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

Wu Jiang nodded and worked with extra enthusiasm. They were building a granary so that the family would have more food than they could eat.

People were found the next day. In those days, there was a shortage of everything except people, so work began on the farm.

Zhou Gu was shocked and came back to ask Zhou Guo, "Why are you building a house on the farm again? Are you going to buy someone again?"

The whole family looked over here. We haven’t been to the farm today. Are they building a house again?

Zhou Guo looked at him and said, "Didn't you ask them?"

Zhou Gu said, "I wanted to ask, but the people working there didn't know what they were doing. They just said they were building a house. Wu Jiang and Hu Zi weren't here, so no one else knew either."

Zhou Guo then said, "We are building a granary. When the grain comes in autumn, we will go to each village to collect the grain. By then, we will not be able to store the grain at home, and there will be no space on the farm. We will have to build a new one."

The whole family was excited.

Zhou Mai said: "The granary still needs to be built? How big should it be?"

Zhou Mi looked inside the house. "The two we have now are big enough. We need to build a few more rooms to store the grain. How much grain will we need to harvest?"

Li couldn't suppress the smile on her face, "Yes, how many houses do we need to build? How big a granary should we build?"

Just think about it and be happy.

Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Let's build two for now. I think two is enough. We don't need to build more in the next two years."

Zhou Su almost jumped up with joy. "Will our family have more food than we can eat for several years? We won't have to go hungry anymore?"

Zhou Guo laughed, "I haven't let you go hungry in the past two years."

Zhou Su smiled and said, "That's different. As the old saying goes, if you have food in the warehouse, you won't be worried. Especially now that there are so many more people in our family, more than 50 or 60 people, how much food do we eat every year? Having our own food is better than anything else. Even if the sky falls, the food is still in our hands."

These words touched everyone's heart. They had all experienced hunger, and their families only had a few years' worth of food left, so they were all worried.

Zhou Guo found it funny to see them all saying this, "My warehouse hasn't been built yet, and the grain hasn't been brought back yet. You're so happy just now because of something that happened. What if it doesn't work? Wouldn't it be a waste of joy?"

Li said, "Don't say these unlucky words. How can it not work? It will definitely work."

He stood up and said, "Oh, I have to go burn some paper for your grandparents and tell them the good news."

"I'll go as well."

"We'll go too."

Suddenly, only Xu and Zhou Guo were left in the yard, and even Li Lai followed them.

She remembered that when she earned her first few thousand taels, her mother's reaction was not so big. She didn't even burn some paper or say anything to them. Her few thousand taels could buy a lot of food.

……

When the two brick granaries on the farm were completed, the grain in the fields was almost ready to be harvested.

These days, the farm has been idle and people don't need to use so much fertilizer this year, so the fertilizer fermentation process has been slowed down.

Zhou Guo bought two big fat pigs in the village, and directly pulled them to the farm. He said to everyone, "You have all worked hard during this period. I will give you two extra months' wages this month. Together with this month's wages, you will get three months' wages in total."

Everyone was already very happy to have two pigs, and when they heard that they would be paid two more months' wages, they were so happy that they were silly. You have to know that last year during the Chinese New Year, they only received two months' wages, and this time they would receive three months' wages.

Some of them who worked harder could earn two or three strings of cash a month, which means three months' wages would be eight or nine strings of cash. For a family like theirs, that would be enough to support their household expenses for two or three years.

With this money, I can buy some silver jewelry and make some flowered fabrics for the children to wear.

This kind of life was something I could never have imagined when I was a refugee.

Zhou Guo left after she finished speaking. If she stayed here, everyone would feel uncomfortable, so it would be better not to disturb their interest.

At home, Li saw her coming back and said, "The people in the mountains bought two pigs. Should we buy one too?"

Zhou Guo asked, "Why do we buy pigs?"

Li smiled and said, "It's your elder brother. No one he likes has ever been in a relationship with, but he has chosen one. I have already asked a matchmaker to mediate. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be a success. We just happen to be short of meat. This year is a double happiness. Shouldn't we kill a pig for such a big event?"

Zhou Guo was really surprised. "When did my eldest brother fall in love with someone else? When did this happen? Where is that girl from? How come I don't know? Why didn't he tell me?"

Li said, "Why didn't you tell me? Didn't you tell me? It's in Nanshui Village. The family's surname is Wu, and the girl's name is Wu Ya. She doesn't even have a proper name. The girl is really pitiful. Her mother died when she was just born, and then her father remarried and had a stepmother. How many people are treated well by the stepmother? Later, the stepmother gave birth to three more sons, and there was no place for her in the family. The family members also said that she was unlucky. Her life was really hard."

Zhou Guo frowned more and more as he listened, "Could it be that my brother fell in love with her because he felt sorry for her? How can one choose a wife like this?"

Li said, "Listen to me. Even though this is the case, this girl has taken good care of herself. Even if she is not fat and white, at least she is like a normal person. Most importantly, she is very capable and good at work. She is a fierce girl."

Zhou Guo was puzzled, "Brother, do you like girls like this? Do you like fierce girls?"

Zhou Xing came out of the house and laughed when she heard this: "Who knows what he is thinking? There is no weak person in our family. I don't know why he likes the fierce ones."

Zhou Guo looked at her, "You know about this too? Are you the only one in my family who doesn't know?"

Li said, "And the gentleman also knows about it, and he just found out this morning."

Zhou Guo was even more surprised. "I just found out this morning that you've asked a matchmaker to mediate the reconciliation? Will their family agree to it?"

Li smiled and said, "Why not? This girl has been with your eldest brother for a year. If she is delayed until now, many people in the village will gossip about her. Besides, as long as the money is enough, they will not let her go."

After saying this, he went into the house.

Zhou Guo opened her mouth and suddenly remembered that when her mother was a girl, she had to live at the hands of her brother and sister-in-law. She was even more miserable than this girl. She was not as good as this girl, but now she saw someone and was very happy.

Zhou Xing said, "It's good for this girl. If she doesn't get along well with her parents, then we won't have to worry about them coming to our house to make trouble, and we won't have to worry about her only thinking about her parents' home after she gets married."

Zhou Guo looked at her with a smile but said nothing.

Zhou Xing blushed, and then she remembered that she was also going to get married, so she stopped talking.

Zhou Guo said: "Oh, some people are so heartless. After getting married, they don't even plan to keep in touch with their family members. They want to cut off all ties. No wonder people say that a daughter who is married is like spilled water. You haven't even got married yet, but you've already turned your elbow outward. The Zhou family has really raised you in vain!"

He shook his head while reciting it.