Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1366 First Loan

As soon as Wang Siniang came back, she showed a different kind of "wealthy and powerful" from the past.According to the villagers who have been to do odd jobs in the yard, the silkworm-raising houses are all brick houses, and the pavement is made of square bricks - most of the houses in the village live on rammed mud. That's all.

Duoduo Niang and Wang Siniang's natal family next door to Shen Kaibao's are from the same village, and they have a good relationship.As soon as Shen Da and his wife came back, she ran away.Her family had many children and the family was overburdened, so she started odd jobs at Wang Siniang's house.According to her, the Shen family's silkworm house has too many details - it's not just a square brick floor.

"...The windows in the silkworm house are all covered with screens!" Duoduo Niang squatted by the stream while washing clothes, talking about her experience with joy, "In such a long silkworm house, there are large windows on the front and back walls. How many screens are used for the screen covers of these windows, what a crime!"

When she said that she committed crimes, rather than having the feeling of "committing crimes" at all, it seemed like she was boasting complacently. It seemed that even odd-job workers like herself had become "higher" together.

The person listening to her laughed: "Mother Duoduo, you ate a few bowls of cold boiled rice and dried radish from Wang Si's house, and even a silkworm room has to help others."

"Eat Paofan?" Duoduo Niang raised her eyes, "You can't even eat Paofan, Si Niang's family can afford us nothing but dry rice."

Immediately, there was a burst of envious clicks by the stream.The silkworm season is approaching, and at the moment when there is a shortage of crops, the old roots of every household are about to disappear.It is the norm for most people in the village to drink a bowl of porridge mixed with miscellaneous grains and rice bran.Some families have had to borrow rice from relatives in other villages with better conditions since the beginning of the month. The Famine Relief Bureau also distributed some relief rice, but the quality of this rice is very bad. In the past, even pigs would not be willing eat food.Even if it is used to cook porridge, it will not be able to withstand hunger.

Duoduo Niang seemed to be intoxicated by such an atmosphere—it was rare for her to be the protagonist of the "Speaking by the Stream", and she continued to brag about her experience of working in Wang Si Niang's house.

The silkworm house of Wang Siniang's family was actually built according to the same design concept as the breeding farm built by Li Yaoer in Fenghuang Mountain Villa.Of course, the equipment is far less sophisticated than the one in the villa, and it is even worse than the silkworm farm in Cihui Hall at the foot of the villa.There are no large-area glass windows, shutters and other things that are too impactful, and there is no copper pipe heating and cooling air conditioner in the greening room.However, other facilities are built according to the standard.

These facilities can only be regarded as "melon and vegetable substitutes" according to the standards of the old time and space, but in this time and space, they are already "luxury configurations" that silkworm farmers can't even dream of.

Shen Kaibao happened to be passing by the stream, and seeing Duoduo Niang bragging about Mrs. Shen again, he felt annoyed: Originally, he had nothing against these two couples, especially after their misfortune, he still felt a little sympathetic.Ever since they came back in good spirits, he was full of unease, and always felt that the Shen couple "shouldn't be like this".

"It shouldn't be like this", Shen Kaibao didn't know exactly what it should be, in short, every time someone said this couple, he felt angry.Now that Duoduo Niang was bragging again, she couldn't help but say:
"What do you do with these fancy things in silkworm farming? You've been raising silkworms like this for so many years, and she, Wang Siniang, can raise a fairy silkworm with a 'new method'? Trash things in vain, and there will be retribution!"

The words of Shen Kaibao blowing his beard and staring surprised all the women in Yixi. The men chatting between the women by the stream have always been indifferent, let alone interjected.His "horizontal poking gun" made all the women blindfolded for a moment.

He fired this shot, but he also felt that it was not appropriate-what is the same knowledge as women?He lost his "net worth" in vain.He turned around angrily and walked away.

"I don't have meat to eat, and I don't want to see others eat meat!" Suddenly, someone among the women behind him cursed softly.

It sounds like Duoduo Niang.Shen Kaibao was so angry that his muscles swelled up immediately, but he couldn't attack - he was already in his fifties, and the news of his quarrel with a woman made the villagers laugh at him to death.

Enduring a stomach full of anger, I went home.The women and children of the family are all pasting "silkworms" on the eaves of the corridor.His wife and Daqing's daughter-in-law are skillful in pasting up the newly bought "Guangdong paper" so that Shen Kaibao is more or less relieved - he has always been afraid that the Cantonese paper he bought cheaply will not be suitable for use, and it will make a joke .

Paste it so well that the top-grade font of "Silkworm Tan" is pasted, and then paste three small pieces of floral paper - they were bought together: one is printed with a pattern of "cornucopia", and the other two are holding sharp corners. The person with the flag rides on the horse, and it is said that he is the "Prince Silkworm Flower".

The paste is so good that the "silkworm grate" is placed in the sun to dry. This is also an old rule for many years-it is never wrong to follow the old rule.Shen Kaibao thought.Daqing's daughter-in-law clapped her hands on the skirt and said:
"Father! There is no rice at home, and even the barley flour is almost gone..."

"How about the rice distributed by the Famine Relief Bureau?"

"A total of [-] catties of rice were given, half of which was gray sand and chaff. How many days can the whole family eat?"

Shen Kaibao also couldn't think of a way, there is rice on the street, and there is no dust and chaff, but the price of three yuan per bucket is absolutely beyond their affordability.I still have to keep the few money at home to buy mulberry leaves when it is needed.

At this time in previous years, the village would borrow some, the daughter-in-law of Daqing would borrow some from her mother's house, and then go to a familiar shop on the street to borrow some, and this month could be passed at least.

But last year's drought made every family poor, and there was no place to ask for money.Familiar shops on the street are now not willing to pay on credit - after a famine, they have suffered too much repayment, and it is a fate to be able to continue to open, so how dare they go out on credit.

Go to Mr. Cao's house to borrow it, of course it will be rewarding.It's just that the debt that was already weighing him down will increase again.Shen Kaibao felt flustered when he thought of the land that had been taken out of his house.

"If there is no rice for the pot, I will have rice?" Father Shen said angrily.He and his wife had already had a quarrel over whether to go to Wang Si Niang's house to do odd jobs.

Originally, Daqing's daughter-in-law wanted Shen Kaibao to use her relationship with the door-to-door brother to introduce her to work in Shen's family—there were many women who wanted to work in Shen's family. Ask your father-in-law to come forward and put on an old face.

Unexpectedly, Shen Kaibao was looking at Wang Siniang's displeasure, and felt that it would be embarrassing to beg Shen Da, so he was not willing to say such a thing at all.The two often quarreled over this matter.

"I said a long time ago that this year is no better than previous years, everyone can only tighten their belts and save more—"

"The cooked porridge will be used as a mirror, how can we save money? The adults can hold on, but the little boy can hold on?" Daqing's sister-in-law replied angrily, "I only know that there is rice to cook, and there is no rice. Hungry!" At the end, she added, "You can't eat your face!"

Shen Kaibao was so angry that his face turned purple.The two of them didn't say a word.

The era of "harvesting silkworms" is approaching day by day.The preparations for silkworm rearing in the village became increasingly tense.It's just that the dilemma of having no rice to cook makes everyone feel very difficult. The difficulties encountered by Shen Kaibao's family are the same for almost every family in the village.At this time, Wang Siniang came out and said that she could lend money to everyone to tide over the difficulties.

The loan is rice, and it is recorded according to the market price of three qian per bucket. When repaying the money, it is enough to convert the money into silver according to the market price.

"This is the 'good deed' of Mr. Zhao, the servant's master," Wang Siniang said to a group of villagers who came to hear the news. "The interest is only one cent. Wait until the cocoon grows to repay it!"

Sericulture takes about a little more than a month before and after, which means that the monthly interest is less than one cent. This is equivalent to doing a good deed when the market outside is generally more than three cents.

More importantly, debts can be repaid with silkworm cocoons—if you want to pay back cash, you have to be exploited by silk cocoons again.Returning silkworm cocoons directly saves the labor of silk reeling.

The conditions are too good to be true.But both Shen Da and Wang Siniang made an oath, and expressed their willingness to make a written statement, clearly stating the conditions in black and white.

The villagers hesitated for a few days, and finally couldn't bear the hunger, and they all set up written documents to borrow rice from Mr. Shen.Not only people from this village came to borrow rice, but even neighboring villages asked people to borrow rice after hearing the news.The Shen family is like a market.

Loan procedures are very convenient. Those in the village do not need a middleman or guarantor, while those in other villages need the villagers of the same village to be a guarantor.The written documents are all in printed format. The ghostwriter uses a bamboo tube pen with a pointed stylus to fill in the numbers, and asks the borrower to print the fingerprints in duplicate, and each party holds one copy.

After the document is established, the ghostwriter will directly send the rice chip according to the number, and the villagers will go to the rice store in the town to pick up the rice.It is convenient for everyone.

Shen Kaibao originally refused to borrow it. He originally thought that he had to be tough no matter what, but his stomach couldn't be fooled after all. When Ah Qing's wife angrily pushed the children to Shen Kaibao, looking at these The child had already turned pale, and he finally compromised.

The smoke from the chimneys of every household also gave off the aroma of long-lost rice.The villagers had smiles on their faces again, food in their stomachs, and they worked harder.Now their only hope is that all the temporary loans of spring silkworms will be repaid in this "spring silkworm harvest".

The "Grain Rain" festival is almost a day away.The "cloth" of the people in the village is faintly green.The silkworms raised here keep their own seeds every year. Only those who are unlucky and have not raised silkworms will buy silkworm eggs outside.

In this way, the silkworm eggs that kept their own seeds were seriously degraded and often infected with viruses, so the silkworm rearing at that time was almost entirely dependent on luck.It is no surprise that silkworm flowers come and go.

(End of this chapter)