Joe's Farming

After dinner, Qiao Yu tested the children on the words they had learned in the past few days. Among the three children, Gu Xiaoyan had learned the most.

Qiao Yu hugged her youngest son and kissed him madly: "Oh, how come Yan Baoer is so smart?"

Gu Xiaoyan's face flushed. His mother had been too busy recently and hadn't kissed him for a long time. He whispered, "Brother and sister are smart too."

Qiao Xing felt a little embarrassed after hearing this and didn't say anything.

Gu Xiaoxue: "Mom, grandpa praised my beautiful handwriting." As she said that, she took out a piece of calligraphy she had written.

Now that the family had some money, Qiao Yu bought them paper and pens to practice writing.

Qiao Yu took a look and found it was indeed much better than what she had written when she was a child: "Wow, Olaf is so awesome!"

Qiao Yu saw another one with dog-crawling words written on it: "Who wrote this?"

Qiao Xing lowered his head even lower: "Mom, it's mine."

Qiao Yu smiled and said, "What's there to be embarrassed about? Brother Gu, you write one!"

Gu Feng had not expected that he would be called out even if he was sitting quietly. His handsome face almost collapsed. In the end, he reluctantly wrote two words under the attack of his husband's eyes.

Gu Feng could not recognize many words to begin with, and he only recently learned a few from the children, but he was also busy, so he never practiced writing.

When Qiao Yu saw the two characters "Qiao Yu" written in such a way that they sounded like dragons and phoenixes, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Everyone couldn't help but laugh along, and Qiao Xing also laughed, completely forgetting his own embarrassment just now.

Gu Feng pretended to be calm and stood up: "I'm going to boil some water."

The children saw their father leave and pestered Qiao Yu to write one too. Qiao Yu wrote several in one breath, each uglier than the last.

Xiaoxue was puzzled: "Mom's handwriting with charcoal pencil is very beautiful, why is her handwriting with brush the same as Dad's?"

Qiao Yu twitched her lips and said, "The brush is too soft. Wait, I'll practice calligraphy every day when I have time."

Qiao Xing also said loudly: "I will practice well too."

Qiao Yu patted his head: "It's okay, take your time."

Uncle Wang also stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Xiaoxing is not good at writing, but he can do arithmetic after being taught. The three children have their own strengths and are all good children."

Qiao Yu's eyes lit up: "Xiao Xing, do you want to accompany your mother to set up a stall tomorrow?"

Qiao Xing was also excited: "Can I go?"

"Of course, you can just help me collect and change the money." Qiao Yu thought for a moment and said, "But you have to make up for your homework when you come back. Are you willing to do that?"

Qiao Xing nodded vigorously and said loudly, "Yes!" He was happy that he could help his mother.

As for Qiao Yu, she didn't feel embarrassed at all about letting her child work for her at such a young age.

Gu Xiaoxue and Gu Xiaoyan also wanted to go together, so they looked at Qiao Yu.

Gu Xiaoxue: "Mom, I want to go too. I can help you call the guests."

Gu Xiaoyan: "Mom, I...I want to go too. I can get you some water."

Qiao Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "No, I can only take care of one child. You guys stay at home and behave yourself. When Brother Wen gets better, we'll take you with us, okay?"

The two children pouted and agreed reluctantly.

-

The next day, Qiao Yu took out the stewed vegetables that had been soaked overnight and cut them up early in the morning, packing them just like he did when he went to Qingyuan Town. But now there were no lotus leaves, so he bought some oil paper to pack food and soap.

Yesterday afternoon, he had nothing to do, so he took out all the soaps he had made, wrapped them neatly with paper, and sealed the edges with rice paste. Of course, he left a piece of each shape for the customers to see, and marked them on the wrapping paper for easy identification.

Qiao Xing got up earlier than him, and immediately cleaned the yard, fed the chickens and ducks, fed the horses, and boiled water. He was very skilled in everything, and it seemed that this child did a lot of work in the early morning when he was not up. Qiao Yu was very pleased and appreciated this eldest son even more.

Since Grandpa and Qiao Xing came to the house, he had completely handed Xiaoxue and Xiaoyan over to them. The time he spent with the children became less and less. Qiao Yu reflected on himself and steamed a bowl of egg drop soup for each family member. Breakfast was porridge, steamed meat buns, and cold bamboo shoots.

There are fewer and fewer orders in Qingyuan Town. Qiao Yu plans to go to the grocery store when he comes back in the afternoon. One is to see how the sales of soap are, and the other is to tell the customers who want to buy braised dishes that he is no longer selling it and as an apology, he will give each of them a bar of soap.

Qiao Xing quickly ate breakfast and went to the kitchen to move things. Qiao Yu quickly shouted, "Xiao Xing, don't worry. We are not in a hurry. Take your time."

Qiao Xing then stopped and waited for Qiao Yu to finish eating.

Gu Feng picked up a lot of dishes for Qiao Yu. Qiao Yu glared at him. She really couldn't eat anymore, so she just pushed her bowl over to him and let him eat.

Qiao Yu asked Xiaoxue and Xiaoyan to listen to the old man before packing up and getting in the car.

The horse-drawn carriage is smaller than the ox-drawn cart, but the carriage can seat four people. Qiao Xing insisted on sitting outside with Qiao Yu, and Qiao Yu had no choice but to let him sit next to him.

When driving, Qiao Yu was bored, so she kept talking to Qiao Xing. Qiao Xing loved her mother very much and answered whatever she asked.

Qiao Xing used to be skinny and bony, but now he is in better shape, with a little more flesh on his cheeks and a rosier complexion. He wears neat clothes every day and often secretly washes clothes for the whole family. After being reprimanded several times, he finally lets it go.

The eldest child did this, and the two younger ones followed suit. Qiao Yu had never seen children as well-behaved as her own children, and could only sigh that she was lucky.

It took Qiao Yu an hour to reach Taoyuan Town. Although it was faster than the ox cart, it was still much slower than Gu Feng.

You don't have to pay to enter Taoyuan Town, but you need to pay extra for renting a stall based on the location and the types of goods you want to sell. The last time Qiao Yu came, he planned to set up a stall at the pier, where there were passing cargo ships and a lot of people.

Qiao Yu found the manager in charge of the stall and paid a day's rent, which was six coins per day and one hundred coins per month. It was much more expensive than Qingyuan Town, but Qiao Yu was not too worried, after all, the people in Taoyuan Town were richer.

Qiao Yu didn't arrive early, and the best stalls had already been taken. Most of the stalls were selling steamed buns and small items. It was obvious that their target audience was the laborers working at the dock.

Qiao Yu found a seat next to the noodle shop, and set out the small table, the braised dishes and the soap. This time he also bought a beautiful tablecloth in advance, and the table looked very nice when it was set out.

Soaps took up half of the space, neatly stacked, with the sample soaps in the front. The stewed dishes were still packaged by type and sold by portion as before. As soon as the small stove was set up, a customer came over and asked what to cook.

Qiao Yu introduced generously: "This is called stewed food. It is a secret recipe passed down from our ancestors. It is stewed with dozens of spices. Everyone who has eaten it says it is delicious. Would you like to have one?"

The visitor was obviously a sailor, not short of money, but picky. Qiao Yu quickly took out the tasting bowl, each of which had a thin bamboo stick inserted into it.

Zhang Wu happily took a piece and couldn't stop eating it after tasting it: "Hmm... delicious, how much is it, boss?"