The happy little days of the Ye family

The men in the village who went to do corvée work have all returned, and the village has been filled with joy these past two days.

Early in the morning, there was another loud crow of chickens from Tang Yilin and Tang Erlin's house next door, which frightened the chickens from Ye's house next door and fluttered around in the chicken coop.

Mrs. Ye and her mother heard the noise in the chicken coop and came out to check. Mrs. Ye saw a lot of eggs in the chicken coop.

Just when I was about to go back to get the basket to pick up the eggs, I saw two broken eggs in the corner from the corner of my eye. I hurried back to get the basket with a distressed look on my face.

Mother Ye saw that the wooden basin filled with chicken food was empty, and the basin filled with water next to it only had a shallow layer of dirty water left. I quickly changed to a basin of clean water and then went back to the house to mix the chicken food.

Mrs. Ye soon came back with a half-old basket. After entering the chicken coop, she carefully picked up all the eggs in the chicken coop and put them into the basket.

There was also a clean rice bowl in the basket. Mrs. Ye cracked the two eggs that had been trampled by the chickens into the bowl and prepared steamed eggs for lunch.

Mrs. Ye carried the eggs and said to Mother Ye who was feeding the chickens at the side: "The Chinese New Year will be in about half a month, and the market in the town will be very lively tomorrow."

Mother Ye poured the chicken food in the basin into the wooden basin where the chickens were fed, and watched the chickens that came smelling the smell rush to eat the chicken food.

"Many women in the village have said they are going to the market tomorrow, and the seats on Brother Wang's oxcart have been booked early."

"Mom, do you want to go to the market tomorrow? My mother and my second sister-in-law are going to the town tomorrow to set up a stall to sell red dates. They asked us if we want to go to the market. We can take my mother's donkey cart to the town together."

Old Mrs. Ye smiled and said: "Okay, I just bought all the things for the New Year. These people who came back from the corvee are all hungry and skinny, and they are covered in pain."

"My wife and mother-in-law at home will buy some good things to replenish their health. These red dates will definitely sell well."

Mother Ye patted the chicken food in her hand. A small piece of sweet potato fell to the ground and was immediately eaten by a plump hen.

Ye Mu thought of the red dates at home and smiled: "Yes, my mother said the same thing. Xilin also went to the county market today to set up a stall selling red dates and persimmons. The business should be good."

As the end of the year approaches, most of the foreign merchants have gone back to celebrate the New Year. There are only a few local merchants on the pier. The pier is deserted, and the stall owners have begun to take a rest.

Since yesterday, Father Ye, Ye Donglin and his second cousin have not set up stalls on the pier. There are no people on the pier now. Even if they set up stalls, there is no business. It is better to come back and take a rest.

It was indeed a hard time for the three of them. Except for the autumn harvest and rainy days, there was no stall, and they set up stalls on the pier almost every day.

The second cousin went to Ye Qingmei's house to show his courtesy as soon as he had a rest, but Ye Donglin only had one day of rest and took Ye Xilin to set up a stall at the county market early this morning.

Father Ye wanted to train his two sons, so he did not follow them to set up a stall.

Before going out, Ye's father told Ye Donglin to rent two adjacent stalls. Ye Donglin still sells groceries, while Ye Xilin is responsible for a separate stall selling red dates and persimmons.

Old Mrs. Ye was very relieved about her two grandsons, "It's almost the Chinese New Year. If you have money or not, you have to buy something to support the occasion. I don't have to worry about selling these red dates and persimmons. Donglin's grocery stalls are probably doing good business as well."

Mrs. Ye looked at the eggs in the basket and she felt very good. She happily said to Mother Ye: "The chickens at home have been laying eggs very frequently recently. I can pick up more than ten eggs every day."

After Mother Ye fed the chickens, she took the basket from Mrs. Ye's hand and said, "Mom, you have served me well. The chickens and ducks at home lay eggs very diligently. Now the little poultry at home is worse than the geese that haven't laid eggs yet."

At this time, Ye Qingqing happened to come to the backyard, "Big goose? Can the big goose at home be eaten?"

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were amused by Ye Qingqing's greedy behavior.

Mother Ye looked at her daughter and said with a smile: "There is no shortage of food for you at home, why are you so greedy?"

Old Mrs. Ye: "It's all your grandpa's fault. This bad old man is also very greedy. He has a crooked top and a crooked bottom, turning all of you into greedy cats."

The three of them laughed together, Mother Ye carried the eggs, and the three of them returned to the kitchen talking and laughing.

At this time, Father Ye came back driving the Tang family's oxcart. The oxcart was full of freshly cooked bacon.

The Ye family's eight big fat pigs, except for one that was kept for the New Year, the remaining seven were killed a month ago.

Just like last year, Ye's father paid the village chief of Dashan Village to help find someone to make bacon.

In addition to pig offal and pig trotters, other pork, pig heads and ribs are transported to the mountains for bacon.

7头200斤出头的大肥猪一共得了870斤的猪肉、150斤的排骨。叶父将猪肉和排骨还有7个大猪头都送过去大山村做腊肉。

The pig waste fell into the well, and over a few days it was made into brine and sold at the stall.

After being made into bacon, there are 530 kilograms of bacon, 90 kilograms of bacon ribs, and 7 large pig heads.

There was so much bacon that his own donkey cart couldn't pull it back, so Ye's father borrowed the Tang family's ox cart to go to Dashan Village to pull the bacon.

Father Ye plans to save the cured pork ribs and cured pig heads to be made into braised pork or other delicacies and sold at the stall after the new year. The cured pork has long been ordered by shopkeeper Liang of the Liang Family Restaurant in the county.

Father Ye made an appointment with Shopkeeper Liang to deliver this batch of bacon in the afternoon.

In addition to his own bacon, Ye’s father also collected a large number of bacon, chicken and rabbit from Dashan Village.

Father Ye has already said hello to Li Orion and Village Chief Yang that as long as the taste remains the same, Dashan Village can harvest as much bacon as they want.

People in Dashan Village can go hunting in the mountains to make money, and there are many hunters in the village who spend money to work as corvees.

After autumn, people in the village are busy harvesting, while people in the mountain village are busy hunting in the mountains.

Hunters went into the mountains to hunt wild boars, and young boys also hunted pheasants, hares and other small animals in the nearby mountains.

Orion Li also spent money to exempt his family from the corvee. After autumn, he took his eldest son to hunt with the hunters in the village. He had gone to Wild Boar Ridge several times and hunted many large wild boars.

This time, Ye’s father collected 1200 kilograms of cured pork, 360 kilograms of cured rabbits and 240 kilograms of cured pheasants from Dashan Village. He plans to slowly sell this batch of bacon on the dock after the new year.

There was too much bacon collected this time, and Ye's father was in a hurry to go to the county to deliver bacon to shopkeeper Liang. He made an agreement with Li Orion and Village Chief Yang that they would deliver bacon to Ye's house tomorrow.

After lunch, Father Ye brought his own bacon to the Liang Family Restaurant without stopping.

Father Ye drove the bullock cart into the backyard and saw shopkeeper Liang waiting with two waiters in the backyard.

Father Ye and the two guys quickly weighed the bacon. There were a total of 530 kilograms of bacon. The price was the same as last year, 41 yuan per kilogram.

Shopkeeper Liang quickly calculated the money Father Ye received, "530 kilograms of bacon, 41 cents per catty, a total of 21 taels, 730 cents."