After obtaining the Ganoderma lucidum, Niu Da neither went back to the mountain to wait for others to come to him, nor did he stop working. He felt that no matter how much money one had, one should not sit idly by and live off one's wealth.
Just as he was thinking about going fishing, he discovered that many earthworms had crawled up his field. This year was much colder than usual. In previous years, it would not snow until November, but this year it started snowing and cold winds in mid-August. There shouldn't be so many earthworms.
As the night grew colder, there were a dozen or so people fishing on the shore of Guhu Lake. Usually, there weren't many people fishing in the winter; they had all heard that Niu Da could catch seven or eight pounds of fish almost every day, so they came to try their luck.
Niu Dayi pulled the pole and caught another one.
Zhao Si, standing nearby, was furious. He and the others had been squatting there for ages without catching a single fish, while Niu Da had caught two jin (1 kg) of fish. Why did the fish seem to only bite his hook?
Zhao Si winked at his son Zhao Wu, who was fishing with him, and then came over to Niu Da: "Hey, Niu Da, you caught so many fish?"
Zhao Si sat down by Niu Da's den, seemingly oblivious to everything else.
"What kind of bait are you using? Why do the fish keep biting your hook?"
Niu Da laughed:
"What good bait could I possibly have? I'm just like everyone else, using earthworms I dug up from the ground."
Zhao Si glanced at Niu Da's earthworms and said, "Wow, where did you get so many earthworms in the middle of winter?"
Niu Da wanted to say that the earthworm crawled up by itself, but he thought Zhao Si wouldn't believe him, so he didn't bother to say more.
"Niu Da, you catch so many fish every day, can you give me a few?" Zhao Si said.
If it were anyone else, Niu Da might have agreed, but he was thinking that his family already didn't have enough food, and he wanted to buy a dozen more pigs. Zhao Si had never gotten along with him.
Moreover, he had just paid off his debts. Although being debt-free was a relief, he still had four acres of land, five children, a younger brother, and himself and his wife—a total of eight people. In previous years, they would eat porridge for half the year.
Chen Yu and the children were all pale and thin.
With the two hundred strings of cash he earned from selling the Ganoderma lucidum, he was planning to buy a dozen chickens and a dozen pigs to raise, and his house also needed renovation. He couldn't bear to give away the fish now, so he refused Zhao Si's request, saying:
"We're still waiting for my milk to come in. Selling the fish will give us some grain, and I'm thinking of getting my wife and eldest daughter a warmer pair of winter shoes."
I was really taken aback by the sudden windfall yesterday, and I forgot to buy anything before coming back.
Niu Cuihua's winter shoes were made when she was five years old. Although they were made larger than expected, they were only two sizes bigger at most. Niu Cuihua is eight years old this year, and will be nine after the New Year.
The shoes don't fit anymore.
Poor people might only have two pairs of shoes every three to five years. A pair of shoes would last five years, while a child's summer shoes would last three years and a pair of winter shoes would last five years. When they were worn out, they would be patched up again. When the pudding was worn out, it would be patched up again.
The same goes for their clothes, so the clothes worn by Niu Da and his wife had at least twenty puddings on them.
Zhao Si looked displeased and muttered, "Why buy new shoes for the girls? They're not sons, isn't that a waste of money? They should be grateful that we didn't lose them! Women don't earn money, why be so nice to them?"
Zhao Si and his sons were mostly dressed in worn-out clothes, looking quite respectable. However, his wife and only daughter, Zhao Duo'er, were barefoot all year round, and their feet would become sores from the cold in winter.
Who in the surrounding villages doesn't gossip about it?
Niu Da felt uncomfortable after hearing Zhao Si's words, so he stopped talking to him.
Zhao Si stared at Niu Da's fishing spot for a long time, pondering something. Niu Da caught four catties of small fish and two big fish.
The weather was cold at night, so there wasn't as much fishing as during the day. But Niu Da couldn't stay still, and with the ten or so pounds he caught in the afternoon, he caught about twenty pounds of fish.
He thought that when winter came, the river would freeze over, and in about twenty days, even with the best of luck, he wouldn't be able to catch so many fish. He also needed to keep a few medium-sized fish for the New Year, so he picked out a few medium-sized fish and had Shen pickle and dry them.
The remaining fourteen catties of catfish, river fish, and vegetable fish, along with two catties of crucian carp, were all sold. The crucian carp was only eight coins per catty, which was cheap.
I exchanged it for six strings of cash and one hundred and eight coins.
In addition, there was the hundred coins he earned for hauling goods for the tenants to Jia Dafu's house before dawn.
Niu Da saw some doll shoes for sale at the stall. They looked really nice and warm, so he thought he would buy another pair for Wu Yatou. He bought three pairs of doll shoes in total, at five coins a pair.
They also bought several pairs of warm cotton shoes and some winter clothes in the East Market, caught a rooster and a hen, and bought half a pound of meat and a pig's trotter.
A pair of cotton shoes cost seven coins. Niu Da bought a pair for his wife, Niu Cuihua, Niu Meihua, Niu Baozhu, and his younger brother Niu Er, for a total of thirty-five coins.
Chickens cost 55 coins per catty (approximately 0.5 catties), so a six-catty chicken costs 330 coins. Fifteen chickens would cost 4,950 coins.
One pound of meat costs fifty coins.
Pig's trotters were three coins more expensive than pork per pound. A pair of pig's trotters weighed two pounds and six ounces and cost one hundred and twenty-five coins.
One shi of grain is 154 jin, and it costs 500 wen per shi. It is only enough for a family to eat for a month, so Niu Da bought four shi, which cost two guan.
It cost a total of 7,175 coins.
That is, 14 strings and 175 coins.
Niu Da bought four strings of candied hawthorns, which cost him twelve coins.
I bought seven bamboo chairs and two wooden stools. The bamboo chairs cost five coins each, and the wooden stools cost twenty coins each.
They also bought more than a dozen bundles of firewood and a large brazier.
A bundle of firewood costs five coins, and a large brazier costs twenty coins.
Chen Yu also sold some of the cloth she wove in the village. Although it was summer cloth, the off-season material was cheap, and twenty or thirty bolts of coarse cloth sold for less than two hundred coins.
When Niu Da returned, many villagers saw that he had bought cloth and chairs, and they all asked, "Niu Da, how many fish did you catch? Why did you buy so many chairs, a big brazier, and so many chickens? What kind of treasure did you catch?"
"I've been lucky lately, catching a lot of big fish."
Upon returning, he picked up Niu Baolan and Xiao Fubao and played with them for a while, then said:
"My dear girls, I've brought each of you a string of candied hawthorns, new winter clothes, and new shoes."
Niu Da put doll shoes on Xiao Fubao and Niu Baolan, and the other three girls, upon hearing Niu Da's words, happily went to look at their own new shoes.
“Honey, why don’t you try on the new clothes and shoes too? The new clothes are made of cotton, see if they fit.” Niu Da said to Chen Yu.
Chen Yu picked up a pair of shoes. "Her dad, what about yours?"
"Oh? I...I forgot. I don't really need it. Men shouldn't be so particular. Wouldn't it be a waste for me to wear nice clothes and shoes?" "Honey, this money is leftover; it's all yours."
“Tomorrow, I’ll buy you a set too. I’ll go with you to pick one out. In two months it will be the New Year, and after that, it’ll be my mother’s birthday on the fifteenth of the first lunar month. Shouldn’t you dress presentably? I think you just don’t know how to take care of yourself,” Chen Yu said as she put on her shoes.
Shen Yu's family home is extremely far from Niushan Village, not in Jiangzhou. It crosses five or six prefectures, including a place called Xiangzhou. If you were to travel by oxcart, it would take seventeen or eighteen days to make the round trip, navigating mountains and rivers.
The journey was also quite expensive, so after Chen Yu married into the family, she only went back once every three years.
Of Niu Da's three younger sisters, only the youngest sister, who lives across the county, comes every year. The other two sisters, who married into the next village, don't come very often.
“Okay then,” Niu Da said after thinking for a moment.
At Niu's house, there was stir-frying meat and chopping pig's trotters, and more than a dozen chickens were clucking in the coop. Chen Yu and Cui Hua were busy in the kitchen, while Niu Mei Hua and Niu Bao Zhu were playing with their little sister in the house.
Niu Da then scattered some grass to feed the chickens.
The widow next door, surnamed Xiang, overheard this, glanced over, and said:
"Big Brother Niu, where did you get so many chickens?"
Niu Da said with a beaming smile, "I've been lucky lately, sold a lot of fish, and bought a few chickens. I'll raise them for two months until they're fully cooked, then we can slaughter them and eat them for the New Year."
I bought a total of eighteen large chickens.
One rooster is to be slaughtered for the New Year, and seventeen hens are hens. They can lay 170 eggs a day. In winter, eggs cost three coins each, and not many people buy them, so Niu Da sells them for a lower price.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com