The happy little days of the Ye family

Father Ye's goods purchased last year were all sold by the end of the year, and those that could not be sold were sold at low prices.

Now Father Ye plans to continue his small business as a peddler after the Lantern Festival, and he needs to prepare the goods in advance in the past few days.

Father Ye went to Uncle Tang's house early in the morning and ordered five wooden barrels, five wooden basins, three hairpins and three wooden toys of various kinds.

After thinking for a while, Father Ye said, "Uncle Tang, we also need 20 bamboo tubes to hold wine."

After receiving another big order from Father Ye, Uncle Tang was beaming with joy. Last year, Uncle Tang was able to earn two to three hundred cash every month just from what Ye's father ordered.

"Still the old rules, small wooden knives, small wooden swords and small axes cost one penny each, tops and wooden dolls cost two cents each, bamboo tubes for wine also cost two cents each, hairpins cost five cents each, and wooden basins cost five cents each. , a wooden barrel costs 5 cents."

Father Ye held a small abacus and kept fiddling with it with his fingers. It took less than a while to finish the calculation, "These things total 231 renminbi, and the 3% deposit is 70 renminbi."

Father Ye took out a bunch of copper coins from his purse and counted 70 coins to Mr. Tang.

Uncle Tang happily took the copper plate, put it directly into his pocket without counting it, and said with a hearty smile: "Come and get the things in five days."

Father Ye drove the donkey cart out of Tang's house and went to Lin's house at the head of the village.

Uncle Lin has a pair of skillful hands and makes particularly good coir raincoats, straw hats and baskets. Most of the villagers in Taohua Village buy their coir raincoats from Uncle Lin.

Father Ye ordered five pieces of raincoats from Uncle Lin. He did not ask for common things such as backpacks, baskets and straw hats. These things do not require high skills, and most people in the village can make them.

Uncle Lin has been dealing with bamboo and rattan all year round and is not good at words. Aunt Lin beside him said:

"Good harvest. This coir raincoat is time-consuming and labor-intensive to make. It takes several days to make a coir raincoat at least. Auntie will tell you the real price, 52 yuan for a coir raincoat."

This is indeed the real price. The coir raincoats that Father Ye sold before were 60 cents each. If he charged 52 cents a piece, he could earn 8 cents per piece.

"My aunt is a real person, so just do as she says. The five coir raincoats cost a total of 5 renminbi. I will first give you a 260% deposit of 3 renminbi."

Aunt Lin happily took the copper plate given by Father Ye and carefully counted it again. After confirming that there was no problem, she carefully put the money into her purse and said with a smile:

"There are three coir raincoats in the house. Your uncle knitted them when he had nothing to do during this period. You can take them back first. You can come and get the remaining two pieces in a few days."

"Okay, Uncle Lin and Aunt Lin, I'll go back first. I'll come back to pick up the raincoats in a few days."

Father Ye took the three coir raincoats from Aunt Lin and carefully placed them on the donkey cart.

After leaving Lin's house, Ye's father drove the donkey cart to Fangjia Village. Father Ye bought 5 pounds of dried tofu and 3 pounds of yuba in Fangjiacun. These two things are durable and are good whether you eat them at home or sell them.

Father Ye looked through the things to order recorded in the book. He already had wood products, coir raincoats, dried tofu and yuba, but the only thing missing was the blacksmith's iron tools.

It was very close to Fujia Village from Fangjia Village. Within a quarter of an hour, Ye's father arrived at Blacksmith Fang's blacksmith shop.

It's not the Lantern Festival yet, and it's still the Chinese New Year, so the blacksmith shop is deserted, with only Blacksmith Fang working alone.

Blacksmith Fang, wearing a thin coat, swung a big hammer to hit the red-hot iron. He stopped when he saw Father Ye walking into the yard.

Blacksmith Fang said firmly: "What kind of iron tools do you want to order?"

"I need two iron pots, one big and one small. In addition, I need five sickles, three pairs of scissors and five hoes."

"The price is the same as before, a large iron pot is 100 Wen each, a smaller iron pot is 70 Wen each, a sickle and scissors are 15 Wen each, and a hoe is 25 Wen each. We will give you a 1% profit on the original price."

Father Ye took the small abacus and fiddled with it again. "The original price of these things is 415 Wen, minus the 1% profit, which is 373.5 Wen, and the deposit is 112 Wen."

Blacksmith Fang received the deposit from Ye's father and registered everything ordered by Ye's father in the registration book.

After Blacksmith Fang registered, he went into the house and took out a pile of iron tools. "There are three sickles, three hoes, two pairs of scissors and a big iron pot here. You can take these things back first and come and get the rest in three days."

Before leaving, Father Ye went to the river again and bought a dozen large grass carp to make dried fish. The dried fish is ready, just in time for the big market after the Lantern Festival.

When Father Ye returned home, he and Mrs. Ye were digging in the small vegetable garden. The two were talking and laughing. I don’t know what Mr. Ye said, but he made Mrs. Ye laugh.

Father Ye did not disturb the two of them, and drove the donkey cart directly into the yard.

The house is quiet, it's not time to cook yet, Ye Mu and Ye Qingqing are either doing embroidery in the house, or they go to Grandma Ye's place to study embroidery.

And the two brats went wild somewhere.

Father Ye parked the donkey cart, took four wooden barrels out of the kitchen, and then removed the big grass carp from the cart one by one and put them in the barrels. Then he moved the things on the donkey cart into the hall.

Ye's father moved things alone for a long time, but he didn't see Ye's mother and Ye Qingqing come out. They were probably not at home.

Ye's father, alone, lifted all the fish to the edge of the pool in the backyard, went to the kitchen and took a handy knife and started killing the fish.

Father Ye killed all the fish, and then Mother Ye brought Ye Qingqing back from her parents' home.

Ye Mu went back to the kitchen to get salt and some bulk cheap wine, and the family of three squatted by the pool to pickle dried fish.

After lunch, Ye's father drove a donkey cart to Yueya Town, accompanied by his eldest son Ye Donglin.

Ye Donglin no longer goes to school, so he works with Ye's father and helps at home. Old Mrs. Ye gives Ye Donglin 50 Wen pocket money from her father's school every month.

In the village, 50 Wen of pocket money is quite high. Ye Donglin was happy just thinking about it, and he didn't have to go to school to study. Instead, he traveled to various villages with his father every day.

Ye Donglin happily took over 50 Wen of pocket money from Mrs. Ye. Unexpectedly, he started his arduous career as a handyman.