Red apricots make spring

Chapter 102
Going around in Zhuangzi, Wenrou didn't know where to go to buy things at all, but Wu Tiancai knocked on the doors of several farmers, and exchanged some copper coins for rice, lard, eggs, tofu, chicken and bacon It's much cheaper than the ones sold in the market.

"Are these farm households all planting the same land? Why is it that some people are so poor, while others look rich?" Wen Rou was puzzled, just take the example just now, Wu Tiancai bought it at a family's house for only ten renminbi. A very fat chicken, she was watching at the time, there was a large flock in the yard of that family, and there was also a pigsty with two big fat pigs in it.

"The land is granted by the government, and every household is about the same." Wu Tiancai said with a light smile, "However, the things planted in the land don't pay much interest, only enough to pay taxes and barely fill their stomachs. Those who are richer usually hire I hired someone to help with farming, and I went to the city to do part-time labor, or I raised a beautiful girl and sold it to others as a concubine, or I had a lot of children in my family, and I sold two of them to a rich family as maidservants. If you are willing to sell your child, you can collect some money to buy some gifts, send your child to the city to learn a craft, and after a few years to become a teacher, you can take the money back to subsidize the family."

Speaking of this, Wu Tiancai paused, looked at the tenderness beside him, and stopped talking.

"Uncle, you can say whatever you want, you don't have to worry about it." Ruan was curious and wanted to hear him continue.

"That's not very nice, I'm afraid you're a girl..." Wu Tiancai was still hesitating.

"It doesn't matter, just tell me."

Wu Tiancai hesitated for a while, and then said with a sneer: "Poor families don't pay much attention, and some people can't make it through some days, and some of them let their wives go to rich families to be nurses."

It's nothing!It's normal, why did he hesitate to speak just now?Wen Rou was thinking about it, but Wu Tiancai continued: "There is still a pawn wife!"

"Dian wife?" Wen Gang also asked curiously: "What kind of code?"

"Many families in the village are so poor that they have no money to marry wives, and some people lose their property and marry wives but can't live on, so they will hire their wives to others. Three to five years is the code, and one to two years is the employment. The children born during the employment will belong to the Dianfu." Wu Tiancai said with a smile: "It's really not suitable to tell the girl's family, but it's because the poor family can't help it, so they come up with such a bad idea, as long as the family has two money If you can live, you won’t have to hire all your wives out.”

Gentle and speechless, Wen Gang was also speechless.

Gentle and speechless, I didn't expect that the ancients paid so much attention to the concept of chastity, and there was such a phenomenon of pawning and hiring wives.Wen Gang was speechless, but this kind of gossip was too shocking. Although he came from a poor family and was born and raised in the city, he had never seen anyone hire a wife.

Seeing that they didn't speak, Wu Tiancai felt a little embarrassed, and blamed himself for talking so fast that he even said such a thing. Don't scare the two children, so he had nothing to say: "My brother-in-law is a human being. To be honest, I can’t do this kind of thing of selling children and selling women’s wives, so I’m so poor. Speaking of it, my father-in-law used to be a small businessman, and he saved a lot of money to marry him. Daughter-in-law, although she comes from a small family and has a lot of dowries, she never thought that now she is so poor that all her belongings are wiped out, and it is difficult to even make ends meet.” As he spoke, he sighed repeatedly: “I drive a cart all year round and earn two The money is only enough to subsidize the family, and occasionally help them in emergency, but it can't help the poor! Fortunately, I met you two noble people..."

He couldn't go on talking, Wenrou felt a little sad when he heard it, and forced a smile to divert the conversation: "I have enough shopping, let's go back early."

Yang's hands and feet are quite neat. After Rourou handed her the things she bought, she wanted to help with the cooking, but she pushed her out of the kitchen, but she turned around and went in. Kill the chicken, wash the vegetables, and start cooking.

Rourou sat outside, watching Wu Tiancai distribute the tobacco leaves for Mei Youde to smoke. She had nothing to do for a while, she just lowered her head and played with the broken bowl in her hand, listening to them gossip about how the years were good and how life was sad.The two younger children were crawling around on the grandmother's kang bed with their buttocks bare, and their noses were all over the place. The older girl sometimes went into the kitchen to help, and sometimes came out to watch over the two children, preventing Watching them fall off the bed, she kept yelling softly at them not to be naughty, but she seemed a bit more stable as a sister.

When the rice was set out, I took a gentle look. There was a whole fat chicken stewed in a large casserole, which was shiny under the light.The wind chicken was shredded and steamed and sliced ​​bacon was piled up on the plate. The steamed tofu was covered with pickles, and the eggs were fried with shallots until they were yellow. Huddled in the corner of the table, looking at the color, you can only know that there is no drip of oil, just scald it with boiling water, add some salt and mix it.

"Hurry up, hurry up, you're all starving!" Mei Youde greeted with a smile as he knocked the cigarette pot on the ground twice.

Gentle and not polite to shirk, picked up the chopsticks and first picked up a chopsticks of salt mixed with purslane, it felt bland in the mouth after eating it, so I didn't even put much salt.She knew that salt was quite expensive in ancient times, and it seemed that this family was so poor that they couldn't even afford salt.

"No, don't eat this. You eat meat, eat meat!" Mei Youde said, and brought the bowl of purslane mixed with salt to himself, and urged Wu Tiancai and Wen Gang to move their chopsticks.

At this time, Mrs. Yang led the older girl to serve the rice. The newly steamed brown rice was not white enough and a bit dry and hard, but the steaming heat filled the whole room, making people feel warm in their hearts.

"Father, I want to eat!" The two young children stared at the delicious food on the table, drooling and pulling Mei Youde's sleeve left and right, but taught him to slap his butt hard , shouted: "The guest hasn't moved his chopsticks yet, go and ask your mother to lead you to the kitchen to eat."

The two children were beaten for a small matter, but it was a serious matter when they saw that they could not eat the food in their mouths. They immediately burst into tears, with tears and snot streaming down their noses.

"Let's eat together." Rourou hurriedly pulled Yang Shi who was about to pull away and walked away, and smiled at the youngest child: "Can you sit next to me?"

"Don't, children don't know the rules, so we can't let them mess around." Mei Youde hurriedly stopped them.

Gentle got up, insisted on pulling the child to sit next to her, and placed a child next to Wen Gang. If she didn't do this, she really couldn't eat the meal, because she knew that she was hungry, and the two children were even hungrier. Those two pairs of salivating eyes stared at her, how could she lift the chopsticks?

Mei Youde was still waiting to stop him, but Ruan Wen and Wen Gang insisted, so he had to give up and let his eldest daughter sit next to him, while his wife Yang was busy pouring chicken soup into the rice, picking up some overcooked vegetables in the bowl, and took a bite. I patiently fed it to my mother-in-law.

The two children went to the table and immediately stopped crying.They were not very proficient in holding chopsticks, and they didn't pick up the bacon after holding it for a long time.

When Mei Youde saw them starving, he wanted to yell and scold again, but he still persuaded with a gentle smile: "Lei Gong doesn't beat people who eat." , looking at people unawares, turned his face away, and secretly wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
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(End of this chapter)