The road to wealth of a peasant widow

After dinner, Chen Cui changed all her clothes and took a nice bath.

This time she even washed her hair. She had no choice but to wash it. It was full of grass clippings and dirt. No matter how hard she combed it, it just wouldn't get clean. She had to wash it thoroughly.

To wash her hair, she used rice soup and wood ash, rubbed them thoroughly on her head, and finally rinsed them with clean water. Surprisingly, her hair was washed very clean, which made Chen Cui marvel at the wisdom of the ancients.

After washing, Chen Cui sat in front of the stove and lit a fire to dry her hair as quickly as possible.

The pot is filled with hot water for bathing the children.

Changping finished washing first, wrapped her hair with a towel, and sat next to Chen Cui.

"Mom, are we really going into the city tomorrow?" The young boy looked a little confused and uneasy.

He recalled having only been to the county town twice, both times with his father. Every time he was amazed by the prosperity and wealth of the county town.

"Well, we need to get rid of this wolf as soon as possible. Otherwise, if we delay any longer, the meat will go bad and won't be worth the money!"

Chen Cui answered calmly while wiping her hair.

Before dinner, she asked Changping to borrow an ox cart from Muramasa's house and park it in the yard. Tomorrow their family would take the ox cart to the county town.

As for the reason, he said that he went to buy things for the seventh day after Liu Eryong's death.

Even if someone gossips, at most they would say that they are charging big bucks and throwing away fees, nothing else can be said.

At least they are being called filial piety to the deceased and won't be condemned by public opinion.

In fact, Chen Cui originally wanted to go to the county town alone with Changping, leaving the three children at home.

But when she announced her decision to leave for the county, the envy on Chang'an and Changfu's faces was beyond words, but neither of them asked for anything, which was so sensible that it made people feel distressed.

Chen Cui's heart couldn't help but soften. Moreover, after what happened yesterday with the wolf, she was actually a little worried about leaving the three children at home.

This yard is so close to the mountain and far away from the neighbors. If anything happens, there is no way to ask for help.

Anyway, the ox cart is more than enough to accommodate their whole family, so why not just take them all along?

At most, as a parent, I just have to worry more and spend more time on it.

Therefore, the original trip of mother and son was changed to a trip of the whole family.

In preparation for tomorrow's trip, the boys were very active in taking a bath and changing clothes, hoping to appear as respectable as possible when going out with their mother.

Changping has already packed up all the dried yams at home and loaded them onto the truck. The wolf has also been put on the truck. They must set off before dawn tomorrow, so these must be prepared in advance.

The next day, the rooster crowed three times and Chen Cui got up to dress Sui Sui.

Changping was responsible for waking up his two younger brothers.

Liujiaping is more than 30 miles away from the county town, and the ox cart cannot go very fast. It is not known whether what they are going to do will go smoothly. If it takes too much time, they may have to walk back at night.

The world today is not very peaceful, and anything can happen at night.

So, it’s better to leave early than to come back late.

Fortunately, the fifteenth day of the lunar month would be a sunny day in two days, and the moonlight in the sky would shine on the ground, which could light their way.

There is a cow in the Liu family's old house, and Changping is responsible for its daily feeding and care. Although the Liu family does not have an ox cart, Changping has already had experience in how to drive the cow to work.

Besides, he had already secretly learned how to drive a cart from Nagane-ge of the Muramasa family, and had mastered the method, but he just had no chance to practice.

Because he has raised cattle for several years, Changping is particularly patient with Muramasa's cows.

Last night he specially fed the cow grass and gave it water. Before setting off in the morning, he added more grass to the basin and fed it well so that he could take them into the county town.

It was Changping's first time driving a car alone, so he couldn't help feeling a little excited. Fortunately, Chen Cui was sitting next to him and gave him some encouragement, which gave him more confidence.

The three little ones were woken up from their sleep, and after getting on the bus they kept rubbing their eyes because they were so sleepy.

Chen Cui let them lie down in the back and continue sleeping. There was a thin blanket in the car, so they were not afraid of the cold.

After walking for a while, the moon gradually disappeared and the sky began to darken. It was estimated that dawn would be here soon.

The three little ones at the back slept without any burden, and the bumps of the ox cart did not affect their sleep at all.

Chen Cui was actually also sleepy.

She was exhausted after a whole day yesterday, as fighting the wolves had taken up a lot of her energy. But she couldn't lie down any more, and she couldn't let Changping drive the car alone. She could only force herself to cheer up and chat with Changping.

"The last time you went to the county town with your father, you said you saw the mountain goods store collecting wild animals, right?"

Changping nodded and said "hmm".

He seldom went out, so he found everything new to him in the county town, so he paid close attention. He noticed someone taking game he had just shot to the mountain goods store to sell it, but that person was selling rabbits, and he didn't know if the store would accept wolves.

Chen Cui had an idea in mind. If they could get rabbits, then there was no reason not to want wolves which were more valuable than rabbits. She thought their wolves should be easy to sell.

As for those yams, you can also go to the mountain product store and ask, maybe someone there will recognize this thing and be willing to pay for it.

In this way, the family has two more sources of income. Although the wolf was accidental and only happened this time, if the yam is managed well, it can generate long-term profits.

Although they were riding in a ox cart, it still took the group more than an hour to reach the county town.

If I were to walk back and forth such a long distance, my legs would probably break from exhaustion.

Moreover, to enter the county town, each person had to pay an entrance fee of one cent, and the ox cart was also counted as one. The family paid a total of six cents.

No wonder villagers rarely go to the city. It’s not a big deal. Who would be willing to spend the money and effort?

The three little ones woke up a long time ago, and after entering the city, they opened their eyes wide with curiosity and looked at everything on the street.

There are so many people in the county town. The houses are all made of blue bricks and tiles. The roadside shops and stalls sell all kinds of food.

It was breakfast time. The steamed bun shop, sesame cake stall, and mutton soup restaurant were all open. The aroma of various foods intertwined together. Not to mention the child, even Chen Cui's stomach began to growl.

Seeing the children swallowing their saliva, Chen Cui asked Changping to stop the ox cart on the side of the road. She went to buy some vegetarian buns with three fresh ingredients for everyone to fill their stomachs.

In fact, she also craved meat and wanted to eat meat buns and drink mutton soup, but Liu Eryong had just passed away and their family was still in the mourning period. They could not eat meat until at least a hundred days had passed. She could not break the rules in front of the children.

Originally, she thought that the ancients could not eat meat for more than two years during the mourning period, but after receiving Chen's memories, she realized that for ordinary people, mourning was not that strict.

Not eating meat for 100 days is the limit. After 100 days, there are not many taboos.

What's more, ordinary farmers cannot eat meat often. For families as well-off as the Liu family's old house, eating meat once a month is already a good life in the village. Most people can only afford to cut some meat to satisfy their hunger during busy farming seasons and festivals, and they can only eat it a few times a year.