When Mrs. Feng came over with a bowl of boiled eggs, a group of children had already finished their candy and were surrounding Man Bao to look at her four cents.
Mrs. Feng was stunned for a moment when she saw the money and asked: "Sister-in-law, where did you get the money?"
Man Bao raised his head proudly, "We earned it ourselves and from selling candy."
Feng thought they were candy bars that her husband had bought for Man Bao before, and said helplessly: "Why didn't you eat them instead of selling them? They were for your health."
Every time Zhou Zuorang came to the market, he would buy a penny of candy when he returned. He would only take one out and turn it into sugar water for the children to drink. The remaining four would be full of treasures.
It's not that they doted on Manbao particularly and didn't care for the children.
It was something the doctor said to Manbao when he was young, "This child has a weak spleen and stomach, shortness of breath and fatigue. He should eat more eggs and honey."
The family's situation was not very good at that time. Man Bao was only a few months old and he couldn't take the bitter concoction, so he had to give him egg water and honey water.
Lao Zhoutou had to spend a lot of money to buy the honey from several nearby villages. It was hard to find, rare, and extremely expensive.
Later, the doctor said, "If you don't have honey, maltose will do. They both belong to the lung meridian and strengthen the spleen and stomach."
It can be said that the eggs and sugar at home contributed a lot to why Man Bao grew so big and so fat.
It was also because Manbao had become healthier in the past two years that the Zhou family felt that the doctor's words were really right. They could not give Manbao other good things, but the eggs were laid by their own chickens, and they still had money to buy candy.
One episode lasts three days, and she can get four candies every time she goes to the market, so in Man Bao's heart, she really has no shortage of candies, so much so that when Keke and she officially met for the first time and bought her with candies, she
Not very convinced.
Later, when she ate the candy given by Keke, she thought it was too sweet, so she finally shared some with her nieces and nephews as before.
Seeing their eyes narrowed with joy, Manbao became good friends with Keke who suddenly appeared.
Manbao is not short of sweets, because in addition to what her family buys, Keke gives her rewards from time to time, but Feng doesn't know.
She glared at Wulang and Liulang who didn't know what to say, and handed the bowl to Manbao, "You are hungry, my second sister-in-law has boiled eggs for you, please eat quickly."
Man Bao held the bowl and invited Mrs. Feng first, "Second sister-in-law, please take a bite too. You didn't eat the cake just now."
Feng pushed it back with a smile and said, "I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat with your eldest and second brothers when they come back."
Manbao didn't doubt it, because she also liked to eat with her family. Hey, why did she just eat the cake without waiting for her eldest and second brothers?
I feel a little sorry for them.
Manbao thought as he gave the egg to Datou and the others.
Everyone shook their heads and gave them candy, but they refused to eat the eggs. Although they wanted to eat them, they knew that for my sister-in-law, the eggs were not eggs, but medicine.
Manbao ate all the eggs and then asked Feng to take her to buy medicine for her mother.
Mrs. Feng touched her head and said with a smile: "Second sister-in-law doesn't have any money with her. We'll go there after your eldest brother and the others come back."
Man Bao handed over the handkerchief and said, "I have money!"
Feng sighed, "This is not enough."
My mother-in-law takes medicine all the year round, but in fact she takes the cheapest medicine, which treats the symptoms but not the root cause. She can only take care of her slowly. I don’t know how much it will cost to cure her.
There are two prescriptions for medicine that Qian often drinks. One can be bought from the doctor in Dali Village. This is the only doctor in the four nearby villages. Except for some of their medicines, most of them are bought from the doctor.
I picked it myself from the mountains.
If you buy it from him, a dose of medicine only costs eight cents, which is very economical for them. A dose of medicine can be boiled four times, which is enough for Qian's two days.
If Qian's condition worsens, he can only go to the county drugstore to buy the medicine on another prescription. That prescription contains more expensive medicine, which costs twenty cents a pair.
Mrs. Feng is really short of money. The people who came to buy baskets and dustpans today were all bartering. She got a lot of eggs and grain, but she didn't have any money.
There was no choice but to squat behind the stall and wait for Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang to come back.
It was not until noon that Zhou Dalang and Tuesday Lang came back with their carts in disgraceful expressions. The two large bags of grain were still there.
Feng was startled, trotted forward to help push the car over, and asked, "Why wasn't it sold?"
Zhou Erlang said with an ugly face: "The price is too cheap, a bucket of grain only costs eight cents."
Feng couldn't help shouting, "Only eight articles? Wasn't it ten articles before?"
Zhou Dalang squatted on the ground and said: "The food has come down. This year's harvest is not bad. I say the food store is not short of food."
They were all from the countryside. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang talked with each other for a long time, but they couldn't raise the price. The family was really short of money, so the brothers couldn't bear to sell the grain at such a low price, so they tried again.
return.
Feng couldn't help but blush, "What should we do?"
Zhou Zuorang squatted on the ground for a long time and said: "There is someone in the market who wants to exchange for hemp cloth. We can exchange it with grain. The cotton cloth for making shoes can also be exchanged with grain, but mother's medicine must be bought with money."
, the grain still has to be sold, if not, we will go to the county town tomorrow to have a look, maybe we can get a better price than the market price."
Man Bao immediately took out his four cents and said, "Brother, second brother, I have money!"
Seeing the four cents, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were stunned for a moment and asked, "Where did you come from?"
"Selling candy!"
Zhou Dalang took it and sighed: "I'm still short of four cents."
Man Bao wondered if she had to peel twenty more candies and sell them, but Zhou Erlang had already stood up and said, "I'll take something to exchange with someone."
Zhou Zuorang had many acquaintances in the market. He took out some wheat from Feng's harvest, weighed the weight and left.
Soon he came back with five cents.
Zhou Dalang was very curious, "Who did you switch with?"
Everyone comes to this village market with very little money.
"I exchanged it with the sugar seller Lao Wang. He uses wheat to make sugar. I sold it to him at a regular price."
Zhou Dalang breathed a sigh of relief and handed Man Bao's money to him.
Zhou Lang used the money to buy a pair of medicine. The number of people in the market began to decrease, and no one had the intention to set up stalls anymore. Zhou Lang went to someone familiar with the place to exchange cloth and bacon, then packed up his things and
Everyone went home.
The cloth was handed over to my mother, who assigned her the task of cutting clothes, while Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang went to talk to old Zhou Tou.
Man Bao followed behind and went in together.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang couldn't help but sweat when they saw her imitating their father and walking behind her hands behind their backs. They simply picked her up on their laps and then reported the situation in the market to Lao Zhoutou.
I heard that the food could not be sold at a high price, so Old Zhou wanted to smoke again.
He sighed and said: "The family needs some cash. Not to mention that your mother needs to take medicine. What if there is an urgent need occasionally?"
Zhou Erlang also nodded, "During this period, I have accumulated a lot of eggs while going to the market. I have to take them to the county to sell them."
Although there were occasional people buying eggs at Dalicun Market, most of them were bought in exchange for grain. In the end, Zhou Zuorang still had to sell the grain to the grain shop to make money.
Therefore, Zhou Erlang rarely sells eggs in the market. He always takes them to the county town, where eggs are easier to sell than grain.
Lao Zhou nodded, stroking his old smoker and said: "The day after tomorrow, you two will follow me and take Man Bao to school tomorrow."
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang responded.
Man Bao then expressed his opinion, "Dad, I also want to go to the county seat."