The happy little days of the Ye family

"Mom, Aunt Liu's old sow gave birth to 9 piglets last month. She said they can be sold now. Let's catch the piglets." Father Ye ran so fast that he was panting even as he spoke.

"I promised you 8 little piglets before. Call your dad to catch the little piglets quickly so they don't get robbed."

Aunt Liu's old sow gave birth to big piglets and didn't like to get sick. Every time she gave birth to piglets, people in the village rushed to get their piglets.

This time I was able to grab 8 piglets, all because Mrs. Ye brought a piece of bacon to the door.

Aunt Liu was very happy to receive the bacon. Although everyone in the village raised pigs, they had to sell them for money, and they were not willing to eat them.

A lot of piglets were sold to anyone. Except for the one raised by her family, Aunt Liu gave the remaining 8 piglets to the Ye family.

Master Ye and Father Ye brought two huge bamboo baskets to Liu's house. The piglets were just one month old, chubby, tender and pink, and very pleasing to the eye.

"The piglets are raised well this time. Look how cute they are."

Mr. Ye looked at so many piggies, and the wrinkles on his face almost broke out in laughter.

"Yes, Aunt Liu has a way of taking care of sows. This piggy is so well raised."

The five pigs raised at home last year made a lot of money. Father Ye looked at these chubby piglets as if he saw money.

Aunt Liu was afraid that the Ye family would scare her old sow, so she went into the pigsty to catch the piglets. She kept the fattest one and caught the rest.

Each bamboo basket holds 4 piglets, and the 8 piglets are divided into two bamboo baskets.

Ordinary piglets cost 200 cents per pig, but Aunt Liu's piglets are well-raised and cost 10 cents more than ordinary piglets, costing 210 cents per piglet.

"A piglet costs 210 cents, and the total of 8 pigs is 1 tael, 680 cents." Mr. Ye gave the silver to Aunt Liu.

Father Ye on the side suddenly said: "Aunt Liu, you should raise a few more sows. There are not enough people in the village. Besides, raising sows is more profitable than farming."

A sow can give birth to two litters a year, and each litter can give birth to 6-10 piglets. A sow can earn about 3 taels of silver just selling piglets every year, which is not as cost-effective as farming.

"I would like to raise them, but I don't have anything to feed them. Now I can still get pigweed, but when I can't get pigweed in winter, I'll have to feed them grain."

She also wanted to raise them, but their family lacked labor, whether it was pig grass or food.

"Pigweed is luxuriant in spring and summer. Aunt Liu, you can harvest more and dry it in the sun. Then you won't have to worry about running out of things to feed the pigs in winter. The same is true at our house."

People in the village catch pig seedlings in spring and raise them before selling them in winter. They generally don't need to store dry pigweed. Aunt Liu never thought of it.

Aunt Liu felt that she was really stupid. Since she could dry vegetables, why didn't she think of drying grass?

Aunt Liu looked at Father Ye lovingly: "This is a good idea. Thank you very much, Auntie. Next year's piglets will be given to your family."

Father Ye said with a smile: "Auntie, you must keep your word. I will come over next year to catch pig seedlings."

"Feel free to come, I'll keep it all for you." Aunt Liu was also cheerful.

The father and son each carried a large bamboo basket to the front yard and put the bamboo basket on the cart. Father Ye pushed the cart, and Mr. Ye was responsible for taking care of the precious little piglets on the cart.

It takes half a village to go back to Ye's house from Liu's house. These eight white and tender piglets made the people in the village envious. Several groups of people wanted to buy piglets from Ye's house along the way, but Mr. Ye politely stopped them. Refused.

It was a quarter of an hour's journey, and it took the two of them two quarters of an hour to get home.

Old Mrs. Ye had already cleaned the unused pigsty and was anxiously waiting for the father and son to come back after catching the piglets.

As soon as the two entered the door, Mrs. Ye trotted over and complained: "Why is it so slow?"

When Mrs. Ye saw that the father and son had caught 8 piglets, she immediately smiled from ear to ear. "This year's piglets are really good. They are chubby and full of energy."

"Fengshou and I will put the piglets into the pigpen first. Chunhua, you can bring a bucket of pig food over."

"The pig food has been prepared a long time ago. I will take it to the pig pen now."

Mrs. Ye walked briskly to the kitchen, picked up the cold pig food, and walked quickly to the pig pen in the backyard.

Old Mrs. Ye put the pig food into two long wooden basins. The little cutie, who was shivering just now, immediately smelled the smell and came over to cook.

Old Mrs. Ye looked at these little guys gobbling up their food with a loving look on her face, "Eat more, the more you eat, the more you will gain weight."

Father Ye was amused by Mrs. Ye's words, "Mom, if they understand what you are saying, they probably won't eat it, hahaha."

Old Mrs. Ye became angry and slapped Father Ye on the back.

"Dong Lin, Yi Lin, and Er Lin went to the bamboo forest to dig spring bamboo shoots. Hurry up and pick them up for dinner and transport the bamboo shoots back."

Father Ye didn't dare to work hard and drove the donkey cart to Xiaohou Mountain in despair.