When the ox cart entered the village, the villagers who were working in the fields were returning home one after another. Seeing Ding Youtian's family dressed in new clothes and sitting on the ox cart, everyone greeted them warmly, and focused on praising the four little ones, because the news that Jian Ning and his family had purchased the beans had spread throughout the village.
Which adult doesn't like others to praise their children? Besides, the four little ones have been dressed up like the children of rich families in the city, so they are happy to praise them.
When some people first heard that Jian Ning and Ding Youtian were buying beans for three pounds and two cents, they simply didn't believe it. They all knew that Ding Youtian's family had been separated and had no money. Even if he caught two wild boars and sold them for two or three taels of silver, his family still had to make a living, so how could he afford to buy beans?
Seeing that the whole family had bought new clothes, someone worriedly asked directly, "Fourth Brother, when you buy beans, do you pay first and then receive them? You can't buy them on credit, right?"
Ding Youtian said loudly, "Of course, the payment and goods are cleared. No credit is required. Everyone can rest assured."
A villager asked again: "Do we collect as much as we can? Or do we collect first-come, first-served, and then leave out the last-served?"
Jian Ning smiled and said, "Don't worry, we are buying for a long time, and we will take as many as we can."
As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers' dark red faces all broke into smiles, and they kept praising them as living Bodhisattvas. Some people calculated in their hearts how much money they could exchange for money, so that they could use the money to make decent clothes for their children.
Old Ding and his son were walking on the roadside exhausted. When they heard a commotion behind them, they looked back and saw an ox cart carrying Ding Youtian's family slowly approaching.
When Lao Wu saw Ding Youtian, dressed as a Confucian scholar, sitting in the ox cart with a happy face, he was so jealous that his eyes almost popped out and he spat fiercely.
Old Ding also secretly cursed their family for being so extravagant. They didn't save the money they had to buy some farmland. When winter came and there were fewer wild animals, they would just have to wait and see how they would survive.
A peasant wants to make a living by brewing wine. Is that what farmers do? Is the business really that easy?
Humph! You're buying the beans at a high price. If the wine can't be sold, I'll make you pay!
What a spendthrift thing! He hunted some wild animals, ate a few days of full meals, and became so proud!
The scene of them crying and wailing with the wine in their hands flashed through Old Ding's mind, and he suddenly made a decision not to let the second son and his wife come to his house, so as to avoid getting into trouble and being entangled by their family in the future.
People kept greeting Jian Ning and the others on the road. When the ox cart passed Old Ding's house, it startled Liu and Gao, who were gathering vegetables drying in the yard with a winnowing basket. They craned their necks to look outside and saw the fourth brother's family dressed in bright and beautiful clothes. Their faces suddenly changed color.
Lu came out of the kitchen, not knowing what they were looking at. She walked over and followed their gaze. When she saw Da Niu and the other three wearing pink headbands and pink dresses, sitting on the ox cart, each with a smile as beautiful as a flower, looking extremely happy, she thought of her own daughter, who was covered in dust and dirt, burning a fire in the kitchen. She was over four years old and had never worn a piece of flowered cloth, while Da Niu and the others were wearing silk and satin. That was silk, right?
She felt like a huge rock was blocking her heart and she felt extremely uncomfortable.
Liu and Gao were also feeling bad. Although Jian was wearing a plain new dress, it was decorated with hand-embroidered violet petals. They couldn't describe what Jian looked like at the moment, but they knew that she looked different from them and the other women in the village.
Meng came out of her room and yelled at them, "What are you all doing with that? You're slacking off when I'm not around. Are you itching for a beating again?"
She walked over cursing, but the oxcart had already gone far away and she didn't see any excitement. She was so angry that she punched one of them.
Even though there was something exciting going on, I didn't think of calling her out to take a look.
Liu and the others were angry after being beaten, but they didn't bother to say anything to her and went back to work.
The ox cart reached the back mountain, and Jane Ning's family got off the cart and thanked the headman. They returned home, and Jane Ning opened the gate of the courtyard. He saw four little silver fox cubs lying on a civet cat and playing around. The civet cat squinted its eyes and smiled like an aunt.
What's going on?
Before she could figure out what was happening, the four silver fox cubs saw their little master coming back, left the civet cat and happily pounced on their little masters.
The civet cat jumped onto the chair in a flash, putting on a cool attitude.
Jane Ning checked the lock of the west room and found it was intact. She opened the door and went in. She saw the window was half open. It seemed that the four fox cubs had been taken out through the window by the civet cat. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her: could the civet cat and the female fox be good sisters who transcended their race?
She then rejected her own guess. When she released the civet cat, the gratitude in its eyes could not be faked. However, she still had to be careful and vigilant, in case, as she thought, the civet cat might come to avenge the mother fox.
Jane Ning has never been very fond of animals, especially cats. Although civets do not belong to the cat family, they look similar, so she just doesn't like them.
She didn't like it, but Ding Youtian did, because he found two mice that had been bitten to death when he entered the kitchen. He hated mice so much that he would even chew on books when he was so hungry. To reward the civet cat, he secretly hid a piece of wild boar meat and threw it to the civet cat while Jian Ning was cooking.
With this piece of wild boar meat, the man and the cat quickly established a revolutionary friendship, and the civet cat's eyes always followed Ding Youtian intentionally or unintentionally.
For dinner, Jian Ning cooked a pot of braised pork belly and fried wild boar meat for Liu Xiazi to go with his wine. Liu Xiazi had brought a pot of wine with him, as well as a bag and a scale. When he saw Ding Youtian in the room, he said something about how he looked like a dog, and then threw the bag at him.
The bag was so heavy that Ding Youtian almost dropped it. He opened it and saw it was a bag of copper coins. After tying the bag, he smiled and said, "We have copper coins ready, more than twenty taels in total. Master, you'll need these later. I'll have my wife exchange them for silver ingots for you later."
When Boss Zhang bought wild boar meat, he thought about the copper coins he would need to prepare to buy wild beans, so he was asked to pay the deposit in copper coins.
"Let's settle it together later. There's no need to rush now." said Blind Liu.
"That's fine. I'll go help my wife serve the dishes. Master, please take a seat first. The food will be here soon." As he entered the kitchen, Jian Ning asked him, "I just remembered that I gave Master a 4% profit before because he didn't need to be responsible for sales. Now most of the orders are negotiated by him. How about we take 4% and he takes 5%? What do you think?"
"My lady, you worry too much. Once a teacher, always a teacher. As long as I have something to eat, the teacher will never go hungry. It is my responsibility to support the teacher in the future. There is no need to be so meticulous."
As he finished speaking, Da Niu and Da Bao came running in. They were also there to help serve the dishes. Seeing them, Ding Youtian said, "We'll have to ask Carpenter Xu to make two beds later. Tomorrow, we'll clean up the east and west rooms. Da Bao will live in the east room, and Da Niu and the other two will live in the west room. We also need to buy a few more quilts and mattresses. There's a lot of money to be spent on this."
Jian Ning was stunned when he heard this.
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