Chapter 201: You have something on your mind
Cai Ermei watched the noisy courtyard become empty in an instant, and she was so angry that she kicked a bamboo basket away, "Zhou Laoyao, you bastard, do you really want to fight me?"
Wang Chunhua looked at him suspiciously for a while, "Second sister, what's the matter with Ye Xiaoshuang collecting eels?"
Cai Ermei glanced at her and said, "How should I know? What does her collecting eels have to do with me?"
"I just want to ask, why are you doing this?" Wang Chunhua said as he picked up the bamboo basket that had been kicked against the wall. "I heard that the day after Ye Xiaoshuang was released from the detention center, he went back to Fangtian for a blind date, and the man was still unmarried."
Cai Ermei's face was gloomy. "Other women know how to dig herbs to make money, but what about you? All you know how to do is gossip all day long!"
Wang Chunhua said angrily: "Every time I mention Ye Xiaoshuang, you get mad. I think you have something to hide!"
"What can I do?" Cai Ermei sneered, "I think you have the energy to gossip, you might as well go dig some herbs."
Wang Chunhua saw that he was so confident and felt that it was impossible, so she said without showing any weakness, "You don't help me with the farm work, so how can I have the time to dig herbs?
He took the money and went out for a few days, then came back saying he had found a way to make money. But what happened? In the end, it was like throwing meat buns at a dog, and he went out but never came back! "
"I thought they would raise the price by 5 cents like last time..." Cai Ermei quickly swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and turned around anxiously, "I'll go to Ning'an and ask how much profit I can make by charging 4 cents per pound?"
Seeing that he was about to leave again, Wang Chunhua immediately stretched out his hand to him, "There are dozens of dollars in it. You took my money last time and didn't return it. Now I don't have a penny in my hand. I don't even have oil and salt at home?"
Cai Ermei glared at her and said, "Why are you panicking? I went to ask and came back to collect the money. Look, Zhou Laoyao even bought a bicycle. He made his money by collecting herbs!"
Wang Chunhua insisted, "It's not like I won't give it to you. I'll give it to you when you ask me." Then he grabbed the bag of the military green satchel and said, "Give it to me, give me the money!"
"Let go!" Cai Ermei snatched back the bag, pushed her to the ground with a palm, and strode out of the yard.
Wang Chunhua got up, slapped her thigh and cried, "Cai Ermei, you damn bastard..."
****
Zhou Jiaming and two other people followed a few herbal medicine vendors back home. Seeing Yang Chunyan weighing the herbs for Aunt Chen and the others, they stepped forward and took a bamboo basket to help sort and pack the herbs. They then took them to the backyard to spread them out on a drying mat to dry.
Yang Chunyan said to Aunt Chen, "Aunt, in a few days, the pharmacy will also need to collect seeds of plantain, sedge, sticky grass... dandelion, etc. You can collect enough and send them to me. I can sell one pound for two yuan."
Aunt Chen and the others smiled and nodded, "Okay, when we have enough half a pound or a pound, we will send it to you."
Yang Chunyan distributed the money to several people, and everyone happily left with the money from selling the herbs.
Zhou Jialiang stepped forward with a smile, "Aunt, the herbal medicine sellers from Cai Ermei's family have come to our house, and Dad promised to give us money to buy ice cream."
"Auntie, this is for you!" Yang Chunyan smiled and handed two dimes to Zhou Jiaming, "Take your brothers and sisters to buy some ice cream."
"Oh! Let's buy some ice cream!" Zhou Jiaming jumped up with joy, picked up Zhou Xiaolin and ran out.
"Oh oh! Eat ice skates, eat ice skates!" Zhou Xiaolin also clapped and shouted.
Zhou Xiaoqian corrected with a smile, "It's ice cream, not ice skates!"
Zhou Xiaolin followed her carefully, "Ice skates are not ice skates!"
Zhou Jialiang sighed, "Oh my god, Xiaoqian, you should just ignore her. She'll get it done if you tell her a few more times."
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan burst out laughing.
"You can still laugh?" Zhou's mother, who was helping, glared at her. She felt so distressed when she thought about having to pay an extra 1.5 cents for a pound of herbs. "Why is Second Sister Cai staring at us like a mad dog? Why is it so difficult to earn some money in peace?"
Yang Chunyan comforted her, "Mom, don't worry, I've calculated it all, and there's still profit to be made." It would be better to break up with Cai Ermei sooner, so as to avoid suffering a big loss in the future.
"I know I made some money, but I just feel uncomfortable!" Zhou's mother clapped her hands and went to the kitchen to cook.
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Laosan came back carrying rapeseed and saw that the yard was already full of herbs drying. "Did those people carry the herbs here?"
Yang Chunyan: "Yes! The ladies who used to bring herbs to sell are here now. They collected about 200 kilograms. They said they were going to Fangtian to look for herbs today."
Zhou Huaian: "It seems that most of the herbs nearby have been found."
Mother Zhou came out of the kitchen and said to Zhou Huaian, "Youngest, if you dare to associate with Cai Ermei again, I will break your legs!"
Zhou Huaian frowned and said, "Do I need you to tell me this?" Then he took the sack and left.
Yang Chunyan looked at the rapeseed she had brought back and asked, "Mom, how many kilograms of rapeseed can be harvested from one mu of land?"
Mother Zhou picked up a handful of rapeseed and took a look. "The rapeseed is not very good this year. We can only harvest 100 to 200 kilograms of rapeseed per mu. Three kilograms of rapeseed can produce one kilogram of oil. The oil produced from the rapeseed harvested this season will not be enough for us to eat until next year."
She looked at Yang Chunyan with satisfaction as she spoke, "I originally planned to harvest the rapeseed and sell it for oil so that I could buy you two household items. Now we don't need to do that. We'll keep it for ourselves."
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "At the end of the year, we will use more than ten mu of land in the back mountain to sow wheat, and the rest will be planted with rapeseed."
Mother Zhou nodded. "We are doing well at home now. Your husband and I plan to grow more fine grains next year."
"It's better to grow fine grains so that you can pay less grain tax." Zhang Xiuxiang walked in carrying a load of rapeseed stalks.
Yang Chunyan recalled that when people used to pay public grain, one pound of fine grain was equivalent to several pounds of corn and sorghum. Everyone used millet to pay the public grain, so they could have some extra food for themselves.
Mother Zhou touched a handful of rape stalks and said, "I'll go get a bundle of straw. Chunyan will roll it into bundles and pile them under the firewood pile. It will be easier to burn."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan dragged over a straw stool and sat in front of the rape stalks and began to roll the straw bundles.
Zhou Jiaming carried Zhou Xiaolin on his back, followed by Zhou Xiaoqian, "Aunt, one ice cream is two cents, and I have six cents left to give to you."
"Six cents is for you to buy candy for your brothers and sisters later."
Zhou Jiaming looked at her with a smile on his face, "Are you really going to buy us some candy?"
Zhou Xiaoqian and the others also looked at her happily, "Aunt Yao, is it ours?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "It's for you guys! Go do your homework quickly."
"Yes, I'll write it right away!" Several kids walked towards the main room happily.
When Zhao Huifang and the others came back from the fields, the sisters-in-law were sitting on the eaves, gathering grass.
Zhou's father and the old man came back from the earthen kiln. The old man grabbed a handful of rapeseed and looked at it. "It was too dry after the Chinese New Year this year. Even the rapeseed yield is not good."
Father Zhou said: "As soon as the land was opened, we planted rapeseed. The rapeseed seedlings grew out and then the soil was evenly distributed. The rapeseed seedlings were not very good and lacked fertility, so it was normal that the yield was not good."
"If we work hard next year, the output will go up." The old man sat on the recliner and took out some tobacco leaves to smoke.
Father Zhou took out four small red books from his pocket and handed them to Yang Chunyan, "This is the proof that your families have contracted the wasteland.
Secretary Xu went to Ning'an to help you. He asked us to discuss which piece of land belongs to which family, and then he went to help you measure the land and divide the barren mountain. "
Thanks to my book friend Qiu Xiao Luo Yan for the reward and support! Thank you!
(End of this chapter)
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