As soon as I opened and closed my eyes, the night passed quickly.
Amidst the crowing of cocks, Zhang An quickly woke up.
Today is Sunday, the day of the big market in Hongyan Town. Some families who need to carry extra things at home to sell at the market will get up early and start their journey before dawn.
When Zhang An was still studying, every time he returned to school from home, he would have to get up before dawn and rush to town to catch a bus.
Because there is a period of time from Changqing Village to Hongyan Town, a distance of more than ten miles, and it takes more than an hour to walk on Route 11.
The shuttle bus only runs from the town to the county, and you can hitchhike in villages along the way. In villages that don't go along the way, you can either take a horse-drawn carriage or ride a bicycle. If you don't have either, you can only walk.
In order not to spend money on food on the street, Wang Fang got up early in the morning and started cooking.
What I ate this morning was no longer noodles, but the leftovers from last night’s dinner, stir-fried with rice.
We were originally going to walk to the town, but when we reached the village entrance, we met villagers driving a carriage, so we took the opportunity to hitch a ride.
A carriage is now considered a big item in the village. Not only does it cost hundreds of dollars to build, but a horse alone is worth a lot of money, so there are only three or four households in Changqing that raise horses.
But there are also benefits to raising horses. You can usually drive various things to others, such as food crops, stones, lime wood, etc. to build houses, etc. The money will be paid back in a year or two.
In fact, oxen can also pull carts, but the temperament of oxen in mountainous areas is a bit too stubborn, and the efficiency of pulling carts is much lower than that of horses.
From the village to the town, going uphill and downhill, various insects and birds in the forest began to perform a concert.
After getting on the carriage, the journey was much faster than walking, and we arrived at the town in about half an hour.
In fact, the entire market is not a large open area like the markets of later generations, but rather has stalls set up along the roads in the town.
There is a basketball court at the entrance of the street, but every time there is a market, carriages are parked inside.
When you walk along the road, you can see various stalls, selling clothes, pots and pans, buying food, etc.
I heard from my dad that a few years ago, when there weren’t so many people buying goods and setting up stalls on their own, most things had to be bought from the supply and marketing cooperatives. But in the past two years, although the supply and marketing cooperatives are still open, they are not as big as before.
Many people went.
Father Zhang Jianguo obviously had a plan. When he came to town, he walked towards a restaurant with a basket on his back, and came back after a while carrying an empty basket on his back.
It should be that every time my father had something, he would sell it to this family, so he is a long-term partner.
"Six fish weighed seventeen pounds, and the boss gave me one yuan and ten cents per pound." As he spoke, the father handed the eighteen yuan to his mother.
Sure enough, the financial power of the family is still in the hands of my mother. She is a kind of family-oriented and prudent person. In her words, when they separated, their grandparents did not give them anything, basically two pounds of oil.
, two handfuls of noodles and a small bag of rice were sent away.
The two of them started from scratch. They shared a room in the old house and now they have built a house by themselves.
It is said that my father, Zhang Jianguo, was not trouble-free when he was young. He often went out to play with friends and did not come home for several days. Later, I don’t know what happened, but my father never went out again, but worked diligently at home.
Therefore, my mother must be the number one contributor to the current conditions at home.
After walking around the streets for a few times, Zhang An carried ten pounds of lard that his mother bought at the butcher stall, and bought some vegetable seeds and seasonings, and there was nothing he needed to buy.
While his parents were going to the butcher stall, Zhang An also took the opportunity to ask the old man selling peaches for a price. The peaches are now on the market, but most of them are local varieties, not big in size, and the taste is decent, so
It's not expensive, only 50 cents a pound.
It's now eight or nine o'clock, and the sun has already risen. If I don't go back now, I will be unbearably hot when I walk back at noon.
The reason why people come very early every time they go to the market is that the distance is long, and the other reason is that they come early and go back early so as not to stare at the sun while rushing.
On the way back, although it was a long way, it didn't feel difficult to walk even if we had enough time to talk.
"Dad, why don't we also raise a horse at home? Instead of buying a big horse, just buy a small pony. Anyway, I'm fine now. I can take it to the mountains and raise it for a few months.
When the land is plowed, it saves me the trouble of borrowing other people’s cattle every time.”
After listening to Zhang An's words, Zhang Jianguo also thought deeply. He had already asked someone to find a job for his son, but there was no news so soon.
"You can also buy one. Ponies are not expensive. It is more convenient to have them at home. I often borrow others' ones. Even if I give them corn every time, they are not always happy." My mother also expressed her own opinion.
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Because in the village, not every household has valuable things like livestock. Changqing belongs to a village with a lot of paddy fields and cultivated land. It is definitely not possible to cultivate the land manually, so they often borrow other people’s cattle and horses. As a condition, everyone
Each time I gave some corn as a reward.
But even so, you still have to wait for the host to finish using it, and sometimes you have to queue up. The host will not be happy if it happens too often.
"It's okay. I'll plant the rice in the next few days and harvest it in a few months. I'll go to the cattle and horse market in a few days to have a look. If there's anything suitable, I'll buy a pony and raise it. Anyway, the pen at home is big.
Just raising two pigs is too much."
"It doesn't have to be a pony. If you can't find a suitable one, a calf will do. Our family doesn't plan to pull a cart anyway."
Because it was too hot to walk home with the sun above our heads, no one had much appetite at noon, so they just grabbed something to eat and that was it. Mom and dad couldn't wait any longer, so they went to the mountain with their hoes to take a look.
There is corn in the field.
Zhang An was left alone at home, and there was nothing going on around him, so Zhang An plowed through the empty space in the vegetable garden.
While at the market, Zhang An saw that his mother had bought vegetable seeds, and she must have been thinking of planting the empty space.
Now when we are idle, we don’t plant. When we get busy, we have no vegetables to eat. When rural people go out to hold banquets, they basically have no idea of buying vegetables to make a living.
The vegetable plot of Zhang An's family is quite large. This is because the land was already quite large when the house was built.
Later, when I found someone to check it out, I found that the homestead of the house happened to be in the middle, resulting in a large yard in front of the house and a three-quarter-sized vegetable garden behind the house.
Because my mother can't stay idle, this vegetable patch is full of vegetables all year round.
Zhang An first removed the weeds on the ground and originally planned to feed them to the pigs in the pig pen, but who knew that these two little pigs wouldn't even look at them.
After all, I am used to eating space grass, so it is difficult to accept this kind of weed. Even if I eat it almost, it must be more tender.
In short, it is from simple to luxurious and easy, from luxurious to simple and difficult, and you will get used to it.
Zhang An even laughed. If he hadn't waited for the two pigs to grow meat and sell them at a good price at the end of the year, he would have really starved them for a few meals.
Finally, Zhang An took the grass to one side and let it dry in the sun. After the hardened land was loosened and the grass was almost dry, they were piled together and burned into ashes.
Because it wasn't too much, it didn't take long to burn.