Exile at the beginning: I rule the world by drawing cards

Chapter 12: Having food makes you feel at ease

Farmers get up early, and as soon as it gets dark, there are people carrying hoes and going to work in the fields.

Meng Shang of Qin Dynasty went to the countryside and followed the customs, and they got up just after Mao Shi.

I cooked porridge, brushed my teeth with a willow branch folded from the river bank, and wandered around in the yard at home.

The yard at home is quite big, and it would be nice to open it up and grow vegetables. Unfortunately, the wall is too short, and you can see what's going on inside the house from the outside without stepping on it.

But the matter of buying tiles and repairing the roof has not yet been settled, so the renovation of the yard can only be postponed.She had just bought oil and salt, and she still had 260 Wen left on her. By the end of the month, the riverbank would have to pay her wages. Although she only had half a month's wages, no matter how small a mosquito was, it was still meat. She would eventually make money by saving slowly.

After washing up, taking a few mouthfuls of porridge from the bowl, Ji came and called.

Qin Mengshang entered the room and took a look at the person on the bed. He wanted Zhou Lingqi to feed the rabbit, but seeing that he was still asleep, he simply fed it himself.This rabbit is the only asset of the family. Now I am hoping that it will successfully add a litter of rabbits, but I can't go hungry.

The weather today is a bit sultry, with thick cumulus clouds blocking the morning glow, and it's gloomy, as if it's going to rain.

Seeing the weather, the river embankment also accelerated its progress, and before midnight all the workers arrived.

Li Zhang, who had been invisible for three days in the past, had been quite diligent these days and even went to the kitchen from time to time.

Mrs. Chen saw him from a distance, cursed secretly, and told Qin Mengshang to go to the kitchen to light the fire.

Mrs. Ji glanced outside and sighed secretly: "Ms. Xu only made trouble once last month. She forgot about the pain so quickly. She just hangs around here all day long. If Mrs. Xu knows about it, she will make trouble again!"

Mrs. Xu is Li Zhang's daughter-in-law. She has a fierce temper and is not easy to mess with. She also has a father who is a head catcher. Few people in the village dare to quarrel with her.

Qin Mengshang added a handful of firewood to the stove and asked curiously, "Does Mrs. Xu come here often to make trouble?"

"Isn't that true?" Mrs. Ji took a ladle of water and poured it into the pot. "Ms. Xu relies on her father to work in front of the county magistrate. She is very powerful on weekdays! But her man is dishonest, like Zhang."

Speaking of this, she lowered her voice: "Some people in the village saw him and Widow Zhang walking out of the forest on the mountain several times. Once they were caught by Mrs. Xu, who dragged Widow Zhang and had a fight. In the end, they Li Zheng asked someone to pull them apart."

Qin Mengshang raised her eyebrows. Could it be that the couple she met on the mountain were Li Zhang and Widow Zhang?
If you think about it carefully, the sound does sound a bit similar.

Mrs. Ji continued: "I think he really has something on his mind. You have to be more careful. Mr. Xu has always been protective of his shortcomings. If he really gets into trouble, even the three cows won't be able to pull him back!"

This is an exaggeration, but it is true.

The women in the village had loud voices and sometimes quarreled. Qin Mengshang could hear a few words while sitting at home. They would quarrel with each other by pulling their arms and hair, and would quarrel for miles without stopping.

Come to think of it, it's quite impressive.

By noon, the food was ready, and it was still the same, with a pot of dried radish and fried meat, and the vegetarian vegetables were replaced by stir-fried water spinach.Water spinach is actually water spinach in later generations, and it tastes better than bitter spinach.

Maybe I ate rabbit meat last night, so the food in the kitchen is a bit light now.

Qin Mengshang took a few bites casually, then put down his chopsticks, thinking about buying some food to go home, and asked old lady Chen if the ox cart from Hedi could enter the city in the afternoon.

Old Mrs. Chen seemed to be smelling something and said suspiciously: "What are you doing in the city? Are you rich?"

Qin Mengshang didn't hide it from her either. When the time comes to return the food to the Chen family, she will always know.Old Mrs. Chen thought of the four and a half kilograms of corn and two radishes she had borrowed earlier. She rolled her eyes and said, "The bullock cart goes every morning. If you are short of food, I have it at home."

It is true that bullock carts only come into town in the morning.Qin Mengshang wanted to go back to town to buy some other things, but after hearing what she said, he had no choice but to give up.After finishing working on the river embankment, he followed Mrs. Chen back to Chen's house.

Several men in the Chen family are working outside, while only a few women and children are at home.

Mr. Chen's wife was sitting on the threshold mending clothes. She was a little surprised when her mother-in-law came back with Qin Mengshang.When the Zhou family came to borrow food that day, the mother-in-law looked reluctant. How could they be walking together so harmoniously today?
Qin Mengshang greeted her with a smile, turned around, and bumped into a small soft thing, which was the child last time.

The little girl said sharply: "You are the beautiful exiled sister!"

"What are you kidding about?" Old Mrs. Chen pulled the kid away and said, "Go find your mother!"

The little girl was not afraid even after being yelled at. She grabbed her clothes and said, "My mother is not at home." Then she ran to the yard to chase the chicken.

Mrs. Chen muttered something to Fang and led Qin Mengshang into the house.

The Chen family's food is locked in the cabinet, and the key naturally belongs to Mrs. Chen.Thinking that he had borrowed five kilograms of corn last time, Qin Mengshang bought ten kilograms and gave him thirty cash, and the extra ten cash would be repaid.

The old lady was originally worried that Qin Mengshang would not be able to pay back the food, so she specifically asked her to bring her back just to take the opportunity to remind her, but she did not want her to take such initiative.

Holding the extra ten copper coins in my hand, I felt a little awkward.When scooping out the grain, he weighed it frequently and even gave her an extra half a bowl.

Qin Mengshang weighed the bag and asked if there was any rice.She is from the south and is still used to eating white rice.

When Mrs. Chen heard this, her eyes almost popped out of her head: "Is the corn poisonous or something? You only have a few coins in your pocket, and you have to eat it all in one go? What if something happens to your family? If you don’t have money, you will cry!”

Qin Mengshang: "."

There is some truth in what he said. Only when the family has food and money can they feel at ease.

In the end, she left Chen's house carrying only ten kilograms of corn.

Mrs. Fang, who had just returned from washing her clothes, saw Qin Mengshang leaving with a bag of grain as soon as she arrived at the door. She immediately rushed into the house, grabbed her little daughter who was chasing the chicken and asked, "Did the Zhou family just come to borrow grain again?"

The little girl was just over three years old and was ignorant. She squatted on the ground and played with the chicken without raising her head: "Grandma gave it to me."

Mrs. Fang almost fainted with anger. The person who borrowed the food last time hadn't returned it yet, and now he's borrowing it again!Is her house really used as a granary?I don’t know what method he used to coax the old lady into spinning around, so he just lent the food out!

Just as Fang was about to have a seizure, Mrs. Chen came out of the house.

"What are you doing here? After washing the clothes, go and dry them. It's going to rain today. You can cut the baskets of pigweed and come back later to save the kids a trip."

Fang's breath was stuck in her throat. She glanced at her sister-in-law who was gloating about her misfortune, and became even more depressed.

The eldest sister-in-law and the second sister-in-law could sit at home, but she had to go out to cut pig grass. Just because she had not given birth to a son, the old lady left all the work at home to her.On weekdays, whatever food they have is given to the grandchildren in the second bedroom of the first house first, while her two daughters can only stand aside.

Now that the food in the fields has not yet arrived, Qin Mengshang took another bag away. If there is no harvest this year and there is a famine, it is estimated that her two daughters will be the first to be sold.
(End of this chapter)