A car accident, our family of three crossed

At noon, Song Ning cooked some food and took Mei to Zui Xiang Ju for a hotpot. They parted ways only after they were full. Then she started shopping.

In the past few days, the owner of the grocery store she often went to looked outside the door from time to time.

The shop is particularly busy during this period at the end of the year, but the shopkeeper always feels as if something is unfinished and is always thinking about something.

It was not until he saw Song Ning coming that he slapped his forehead and said, "Why is he always thinking about something?" So that's it.

Who doesn’t go out to shop at the end of the year? How could he forget about the God of Wealth?

"Oh! Madam Hang, you are here."

Song Ning greeted the shopkeeper politely. It was not that this was the only grocery store in the entire county, nor was it that those things could not be bought in other stores.

But, business is all about shopping experience. Every time she came, everyone in the shop, from the shopkeeper to the waiter, greeted her with a smile and warmly entertained her. That was why whenever she needed to buy something, the first thing she thought of was this grocery store.

This time she bought a lot of things at once, so the shopkeeper asked his clerk to drive out the horse-drawn carriage in the shop, load the goods and deliver it directly to Shangtang Village. The delivery clerk had made several deliveries before and was already familiar with the route.

Song Ning and others still needed to go to other shops to buy things, so they did not stay in the grocery store for long. They said goodbye to the shopkeeper and left.

After buying all the necessary things, he went to Wanjuan Bookstore to pick up Shanghang Shuheng, and then headed back home. On the way, he met a grocery store clerk who was returning after delivering goods.

This big shopping trip brought back a lot of red paper. In two days, it will be New Year's Eve, and we have to prepare couplets, window decorations, etc.

So, after returning from the county town, Hang Shuheng began to write couplets, and Song Ning led the children to cut paper-cuts.

The children were happy to help, but once they started, they damaged the paper and ended up making more trouble.

Song Ning didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she could only send them away. She would be responsible for cutting, and they would be responsible for pasting it later.

Xu and Qingshuang also tried to learn. Xu was okay, as she was deft with her hands and learned the trick quickly. She just cut a little slower, but there were no major problems overall.

But Qingshuang was similar to the children, even more difficult to describe. As soon as she started, the thin paper was torn and she didn't even have time to use the scissors.

She stared at the red paper that she had torn, and fell into deep thought. It seemed that her hands were only good for rough work like chopping wood and meat, and were not capable of such delicate work.

Seeing her like this, Song Ning couldn't help laughing and said to her, "Qingshuang, I heard that the Sun family is slaughtering a pig today, why don't you go over and take a look at the excitement?"

Qingshuang stood up, said okay, and went out.

She didn't come back until the afternoon. When she came back, she brought a pork elbow, several large bones, and a small basin of pig blood, saying that they were sent by the Sun family.

All these things add up to at least ten pounds, which would be a lot of copper coins if converted into cash.

But after all, their little Shitou often eats here, and it’s no big deal to send him some meat when they kill a pig.

When Qingshuang arrived, the Sun family had just knocked the pig unconscious. She was the one who stabbed the pig and made it bleed. That was what was appropriate for her to do.

She then watched as they boiled water and removed the hair, until the step of gutting the animal came, when she took over the job again.

It’s not that the men in the village don’t know how to drive, but she thinks they are too slow, so she takes the job herself.

He cut open the belly, disassembled the bones, and worked very skillfully. After the whole operation, all the villagers were stunned and terrified.

Seeing how efficient she was, Aunt Sun didn't hesitate to ask her to do anything. She told her to cut the meat for each family depending on how much meat they wanted.

This girl's eyes were like a scale. She would cut off the weight exactly as she asked for, without error.

After the villagers had bought most of the meat, the Sun family decided not to sell the rest. They took a basket and filled it with a lot of meat, then asked the Sun Xilai brothers to go to the county town to deliver the meat to their sister.

They also packed some pork elbows, large bones and pig blood for Qingshuang to take home and eat. They kept the rest of the meat for themselves.

In previous years, they would not have been willing to keep so much meat for themselves! In previous years, when they slaughtered pigs, they would either keep some for themselves and sell the rest to the butcher at once.

But this year is different. The wallets of every household are much fatter than in previous years, and eating meat is no longer considered a particularly luxurious behavior for the villagers.

At the end of every year, Hang Shuheng is very busy. He is busy writing couplets for his own family and for the villagers. After all, he is the best-educated person in the village!

In previous years, every time Hang's mother wrote couplets for the villagers, she would ask for an exorbitant price, five copper coins for each couplet, which made Hang Shuheng very embarrassed.

If he didn't take the money, Hang's mother would make a fuss and make it so difficult for anyone to write couplets.

Finally, the villagers had no choice but to pay copper coins to ask Hang Shuheng to write the couplets. After all, if they were not willing to pay even five copper coins, they could only go to the county town to buy them, which would cost at least eight copper coins per piece, which was not cost-effective.

This year, without Hang's mother's interference, Hang Shuheng did not plan to write couplets for the villagers for free, but he charged less than in previous years. He only charged the cost of pens, ink, paper, and a little bit of hard work fee.

Each couplet costs three copper coins, one copper coin for a large "Fu" character and five copper coins for a small "Fu" character.

This made the villagers very happy. Although everyone was not short of the five copper coins now, every copper coin saved was a copper coin. Who would complain about having too many copper coins?

As for window paper-cuts, Song Ning has no intention of selling them. After all, it took her a lot of effort to cut them. She doesn't mind giving a set to someone she has a good relationship with.

For example, the old patriarch’s family, the village head’s family, the Sun family, and Master Liu’s family.

This year, in addition to Hang Shuheng who can write couplets in the village, many people who live nearby Master Liu also asked him to write for them. Of course, the charging standard still has to be the same as Hang Shuheng's.

In this way, two days passed busy and fulfillingly. All the families in the village received new couplets as they wished, and several window decorations cut by Song Ning were also given away.

She edited several series, such as the Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs and the Four Gentlemen, and at Yang Yang's request, she also edited a Calabash Brothers series.

As soon as it was cut, Yangyang happily took it outside to show off, which made the children in the village very envious.