Peasant woman

Chapter 54

Xu Cao went back with a few fish. At noon, he cooked fish soup for Old Man Yang with crucian carp, and made pancakes with white flour. The pancakes were filled with roe deer meat, diced cucumber, Chinese cabbage and pickled vegetables. Son, delicious.

Father Yang drank a big bowl of fish soup and ate five pancakes in one go.Miao Miao drank half a bowl of fish soup, and also ate half of pancakes.

Xiaoxia Xiaoguang came back at noon, and went out to cut pigweed after dinner. Now that the pigweed is growing luxuriantly outside, she should cut more.In the afternoon, Xu Cao went to cut pigweed with Xiaoxia and Xiaoguang. Originally, she wanted to put Miao Miao at her mother's house, but Father Yang said that Miao Miao would stay at home if he was at home.

Miao Miao also obediently said to Xu Cao: "Mom, I will stay at home obediently. You taught me a few big characters yesterday. I will practice later."

Xu Cao then went out with the bamboo basket on her back.In the next few days, more hogweed will be cut, and the potatoes will be harvested in a few days, and I will be busy by then.

In the evening, Xu Cao and Xiaoxia came back first, busy preparing dinner, and asked Xiaoxia to buy two pieces of tofu, made a stewed tofu with fish cubes, roasted courgettes with robe meat, the courgettes were put in when the roe deer meat was almost ready , When the courgette is cooked, it still tastes crisp.Then I fried two more vegetarian dishes.The portion of roe deer and fish is quite large, enough for a large table.

Not long after, Dapeng and Xiaotong came with their wives and children, and even Mrs. Chen had the cheek to come.Xu Cao had no choice but to think that the whole family had come, and it would be unreasonable to leave Mrs. Chen alone at home.Fortunately, Mrs. Chen knew that Mr. Yang was angry and didn't say anything unreasonable. After serving the table, he began to eat with his head down.

But when she saw Xiaoxia and Xiaoguang coming to the table, she looked a little unhappy, and wanted to say something, but seeing Father Yang's cannibalistic gaze, she opened her mouth and then closed it again.

Xu Cao and Fugui don't let Old Man Yang drink alcohol, but only let him eat more food, so it will be better soon.Father Yang is also obedient, knowing that his son and daughter-in-law are for his own good.

After dinner, Xiaoxia and Xiaoguang rushed to the kitchen to clean up. Mrs. Chen saw Xu Cao hooking her hand to let her go, but Xu Cao pretended not to see it.Mrs. Chen rolled her eyes and said, "Boss, come here and let me tell you something."

Only then did Xu Cao walk over, and said strangely, "Mother, what's the matter?"

Mrs. Chen whispered to Xu Cao: "Boss, aren't those two servants you bought back? Why did you let them serve dinner? How decent?"

Seeing that she was still chewing on words, Xu Cao held back her smile, and then said, "Mother, I didn't buy Xiaoxia and Xiaoguang, they were hired by me to help me with work, why can't they serve you?" eat."

"That's also a slave! You paid the wages to take care of their food and lodging, how can you still go to the table!"

Xu Cao felt a little annoyed, and her face turned cold, "Mother, don't worry about this matter, it's getting late, you better go back and rest!"

Seeing Xu Cao's indifferent face, Chen's teeth itch with anger, whose daughter-in-law dares to be like her?It's really pissing off. Chen wants to get angry but is afraid of quarreling with Old Man Yang inside. Since the boss and the others separated, Old Man Yang doesn't care about her anymore. What's up.Forget it, it's better to bear this breath.

With the careful care of Xu Cao, Father Yang's complexion has improved a lot in the past few days, and he seems to have gained weight.It was his left leg that was injured, and he was uncomfortable lying on the bed for too long, so he sat outside with a stick for a while every day.

In the past few days, Xu Cao and his family have been busy cleaning up the potatoes in the field. The potatoes matured 20 days earlier than those planted by other people in the village. The two acres of potatoes planted by Xu Cao harvested a total of four thousand catties.

Mrs. Li also planted two acres of potatoes, but the yield was much lower than that of Xu Cao, only about [-] catties.She couldn't figure it out, "Big girl, I'm similar to yours, so why don't I have as high a yield as yours?"

Xu Cao said with a smile: "Mother, you didn't see that I went to the field to weed and water and take care of them. If you see a yellow leaf or something on weekdays, you should find out the reason in time. The natural yield will be higher. .” She did not have any special reason, she just treated it with heart.

"Mother, let's sell all the things we have saved enough for our own needs to grow and eat. Now the surrounding villages know that the things grown in our village will not be successful if we don't sell them."

Indeed, many people came to ask about it before it was planted, and even if their village wanted to hide it, they couldn't hide it.

Xu Cao did some calculations. Now that potatoes have just been popularized, the amount needed is very large. She has a total of [-] mu of land, and she plans to plant all of them. The [-] mu of land needs almost [-] catties of potatoes. She plans to buy all of the two thousand catties of potatoes.

Lefeng Restaurant learned that Xu Cao's potatoes had come out, and immediately came to buy them, but the collection was not enough. After all, there might be a lot of potatoes in November, and this dish will become a cheap food.I collected [-] catties from Xu Cao, and another [-] catties from Mrs. Li, at the price of thirteen Wen a catty.

Xu Cao and Mrs. Li made more than six taels of silver alone, and Mrs. Li, who was overjoyed, couldn't see her teeth and said, "Big girl, this thing is really profitable. I used to work so hard. It's not bad to be able to feed myself all year round." It's over, hey." As if thinking of the past, the joy on Li's face was a little less.

"Mother, the days will get better and better, you have to look forward, don't always think about the past."

"Yes." Mrs. Li returned home with more than six taels of silver.

When the nearby villages learned that Xu Cao's potatoes were ripe, they immediately came to the door. Excluding the [-] catties for Lefeng Restaurant and the [-] catties left for themselves, Xu Cao had [-] catties left to sell to others.The price is still the same as last year, twelve cents a catty.

No one hesitated, and they bought all of them at the price of [-] cents a catty, because they knew that the price would be the same even if other people's potatoes matured, and because other potatoes did not grow many potatoes, if they didn't grow them now If you buy it, you may not be able to buy it in the future.

Indeed, each person in Xucao Village is divided into [-] catties of potatoes, which is only enough to plant a third of the land. It is not bad to be able to harvest five or six hundred catties, and when the time comes, the people in their village will have to save their own seeds , there is even less left.

Xu Cao's [-] catties of potatoes were only sold for [-] catties per family. Even so, they were sold out within two days, leaving only a few dozen catties for their own food.

As a result, Xu Cao heard Li's crying the next day, saying that someone from her natal family had come again, and she wanted five hundred catties of potatoes, and she didn't want to give the money.This time it was Li Shi's own mother who came here.

"Big ya, do you think she's gone too far!" Li Shi remembered the old woman who didn't eat oil and salt at home, and couldn't help stomping her feet bitterly, "When she sold me and your aunts, she had eyes Without even blinking, now that I know I'm doing well, I still want to take five hundred catties of potatoes from me without paying a penny. If I don't give it to her, she... She's still staying at home and won't leave.”

Mrs. Li was sad and sad, but if her mother had treated her a little better these years and came to see her, she would not blame her so much.If her mother treated her a little better these years, she would willingly give the five hundred catties of potatoes to her mother.

Xu Cao was also very helpless, this grandmother who had never met was really a difficult person, probably no worse than her mother-in-law Chen.After thinking about it, he said, "Is she still at home now?"

Mrs. Li said fiercely: "That's right, you came here in the morning, and now it's almost noon and you still refuse to leave, and you're trying to order the two girls and three girls, your father is also very angry with her."

"I'll go take a look with you." Xu Cao said helplessly.

When the two came to Li's house, Erya and Sanya were busy in the yard, and Xu Cao saw them peeling potatoes.Seeing this, Mrs. Li hurriedly asked, "Why are you peeling potatoes? I don't know that these are reserved for sale."

Erya and Sanya frowned, "Mother, grandma said that if we cook potatoes, we insist on digging them. Dad couldn't bear it, so he went to get some potatoes."

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Li didn't want to say anything, but her face was very ugly.

When the two of them entered the room, Xu Cao saw a little old lady sitting cross-legged on the top of the kang. The old lady had gray hair and combed it meticulously. calculating.

The old lady also just turned her head to look at Xu Cao, she turned her head away after taking a look, and shouted, "Hurry up and cook, I'm almost starving to death."

When Li saw the old lady, tears of anger were about to come out, and she said angrily: "What do you want? I won't give you potatoes. At most, I will give you ten yuan a catty. If you want it, you can give it to me." Money!" She knew that she was determined not to compromise, otherwise there would be a second time if there was the first time.Her kindness was gone when she was sold to Father Xu.

"I'm your mother, how dare you accept money? Such a rebellion!" The old lady seemed very angry, "Today you have to give this potato, or you have to give it if you don't!"

"Mother?" Li smiled wryly, "If you are really my mother, why would you want to sell me? If you are really my mother, why have you refused to see me all these years? Isn't it because you are afraid that I will be poor and hurt you?" ?”

The old lady snorted, "I don't care, I've raised you for more than ten years, you must give me these potatoes today! Take it as repayment of my kindness."

Two ya and three ya stood at the door of the house, looking inside anxiously.Father Xu appeared at the door out of nowhere, holding Xiao Shan in his arms.

Xu Cao thought for a while, went out of the house, and called Father Xu to ask how many catties of potatoes were left at home.

Father Xu frowned and said: "A few days ago, we sold five hundred catties to Lefeng Restaurant, and we kept [-] catties for ourselves. Your mother and I are not at home these two days, so the remaining one thousand catties is not there yet. Before you can sell it, your grandma will come, hey."

"Father, just ignore her. I didn't recognize my mother before. Now that the family is well, I just want to take advantage of it. How can I take advantage of it? If I give it to her this time, there will be a second and third time, dad Don't be soft-hearted, if someone comes to buy potatoes, sell the remaining potatoes as soon as possible."

Just as he was talking, someone came to the door.

(End of this chapter)