Chapter 140 Salesman
The next morning, in a not-so-deep mountain behind Shili Village, Shen Yin looked at the pheasant trap that had never been triggered and asked a soul-searching question.
"Brother, have you really learned from Big Brother?"
Shen Jin: “…”
"I've learned it. My elder brother has seen it and said it's correct. He also said that it took him about ten tries to catch a pheasant at the beginning. Just practice more and it will be fine."
"Then this is already sixteen or seventeen times, right?"
At first, their mother was sick and they couldn't take care of her. Later, they were busy digging holes in the ground. Recently, they started to think about trapping pheasants and have been trying for about sixteen or seventeen days.
Shen Yin looked at the place where he had spread soybean residue with distress. The chickens were not caught and the soybean residue was eaten up. These were the food rations that he and his third brother had secretly saved. At first, they were reluctant to use them and used other things as bait to catch pheasants, but it didn't work. After trying for ten days without catching any, the two brothers could only save from their own mouths. In the past few days, they had spent a small amount of money.
Shen Jin was also depressed, trying to figure out what was wrong. At first he could have said that the bait was not good enough to attract the pheasants, but now the soybean dregs had clearly been eaten.
So, was it that the leaves didn't cover the trap well enough, or that the roadblocks were not set up as my brother said, allowing the pheasants to eat without going through the trap?
He looked left and right. It was obvious that he had made careful adjustments several times and chose the place according to his elder brother's instructions. There were pheasant feathers on the ground, and it was obvious that there were places where pheasants had dug.
He thought carefully about every step his elder brother had taken him to set traps, but he really couldn't figure out what was wrong. His elder brother had taken him into the mountains to set traps several times. He had set the traps, and his elder brother had demonstrated and adjusted them, and they had always caught pheasants. Why couldn't he do it alone?
"Let's go check out the other trap."
Shen Yin stood up dejectedly and followed Shen Jin.
Seeing him like this, Shen Jin touched his nose and said, "Don't be discouraged. I'm also pretty good at slingshot training. If it really doesn't work, let's go a little deeper. There are more pheasants in the deeper places. We don't need to use traps, we can just use slingshots to shoot them directly."
Shen Yin glanced at him and said, "Didn't Big Brother tell you not to go deeper unless you are too hungry to bear it?"
Shen Jin lowered his head and replied muffledly: "Yes, I did, but I'm a little scared. Mother has been coughing ever since she was kicked by the yamen runners, and the cough is getting worse and worse."
Shen Yin's face turned pale. He went in and out with Shen Jin every day, so how could he not know what Shen Jin knew?
Their mother just had coughing and wheezing at first, but now she can't sleep all night. There are constant coughing sounds at home day and night, and most of the time she looks like she can't breathe.
My father disliked the noise and the fact that it disturbed his sleep, so he moved to the room where my eldest brother, second brother and eldest sister used to live.
When Shen Yin thought of Li's situation, his mouth drooped and his eyes turned red.
However, he also knew that crying was useless now, so he raised his hand and wiped away the tears that had just appeared. The tears were quickly wiped away around his eyes, and when the mountain breeze blew, only the coolness around his eyes remained.
"If only mother had been willing to leave in the beginning, she wouldn't have to follow big brother. Uncle Laizi and his family left on their own. Many families in the neighboring villages also fled to the mountains on their own."
If we hadn't stayed here, we wouldn't have run into those evil yamen runners, they wouldn't be out of food now, and my mother wouldn't have developed the coughing and asthma problem from being kicked here.
Shen Yin thought of her mother coughing day and night, unable to sleep during the day or lie down at night, and could only sit or lie on the bed to cough, sometimes coughing so hard that she would hold her stomach and groan in pain, and she began to hate the yamen runners. But he was small and weak, and he could not do anything to those people.
But the reality is that there are no ifs in this world.
Not to mention that people have no foresight, even after being beaten by the yamen runners, Shen Jin also persuaded his parents to leave, but neither Shen San nor Li was willing to leave.
So Shen Jin didn't respond and walked silently towards another trap.
Before he got close, Shen Jin stopped, as if there was some movement.
Pulling Shen Yin and taking a few quick steps, they turned around a bush and heard the source of the noise. A pheasant was hung by one leg and was struggling desperately to break free from the hemp rope that was hanging its foot.
Shen Jin and Shen Yin's eyes lit up, and without thinking, they ran towards the trap.
When the pheasant saw the people coming, it struggled even more violently and flew up. Shen Jin pounced on it, grabbed the rope and pulled it back. Shen Yin pounced on it and held the pheasant down.
"Pheasant, pheasant, brother, we got a pheasant!"
Shen Jin was so happy that he was dumbfounded: "I said I didn't remember what Big Brother taught me correctly."
Shen Yin held the pheasant's wings firmly at the base, and had to be careful not to be pecked by the pheasant. Shen Jin quickly untied the knot tied to the pheasant's feet, put the trap back together, and tidied up the place that was messed up by the pheasant's struggle. He sprinkled leaves on the trap, and inserted some shrub branches around it. Then he carefully pinched some soybean dregs from his pocket and sprinkled them on the edge of the trap.
"Let's go home!"
Shen Yin was happy, and followed him happily while holding the pheasant: "Brother, did you stew the chicken today?"
"Of course not. We need to stock up on food, and mom also needs money to see a doctor."
There has been very little food at home recently, and their two holes were only filled with some dried wild vegetables, but not a single grain of food.
Shen Jin cooked every day, so he was the one who had the easiest access to food. However, his family was so poor that they could not even have much soybeans to eat, so where could they hide the food?
Shen Jin said: "Let's see mother first."
"Okay!" Shen Yin agreed immediately, but hesitated: "Doctor, do you collect pheasants when you see a doctor?"
Shen Jin was stunned by this question. He paused, scratched his head, and suddenly remembered: "Let's go the other way. Aren't there peddlers coming to the village every day recently? Let's go around to my eldest brother's house and take the small road out of the mountain. We can wait on the mountain road outside the village and ask him if he sells pheasants."
There is indeed a peddler walking around Shili Village recently, collecting grain, beans and other things. Who has grain and beans to sell to him now? Yet he comes here every day.
Fortunately, he openly sells combs and hair ties on his pole, but he also sells brine blocks privately. Half a year ago, few families in the village used brine, but now it is different. The price of salt has risen sharply, and everyone is extremely poor. Even if they can still afford salt, they dare not buy it. Don't they have to keep some money to survive?
So when the peddler brought back a few pieces of brine every day, the villagers would not tell anyone about it, because everyone needed this thing, and cutting off the peddler's livelihood would mean cutting off their own livelihood.
Go to the county to buy it. The county is now afraid of refugees sneaking in. Not only are they strictly checked, but the entrance fee has been raised to three cents per person. Can you afford it? With the three cents to pay the entrance fee, you can buy a small piece of brine from the peddler.
Therefore, the peddler would visit Shili Village every few days, and the villagers were very happy to see him. No one would risk their jobs to report him.
Of course, now the village chiefs have all run away, and many people from various villages have also run away. The village heads are also overwhelmed, and the officials above are also on guard against bandits causing chaos. No one cares about who sells brine or not. The control of salt by the Dagan Dynasty was not very strict.
The reason why the Shen Jin brothers went to the mountain road outside the village to block the peddler was that they were afraid that the pheasants they caught would be too conspicuous. They didn't want to be targeted by the villagers in the future. If they set the trap in front and the villagers followed behind to collect the pheasants, what would they be busy with? If they found a hole in the ground because of watching them, it would be even more troublesome.
This was what my eldest brother had told me early in the morning. We should not show off our wealth and should not let the villagers know that we were able to hunt pheasants.
…
On the mountain road leading to Shili Village, the old servant of the Xu family, wearing patched old clothes and shoes that were not much better than those of refugees, would walk here every day with his pole carrying old goods to take a walk around Shili Village.
In fact, he only went around Shili Village and occasionally went to the mountains for Alang.
Today, like every day before, he was carrying a load of goods towards Shili Village. He was still quite far from the village entrance when someone on the mountain road called him, "Peddler, hey, peddler."
The old servant of the Xu family turned his head and saw, Oh, isn't this the young master he came to Shili Village to take care of every day? Looking at the mountain path again, it was also familiar, it was the path leading out of Mr. Shen's house.
The old servant of the Xu family stopped and smiled: "Young Master, are you calling me?"
"Yes, yes, yes." Shen Jin nodded, looked at the two sides of the road, and saw that there was no one else. He took Shen Yin out of the small road and said, "Peddler, do you buy pheasants? Live ones."
When the old servant of the Xu family saw the pheasant flapping its wings in Shen Yin's hand, he exclaimed and looked at the two brothers in surprise.
Mr. Shen is a capable man. It is said that he is a good hunter and has hunted black bears and wolves. Otherwise, Alang would not have thought of sending the old lady and the young man and his wife to the mountains. He did not expect that these two children, who are so young, can catch pheasants by themselves.
That's right, with the relationship between the two branches of the Shen family, that Mr. Shen asked Alang to take care of these brothers and sisters. How could I not love them? I think he taught them before leaving.
He nodded: "Yes, young master, do you want to exchange it for money or food, or something else?"
When the peddler said he would accept it, Shen Jin and Shen Yin's eyes lit up. The two brothers said in unison: "Exchange money, peddler, we want to exchange money. Can you see how much this pheasant can be exchanged for?"
The peddler was stunned.
He had privately inquired about the situation of the third branch of the Shen family very clearly. They relied on soybeans and wild vegetables to fill their stomachs every day. How come they were not exchanging for food?
Thinking about the little food hidden at the bottom of the carrying pole, which Alang had always asked him to carry, if one day these kids really couldn't stand the hunger, he would think of a way to send them some food for emergency use.
The peddler said, "Young man, don't you want to exchange for some grain? In fact, grain is better than money now."
After hearing this, Shen Jin knew that the peddler was a good man. He swallowed and shook his head: "My mother is sick, and we want her to see a doctor, so let's exchange money."
The peddler was over 40 years old and had no children. But seeing that the two children could still resist the temptation of chicken and grain and exchange them for money for their mother's medical treatment, even though he knew that Mrs. Li was not a good person, he was moved by the filial piety of the two children.
Well, although Ah Lang said that he didn't care about the couple from the third room of the Shen family, this was a pheasant caught by the child himself, and it was natural for him to honor his mother. When Mr. Shen taught this child skills, he knew that the couple from the third room would benefit from it, but he still taught them, didn't he? The relationship between parents and children is not clear.
He only helped these two children. As for whether these two children should respect their mother, that was their own business.
The peddler thought it through and confirmed with Shen Jin and Shen Yin that he wanted to exchange it for money, not grain. He nodded, took the pheasant, weighed it, and said, "You can't sell pheasants in the countryside, but the county restaurants and wealthy families still buy them. The world is difficult now. Since you are here to treat your mother, I won't make any money from you. To be honest with you, the price of grain in the county has risen sharply, and the price of this pheasant is better than before. I estimate that you can get more than 110 coins for this one by weighing it. I will charge you a few coins for the difference in the city entrance fee, and give you 110 coins. Just consider it as helping you make a trip, doing a good deed every day."
More than one hundred and ten wen is indeed the price of a pheasant of this size in the county now. Now everything related to food has increased in price.
The peddler was also a cautious person. Even if he wanted to help the children of the third branch of the Shen family, he would not reveal himself too much. Besides, the children were far from being unable to survive.
"One hundred and ten coins??!!"
Shen Jin and Shen Yin's eyes were wide open and their mouths were slightly open, enough to fit half an egg.
"Yes, I only paid you this price because you said you were paying for my mother's medical treatment. Don't tell anyone else about it. I won't run errands for nothing."
Shen Jin and Shen Yin finally reacted and bowed to the peddler repeatedly: "Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"
The peddler smiled and took out two strings of money from his pocket. He gave one string directly to Shen Jin and counted out ten coins from the other string and gave it to him.
Shen Jin had learned to count from Chen An and Shen Ning, and he usually wouldn't make a mistake with a hundred coins. He also watched the peddler count the ten coins, and he was absolutely correct. He didn't say anything to count them again, but took them with both hands, and found that he couldn't hold them, so he quickly put them in his pocket.
My heart is pounding so fast!
One hundred and ten coins!!!
One hundred and ten coins!!!
He was so happy that his mouth almost stretched to his ears, and his hands were shaking a little. Without saying anything, he pulled Shen Yin and bowed deeply to the peddler again: "Father, you are such a good man. My brother and I will remember it. Thank you very much, father-in-law. Thank you very much, father-in-law."
I couldn't say anything fancy, just said "thank you, father-in-law" four times.
The old servant of the Xu family thought that I was not the one who did this, but he did not point it out. He grabbed the pheasant with one hand and helped the two children up with the other hand, saying, "That's enough, don't show off your wealth, go back."
"Hey, hey, I'll be right back."
When Shen Jin was about to leave, he thought of something and said to the peddler, "Father, can you please not tell anyone in the village about our sale of pheasants?"
The old servant thought that the child was quite thoughtful, and nodded with a smile: "Okay, young master, if you catch pheasants next time, just wait for me by the village road. But I advise you to exchange some food if you can. In autumn, the fields can harvest food, but there are still several months until autumn. No one knows what will happen in the meantime. Young master, you must know that things are unpredictable."
Shen Jin had never learned the words "everything in the world is unpredictable" before, but he could understand them. He could understand them too well. How could he have imagined that his family's life would be like this a few months ago? How could he have imagined that several families in the village would be forced to flee into the mountains?
He nodded and thanked her, then pulled Shen Yin back to the path and ran towards the village.
The peddler watched the two brothers walk away, then he picked a handful of tough grass from the roadside, tied up the pheasant's wings and feet together, opened another carrying pole, and stuffed the pheasant into the empty one.
He didn't go into the village, but went straight back to the county to report with his load on his shoulder.
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