Didn't you hear Erlang say that the Zhou family went there to make money, not to write articles? How old are these two children? What kind of articles do they need to write?"
Mr. Bai said, "Mother, there is a lot of wisdom here. You haven't seen the book they wrote down. Otherwise, Auntie loves her own child more than you do. Why did she let Shanbao go?"
Only then did Old Mrs. Bai stop talking.
Mr. Bai said, "It's a pity that this kid is disobedient. Except for a few pages with his handwriting, the rest of the two notebooks are all written by Shanbao. It shows how lazy he is."
Old Mrs. Bai was even more afraid to speak now, for fear that her plea would fail and instead make her son even more angry with his grandson.
Zhou Erlang and his men soon reached the official road. Today the workers were working on water conservancy projects, mainly digging ditches for irrigation, which was more difficult than building roads.
Zhou Erlang glanced at Zhou Sanlang, then bowed and greeted the two officials at the introduction of Zhou Wulang.
You don't need to ask any questions today, so you will have a lot of free time.
Manbao was happily collecting firewood. She dragged the firewood together and asked her sixth brother to come and get it.
Zhou Wulang had done this once before and knew how to do it quickly. While his second brother was building the stove, he simply carried a bucket to fetch water.
Yes, yesterday they only brought one wooden barrel, but today they brought a pair.
He fetched some water, put the chopped bones into the pot, then poured water and started to light the fire.
There is still time to do all the other work, but the bone soup needs to be cooked a little longer to make it taste better.
Manbao and Bai Shanbao came running over, dragging a large branch, and then dropped it and ran up to join in the fun, "Second brother, what are you going to cook?"
"Pork stewed with cabbage, pork stewed with radish, five cents a spoonful."
As for whether anyone will buy it, it’s not certain, but it doesn’t matter if no one buys it. He didn’t prepare much and planned to leave some for the third child and take the rest home for his family to eat.
(End of this chapter)
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