No pain no gain

It takes more than an hour to walk from Liushu Village to the nearest town, and in the process they have to climb over a big mountain. Da Zhuang's parents were killed by wolves on that mountain. Therefore, the people in the village have formed several groups over the years. There is a unified time to go to the town to go to the market, and there are two times in this winter, one is before the snow, and the other is before the Chinese New Year, and there are other times to go to the market, that is, two or three families make an appointment to go together.

Seeing that it was about to start snowing, the most talked about thing in the village, whether adults or children, was going to the market.

Da Zhuang packed up the small baskets made of bamboo or wicker these days, as well as the dozens of eggs he had saved, and planned to buy them in the town and exchange them for some daily necessities such as oil and salt.

Er Zhuang grew up to be six years old, and only went to the town once the year before last. He was very impressed with the things in the town, and looked at his elder brother eagerly, hoping that Da Zhuang would take him there with him.

The eldest girl, the second girl, etc. have never been to the town. Every time they hear someone talking about the town or something delicious or interesting, they can hardly move their feet, and they are envious. listen.

Da Zhuang glanced at the twins crawling around on the kang and the third girl who still had his finger in his mouth. It was obviously impossible for them all to go. After thinking about it, he said: "This time, take the big girl, Er Zhuang and Er Niu'er is at home looking after her younger siblings, and next time you go to the market before the Chinese New Year, take Er Zhuang and Er Niu'er there."

After Er Zhuang heard this, although he was still a little unwilling, he agreed.

Er Niu'er did not follow, she is not yet four years old this year, and the little girl who is only three years old still doesn't understand why she will go to the market next time. She only knows that her elder brother doesn't want her to go to the market, so she burst into tears.

Er Zhuang hurried forward and put his arms around Er Niuer to coax him softly.

On weekdays, as long as the younger siblings are crying, the eldest girl is the most distressed, and she often coaxes her for a long time in a soft voice, but now she hesitates and does not come forward, biting her lip and watching, hesitating to speak, It looked like she really wanted to go to the town, but she didn't want her second sister to be wronged.

When Da Zhuang saw this, his face turned cold, and he told Er Zhuang and Da Niuer not to pay attention to Er Niuer and let her cry by herself.

Seeing that the elder brother was angry, Er Zhuang and Da Niuer didn't dare to disobey Da Zhuang's wishes, and just watched Er Niuer cry from the sidelines.

Er Niu'er cried for a while, but seeing that no one was paying attention to her, her crying gradually subsided, she just sat on the ground and sobbed, secretly looking at her elder brother.

Da Zhuang endured it for a while, then went to pick up Er Niuer, and said softly: "Er Niuer is obedient, next time elder brother will take Er Niuer, this time Er Niuer obediently listens to Er Niuer at home, elder brother Buy meat and delicious cakes for Er Niuer."

The eldest girl also quickly agreed, saying that she would bring something fun for the second girl.

"Er Niuer, we'll wait at home, the cakes and biscuits in the town are delicious!" Er Zhuang said and sucked his saliva.

Er Niuer burst into laughter, put her arms around Da Zhuang's neck and said in a childlike voice: "Brother, Er Niuer is obedient and wants to bring back the meat!"

Da Zhuang agreed with a smile, and promised to take Er Niuer to the town to go to the market next time, and the children were happily ready to go to bed.

Last time the uncle sent a small piece of meat, Da Zhuang first cut half of it to make dumplings, and separated the remaining half of the fat from the thin one, cut the fat one into small pieces and fried cabbage, and put a little salt on the thin one , Hanging on the ventilated beams, Da Zhuang thought for a while, took off the last bit of lean meat, cut it into momo, mixed it with cabbage and fungus, wrapped a few buns, steamed it first, and left it for Er Zhuang and the others made food for the next day, and they didn't go to sleep until midnight.

In the early morning of the next day, the village became lively. Several families with ox carts called from door to door, and each person who was willing to ride in the cart was given a copper coin, and children did not need money.

Da Zhuang worriedly repeatedly told Er Zhuang to heat up the steamed stuffed buns for dinner, etc. Er Zhuang made countless guarantees before going out.

Da Zhuang asked Da Niuer to get in the cart, and most of the carts were wives and children, and the men all followed the bullock cart and smiled.

"Da Zhuang, come on!" Several aunts in the car enthusiastically helped Da Zhuang take off the big basket on his back, and forced Da Zhuang into the car.

Da Zhuang sat helplessly among a group of chattering women. People say that a woman is equivalent to five hundred ducks. The excited woman on this cart, the situation can be imagined, Da Zhuang was dizzy from the noise Brain bloated.

After finally reaching the gate of the town, Da Zhuang got out of the car quickly, made an appointment with everyone for a meeting, and led Da Niuer to the market.

After entering the market, Da Zhuang first took Da Niuer around and bought a meat pancake for Da Niuer. It cost two copper coins, but the portion was enough. There are a lot of messy things on the Internet, but the cloth buyers obviously don’t place their stalls next to the meat sellers, and the stalls selling the same things are still concentrated. Most of the vegetables in winter are two to five A catty of copper coins, different pork ranging from a dozen copper coins to more than [-] copper coins, there is no special fish seller, most of the people in the nearby villages catch fish and bring them over to sell if it is convenient.

After looking around, Da Zhuang had a rough idea of ​​the consumption level here, so he found a gap and put out a small basket of eggs, bamboo baskets and wicker baskets weaved these days, those baskets were not big, It can hold about the size of a small watermelon, but it looks very delicate. Da Zhuang thought about it and ordered two copper coins, one. The price of eggs is the same as that in the market, two copper coins.

This market is the only big market in the ten miles and eight townships. The others are all peddlers who travel from village to household. The weather is fine today, and the market is very lively. The big and strong things are almost sold in less than an hour. Now, only the bamboo basket containing the eggs and two or three eggs were left. Da Zhuang counted the money secretly, and there were sixteen baskets, one of which was a thin wicker basket, which seemed to be bought by a maid from a rich family. I wanted to buy it back to coax the master, so I threw a few copper coins at random, and took it away in a hurry. Da Zhuang didn't say anything about being spineless. The copper coins on the ground were picked up, there were eight of them, and the basket bought a total of 38 copper coins, and more than forty eggs, and bought 22 copper coins, a total of sixty.

Da Zhuang sighed, "The salt here is 22 copper coins a catty. After spending these days, the money I finally earned is not enough to buy three catties of salt, let alone oil, which costs thirty and a half copper coins." Jin, of course this is vegetable oil. Now there are rapeseed here, and the only vegetable oil is rapeseed oil.

Da Zhuang thought for a while and thought that there was still a small half pot of oil at home, so he bought some pork to squeeze the oil, and he could eat it for a while if he saved a little, but the salt was bottomed out, so he bought a catty and a half of salt first, and then went straight to At a stall selling pork, I saw a grain shop that sold thin white noodles and rice. Da Zhuang swallowed his saliva. Eating noodles every day is really a torment, but Da Zhuang didn’t overdo it, and didn’t even go in to ask the price. Now, all the family’s possessions are the 350 copper coins given by Uncle Li when they sold the fields, and one piece given by Uncle Li. One hundred and six copper coins, the 33 copper coins I earned today, excluding 480 copper coins for selling salt and two copper coins for sesame cakes, there is a total of [-] copper coins. There are also many places where money is needed.