Parents are busy farming

He put his baggage inside, put the wheat bran on top, picked up the big basket and continued on his way.

As I walked, I wiped away my tears with the back of my hands. Seeing that my frostbitten hands were completely healed, my heart was filled with gratitude.

Full of expectations for the future life, I walked faster and faster, and finally started running.

The backpack weighed at least eighty kilograms, and it seemed to be weightless on his back.

Before noon, we returned to the village.

He did not dare to take the main road and went back home from the back of the village.

When I returned to my thatched house, I saw that the house had only four walls.

He quickly walked into the house, where the children were covered with a quilt and shivering from the cold.

When they saw the tall man coming in, they were scared at first, but when they saw clearly that it was Lao Li, they all happily called daddy.

"Where is your mother?" Lao Li asked his fifteen-year-old eldest son.

"Mom went out to see if I could borrow some food." The eldest son said with his head lowered.

It seems that the family has run out of food.

Lao Li took off his shabby cotton-padded jacket and put it on his eldest son, "Go and find your mother. Don't let anyone know that I'm back."

As soon as his eldest son heard this, he immediately stood up and started to walk out. Seeing his eldest son wearing single pants, Lao Li almost lost control.

About a quarter of an hour later, Lao Li's wife and eldest son came back together.

Looking at his even thinner daughter-in-law, Lao Li felt guilty.

"Why are you back?" the daughter-in-law asked as soon as they met. She was very afraid that Lao Li would be fired again.

It was because Lao Li was fired by his previous owner that the people from the old house kicked them out.

"The fifth lady of the host family is kind-hearted and asked me to come back every month to check on her." Lao Li knew that the family had become a 'frightened bird', so he quickly explained.

Hearing this, Lao Li's wife felt relieved.

"Miss Fifth is a good person. She asked me to bring back a lot of things this time, but you can't let outsiders know." Old Li said and looked outside.

I found that no one took out the things in the basket one by one.

When Lao Li took out all the things, everyone in the family was shocked.

Especially the children. Since they can eat, they have not eaten white flour steamed buns, let alone meat.

Lao Li's wife saw the piece of cloth.

"This cloth is cotton. Did you steal it, Lao Li? How could the master give you such a valuable thing?" Lao Li's wife asked him.

"What nonsense are you talking about? We have been married for so many years, and you still don't understand me? The lady knitted this, and gave it to me because it was unevenly knitted and there were joints." Lao Li quickly explained.

When Lao Li's wife heard this, she immediately went out and washed her hands. After wiping herself clean, she picked up the cloth and looked at it.

There are indeed joints on it, and the weaving is uneven, but after all, this is cotton!

Families like theirs cannot use cotton cloth, even if it is not good quality cotton cloth.

She looked at her house and her eldest son, who was already fifteen years old, and decided to sell the ginger-colored cotton cloth in exchange for some money.

I guess I can sell it for half a tael no matter what.

He looked at the cotton-padded clothes that Lao Li had brought back, gritted his teeth, and decided to keep one.

The other two pieces were also sold, so that the family would have a tael of silver.

I kept the wheat bran for my own consumption, took out four steamed buns, one for each child, and didn’t keep the others.

As for the two kilograms of meat, seeing the greedy expressions on the children's faces and knowing that they had not tasted the meat, she decided to cut off some and taste it at home, while taking the rest to the market to try to sell.

When she told her family about her decision, the children were silent at first, then looked at each other and nodded together.

Lao Li looked at the remaining steamed buns and said, "Those hard steamed buns are what I have left. You can keep them for yourself and don't sell them. Do as you say for the rest!"

After taking a look at the eldest son's pants, he said: "After selling the money, let's make a pair of pants for the eldest son first! He is already a eldest son."

Lao Li's wife originally wanted to save the money to build a house first, but after seeing the longing look in her eldest son's eyes, she finally nodded softly.

"Okay, you stay at home and take care of yourself. I'll come back to see you next month." As he said this, Lao Li was about to walk out.

His wife grabbed him and said, "Why don't you leave without eating something?"

"I don't want to eat anymore. I have to go back quickly. Let's eat again when we get back!"

He can save some food for his family! Then he picked up the empty frame and walked outside.

The wife and children at home watched him walk out of the house through the narrow window.

After Lao Li left, his wife sorted out the things, put them in a basket and hid them, planning to get rid of them tomorrow.

There was only one bag of wheat bran left outside, and the family planned to use this bag of wheat bran to survive the month.

Of course, there are also the steamed buns with mixed noodles left by Lao Li. They will not eat them unless absolutely necessary.

*

As soon as Lao Li arrived at the gate of Ye's house, he saw two sisters walking leisurely on a donkey cart.

He quickly put down the frame on his back, removed the door sill, and waited outside.

After seeing Lao Li, Ye Zifen asked, "Didn't you go back today?"

After taking over the reins, Lao Li said, "Miss Fifth, I'm going back. I just came back. Thank you Miss Fifth for the things you prepared."

"I thought you were going to stay at home for one night! By the way, I want to ask you about someone, is a man named Li Laosi from your village?" Ye Zifen suddenly remembered that Lao Li seemed to be from Lijia Village as well.

"Yes, there is Li Laosi in our village, who is a bricklayer. How did the lady know?" Lao Li asked curiously.

"I saw him pushing pigs for sale today on the way to the county town. He said he wanted to treat his family members. I gave him three taels of silver and will go to his house to catch the pigs at the end of the year."

Lao Li had already driven the donkey cart into his home. Ye Yongwang and the others heard the sound and came out to take a look.

"Li Laosi is quite an honest man, so there should be no problem." Lao Li said as Ye Zifen had already taken the meat off the car.

"What's going on?" Ye Yongwang asked.

Ye Zifen had no choice but to talk to Ye Yongwang about buying pigs, and Ye Yongwang nodded after listening.

"Well! This is well done, killing two birds with one stone."

Ye Yongwang went into the house to help Wang Tinghe out and went for a walk in the yard.

Ye Zifei quickly entered the room and looked at Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi.

At this time, another donkey cart stopped in front of the house, and a man jumped out of the donkey cart.

Ye Zifen took a closer look and saw that he was the guy from the spice shop, wasn't he?

"Why are you here? Is there something urgent?" Ye Zifen stepped forward and asked.

"The sauerkraut and pickles you gave us were spotted by a merchant and he insisted on buying them. Our shopkeeper only kept a little to taste, and the rest were taken away by him. As a result, the man went to the store again today. I want to buy some more to take away. Our shopkeeper thinks this business is good, so why don’t I come over and ask what you mean.”

After the guy got out of the car, he pulled Ye Zifen over and whispered the matter in a low voice.

"How much does the merchant charge? How much does it cost per pound?" Ye Zifen asked carefully.

"Our shopkeeper sells it for ten cents per catty. The merchant asks for as much as he wants. The merchant wants to go north. If he has a boat, he takes the canal."

Upon hearing this, Zhi Zifen thought about her costs and said to the waiter: "I also have two large jars of pickled vegetables and two jars of flavored radishes. When will this businessman leave?"

When the boy heard this, he quickly said: "The boat will sail tomorrow afternoon."

Upon hearing this, Zhi Zifen thought for a while and said, "Go back and tell shopkeeper Hong that I will deliver these things tomorrow morning, and I will pay the store seven cents per catty. But there is an additional fee for the pickled vegetable jar."

The guy quickly wrote it down and left.

"Don't you drink water?" Ye Zifen asked before he went out.

"I'm not going to drink anymore. I'm going back and telling the shopkeeper." After saying this, the boy jumped onto the donkey cart and whipped up his whip.

Ye Zifen quickly went into the house and called her third sister out, and the two of them worked together to put the four jars of pickled vegetables into one jar.

One person puts the pickled cabbage and the other scoops out the sour soup with a ladle.