Chapter 9 Raising Livestock
As soon as Song Yushu returned, he saw Zhou Chengyu sitting dejectedly on a chair by the door.
She went around to the back of the house and saw that, sure enough, only about a third of the land had been dug up, and it was dug up in a mess, with pieces scattered here and there, which was as expected.
"Second Brother dug the ground today and hurt his foot. He scraped off a big piece of skin!" Zhou Chengzhu felt that Zhou Chengyu was quite unlucky, so she didn't bring up his shortcomings anymore.
"Did you go to the doctor to get some medicine to apply?"
"I've applied medicine, but I can't get out of bed for a while," Zhou Chengyu said, glancing uncomfortably at Song Yushu. He had boasted that he could dig that plot of land properly, but he soon realized that getting out of bed was not easy.
"Rest today. Tomorrow I'll give you some copper coins to buy some chicks and ducklings. You're just idling around anyway," Song Yushu said, planning to give them a simpler task.
The plot of land in the backyard was fenced off to raise poultry. Anyway, now only the Zhou family's second branch has the mother and her two children left. Zhou Lao Er and Zhou Chengli are not coming back, so there is no one to do the digging work.
“We’ve never raised them before. If they die…” Zhou Chengzhu hesitated. Previously, all the housework was done by the original owner, and the two children didn’t have to worry about anything. They were no worse off than the girls in town.
"Then you'd better put in some effort. I'll pay for the poultry first, and you can pay me back when you've raised them and sold them. The rest is your personal savings. If you can't raise them, you'd better go back to digging the ground. How about that?"
"Then you must keep your word and not break your promise!" Zhou Chengyu obviously knew that if they really raised her, they would definitely benefit, but he still resented his mother's stinginess.
“Of course, but first we need to clear out that patch of land in the backyard, fence it off, and build a shed,” Song Yushu didn’t want the poultry running all over the yard, as their droppings would be difficult to clean up.
“Okay! Leave this to us!” As long as she could save some money on her own, she was willing to do anything. After all, there weren’t many children in the village who could save money on their own. Zhou Chengzhu was full of enthusiasm at this moment!
Song Yushu went to great lengths to keep the ten-year-old twins from going to the Zhou family's old house every day. After selling braised meat in the morning, he and Wei's mother went to pick out chicks and ducklings, and even wanted to buy goats.
“You should be more frugal with your money. Chengyu and the others are only ten years old. If they don’t manage to raise poultry, wouldn’t that be a waste? Buy a few for them to try first, and then add more if they survive,” Wei’s mother said, somewhat alarmed by her extravagant spending.
"Mother, I know what I'm doing. I'll buy ten chicks and ten ducklings first, and then raise a few pigs once the pigsty is built," Song Yushu said, still eager to continue.
"Alright, go back and keep a close eye on them. You know what kind of kids those two are. If they don't turn out well, don't blame them. After all, it's your own fault for spoiling them," Mother Wei still cared about her grandsons.
The twenty chicks and ducklings that Song Yushu brought back became the focus of Zhou Chengyu and Zhou Chengzhu's attention.
They also went to the village carpenter early in the morning to fence off the plot of land in the backyard. The wood was laid out tightly around the plot, and following Song Yushu's suggestion, they built two small wooden huts and laid dry straw on them.
“Keep the chickens and ducks separate, and dig a small pond over the duck pen,” Song Yushu said, somewhat satisfied with the suggestion. Remembering that ducks like to play in the water, he added another suggestion.
There was no need to hire anyone to dig the pond. Song Yushu dug a pit himself, laid some stones at the bottom, and it was simple as it was. But as soon as he poured the water in, the ducks that were originally listless couldn't wait to jump in.
“These chickens and ducks are still small, so you all need to be careful. If you can raise 70% of them, I’ll give you some more to raise. How much you can earn depends on you two siblings,” Song Yushu said, not forgetting to give them a pep talk.
Sure enough, the brother and sister immediately became excited again.
After giving a few instructions, Song Yushu confidently handed over the twenty chicks and ducklings to them for care.
She also tidied up the pigsty that was full of clutter. Originally, the owner relied on raising pigs to save some money, but later she quarreled with Zhou Lao Er and the Zhou family every few days and had no intention of raising pigs anymore, so the pigsty was abandoned.
This pigsty is big enough; it will be convenient to divide it into half for raising pigs and half for raising sheep.
After raising poultry in the backyard, Zhou Chengyu and Zhou Chengzhu, the siblings, would spend their days tending to them and rarely went to the old Zhou family house anymore. Without these two mischievous children dragging her down, Song Yushu devoted herself entirely to her stall business.
However, the Zhou family members would occasionally use the excuse of visiting Zhou Chengli to try and extort money from her, which really annoyed her.
“Sister-in-law, I know you’re worried that Chengli isn’t eating well at the academy, but it’s inconvenient for you to keep running around. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll have someone send him directly to the academy so you don’t have to make the trip.”
Song Yushu would rather let Zhou Chengli benefit than let the Zhou family's eldest and third branches and Old Madam Zhou get the credit.
“What are you saying, sister-in-law? I am Chengli’s aunt, so it is only right for me to visit him,” Qian Yue said. Under the guise of bringing food to Zhou Chengli, she would bring braised meat back to the Zhou family every few days. She also liked the taste of braised meat and naturally did not want to miss the opportunity to take advantage of it.
“Sister-in-law, my daughter is Chengli’s mother after all, so it’s only right that she takes care of him. There’s no need for you to travel all this way. She will go to the academy to deliver food to Chengli later.”
Wei's mother stepped in just in time to stop Qian Yue from speaking.
Qian Yue looked at the tempting braised meat on the cutting board, but could only leave reluctantly.
Mother Wei urged Song Yushu to hurry up and deliver the braised meat to Zhou Chengli, thinking that at least it would improve her daughter's reputation.
Song Yushu also knew about the academy where Zhou Chengli studied, which was the same as Zhou Chengyu's. However, the two were at different stages of their studies, and were assigned to different schools and taught by different teachers.
"Zhou Chengli, your stepmother is here to see you. She says she has something for you. She's at the door!"
"Brother Zhou, did I hear that right? Your stepmother actually came to bring you something?"
"She's definitely up to something else, Brother Zhou. You'd better be careful. Your stepmother is so shameless, who knows what other tricks she has up her sleeve!"
"Maybe we shouldn't go out, in case we get scammed."
Several classmates who were close to Zhou Chengli, under Zhou Chengli's intentional or unintentional guidance, had long regarded Song Yushu, their stepmother, as a monstrous threat.
Zhou Chengli's expression showed no annoyance: "She is, after all, my stepmother. As a junior, I cannot be rude."
"Why don't we go with you? There are so many of us, she can't possibly play tricks on us in front of everyone," said Kong Yan, who was Zhou Chengli's closest friend and was very meticulous. He couldn't bear to see Zhou Chengli being bullied by his stepmother.
"Let's go! We'll go too!"
"Perhaps a few of us can stand up for Brother Zhou! She's just a crude village woman, what are we afraid of?"
So, Song Yushu originally just wanted to go through the motions of delivering braised meat, but unexpectedly he saw a group of scholars coming out aggressively.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
