Crossing the Unknown Country

Grandma Su He lifted the cloth covering the steamed buns and saw ten big, plump white steamed buns. She gave one to each of them and asked Su Pei's mother to put away the rest for dinner. Su Che ate the steamed buns in his hand and couldn't take his eyes off the steamed buns his mother had put away.

Grandma Su He tapped his head lightly with chopsticks and said with a smile: "I fed the puppy with a steamed bun just now, and now he's still not full after eating another meat bun."

Su Che acted cute and said, "Grandma, this is a meat bun. I won't be full no matter how many I eat. Can't you give me another one?"

Su Che's mother glanced at him and said, "I just gave birth to a foodie who only knows how to eat. Wait a few days until your father sells the straw mat and buys some meat, and then makes meat dumplings for you. Then I'll let you eat as much as you want, just look at how greedy you are."

Su Che's father disagreed and said, "We are still eating meat buns and you are thinking about eating more. How can others afford to eat like this? Just eat it and forget it. Live frugally! If you want to eat more, you have to wait for a while. Good things should not be eaten continuously like this."

Grandpa Su He nodded in agreement, thinking that he really didn't know how expensive firewood, rice and oil were until he ran a household. This was several kilograms of rice! With this wasted money, the family could have a few more meals.

Grandma Su He smiled and said, "My dear grandchildren, hurry up and make some money. As long as you make some money, you can eat buns every day. Grandma will decide for you. You can eat whatever you want."

The three children all nodded happily. This is really possible. They are now on the road to making money. They can earn more money by copying more books, collecting more herbs, or weaving straw mats. There is also going up the mountain with their sister to dig herbs, which seems to be profitable too.

After Su Peihe and Su Che finished their meal, they took their backpacks and went home with Su Feng. They had to hurry to make money. Su He's grandmother and aunt said they would go after packing up, and told Su He's mother not to go to the fields yet. The three of them chatted and laughed and went back to Su Feng's house first. It was a good time to copy books first, and then go to the mountains to chop wood, pull weeds, and collect herbs when they were tired.

When they got home, Su He and Su Run had already started copying books. They were copying one book each. They didn't notice them coming in at all, and they were completely immersed in it without even looking up. The three of them also took the books and started copying, but Su Pei copied first, and Su Feng and Su Che would come on as substitutes when they were tired. The two of them took the copied books and proofread them to see if there were any typos or mistakes.

The five people were doing their own things. Half an hour later, Grandma Su He and the old lady came over, talking to each other, and the five children stopped. They couldn't stop! The two of them spoke very loudly, and loud voices were the standard for women in the village. You could hear their voices before you saw them.

As soon as he entered the door, he called out to Su He's mother: "Su Feng's mother, what are you doing at home?"

Su He Niang hurried out of the house, where she was making shoes! The family wore out shoes a lot. They had been traveling a lot recently, and their shoes were wearing out faster.

Su He Niang put down the shoes in her hand and came out to say, "Mom, sister-in-law, come in quickly, we are waiting for you!"

Su He and the others called out "grandma", "auntie" and "mother" and went into the house to look at the cloth they had bought. The three pieces of cloth had been placed on the kang. Auntie and grandma looked at the cloth and listened to Su He's mother's story of how she bought the cloth. They kept praising Su He for being a lucky star and saying that the cloth was a great bargain.

Finally, the aunt and grandmother heard Su He's mother say that these cloths can be dyed again, and they are almost as good as the good ones. They were also very happy. They asked Su He what method he used. Su He said that if you want to dye gray and yellow, you can boil persimmon leaves in water. If you want to dye black, you have to go to the mountains to find some, or you can dye it several times with persimmon leaves. Bamboo leaves can also be dyed, as well as pomegranate peels. As long as they have colors, they can be dyed. In the future, you can try various colors with white cloth, and then you will have colorful clothes to wear. Grandma and the aunt both thought that their Su He knew all this from reading medical books, and they heard that the old doctor was very kind to her.

Everyone believed that what Su He said was feasible. You can see that sometimes when you pull grass, your hands are stained with green. This cloth should be able to be dyed into various colors. They just watched how Su He dyed it and followed him.

Su He was going to the mountain to pick leaves, and to pick some other leaves and bark to try, and to try dyeing cloth. He also told his grandmother and the others to make clothes first and then dye them, because clothes are smaller than large pieces of cloth and easier to work with. Small clothes can be put into the pot, and they can be dyed at once without worrying about uneven dyeing. Su He followed his brothers to the mountain to pick raw materials for dyeing cloth, and his grandmother and the others made clothes at home. First, make two pieces to try dyeing, anyway, they are for your own wear, so it doesn't matter if the dyeing is not good, anyway, the puddings on your clothes are all the same color, and they are all colorful. Most of them are scraps of cloth bought from the cloth shop, and the big ones are used to make shoes and the small ones are used to mend clothes.