The road to wealth of a peasant widow

There were two baskets in the mule cart, one containing cow offal and the other containing two puppies.

The puppy was bought from a livestock dealer.

An old man was squatting on the side of the road with seven or eight puppies in front of him. He said that their mother dog had died and it was difficult for him to raise these puppies, so he simply sold them all.

Seeing that the children were still depressed about the cow, Chen Cui thought that her family really needed a dog to guard the house, so she let them choose one.

When the children saw the furry puppy, they became interested and came forward curiously to touch and look at it.

But there are eight puppies here, all of them are very cute. Mother said that they have to choose one to take back. Which one should they choose? These three people are in a dilemma!

In the end, the three of them were hesitating between the two puppies they had chosen, and couldn't make up their minds for a long time, not knowing which one to take home.

The old man said, "Why not just buy both? A puppy will be easier to raise if it has a companion. I'll give you a lower price."

The three brothers were immediately moved and all looked at Chen Cui, with desire and pleading in their eyes obvious.

Seeing this, Chen Cui asked the old man, "How much for two?"

"Not expensive, not expensive, only eighty cents for two." The old man replied hurriedly.

Chen Cui saw that the children were already happy and the sadness and frustration on their faces had disappeared. She quickly took out the money to pay the bill.

The old man also gave the puppy a dog basket filled with straw to keep it warm.

This was also because Chen Cui was straightforward in buying things and didn't even bargain for the price, so he generously gave the basket to them without asking for money.

Changping was driving the car in front, while Changan and Changfu were in the car, staring at the two puppies. They were discussing what to call them, and then they were worried about what to feed them when they got home.

"Didn't we buy a sheep? We can let them drink goat's milk and cook rice porridge or something like that." Chen Cui said with a smile.

These two puppies look like they are just one month old. Their teeth are still tender and they can’t eat anything too hard. They can drink some goat’s milk to transition to a better life. When they grow up, they can eat leftovers.

When their mule carts and ox carts reached the intersection to Chenjiagou, Chen Cui got off the mule cart and went to drive the ox cart of Muramasa's family.

She gave the beef heart and beef lungs from the offal to Chen Shangen and said, "Dad, take these back and ask Mom to wash and clean them and cook them. I have to drive the car, so I won't be coming back to our house."

Chen Shangen took it and sighed, "Alas, just spoil the child. You've lost two and a half taels of silver in just a short while."

He strongly disapproved of his daughter's behavior of spending the money she had indiscriminately. It would be fine if she bought a sheep, as that would be of practical use, but he strongly disapproved of her buying the sick cow.

However, all the money was earned by his daughter herself. Even the fact that he could buy a bullock cart today was thanks to his daughter. He couldn't even open his mouth to say anything about her.

Moreover, he also knew that his daughter was now the head of the Liu family and had to establish her authority in front of the children. He could not refute her in front of the children and lose face for her.

But he still felt bad about the money he lost. Two and a half taels, a season's crops couldn't be sold for that much money. It was all wasted.

Seeing his distressed look, Chen Cui smiled and said, "Don't worry, you won't lose anything."

After saying that, she asked Changping to drive the mule cart and she followed.

It was almost dark when we entered the village.

When they went to return the ox cart, Chen Meihua saw the mule cart at the door and couldn't help asking a few more questions about what they had seen and heard in the county.

Chen Cui had no intention of showing off. She simply said a few words and then said goodbye and went back.

After returning home, Changping unloaded the cart from the mule and drove the mule into the room where the cattle were originally raised. There happened to be some uneaten fodder in the room, so the mule would not starve.

Sheep can also be temporarily placed inside and eat grass together, and they can live in peace.

Only then did Chen Cui realize that she had spent most of the day at the livestock business and had not had time to go to the market. When she was at Zhou the butcher's house, she was in such a hurry to take the offal away that she even forgot to ask him to buy some meat.

So she just cooked a pot of vegetable soup, heated up some steamed buns, and the family had a simple dinner.

The two puppies were placed in the three brothers' room. Perhaps because of the change of environment or perhaps because they were hungry, they kept whining and barking.

So they went about milking the goats to feed the puppies.

Fortunately, the sheep was very docile and did not even resist, allowing Changping to milk it clumsily.

The two puppies licked and drank half a bowl of goat's milk. After they were full, they tilted their heads and huddled together and fell asleep.

At this time, the three children finally got over their excitement and began to yawn.

After settling the children down to bed, Chen Cui finally had time to clean up the waste.

There was no one around, so she was cleaning up in the kitchen with the door closed.

The first thing to take out is naturally the ox gall.

She had previously judged based on the various signs displayed by the cow that it must have gallstones, commonly known as bezoar.

She took out the cow gall separately and put it in a basin, then cut it carefully with scissors.

Sure enough, in the middle of the yellow-green bile, there was a hard, stone-like object.

Chen Cui couldn't help but be happy, it seems this is the bezoar!

She took out the large piece of bezoar and searched carefully in the gallbladder, and found several pieces of bezoar as big as fingernails.

No wonder the cow refused to eat grass and kept crying at night. With so many stones in its gallbladder, it must be in severe pain. How could it eat?

Chen Cui has read the relevant news. In modern times, the price of natural bezoar has been driven up to tens of thousands of yuan per gram, and it is very rare and there is no market for it.

She carefully collected the pieces of bezoar, wrapped them in cloth, and waited for a chance to go to the pharmacy to ask about the price. If the price was right, she would sell them.

Then, Chen Cui began to clean the internal organs.

She had washed pig intestines once before, and the smell was so unbearable that she didn't want to recall it.

Fortunately, cows are herbivores with a relatively simple diet. Moreover, this cow had not eaten much for a long time, so there was very little food in its stomach and intestines, so it was not difficult to clean and the smell was much less.

The children were not around, so Chen Cui used the well water in the space without any scruples. She used flour and salt to clean the internal organs over and over again until there was no odor.

After washing, soak the internal organs in a basin of water and cook them tomorrow morning. If they are still cold today, they can be left overnight without worrying about going bad.

So, the next morning, when the children were just awakened by the puppy's whimpering, the aroma of beef offal soup was already wafting from the kitchen.

Although it’s offal that’s being cooked, it’s still beef and it smells really good!

Chen Cui got up early in the morning and blanched them in water, then put in onions, ginger, star anise, salt and soy sauce, filled the pot with water all at once, and stuffed two large pieces of firewood under the bottom of the pot. She didn't need to watch the fire much, just let it simmer slowly over low heat.

When only half of the water in the pot is left, it is almost done.

In fact, it would be better if beef bones were stewed together. Unfortunately, I was only concerned with taking the internal organs yesterday and didn’t think about the bones at all.

Forget it. Now that we have our own mule cart, it is much more convenient to go to town or county. It will be the same whether I buy one next time.