sjar Chapter 360: The last episode before the New Year
Chapter 360: The last episode before the New Year
In the shed in the backyard, besides two horses, a cow, and two deer, there was only a flock of chickens. The large flock that was raised before had almost all been killed.
Zhou Guo looked at the meat on the porch and said, "Mom, we need to buy some fresh meat for the New Year. Let's kill a deer in the backyard. I haven't eaten roasted deer meat for a long time. I ate it last time when my uncle and his family came back. There are still many things we haven't bought at home. We need to prepare some melon seeds, fruits, and cakes, and buy couplets. We don't even have incense, candles, and paper for sacrifice."
Li was frying crispy meatballs and had already fried a large pot of them. Hearing this, she said without even looking up, "There will be a market the day after tomorrow. You can drive your carriage there and buy whatever you like. This is our first year in the village, so we must have a good and comfortable New Year, so that we can have a good life in the future."
After saying that, he looked at Zhou Xing who was sitting and adding firewood, "You have never been out since you came here. On that day, you can go shopping with me. You are a big girl now. Buy whatever the little girl likes. Second Aunt will give you the money."
Zhou Xing nodded happily, "Thank you, Second Aunt."
Zhou Su stood up from the kang and said, "Mom, I want to go too!"
Although Li Lai and the other man didn't say anything, it was hard not to notice their bright and expectant eyes.
Li smiled and said, "Okay, okay, let's all go. This is the last fair of the year, and the whole family will go shopping. I will give you the New Year's money on that day, and you can buy whatever you like. But after you give it to me, it will be gone during the New Year."
Zhou Su and others cheered happily. They didn't expect to get lucky money this year.
Li was also very angry. In previous years, the children had nothing to eat. They were so greedy that they could not walk when they smelled the fragrance coming from the scholar's house on the way. Now that life was better at home, she made all the rice cakes and rice candies in one go, fried them, and put them in a basin and a basket on the table in the house. Whoever wanted to eat could have it. After the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, there was no shortage of snacks at home.
You can eat it anytime you want.
Zhou Guo couldn't keep his mouth shut. He would hang around the table whenever he had nothing to do. At the end of the day, he didn't know what it felt like to be hungry.
Zhou Mai and his friends are cheerful all day long. They always put some food in their arms when they go out every day. When they eat, they share some with their good playmates in the village. Half of the snacks on the table are gone in a few days. I'm afraid they will have to fry them again before the New Year.
In the blink of an eye, it was the 28th. After breakfast early in the morning, Li originally wanted to stay at home to look after Xu, but Zhou Mi insisted on staying and refused to go to the market with the money in his hand. Li had no choice but to let him do as he pleased.
Everyone else was going to the market, so Zhou Guo harnessed both cars. The main reason was that there were so many people, and they had to buy something at the market. By the time there were so many things, there might not even be room to stand.
All the villagers come out from their homes to go to the last market, no matter they have money or not. After all, the market doesn't open until after the fifteenth day of the next year, and there has been no market for more than half a month. Buy whatever you want to buy, and go and have a look even if you don't want to buy. You have nothing to do anyway, so you might as well go and join in the fun.
When she was rushing out of the village, she met many villagers on the way. Zhou Guo met the families with whom she had good relationships one after another. She took the families with fewer people along, but she couldn't take the families with more people along even if she wanted to. If she invited this one and didn't invite that one, she would offend too many people.
Fortunately, their village was not far from the market, and it would only take half an hour to walk there at most.
The closer you get to the market, the more people there are. People walk in groups of three or five. Everyone carries a backpack, and some even carry a basket. The baskets are so heavy with things that no one knows what they are filled with. They probably want to take them to the market to exchange for money to buy some things for the New Year.
But if you come at this hour, there might be no seats left at the market.
Zhou Guo looked at the two sacks, which looked like rice or wheat, and stopped his horse. "Hey, uncle, the one carrying the basket, what's in your basket? Are you going to take it to the market to sell it?"
The old man was sweating profusely in the cold weather, and he didn't know how long he had walked. When he heard the shouting, he turned around after a long while and saw Zhou Guo driving the carriage. He paused, put down the load, wiped the sweat off his face, and grinned shyly, "There are some rice grown by our family in it. Do you want any, young masters?"
Zhou Guo nodded, "Yes!"
After all, there is little rice here. Except for the grain shops, few villagers grow rice. Most of them grow wheat, and some grow millet, which is very difficult to buy.
The old farmer rubbed his hands with joy when he heard this, "How much do you want, young masters?"
Zhou Guo said: "I want them all!"
Upon hearing that they wanted all of it, the old farmer laughed happily, and said as he took the bucket, "Let the young masters know that these rice grains are all good rice that I selected. They are long and full, and the ears are strong and tall, stronger and heavier than the usual ones. To be honest, I originally wanted to keep these for seeds, but my daughter-in-law at home was in poor health after giving birth, so I really had no choice but to sell them."
When Zhou Guo heard that it was grain seeds, he frowned unconsciously, "Uncle, you sold all your grain seeds. Are you not going to plant the land next spring?"
The old farmer said with a smile, "Don't worry, I saw that the ears of grain were growing well, so I specially left them out. It is also because the grain seeds are good that I dare to sell them. I think they should be more expensive than ordinary seeds and can sell for more money."
When everyone heard this, they took out the grains to look at them. The old man wanted to charge more money, so they had to see if it was worth it. After looking at it for a long time, they couldn't see any difference and had never paid attention to it before.
Zhou Guo grabbed a few grains from it, spread them in her palm and looked at them carefully. They were longer than the rice grains at home. She grabbed another handful and found that each grain was quite full. She took out another handful from the bottom and saw that they were similar to the ones above. This bag of rice was a good variety.
Li on the side nodded and said, "This is good!"
Zhou Guo became more confident and asked, "Uncle, what's the price?"
The old farmer wiped the sweat off his forehead nervously, and gestured, "Six...six...fifty-five coins a dou!"
Zhou Guo nodded. It wasn't that expensive. The price of grain had been rising year after year. A stone of the best white rice in the shop was sold for one tael and four cents of silver. I don't know how many people could afford to eat rice.
The food they bought at that time was not much cheaper than this. "Okay, we'll take it all."
The old farmer thanked the owner repeatedly with excitement. If he could sell all these successfully, he would have money to buy medicine for his daughter-in-law. He couldn't let his grandson be without a mother just after he was born. Children without mothers will always have to suffer more.
Before reaching the market, they had harvested two large sacks of rice.
The villagers in the car were all laughing and praising Zhou Guo for his ability. He bought two bags of grain seeds at a price of fifty cents per dou.
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Grain seeds are extremely important. We just arrived, and we have to buy all the grain seeds for next year. If we see good ones now, we should buy them. It doesn't matter whether we buy them early or late."
Yes, the villagers remembered that they were fleeing from war, so let alone food seeds on the road, wild vegetables and grass roots were treasures every day. They ate whatever they could get. No one said anything else, but food seeds were related to the harvest of the fields next year, and it was no joke.