The road to wealth of a peasant widow

It rained all day and didn't stop until just before dinner.

Because it was cloudy, the sky had already darkened. Chen Cui and Chang Ping sealed all the holes in the charcoal pile, allowing the firewood to burn slowly inside.

Chen Cui dragged her tired body to the front yard. She still had to cook dinner for the family and didn't want anyone to go hungry.

But as soon as I walked out of the shed, I saw Changping walking towards me.

"Mom, Changan, it's time to eat!"

"Changping, is the meal ready?" Chen Cui asked in surprise.

"Well, I saw that mother was too tired, so I prepared the meal myself." Changping said with a smile.

Chen Cui felt warm in her heart and touched Chang Ping's head, "Good boy, you can cook for your mother now."

Changping brought Chen Cui to the main room. The table was filled with steaming food. Everyone else had already taken their seats. They sat around together and began to enjoy this warm dinner.

"Daha, I'm sorry for wronging you." Chen Cui said.

Because it is not yet Liu Eryong's 100th day, their family cannot eat meat for the time being. Chen Dahe has worked so hard these days, so even if they want to cook some meat to entertain him, they can't, so she apologized to her brother.

"Sister, why are you saying these unorthodox words? Who cares about that bite of food? Besides, Changping's cooking skills are really good. The dishes she cooked are very delicious. Sister, you should try it."

As he spoke, Chen Dahe took another big bite of the steamed bun, picked up a mouthful of fried egg and mushroom, and chewed it with big mouthfuls, indicating that he was very satisfied with the meal.

These mushrooms were brought here by Chen Dahe. Before he came, Chen's parents packed a basket of things, all dried vegetables and mountain products, and asked him to bring them to his sister. He didn't expect that he would eat them so soon.

Seeing how deliciously he was eating, Chen Cui couldn't help but pick up a piece with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

Well, these are the dried mushrooms that were just dried this year. After they were soaked, they were fried with eggs.

Because his uncle was there, Changping added more oil, so the dish turned out delicious.

"Changping's cooking skills are really good, it tastes better than my mother's!"

Chen Cui couldn't help but praise.

Changping smiled when he heard this, feeling indescribably happy.

Mom praised him again!

Changan silently picked up another piece of food with chopsticks, put it in his mouth and tasted it carefully, as if he wanted to analyze the cooking method of this dish.

Every year, dinner is usually rice porridge.

In fact, Chen Cui was a little anxious.

The child is already eight months old. She has never eaten any of the various children's recipes she has seen in the parenting manuals. The main food every day is rice and noodles, and the only nutritional supplement is eggs.

There are no vegetables, no fruits, and no nuts, which are common foods for babies in later generations, to supplement her with the nutrients needed for her growth and development. If this continues, her growth will definitely be affected.

In fact, who in this family, from adults to children, is not lacking in nutrition?

There is no need to talk about Chen Cui's health. She experienced premature birth and difficult labor this spring, which seriously damaged her vitality. Although her life was saved, the lost vitality cannot be replenished so quickly. She needs to eat something good to nourish her body.

The three Changping brothers started to grow taller after they separated from the family this year. They were really thin and small before. Although they are a little taller now, they still have no flesh on their bodies and need to supplement nutrition.

But now, their family can only barely make ends meet, and it is a bit difficult for them to further pursue nutrition and health.

After all, it’s still lack of money!

Chen Cui couldn't help but pay more attention to the charcoal pile in the backyard. Before going to bed, she took a homemade torch and inspected it to see if there were any cracks in the mud seal on the outside of the charcoal pile.

This is her biggest hope for making money now, and nothing can go wrong.

Because she was still thinking about it, the next day as soon as she got up, before making breakfast, she ran to see the charcoal piles again.

Fortunately, the mud was sealed well and the paste was fine. After one night, although the surface was dry, there was no crack and each one was intact.

At night, these charcoal piles can be unsealed. According to previous estimates, at least 700 to 800 kilograms of charcoal can be harvested by then.

Thinking of this, Chen Cui felt as if there were a lot of copper coins waving at her in front of her.

So she walked briskly to the front kitchen.

Although it has cleared up today, it just rained and the mountain roads are slippery, so we cannot go up the mountain to cut trees for the time being.

The charcoal pile at home has basically taken shape. We just need to pay attention to it from time to time to make sure there are no cracks. There is no important work to do, so everyone has a rare day of relaxation.

By the time the sun was about to set, all the charcoal piles had finally become completely cool.

The whole family gathered in the backyard, looking forward to this exciting moment.

Chen Cui, Dahe and Changping took wooden sticks and tapped gently on the charcoal piles.

As the mud seals were opened one by one, piles of black charcoal were exposed to everyone.

The three of them checked one by one whether the charcoal burning was successful.

Chen Cui picked up a piece of charcoal. It was good, complete and not broken.

When you break it open, you can hear a crisp sound and the cross-section is also good.

The results of the inspections at Changping and Dahe were the same. It seemed that the charcoal was burning well this time.

Next is the combustion test.

They took some charcoal from each pile and burned it on the ground to observe the burning conditions, whether there was smoke, and the specific burning time, so as to estimate the final quality of the charcoal.

When the experimental results finally came out, everyone was very happy.

These charcoals have reached the same quality as the two piles that were first burned, are basically smokeless, and can burn for more than half an hour.

This is the result of burning in an open space. There is strong wind and plenty of oxygen, so it burns quickly. If it is placed in a special charcoal basin or hand warmer, it will burn longer.

All of these charcoals are of the same quality as those sold in grocery stores at 4 cents a pound, which is really great!

After a quick dinner, they began to pack the charcoal with tools.

Logically speaking, charcoal is afraid of being crushed, so it should be put in bamboo baskets or backpacks. But even if all the backpacks at home are used, they cannot hold these seven or eight hundred kilograms of charcoal.

It is too late to make baskets now, so the rest can only be packed in sacks. At worst, we have to be careful during transportation to avoid them being crushed.

Changping and Dahe went to Muramasa's house to borrow an ox cart. This time they borrowed it in Dahe's name, saying that they were going into the city for something.

After all, the Chen family is a relative, so it’s not easy for people to ask too many questions.

Chen Cui was a little worried. What excuse should she use next time she wanted to borrow the car?

After all, large animals like cows are very precious to farmers, and they are cherished very much. It is not good to borrow them frequently without a legitimate reason.

However, she didn't want anyone to know about her charcoal selling business for the time being, and she couldn't let it spread.

Forget it, never mind it for now. Let’s just sell the charcoal this time. At worst, when I make some money later, I can buy myself one and won’t have to borrow from others.

They drove the ox cart to the backyard, loaded the charcoal onto the cart, packed up everything, and waited to set off for the county town early the next morning.