Chapter 68: The Names of the Big Brother and Sister-in-law
There were three families who wanted to buy food. The Shi and Lu families, who were originally hesitant because of the high grain prices, gradually began to stock up on grain to provide a guarantee for their families.
The two families discussed it in a low voice, and finally decided to buy some as well.
You may not be willing to buy too much, of course, you don’t have that much money, but you will feel uneasy if you don’t buy a little.
Zhou Cunzheng was pleased to see that these families were so unanimous, and nodded, saying, "Then I will inform each family about the increase in grain prices, and remind them to stock up on grain, and see if there are any other families who want to buy. If you want to buy later, please come with me to Zhou Lizheng's house tonight to get it done. It will take some time for the county to approve it, so before that, you can go to the grain store in Sanli Village to have a look."
The Chen, Shi and Lu families each have a woman who has passed away, but their business of selling tofu cannot be interrupted, so the task of queuing up to buy food can only be done by the men in each family.
Zhou Cunzheng left, and the Lu and Shi families also left. Mrs. Chen grabbed Sang Luo and talked to her.
"You borrowed six taels of silver?"
Sang Luo nodded.
This made Mrs. Chen very worried. She had never owed so much foreign debt in her life. Just hearing the number of six taels made her eyes go dark: "When will I be able to pay it back?"
He then turned around and started to curse the imperial court for not doing its job, collecting taxes a year in advance, and even collecting taxes from those who had died in the war.
To curse Sang Luo is to curse one's own family and neighbors.
Sang Luo patted the old lady's rough hands and whispered, "Grandma, I'm afraid because the court is doing this. This spring is the first time that the conscription was advanced. It was six months earlier then, and this time it's a year earlier. Who can guarantee that there won't be a next time? If it goes on like this..."
She didn't say.
The old lady's expression changed slightly.
She is fifty-four this year. She has seen the world change its master before and knows what kind of chaos it is. Her hands trembled a few times and finally said, "Whatever, it's almost the same. I just hope we are far away in the south and won't be affected."
Anyway, she hasn't seen any particularly good ones.
They, the common people, have no influence over such a big event. They can just take care of themselves and hope that if it really happens, it won't affect their little place.
The old lady collected her thoughts and said to Sang Luo, "Don't rush to buy household items. If you want to go into the mountains, it will be winter soon. There won't be much work in the fields. I have a hoe at home. You can use the pointed hoe first. You can also keep the machete. It's more important to pay back the money you earn."
These two are the things that Sang Luo often borrowed from the old lady recently. Mrs. Chen guessed that what she was selling might require materials that need to be dug. The old lady didn't ask, and she would lend it to Sang Luo if she needed it.
Seeing that Sang Luo had borrowed so much debt, he became anxious for her.
He asked Sang Luo to wait and went back to the house to get her another bag of snake repellent powder. "I know you use a lot, so there shouldn't be much left, right? Take this bag back. Although making money is important, don't go too deep. If you really encounter a wild beast and you are so weak, it will be the end. Nothing is more important than life."
Sang Luo had rarely been cared for like this before, and her heart was warmed. She smiled and nodded: "I know."
If she had found almost all the things in the deeper part of her area, she would move to another place to explore. After all, she would always stay close to populated areas, as Sang Luo was very careful about her life.
The old lady had been reminded and Sang Luo borrowed a pair of scissors from her. She also received a few pieces of cloth in the past few days. She thought about making a pair of trousers for Chen An first, so that she could have a helper next time she went into the mountains.
The old lady heard that she was going to make clothes for Shen An, and she went in with a smile and took out a pair of scissors for Sang Luo.
Sang Luo took the things back. As soon as she got home, Gan, Feng Liuniang and Qin Fangniang came with money and soybeans. This was the payment for the tofu for the next day.
The business in the county was obviously affected by the taxation and the sharp rise in grain prices. At least the 80 blocks of tofu that Qin Fangniang brought today were sold out later than usual. Once the news of the sharp rise in grain prices spreads more in the county tomorrow, I'm afraid the business will be even worse.
To be on the safe side, Qin Fangniang reduced the usual amount of eighty yuan for the two kinds of tofu to sixty yuan. However, because of the orders for thirty yuan of tofu and twenty yuan of fairy tofu from Dongfulou, the total amount increased instead of decreased. Today, she had to order one hundred and ten yuan from Sang Luo.
The total amount was 165 coins, of which 40 coins were paid with a dou of yellow beans, and the remaining 125 coins were copper coins.
As for Feng Liuniang and Gan, since they had just started this business, they didn't ask for much, only 60 yuan per family, so there was no increase or decrease in the amount.
The two families should each give ninety coins. This time, Feng Liuniang and Gan Shi did not bring any linen or other things. They knew that Sang Luo was short of money, so each of them brought half a bucket of soybeans and gave seventy coins each.
With two hundred and sixty-five coins in her account, Sang Luo felt much more at ease.
After everyone left, he pulled Chen An over before it got dark, measured him, spread the cloth on the bed, and cut out the material for a pair of pants with a few scissors.
Thanks to the original body for her good needlework. If it were Sang Luo herself, she could do some sewing and mending, but she really didn't have the ability to cut clothes, not to mention that she could just measure and cut them in a few strokes, which required some skills.
The two little ones surrounded her. Sang Luo smiled and said, "Let's make Xiao An first, so that Xiao An can follow me into the mountains. We'll make An Ning's later. When my sister-in-law has more money, we'll make it later."
Chen Ning had no objection at all, and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, I don't think I need to make a new one. I can use the extra fabric from making clothes for my second brother to sew my trouser legs and wear them. The weather gets cold very quickly in autumn, so let's save some money to buy a quilt for the winter."
The quilt was not warm enough and he often woke up from the cold at night. This was Shen Ning's deepest impression of winter in the past two years.
Sang Luo looked at the little girl's clothes. There were so many patches on them. The hems of her trousers, which were hanging so high, were joined in two pieces. The material of the top piece was so worn out that it would be torn after a few more months of washing.
She touched Shen Ning's head and smiled, "There will be quilts, and clothes have to be made too."
She was a nine-year-old girl, and her pants were really torn on the outside. She would probably never forget the embarrassment for decades to come.
She sent two little ones to fetch the money jar under the bed to help her count the money, and sorted the copper coins in the house into strings of 100. She then moved a stool and sat in the yard to sew pants for Shen An.
When they heard that they were asked to count the money, the brother and sister became excited. They already knew that their eldest sister-in-law had borrowed six taels of silver from the owner of the restaurant in the county that bought their vegetarian tripe in order to buy grain.
Six taels of silver, Shen An specifically asked his sister-in-law, it would be seven thousand two hundred coins when converted into copper coins.
More than seven thousand dollars.
This is a number that the brother and sister can't even calculate.
Knowing that my family was burdened with a huge debt, I also started to save money on food. Fortunately, I had soy milk, tofu pudding, and tofu dregs to eat every day, so the nutrition was okay.
Sang Luo put the family's money in the broken clay pot that she used to cook with, and hid it under the bed where she slept. She covered it with a wooden board and put stones on the board to keep out rats.
Chen An crawled under the bed and took out the earthen jar, spread an old piece of clothing on his bed, and then poured all the money inside onto the old clothing.
The brother and sister sat on the bed and counted with grunts. After counting a string, they helped each other to count again and then tied the rope.
When Sang Luo had finished making most of a pair of pants, the little brother and sister said in the room, "Sister-in-law, we have counted them!"
Sang Luo looked back into the house and asked with a smile, "How much?"
The brother and sister had already gotten out of bed, put on their shoes and ran out, their faces full of excitement. Shen Ning rushed to say, "Sister-in-law, there are fifteen strings, and there are twenty-three coins."
Sang Luo smiled, "That's 1,523 yuan. Wait for another two or three days and save up the money from selling tofu. We should be able to save up more than 2,000 yuan. Then we can sell some of the crystal preserved food we made these days. We'll go to Dongfulou first to pay back the 2,000 yuan, and use the rest to buy some soybeans and bring them back."
Soybeans are also food. The three families now have to buy food from them. If the situation gets bad in the future, they will probably want to stockpile their own soybeans as food. However, few people in the county eat soybeans as their staple food. While the price of soybeans is not rising, they have to stockpile some mulberry.
When Shen Ning heard that he would be able to pay back two thousand yuan in a few days from the more than seven thousand yuan, he felt much more relieved and a smile appeared on his face.
Chen An was very careful and asked Sang Luo, "Sister-in-law, ten hundred equals one thousand, right?"
"Yes." Sang Luo nodded: "Ten hundreds are one thousand, and ten thousands are ten thousand, both are decimal."
Shen An repeated it silently in his mind and wrote it down.
Seeing that he was willing to learn, Sang Luo thought about how she taught them to read, and asked the little brother and sister, "Have you learned your own name in the past two days?"
The brother and sister nodded together, and Shen An said, "Sister-in-law, we will write it for you to see."
As he spoke, he turned around and went back to the house to get the sand table.
Putting the sand table on the ground, the two little ones squatted on one side and started writing with branch pens. After Chen An finished writing, he gave his seat to Chen Ning. When they finished writing, they carefully moved the sand table to the direction of Sang Luo.
Sang Luo took a look. Although the characters were quite large and crooked, with four characters written on a sand table and almost overlapping each other, it could not be called beautiful in the whole. However, there were no missing strokes and they were all written correctly.
"You are really smart. You have written them all correctly. Just practice more and write them more neatly. Then you will be able to write beautifully." Then he asked the little brother and sister, "What other new characters do you want to learn?"
Chen An already had an idea. When Sang Luo asked, he said without thinking, "I want to learn how to write my eldest brother and sister-in-law's names."
Chen Ning nodded and said, "I also want to learn to write my elder brother and sister-in-law's names. Last time, my little girl asked me to learn her name and write it for her. The stones we just picked up outside our yard were picked up by my little girl."
Sang Luo was silent. In the hearts of the two children, they still held on to the hope that their brother could come back alive, right?
She didn't say anything, just smiled and said, "Okay, come one by one. You know the word Chen, so learn to write your eldest brother's name first."
Chen Lie, she had seen Chen Lie's name in her family's books.
He took the branch handed over by Shen An, smoothed out the original four characters on the sand table, and wrote the word "Lie" in the corner of it.
After briefly explaining the stroke structure, he handed the branch to Shen An and said with a smile: "Just practice for a while over there. It's almost dark, so you can wait until tomorrow to learn."
She was about to stop sewing after sewing a few more stitches, and would finish the unfinished work tomorrow morning, as it would hurt her eyes if she continued sewing after dark.
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