Chapter 5 Sanchazi Town

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Lantern Festival.

"Crackle, crackle..."

There were bursts of loud noises from the fire, and the rice inside exploded into white rice flowers.

Er Gouzi squatted beside the fire and quickly pulled out the rice flowers from the ashes with a stick.

He blew and stuffed them into his mouth.

"Crunch, crunch..."

It smells so good!

After half a month of hard work, he built a small hut more than five feet wide with firewood and straw, which can shelter from wind and rain.

He has planted half an acre of rice seedlings in this snowy land.

Watering with a gourd every day, it will be mature and harvested in ten days. The first few batches planted have already yielded a bumper harvest.

Now I can finally be generous and have a full meal.

While roasting and eating, I have eaten more than 60 rice ears unknowingly.

After eating, I drank some water, and the rice flowers swelled in my stomach. This time I was finally full.

However, I regretted it a little after eating, feeling that it was too extravagant.

In the future, he must not be so wasteful and eat dry rice every meal. Even if he is a landlord, he dare not waste food like this.

My uncle's family has dozens of acres of land. Except for my cousin who has to eat dry rice every meal for martial arts practice, other people usually eat porridge with a few pickled vegetables.

He is not even a tenant at present, how can he eat dry rice every meal!

In the future, he should eat more wild vegetables to cheat his stomach.

The stomach should not be too delicate, just eat bran and vegetables to fill it.

After eating and drinking, he walked out of the thatched house and moved his hands and feet.

After more than ten days of recuperation, all his injuries have healed, and he feels that he has grown a little taller and stronger.

Is it that he is born to deserve a beating, and the more he is beaten, the taller he grows?

Shaking his head, it shouldn't be, he has been beaten a lot in these years.

When my uncle is out drinking, my aunt beats Er Gouzi to vent her anger.

My cousin was bullied in the martial arts hall, and he went home to beat Er Gouzi to regain his confidence.

When the cousin cried, the elder cousin used various fancy ways to beat Er Gouzi for him to see, which could make the cousin laugh happily...

He was the happy pill of the uncle's family, and made an indelible contribution to the lively atmosphere and ease family conflicts.

But he didn't grow taller even though he was beaten so many times every day.

He guessed that it was probably because he ate well and slept well now.

He stretched his waist in the snow and walked towards the rice seedlings.

Due to the different time of reclamation and planting, some of them were golden and mature, and some had not yet headed.

On the rice stubble that was just harvested yesterday, fresh seedlings have grown today.

He found that after watering with gourd water, the seedlings in the rice stubble can also grow well, and there is no need to sow in the future.

He took out the gourd and watered the rice seedlings.

Next to the rice field, there is also a bunch of green wild vegetables.

The leaves of these wild vegetables are green on the front and white on the back, with fine hairs.

The rhizomes are as big as fingers, and they are crisp and sweet when eaten raw, delicious and filling.

Because the rhizome looks a bit like a chicken leg, everyone calls this wild vegetable "Little Chicken Leg".

He accidentally dug up a plant when he was planting rice some time ago. He didn't want to eat it at the time, so he continued to plant it in the field and watered it every day.

After these days of growth, it has bloomed and borne seeds. The seeds fell to the ground and sprouted again, growing a large area of ​​seedlings.

After watering, he returned to the thatched house and carried out a straw sack, which was filled with half a bag of rice.

Today is the Lantern Festival. After today, everyone will plan for spring farming.

He wants to sell these grains and then go to Huang Laocai to rent a piece of land.

Time waits for no one. If it's a little later, all of them will be rented out.

He can't stay on this mountain for long. Yesterday, he saw two people picking up firewood at the foot of the opposite mountain, which made him nervous for a long time.

Fortunately, the place he chose is high, the ice and snow are slippery, and there are rocks everywhere. There are not many trees, so the woodcutters didn't come.

If he was discovered, he had planted so much rice on the stone mountain in the ice and snow, and it was growing very well.

He would definitely not have a good harvest at that time, and no one would let him go.

Moreover, these mountains seem to be barren mountains, but in fact they are all owned by someone, and not just anyone can occupy them.

The road down the mountain was covered with thick ice and snow, and he fell several times, with a bruised face. Fortunately, the grain in the sack did not spill out.

He did not return to Shexi Village, but took a small road around the village and walked to Sanchazi Town.

Sanchazi Town is 20 miles away from Shexi Village, and it is the farthest place Ergouzi has been to since he was a child.

In Ergouzi's impression, Sanchazi Town is very large and prosperous, with many blue brick and blue tile houses, dozens of shops, and many people in the market, which is very lively.

Ergouzi carried the sack and walked for half a day, and one of his straw shoes was worn out, and finally arrived at Sanchazi Town.

Carrying the sack, he looked around on the street. The town was very prosperous, with people coming and going, which made him a little nervous and curious.

There was a tailor shop on the side of the road, with many kinds of cloth.

People coming in and out were all well-dressed and wearing well-fitting clothes and pants.

Er Gouzi looked down at his half-broken pants, feeling a little ashamed.

They were torn a lot when he was beaten last time, and they were scratched by branches and stones in the mountains during this period, and they had long been rotten into pieces of cloth.

He could only lower his head and walk quickly past the tailor shop with inferiority.

Past the tailor shop, there was a pork shop in front.

There were pieces of cut pork on the chopping board, and the fat on them was at least two or three fingers thick, and it was so fat that it was greasy.

"Selling buns, big and round meat buns!"

"Meat buns that ooze oil when you bite them!"

"Selling candied haws!"

"Selling pancakes..."

Er Gouzi walked and looked, and the various hawking sounds along the street always attracted his attention.

Especially the one selling meat buns, he could smell the tempting fragrance from a long distance.

Before he was five years old, he had eaten meat buns and candied haws once or twice.

The taste was so fragrant and sweet, I will never forget it!

Er Gouzi swallowed several times and walked into the market with firm steps.

The market was already crowded with nearby villagers, each occupying a position and selling some sundries.

The goods sold included jars and cans, bamboo baskets, eggs, straw shoes, old clothes, straw mats, children, women...

Er Gouzi carried a sack and asked about the market in the market.

The price of grain varies throughout the year. It is the cheapest during the autumn harvest and starts to rise from the Chinese New Year.

When seeds are needed for spring ploughing, grain prices often rise sharply.

Some people who are too hungry or sick and eat all the seeds can only borrow money and buy seeds at high prices.

So selling rice now can get a good price.

Er Gouzi found a small open space and squeezed in, threw the sack on the ground, untied the sack to reveal the golden rice inside, and immediately attracted countless eyes from the surroundings.

Most people's families don't have much surplus food after the Chinese New Year, and they have to eat bran and vegetables until the autumn harvest to have new food.

"Young man, how much do you sell this rice?"

"These rice are not bad, they can be used as seeds!"

"25 Wen per liter!"

A large group of strange old men surrounded the stall and commented on it. Er Gouzi had never experienced such a big scene before, and was a little nervous. He answered with a red face.

Ordinary people can't afford a beam scale, and it's not so convenient to use. Most transactions are measured in liters and buckets.

The weight of a liter of rice is about 16 taels. Rice is lighter, and there are some differences between different types, and the size of the liter is also different.

Several old men picked up the rice to check. The grains were full and of excellent quality, and there was not a single empty grain. Someone immediately planned to buy some to use as seeds.

Er Gouzi didn't have a container like a "liter", but fortunately this thing was very common, so he borrowed one at the market.

This thing is actually very simple to make. Just saw off the bamboo tube and measure the capacity.

Grain is a hard currency and is easy to sell, and his rice is of particularly good quality.

Er Gouzi counted the money while filling the grain liter by liter, and soon sold out a large sack of rice.

There were already many copper coins in his jacket, which felt heavy and jingled when he walked.

He kept every penny in his mind, and the total should be 775 coins.

This money is a huge sum of money no matter who it is in the hands of.

Er Gouzi walked out of the market with money in his pocket. When he passed by the meat bun shop again, he was attracted by the tempting aroma.

He stood on the street, pursed his lips, and held the copper coins in his jacket tightly with his fingers. He hesitated and struggled for a long time.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, turned around and left, but walked to the pork jerky next door.

He asked about the price. Fat and pork belly cost 80 coins per catty, lean meat cost 60 coins, and ribs only cost 40 coins per catty.

Er Gouzi made up his mind and spent 80 coins to buy a catty of fat.

The black-hearted butcher bullied him because he was a child and put a piece of lean meat that was not easy to sell in it.

Then he bought an old hoe, which cost 300 coins.

A hatchet, 250 coins.

These iron tools and other things are very expensive, but they must be bought if they want to farm in the future.

Besides farming, it also serves as a self-defense tool. If he encounters a robber on the road, he can scare him with a hatchet.

Apart from the things he had to buy, he didn't buy anything, even though his pants were so torn that they couldn't cover his flesh.

Of the 775 coins he just got, only 145 coins were left.

However, he gritted his teeth and bought a small piece of black bitter salt.

People can live without meat for ten years, but not without salt.

The salt, which was not even as big as an egg, was black and cost him 100 coins.

He only had 45 coins left.

When he walked out of Sanchazi Town, Er Gouzi had a hatchet on his waist, a hoe on his shoulder, and a string of pork in his hand.