Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Speaking of this, Huang lost her appetite. Thinking of the money box at home, she couldn't help but sigh, "Not much left. There is still one hundred and thirty-six coins in the box. This money is not enough to pay taxes. We also need money for salt and other things."

Huang revealed the family's financial situation without hesitation. She couldn't sleep well every time she thought about such a small amount of money. Now that she had told him about it, she felt much more relieved.

When they heard that it was only such a small amount of money, everyone fell silent. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the children slurping their porridge.

The atmosphere was serious. The children drank their porridge slowly and were very careful not to make any noise.

Zhou Dafu clenched his fist and said with determination: "The wheat in the field has been harvested. I will go to the city to find a job tomorrow."

Zhou Dacai quickly expressed his determination, "Then I'll go to Mr. Zhao's and Mr. Qian's houses to have a look. They have a lot of land, and maybe they need more people."

Old man Zhou shook his head and said in a calm voice, "I'm afraid it's not that easy. I heard that recently, more and more disaster victims have come to the county. They will work for anyone who gives them food. I'm afraid they can't find any work in the county. I'm afraid the landlords won't miss such a great opportunity."

Everyone was deflated for a moment.

Zhou Dacai was silent for a moment, then he looked down and saw his daughter sitting next to his wife, drinking porridge obediently.

My daughter has always been a bit dull. Everyone likes her, including me. She has been given all the delicious food at home since she was a child, and she can't do any work.

So until she was five or six years old, the girl had a face full of white flesh. In the past two years, the family's situation has become increasingly difficult, and her originally chubby face has become much thinner.

Even the most favored child in the family is like this, not to mention the other children, who are all dark and thin, and have not grown much in recent years.

Zhou Dacai closed his eyes and finally said, "I'll go to the county town tomorrow to take a look."

Zhou Dafu said quickly, "I'll go with you. The work in the field is almost done. Mom, you just stay in the house and watch."

The old lady nodded, thinking that this was a good thing. There would be no heavy work in the fields, and the rest could be handled by them, the women and children.

Old Man Zhou warned worriedly, "These days, there are many disaster victims outside. Don't get into conflicts with others when you go out. If anything goes wrong, come back immediately."

The two brothers nodded to show that they remembered it.

The next day, the two brothers got up before dawn.

Huang took her two daughters-in-law to prepare dry food for them, thinking that they were going to do hard labor outside, so she scooped a full bowl of freshly pounded flour and mixed it with some wheat bran and wild vegetables, which was enough for them to eat for several days.

At daybreak, except for Zhou Guo, the whole family got up. They had breakfast together and watched the two brothers leave.

Zhou Tao, the youngest daughter of Zhou Dafu, and Zhou Guo's younger brother Zhou Su happily waved their hands and asked the two men to bring them some delicious food.

The two waved and walked away without looking back.

The old lady covered her chest and said worriedly, "My heart has been beating so fast this morning. I don't know if it's a good sign."

Hearing this, Old Man Zhou glared at her in dissatisfaction. "Why are you so crazy so early in the morning? If you can't speak, don't speak. It's so unlucky!"

Having said that, he looked in the direction the two people left with worry in his eyes.

The youngest son Zhou Dacang rolled his eyes.

No one noticed that Zhou Guo, who was originally in a daze, moved his eyes, and soon returned to his calm.

The two brothers went to the city to find work, and the family members were not idle either. The adults went to the fields, and the children went into the mountains to pick mushrooms. It had just rained a few times, and the mushrooms in the mountains might have grown.

Soon, only Zhou Xing and Zhou Guo were left at home, and even Zhou Tao followed into the mountains.

Zhou Xing led Zhou Guo to sit under the apricot tree and carefully instructed him, "Guoguo, just stay here and don't run around. I'll take you into the mountains to pick mushrooms when I'm done with my work."

After that, she went to wash the dishes, then chopped some tender grass leaves for the chickens at home, and then took the broom and started sweeping the floor inside and outside the house...

Zhou Guo sat under the apricot tree, blinking his eyes, watching the busy figure in the house.

After a while, she looked up at the apricot tree above her head out of boredom. Thinking of the apricot she ate yesterday, her mouth couldn't help but drool. She finally woke up for once, but the sourness of the fruit made her teeth ache.

"Our Guoguo wants to eat apricots again? I'll pick them for you after I finish sweeping the floor. Let's find out which ones are the yellowest." Zhou Xing was sweeping the yard and looked over here from time to time. Seeing Zhou Guo looking up at the apricot tree, she thought she wanted to eat apricots again.

Zhou Guo stared and was about to speak, but then he remembered that he was a "fool" and had to shut his mouth abruptly.

……

"Here, this is the yellowest one I can find, eat it!"

Looking at the green and yellow apricot handed to her, she hesitated whether to take it or not. Before she could reach out to take it, it was stuffed into her hand without any explanation.

Yes, she is a fool, how can she decide whether to accept or not.

She held the fruit and looked at it over and over again. She opened her mouth several times but couldn't eat it. The fruit she had eaten yesterday still made her teeth sour.

Zhou Xing didn't care about her anymore. She still had a lot of work to do and the clothes hadn't been washed yet.

Seeing the man leave, she was relieved and played with the fruit with both hands. In the past eight years, she could count the number of times she was awake on one hand. Even if she could wake up, the time was very short. Today, she seemed to be awake for an especially long time.

However, why would she stay awake for such a long time? If possible, she would rather not wake up.

In the hot summer, it is only in the morning that there is a little coolness.

She sat under the tree without moving, closed her eyes and waited for the familiar feeling of tiredness to come, but after waiting for a long time, she became more awake.

She still couldn't fall asleep until mid-afternoon, when everyone in the family came back for dinner.

Looking at this lively family, Zhou Guo couldn't help feeling dizzy. She thought back to her previous life, when there were only seven people in her family at most. With so many people living together, would there really be no quarrels?

"Hey, where is the third son? Where did he go?" Huang looked around but didn't see her youngest son.

Everyone realized what was happening after hearing this. Yes, the noisiest person on weekdays was not here, not even during dinner time! !

Old man Zhou waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about him. He must have gone somewhere wild again. Really, he is about to get married, but he is still so out of tune. He acts like a child all day long. Who would be willing to marry him?"

The more he talked, the angrier he got. "Don't leave any food for him at noon. If he doesn't come back to eat, don't leave any for him. Just let him starve..."

As he was speaking, Zhou Dacang's crying and shouting could be heard outside, "It's terrible, it's terrible, Dad, Mom, it's terrible, a fight has started, a fight has started, my eldest brother and second brother have been arrested!!"