I only vaguely remember replying "okay" and promising to deliver plenty of charcoal before clutching the silver tightly to my chest, crossing my arms to protect it, and running home quickly.
"Mother, come quick!" Zhang Jinniu called out to his mother before he could catch his breath.
Aunt Zhang has been busy building her new house lately. Although she is tired, she is actually more energetic.
As she walked toward her son, she asked, "What's wrong? If you have something, just take it out. Why are you hiding it?"
Zhang Jinniu looked around and, seeing that his younger siblings were not around, he shoved the silver into his mother's face.
The pure white silver gleamed with a cool, clear light.
Aunt Zhang felt a sudden blur before her eyes, as if she were seeing things.
She actually saw the silver?
Zhang Jinniu quickly explained everything clearly, including the delivery of charcoal and Bai Ziqian's payment of silver for the charcoal.
Aunt Zhang was so happy she didn't know what to do!
She held the silver, rubbing it repeatedly, touching it again and again, clearly enamored with it.
Then he hurriedly instructed his eldest son: "We don't need to carry charcoal to Niutou Town to sell; we can use the extra time to burn more charcoal."
You take your younger ones and burn as much charcoal as possible before the Lunar New Year.
"Speaking of which, it's all thanks to your wife, Sister-in-law Shuiqing, and Brother Fan Er who have taken good care of our family. We should be kind and generous; the charcoal we send should be more, not less!"
Firewood is free, and the charcoal kiln is readily available; this is a business with no upfront costs.
In the past, after the charcoal was burned, it had to be carried out to sell. Only the Golden Ox and Silver Ox in the family could carry it. Starting last year, the Bronze Ox could also carry half of it. However, if the three of them went to sell charcoal, the round trip would take an hour and a half, which was tiring and time-consuming.
If we put this time and energy into charcoal making now, we will definitely be able to produce more charcoal than in previous years!
Zhang Jinniu snapped out of his daze and nodded emphatically: "Mother is right."
Where can't you buy charcoal if you have silver?
Bai Ziqian gave them the silver because he was a guest of Sister Shuiqing's house, and Sister Shuiqing had ordered charcoal from them.
Aunt Zhang paced excitedly around the low thatched hut, thinking that Shui Qing was truly a benefactor to their family!
Whenever there's something good, think of her family first.
They never skimped on the money either.
I realized I absolutely had to do a good job of completing the task she assigned me.
Then I thought about how hard the children had worked these past few days. Fortunately, now they can eat not only thin porridge but also dry biscuits.
Furthermore, Shuiqing had previously given some fermented rice wine, which was mixed into the flour or rice milk, resulting in fluffy and soft pancakes that tasted delicious!
The children love to eat it.
The family has been working really hard lately, making adobe bricks to build a house and chopping firewood to make charcoal. Maybe we should go buy some meat to eat.
Pork offal is cheap. Although it smells bad, it's not so bad if you scrub it a few times with plenty of wood ash and stir-fry it with some chili. At least it's still a meat dish.
And eggs, now that we're making money from other sources, we don't have to exchange all the eggs we earn each day for salt and other goods.
Shuiqing said eggs are good for you, they're great for your health, let's steam them and give them to the kids to help them get some nutrition.
Also, I need to buy a lot of salt this time to marinate the fish my youngest brother caught. It'll be a presentable dish when guests come over during the Lunar New Year...
When Zhang Jinniu heard that his mother was going to Niutou Town to buy pig offal for them to eat, and that the family would steam three eggs every day, he was as happy as if it were New Year's Day!
I immediately felt I could burn another 500 catties of charcoal!
Shuiqing, looking at the freshly made charcoal, started thinking about what to have for dinner.
How about a barbecue?
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