Chapter 76 Honey Claws
Sang Luo reported the amount of cotton used to make clothes based entirely on her original body's memory.
Growing up in the modern world where everyone has to buy clothes, this was the first time she actually saw a pound of cotton in such a big bag.
Carrying the things out of the cloth shop and placing the cotton on the cart, Sang Luo drove the cart to the grain store to find Chen Youtian and the others.
She had no money to buy food today, and she had only seventy-odd coins left, which she kept for herself and would continue to save for buying cotton next time.
Before reaching the grain shop, she saw from afar the crowd of people queuing there dispersing reluctantly. When Sang Luo went over, she saw Chen Youtian and Zhou Cunzheng and his group, who looked very depressed.
"Uncle Arita, what's going on?"
Chen Youtian was a little worried: "The grain store has sold out all the grain today before it's our turn."
Sang Luo looked in the direction of the grain shop and saw that the clerk had hung a sign saying that the grain shop was sold out for the day and was closing the door.
Not seeing Lu Dalang, he asked again, "Where's Uncle Lu?"
Chen Youtian said, "They are waiting in other shops. I don't know how they are doing."
Just as he finished speaking, Lu Dalang came back from the other side. The grain shop he had queued at did not buy any grain and the shop was closed.
Zhou Cunzheng shook his head: "I'm afraid it won't be available these two days. The city gates must have opened a little later this morning so that people in the county town could line up at the grain store first."
The residents in the county town bought grain at this time. Some of them hoarded grain after hearing the rumors, and some of them had not yet collected enough rent and taxes to pay. Naturally, the higher-ups would focus on this group of people first.
In fact, there was no delay at the city gate. Those who had not collected enough rent and taxes lined up outside several grain shops with their families before dawn. It was not really their turn to come from the countryside. Even if they walked in the dark with torches, what would it matter? If the city gate was not open, they could only stand outside when they arrived.
Since they couldn't buy food, there was no point in staying in the county. Everyone had to go back to the village to do farm work. So while talking, they all headed towards the gate of the county town to go home.
The cart in Sang Luo's hand was also taken over by Lu Dalang.
"Uncle Jiu, are you really not coming these two days? I see the price of grain is 98 wen per dou today." The person asking the question was Zhou Lizheng's son.
Zhou Cunzheng sighed: "Even if I come here, I can't buy it."
Before all taxes and grain are collected, the city gates will probably be opened at a fixed time.
Zhou Cun just couldn't understand why the county government, which could intervene in such detailed matters, couldn't communicate with the grain merchants. Not to mention stabilizing grain prices, even if they put a little more grain on the market, it wouldn't be as difficult to get grain as it is now.
However, he soon felt that he was thinking too much. If the county magistrate could easily influence the grain merchants, the price of grain would not change every day.
If the county chief could really sit down with the grain merchants to discuss matters, Zhou Cunzheng felt that the probability of collusion between the two would be greater.
Stabilize food prices?
He has not been lucky enough to see such a good official in all these years.
There was no conversation along the way. When they returned to the village, Sang Luo took a small path beside the village road in advance, while Zhou Cunzheng and his group were surrounded by villagers who had already started paying attention to the price of grain as soon as they entered the village.
Finally, someone couldn't stand the anxiety anymore and thought that no matter how high the price was, he would buy some to stock up. However, he was reluctant to spend the money for the office and the daily entrance fee to the city, so he thought of asking Chen Youtian and others to help carry some.
After waiting for half the morning, he saw Chen Youtian and his companions returning with an empty car and empty hands, and his face changed immediately.
Sang Luo doesn't care what happens to the villagers.
She returned home and put away the pound of cotton she had bought.
Chen An and Shen Ning leaned over to take a look. They had never seen such new and snow-white cotton before. It was so loose and soft. Chen Ning pinched it again and again, enjoying it very much.
"Sister-in-law, is this for making a quilt?"
Sang Luo nodded: "Yes, let's save some more. When we have three or four kilograms, we can make it. Recently, the three of us can squeeze together and use two quilts. We can also use the unused fabrics to press the quilt covers."
The weather in September is actually not that bad during the day. You won’t feel cold if you wear new autumn clothes. Then in October, you can put on your old autumn clothes and wear two pieces to get by.
At this time of year, it only gets colder in the mountains in the middle of the night, so the cotton-padded jacket can be made later, but the quilt must be made first.
But since it is made, it is not easy to make a quilt that weighs one kilogram. Can it be called a quilt then?
Fortunately, I exchanged some fabrics with three families and was able to make several sets of clothes. I used two quilts and put a few more clothes on top. The three of us could sleep on one another, which was enough to get through September.
When they heard that they had to collect three or four kilograms of cotton to make a quilt, the brother and sister's eyes lit up.
When their eldest brother was around, the brother and sister could wear cotton-padded jackets and cover themselves with warm quilts. After their eldest brother passed away, these were no longer available. Their third aunt took apart and replaced the good cotton. Their jackets were filled with hardened old cotton and some reed fluff, and the same was true for their quilts.
It looks like a cotton quilt and a cotton jacket, but it is actually not cold-resistant. It is really cold in winter.
After the cotton was collected, Sang Luo took out the grain bags she brought back today, washed them and hung them up to dry. These were real good things, and the grain store would only give them to you if you bought a large amount of grain. If you bought a small amount, you just had to bring your own cloth bags to pack them.
After finishing all the work, he went back to the kitchen, poured a bowl of water to drink, and without stopping, he got up to pick sour jujubes and leaves from the magic tree to earn money to buy quilts.
The hawthorn trees were fine recently, as they were always there, and some would fall from time to time. But the leaves of the magic tree could no longer be found nearby, and one had to walk quite far to get there. So after the stone road outside the yard was repaired, Sang Luo usually went into the mountains with Chen An, who had relatively better endurance and a backpack, and left Chen Ning at home.
Today was the same. The two of them wandered around in the mountains and came to the other side of the village where they had rarely been before. They picked up a lot of sour jujubes, but they could hardly find many usable fairy leaves.
Chen An was worried: "Sister-in-law, can our magical tofu still be made today?"
In fact, Shen An was not worried about today alone. He had already realized that he might not be able to sell the fairy tofu this year.
If one thing is missing, it means one less income. The family is short of money now. We have been getting receipts for selling vegetarian tripe, and we have to pay the bill to Dongfulou. We haven't received any money for selling tofu these days. They have all exchanged the money for cloth to make clothes. The weather is getting cold soon, and we need a lot of cotton to make jackets and quilts.
Chen An didn't know the price of cotton, but his elder brother had bought some before.
Chen An remembered that it was the money his eldest brother and Dashan brother bought after they went into the mountains for several days and hunted prey and carried it to the county to sell it.
The hunt is for big things.
Both Big Brother and Brother Dashan were injured that time.
The cotton that is exchanged for big things must be very, very expensive.
When eldest brother brought back so much cotton, Third Aunt's eyes turned red. Eldest brother gave half of it to Shen Jin and the others. Only then did Third Uncle and Third Aunt smile.
Because of these, in Shen An's mind, cotton was something as valuable as grain. Moreover, they could grow grain in their fields, but not cotton. No one grew it in their place. It seemed that people grew it in the neighboring county across the water. It was warmer there than here, so cotton could grow well.
So, there are places to spend money everywhere, but there is one less way to make money. How can we not be worried?
Sang Luo looked at the usable fairy tree leaves that she had found after searching for more than an hour today, and she knew that this year's fairy tofu would be eaten up. Seeing that Chen An's face was full of worry, she smiled and said, "Okay, don't worry, sister-in-law has a way to make money."
He looked at the deeper part and said, "Let's go a little further in and find some more fairy tree leaves to add to the ones we have picked. At least we can make a few pieces. We won't sell them. We can keep them for ourselves and give some to some families we know. This is a busy year. At the end, everyone can taste them and end it all."
Shen An nodded and followed his sister-in-law to another hilltop.
Looking inside, Sang Luo really found a few magical trees. When she was reaching for the branches to pick leaves, she heard Shen An's surprised voice behind her.
"Sister-in-law, look what I found!"
Sang Luo turned around and saw Chen An holding a short dry branch in his hand?
Chen An had already happily come over to Sang Luo, holding up the food in his hand excitedly: "Sister-in-law, honey claws, this is delicious!"
Sang Luo blinked when she heard the words "honey claws". When the person got closer, she suddenly laughed, "Guai Zao?"
I took the thing that Chen An handed over. If it wasn't a jujube, what else could it be?
Chen An was like offering a treasure: "Sister-in-law, do you recognize this? We call it Honey Claw here. My brother used to bring it to me and Aning when he went into the mountains."
Sang Luo smiled: "I recognize it. We call it Guai Zao over there."
Thinking that the place where his original home was located might not be called this name, he added: "There was a servant in my family who liked to run to the mountains when he had free time. He brought this back and said it was called Guai Zao."
Chen An didn't think much about it. He smiled so hard that his eyes curved. He picked a handful of fruits, removed the edible part, wiped it with his hand, and handed it to Sang Luo: "Sister-in-law, you eat it."
After Sang Luo took it, she immediately got another one and threw it into her mouth.
"I'll go look for it and bring it back to Aning."
Chen An wanted to find a tree, but Sang Luo smiled and said, "Look for it on the short branches nearby or on the ground. The tree is very tall, and only the ripe ones that fall down are sweet."
Although Chen An had eaten this thing before, he really didn't know what the tree looked like. After hearing his sister-in-law's reminder, he hurriedly changed his angle of view to look for it. Sure enough, he found fallen short branches of jujube on the branches of many trees and shrubs nearby.
He was so happy that he had even forgotten about the fairy leaves.
Sang Luo found it funny. While looking for leaves of the magic tree, she picked up some jujubes and held them in her hand. If there were extra ones, she put them in Chen An's backpack.
"Pick up more. This can also be sold for money."
Shen An: "!!! Can this be sold for money?!"
That’s right, this is so sweet, he likes to eat it.
Sang Luo smiled: "Sure, pick up as much as you can, maybe we can save up the cotton for making quilts earlier."
Shen An became motivated after hearing this. Instead of the tofu, he got the jujube. The little guy's eyes were so wide open from smiling that they became crescents, and his mouth was grinning so happily, as if God loved them.
He picked the jujubes very quickly, and his eyes were very agile. He looked around quickly, not missing a single spot or branch. He surrounded the tall jujube tree and picked the jujubes in a sweeping manner.
This is a jujube tree that is quite old, with lush branches and leaves. In other words, the jujubes fell over a large area, and Chen An was very happy picking them up.
When both backpacks were filled to the brim, there were still quite a few jujubes left to be picked up.
Because they had already picked a lot of sour jujubes and some leaves of the fairy tree, the two people's backpacks could not hold anything.
"Let's go home and free up the backpacks. We'll come back right away." Sang Luo looked around and said, "We can at least pick up enough for two more backpacks."
When Shen An heard that he would come again soon, he had no regrets: "Then let's hurry up."
I was very excited all the way back. The closer I got to home, the happier I was. When I reached the foot of the mountain where they lived, I looked up and saw Shen Ning squatting by the chicken coop outside the yard. I didn't know what he was doing, but I didn't see him anyway.
He was so excited that he pulled the basket's back rope with both hands and ran towards his home halfway up the mountain. From a distance, he waved a jujube branch in his hand and shouted, "Aning, Aning, look what I brought you!"
Chen Ning was half squatting beside the chicken coop, his waist bent, his head almost touching the ground, looking into the chicken coop, and as he looked, he reached inside and reached something, then smiled. When he stretched out his hand again, he was holding a still warm egg in his palm.
She was even more excited than Shen An. She stood up straight with a smile. Before Sang Luo and Shen An reached the halfway point of the mountain, she excitedly waved her hands and shouted at them: "Sister-in-law, second brother, our chickens have laid eggs! Look, an egg, it's still warm!"
She held the egg high up for the two of them to see. She wanted to shake it, but was afraid of crushing it. The smile on her face was brighter than the warm autumn sun.
Sang Luo looked at the brother and sister and smiled with joy.
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