Chapter 56 Chapter 56 Ways to Make Money
Huo Xing came back on the Laba Day. Miao Ying didn't know when he would return, so he took Xiao Mu to the county town to buy ingredients for making Laba porridge on the Laba Day. He met Huo Xing on the street outside the rice store.
Miao Ying was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "You're back?"
Huo Xing, who was always reserved, showed a hint of joy on his face. He saw what Miao Ying was holding and took it from him.
"I'm back." Huo Xing looked into Miao Ying's eyes, then lowered his eyes to look at Xiao Mu who was standing next to him, and then reached out and touched Xiao Mu on the top of his head.
"Big brother." Little Wood shouted.
Huo Xing hummed and asked, "Do you have anything else to buy?"
Miao Ying shook his head: "I originally came to buy some beans for making Laba porridge." He prefers salty porridge to sweet porridge, but he is still in mourning this year and cannot eat salty food, so he can only buy beans to make sweet porridge.
Miao Ying discussed it with his family and decided to stop keeping the observance after the Little New Year. After all, the child is growing and will not get enough nutrition if he does not eat meat. He believes that the master will understand.
"My brother and his wife came over a couple of days ago and brought half a pig. We haven't eaten it yet, and it's already been pickled into bacon, but I still want to make some sausages."
Huo Xing looked at him: "What sausage?"
Nowadays, people eat pickled bacon during the Chinese New Year. Bacon can be stored for a long time and is still delicious. Many families can eat a piece of bacon until the next Chinese New Year, but he didn't know what the sausage Miao Ying was talking about was.
"Just chop the fat and lean meat into small pieces, add seasoning, stuff it into sausage casings, and air-dry it," Miao Ying said. "Then I have to go back to my mother's house. Let's go tomorrow."
Huo Xing nodded: "I'll go back with you."
With Xiao Mu accompanying them along the way, they didn't say anything very private. Huo Xing seemed to be in a hurry and walked very fast. Miao Ying and the others had short legs and could not keep up. Later, they met an ox cart on the road and spent three cents to get a ride on it for a while.
Huo Xiaobao will not be attending classes after today's class. He heard that the two teachers were going on a trip and would not be celebrating the New Year in the village this year.
When Huo Xing got home, he saw a rack in the yard with several strips of bacon hanging on it. The bright red color had faded, and the surface was a layer of yellow. There were also spots of oil on the ground.
There was a small wooden stool next to the shelf, which didn't look like something Miao Ying could sit on.
Miao Ying saw him looking at the small stool and said, "This is a small wooden stool. He said he wanted to stay here and sometimes flies would come over. Today, I persuaded him for a long time before he came out with me."
After a while, Grandmother and Li Hongying also came back. They looked Huo Xing up and down, fearing that he would be injured again like last time. They were relieved to see that he was fine.
The whole family was very happy to see Huo Xing coming back. They fried a few more eggs during the meal. During the meal, Huo Xing talked about what he had experienced during his trip over the past few months.
He did not go to the provincial capital, but to a city along the river dam. The government there happened to be recruiting workers to do the work of dredging the river. Huo Xing worked there until the beginning of December. Because the government provided all his food and accommodation, he had no daily expenses and his wages were not in arrears, so Huo Xing earned three taels of silver in the few months he was away.
Because they earned little, Huo Xing bought some snacks for his two children, and no one else bought anything.
It was still nothing compared to the dozens of taels he brought back from his previous trip, but Miao Ying also knew that those thirty or so taels were almost paid for with Huo Xing's life. This was the norm now, but it was also very good.
In the past two months, the family has earned a few taels of silver from miscellaneous items. Add to that the half pig sent by Miao Ying's parents, and they will be able to have a good life this New Year.
A little sugar was added to the Laba porridge, and the beans inside were cooked soft, glutinous and sweet. Miao Ying also drank two more bowls. The two children liked sweet food even more. They ate until their stomachs were full but still didn't want to put down their bowls and chopsticks. Only when Miao Ying drove them away did they leave the table.
The two children ate too much, so Li Hongying asked them to run a few laps in the yard before letting them go to bed. Huo Xing boiled water in the kitchen. Miao Ying checked and closed the yard door, then touched the dog heads of steamed buns and cornbread, and then returned to the room.
The bag that Huo Xing brought back was very small. Miao Ying opened it and saw that it contained only the clothes he had brought with him when he left, nothing else. Miao Ying unfolded the clothes, thinking they needed to be washed. He wrinkled his nose and only smelled a faint scent of soapberries. It seemed that Huo Xing was not a sloppy person. He did not have the habit of changing a lot of clothes when he was out for a while and then taking them all home to wash.
When Huo Xing returned to the room, he saw Miao Ying holding his clothes and sniffing at them. The moment he saw it, Huo Xing felt that the room suddenly became hot.
He walked to the bedside and gently placed his hand on Miao Ying's shoulder.
Miao Ying turned around to look at him, and when they were alone, she suddenly felt a little shy.
But his personality did not allow him to behave in this way, so he took the initiative, raised his upper body and gently touched Huo Xing's lips.
Huo Xing took the initiative and pressed Miao Ying down, holding his face with both hands and kissing him hard again.
It was not until Miao Ying felt that he had sucked all the air out of his lungs that he softly punched his shoulder. Huo Xing then let him go, but not completely. He stared at him closely with his eyes as if he were staring at prey in the mountains.
Miao Ying raised his hand to cover his eyes, but Huo Xing grabbed his hand and kissed it.
After a while, Huo Xing finally got up from his body: "I have prepared a gift for you."
Miao Ying became interested and leaned over to ask him, "What is it?" He didn't see anything else in Huo Xing's bag just now.
Huo Xing pulled out a puppet from his pocket. Miao Ying took it and looked at it. His eyes were bright as he asked him, "Is this a carving of me?"
Huo Xing nodded and said, "I had nothing to do at night, so I just carved one. It doesn't look quite like it, but it will get better as I get more skilled."
Miao Ying seemed to like it very much. He then sat up and leaned over to the cabinet beside their bed to rummage around. He then took out another doll from the cabinet and said to Huo Xing excitedly, "Look, this was carved for me by Xiao Mu."
In comparison, Xiao Mu's carving skills are slightly more experienced than Huo Xing's. Perhaps it is because he follows Miao Ying, so the subtle expressions when he is carving are relatively vivid.
He turned his head to look at Huo Xing and found that Huo Xing's expression was a little strange. Miao Ying put away the two dolls and then patted Huo Xing on the shoulder: "It's okay. After all, the little wooden man has been influenced by it since he was a child. It's reasonable that he can do better than you. But you, you can do so well after such a short time of learning. It's already very good. Wait for a while..."
Huo Xing didn't want to listen to his comfort anymore, so he pushed him down on the bed and blocked his mouth.
Considering that they were still in mourning period, they didn't make it to the end. Miao Ying touched his trembling legs and looked at Huo Xing who was cleaning the basin.
Miao Ying whispered, "Let's just keep it like this from now on?" The size was not something a human could bear. Just from this, the skin on his thigh was burning with pain. If he went somewhere else, he would be dead.
Huo Xing paused for a moment as he was cleaning up the mess and said nothing. It was unclear whether he agreed or disagreed.
The next day, Miao Ying was woken up by being strangled. Although the small bed at home was no longer the same as before, they seemed to have gotten used to sleeping together in a ball. Now that they had moved to a big bed, they were still very close to each other.
Miao Ying pushed Huo Xing's shoulder, and Huo Xing woke up slowly, then held Miao Ying's waist tightly.
Miao Ying was strangled to the point of being unable to breathe, so he raised his foot and kicked him on the leg. Only then did Huo Xing wake up, loosen his hands, and then stuffed the clothes they took off into the quilt. With the warmth of the quilt, the clothes became less cold.
When he got dressed and got up, Li Hongying was already up sweeping the yard. Huo Xiaobao didn't have to go to school today, but he also got up early and was reciting his lessons in the yard while shaking his head.
Miao Ying yawned and walked over to rub his head. He also smiled. Miao Ying took his book away and said, "Why are you still reading during the holidays?"
"The teacher said we can't be lazy," Huo Xiaobao said.
Huo Xing didn't know Huo Xiaobao's exact birthday, so he could only choose the day Huo Xing brought him back as his birthday, which was on the 21st day of the twelfth lunar month. Last year, Huo Xiaobao's birthday was forgotten because the house was in a mess. This year, Miao Ying asked about it, intending to celebrate the child's birthday, but he didn't expect that it was such a coincidence that the two children's birthdays would fall on the same day.
So this year I plan to give both of my children a good birthday.
Miao Ying didn't want to see him become a nerd, so during dinner she said she wanted to go back to her mother's house and take her two little ones with her.
Before going out, Li Hongying changed new clothes for both children. Because all the money was used to build the house, there was no spare money to make clothes. So Miao Ying rummaged through her old clothes and found two brightly colored ones and asked Li Hongying to change them for Xiao Mu to wear. Huo Xiaobao's clothes were just last year's clothes that had been patched up, and he didn't pick on them.
Miao Ying had just made some candies two days ago, so she packed some and took them with her. She and Huo Xing took their children to Miao Ying's mother's house.
The two children played and fought along the way, and there was no need to worry about being hit by a car like in modern times. Huo Xiaobao hadn't had enough fun for a long time, and once he went out, he was like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins and could not be stopped. Fortunately, Xiao Mu was there, so Miao Ying let him do what he wanted.
When they arrived at Miao's house, it was already noon. The person guarding the shop was not Miao Dahai or Miao Dong, but his sister-in-law Zheng Caier.
Zheng Cai'er also saw Miao Ying at a glance, and quickly wiped her hands and came out to greet him: "Xiao Ying."
"Sister-in-law, where are my brother and father?"
"Dad went to the next village to slaughter pigs for someone, and my husband went out to kill pigs." Zheng Caier said with a smile.
Miao Ying nodded. It was the twelfth lunar month now, and many families were slaughtering pigs. It was also the time when their family made the most money.
"The meat is sold out now, and I'm just about to go home." Zheng Caier closed the shop, walked up to the two children, touched each of them, and then took them home.
Liu Qiong was doing needlework at home. When she heard the noisy noise outside, she thought something was going on. When she came out, she found that it was Miao Ying who had returned, and she brought Huo Xing and their two children with her.
She put down the work in her hands and looked at Miao Ying in surprise: "How come you have time to come here? Huo Xing is back too. Is everything okay?"
"Mom, everything is fine." Huo Xing replied.
Zheng Cai'er had already taken out some snacks from home and shared them with the two children. She then brought them to Miao Ying and said, "Have some snacks."
Miao Ying took a piece, as he was hungry.
After the greetings, Zheng Caier went to the kitchen to cook, while Liu Qiong talked to Miao Ying in the yard. Miao Ying would not come to visit just for no reason, and Miao Ying was not the type to look for trouble now.
"I have something to discuss with you guys, to see if we can make some money," Miao Ying said.
Liu Qiong's heart skipped a beat and she glanced at Huo Xing again.
"It's okay, Mom. He knows." Miao Ying didn't care. "Our family can't make that much money."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com