The mulberry life of a small peasant girl

Chapter 52

The scattered silver sank to the bottom of the box, and there were several fifty taels, so 250 taels was a must.

She always thought that getting married had used up all his savings, so the little aunt didn't refuse when she offered to sell toys. He couldn't make him suffer after the baby was born.

Qin Chengyi stroked her belly and asked softly, "I wonder if our good boy is inside?"

Nuan Bao slapped his hand off, feigned anger and said, "How could it be so fast, it's not like growing sweet potatoes!"

Qin Chengyi thought about the appearance of Sweet Potato, stared at her stomach again, and laughed out loud: "The baby's nickname will be Little Sweet Potato from now on."

Nuan Bao rolled over to the side of the bed with the money box in his arms, and turned his back to him angrily, "If you're not afraid that the child will blame you in the future, just call me."

"How can you blame me? You can earn a living with a humble name, right Little Sweet Potato?" As he spoke, he slapped onto Nuan Bao's body and said against her stomach.

Nuan Bao removed his head from his belly, tapped the money box in his arms and said, "If you have money, how about building a hatchback on both sides of the house next year?"

"Okay, whatever you like."

"The west wing is for boys, and the east wing is for girls. In the future, boys will be raised poorly, and girls will be raised rich. One room will be used as a study room, and the other will be used as an embroidery room..."

Nuan Bao babbled, and unconsciously closed her eyes and fell asleep, Qin Chengyi moved away the money box she was holding tightly, kissed her forehead, and murmured softly: "Speaking so much, it's better to let the child out quickly, little fool. "

During Laba, Nuanbao cooked Laba porridge in an earthen pot. Qin Chengyi didn't like sweet food, so she planned to make Laba porridge.The ingredients in porridge are rice, millet, glutinous rice, jujube, peanut, lotus seed, cowpea and mung bean. However, according to Qin Chengyi, when he was a child, his family was poor, and the Laba porridge made by his mother only had rice, millet, peanut and jujube. At that time, I still thought it was delicious, but later I was able to eat it at my uncle's house every year.

Laba porridge is always given away. Neighbors in the village give Laba porridge to each other. Children in the village usually go to every house on this day. Whoever’s porridge is delicious, and whoever cut corners will be shouted out. If you are not particularly poor, porridge There are at least three or four ingredients in it.

Nuan Bao and Qin Chengyi went down the mountain hand in hand to deliver Laba porridge to the uncle and his uncle. They first went to the uncle's house to put down the porridge, and then went to the uncle's house to wait for the chamber of commerce to come to sign the contract.

Zhang's family has too many roots, and the whole head has to stand aside. The little aunt has to breastfeed him, change diapers, take care of housework and guard the grocery store, and is constantly busy.Xiaofu is 13 years old this year, and she will be [-] years old during Chinese New Year. Since she is not as stable as Nuan Bao, Zhong Caixin will not let her show up in the shop, and will take care of Mantou and cook at home all day long.

In the past, when my elder sister was here, not only did she have someone to chat with and play with her, but she could also find time to go to Erniu’s house to play. Now that my elder sister is married, her cooking and embroidery skills have never been good enough. Sleeping, she was very impatient, just waiting for Nuan Bao to come back and complain.

When Nuan Bao arrived home with the earthen pot, Xiao Fu rushed over, hugged her, and said coquettishly, "Sister, you are finally back. I have a lot to say to you."

The man who was squatting on the ground digging for ants ran over with a full head, and hugged her thigh tightly, "Sister, sister."

Nuanbao handed the crock pot to Xiaofu, "It's salty porridge inside, you can share a few bowls, and let's eat together." She cooked porridge for Laba every year before, and she, Xiaofu and aunt like to eat sweet porridge. Yes, I think this year my aunt cooks are also sweet.

"Salty? I haven't eaten it yet." After speaking, Xiao Fu immediately ran to the kitchen to share the porridge, and there was a sound of porcelain clashing in the kitchen.

Nuan Bao shook her head. This Xiaofu has no talent for housework, and she doesn't know what to do when she gets married. Maybe only that silly child Er Niu can tolerate her in this world.

"Mantou, come, sister hug." Mantou has inherited Zhang De's reticence and Zhong Caixin's intelligence. He has always been a quiet and smart little doll. Sometimes he is dumb, but he can understand everything. Could it be that he is pretending to be a pig? Eat tiger's natural stay?

Rooting's arrival snatched everyone's attention from Mantou, Mantou would not cry or fight for favor, became more and more quiet, melancholy and peaceful playing by himself, and being sensible made everyone love him more.

At this time, he was lying in Nuan Bao's arms, squinting his small eyes to enjoy it, which caused Nuan Bao to kiss her little face several times.

Before lunch, the eldest brother of the Zhong family came to deliver Laba porridge, and also brought a contract. Nuanbao looked at it himself, and also showed it to Qin Chengyi, and dipped a pen and ink to sign his name. , It was enough to hand in the official business, and a stack of blank papers was delivered to Zhong Quanjing.

After the transaction between the two parties was completed, Zhong Quanjing rushed back to the border town to sort out the drafts, print them into a book and attach them to the jigsaw puzzle, and sell them together. The time is in a hurry, and it is best to complete it before the year. It will definitely sell well when visiting relatives during the Chinese New Year.

Zhong Caixin didn't delay her brother's work, and gave his parents a pair of shoe soles for him to send back, and then sent him out.

After seeing off Zhong Quanjing, Nuan Bao also had to go home. The New Year's presents he had brought back hadn't been packed yet, and the Spring Festival was not only twenty days away.

Qin Chengyi has been to the border for five years. His winter coats are all torn and patched. He probably didn't know how to mend them.Before the new year, she planned to make some new clothes for him, and the old ones could no longer be worn.

Nuan Bao found some newly bought cotton cloth, one of which was navy blue, it should look good as a bottom shirt, and it would be best to wear a dark coat over it.The overcoat is made of black cotton cloth, which is made into a tunic, sealed with golden embroidery thread, and dark gray fox fur is sewn on the outside of the hat. Don't be too handsome!The other moon-white one is made into a short shirt and long pants, which is convenient for hunting on horseback.

Qin Chengyi saw Nuanbao making clothes on the kang, burning a fire pit for her to keep warm, and went out to trap and check the prey that had fallen into the pit. Xiaoguai was slapped by him. Although he could not be called an enemy, his eyes always followed him. When he saw him go out, he looked back at the main room hesitantly, but ran after him.

The snow was soft, and Xiaoguai's feet sank into the snow, and he was not running fast. He wanted to show off in front of Qin Chengyi, but he had no choice but to follow behind with his head down.

There are a total of eight traps outside the house where they live, which are specially used to hunt big wild animals. Usually, the lighter hares and pheasants are not often strangled. If you want to eat wild game, you still need to hunt it yourself.

After inspecting it and finding no damage, he learned that the animals were hibernating, and the surrounding area was safe for the time being.

He yelled at the dirt dog, "Little boy, come with me and learn how to hunt." After speaking, he walked deep with his bow and arrows on his back. Xiaoguai seemed to understand and followed without running around.

After the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, we have to distribute rice cakes, make tofu, make glutinous rice balls, and make dumplings. This is the first time Nuanbao is hosting the family's meal alone this year. It is very busy, so we have to make all the new clothes before then, and we can't do it at noon. Lazy to take a nap.

Mu Lianye was wearing a fur cap trimmed with otter fur, a black robe with a large collar and no hairpins, a belt in the middle, small pants, leather boots, and a big walking basket on his back. He was waiting to pass the border at the moment.

Since Yi State paid tribute to Yong State, Yi merchants can continue to enter the border of Yong State. As long as they hand in the payment and register their names, they can trade and do business freely after winter and before spring.

He put away the pass nameplate, rented a carriage from a carriage and horse shop, and headed directly to Zhangjia Village under Ning County.The Yi people can only trade at the border. In order to prevent spies from entering, the city is guarded by soldiers.But he was originally from the Yong Kingdom, so he changed into the civilian clothes of the Yong Kingdom, and he was not blocked when he went in and out.

The border is far away from Zhangjia Village, and it would take at least eight days to travel by horse-drawn carriage. After many days of turbulence, we finally arrived at Zhangjia Village on the day of Laba.

At noon, there were very few pedestrians in the village. Because it was a festival, many people from other villages came to visit their relatives, so Mu Lianye's appearance did not attract everyone's attention.He remembered that the person who claimed to be his child said that he lived on the mountainside. There was only one continuous mountain nearby, and the mountainside was relatively flat. From the bottom of the mountain, only withered branches could be seen.

There are also many mountains in Yi Country, and they are high mountains. The mountains are covered with snow all the year round. Compared with the hills here, they are even more dangerous. Without hesitation, he shook the weight on his shoulders and walked in.

Walking to the mountainside, if you are more careful, you will find that many trees have been cut by knives. This road happened to be opened by Qin Chengyi, so that Nuanbao can go down the mountain and return to her mother's house.

He walked up along the trail, and the sight became wider as he walked, the trees became fewer and fewer, and a small hut appeared in front of him not far away.

Nuan Bao was threading needles and threads when he suddenly heard a strange man's voice outside. He was very curious. Most people would not go too deep into this mountain, and there were not many hunters in the same village. He knew that this was the range of Qin Chengyi's family, and he would not come here to hunt. , who is this person?

Through the wooden door, Nuan Bao asked, "Excuse me, are you..."

A man's strong voice came from outside, "Is this someone named Qin?"

Nuan Bao nodded, but thought that the other party couldn't see her, so she said, "Yes, who are you?"

"When I was at the border, I met a man named Qin Chengyi. He said that he lived here. I just came here, so I came to visit. My surname is Mu Lian."

Mu Lian?Why is it not like Yongchao's surname? Nuan Bao opened the door, and the person who came was a muscular man with eight feet. came back."

As Mu Lianye walked, he looked around. It was an ordinary and simple farmhouse. Life might not be rich, but there was warmth everywhere, like a small pillow on a kang, hot soup on a fire pit.

Nuan Bao moved the heater closer to the guest, and added a bowl of mutton soup to him with a spoon, "Come and drink, it's too cold, it's not easy to go up the mountain, right?"

Mu Lianye took a sip, his whole body felt hot from the heat, and he felt extremely comfortable. He said repeatedly: "It tastes good, thick and fresh, and our cooking has a fishy smell."

"It's very easy. Before cooking the soup, soak the mutton in water, and put some rice vinegar in the water to remove the mutton. You can try it."

"It turns out that there is such a cleverness, and it will be a blessing in the future."

Nuan Bao took his empty bowl and added soft boiled mutton and radish for him, "I guess you didn't have lunch, you eat first, he will be back later."

Mu Lianye just got off the field in the car, so he really didn't eat anything, he only ate two dry biscuits.

She knew that Qin Chengyi had no friends, but who was this older friend who jumped out suddenly, and her surname was so strange, she couldn't help but take a few more glances.

Mu Lianye noticed her gaze, and asked with a smile, "Are you his wife? I haven't heard him talk about getting married before."

Nuan Bao nodded, and the more he looked, the more he realized that his face was a little familiar, just like Qin Chengyi, yes!Just like him!However, rather than saying that he resembles him, it is better to say that Qin Chengyi resembles him!

"He came back from the frontier and we just got married... May I ask you a question?"

Mu Lianye put down the bowl, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and replied indifferently: "Yes, what do you want to ask?"

Nuan Bao scratched his head with five fingers, and said embarrassedly: "I think you are somewhat similar to him, quite like a relative."

At the beginning, Mu Lianye also believed that Qin Chengyi was very similar to himself, so he believed what he said. At that time, there was still confusion in his heart, and when the Kaichun tribe was about to migrate, he followed him. The search for answers has finally come.

"I don't know if I have a blood relationship with him. This time, it is for this reason."

Uh, no way?Does it matter or don't know?Could it be Cheng Yi's brother's father's lost brother?It is said that only his father brought his grandmother here back then, so maybe there are lost brothers?

Qin Chengyi shot a pheasant with a bow and arrow. The pheasant was shot in the wing and couldn't fly even if it wanted to. He patted the little boy's big, furry head, "Go, bring the thing back!"

Xiao Guai is not an obedient and cute dog. He is a warrior who has caught voles and has practical experience. His eyes lit up when he saw the prey. He was ordered to jump to the pheasant and bite the chicken's neck. He ran back triumphantly. Qin Chengyi put it down.

Although this dog is not fierce, it is smart enough and understands everything it says. It is quite humane raised by Nuan Bao, and it will be a good helper for hunting in the future. Thinking of this, Qin Chengyi was not stingy, rubbed its big head, and praised: " How smart!"

If you catch a pheasant, it's not bad if you don't go back empty-handed. The winter animal, Maodong, can't easily come out to find food, and he didn't tell Nuanbao that he would go back late, lest she worry about carrying the pheasant and go home.

Xiaoguai was so excited, as soon as he got back to the door, he couldn't wait to bark. Nuan Bao and Mu Lianye went out to open the door together when they heard the sound of the dog.

When Qin Chengyi saw the door open, he just said, "Nuannuan, see what I brought back." Then he saw the tall man standing behind Nuanbao.

His hands trembled for no reason. This scene was like he could see when he returned home many years ago. His father was waiting for him to come back after playing at home...

But now things have changed, he lowered his head and closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his calm demeanor was restored, and he said in a deep voice, "You are here."

(End of this chapter)