Farming and reading family

How can this bowl be enough for their whole family?

Song felt wronged and deliberately said loudly: "This bowl costs fifty cents. The Chen family is a black-hearted person who only makes money from disasters."

She said this on purpose, hoping that the villagers would stand on her family's side.

"Who sold it to you?" Chen Jie ran over with a serious look on his face.

Song glanced at Chen Jie and said, "It's your wife Gao."

Chen Jie slapped his thigh and said, "How could I sell this prodigal woman to you for only fifty cents?"

Song thought she had misheard.

"Thinking back, my second brother wanted to buy back the house, but he offered thirty-five taels of silver more than when he sold it to you. Even if one tael of silver is equivalent to nine hundred and seventy wen, that would be..." Chen Jie stretched out his fingers and began to calculate.

"Thirty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty cents." Zheng Xiaoshun looked at Chen Jie with disdain.

"Yes!" Chen Jie nodded. "This bowl is only fifty cents, you can all buy it..."

"Six hundred and seventy-nine bowls." Zheng Xiaoshun felt that Chen Jie was really not good at counting.

"Right!" Chen Jie didn't feel that he was despised by Zheng Xiaoshun. "Then how long can it last?"

Song was stunned when she heard this, and suddenly felt that it was a lot of silver. It would have been great if she had sold the house to Chen Ke before.

"I say." Zheng Xiaoshun didn't bother to pay attention to what Chen Fancai and his family were thinking. "You guys can just be happy with what you can buy now. Don't you think about what will happen if you starve to death and that money..."

He didn't finish, but everyone knew what he meant.

Chen Fancai kicked Song's leg and said, "You're the only one who talks too much." He then took the bowl of porridge and left.

There was laughter from behind.

Chen Fan took two sips and found it really delicious. Chen Kejia was really good at winning people's hearts. They probably couldn't bear to eat the meal themselves, but they made it and gave it to others for free.

This is very similar to Jiang. In order to please others, she always takes out the good things at home and gives them to others.

"Dad, give me a sip, give me a sip." Chen Baolai urged from the side.

Chen Fan took two sips and hesitated before handing it to his son.

Chen Baolai took the bowl, turned around and poured the liquid into his mouth, finishing it in no time.

"You..." Song was hungry and distressed.

Chen Fan only just realized his son's character, and it was hard to say anything: "Can't you just ask Lei to serve you in a big bowl?"

Mrs. Song watched her son licking the bowl and knew that he would not even have the chance to taste it.

"You know Lei's temper. It's good enough that she can serve him a good bowl." Song said helplessly.

Chen Baolai quickly licked the bowl clean: "In the final analysis, it's just that my mother is incompetent."

Song did not respond.

"Forget it, the rain is about to stop. When it stops, I'll go to the mountains to see if I can pick up something." Chen Fan looked outside.

He also had ten taels of silver sewn into his clothes, which he cut into long thin strips and wore close to his body, but he was reluctant to take it out.

In this situation, the family probably has nothing left, and they have to go to their daughter in the city for help, but they won't be able to do that without some money.

Seeing that Chen Fancai and his family had stopped struggling, Zheng Xiaoshun gently kicked Chen Jie and whispered, "Are you sure your trap can catch wild boars?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Chen Jie said unhappily.

His second brother's family took out so much meat at once. Everyone else was just busy eating and didn't react much, but Zheng Xiaoshun was a smart guy. He kept pestering Chen Jie with questions since breakfast.

Chen Jie couldn't say that his second brother had bought and stockpiled them in advance, so he said that they were set in a trap in his family.

"The village has been hit by a disaster. If we can catch more prey, we can survive for a while longer." Zheng Xiaoshun said seriously, "If anyone doesn't remember your family's kindness, I will punish him."

Chen Jie had no doubt about this. Zheng Xiaoshun was grateful and vindictive. Few villagers were on good terms with him, but they could not play tricks in front of him unless they could outsmart him.

In the morning, Chen Qing took a few people to cut some bamboo, then came back to saw it into pieces and made some bamboo tubes and bamboo bowls.

No one cares about the rough workmanship now, as long as there is something useful.

When Chen Jie went back to help with cooking at noon, he told his wife what Zheng Xiaoshun had discussed with him and asked his wife to go and say hello to his sister-in-law.

"I won't go." Lei was angry. "That was my second sister-in-law's idea. You told others without discussing it with her."

"I didn't tell you the solution. You know Zheng Xiaoshun is a cunning man. I can't hide it from him." Chen Jie knew that what he was doing was a bit unkind.

"If you want to say it, go ahead and say it yourself."

"If I could go, I would go by myself." Chen Jie spread his hands.

Lei glared at Chen Jie and said, "You have no control over your mouth." She muttered and went to find her second sister-in-law.

Gao E roughly understood what was going on after listening to what Lei said.

"Zheng Xiaoshun isn't very popular in the village, but he's a smart guy. With Third Brother's brain, he's definitely not going to get around him." Mrs. Lei pleaded for her husband awkwardly.

"It's okay." Gao E didn't care.

The current situation requires stabilizing the villagers in order to keep his family's belongings, and there must be a source for so much pork at home.

"We can let the villagers know about the trap, and then they'll have to work together to get the wild boar back," Gao E suggested. "As for the method, he can figure it out himself."

"Yeah." Lei agreed immediately.

It is normal for animals to like salt, but not everyone is willing to use salt as bait.

Catching wild boars was just a stopgap measure for Gao E, and she didn't really want to develop it into an industry.

Farmers usually have two meals a day. In the afternoon, after eating, the villagers start to divide into groups.

There are four caves next to the old village. The largest one can accommodate the entire village, but it is not a problem for men and women to live together.

So Zheng Fengan separated the people, first by gender, and then the old and weak lived inside, and the young lived outside, and there were also arrangements for night guards.

After the rain stopped, the men went into the mountains to collect things and hunt, while the women picked acorns and bamboo shoots nearby.

There are few wild vegetables at this time of year, but fortunately there are water chestnuts and water celery in the stream on the other side of the bamboo forest. After a while when the weather gets cooler, there will be fresh and tender round-leaf vegetables.

But these are usually used to feed poultry, so it’s okay to eat them occasionally.

In the evening, Chen Ke returned to the cave and told Gao E about the situation among the villagers.

He didn't know what was going on, but now whenever he had something to say, he would talk to Gao E. It seemed that talking to her made things simpler.

"Do you think I'm useless?" Chen Ke said at last in a dull voice.

Gao E was wondering if there would be any unexpected consequences, and was a little surprised to hear Chen Ke say this: "Why do you say that suddenly?"

"It's just..." Chen Ke lowered his head. "My eldest brother leads the villagers to do things, and my third brother can arrange the villagers properly. I can't do anything."

Gao E wondered if Chen Ke was doubting himself?

wrong!

He had been doubting himself since he didn't want to take the imperial examination, but at that time he thought that as long as he didn't continue the imperial examination, he could change the misery of his previous life.

Now that I realize I can’t do anything else except scientific research, I feel even more humble.