reborn princess

Chapter 209 The Poor Man

She hurried into the house, Ye Weilan heard a burst of applause, followed by suppressed crying.

"What mourning? Your mother, I haven't been killed by you yet!" The woman's harsh voice sounded from the dilapidated thatched cottage.

Ye Weilan couldn't help frowning, "Aunt Ying, who is this family?"

Li Ying sighed slightly, and said softly: "The man in this family is named Chen San. He is from your Uncle Chen's family. He has been out of the third service. He is the brother of the fourth service. He has three sons. The girl you saw is called Da Niu is the eldest daughter-in-law of his family. Four years ago, when the eldest daughter of his family went to repair the Wanli City Wall, she died in an accident. Later, the second child also suffered from smallpox. She couldn’t keep her. Third daughter-in-law Chen cried and went blind. Last year Chen San also died of illness, leaving only one young son, and now he is also building the city wall at the border to make money to support this blind old lady, and this big girl is the only one in the family to serve Chen San's wife. Chen San's wife said that both the son and the man are I was beaten to death by the big girl, so I beat and scolded her if I had nothing to do."

Ye Weilan couldn't help but said: "This is really 'poor people must have something to hate'!"

While talking, everyone had already reached the door. Li Ying stopped and didn't go in directly, but raised her voice, "Is anyone at home? Is Mrs. Chen San at home?"

The cursing in the room disappeared immediately, and the harsh voice immediately became very soft and kind, "Is it Chen An's wife? Come in!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw the big girl came out with a toilet, the toilet smelled turbid, the big girl smiled embarrassedly at Li Ying, "Auntie is here, hurry up and sit in the room. "

After speaking, he hurried to the toilet in the backyard to empty the toilet.

Ye Weilan clearly saw five red fingerprints on her left cheek, and couldn't help feeling that the old woman in the room was really hateful, and that the little daughter-in-law didn't get along well after serving her like this. what relationship?
But this was not the time to complain, so she followed Li Ying into the house. This thatched hut was no different from the thatched huts of ordinary farmers.

Li Ying walked into the east room, and sat down on the edge of the kang with a smile, "How is the third sister-in-law?"

Ye Weilan saw a gray-haired woman sitting cross-legged on the kang. The woman was terribly thin, she was covered in skin and bones, her eye sockets were sunken, like a living skeleton, and the fingers of her hands were like the withered bones of an old locust tree. dead branches.

"Daughter-in-law Chen An, why do you have the time to visit me today?" The old lady had a pleasant expression in the first moment, but her face changed in the next moment. "You loser, where did you die again? Didn't you see any guests at home? Why don't you hurry up and pour water for your aunt!"

"Hey, here we come!" There were hurried footsteps outside, followed by the sound of scooping up water and washing hands.

Li Ying said: "Big girl, don't be busy, I don't drink water." Then he said to Chen San's wife. "Sister-in-law three, I'm here to give you a gift today."

"A gift?" Chen San's daughter-in-law had a blank expression on her face. "What gift?"

"It's like this. There is a relative in my natal family who moved to live in our village. She said she wanted to be close to her neighbors and get to know the folks. So she asked me to take her to visit each family. She didn't want to come empty-handed. You brought a catty of pork and a piece of clothing. They have built a house in the village now, and they will invite the big guys to live in it in a few days."

When Chen San's daughter-in-law heard that there was pork to eat and clothing materials, a smile appeared on her face, "Such a big deal, he must be a good family. I will ask the big girl to help."

"Well, I won't sit any longer, and there are still several places I haven't gone to." Seeing that the gifts had been delivered, Li Ying left.

Chen San's daughter-in-law immediately shouted: "Big girl, where did you die? Why don't you hurry up and see off the guests! You don't wink!"

The eldest girl had just finished washing her hands at this time, so she hurriedly opened the door curtain and came in, and said awkwardly: "Auntie, please sit down for a while, I will pour you a glass of water."

"I won't drink anymore, please take good care of your mother-in-law, don't make her angry." Li Ying told her a few words in a pleasant manner, and then led Ye Weilan and Li Feng out.

After walking far away, Li Feng couldn't help but said: "This woman really doesn't know what to do. If someone else would have left her and left her to fend for herself, there is no need to be angry with her. I am really in the midst of blessings and don't know what is going on. , sooner or later this blessing is exhausted, she will know how powerful it is."

Li Yingdao: "That's why people in the village are very fond of big girls who are affectionate and righteous. They are always guarded by her mother-in-law to serve her, and they never know how to talk back. Food and drink are always close to mother-in-law. I eat bran and swallow vegetables every day."

Ye Weilan walked around the village and had a general understanding of the situation in the village. Although these people in Chenjiazhuang didn't want to be that rootless duckweed and chose to settle here, but in the village Most of the strong laborers, after the beginning of spring, first planted the land in the rented fields, and then went to the border to build the Wanli City Wall, so that they could earn some extra money to supplement their families.

However, the place where they built the Wanli city wall is not far from here, about 300 miles away. Every month, some people have vacations and can come back to visit their families.

And the land at home is handed over to the elderly and women to take care of it, so now, most of the people left in the village are old and weak women and children, and those who can go out have gone out.

However, there are also some people who work in the city, and a few literate and clever ones work as shop assistants in the city.

It is rare for someone like Chen An to be a head arrester in the yamen.

The women who stayed at home, in addition to taking care of the fields at home, were dexterous and also took some jobs in the quilt workshops in the city.There are 20 garrisons outside Liaocheng, and the clothing workshops in the city are dedicated to supplying clothes, hats, shoes and socks for these 20 garrisons.

The wages given by the quilt workshop are not bad. Although you can't make a fortune doing this kind of work, you can at least earn a lot of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.

In the gift to Li Ying, she gave an extra set of the Four Treasures of the Study, because Li Ying's son Chen Fugui was studying.

Li Ying was so happy that she didn't know what to say, she followed Youran all the time and said that the second lady is blessed, her daughter is so sensible and generous, she started crying again as she talked, and she missed her eldest lady, so naturally she recruited Youran again A meal of tears.

After finally settling down, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, gathered in the east room of the front yard, caressingly patted her daughter's head lovingly and asked, "Lan'er, are you tired after working so hard these days?"

Ye Weilan shook her head, "Not tired, isn't mother tired?"

"Mother is not tired, you don't let mother do any work, how can mother be tired?"

Li Feng said, "Lan'er, if the family is still rich, let's buy a cow."

Song Jiayin asked strangely, "What do you buy cows for?"

Li Fengdao: "This is a place of bitter cold, the summer is short, the winter is long, the air is dry, and the wind and sand are also strong, which is very harmful to the girl's skin. Buy a cow and let the wife and the lady drink some hot milk every day. It is good for the body. .”

"Besides, Miss uses milk to soak her hands every day, so the skin on her hands will be more delicate and less prone to pimples. Otherwise, even if she wipes her hands with facial oil every day, it won't work."

Song Jiayin couldn't help showing a surprised expression, "Is it so exaggerated?"

Li Feng said with a smile: "Otherwise, how could the embroidery here be so rare? No matter how delicate the girls here are, they all have thick hands. Even embroidery can only be embroidered on fine cotton cloth. These hands are not allowed to touch the silk. The silk embroidery in the embroidery village is embroidered and shipped by the embroiderers in the south. In our place, there are only a very small number of girls who do not do any work and can maintain it. hands, learning to embroider, but such a girl must have a rich family, and they don’t need them to earn this money at all, so they won’t come out to sell embroidery.”

Sui Youran also smiled and said: "Your Aunt Feng is right, your grandmother used this method to help me take care of my hands back then, your grandmother was married from the south, so she is good at embroidery, a native girl here , there are very few who can embroider. Even if they can embroider, the embroidery is not exquisite. Speaking of it, this embroidery is really a southern skill."

After hearing this, Ye Weilan made up her mind to buy a dairy cow, and asked Song Hengzhi to take her to the city for a stroll the next day.

In the east of Liao City, there is a mule and horse market that specializes in selling livestock. The livestock dealers from the Tartar Kingdom all sell cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock here. Of course, there are also local people selling livestock here.

However, the animals raised by the local people are still a little worse than those in the Tartar Kingdom. As the saying goes, "One side of the water and soil raises the other person", and the same is true for the animals. The Tartar Kingdom has the most extensive grassland and the most fertile grassland. , so all the cattle and horses they raise are fat and strong.

Song Hengzhi drove the carriage, took the two of them into the city, inquired and found Luomashi, found a dealership that specializes in storing carriages near Luomashi, stored the carriage, and led Ye Weilan Came to Luoma City with her daughter Song Jiayin.

It was the first time for Ye Weilan to see so many animals gathered together, she couldn't help being very surprised, and didn't care that the air was filled with the smell of animal excrement, so she looked at Song Jiayin with great interest.

From time to time, cattle bosses and buddies greeted them. The three of them found a cattle dealer who sold both beef and dairy cows. There were more than a dozen cows in a stall surrounded by wood. When they saw them Stopping here, the cattle dealer rushed over and greeted warmly: "Master, do you want to buy cattle? My cattle were just brought over from Beichen, and they all grew up on the freshest grass. For farm work, you choose this cow, it is only three years old, just the age for service, look at its teeth, and look at its shape."

Because of Song Hengzhi's reputation as a scholar, Li Feng made him a moon-white gown, and tied a Mr. Wensheng scarf on his head. He had a refined temperament. He stood with his hands behind his back and looked at it outside the cowshed. , waved his hand to interrupt the cattle dealer's gracious introduction, and said, "Are there any good cows? They can be milked more."

(End of this chapter)