Allure of a Country Maiden

After dinner, the family sat around the Kang table and counted the money earned today. When Xiaoer took out an ingot of ten taels of silver, Liu's eyes widened: "Did you get these ten taels from selling things?"

"Yes, an uncle named Zhou bought some of our fruits today."

"Those fruits were sold for so much money?" Ms. Liu didn't believe it. Although the fruits Xiaoer picked from the mountain were indeed delicious. She had never seen such delicious and beautiful-looking fruits. It's so valuable.

"Really, Xiao'er asked the uncle to watch and give us, so the uncle gave us ten taels, and the fried chestnuts with sugar were also given an extra ten taels."

"How can you ask for ten more cents from others!" Ms. Liu disagreed.

"He took our basket away and said he would treat the ten coins as money to buy the basket." Xiaoer explained. .

After hearing this, Mrs. Liu relaxed her brows. She was worried that her children would develop the bad habit of being greedy for petty gains.

The rest are copper plates, and everyone counts them while stringing them together with ropes.

Xiaoer felt that she would have to buy some pens, ink, paper and inkstones when she went to town tomorrow. She needed to make a ledger to record her family's income and expenses. Today, before selling sugar-roasted chestnuts, I sold a total of 32 kilograms. I gave away eight kilograms and got 384 cash. Adding in the middle-aged uncle's 100 cash, the chestnuts alone sold for 484 cash. , the herbs were sold for 1,138 taels, plus the 10 taels of silver for the fruit, deducting the cost of 10 taels of sugar for roasting the chestnuts and the 2 cents paid in the city, a total net profit of eleven taels, six hundred Ten articles.

"Those herbs and chestnuts actually earned more than a thousand yuan. I can't believe it." Mrs. Liu looked at a pile of strung copper plates and sighed. If they sold every collection, then Jing Rui and Jing Hao wouldn't have money. School.

"Father, I will also work hard to dig up medicinal materials in the mountains from now on. When I earn enough money, I will send your brothers to school and buy beautiful clothes for Xiaoer and my little sister." Shen Chengyao felt that his money career was starting to look bright.

Xiaoer calculated all the property in her family now, "The last time I went to town to buy things, I spent a total of 2,320 Wen. During the autumn harvest, she went to town to buy rice, flour, grain and oil, and also spent 200 Wen, plus other things. The miscellaneous expenses are 50 Wen, and a total of 2,570 Wen has been used recently. This means that the 12 liang left after the separation is 7 liang, 430 Wen, plus the 11 liang, 610 Wen earned today. , now we have a total of nineteen taels and forty coins."

"There are so many more." Ms. Liu felt very satisfied.

"Not much, far from enough. I plan to make more money and send my elder brother and younger brother to school next spring."

"Send Hao'er away. I'll help make money at home." Jing Rui knew that studying cost a lot of money, and his family simply didn't have enough money to support two people. Although he also wanted to study, he knew that Jing Hao was smarter than him, and he Again, the older brother has to give way to his younger brother.

Shen Chengyao and his wife were silent. Of course they wanted both of their children to go to school, but the little money they had now was not enough to spend on reading, but they did not dare to dampen their children's enthusiasm.

"No one is missing, you all go, I think of a way to make money, you wait." After saying that, Xiaoer got off the kang, returned to her room, and put the silk flowers, hair flowers, and small puppets she had made before Take it out and show it to them.

"Xiao'er, where did this come from? It's so beautiful." Mrs. Liu couldn't put it down when she saw these things. The two brothers were also very interested in those little puppets. Shen Chengyao felt nothing but freshness.

"I made this from the rags I bought last time. Let's make more and sell them to the county. Do you think we can make money?"

"Of course we can. We make this little stuffed doll in different sizes. There are many rich young ladies in the city, so we will definitely be able to sell it." Jingrui was reluctant to let go of the little tiger.

"It's unreasonable if no one buys such a cute puppet." Jing Hao held Mickey Mouse and looked left and right.

"Xiao'er, teach your mother how to make it. Make it quickly and make more. The Chinese New Year is just over two months away. If you go to the market to sell it then, there will definitely be many women buying it." After the Chinese New Year, many people are willing to give it up. Spend a little money, after all, it's just for one year. This year she had money on hand, and she was thinking of buying new clothes for her children. Now she is working hard every day, using the piece of white cotton cloth that Xiaoer bought last time to make a coat for the family first. The cotton coat will be made later. Now that the new cotton has just come out, the price is extremely expensive.

Xiaoer feels that the Lius all have some business acumen and can be cultivated.

"Then dad will go to the mountains to hunt and dig herbs."

"I'll go with dad too."

"I'll go too." The two young men hurriedly agreed.

"You can go, but you can't go to the mountains, you know?" Mrs. Liu looked at them funny.

The three of them all remembered what happened last time and nodded in agreement.

Mrs. Liu remembered that Shen Chengyao would ask about Yun'er every time he went to the county, so she asked, "His father, is there any news from the Yamen?"

After hearing this, Shen Chengyao shook his head in disappointment. Mrs. Liu saw this and became silent, and the atmosphere suddenly became dull.

Since Xiaoer Jian mentioned it, he had to seize the opportunity to ask Shen Yun'er about it.

"Mom, did dad go to the Yamen to ask about my sister Yun'er?"

Mrs. Liu touched Xiao'er's head: "Yes, Xiao'er still remembers that her sister's name is Yun'er." I don't know where her daughter is now, whether she has endured hardship, whether she has been beaten or hungry, and thinking of Mrs. Liu's eyes Red again.

"I remember, I thought there was no news from the Yamen for so long. Could it be that the search was in the wrong direction, or that my sister was kidnapped?"

"What's the point of being kidnapped?" After hearing this, Ms. Liu forgot about her sadness. Then she thought about Li's betrayal of Xiao'er, but she didn't know anything about it beforehand. The blood on her face instantly faded. She never thought that it must be the case. The government clearly caught a kidnapper the year before last and confessed to him. Several children, but no news about Yun'er. Thinking of this, her tears surged out like water without a dam: "Yun'er, mother, I'm sorry for you, my Yun'er, wu wu..."

Shen Chengyao also thought about it. Anger and fear made his hands tremble: "No, it won't..."

"Mom and dad, don't be sad right now. I'm just guessing. Tell me about the situation at that time. How did you lose your sister?"

"Yun'er, I don't see it was a market day. Because something happened to the shop some time ago, there was no business on two market days in a row. Your aunt went home to stay for a few days. You two sisters loved her in her room during those days. I pestered her to give you delicious food. On market day, your sister pestered me and said she wanted to go to town with your aunt to play. I was so pestered that I couldn't do anything. Your aunt also said that there was nothing going on in the shop anyway, so she would I thought it was good, so I let her go. Who knows, she came back in the evening and said that the business was too busy, so she didn't pay attention to it and lost it. I searched for it all afternoon and couldn't find it."

"Didn't dad go to help that day?"

Shen Chengyao shook his head. If only he had gone, Yun'er would definitely not be lost.

"Isn't the business of the shop not good? Your father and the others didn't go there last market day."

"What happened to the shop? Why is the business not good? Since it has been bad for a while, why is it suddenly so good that you can't take care of the children?" Xiaoer thinks that the matter should be related to the shop's accident.

"The shop sold a new food called sword beans. The sword beans were poisonous. A family bought them for his daughter to eat. The daughter was poisoned and died after eating them. The family came to the shop every two days to cause trouble. Naturally, the business was not good. "

Life lawsuits are a big deal.

"How did you solve it later?"

Shen Chengyao and Mrs. Liu glanced at each other, but they were not very clear: "I heard from your father that he lost money, and it seemed to be a misunderstanding. His family was not the only one to eat the beans, and other families were fine as well. We don't know very well either."

Xiaoer understands why. Sword beans are also called green beans. This dish must be cooked thoroughly before eating, otherwise it will be poisonous. The two things didn't sound related, but Xiaoer always felt something was wrong. Could it be that he was using the money from selling Yun'er to compensate.

Shen Chengyao thought of that family and felt pity for them: "Oh, that family is also pitiful. I heard that the couple had not had sex for many years. They picked up a pair of twins to raise when they were nearly forty years old. However, they were both frail and sick and needed to take medicine every day. The family's financial situation has also been affected by this, and now the girl is still gone."

"The couple can't have children?" She thought: "Dad, where are the couples now?"

"I don't know, what's wrong?" Shen Chengyao was surprised by Xiaoer's excitement.

"I think my sister is there with them!"