Peasant woman

Chapter 39

Xu Cao thumped in her heart, knowing that something was wrong.Xiaoan's fiancé, Kong Zhenhong, went to Caobu Town to take part in the children's examination in Chunshang, and I heard that he came back a few days ago and became a scholar.Indeed, he became a scholar at the age of 16, and his potential is pretty good.I'm afraid that he became a scholar, and his family's eyes were high, thinking that Xiao An was not worthy of this scholar, so what did he say that provoked Xiao An, so Xiao An ran away, right?

"Second brother and sister, I understand. Let's go out and find someone now. Fugui is probably coming back soon. I might meet Fugui on the road to the other side of the mountain."

"Sure, then I'll go out and look for it too, I hope Xiao An won't be too hard on it." Shen Shi sighed and guessed what the woman had said to Xiao An.

Xu Cao told Miao Miao to stay at home, and Miao Miao nodded obediently, "Mother, Miao Miao will stay at home obediently."

Xu Cao then locked the door and ran towards the hill.

As soon as he ran to the foot of the mountain, he ran into Fugui who had come back from hunting. Xu Cao told him the story, and Fugui's face immediately sank. Followed Xu Cao to the mountain to find it.

The two wandered around the mountain for a long time, seeing that the sky was getting darker and darker, Xu Cao seemed to hear a faint cry coming from the side, and hurriedly dragged Fu Gui to find it.I saw Xiaoan squatting next to a big tree and crying.

"Xiao An?"

Hearing Xu Cao's voice, Xiao An's crying stopped.

Xu Cao hurriedly ran over to pull Xiao An up, "Xiao An, what's going on? Tell your sister-in-law, don't worry, if they really dare to bully you, your eldest brother, second brother and third brother will not sit idly by."

Only then did Xiao An wipe away her tears, and recounted what happened in the morning.Kong Zhenhong's mother finds Xiao'an and tells her that her precious son is now a scholar, and a lady from a family in the town has taken a fancy to him.What Kong Laoniang meant was that she wanted to retire the engagement, or that Xiaoan could be a concubine.

Upon hearing this, Fu Gui pulled Xiao An down the mountain.

Xu Cao hurriedly followed, and they returned to Yang's house. When Dapeng and Xiaotong heard that Mrs. Sun bullied Xiao'an like this, they were very angry. What did you say? Shameless! Now that my son is only a scholar, he wants to regret his marriage, and he still wants my Xiaoan to be a little girl, there is no way!"

There was only one girl in the Yang family, Xiao An, who was loved by everyone since she was a child. Now that this happened, the three brothers of the Yang family couldn't swallow it, so they took Xiao An to the next village and found the Kong family.

When Mrs. Sun saw Xiao An, a trace of panic flashed across her face, and she stammered, "You...why are you here?"

Yang Dapeng said angrily: "Aunt Sun, what do you think we are here? What did you say to our Xiaoan this morning? My Xiaoan didn't let you bully me like this!"

Kong Zhenhong in the house heard the sound, went out, saw Xiao An, his eyes lit up, "Xiao An, why are you here? And Brother Yang, why are you here too?"

Fugui snorted, "Your mother is going to withdraw from this marriage, or let my Xiaoan be your concubine. Kong, my sister didn't let you humiliate me like this!"

Xiao An stood aside, her eyes were red, Xu Cao patted her shoulder to comfort her.

When Kong Zhenhong heard this, he turned his head to look at Mrs. Kong, frowned and said, "Mom, what did you tell Xiao An? Didn't the young lady in the town tell you to refuse?"

Mrs. Sun shrank her neck, "I... I didn't think about you. Our family is poor, and now you have become a scholar. You will have to spend too much in the future. That lady has money in her family. And that lady is reasonable and knows You have a marriage and said that as long as Xiao An is a concubine, she will not force you to withdraw from the engagement..."

When the Yang family heard this, they were furious.

A trace of hesitation flashed across Kong Zhenhong's face, and he looked at Xiao An.

Xiao An was startled, then suddenly sneered, looked at Kong Zhenhong and said, "Brother Kong, I don't want to embarrass you anymore. If that's the case, let's divorce the engagement, but it's not you who are announcing the engagement, but me!"

After finishing speaking, he turned around and ran back, Xu Cao also hurriedly chased after him.After returning to the Yang family, it took a while for the three brothers of the Yang family to come back. Seeing that Xiao An was relieved at home, Dapeng persuaded: "Fourth sister, don't be angry, such a person is not worth it at all, you can rest assured." , we help you vent your anger."

Naturally, the three brothers would not take advantage of Kong Zhenhong, and beat him up to vent his anger.

When Mrs. Chen learned that Xiao An had announced the resignation, she was furious. She nodded Xiao An's head and said, "Do you think you are a fool? Why do you have to resign the engagement? The man surnamed Kong still has to marry you! Hmph , How could they be so cheap."

"Mother, what do you think of me? Hurry up and be his concubine?"

Chen Shi was stunned, "I didn't say that I would let you be his concubine."

Xiao An couldn't bear it anymore, and began to cry.Shen Shi and Xu Cao hurriedly dragged her into the room, and Niu Shi, who was beside her with a big belly, also followed her in.Shen Shi and Xu Cao persuaded Xiao An not to think too much.

"That's right, Xiao'an, even if you don't want that person, isn't he a scholar?" Niu also persuaded him. Since Niu's belly got bigger, his temperament has improved a lot, although he is still a bit greedy for petty gain.

The three persuaded Xiao An, and Xiao An seemed to let go a lot, and Xu Cao followed Fugui back.

Miao Miao was the only one at home. After the two returned, Xu Cao lit the oil lamp and took Miao Miao to the kitchen to cook.Fugui threw the prey to Uncle De Zi in the afternoon, talked to Xu Cao, and went to carry the prey back.

Today I hunted a roe deer and two pheasants, Fugui gave Uncle Dezi a pheasant.

After dinner, the three of them rested.Early the next morning, Fugui went to fetch water from the Zhang River, and Xu Cao cooked breakfast.

"Daughter-in-law, let's keep the pheasant for ourselves to eat. The roe deer will take care of it and send some to the second and third brothers. You should also take Miao Miao to accompany Xiaoan." After breakfast, Fugui held his bow and prepared to go out.

"Okay, I see, you go out quickly."

After Fugui went out, Xu Cao washed the clothes first, then scalded the pheasant with hot water, plucked the feathers, cut the belly, cleaned it, chopped it into pieces, then touched some salt, and prepared to stew the chicken for dinner.She also took care of the roe deer. This roe deer was estimated to weigh about [-] catties, so she kept half of it and gave half to Mrs. Chen and the others.

Shen put the half roe deer brought by Xu Cao in the kitchen and asked Xu Cao to accompany Xiao An.Although Xiaoan was in a bad mood, she was not as excited as yesterday.

Moreover, the second younger brother Yang and the third younger brother Yang accompanied Xiao An to divorce the marriage early in the morning. Although Mrs. Chen objected, Xiao An insisted that she had nothing to do.

After staying with Xiao An for a long time, Xu Cao went home with Miao Miao. In the afternoon, he went to the field to pick some potatoes. The potatoes were almost ripe, and Xu Cao reckoned that they would be harvested in half a month.She took these potatoes home and stewed chicken to eat.

In a blink of an eye, it has been 20 days, and Xiao An's mood has improved a lot. The villagers didn't chew their tongues, and they all sympathized with Xiao An.After all, it was not Xiaoan's fault, they all said that the Sun family was ruthless.The young lady in that town seemed to have heard the rumors in the village, and she also broke off the marriage with the Sun family. Mrs. Sun stole chickens and lost money, not to mention regretting.Because of this, people in several nearby villages refused to marry their daughters to Kong Zhenhong.

Xu Cao was relieved to hear the news, the Kong family deserved it.Although Kong Zhenhong never said that he regretted the marriage, he hesitated. He hoped that the young lady could also marry, and that Xiao An could also enter his house.
This matter is over. Xiaoan is 14 and a half years old, not very old, and it will be easy to find her husband's family in the future.

Xu Cao took Fugui to the field early in the morning to look at the potatoes. The stems and leaves were already yellow. She asked Fugui to come back with two baskets and started digging potatoes in the field.After a busy day, I dug up all the potatoes in the three-point field.Weighed it, and the potatoes in the three-point field weighed a thousand catties.

"Daughter-in-law, are you planning to sell all these potatoes?"

Xu Cao smiled and said, "If you keep two hundred catties, you can plant another season in half a month."

On the second day, Xu Cao put the dug potatoes in the yard to dry for a while. At night, the mud on the potatoes dried up and fell off automatically.

Waking up in the morning of the third day, Xu Cao packed a bagful of potatoes and went to Yang’s house. When she found Mrs. Shen, she said with a smile, “Second brother and sister, these are the potatoes I planted a while ago. , would you like to plant some with me?"

Mrs. Chen was a little moved. Thinking about this matter, Mrs. Chen had to agree, so she went into the room and talked to Mrs. Chen, who said impatiently: "What kind of shit, where does our family have land to grow this? Who knows how to do it?" Can't eat dead people, don't plant, don't plant!"

Shen had no choice but to go out and apologize to Xu Cao.

Xu Cao smiled, "It's okay, then I'll go back first."

After returning, Xu Cao came to Xu's house with potatoes. Father Xu, Erya, and Sanya went to work in the field, only Mrs. Xu and Xiaoshan were at home.Seeing Xu Cao, Xiao Shan's eyes lit up, and he ran towards Xu Cao with his short legs, "Elder Sister, Eldest Sister, why are you here?"

Xu Cao put the potatoes in his pocket aside, hugged Xiao Shan, and said with a smile, "I'll come and see our Xiao Shan. Has Xiao Shan behaved recently?"

Xiao Shan glanced at Miao Miao, who was staring at him eagerly, and nodded obediently, "Eldest sister, Xiao Shan has been very obedient recently, what delicious food did eldest sister bring?"

Xu Cao put Xiao Shan down, let the two children play, took Mrs. Xu into the kitchen, warmed up the rabbit stewed potatoes made last night, added a bowl for Li Shi, and another bowl for Xiao Shan, Put the rest in the pot, "Mother, try this food if it's delicious, let's go, let's go to the front room to eat, Xiao Shan must not be able to wait, leave this pot for Dad and Erya Sanya."

Mrs. Li rolled her eyes at Xu Cao, "What the hell are you doing, you're still so mysterious, I'll take a bite of this stuff."

Mrs. Li took a sip, "Isn't this rabbit meat? Well, there are other things. The taste is really good. The aroma of rabbit meat is stewed in."

When the two came to the front room, Xu Cao handed a bowl to Xiao Shan, who happily took it and started eating.

Miao Miao watched Xiao Shan eat, smiling and not drooling.Xu Cao is good at craftsmanship, wealthy and a master hunter, so Miao Miao deserves everything.During this period of recuperation, Miao Miao has gained a lot of weight and looks fleshy.Moreover, Mrs. Li seems to have accepted Miao Miao, and hugs Miao Miao every time she sees her.

"The taste is not bad." Li Shi swallowed the last piece of rabbit meat in his mouth, and then looked at the few potatoes thrown beside him, "Big girl, tell me what the hell are you trying to do? What the hell is this? Could it be yours?" Something planted here?"

Xu Cao grinned, "That's not it, mother, this food tastes good, right? There are quite a few ways to eat it, and I'm going to the town tomorrow to sell these potatoes, leaving two hundred catties for us to grow ourselves. "

Mrs. Li curled her lips, "Can this thing be sold? I don't grow it, I keep the land and grow food!"

"Mother, do you know what is rare and expensive? There are few of these things now, so naturally they can be sold at a good price. Forget it, you will find out when you go to town with me tomorrow. If you can buy a good price Follow me to plant together, if it doesn't work, I will follow you, okay?"

Mrs. Li thought for a while, and said: "That's okay, I don't believe that this thing can be bought at a good price, isn't it just for food?"

(End of this chapter)