The road to wealth of a peasant widow

There are suddenly several more living creatures in the house, and it seems that there are more things to do.

It’s okay for two puppies. They can be fed with goat milk for now. They can eat leftovers when they grow up.

Mules and sheep both need to eat grass, and warm water should be added to their basins regularly.

The remaining grass will only be enough for them to eat for a month or so at most. When the weather gets warmer and the grass sprouts, we will start cutting fresh grass for them.

Chen Cui left all these tasks to the children, while she herself was planning to transform the mule cart.

She first wanted to surround the car with a quilt, but later realized that this was not appropriate, so she changed to oilcloth.

Oilcloth is relatively light and waterproof. Although its thermal insulation effect is not as good as that of a quilt, it is also very windproof and much warmer than being open on all sides. It is also easy to disassemble and can be used all year round.

Chen Cui is a person of action. Once she makes up her mind, she will take action.

She asked Changping to drive the mule cart, and the two of them went to the town to buy oilcloth and get familiar with the town's environment.

This time, Changping was obviously more skilled in driving the car than yesterday, and he was also much more relaxed.

Chen Cui had been to the county town many times, but this was her first time in the town. Chen had been here before with Liu Eryong, but that was the year before last.

There are only two streets in the town, north and south, and all businesses are concentrated on these two streets. There are daily shops, but they are small in scale and the selection of goods is relatively limited.

Grocery stores are bound to have oilcloth. Chen Cui estimated the approximate size and bought some extra, planning to make a raincoat for the coachman to cover himself with.

In fact, she had a straw raincoat at home, but it was too big and took up too much space, making it inconvenient to carry on the carriage.

I bought some salt and other seasonings at the grocery store. The quality of the salt was worse and contained more impurities than the salt sold in the county town shops, but the price was the same.

Chen Cui didn't know whether it was the people from the salt administration who were playing tricks and made the food look like this when it was delivered, or whether the boss himself had secretly mixed something into it.

Anyway, she didn't dare to buy more. She only bought half a pound, which was enough for a while. She would buy more next time when she goes to the county town or the provincial capital.

By the way, I bought some jasmine tea to cook goat milk. The goat milk had a very strong smell. Not to mention the children, even Chen Cui herself couldn't drink it. Only the two dogs didn't mind and could drink half a bowl of it.

She heard that goat milk could be made without odor if boiled with jasmine tea, so she decided to go back and try it.

A lot of oil was used up in frying food during the Chinese New Year, so the mother and son went to the butcher in town to buy a few pounds of fat to make lard, and also bought some meat.

Perhaps because the food they ate in the past was too lacking in oil and fat, the children were particularly craving for meat.

Although they didn't say they wanted to eat, they would eat with great relish as long as there was meat in the meal.

Now that the economy is relatively well-off, Chen Cui will naturally try her best to meet the daily needs of her children.

After buying things, they asked someone about the location of the school and wanted to ask about the start time and registration for this year.

The school in the town is called Mingde School. It was originally funded by several wealthy families in the town. At the beginning, it was just to provide a place for their children to study.

Later, some children from wealthy farmers' families in the surrounding area were admitted to study. In the first few years, there were a few students, and later I heard that there were even scholars.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what has happened in recent years, but no one has passed the exam for several years. There are not as many students as before, and only one of the two teachers is left.

In fact, Chen Cui had doubts about this school at first. She thought about sending her children to study in the county, or even moving her family to the county town so that it would be convenient for buying groceries and shopping.

But then she thought about it carefully and decided not to do so for the time being.

Nowadays, people are looked down upon when they leave their hometown. Even if their family is not well received in the village, at least the whole village is made up of people with the surname Liu. They share the same roots and ancestors. Even if there are conflicts, they are only internal family affairs. As long as the village is in order, nothing excessive will happen.

But if she moved to the county town, she wouldn't be able to live in a good area with the little money she had.

In the eyes of outsiders, their family of orphans and widows are the kind of outsiders who are easy to bully. If any trouble arises, she is afraid that she will not have the ability to solve it.

Before you have sufficient strength, you'd better stay in the village!

When her wealth accumulation reaches a certain level, she will then find a way to escape from this environment. By then, even if something happens, she can still use her "money power" to solve it.

It can only be said that money is a person's courage. The more than 300 taels of silver in her hand are not enough for her to have the confidence to leave the village. She can only let her child study in the township school first.

Changping drove the mule cart to the school gate. Chen Cui jumped off the cart and explained her purpose to the old man guarding the gate.

The old man at the door looked up at her and saw Changping beside her. "It's still early. School starts on the 18th of the first lunar month. The teacher is not here now. If you want to register your child, come back on the 18th."

Chen Cui felt a little disappointed, "Is that so..."

She originally wanted to meet the teacher in the school. She had heard some rumors about this gentleman before and wanted to see with her own eyes whether it was true.

"Then may I ask if Mr. Zhou is still the instructor? Is the tuition still the same as before, two and a half taels per year?"

Chen Cui remembered that this was the price when Changsheng was studying here.

"Mr. Zhou is gone, and now it's Mr. Chu. The tuition is now three taels of silver a year." said the old man.

"Why has everything changed?"

Chen Cui suddenly felt that her news was too late.

"The original Mr. Zhou was too old to teach anymore, so he retired. The new Mr. Chu who came last fall was very strict with the students. Now the school has a good atmosphere. Although the tuition fee has increased, from the beginning of the year to now, there have been several people who have come to inquire about enrolling their children!"

The old man said with a little pride that the school had many students and was very popular, and he was proud of it.

Chen Cui nodded. It turned out that Chen had heard Changsheng complain at home, saying that the teacher in their school was old, blind and deaf and didn't care about anything. The school was a mess and the atmosphere was very bad. She said that her failure in the exam had a lot to do with this.

She once thought that it was an excuse Changsheng made up to justify his failure in the exam, but now it seems that it is very likely that Mr. Zhou really was as he said.

Perhaps it was because the original teacher was inactive that the school spent a high price to hire Mr. Chu again, and the tuition fee also increased?

Chen Cui guessed secretly.

In fact, it doesn’t matter whether the price increases or not. As long as the school atmosphere is good, the teachers are responsible, and the children can learn something, she will be willing to spend a little more money.

Then, Chen Cui asked the old man some things to pay attention to when going to school before taking Changping away.

It is very convenient to have a mule cart. It only takes more than 20 minutes to get home, which is more than ten miles away from the town. If it were a bullock cart, it would take at least an hour.