Chapter 241 Still Kept in the Dark
Li Shunzi came out of the alley. There was no wall to block the freezing wind outside. The cold wind instantly penetrated his body, and he shivered constantly.
He put his hands in his sleeves, shrunk his neck and squeezed into the crowd, intending to look for his mother.
Li Shunzi's mother, Mrs. Gao, is not only buying things for the winter today, but she is also going to sell a few sheep that the family is raising.
Among the livestock raised by the Li family, in addition to cattle, there are also three ewes.
These three ewes are different from the other sheep. They are not big in size. The adult rams weigh only about 40 to 50 kilograms, and the ewes are slightly smaller, estimated to be about 40 kilograms.
They are small in size, and the offspring are not very healthy either. They only give birth to one litter of lambs every year, with about one to two lambs in each litter.
When raising sheep, you cannot just feed them grass, you also have to feed them grain. Without grain, they won't grow meat.
But food is precious. There is not enough food for people, so how can we afford to feed it to sheep?
Therefore, many sheep farmers would rather let their sheep become skinny and unsaleable than feed them grain.
The Li family's sheep are the same. They are never fed grains. They are fed grass in spring and summer, and hay in autumn and winter. The sheep that come out of this diet are not skinny, but they are all skin and bones!
When Li Shunzi went secretly to deliver charcoal to Zhang, Gao was squeezing through the crowd with her three lambs, trying to find a place to set up a stall to sell the lambs.
After searching for a while, Gao found that the dog seller was surrounded by people, so she simply stood aside with the sheep and shouted to the people coming and going: "Sheep for sale——"
This voice really attracted a lot of attention.
Winter is the season for eating lamb, which is nourishing and warming to the body and very nutritious.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw three lambs next to Gao. They were not fully grown yet, and were skinny and bony. They weighed no more than ten pounds at most!
Such sheep cannot be sold at a high price. Butchers look down on such sheep, so sheep farmers can only go out on the streets to sell them themselves.
Everyone who saw this kind of sheep quickly lost interest and continued to tease a few puppies.
Although she lost everyone's attention, Gao was not disappointed. She knew her own business. These three lambs were indeed not easy to sell. If they were bigger, they might be easier to sell.
But this year the three ewes in our family were bred too late, and by winter the lambs had not yet grown.
If you don't sell them and continue to raise them, the price of the sheep will drop a lot when the weather gets warmer after the New Year.
If you sell it then, you will definitely lose money!
As for raising it for another year and selling it in the winter of next year? That is even more impossible!
Raising the sheep for a year is too much. What if the sheep gets sick and dies instantly? All her money will be gone and she will cry her heart out!
Gao had a smile on her face and kept shouting "sell the sheep" to the crowd, but she was actually very anxious. If she couldn't sell the sheep, it would be a real loss to her.
Gu Tang was standing not far from Gao's house, with his third uncle and Gu Ping'an beside him, and the clan leader, elders, and some villagers opposite him.
Third Uncle was talking to the clan leaders and asking how many villagers Gu Lianshan had brought to Shanyao Village.
After listening for a while, Gu Tang felt relieved when she learned that her father brought fifteen or sixteen strong men and four burly aunts.
The number of people is not small, and with Agou backing them up, there will be no problem at all.
Gu Tang didn't listen to the rest of the words. She started to lose focus and looked around, but didn't see Feng and Gu Zhier.
She was a little disappointed. If she couldn't see the mother and daughter, she wouldn't be able to watch the good show.
"Second sister, look at the sheep!" Gu Ping'an beside her suddenly tugged at Gu Tang's clothes, pointed at the three lambs beside Gao, and asked her to take a closer look.
Gu Tang didn't understand what was going on. He looked up and glanced around, wondering what was there to see.
"Three skinny lambs. Do you like them?"
"Of course I like it! Don't you recognize this sheep?" Gu Ping'an looked puzzled. "My father cooked this kind of sheep for us once when we were young. It doesn't have any fishy smell at all! It tastes extremely delicious!"
Gu Tang thought about it carefully and realized that he had indeed eaten mutton, but he was not sure if it was this kind of sheep.
"Are you sure? Why don't I look like him?"
Gu Ping'an said confidently, "I won't make a mistake! The mutton we ate back then was bought by my father and me. The butcher said that this kind of sheep is called short-legged sheep, a kind of sheep unique to our area, and the meat tastes extremely delicious without any fishy smell.
It's just too difficult to raise them. They're small, prone to illness, and their flesh grows very slowly! They need to be fed with both grass and grain, and they need to be fed for at least a year and a half, two years is best!"
Hearing this, Gu Tang was very surprised: "According to what you said, this kind of short-legged sheep is not something that farmers can afford to raise.
"Not only do they need to feed them, but they also need to be fed for a year and a half or two years. Not to mention anything else, the amount of food consumed during this period is something that most people cannot afford!"
"That's right. When the Li family bought the sheep, everyone in the village tried to persuade them, but unfortunately the Li family didn't listen and bought three ewes regardless, spending two taels of silver!"
"Two taels of silver?" Gu Tang stretched out two fingers, looking very surprised.
"Three sheep, all ewes, can you buy them for two taels of silver? As soon as you hear the price, you should know that there is definitely something fishy about these sheep!"
Gu Pingan nodded: "At the beginning, the villagers also advised the Li family in this way, but unfortunately the Li family would not listen and was determined to take advantage of this 'leak'.
After getting the sheep and raising them for half a year, the Li family finally realized that this was not a 'leak', but a 'trap'!"
Indeed, such sheep are a pitfall for farmers.
But for those who have money and love to eat, this lamb is a rare delicacy.
For example, Gu Tang, she has the memory of the original owner eating mutton. The deliciousness is deeply engraved in her mind, and she is so greedy that she wants to try it herself.
"Which butcher shop sells this kind of mutton? Let's take me to buy some later and make mutton soup for dinner!"
"We don't sell it here on West Street. The price of this kind of mutton is too high. Ordinary mutton costs forty or fifty copper coins per pound, but this kind of mutton costs at least seventy copper coins per pound!"
"hiss--"
Gu Tang took a deep breath and said, "This is really a high price! No, if this were the case, the Li family should have been wealthy in the past few years. Even if this sheep is skinny, it is more expensive than ordinary mutton. If you do the math, you can still make some money!"
"This sheep is different from other sheep. If you want the meat to be delicious and not fishy, you must feed it until it is plump and full of meat. After it is slaughtered, the meat will be the best.
On the contrary, the leaner the sheep, the more flavorful the meat. As for the three lambs of the Li family, after they were slaughtered, the meat was no different from ordinary mutton, with a strong fishy smell, and could not be sold at a high price. "
What an amazing breed of sheep!
Gu Tang looked curious, and his desire to eat mutton became stronger and stronger.
After smacking her lips twice, she turned around and pestered her third uncle, saying that she was craving for mutton and wanted to buy some.
Hearing this, Clan Leader Gu was very puzzled: "Your father bought two slaughtered sheep the other day! If you want to eat them, just go back and chop off a lamb leg to make soup. Why did you have to buy them?"
"This is different." Gu Tang pointed at Gao's, "I want to buy the mutton from the short-legged sheep. Ping An said that this kind of mutton tastes extremely delicious! There is no fishy smell at all!"
After hearing Gu Tang's words, everyone present looked at Gao - the three lambs beside her.
"You are a good eater, girl." Patriarch Gu laughed, "The meat of this kind of sheep is not cheap."
"I won't buy much. Just one pound to try it out." Gu Tang stretched out a finger, indicating that he would not buy more.
"One pound is not much, but they are not sold on West Street. They are only sold on East Street." Clan leader Gu pointed to the east and said, "Let your grandfather lead you to East Street."
"Oh!" Gu Tang responded happily, and then continued to pester his third uncle.
It was just a pound of mutton, so Third Uncle had no objection.
After saying goodbye to the clan leader and elders, the third uncle led the siblings to East Street.
But before leaving, there is one more thing to do, which is to buy a puppy to raise.
When he was in the courtyard before, Gu Tang had been thinking about buying a dog to raise, but he didn't expect to run into a dog seller as soon as he went out today.
Gu Tang couldn't bear to miss it. There were too few people selling dogs. If he missed this opportunity, he wouldn't know when he would be able to encounter one again in the future.
As for the puppy at the entrance of the village, I don’t know whether it is still there.
What if it’s gone, where can she find a dog?
Knowing that Gu Tang wanted to buy a dog, Third Uncle nodded in agreement. He also thought that he could buy one and try to raise it. If it could be used to guard the house in the future, that would be great.
Don't be fooled by the fact that there are so many people surrounding the dog seller. In fact, everyone is just there to join in the fun and play with the puppies. There are very few people who really want to buy them.
There are six puppies in total, and only one has been sold. The other five are huddled together in the backpack to keep each other warm.
The three of them struggled to squeeze into the inner circle and asked the old man selling the dog, "How much is this dog?"
The old man finally waited for someone to ask the price again, and hurriedly replied with a smile: "Not expensive, not expensive, no matter the size, male or female, thirty copper coins each!"
Thirty coppers each?
How is this not expensive?
This is clearly a high price!
Gu Tang widened his eyes, thinking it was a bit expensive.
But Third Uncle thought it was okay. Dogs have never been cheap, and dogs born in winter are rare, so the price would naturally be slightly higher.
"Pick one by yourself and see which one you like." Third Uncle smiled and pointed at the basket, asking Gu Tang to come forward and pick one.
Gu Tang tried to squeeze in once before but failed, so he didn’t see what the puppy looked like or what breed of dog it was.
I squeezed in front of the backpack and looked at the five puppies in the backpack. Only then did I realize that these five puppies were probably not born by the same female dog.
There are three colors: yellow, black and white. The babies are all different. Some look like they are just one month old, while others look two or three months old.
Gu Tang looked at each one and felt that she liked every one of them.
She tried to put her hands into the backpack and called out "suck, suck, suck..." to see if there was any response.
As the slurping sounds began, two of them actually responded, one was yellow and the other was pure black.
Gu Tang took both of them out and said, "Master, can you buy two? I like both of them!"
Third Uncle stretched out his hand to tease him, then nodded with a smile: "Okay, then buy two!"
As he spoke, he took out a string of copper coins from his bosom, untied it, counted out sixty copper coins and handed them to the old man.
The old man held the copper coin and smiled from ear to ear. He kept saying nice things and told Gu Tang how to raise the dog. He also said that the dog was very tough and could survive if given some food.
Gu Tang believed what he said. She had raised this kind of dog in her previous life. It was indeed easy to raise.
Gu Ping'an came up with a lick on his face and said that he would help Gu Tang hold one so that Gu Tang would not get tired.
The two puppies that Gu Tang picked were almost the same size. They were estimated to be around two months old, and probably hadn’t been weaned yet. They were quite fat and felt heavy when held in the arms.
She gave the black one to Gu Ping'an and held the yellow one herself.
After buying the dog, the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren squeezed out of the crowd again and happened to pass by Gao, and the two sides bumped into each other face to face.
Gu Tang and his sister greeted Gao while holding the dog, and then stood obediently beside their uncle.
Although the Li family and the Gu family are not from the same clan, the third uncle is a few years older than Gao. After the siblings greeted them, Gao also greeted the third uncle with a smile.
Looking at the dog in the brother and sister's arms, Gao asked curiously, "How much copper coins does this dog cost?"
"Thirty copper coins." said the third uncle.
hiss--
Gao gasped, "It's just a puppy, but it costs thirty copper coins. Wouldn't these two cost sixty copper coins?!"
"Yes, two are sixty coppers."
Gao felt pained when she heard this: "This beast eats a lot when it grows up! It's hard to even feed one, so why did you buy two? How much food will be wasted?"
"Those who can't eat much grain can be fed wheat bran."
"Wheat bran can be used to feed cows, sheep, chickens and ducks! It's such a waste to feed it!"
Gao couldn't understand her third uncle's thoughts.
Third Uncle didn't want to talk to her about this anymore. He just lowered his head to look at the sheep beside her and then started talking to her about raising sheep.
When talking about things he was familiar with, Gao talked even more, and talked about a lot of things.
As the two were talking, Li Shunzi suddenly emerged from the crowd, scaring Gu Tang.
Why is this person so mysterious!
Gu Tang was shocked, and Li Shunzi was not much better.
When he was in the crowd, he saw his third uncle talking to his mother, with Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an standing next to them. He was so frightened that his legs and feet went limp and his face turned pale.
He thought his third uncle was talking to his mother about him buying charcoal.
For a moment, Li Shunzi struggled to squeeze out of the crowd and stood in front of several people with a grim expression.
Seeing her son coming back, Gao stopped chatting with her third uncle. She looked up and glared at her son and started scolding him.
"Where have you been? Are you really here just to hang out? Where are the things I asked you to buy? You have nothing in your hands. What's going on? Are you ignoring my words?!"
Li Shunzi was stunned for a moment after being scolded, but when he came to his senses, he breathed a sigh of relief.
From the tone of his mother's words, it could be heard that the three old and young in the Gu family did not say much about his buying of charcoal, and his mother was still kept in the dark and knew nothing.
Li Shunzi smiled gratefully at his third uncle, then he humbled himself in front of his mother and said that he would go shopping right away.
But unexpectedly, Gao stopped him and said that the two of them should switch places.
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