perfumer

Everyone went back to the house. Wu Niang was yelled at by Bai Xin just now. She felt a little wronged, and looked at him with big eyes.

Mrs. Cao was so focused on the money that she didn't pay attention to why her son insisted on going back to the house. She kept asking, "How is it? How much did you sell? Is it more than selling firewood?"

Wu Niang originally wanted to show off, but she was afraid of saying the wrong thing, so she opened her mouth a little anxiously.

After the aunt called back, she didn't say a word, she kept looking at Bai Xin, with a vague meaning of looking forward to him.

Bai Xin glanced out along the crack of the door, then turned around and walked to Mother's side, "Of course it sells more than firewood."

"How much is that?" Mrs. Cao looked expectant, with a smile in the corner of her eyes.

"Sold fifty coins."

As soon as Wu Niang heard what the third brother said, she couldn't wait to add, "Mother, the pot sold for fifty yuan."

Hearing this, Mrs. Cao gasped, and asked in disbelief, "So much?" Then he muttered to himself, "Why are you selling so much? What's the use of that wet thing? Why are you selling so much?"

Bai Xin had explained the function of pine resin earlier, but Mrs. Cao didn't pay attention, so he said it again patiently, "Pine resin can be used as a fragrance, and it can also be used as medicine. Naturally, it is not cheap."

Cao Shi suddenly smiled and brows flew, wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, and he kept muttering, "That thing is so useful!" This sentence was repeated over and over again.

Obviously, not only Mrs. Cao didn't listen to Bai Xin's previous explanation, but the others didn't listen either. The aunt suddenly looked curious and asked, "Third brother, you said that can be used for incense, but the spices have fragrance. There is no pine resin, but only a woody smell, which is not very pleasant, can this also be fragrant?" Said, eyes full of expectation.

Bai Xin thought for a while and said, "After the pine resin is refined, it has a faint smell of wood oil. It is not fragrant when used alone, but it is suitable for use in combination with other spices."

The aunt was dizzy and didn't quite understand.

Cao interrupted the two of them, "Sanlang, where is the money?" She naturally had to take care of the family's money.

Bai Xin didn't care who gave the money to safekeeping at first, but the second uncle who sneaked just now reminded him that his mother is soft-hearted, and the Bai family loves to take advantage of it. Don't let them see that they are doing well one day, just because of their mother After making up his mind, with Niang's soft ears, he was coaxed to say a few words, fearing that he might not be able to find the southeast, north, south, and north.

"Mom, let me keep the money."

Mrs. Cao was taken aback for a moment, obviously she didn't expect her son to say that. For a while, everyone else in the room looked over and had different thoughts, but only Wu Niang, who was carefree, thought to herself, her third brother is a person of the National People's Congress. Fang, if he holds the money, he may not be able to secretly buy candy for himself in the future.

"Can you still put it on your body every day? Mother is afraid that you will lose it, so take it out and put it at home." Cao didn't think much about it, thinking that the child had just made money, and she was reluctant to hand it over all at once. As for dying of starvation, thanks to Saburo, You Qi knew that he could use turpentine to sell money in the future, so he was extra lenient in terms of money, "If you want to eat something, tell mother, and mother will sell it to you."

Cao continued to coax, she is really a woman with no big ambitions, she only plans to let Da Lang chop firewood and San Lang refine turpentine, fifty cash a day, enough for an old family to drink, but she doesn't want to go any further, maybe After two years, even the daughter's dowry and son's dowry money can be saved.

Wu Niang couldn't help being sour when she heard what her mother said.

Bai Xin simply opened up the words, "Mom, it's not that I don't want to give it to you, but I'm afraid that if I leave it at home, one day grandma and the others will come to ask you to borrow money, and you will lend the money out because of your soft heart."

"This..." Mrs. Cao couldn't deny that she would refuse. Fundamentally speaking, although she didn't have a good life in the Bai family, she took it for granted that being a daughter-in-law was like this, serving her parents-in-law, and being scolded occasionally. So I didn't feel that I hated the Bai family.

When the aunt saw that her mother was still like this, she couldn't help being angry, and suddenly interrupted with a sharp voice, "Mother, you still want to borrow money from them? Don't forget that when the elder brother was injured, they didn't give money to buy medicine. They watched the elder brother wait to die. .”

Da Lang is a man, and he is not good at this kind of topic. When he saw himself being mentioned, he subconsciously touched his nose.Dalang's daughter-in-law, Manniang, really hated the Bai family from the bottom of her heart. Her son was not treated well, and her man almost died, but as a daughter-in-law, she was not qualified to intervene, so she tightly pursed her lips, secretly hoping that the family would have some The powerful uncle came to be, at least after several confrontations, Saburo would not let this family suffer.

"It wasn't that I didn't have money at that time..." When Cao Shi said this, even she herself didn't believe it, and her voice gradually became quieter.

The aunt was very excited when faced with the problem of the Bai family, "I don't believe it, if you give Erlang less pocket money, he can die, and if he doesn't go to school, he can die?"

Seeing her words being so extreme, Mrs. Cao moved uncomfortably and opened her mouth to interrupt her, but the aunt said very quickly, "But brother, if you don't take the medicine, you will die..." Her eyes were red when she said this , but still stuck his neck and stared at his eyes, "And then the third aunt gave you earrings, and the eldest brother didn't see her take them out when he was lying on the bed. Didn't the third brother and Master Cheng make friends later?"

Cao's face gradually turned pale, her lips trembled, but she had no words to refute.

The aunt wiped away her tears with her backhand, rubbing her eyes until the corners of her eyes were red. She understood the third brother's worries completely, and because the separation of the family was facilitated by the third brother, and supported the livelihood of the family, she has now given it to him. The backbone, so he also persuaded: "Mother, let the third brother take care of the money."

Manniang took the opportunity to stab Dalang. Although Dalang had no complaints against his mother, because Sanlang almost saved his life, even her own son had gained weight recently because he was no longer hungry, and his heart was toward him, " Mother, the third brother has always been careful, so just listen to him."

The Cao family is cowardly, and has the character that ordinary ignorant women should have, that is, to marry and obey the husband, and to obey the son when the husband dies. If Da Lang said at the beginning that it was Da Lang who was in charge of the money, she promised to agree without asking. Some objected, because in her eyes, San Lang was still young. At this time, Cao's heart was blown when she saw everyone saying that, and gradually felt that it was natural for San Lang to take care of money.

"Okay, okay, leave the money with you, but you can't spend it like last time."

The others were relieved when they heard this, but Bai Xin didn't expect to convince his mother so easily. He looked at his mother, only to see that the other party was still wiping the corners of his eyes and smiling at him.

"Sanlang, let's get some more pine resin later, your elder brother went up the mountain to cut a lot, and he has already chopped into small pieces about one foot long." Mrs. Cao was a little heartless, and immediately put aside the topic just now Now, thinking of how much money turpentine can make, I was as happy as a sparrow and chattered non-stop, "Take it to the town and sell it again tomorrow, and I can earn another [-] yuan, or save it for a few more days and sell it together to save the trouble of going back and forth. "

In the evening, everyone had dinner, Cao’s steamed glutinous rice dumplings, and a pot of wild vegetable porridge. The chicken, duck and fish given by Master Cheng had already been eaten. After all, it’s not too cold now, these things are not easy to preserve, so they can be taken off The old chicken and duck racks were cooked by Mrs. Cao over and over again to make soup. Now it is almost the same as plain water, but everyone still enjoys drinking it. It seems that if you smash it a few more times, you can get oil Fishy.

After eating, Bai Xin got into the kitchen and took out the pine resin by steaming. This first step was not difficult, but it took a lot of effort. After a while, he took out half of the jar. Cao looked at the white thing, It's like looking at some rare treasure, and I can't put it down.

Although Bai Xin said that he could just stare at it, the aunt became very interested in refining turpentine and sat with him in the kitchen all the time, staring at the pot on the stove with piercing eyes.

The aunt sat on the ground and yawned, and Bai Xin couldn't help but yawned too, until the former saw that the latter was going to remove the steamer, and he was the only one who finished it, so he hurried over to help, fearing that he was not familiar with kitchen work and would burn himself , "Third brother, I'll serve it, you should be careful not to let the hotness start in vain."

After the cooling process, I saved another jar of turpentine. The aunt looked at it, and she also showed joy, and then secretly estimated, "It seems that I took less than yesterday, so let's save it for a few days and go to town."

As soon as the aunt finished speaking, she saw Bai Xin using a fire stick to pick up the ashes in the stove, and then put them into the pot to stir. She was startled, and hurried forward to stop him, "Brother, what are you doing?"

Bai Xin explained: "The pine resin is still cheap today, I plan to refine it again."

The aunt suddenly widened her eyes, "That's cheap?" Wu Niang thought that including chopping firewood, she could earn fifty coins a day. She, mother, sister-in-law, and Wu Niang, the four of them embroidered sachets on the soles of shoes, I'm afraid I won't be able to earn fifty coins a day.

The aunt withdrew her hand and looked at the dark soup in the pot curiously, "Then how do you make it like this?"

Bai Xin took out and sprinkled the ashes in again, "Boiling the ashes repeatedly will make the rosin more pure."

The aunt stood aside and didn't speak, the sleepy sleep had long since disappeared, and her eyes were fixed on the other party's movements.

Seeing that the gray water was almost done, he put the turpentine that had just cooled down, and it happened to be full just now.He lit a fire, and after a while, bubbles started to bubble up in the pot, and the pale yellow pine resin gradually softened, rising and falling, almost swallowed by the gray sewage, and when it boiled once or twice, Bai Xin scooped it up After entering the cold water, the gray water became thinner, with some inexplicable filth floating on it, and the turpentine suddenly became cold and solidified again.

Bai Xin poured out the sewage. The aunt looked at the turpentine and blinked her eyes. She didn't notice any changes from before. She asked uncertainly, "That's it, all right?"

"Of course not!" Bai Xin scooped up water in the pot again, then added ashes, followed the steps just now, and did it again, boiled it to a boil, then turned off the heat and scooped it into cold water to cool down.

It was late at night, the wind outside was like water, but the kitchen was warm and humid. The cheeks of the siblings were flushed, their foreheads were covered with sweat, and their clothes were a little wet. Mrs. Cao came here many times to urge them to go early Sleeping, but the two of them concentrated on the turpentine in the pot.Bai Xin turned it over and over again for about ten times. The light yellow turpentine was like paste, but now the color is like white jade, pure and lovely.