Chapter 13: Not Enough Money
When Feng brought over a bowl of boiled eggs, the group of children had already finished their candy and were surrounding Manbao to look at her four cents.
When Feng saw the money, she was stunned for a moment and asked, "Auntie, where did you get the money?"
Manbao looked up proudly and said, "We earned it ourselves, from selling candy."
Mrs. Feng thought it was the candy her husband had bought for Manbao before, and said helplessly, "Why don't you eat it, but sell it instead? It's for your health."
Every time Zhou Erlang came to the market, he would buy a penny's worth of candy and only take out one to dissolve it in syrup for the children to drink together. The remaining four would be full of treasures.
It’s not that they particularly dote on Manbao and don’t love their children.
Instead, it was a sentence that Manbao's doctor said when he was young, "This child has a weak spleen and stomach, shortness of breath and fatigue. Eat more eggs and honey."
The family situation was not very good at that time. Manbao was only a few months old and could not swallow the bitter medicine, so he could only be fed with egg water and honey water.
Old Zhou had to ask for help from several people in nearby villages before he could buy the honey at a high price. It was hard to find, scarce and extremely expensive.
Later the doctor said, "If you don't have honey, maltose will do, as it is good for the lung meridian and strengthens the spleen and stomach."
It can be said that the eggs and sugar in the family have played a big role in Manbao's growth to be so big and white and plump.
Because Manbao has been getting healthier in the past two years, the Zhou family felt that the doctor's words were absolutely right. They could not give Manbao other good things, but the eggs were laid by their own chickens, so they still had money to buy sugar.
There was an episode every three days, and she could get four candies every time she went to the market, so in Manbao's heart, she really had no shortage of candies. So much so that when Koko first met her and tried to bribe her with candies, she was not very receptive.
Later, after eating the candy given by Koko, she still complained it was too sweet. In the end, she shared some with her nephews and nieces as usual.
Seeing that their eyes were narrowed with joy, Manbao became good friends with Koko who suddenly appeared.
Manbao has no shortage of sugar, because in addition to the sugar bought by her family, Koko also rewards her from time to time, but Feng doesn't know that.
She glared at Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang who didn't know how to persuade him, and handed the bowl to Manbao, "You must be hungry. Second sister-in-law cooked eggs for you. Come and eat them."
Manbao held the bowl and invited Feng first, "Second sister-in-law, you should have a bite too. You didn't eat the cake just now."
Feng smiled and pushed it back, "I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat with your elder and second brothers when they come back."
Manbao didn't doubt it because she also liked to eat with her family. Hey, why did she eat the cake without waiting for her elder and second brothers?
I feel a little sorry for them.
Manbao thought about it while passing the eggs to Datou and the others.
Everyone shook their heads. They ate the candy but not the eggs. Although they wanted to eat them, they knew that the eggs were not eggs but medicine to the little aunt.
Manbao then ate all the eggs and asked Feng to take her to buy medicine for her mother.
Feng touched her head and said with a smile: "Second sister-in-law doesn't have any money with her. We will go after your eldest brother and his family come back."
Manbao handed over the handkerchief and said, "I have money!"
Feng sighed, "This is not enough."
My mother-in-law takes medicine all year round, but in fact she takes the cheapest medicine, which only treats the symptoms and not the root cause. She can only take care of herself slowly. I don’t know how much it will cost to cure it completely.
Qian had two prescriptions for medicine that she often took. One could be bought from a doctor in Dali Village, the only doctor in the four nearby villages. Except for some of the medicine that was bought from the pharmacy, most of the medicine was collected by the doctor himself from the mountains.
If you buy medicine from him, a dose only costs eight cents, which is already very frugal for their family. A dose of medicine is decocted four times, which is enough for the Qian family for two days.
If Qian's condition worsens, she will have to go to the pharmacy in the county town to buy medicine from another prescription. That prescription contains a more expensive medicine that costs twenty cents per dose.
Feng really had no money. All the people who came to buy baskets and winnowing baskets today were bartering. She did buy a lot of eggs and grain, but she didn't have a penny.
There was nothing we could do, so we could only squat behind the stall and wait for Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang to come back.
It was past noon when Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang came back pushing the cart with unhappy faces. The two large bags of grain were still on the cart.
Feng was startled, and trotted over to help push the cart over, asking, "Why haven't you sold it?"
Zhou Erlang said with an unpleasant expression: "The price is too low, only eight cents for a bushel of grain."
Feng couldn't help but shout, "Only eight cents? Wasn't it ten cents before?"
Zhou Dalang squatted on the ground and said, "The grain has all come down. The harvest this year is pretty good. It is said that the grain store is not short of grain anymore."
They were all from the same village. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang negotiated with the other party for a long time but failed to raise the price. Their family was really short of money, and the two brothers were reluctant to sell the grain at such a low price, so they took it back.
Feng couldn't help but blush, "What should we do then?"
Zhou Erlang squatted on the ground for a long time and said, "There are people in the market who want to exchange for hemp cloth. We can exchange it with grain. We can also exchange it for cotton cloth for making shoes. But mother's medicine must be bought with money, so we still have to sell grain. No, we will go to the county town tomorrow to see if we can get a better price than in the market."
Manbao immediately took out his own four coins and said, "Brother, brother, I have money!"
Seeing the four coins, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were stunned for a moment and asked, "Where did you get it?"
“Selling candy!”
Zhou Dalang took it, sighed and said, "I'm still short of four cents."
Manbao was wondering if she should peel twenty more candies to sell, but Zhou Erlang had already stood up and said, "I'll take my stuff to trade with someone."
Zhou Erlang had many acquaintances in the market. He scooped out some of the wheat that Feng had harvested, estimated its weight, and left.
Soon he came back with five cents.
Zhou Dalang was very curious, "Who did you exchange it with?"
People who come to the village market spend very little money.
"I traded it with Lao Wang, the candy seller. He needed wheat to make sugar, so I sold it to him at the regular price."
Zhou Dalang breathed a sigh of relief and handed Manbao's money to him.
Zhou Erlang used the money to buy a prescription. The number of people at the market began to decrease, and no one was in the mood to set up stalls anymore. Zhou Erlang went to someone familiar with the place and exchanged cloth and bacon, then packed up and went home with everyone.
The cloth was given to the old woman, who assigned the tasks to make clothes, while Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang went to talk to Old Zhoutou.
Manbao followed behind and went in.
When Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang saw her walking behind them with her hands behind her back, just like their father, they couldn't help sweating. They simply held her on their laps and reported the situation at the market to Old Zhou.
When he heard that the grain couldn't be sold at a good price, Old Zhou wanted to smoke again.
He sighed and said, "There needs to be some cash at home. Your mother needs medicine, but what if she needs emergency treatment?"
Zhou Erlang also nodded and said, "I have accumulated a lot of eggs from the market during this period, and I have to take them to the county town to sell them."
Although there were occasional people buying eggs at the Dali Village market, they mostly exchanged them for grain. In the end, Zhou Erlang still had to sell grain to the grain shop to get money.
Therefore, Zhou Erlang seldom sold eggs at the market, but took them to the county town, where eggs sold better than grain.
Old Zhou nodded, stroking his old pipe and said, "The day after tomorrow, tomorrow you two will follow me to take Manbao to the school."
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang agreed.
Manbao then expressed his opinion, "Dad, I want to go to the county town too."
