The next day, Yue Zhongyao woke up at Yinchu, wiped his face and got up and went on his way.
When Mrs. Wu heard the sound of him opening the door, she got up quickly. She threw on her clothes carelessly and asked after her, "When will you go to Liu's house to propose marriage?"
Yue Zhongyao ignored him.
Wu raised her voice and asked again.
Yue Zhongyao then replied: "Didn't you hear that the patriarch said that you should wait until Jin Niang has a son before marrying her? You can marry her now. I said that my life is not my own, it belongs to the whole family, and neither does she."
You must marry me!"
After saying that, without looking back, he strode out of the village.
Mrs. Wu was so angry that she fell back and ran after him, cursing him. But he couldn't keep up with Yue Zhongyao, so he had to stand and curse a few words before turning back. After coming back, he cursed in the yard for a long time, even before dawn, which made Lao Yue noisy.
Everyone including Touyue Laoer and others were yelling at her in the room.
Sister Xiu also heard it from the next door, and she felt secretly happy.
After dawn, I got up and went to Qiao Mingjin's new home to tell Qiao Mingjin.
Qiao Mingjin just smiled after hearing this.
He said to Sister Xiu: "Sister Xiu, do you want to go with me to collect firewood and sell it?"
"Collect firewood and sell it?" She often went to the mountains to collect firewood, but she had never sold it before.
Qiao Mingjin nodded and said: "Yes. Now I don't have any copper coins in hand. It will take at least a month and a half before the vegetable fields are opened and harvested. I don't have the capital to do business. Buying needles, thread and needlework also requires money, and it takes time.
It's not short either. It's even more inconvenient to work outside, and I still have Wan'er to take with me. I thought there was a lot of firewood in the mountains. I used to see people carrying loads of firewood when I went to the market, so I thought of picking up some firewood first.
Sell."
After hearing this, Sister Xiu said: "But we still have to walk to the market to have fun. Moreover, Songshan Market is just a market and there are no shops or homes. I'm afraid it won't be easy to sell."
Qiao Mingjin then said: "I want to sell them in Songshan County, where there are many people. Whether they are for home use, restaurants, snack shops, blacksmith shops, etc., they all need firewood. I really can't walk, I
Thinking that someone would lend Sister Xiu’s cattle and give her ten cents a day, I would also pay ten cents. I would pick it up for two days and then pull a cart and sell it. This is a business without capital, and this is the only way we, mother and daughter, can make money.
A piece of rice and flour money.”
Sister Xiu endured the sourness in her heart and said: "There is no need to give me money. My cow is not busy in farming now, so you can use it. I have a lot of work in the field, so I won't go with you. You siblings
It takes three people to pick them up in a day, which is enough for a car. This is also the best way at the moment."
In fact, she doesn't have much to do when the farming season isn't busy. She just pulls weeds and fertilizes the fields. She just looks at the pity of the mother and daughter and doesn't want to dilute their business.
Qiao Mingjin thought for a while and said: "I borrow cattle to do business, so I'll give you fifteen cents a day, which is more than others. I don't dare to use it without taking money."
Sister Xiu hurriedly declined, and the two of them pushed back and forth, and finally settled on ten cents a day.
Sister Xiu did not delay them, said a few words and left.
Qiao Mingjin washed a few sweet potatoes, scraped off the skins with the back of a knife, then cut them into cubes and cooked porridge with two handfuls of rice.
Although there are two stoves in the kitchen today, there is only one iron pot.
It would be better to buy another cooking bowl.
There are only a few bowls, and there are no extra plates. These are all things that need to be added. My parents' family is not rich either, so it is not easy to provide these. After all, no one has extra pots to put around.
After the porridge was cooked, Qiao Mingjin filled four bowls and used a large coarse porcelain basin to scoop up the remaining porridge in the pot.
I scooped out three more bowls of flour and water to make pancakes. I had to go into the mountains to collect firewood later, but I didn’t come back at noon just to collect more.
The family of four had breakfast. Qiao Mingjin used a few large leaves to wrap more than a dozen cakes. He also used a bamboo tube to hold pickles and a few bamboo tubes to fill with cold boiled water.
Then they went to prepare hatchets, machetes, sacks, bamboo rakes, hemp ropes, etc. Then they put Sister Xiu's cow on the board and brought it over, and the family of four went up the mountain.
Songshan is not high, nor is it steep from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, and even cattle can climb up to the mountainside.
Qiao Mingjin unloaded the car and asked Mingheng to take the cow to drink water and eat grass. Mingqi took Xiao Wan'er and excitedly dug around in the grass to look for wild eggs.
Yunjia Village does not rely on mountains. Now Mingheng and Mingqi can't hide their excitement when they go up the mountain. From time to time they hear Xiao Wan'er's giggles. Qiao Mingjin suddenly feels that the world is vast.
After telling the three people to pay attention to snakes and other things, she turned around and took the hatchet to chop the bamboo.
Some dead branches are on the trees, and it is difficult to climb up and cut them. You can only use a machete tied to a bamboo pole or a wooden stick to reach them.
The wooden sticks were too heavy, but fortunately there were several clumps of bamboo growing well in the mountains, and villagers from Xiahe and Shanghe villages often came to cut them when their families needed them.
Qiao Mingjin quickly cut a long bamboo pole and tied the machete to the front end of the bamboo pole.
After finishing it, I found the three people and gave them some instructions.
Since there was only one bamboo rake at home, Mingqi raked the pine hair. Mingheng and Xiao Wan'er picked up the dead branches on the ground and the firewood branches Qiao Mingjin hooked from the trees, and then gathered them into a pile.
After the division of labor was completed, several people took action independently.
There are a lot of dead branches in the mountains, so the firewood needs to be larger and thicker to withstand burning and sell for more copper. Qiao Mingjin specially looks for thicker dead branches or the whole tree is dead, and cuts it.
cut.
Qiao Mingjin held up the dead branch on the tree, stretched the scimitar tied to the bamboo pole towards the fork, and pulled hard...
The dead branch fell quickly due to the cutting force of the knife and the pulling force of Qiao Mingjin.
Qiao Mingjin tied the hatchet to her waist. When she encountered dead branches with many branches or longer than the cart board, she used the hatchet to break them down and chop them into shorter pieces. This way, they could be placed on the cart floor and Mingheng could easily clean them up.
Although Mingheng often does housework at home, he is only a nine-year-old child after all...
After a busy afternoon, there was soon a pile of dead branches and a small mountain of pine hair piled on the ground.
I'm afraid there's more than one cart of these. I'll pick up some more this afternoon, I believe I can sell them two or three times.
Qiao Mingjin was very happy.
Since it was already noon, we stopped.
There was a mountain in this mountain, and the four siblings went there to wash their faces and hands. She pulled her daughter in front of her, poured water and patted Xiao Wan'er's face. She saw that her daughter's face was bright red and she looked happy.
Then he smiled and poked his daughter's little face and said, "Wan'er, are you tired? Don't run so much that you're covered in sweat. When the cool breeze blows in the mountains, you have to take black and bitter medicine."
As soon as Xiao Wan'er heard this, she quickly covered her mouth with her little hands, blinked at Qiao Mingjin with her big eyes, and shook her head.
Qiao Mingjin smiled and said, "Then Wan'er, just walk slowly, but don't run so fast, or you'll have to drink medicine."
Seeing her daughter nodding towards her, she let her go.
After taking the food from their bags, the sisters found a piece of clean grass and sat down.
Without using chopsticks, I poured the pickles in the bamboo tube onto the pancakes, rolled them into long rolls, and distributed one to each person.
Neither Mingheng nor Mingqi had eaten this way before, and it was very novel. After taking a bite, the noodles were fragrant with the taste of pickles, which was much better than eating them dry. Mingheng ate several pieces at once.
Wan'er also ate two pieces, her little mouth was bulging, and her big eyes were wandering around a few people, she was very cute.
The water in the bamboo joints was also divided and drank. After eating, the four siblings sat down to rest.
"Mom, pick up the eggs."
Qiao Mingjin smiled and rubbed her head, saying, "How can there be so many eggs to pick up?"
Mingqi and Mingheng were also very interested and didn't want to rest. They stood up and wanted to look for wild eggs.
"Sister, didn't you find five yesterday? There must be more in such a big mountain."
Qiao Mingjin then said with a smile: "This is the front mountain. People in the village often go up the mountain to cut and collect firewood. Even if there is firewood, it has been picked up by others. You have to go to the back mountain to find it."
"Sister, let's go inside? We might even be able to hunt a pheasant." Ming Qi's face lit up.
"We don't have anything. Even if we catch it, it's not easy to catch. It would be bad if we encounter other wild animals. Next time I make something, we can catch pheasants. I heard that there are hares in the mountains.
There are quite a few.”
"Really? Sister, what do you use to catch it?" Mingqi Mingheng was very excited. It was all because the chicken last night was so delicious.
"We'll wait until we have money after selling firewood this time. Now we can't even eat rice for a few days. We still want to eat meat."
The two little things touched their noses and sat back on the ground.
Mingqi and Mingheng also stood up, grabbed a stick and rushed forward.
How can pheasants in the mountains be so easy to catch? They are very vigilant and fly high, so they are not so easy to catch.
Sure enough, the three of them came back dejected after a while.
Qiao Mingjin couldn't help but laugh when she saw it.
He said: "Go and collect firewood. We will go back after we have collected enough for two large carts. We still have the chicken from last night. I will take you to Songshan County early tomorrow morning and sell the firewood to buy you delicious food."
"Oh, okay. Then I'll rake more and sell them for more money." Mingqi grabbed the bamboo rake and ran away...
