Chapter 14 Digging for Ginseng
The next day, Gu Dayong, the old man of the Gu family, got up early with his youngest son, Gu Weidong, and went to the market before dawn. Gu Weidong was the youngest of the four brothers, but he had graduated from elementary school, was well-educated, and knew a lot, so he didn't worry about being cheated at the market.
There was little work to do in the fields these days as the farm was idle. Miao Xiujiu went to the production brigade, took on today's work, fed the pigs in the production brigade, and came back early to cook.
Yesterday, several children picked up mushrooms and wild vegetables. Some of them were washed and cooked while they were fresh, and some were dried into dried mushrooms so that they could be eaten slowly later.
When the other older children in the family who were in school saw this, they all said that the younger children had picked up a lot. It happened to be Saturday and they didn't have to go to school in the afternoon, so a group of children went up the mountain to pick up trash. There were eleven children in total, and even the youngest, Dong Ni, followed them into the mountains.
I returned in the evening and had gathered more. By then, Miao Xiuju had already prepared dinner: a cold salad of shepherd's purse with a little minced garlic, and boiled wintergreens and groundnut roots. These wild vegetables had a fresh mountain flavor, especially the groundnut roots, which were smooth, crisp, and delicious.
The children were drooling and eagerly waiting for dinner.
Miao Xiujiu refused to eat and said that they had to wait for their grandfather to come back, so Gu Shengtian took Fubao to the entrance of the alley and waited. After waiting for a long time, they finally saw them come back.
Gu Dayong and Gu Weidong had strange looks on their faces, as if they had been thieves outside. There was something wrong in their eyes when they entered the alley.
Gu Shengtian was puzzled: "Dad, what's wrong with you?"
Gu Weidong grabbed Gu Shengtian, not letting him speak, and walked straight home.
When he got home, he quickly had the door closed, ushered the whole family in, and then closed the doors and windows tightly. Then he whispered like a thief, "Sold it, sold it, sold it for seventy yuan!"
When everyone heard this, they were shocked and couldn’t believe it. Sold for 70 yuan? ?
You have to know that a strong farmer's labor earns only 1.4 cents per work point, so these 70 yuan is equivalent to one or two years' work of a strong farmer!
How could you get seventy yuan so easily? Sold it for seventy?
Miao Xiuju stretched out her hand: "Where's the money?"
So under everyone's gaze, Gu Dayong opened his jacket and took out a small handkerchief from the seam of the jacket. He opened the handkerchief layer by layer, and found seven big unity notes inside.
A Big Unity note was worth ten yuan. The Gu family had never seen such a large note before, but now, a total of seven Big Unity notes were lying in that handkerchief.
Everyone in the Gu family was stunned. Shen Hongying's eyes widened: "So much money!"
Liu Zhaodi stared at the money without blinking.
The others were also stunned.
Miao Xiuju held the handkerchief and stared at the seven big unity bills. Her eyes turned red as she looked at them. "Old man, I've been with you all my life and gave birth to four children for you, but I've never seen so much money. I—I finally saw it!"
When she said this, she was crying.
In fact, it was true. We worked hard every day, and the team gave us some money at the end of the year. We quickly spent the money on buying this and that, and there was never any money left. At most, we could save 20 yuan, which was considered a lot. And those were all in banknotes and coins. We had never seen these seven pieces of Great Unity in a row.
After crying, she wiped her nose and put the money into her pocket. Then she looked at her sons and daughters-in-law. It would have been fine if she only looked at her sons, but her daughters-in-law, especially Liu Zhaodi, had their eyes glued to her pocket and couldn't move away.
She smiled and began to speak, "This time I dug up an old wild ginseng and earned this sum of money, but you have to know that this kind of money is only earned by luck and it won't last forever, so don't think that just because our family has become rich, we can eat and drink to our heart's content and live a life of luxury."
The daughters-in-law all exchanged glances, and finally Shen Hongying wised up and said with a smile, "Mom, look at what you're saying. Are we that kind of people? We have 21 people in our family now, including adults and children. That's 70 yuan, just over 3 yuan per person. How can we say we want to get rich and eat and drink to our heart's content?"
The other daughters-in-law nodded in agreement, and even the mute Liu Guizhi hummed a few times.
Of course, the sons had nothing to say and listened to their mother in everything. What their mother said was definitely right.
Miao Xiuju was finally satisfied: "I'll put away our family's money for now. It's mainly for the children's schooling. We have eight children in school, and Shengtian and Fubao will also have to go next year. There will be many places to spend money in the future."
The family immediately thought of their children going to school. Although going to elementary school is free now, textbooks, exercise books and pencils are still required. Pencils and notebooks are not expensive, but if there are eight children, they have to buy eight sets, especially for boys, which is a considerable expense.
So the original desire to get rich suddenly cooled down. No matter how much money he had, it would not be enough for these children to spend. After all, he was still poor.
After severely dampening the excitement of her sons and daughters-in-law, Miao Xiuju finally gave them a sweet treat, saying with a smile, "But our family has received such a blessing, so we should all be happy. We can't just smell the meat and not eat it. So I say, I'll change this money into change and give you three yuan per room. You can keep it to buy something for yourself, or buy something to visit your parents. How you spend it is up to you. In addition, we will also go buy five pounds of pork belly and stew it to enjoy it."
Miao Xiuju's words had dampened everyone's excitement, and they had given up hope, thinking they would get nothing. But after hearing what Miao Xiuju said, their eyes suddenly lit up.
Niu Sanni thought about her child's schooling and was still worried: "Mom, why don't we save this money and leave it with you for the child's schooling!"
Miao Xiuju said generously, "It's okay. I have my own plans. You should also know that I have four sons and eleven grandchildren, and I have never favored any one of them. In the future, I will definitely find a way to use this money wisely."
Of course, the sons all believed their mother. The daughters-in-law thought about it and agreed that Miao Xiuju was indeed fair and never favored anyone. They all nodded.
Miao Xiujiu did what she said. She asked her old man Gu Dayong to change the money and secretly bought some meat. She put five pounds of pork belly into the pot and stewed it with potatoes and carrots. It was cooked until it was fragrant and tender, and it tasted so greasy.
Miao Xiujiu also got three yuan for each room. After getting it, each daughter-in-law was so happy that she almost cried. Life was not easy at home, and they were happy just to have food to eat. Now they could get three yuan, which was really the best thing they had never thought of in their life!
Liu Guizhi held the three dollars and tried to hide it everywhere in the house, under the bedding, in the wardrobe, but she was afraid that the child would use it to harm her, and that a mouse or a bedbug would eat it. Finally, she put it in a basket and hung it on the beam, and she felt relieved.
The third daughter-in-law, Liu Zhaodi, also hid the three yuan in her hand. Thinking back on this incident, she became puzzled and asked Xiuni, "Did Fubao dig that old mountain ginseng by himself?"
Xiuni thought for a moment and said, "Did we dig it together?"
Liu Zhaodi frowned: "What happened? Tell me in detail."
Xiuni tried hard to recall what had happened and recounted everything that had happened.
Liu Zhaodi: "So, you two ran to that place together, sat under a tree to rest, and then Fubao saw some old ginseng under a nearby tree, so you all dug it up together?"
Xiuni nodded: "Yes."
Liu Zhaodi's face immediately fell.
This time, the digging of the old mountain ginseng and Miao Xiujiu's clothes were all thanks to Fubao, so she praised Fubao several times and smiled whenever she saw Fubao, which made Liu Zhaodi very uncomfortable.
There are ten children in the family, six sons and four daughters, and three of the daughters are hers.
She usually couldn't tell whether Miao Xiujiu disliked her daughters, but at least she didn't favor her own daughter.
But now, when Fubao came, Miao Xiujiu loved her and insisted that she was lucky because she was the one who discovered the old mountain ginseng.
Liu Zhaodi felt that this was not the case. Several children ran under the tree. Even if Fubao did not find the old ginseng under the tree, Xiuni would be able to find it. How could Xiuni not see such a big ginseng?
Liu Zhaodi felt that Miao Xiujiu said this on purpose because she favored Fubao.
And Fubao is so petty.
However, Liu Zhaodi was just thinking about it now. Since Miao Xiujiu doted on Fubao so much, she didn't dare to say anything.
Just as the family was enjoying the pork belly, they overheard people in the production team chattering that the children of the Gu family deliberately deceived the children of the Nie family and tricked them into going deep into the mountains, causing them to be almost eaten by wolf cubs.
On this day in particular, Fubao followed his brothers to the mill at the village entrance to grind sorghum rice, and happened to meet Shengyin who was following Nie Laosan's wife to the commune health center for a check-up.
When Shengyin saw Fubao, tears were about to fall: "Fubao lied to me, so Fubao lied to me!"
Fubao in his previous life lied to her and told her that he had dug it out from under the crooked tree next to the big rock. However, she found the big rock, but there was no crooked tree at all.
It turned out that Fubao, who was so young back then, had the intention to deceive her.
In this life, she tricked herself into that kind of place and met a wolf cub. She was probably secretly digging for old mountain ginseng.
Shengyin felt sad when she thought that the old ginseng that should have belonged to the Nie family might have been taken away by Fubao to supplement the Gu family. That was her good days!
When I think about the fear I felt when I saw the wolf cub, I was so scared that my legs went weak and I almost fell down!
She was reborn, how could she fall into the mouth of a wolf cub? Just thinking about it now makes her scalp tingle, and she keeps having nightmares at night!
The third Nie's wife was furious when she saw Fubao. She felt that she had made a great loss by adopting Fubao. Now that Fubao, this unlucky star, had left the Nie family, he was even going to deceive his precious daughter?
Nie Laosan's wife rushed over, pulled Fubao over, and spat at her: "You jinx! I raised you for four years, and you've brought hatred upon me? You harmed my daughter, tricking her into going deep into the mountains and being chased by wolves. You little heartless bitch!"
Rural women are no longer the young girls they were. After becoming wives, they become more aggressive and learn to curse. The words they say are unpleasant, so they don’t think it’s wrong to call a little girl a bitch. They just say it without hesitation and have long been accustomed to it.
The ones who came out with Fubao included Gu Niudan and Gu Niushuan from Chen Hongying's family, and Gu Yuejin and Gu Shengtian from Liu Guizhi's family. The oldest of the boys was eleven or twelve years old, so they naturally understood what this "bitch" meant.
As for the little boy, there is nothing new and fun to do usually. Now he has such a pretty little sister, and he is very excited. He thinks the little sister is pretty and well-behaved, better than Bonnie, Shoni and Dongni. He spoils her to death, and even wants to bring little Fubao with him when he comes to grind sorghum rice.
Now, hearing Nie Lao San's wife scolding her like that, she immediately became furious.
Gu Niudan rushed over and said to Nie Laosan's wife, "What are you cursing at? What are you cursing at? Curse at me again and I'll beat you to death!"
Rural children are used to hearing quarrels. Now when they get anxious or angry, no matter how small they are, they will shout, "I'm going to beat you to death."
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