Chapter 21
The three of them were picking leaves busily when Chen Youtian also arrived home.
Mrs. Chen was sitting in the yard spinning hemp. When she saw her son coming back with a bucket on his shoulder, she was surprised: "You're back so early?"
As he spoke, he stood up and looked into his own bucket. In addition to the basket he had taken out in the morning, he also saw a pottery basin from his home. "How is it going? Is everything going well?"
Chen Youtian put down his burden and nodded: "It went smoothly. My eggs were sold out early because of them."
Mrs. Chen became interested and asked her son to explain the situation in detail. She glanced outside the courtyard and saw the Shen family not far away. She called Chen Youtian, "Let's talk in the main hall."
Qin Fangniang was weaving in the west room. When she heard the noise, she stopped looming and came out. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went into the main room together and listened to Chen Youtian talk about Sang Luo's going to the market today.
Chen Youtian was silent for a moment when he saw the posture of his mother and wife.
He was not a man of good words, and he just said a few dry words about how much magic tofu Sang Luo had brought today, how much each piece cost, and what else she had bought, and that was it.
Finally, he thought for a while, and told me how Sang Luo was very good at organizing things at the market, and how she never repeated the same words when she called out. He also talked about how Sang Luo changed her route to the mountain when she was near the mountain, and said, "She has a plan for success."
Mrs. Chen thought it was great: "Only if you are successful can you support your family."
Qin Fangniang was envious: "In just half a morning, you earned more than fifty coins?"
This is a huge sum of money for a farmer.
For example, the dozen or so eggs her husband asked to buy this morning were what their family had saved for six or seven days. On average, the daily income from eggs was only two or three cents.
Chen Youtian shook his head: "Not only that, some of them were exchanged for things. If you count the value of those things, it's estimated to be more than sixty coins."
Qin Fangniang was speechless and envious, unable to speak.
More than 60 coins a day, one episode every five days, how much is that in a month? How much is that in a year?
She couldn't calculate it, but she felt that it must be a huge sum of money that she couldn't even imagine.
Mrs. Chen was quite happy: "In this way, they can live a normal life slowly, and Xiaoan and Aning will have someone to rely on."
Turning around to see her daughter-in-law looking dizzy and blurry, she pulled her soul back: "Don't be envious, they have no land, they rely on this craft to survive, didn't you hear what those who have land said? They have to exchange for food, buy a basin and some grain, and there is not a penny left."
Qin Fangniang nodded dazedly: "I know, I just think it's great to have a skill."
It was good, but it was not something to be envied. Mrs. Chen was careful and thought that the autumn harvest was coming soon, so she asked Chen Youtian, "How is the grain price now?"
When he heard his mother asking about the price of grain, Chen Youtian paused and said, "Seventy coins a bushel."
Qin Fangniang's eyes lit up: "Seventy cents?"
Chen Youtian nodded and tried to force a smile, but failed to do so.
Qin Fangniang wondered, "Isn't it good if the price goes up? We have paid the autumn tax in advance this year. When the grain from the fields is harvested, we will keep some for our family to eat and sell it to the grain merchants when the price is good. This year, we should be able to have a little surplus."
It is not easy for farmers to save money because they have no other way to make money. They can only rely on the food from the fields and odd jobs during the slack season. They are busy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. After paying taxes and rent, they go to their families for food and clothing. If they have a headache or fever, or some social interactions, they think it is a good day if they can have one or two taels of silver left.
This is also the reason why Qin Fangniang was particularly envious of Sang Luo for earning more than sixty cents today.
Chen Youtian nodded: "It's a good thing."
And then no more words were said.
Mrs. Chen took one look at her son and knew that he had a knot in his heart that could not be untied. Her daughter-in-law didn't see it, so she didn't say anything and changed the subject: "You came back early today, take a rest and drink some water, then go to the fields to help your father."
Better than thinking about it at home.
Chen Youtian nodded, went to get a bowl, poured half a bowl of water from the cold kettle in the main room and drank it, then turned around, went to the yard, picked up a hoe and went to the field.
Qin Fangniang was a little puzzled: "Mom, what happened to him?"
Mrs. Chen looked at her.
What's wrong? I'm thinking of Dalang.
Why did the price of grain go up? It's because of years of war, the imperial court ran out of food, and taxes were levied in advance, so everyone was short of food. Then there was a disaster in the north, so the price went up.
Because the death of the eldest grandson was related to the war, it was a stab in the son's heart.
Unlike the Shen family, where Shen San spent money to push out Shen Lie, who was not old enough, their Dalang felt sorry for his father and took the initiative to find the head of the village to change his name. The list was submitted, but the family only found out about it when he was about to leave, and he couldn't change it back.
When Chen Youtian first heard that Dalang and Shen Lie were in the same camp and that all the soldiers in that camp were killed, he wished he could die.
More than half a year passed and the man gradually recovered, but whether he felt better mentally or not, no one in the family knew it.
It won't get better.
But can I tell this to my daughter-in-law?
The couple's love for their son is the same. The daughter-in-law didn't think that way, so why should she remind her and just peel off the scab on her wound?
So Granny Chen just waved her hand and said, "I guess he thought about the severe disaster in the north. We also fled here to escape famine back then."
Qin Fangniang thought about the journey her family had taken to escape the disaster in her hometown and sighed, "Alas, if God doesn't give us a way to survive, we have no way out."
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