Huo Xi was a little stunned. This was the first time she saw the people from the eldest and third bedrooms of the Huo family.
We exchanged a few pleasantries and asked them why they were there.
Huo Daqin boasted about his identity and did not say anything. He only looked at Huo Xi with his eyes. Huo Sanhe and his son looked a little fawning and only smiled at her with dull expressions on their faces.
Huo Tong, the elder, looked her over and said that she was here to find work with her second uncle.
"During the year, the fifth aunt returned home. We heard that the fifth aunt was working at the second uncle's place, so we planned to come and have a look. The family has a large population, more than 20 people living in three rooms, and the family only has about ten acres of land. It’s not enough for a whole family to chew for a year.”
During the New Year, the fifth girl returned to her parents' home, and although she pretended to be low-key, no one noticed that she had become prosperous.
Grandma pulled out the big gold bracelets hidden in her hands. The two children also had silver chains on them and were wearing fine cotton clothes.
Even when visiting relatives during the Chinese New Year, I don’t pretend to be like this. It’s not like I’m developed.
Grandma scolded her second uncle at home for several days, saying that he was supporting a married girl and marrying someone with a foreign surname, and she never thought of supporting the parents of a whole family.
It was just after the New Year, so they were sent to find their second uncle.
"My father didn't meet Fifth Aunt?" My father didn't say anything when he came back this year.
"A sister-in-law in the fifth aunt's family got married this year. She only returned to her parents' home on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year."
No wonder. If Huo Wuniang and Huo Wuniang went back to the Huo family on the second day of the second year of junior high school, her father would probably be left in the Huo family during the new year and would not be able to come back.
But there are still three brothers in the Huo family. Now there are two brothers. What about Huo Sipan? Huo Xi had met that man when she was a child. He stopped her father asking for money. Her impression of him was not very good.
Huo Daqin silently looked at his second brother's daughter.
Over the years, the second brother said that she was not in good health, so he never took her back. Look at her with a maid, the clothes she wore, and her temperament, she was really well-kept.
I heard that the eldest son of the second brother's family was sent to school. It seems that the second brother is really prosperous. He only gives ten taels of silver every year during the New Year, so he probably has saved a lot. There are houses in this city, and It's the old servant who looks after the gate.
If he had been the one who hired a new wife back then...
Huo Daqin shook his head hurriedly. Recruiting a wife is not a good thing, how can his reputation be good?
In the village of Jiangjun Mountain, Huo Erhuai received a boatload of cane sugar delivered to the village by Guangfeng Water early in the morning. He was busy leading Ji Laozhuang and others to practice sugar, and he was too busy to do anything.
This year, the two children said they are going to sea, so the amount of sugar is indispensable.
If there are too many, shopkeeper Shen can be asked to take them to Ningbo and Songjiang and sell them to merchants. These candies can be sold at high prices, so they cannot be ignored.
After a busy morning, I took a break at noon and went back to the courtyard for dinner.
I saw Mrs. Yang cutting cloth in the house.
"Where's An'an?"
"The wet nurse is putting him to sleep."
Seeing that Huo Erhuai was about to move, he hurriedly stopped him: "Don't go look at him. You'll wake him up. He'll be able to coax him for a long time if he cries with such a loud voice."
Huo Erhuai also had a headache when he thought about his youngest son's loud voice.
"Nian'er didn't cry that loudly when she was a child. Sometimes she shed tears without making a sound, which makes people feel sad. This An An is like the reincarnation of a demon star. When she cries, my scalp goes numb."
Yang laughed.
"Perhaps he is eating well. Although I don't feed him now, the wet nurse has enough milk. Now I have milk to feed him. He eats every other hour. He eats until he is fat and howls loudly."
"The cow Fu'er bought back is really good. It produces dozens of kilograms of milk a day, and we adults can drink it. If you can't finish it, follow Xi'er's instructions and make it into milk powder and powder tablets. Nian'er I also love to eat.”
"No, it's hard to blame Fu'er for transporting two cows all the way back. Look at these Japanese scissors..."
Yang Yang waved the scissors in her hand towards Huo Erhuai: "It's very easy to use and sharp."
She touched the Japanese cloth in her hand. The pattern was beautiful, no embroidery was needed, and it was durable. Spring was coming, and she had to make a few single clothes for several children.
Huo Erhuai looked at the scissors in Yang's hand. He didn't expect that the island country on the other side of the sea also had such good things. Fu'er said a lot, and he wanted to go outside and take a look.
"Then Xi'er said to keep two red ginseng sticks at home. I don't think we need them. How about selling them to get some money?"
Yang glared at him: "What's the point of selling it? It's a living thing, and there's no place to buy it. Xi'er said he would leave us to make ends meet. Besides, we're not short of money now. Every year, the land rent is collected from us.
Here, I think we have a few thousand taels of silver in our hands. You still want to exchange money, but money has taken advantage of you."
"I'm not giving you money. The two children are going to sea again this year. I heard that they will add a boat, two big boats, which will cost two to three hundred thousand taels. I tremble in my heart when I think about it. I'm afraid that the two children will not have enough money.
For money.”
Yang put down her sewing and sighed.
"Dad, you said that a few years ago, how could we have imagined that our family could negotiate a business worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver? That is unthinkable. I only think about saving a few taels of money at the end of the year. Thank God.
Now, I can live a more comfortable life in the coming year."
Who would have thought that now I have a house and a shop in the city, and there is a village and property in the suburbs.
Huo Erhuai also sighed: "No. If we hadn't picked up Xi'er and Nian'er, our family might still be floating on the water. An'an probably wouldn't have come to this world."
Thinking of An An, Yang's face was filled with smiles.
"No. There's nothing we can do. It's best if we take good care of ourselves and don't drag down the children. Don't just focus on the sugar mill and the silkworm house. You should also do more. Xi'er, right
The income of the silkworm house last year was not very satisfactory."
Huo Erhuai nodded: "I know that the mortality rate of silkworms this year should not be that high. It will definitely be no problem to raise silkworms five times. I will see if I can raise silkworms six times. If you can get more than one stone per acre of mulberry field,
Cocoon can also provide more support for the two children."
While the couple was talking, the village servant came to report that someone was coming from the city.
By the time Huo Erhuai hurriedly rowed his boat into the city, Huo Daqin and the others were already eating, drinking and sleeping in the house.
Huo Xi didn't know how to arrange them, so he just rested in the house until someone informed Huo Erhuai. Huo Daqin couldn't sit still, so he took his son Huo Tong to Mochou Lake to see the scenery. Only Huo Sanhe and his son were left.
In the house.
Huo Sanhe, like Huo Erhuai, is the middle child.
It’s not that the parents of the middle child don’t feel pain, but the young parents must have a lot of expectations for the first child, and the youngest child also feels a lot of pain because he is the last.
The middle child naturally has less expectations and less attention.
Therefore, the four brothers of the Huo family, the eldest and the younger, were sent to a school in the countryside for two years. The middle Huo Erhuai's family was poor and was given to someone as a son-in-law. Huo Sanhe was an honest man and had more than ten acres of land in his family.
, the person in his room contributed the most.
Now when I arrived in the city, I saw a vegetable patch in my second brother's house, and I couldn't sit still. I was messing around in the vegetable plot, and even gave instructions to Grandpa Zou who was standing by.
Huo Erhuai saw this scene when he came in.
"Third brother?"
"Second brother."
"How did you find this place?"
"The address I asked for from Fifth Sister. Now that there is a slack time in farming, my parents asked us to go to the city to find you for some work."