Chapter 10: Going to the Market
Old Zhou decided to let his daughter ask Mr. Zhuang to be her teacher, so of course he had to prepare well. So the next day, even the eldest daughter did not go out to work.
Old Zhoutou directly asked him to borrow a cart from the village chief and move two bags of grain out of the warehouse.
The whole family stood at their respective doorways and watched. Old Zhou seemed to be blind to the anxiety in his daughters-in-law's eyes. He instructed the eldest and third daughters to bundle up the grain, and then told Zhou Erlang, "Go to the market, first exchange the grain for money, buy three days of medicine for your mother, and then buy a piece of meat, pork belly, and it would be even better if you can buy bacon."
Old Zhou thought for a moment and said, "See if anyone in the market sells good cotton cloth. If there is, buy some and make a set of clothes for Mr. Zhuang. Oh, and don't forget to buy fabric for shoes and socks. Buy good ones."
Zhou Erlang wrote them down one by one.
When Xiao Qian and the others heard what they were going to buy, their hearts began to beat fast, because these were two bags of grain.
Old Zhou was more distressed than them, but listening to the laughter floating in from outside, he could ignore this distress. When he saw that everything had been explained, Old Zhou waved his hand and told everyone to go back to their work.
Manbao woke up early in the morning and dragged Wulang and Liulang to pick wild flowers.
When the family was ready, they were ready too. They took the baskets woven by Zhou Erlang and filled them with wild grasses and flowers, and happily followed the adults.
Feng, who went with them, looked at the things in their baskets and couldn't help asking, "What are you going to do with all these things?"
Daya said, "My aunt said she wanted to sell it."
Feng's eyes widened slightly. "This kind of stuff is everywhere. Who would buy it?"
Manbao was being carried on Zhou Wulang's back at this time. Hearing this, he shouted, "Sister-in-law, I will buy it. I am willing to buy anything that looks good."
This is truly a prodigal son.
Mrs. Feng couldn't help asking, "Auntie, do you have money?"
Manbao shook his head honestly, "Not now, but there will be in the future ."
She is very confident in herself. Even Koko says she is very smart, so she must be very capable and will certainly have no problem making money.
Feng didn't stop them either, she just treated it as a children's game, since the things were theirs to take anyway.
Once we arrived at the market, everyone started looking for a place to set up their stalls.
Zhou Erlang made a lot of baskets and winnowing baskets to sell. He took a piece of land and put down the things. He asked his wife to sell them. He also told Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, "Keep a close eye on Manbao and Datou. Don't let them run around."
Before Zhou Wulang could say anything, Manbao patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, second brother. I will definitely take good care of my nephews. We are not going anywhere."
Zhou Erlang smiled and reached out to touch her head.
Then he pushed the cart and went to sell grain with Zhou Dalang.
This market is held every five days. Several nearby villages gather together to form a market in the relatively large Dali Village.
Because there is a mountain here, and there is a Taoist temple on the mountain, with several Taoists in the temple. Every year on the 19th day of the first lunar month, there is a particularly grand temple fair here, and even some people from the county town will come from afar to participate.
That is the big temple fair, and other small temple fairs are held during important solar terms. These traditions have been around for many years.
According to what Manbao heard from the elders at the entrance of the village, these customs have existed since they were children.
For this reason, Keke was particularly regretful, saying that it was a popular science system dedicated to collecting biological materials. They also had a system in their encyclopedia that was dedicated to collecting this kind of folk customs. It was unknown how many sub-tasks could be derived from the formation of this temple fair, and it would definitely earn a lot of points.
At that time, Manbao felt that Keke was a little sad, so he threw sweet words at her, "But I just like Keke, I don't like other systems."
In short, this is a big market where villagers exchange what they have with each other.
So the question is, does everyone barter with money?
of course not!
When Manbao saw his second sister-in-law had put out the baskets, winnowing baskets, etc., they immediately put down their baskets full of wild grasses and flowers, forming a row with Feng's goods, and then squatted behind them, holding up their little faces and looking at the people passing by.
Zhou Erlang had been doing business in the market for many years and had a good reputation. So soon after he put his goods on the market, an old lady came up with a basket on her back, looked through the dustpan and asked, "Can I trade for eggs?"
Feng thought for a moment and agreed, saying, "Eggs are still two cents for three now, right?"
The old lady should be.
Feng began to calculate how many eggs she should give her, "Then you give me..."
She calculated and felt that she had made a mistake, and her forehead was covered with sweat. In the past, her husband had done all these things, and she always calculated the money when selling things.
Feng wiped her sweat. Seeing her sister-in-law was stumped, Manbao jumped up and said, "Second sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, I know how to do it. Is our winnowing basket still 15 cents each?"
Feng knew that her younger sister-in-law was smart and could do math. She loved playing the game of one penny plus two pennies with her husband, so she nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, the price in our house has never changed."
Manbao looked at the old lady curiously, "Where are your eggs?"
The old lady herself couldn't count, but before she went out, her family counted the number of eggs she would need. But she still hoped that the Zhou family had made a mistake.
She came up quickly just now because she saw Zhou Erlang was not there.
She put down the basket and opened it to show Manbao her eggs. "They are all laid by our chickens. They are very good."
Manbao said, "Let me count."
The old lady was not happy, "You haven't told me how many eggs you want."
Man Bao stared and asked, "I haven't counted them. How do I know how many eggs I need? I have to count them."
As soon as she heard this, she knew that he would not do it. The old lady was happy and did not stop him. She smiled and said, "Then you better be careful not to break the eggs."
Manbao assured, "Don't worry, if anything gets broken, it's my fault."
She took the eggs out and put them in piles of three, and then three in a pile. There were eight piles in total. The old lady counted the eggs, her heart skipped a beat, and she was about to take the eggs back.
Manbao clapped his hands and said happily, "I have counted it out, I have counted it out, look, sister-in-law, this is two coins, this is two coins, two coins, two coins... a total of sixteen coins."
The stall owner across the street watched the whole process and said happily: "This little girl is really smart."
Feng was proud of it. "This is my sister-in-law. She is the smartest in our family."
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang were also very proud, and they puffed out their chests and said, "My sister!"
The old lady glanced at the two strong boys, swallowed the words that were about to come out of her mouth, and said, "Your winnowing basket is fifteen cents, but you asked me for one cent more. I'll just put this pile away."
Manbao thought it made sense, so he took the initiative to take two of the smallest eggs from the pile and gave them to her, saying, "For fifteen cents, I should give you one and a half eggs, but half an egg can't be divided, so we're losing a little. You can take these two back."
The old lady choked.
Feng also saw the old lady's actions, and responded with a smile. She quickly put the eggs into their basket, and smiled and asked the old lady to choose the dustpan she liked, and said, "We won't be picky about the size of the eggs, so let's exchange them like this."
Although she didn't suffer any loss, the old lady was still a little unhappy. She looked at Manbao and said, "This child is white and fat, he doesn't look like he came from our village."
Feng smiled and said, "My aunt is the youngest in the family. My parents-in-law love her very much, and her brothers also love her, so they take good care of her. I'm not bragging, but there is no girl in the surrounding villages who is prettier than my aunt."
Everyone looked carefully and found that it was true.
This child not only has cute facial features, but is also white and chubby, with a round, rosy little face. You can tell at first glance that he is a blessed person.
The old lady's worries disappeared, and she nodded with a smile, "Yes, she is pretty."
Manbao was immediately delighted when he was praised, and then he enthusiastically introduced his merchandise to the old lady, "Auntie, take a look at my things, look at my flowers, they are so beautiful, take them home and put them on the windowsill, just looking at them will make you feel better."
Being called Auntie, the old lady seemed to feel younger. She said happily, "You gave it to me? Look how polite you are."
Just reach out and take it.
Manbao's eyes sparkled as he said, "It's not a gift. It's only one penny a handful. It's not expensive at all."
The old lady's hand was withdrawn with a whoosh, and she asked with wide eyes, "What? These wild flowers cost money? Aren't there all over the mountain?"
"Yes," Manbao said confidently, "but I took it off."
Feng said quickly, "Don't mind it, Auntie. These are just the kids playing around. They were clamoring to do business at home, so I brought them out to see for themselves."
The old lady felt better, but she didn't reach out to take the flowers again, for fear that Manbao would ask her for money.
So he picked up a dustpan and left quickly.
Manbao watched her leave with a look of longing, and sighed with his friends, "Why don't you buy some? Our flowers are so beautiful."
Friends: ...We had expected this a long time ago, so we have no regrets at all.
The children looked at the people coming and going on the street with great interest. They were very happy to be able to come to the market.
People came one after another to buy baskets and winnowing baskets. Manbao always helped his second sister-in-law to count the money, and then recommended his own flowers and plants. Every adult was happy to reach out to take them at first, but immediately withdrew their hands when they knew they had to pay.
The market day was almost halfway through, and not only had the eldest and second brothers not returned, they also couldn't sell a single flower or plant, and the flowers were even looking a little wilted.
Manbao looked at it with a worried sigh. Seeing that there was not much left in the winnowing basket in front of her second sister-in-law, but there was still a lot left in the basket, she arranged her flowers and plants in the basket.
Feng looked at him with fear and trepidation, "Aunt, you won't ask your guests to buy your flowers and plants if they buy baskets, right?"
Man Bao, who simply thought that it would be a waste to keep the flowers and plants if they couldn't be sold, was planning to give them away when his eyes lit up. "Oh, Second Sister-in-law, you are so smart. Why didn't I think of this idea?"
Mrs. Feng wanted to sew her mouth shut.
