Chapter 4 Beautiful Vision "Why not us...
"Why don't we pick some more river clams tomorrow and bring them back to cook for Dad and the others, and also send some to them." Su Li said. There were still a lot of river clams in the field after picking them today.
As soon as this was said, Chen and others immediately thought it was a good idea. In fact, other well-off families would send some delicious food and drinks every day to their men to nourish their bodies. After all, even the strongest person would not be able to bear harvesting rice for ten days in a row.
In the past, when the Su family had some spare money, they would cut some fat meat and make lard, and use the lard residue to stew dishes and send them over. However, this year, because the family wanted to save money for Su Li's second brother to get married, they didn't cut any meat. The whole family tightened their belts to save money, and only then did they save a few taels of silver.
Unfortunately, all the money was spent because Su Li fell ill. Other families in the village didn’t understand. They thought it was just a daughter. Was it worth spending all that money?
Which poor family doesn't have children who die young? To be frank, at worst, they can just have another child.
So when they knew that the Su family had spent several taels of silver to hire a doctor and get medicine, they all thought that there was something wrong with the Su family's brain.
This also led to the fact that families who were originally willing to marry their daughters to the girl changed their minds after hearing about this. No one wanted to have a girl who was so good at spending money.
"Okay, let's do it." Mrs. Wu made the decision immediately. It would be ugly if her body was broken down without money.
Even though river clam meat isn't as nutritious as pork, it's still meat, right? It should be good for your health, right?
And it tastes really good. Mrs. Wu has never eaten anything so delicious in her life, let alone her sons and grandsons.
"But the salt at home is almost gone." Su Li remembered that the salt jar was almost empty when she was cooking just now, so she reminded him.
Hearing this, the room fell silent for a moment. Mrs. Wu spoke after a while, "Forget it, tomorrow everyone has a day off. The day after tomorrow, Qingshan's mother, you should sell the eggs at home and buy some salt."
Farmers all know that they cannot live without salt. Without salt, they will have no strength and cannot work, and their bodies will break down over time. Therefore, no matter how poor the family is, they still have to buy salt.
But now there is no money at home, so I can only sell the eggs I have saved to buy it.
But Chen was a little embarrassed when she heard this. The reason was that there were not enough eggs. There were three laying hens in the family. The last time she sold eggs was half a month ago. In the past half month, one of the hens laid an egg only once every three or five days for some reason. She gave a few of the eggs to her little daughter for nourishment. Now there were only 7 or 8 eggs in the family. If they were sold at one cent each, it would only make eight cents.
The price of salt is 200 wen per catty, and the lowest is one envelope (starting at 20 wen), which is one or two catties. So there is still a difference of more than 10 wen. Of course, you can also choose to buy private salt, but if you are caught, the consequences will be very serious. Private salt dealers will be beaten with a hundred sticks, imprisoned for five years, and all private property will be confiscated. People who buy private salt will be beaten with fifty sticks, fined ten taels of silver, and those who resist arrest will be beheaded. The crackdown is very severe, and ordinary people will not take risks unless necessary. Another thing is that the quality of private salt is not as good as official salt, so don't buy private salt unless necessary.
At this time, Old Man Su suddenly said, "No problem, I'll weave a few stools with broomsticks tomorrow and sell them together."
Yes, in addition to doing farm work, Old Man Su can also weave bamboo stools, baskets, brooms and the like. When there is no farm work, he weaves them at home and sells them. Otherwise, the harvest from that one acre of paddy field would not be enough to feed the whole family.
"Will Dad be too tired like this?" Although Chen thought this was a good idea, she was also a little worried about the health of her father-in-law, Old Man Su.
Old Man Su was not in good health. His body was damaged in the garrison in his early years. Later, he injured his leg during an anti-bandit campaign. Now he walks with a limp. However, it was precisely because of this that he was able to leave the garrison and return home.
"It's just a small job, what's so tiring about it?" Old man Su waved his hand. Yes, in his opinion, weaving stools and baskets was not a tiring job. What's more, even if it was tiring, it would not be tiring as long as they could earn money. For a family like theirs, poverty is more terrible than suffering.
In this way, during the break after dinner, Mrs. Wu, Mrs. Chen and Mr. Su discussed the work that needed to be done tomorrow.
Chen's Su Li and Su Tao were responsible for picking river clams, cooking and delivering meals, while Mrs. Wu and Old Man Su went to cut reeds and chop bamboo to weave brooms and bamboo stools.
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At night, in Mrs. Wu's room, Mrs. Wu lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Old Man Su, who was originally snoring, was also woken up by the noise and asked with concern: "What's wrong? Can't sleep?"
For some reason, Mrs. Wu has often suffered from insomnia in the past two years. Old Man Su knows that it is because she is worried about family matters, but he has no good solution.
"How about going to ask Mrs. Liu for some herbal medicine tomorrow?"
Liu Pozi was the village's barefoot doctor, who also divined the fortunes of the villagers. If anyone felt unwell, they would go to Liu Pozi and get some medicine to take. Most of the time, it worked, except for the most serious ailments. In the past, Wu Pozi had gone to Liu Pozi and gotten some tranquilizers, which worked for a few days.
"Why spend that money? Don't you know the situation at home?" Mrs. Wu refused without thinking. Although Mrs. Liu's medicine was not expensive, only one or two cents was enough, but as a country girl, one cannot spend one or two cents casually. It must be spent wisely.
Then he told the reason for his insomnia, "Do you think Wu Ya has been acting weird these days?" It was like she had become a different person.
Mrs. Wu had just been lying in bed thinking for a long time, always feeling that something was wrong. Her granddaughter used to be timid and cowardly. Although she was still quiet these days and had not changed much, there was something different in her eyes. She could suddenly cook such delicious meals. It was really strange.
During this period, Mrs. Wu also remembered something. A few days ago, in order to prevent Chen from being too sad, she deliberately concealed the fact that her granddaughter had died. During the time when Chen went to invite a doctor, she confirmed it countless times. Although the doctor came later and her granddaughter was saved, she was very happy, but she always felt that there was something strange about this matter.
The more Mrs. Wu thought about it, the more frightened she became. She even thought of the rural stories her stepmother had told her to scare her so that she could go to bed early at night.
The story contains ghosts that possess dead people and absorb their essence.
Could it be...
"What's strange? Why didn't I notice it? Are you too tired recently and thinking too much?" Old man Su muttered without thinking with his eyes closed.
"Forget it. I can't explain it to you." Mrs. Wu didn't say her guess out loud. What if her granddaughter really was a spirit? The fewer people who knew about it, the less danger there would be. It was enough for her to know this alone. In the moonlight, looking at her husband's hunched back, Mrs. Wu said, "Go to sleep. You've been tired all day."
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On the other side, Su Tao was lying on a straw mat and suddenly sighed,
"It would be great if I could eat such delicious meals every day, right, Fifth Sister?"
She was still savoring the deliciousness of dinner, feeling a little reluctant to leave.
When Su Li heard her fourth sister's words, she felt a little funny and sad at the same time, and said, "Yes." Of course she will, Su Li said to herself.
"By the way, fifth sister, can you make braised pork? The same as the one we had at the village chief's house last time." Su Tao turned over and looked at Su Li. In the dark night, her big eyes were brighter than the stars in the sky.
"I think so. What's wrong, fourth sister, do you want to eat braised pork?" Su Li asked.
"Yes, I think about it even in my dreams. Fifth sister, please don't laugh at me. I even dreamed that night that I went to the village chief's house for a banquet. Unfortunately, my mother woke me up." Su Tao's tone was full of regret. It was obviously a very happy dream, so happy that she could still remember it even after so long.
"And I also dreamed last night. I went to my uncle's house for a feast. But halfway through the meal, my aunt came over and took the plate of meat away. She also scolded me for being a jinx and a pig reincarnated for eating so much. Then I cried so hard that my uncle came over. He scolded my aunt and gave me the meat back. Hahahaha."
At this point, Su Tao burst into laughter. It was obvious that she was very happy that her aunt was scolded, even if it was in a dream.
Su Li's aunt's family is a butcher and is considered a relatively wealthy family in the next village. Since Su Li's uncle got married, he has followed his father-in-law to butcher and sell pigs, and they live a good life.
However, because Su Li's family was poor and was a military household, her aunt did not like them. Whenever Chen took her brothers and sisters to her uncle's house, they were often disliked. Sometimes they would be ridiculed if they ate a little more. Not only that, even her uncle's cousins did not like them and often bullied and laughed at them.
As a result, Su Tao was full of bad memories about her uncle's house. Sometimes when Chen took them there, she was unwilling to go. Anyway, her aunt would not want to give them meat and they would be ridiculed.
Su Li possessed her original body's memories, so naturally she remembered all of this. She also remembered the time her eldest cousin bought a silk flower. It was incredibly beautiful (at least in the eyes of her and her fourth sister), and she wanted to touch it. But the next second, her eldest cousin scolded her, "Your hands are so dirty, what if you break it?"
That was the first time that the original body felt inferior, helpless, sad and painful. In memory, because of that incident, the original body's personality became even more timid.
Thinking of this, Su Li said, "Fourth sister, our family will definitely get better one day. Then we can eat as much meat as we want and buy whatever clothes we want."
Su Tao was puzzled, "Why buy so many clothes?"
"Change them up, one piece a day."
"Isn't that the same as the master and his wife in the play?" Su Tao said longingly, "Then I also want two peach blossom hairpins like my cousin's, not three, but five, anyway, more than hers. Then I can go to her and let her envy me."
Although she knew it was just imagination, Su Tao still started to fantasize about it, and even giggled when she thought of happy things.
In the dark night, Su Li also echoed, "No, we don't want silver, let's buy gold, the kind with pearls and jade."
"Wow, that would look so pretty on my head!"
“It’s very beautiful…”
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