Crossing the Unknown Country

The whole family was very satisfied with tonight's dinner and praised Su He's cooking skills. Chef Su He was also very happy to accept the praise from his family.

After dinner, Su He started weaving by herself, sitting next to her father, one weaving a basket with rattan and the other weaving a mat with straw. Her father was amazed at how Su He's little hands flew up and down, and how she could weave a row of patterns in a short while. He simply followed Su He and learned to weave mats.

Su He said to his father, "If we weave a bigger one, we can use it as a bed mat. If we make a smaller one, we can take it to the field to rest on."

When the father heard this, he thought it was really possible and started to learn it seriously. Although the father was smart, Su He still needed to check the fineness. Under her strict requirements, the father finally weaved a beautiful mat.

The two elder brothers also wanted to weave, but there was not much grass at home, so they were chased by their father to go to the house to read and write. There was a book "Shuowen Jiezi" at home, and the two elder brothers learned directly from the book, and asked their father when they encountered something they didn't know. The family couldn't afford paper and ink, so they wrote with sand trays and wooden sticks. Paper and brushes are easy to make, but they can't do it now. Su He feels that this age has too many restrictions on himself.

Su He looked at the mats his father had woven and discussed with him: "Dad, let's go sell the mats together! Let's see if we can make money from them. We can also take some wild vegetables. I heard that most of the medicinal herbs are collected from the mountains. Let's go ask and see if we can sell them."

Her father was not illiterate, but he had been imprisoned in the village for a long time, so his thoughts were similar to everyone else's. He knew a lot of words, but he didn't read many books, so his knowledge was correspondingly limited. After Su He's reminder, she thought about it carefully and decided to give it a try. After all, it wouldn't be a big loss if she couldn't sell it.

Finally, we decided to weave more mats in the next few days, and let the three children dig more wild vegetables, and bring them to the market and the clinic in the town to try. We can also buy some salt and oil at home, as these things are running out.

Su He simply made a few small baskets in the shape of vases, and said he would try to put some flowers in them later. He also said that he would go to the mountain to find some colorful grass tomorrow and try to weave it into the mat to see if the colorful ones would look good.

Just like that, Miaomiao and his father went to bed with hope. She discussed with her mother that she wanted to sleep in her brother's room, saying that this way she could get up with her brother and clean the room together, and she was also a big child. Of course her mother agreed, but adults actually don't want to sleep with children, and few children sleep well.

Her mother smiled and said, "I'll bring your pillow over tomorrow, and you can sleep with your brother! Don't wet the bed at night, or you'll drive your two brothers away."

Su He blushed and said shyly: "I am a big kid, how could I wet the bed."

Her father and mother laughed together, coaxed her to sleep, put her between them, and patted her to sleep. Su He was really weak, and soon she couldn't open her eyes and fell asleep. Her father and mother looked at each other, blew out the lights and went to sleep.

In the next few days, everyone knew that their family wanted to try weaving mats and cushions. The four brothers and Su He had a clear division of labor. Two brothers collected firewood, and two brothers followed Su He to pull weeds and pick wild vegetables. Brother Su Pei was skillful and joined the weaving army. In this way, the three of them started weaving together. After brother Su Pei had woven several cushions, he began to learn to weave straw mats. The steps were the same except that the edges had to be long enough. Su He told them to sit on the mat to weave. His father and Su Pei tried it and found it quite convenient and fast to weave.

Finally, four mats were woven, two plain and two colorful. There were more than a dozen cushions with various patterns and colors, as well as a few vases and a basket of wild flowers. Su He even wrapped the roots with wet cloth to keep the flowers fresh.

The weather was good that day. At about five o'clock in the morning, the whole family, including Su Pei and his brother, set out for the town. The village was far from the town, and it took more than three hours to get there. So everyone had to go to the town early in the morning. There were ox carts going there, and generally they only needed to give a large coin at the entrance of the village, but the family was too big to afford it. Usually, her father would go there by himself and would not take the ox cart and waste that money.