big sister headed home

Chapter 49

After busy wheat harvesting and tiring farming, Dou Hua has been struggling in the field for more than 20 days. After so many days, she has two profound feelings. "Tired! Hot!"

The skin on Dou Hua's face was tanned black and red. Some parts of her skin were peeling. She still took some sun protection measures. She wore a straw hat and bamboo hat every day to protect herself from the sun. It still couldn't stop the scorching heat of the June sun. Everywhere' the few little ones are not much better than her, and all of them have black and red faces in the sun' Dou Hua is very distressed.

It's not just her family' people in the whole village are in this kind of situation' it's like they've been painted with a layer of black paint 'few of them can keep their white and tender skin.

After finishing the work in the field, Dou Hua led a few children to rest at home for a few days, except for walking in the morning and afternoon when the sun was less sunny, "Going out to harvest grass and so on, basically staying at home" is just thinking Let the skin that has been exposed to the sun recover well. Although dark skin looks healthy, it still looks good with white spots.

Dou Hua still cares about her darker skin. Although she can’t turn white, she still wants to have lighter skin. Wheat complexion is also good, much better than dark skin. Currently, Dou Hua is turning towards wheat complexion. working hard.

Dou Hua's siblings are not all black. She and Dou Qing, the two older ones, followed her father's. The younger ones have a better complexion, just like their mothers, not so dark, but yellow, and after raising them, they can be whiter.

Dou Lin and Dou Hong were young and couldn't hold back in the house at all. When Dou Hua was not paying attention, they slipped out to play. Dou Qing is a restless person and always finds something to do at home. Dou Cui He was a patient man, so he sat on the kang in the house and embroidered with flowers.

Dou Hua was sitting on the kang, lazily leaning against the quilt, she could see the scenery outside through the window, her eyes were slightly squinted, she looked like she had just woken up, she knew that Dou Lin and the two younger ones had slipped out , but did not stop them, it is a child's nature to like to play, Dou Lin's two younger ones have taken a nap, the weather outside is not so hot, so it's okay to go to play.

"Sister, would you like to embroider with me? You see, the flowers look pretty." Dou Cui suggested while seeing Dou Hua lying there looking bored.

Dou Hua took a look at the embroidery. It looked simple, but it was difficult to embroider. It was all embroidered stitch by stitch. It was such a simple flower that she couldn't embroider it after sitting for a long time. The little embroidery needle shook her head resolutely, and said, "Tweety's dexterity, she can embroider well, but big sister can't do it, she can't get this."

"No one is born with dexterity. If you practice a few times and prick a few needle holes in your hand, you can learn it anyway." Dou Cui said.

"In a few days, the school in the village will be repaired. All the children in the village, boys and girls, can go to study. Tweety, go and read with Lin'er and the others. It's always good to know some words." Dou Hua changed the subject.

Dou Cui's embroidering hands paused for a moment, then raised her head and said, "Sister, I won't go, it's fine for my younger brother to go. In the past six months, my eldest brother has taught us a lot of characters, and I have memorized them. I can also write and recognize names. That’s pretty good, I won’t go to school.”

"Tweety, don't you want to go to the school, there are many children there, you can study together." Dou Hua said.

Dou Cui shook her head, "I think it's good to be at home. I can still help my eldest sister with work and embroider if I'm fine."

Dou Cui is quite satisfied with her current life. She can eat enough, has new clothes to wear, and guards her elder sister to embroider. But now that the eldest sister is guarding her, she thinks this is good.

"Well then, you can do whatever you like, the eldest sister will support you." Dou Hua said.

"I think my eldest sister cooks delicious food, I want to follow suit." Dou Cui thought for a while.

"Okay, if you want to learn, you can learn. I also cook randomly. I don't have any rules. For this cooking, I cook any dish more times. I put in the right amount of salt and seasoning. It's delicious." Dou Huadao, this is not the first person to say that her cooking is delicious. Dou Hua thinks that her cooking is average, but she still puts some oil in her cooking, unlike some families who don’t even put oil in and dry fry. Just put a little salt, and the dishes made like that will not taste good.

In order to go to the school to study, Dou Hua specially called a few younger ones together and talked about it. She originally wanted to let these younger ones go to study. Before Dou Qing and Dou Cui both expressed that they would not go to school. Dou Hong is also not interested in studying. She is too young to be accepted in the school. She is also at an age where she loves to play and is unrestrained. She pouted her mouth and expressed that she did not want to go to the school.

And Dou Lin is very interested in reading. He was originally a smart child. In less than half a year, Dou Lin not only memorized the few enlightenment books brought back by Dou Hua, but also could write the words on them. But children of the same age are rare.

Dou Lin showed great talent in reading, and his interest in reading has been increasing unabated. One of the big reasons is that after studying to be a scholar, the imperial court can exempt the family from taxes.

A few days ago, nearly half of the wheat harvested by their family had been taxed, and Dou Hua and the others were heartbroken. Half of the hard-earned grain had to be taxed. At this time, Dou Hua really Realizing that the taxation in ancient times was really too onerous, it is no wonder that the common people often cannot fill their stomachs.

Their tax payment system in the Great Zhou Dynasty was two taxes a year, once for wheat harvest and once for autumn harvest, and almost half of the output harvested in the field had to be handed over each time. There are quite a lot of small countries around the Zhou Dynasty, and they like to provoke when they have nothing to do. They rob the villages on the border of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and sometimes they will invade on a large scale. Therefore, the taxation of the people has always been high.

After paying the taxes that day, Dou Hua and her siblings looked at the evacuated house and felt empty and uncomfortable. At this moment, Dou Lin's childish voice sounded, "Sister, I'm going to study, and I must pass the scholar exam. At that time, our family will not have to pay taxes." The voice was childish, but the ambition was lofty.

From that day on, Xiao Doulin took the examination of being a scholar as his goal of studying, corrected his attitude towards reading, and worked hard to study.

At the end of the discussion, only Dou Lin from Dou Hua's family went to the school to study.

It is only a few days since Dou Lin entered the school to study. Dou Hua has made a lot of preparations in advance. The pen, ink, paper and inkstone necessary for reading are indispensable. There are several books at home. Dou Lin has read them all. Add some new books.

On this day, Dou Hua took her family into the county town and bought a lot of things for reading, including some pens, ink, paper and inkstone, a few books, and a small light bookcase for two The pen, ink, paper and inkstone can be opened separately, and the bookcase is made of bamboo strips, which is quite strong and not so heavy in the hand.

Another piece of blue fabric was pulled from the cloth shop, and Dou Hua planned to make new clothes for Dou Qing. Since he was studying, he had to dress cleanly and decently.

When passing by the Baohetang pharmacy, I ran into Xiao Wu who was sprinkling water at the door.

As soon as Xiao Wu saw Dou Hua, he greeted happily, "Miss Dou, I haven't seen you for a long time, are you here to sell herbs today?"

Dou Hua shook her head and said, "Brother Wu, today we are here to buy things for reading. My younger brother will go to school to study in a few days. There is no medicinal herbs. These days are busy with farming, wheat harvesting and farming, so I don't have time to go in." Digging herbs in the mountains."

Xiao Wu was a little disappointed, and said, "It turned out to be like this. I thought you were here to sell herbs. My master likes the herbs you dug the most. He always said that these herbs are of good quality and old enough. Master's herbs are almost the same. I've been talking about it for the past few days, waiting for you to sell herbs, let me keep an eye on you."

"Thank you, shopkeeper, for taking care of me. How about I dig herbs in a few days, and come here to sell them?" Dou Hua said with a smile. She has a good impression of this pharmacy, and the price given by the shopkeeper is also fair. The herbs she dug can always be sold. a good price.

"That's good, Ms. Dou, you must come. That's right, our shopkeeper said two days ago that there were a few herbs missing. I have a map of herbs. Take a look and write them down. If you encounter them, dig them up and give them to me." You have a good price." Xiao Wu said enthusiastically.

Dou Hua followed him to look at the atlases of those herbs, and remembered them in her heart, thinking that she should go to the mountains in a few days to dig some herbs and exchange them for some money. Money is not afraid of too much, and it is always good to save more money.

Leaving the pharmacy, Dou Hua and the others went to the grain and oil store and bought some rapeseed oil, coarse salt, seasonings and so on. This time they went to the city to buy all the things they bought, so they took the things they bought, and the family went out of the city. Get on the cart pulled by Xiao Huizi, Xiao Huizi trots all the way, sitting on it jolting, Xiao Huizi pulls the cart and runs in the direction of Dou’s Village without even rushing, which really makes Dou Hua It's very worry-free.

When approaching Dou's Village, I suddenly found a group of people around the road, pointing and discussing, and looking around, apart from some ordinary people watching the fun, there were actually a few government servants in official clothes, standing In the ditch on the side of the road, looking around something.

The common people gathered around were chattering, and when they were more than 20 meters away, Dou Hua captured some information from their words. It turned out that there was a murder case, and someone was killed in the ravine.

(End of this chapter)