Poor family mother and son

Chapter 12 Understanding
I didn't expect such a scene to appear in public for the first time in the village.After so much effort, I went to Li Village to buy things.

When leaving the village, Chu Qing complained like this in her heart.In this strange world, besides teaching Xiaobao to speak, Chu Qing basically followed the principle of speaking less and making mistakes in front of others.

What happened just now made Chu Qing feel a little unhappy.Anyone who is pointed at the nose and scolded early in the morning will not be happy.

Chu Qing was furious, so her pace was very fast, and she didn't notice that there was a person trotting along behind her.They have all entered Li Village, and the woman is still following.Xiao Bao patted Chu Qing's shoulder, then pointed back.Only then did Chu Qing see the woman who was already trotting and staggering.

Chu Qing stopped and waited for her to reach her side, and asked, "Are you looking for me?"

"Huh~, yes." The woman replied panting.

"You speak slowly." Chu Qing kindly said.

"Hee hee, it's nothing. I, I just want to talk to you and get to know you." The woman said with a smile.

She looked a little thin, but she had a round face, because just now Xiao ran was flushed, like a small apple, "My man is Wu Baiqiang, just call me Baiqiang's family."

"Then what's your name?" Chu Qing asked after seeing her close her eyes.

"My maiden name is Zhang, and my name is Erni." Poor and unworthy of a name.

"I'm going to the grocery store to buy something, come together?" Chu Qing invited.

"Okay, okay." The two chatted and walked to the grocery store.With Zhang Erni leading the way, Chu Qing saved the trouble of inquiring.

"Sister-in-law Yuan, no matter what others say, I thank you. My family has eaten enough for the past two days, and I brought back a bowl yesterday. It has both rice and vegetables, and it tastes better than mine." Zhang Erni's tone was very sincere.

"My Qiusheng is 14 years old, and he is considered young in the economics class. He came back yesterday and told me that she used to be unable to compete with other students, and she was too embarrassed to compete with the Mongolian class. She was always hungry, but now she is full. He You want to eat half of it every day, and bring the other half back to me.”

In fact, according to ancient weighing calculations, one catty is 6 grams, and 27 catties of rice is calculated based on 133 meals per month. Each meal is 333 grams of rice, and the cooked rice is more than 3 grams, which is about the size of 3 fists. In ancient times, there was little oil and water, and a half-grown child could eat [-] fist-sized meals, which is not too much. It may not be completely full, but it will definitely not be hungry.

Zhang Erni's child said that he would save half of it for his mother to eat, which shows his filial piety.

"Then can he still eat enough?" Chu Qing asked.

"Oh, of course I don't have enough to eat. So I told him not to take it home, but he didn't listen. He said that going to school doesn't take much energy, and he doesn't need to eat too much." Zhang Erni lowered her head, "The child loves me, and is afraid that I will be hungry. As you know, in every family, women drink water and men drink thick food, and only children who can go to school have a dry meal."

Chu Qing frowned when she heard this, because she saw that people here eat two meals a day, if the two meals are thin, how hungry this person will be. "Is everyone like this? How can they be so poor? I think there is a lot of land here, so it shouldn't be so." Chu Qing couldn't help asking.

"It didn't happen. The past few years were fine, and every family could have a surplus of food," Zhang Erni said, "When the new emperor took the throne, taking advantage of the civil strife, the East Lun Kingdom and the Vos Kingdom joined forces to attack us. Dong Lun is close to us, the imperial court conscripts soldiers every year, and the tax payment is also increased every year, so we will be poor."

Alas, the war has made life difficult for the people.

"I saw that many women have gone to the fields?" Chu Qing asked.

"That's right. Our family is Qiusheng's father who went to serve as a soldier. Then I have to go to the fields with my older children." Zhang Erni replied.

"Then you go to the fields, isn't it also a labor force? Why don't you drink some thick food?" Even if you drink thick food, you still can't eat enough, it's better than thin food.Chu Qing was a little puzzled.

"For a family like ours, it takes the whole family to support a child's education, so Qiusheng's father, in order to prevent his brothers from complaining, went to the corvee every time, and the conscription is also the same." Zhang Erni's voice was bitter:

"I will give 2 taels of money for conscription. If I can come back alive, the family can be exempted from some corvee and taxes. If I can't come back, I will give you 5 taels of pension money."

Zhang Erni saw clearly that she was looking at her seriously when she was talking, and felt respected, so she said in more detail: "But his father is not at home, and his work falls on me on weekdays, and I can't do it either." After finishing so much work, the other rooms have to help share some. Before he left, his father told me to do as much as possible, and the other rooms gossip, and it will be fine until Qiu Sheng is successful."

Chu Qing was sad to hear that, because of these ancient women.Zhang Erni could clearly see the downcast look, and felt a little uneasy: "Look at me, what are you talking about, it's annoying you."

While talking, I went to the grocery store.

In fact, it is a warehouse in a farmyard. The windows are removed, and you can see the bottles, cans, needles, threads and brains placed inside.

It's not very well placed, it looks a little messy.There is no signboard, anyway, as long as the village knows that there is such a shop.

Someone came to say hello to Zhang Erni. When they heard that Chu Qing was the cook of the school, several women gathered around them. Unlike Wukeshu Village, these people in Li Village were very enthusiastic, because their children were full in the school. up.

Several children from Li Village are in Mengban.They are young, don't eat much, and the children are sensible. These two days, they have saved meals for the family after school.

Chu Qing's principle of equal distribution benefited Li Village's children the most, so everyone invited her to their home one after another.

Even the old wife of Village Chief Li, the proprietress of the grocery store, grabbed Chu Qing's hand and put it under her armpit, asking Chu Qing to go home with her.

These people also praised Xiaobao one after another, this one touched Xiaobao's head, and the other pinched Xiaobao's face.

Xiaobao's little face was quickly pinched and turned red.Chu Qing felt that the bunch of dull hairs on Xiaobao's head seemed to stand taller.

After politely rejecting everyone's kindness, Chu Qing walked back with Xiaobao on his back.

Xiaobao sat in the basket and sorted out the things he bought just now.Almost covered him.There is also a gift of cotton thread around the neck.

Zhang Erni followed them all the time, and the two of them chatted while walking, and Chu Qing learned more about these villages.

The three villages are close to each other and marry each other. Zhang Erni belongs to Zhang Village.

Among the three villages, Li Village is the poorest, and Zhang Village is the richest.

Zhang Cunfu is because the younger brother of the village chief has connections to do business in Donglun, and he will also do small business with the merchants in Donglun and the merchants in Voss.

Village head Zhang's younger brother raises funds in the village every time to buy seasonings, cooking utensils, etc., and sell them to Donglun. The money he makes is distributed to each family according to the proportion of each family's investment.

Basically, it's a costless business.If I make a lot of money, each family can also make a little money, so Zhang Village is the richest of the three villages.

Zhang Erni's family did not participate in this transaction because her younger brother refused to allow it.

"My brother said, our family can't get involved in this matter. The two countries are at war, and the imperial court has banned business with Donglun and Worth. They also sell iron products such as cooking utensils. I heard that there are some farm tools. It can be melted down to make weapons. Isn’t this the same as delivering weapons to the enemy, and if caught, they will be decapitated.”

"My brother also said, let me do the farming at home honestly, don't worry about my mother's family, he will find a way to support the family." Zhang Erni explained again:
"My family has only 3 children, me, my brother and my younger sister. My parents are not in good health, and my mother suffered a lot from giving birth to a younger sister. Now I can hardly get off the ground. I used to have an older sister, But he got sick when he was 8 years old. My brother was also weak since he was a child, and he got better when he was older."

"My younger sister is too young, about the same age as my family's Qiusheng, so it's not a big deal, but she's also at the age of marriage. My younger brother is already 26, and he hasn't married yet. I just want to support my mother's family, but I can't afford it. Without paying any money, I just want to do more work for my mother's family to share."

"But my brother has a good brain and knows how to settle accounts. He works part-time in a few shops in the city and specializes in checking accounts for people. Even if he helps people check accounts every few days, he can also earn some money."

Oh, it turned out to be a part-time cashier. It's a good job. You don't have to work, you have relatively free time, and your salary is more than that of a permanent worker.

"That's not bad." Chu Qing agreed.

"Yes, otherwise, with his small body, he would not be much better than me in doing the field work. Fortunately, my family has less land. The males are my father and him, and he will not be recruited in the army." Zhang Erni also laughed.

"By the way, my brother will start delivering food to your kitchen tomorrow." Zhang Erni suddenly remembered.

"Huh?" Chu Qing was puzzled.

"It's just that my younger brother took over the job of delivering vegetables, and he didn't need wages, just to help. Otherwise, this one will deliver vegetables to you every day, and the other one will ask you to deliver oil. My brother, he has collected all the things from every house, and he will pick them up and send them to you, and he can calculate the accounts and write receipts." Zhang Erni is a little proud, what can my brother do.

"Well, that's good." Chu Qing nodded.It was really troublesome for different people to deliver food this morning.

The two went back to the village.

(End of this chapter)