Chapter 107 Planting Ginger
Manbao patted her pocket and sighed sadly. As soon as she got home, she gave all the cloth and cotton to her mother. Then she solemnly announced to her family, "I have spent all my money. From now on, you will have to pay for the meat!"
Old Zhou glanced at the cloth and cotton in his wife's hands, touched his pipe and thought to himself, it's all spent.
He nodded, then turned around and said to his sons, "When you go out to sell soup, leave a jar for yourself and bring it back in the evening to heat up for your sister."
Everyone agreed, and Zhou Erlang even said, "We can bring back the bones with meat on them for Manbao to chew on."
So the meat issue was resolved.
In this era, information was transmitted slowly. The Zhou family followed Lao Ding to do business, but few people knew about it except Lao Ding and his family who returned home once every ten days.
The news didn't spread far, so for the first twenty days or so, there were no competitors and their income stabilized.
When those working people went home to get dry food during their first break, most of them no longer brought dry food, but instead carried rice or wheat and exchanged them directly with the Zhou brothers for fresh and hot dry food, accompanied by a bowl of meat soup. Even without any vegetables, it was enough to fill their stomachs.
It’s not that no one has thought about doing it, especially those Lao Ding who have many brothers in their family. They have thought about it before, but there is a huge difference between wanting to do it and being able to do it.
How many people walk up to a meat stall and back off when they ask the price.
It wasn't until the news spread from one village to another that some brave and clever people finally realized that they could make money by cooking for Lao Ding.
Then people began to appear behind each Duan Laoding, pushing carts, naturally including the two Duan Laoding that the Zhou brothers most often followed.
They didn't make as much noise as the Zhou brothers. Most of them just put the steamed buns in a basket to keep them warm and sent them over urgently. Perhaps they knew they would be here soon, so they deliberately lowered the price a bit or made the buns a little bigger than the Zhou brothers.
As a result, the Zhou family's business was divided.
Although he felt very sorry, Zhou Erlang also said: "I am very lucky to be able to make so much money in these days."
Zhou Wulang's heart was raised. He said, "Then should we still go? We only make about 200 wen a day. We can't sell any vegetables at all. There are fewer people buying steamed buns and sesame cakes. But the soup can still be sold."
"Go, of course! Even if you can only sell soup, you can still earn over a hundred coins a day." Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang weren't as arrogant as their younger brothers, and they warned them, "It's winter now. Going home is just sitting there, so why not go out and earn some money? Fourth brother, you still owe money to your family. Fifth brother, sixth brother, haven't you been clamoring to buy new clothes? Going there will earn you at least thirty coins a day, and saving that in a few days will be enough for a new set of clothes."
Zhou Wulang reluctantly lowered his head and stared at his toes, not very happy.
Old Zhou got angry and knocked on the stool, saying, "I'm too lazy. If you don't want to go, then come home and plow the soil!"
Who would plow the soil in the middle of winter?
Manbao was chewing bones as usual, along with her nephews and nieces. Upon hearing this, she looked up and clapped her hands, saying, "Okay, come back and help me open up the wasteland, brothers. I think Fourth Brother's wasteland isn't big enough to plant what I want to grow, so let's open up some more land along that stretch."
She said, "Fifth Brother must be dissatisfied with the fact that there are too many people going and the money earned is too little, so you can take turns going. Today, Third Sister-in-law and Fourth Brother go, and Fifth Brother and Sixth Brother stay at home to help me open up the wasteland. Tomorrow, Fifth Brother and Sixth Brother go, and Fourth Brother stays at home to work. Isn't that better?"
The brothers saw their father think seriously for a moment and then nodded, "Manbao is right. If we only sell soup, it would be a waste for you to go with so many people. Just two people can go at once, and the other two can stay at home to work."
He looked at Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang again and said, "You two brothers should take turns going. There's no need for all four of you to go at once. There's a lot of work to do around the house. We need to build a shelf in the kitchen and repair the chicken coop..."
Although Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were already adults, they didn't really want to stay at home to work. They slumped their shoulders when they heard this, but they didn't dare express their disappointment out loud, for fear that their own children would follow suit.
The more Old Zhou arranged it, the better he thought this method was. They took turns and after turning over the day's income to the company, the rest was shared between the two of them.
The public funds have not been reduced, and there are four more laborers to do the housework every day. There is nothing wrong with that.
Zhou Wulang couldn't help but complain to Manbao, "What are you going to plant? Fourth brother's plot of land is not small. Do you need such a large area to grow yams?"
"And ginger."
Zhou Wulang said, "It's so expensive, and it's not certain whether it can be grown. You are too ambitious."
Manbao hummed and said, "I can definitely make a living."
For this reason, Manbao took the ginger to Bai Shanbao. The two of them looked through many books, but could not find the method of growing ginger in the only agricultural book. Manbao was so angry that he was dizzy after reading so many books during this period. He said, "Ginger is so important, but they don't even describe how to grow it. Humph, if they don't write it, I will write it."
After saying that, she took out a lot of white paper from the system, folded it and cut it directly, and then asked her sister-in-law to sew it up for her. She held the brush and wrote the word "ginger" crookedly on the first page.
She decided to write it herself. Koko had said that as long as one observed properly and kept a planting diary, one could write down the planting method of ginger. Besides, the basic planting method was written in Koko's entry.
The customer service in the mall would also answer her questions about planting, but she knew nothing about nutrient solution and fertilizer. Koko also said that she didn't have those things, so she had to figure out their planting methods herself.
Manbao and Bai Shanbao were both poor kids now, and were very passionate about making money, so Bai Shanbao generously cleared out the flower beds in his yard and buried small pieces of ginger in them.
Zheng, who occasionally came to visit her son, felt a little confused when she saw the two children playing seriously in the flower garden with their butts sticking out. Although the flowers planted in the flower garden were not very precious, they were not easy to grow. Why were they dug up?
The two children were covered in mud from their work. At the end, Manbao knocked the dirt off the roots of the flowers he had pulled out and gently placed them on the soil. He said to Bai Shanbao seriously, "It's too cold. We need to keep them warm. Straw or wheat straw is best. I'll bring you some tomorrow."
Bai Shanbao also nodded seriously, and then watered it diligently. Before going to bed at night, he thought of the ginger in the yard, so he got up and watered it again.
As the Spring Festival was approaching, the temperature began to rise slightly. The ginger that Manbao had planted in the vegetable garden actually sprouted. Manbao was so happy that he ran to Bai's house that day and asked Bai Shanbao if his ginger had sprouted.
The two children squatted in the flower bed for a long time but nothing sprouted. Finally, they couldn't help but dig the soil, and then they saw that the originally plump ginger piece had turned black. When they poked it, it became soft, obviously it was rotten.
(End of this chapter)
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