Daya, who was trying hard to learn to read, took a moment to look at it and asked, "Auntie, what are you going to do?"
Manbao waved his hand and said, "You guys continue, I'll take a walk outside."
Daya subconsciously tried to catch up, but Manbao glared at her, "Write quickly, or you will be punished to write it a hundred times if you can't remember it."
Although she was not very majestic, Daya still squatted on the ground subconsciously. But she was not afraid. She looked up and observed her aunt. She saw her lingering at the door, muttering to herself, but she didn't know what she was saying. So she didn't care and lowered her head to write.
Manbao was muttering, "Should we go to Brother Hu's house at the end of the village, or to the village chief's house in the middle of the village?"
The system watched silently and did not make a decision for her.
In the end, Manbao went to the village chief's house. She thought that if the village chief's family didn't want to sell the chickens, then she would go to Brother Hu's house.
Why did she choose to buy chickens from these two families? Because apart from their family, these two families raised the most chickens in the village .
It was time to prepare dinner, and almost every household had people there. As soon as Manbao appeared in the yard, Sanzhu's wife saw her.
She curled her lips, not very happy. In fact, she didn't have a good impression of Manbao. What she said by the river last time was reported home, and she was scolded by her parents-in-law at that time.
What they didn't expect was that Manbao's family went to the county town the next day, and returned the money on the third day.
There were faint voices in the village saying that their family was forcing Manbao's family to pay back the money, so they carried grain to the county to exchange for money.
This was not a nice thing to say, so her father-in-law took the money and went to Old Zhou's house on the spot. Although Manbao's father explained, the two families were cleared up.
But she was still scolded by her mother-in-law. These days, she was the one doing all the heavy work at home, such as feeding the pigs, while her elder and younger sisters-in-law were left idle.
Sanzhu's wife felt that it was all Manbao's fault.
Sanzhu's wife didn't have a good look on Manbao's face, but Manbao was no fool, so he just passed her and shouted inside: "Dazhu's wife, Dazhu's wife, are you home?"
Dazhu's wife, who was cooking in the kitchen, ran out and looked coldly at Manbao, who was not even as old as her daughter.
Manbao smiled at her and said in a childish but mature voice, "Dazhu's wife, where is your mother-in-law?"
Dazhu's wife just thought the other person was cute, and she held back her laughter and said, "It's Manbao's sister-in-law. My mother-in-law has gone to the vegetable garden. What do you want to see her for?"
"It's okay, I just want to buy a chicken from your family to eat."
Dazhu's wife was stunned. "Buy chickens? Don't you have chickens at home?"
Manbao said confidently: "My chickens are still laying eggs, I can't bear to eat them."
Sanzhu's wife couldn't help it and said, "You can't bear to eat your chicken, but I can."
Manbao said, "If your chickens don't lay eggs, maybe you'd be willing to sell them?"
She gave Sanzhu's wife a strange look and said, "If you don't want to sell it, just say so. I'm not forcing you to buy it."
"You!" Before Sanzhu's wife could say anything, Dazhu's wife looked at Manbao suspiciously, "Aunt Manbao, did your family ask you to buy this?"
Manbao nodded. "My mother needs to nourish her body, so she has to eat chicken. Dazhu's wife, do you have any chickens that don't lay eggs for sale?"
Dazhu's wife hesitated and wanted to shake her head. She was still very skeptical. Why would the Zhou family let Manbao come out to buy chickens? There were brothers' wives and so many older children in the family. Even if they needed to buy chickens, they should be the ones to come, right?
But before she could say anything, Sanzhu's wife said first: "Yes, do you want a big cock?"
Manbao's eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, Sanzhu's wife, go and catch a big rooster for me to see, and I'll give it to you at the market price."
Sanzhu's wife was suspicious, "You really want it, do you have money?"
Manbao took out a handful of copper coins from his pocket and said with a smile: "Here, I have money."
Sanzhu 's wife's eyes widened, and Dazhu's wife was also stunned. They thought at the same time that the Zhou family was really generous. They gave so much money to a little kid without any fear that it would be robbed.
However, this is in the village, and I guess no one would dare to steal it.
Since Manbao brought money, Sanzhu's wife rolled her eyes, turned around, went to the chicken coop, touched a rooster and showed it to Manbao, saying, "Here, this is it. My family has two roosters in total. One is kept for the New Year's ancestor worship. I'll sell this one to you. It's according to the market price. I'll weigh it for you right away."
Dazhu's wife frowned, and Sanzhu's wife whispered, "Sister-in-law, mother has long wanted to let big brother and his family take this chicken to the market to sell it and pay back the money, but we are a country family, who would be willing to spend dozens of coins to buy a chicken to eat? It must be sent to the county by then, and it will take a lot of time to go back and forth. If you don't want to sell it, let big brother take it later. My third will not go."
Dazhu's wife shut up when she heard that.
But she didn't let the third son's wife do that. She took the initiative to go back to the house and get the scale. While weighing, she said to Manbao, "We are from the same village. How can we charge according to the market price? We will give you a penny cheaper per pound."
It was weighed out quickly, and Dazhu's wife calculated it clumsily and said, "The total is fifty-three cents."
Manbao happily counted out the copper coins in his pocket and gave them to her. When it was not enough, he reached into his pocket again, but asked Keke to put the money in his pocket for her. He did this two or three times and finally counted out the fifty-three coins.
Dazhu's wife tied the rooster's legs carefully, then tied its wings for her, and then let her carry it back.
Seeing that she seemed to have some difficulty holding such a big rooster, he asked, "How about I take it back to you?"
Manbao shook his head and said confidently: "It's okay, I can hold it."
Manbao carried the rooster home, but halfway through she couldn't hold the rooster anymore, so she simply threw the rooster to the ground, found the rope on its wings, and dragged it away.
The rooster cackled while flapping its wings or jumping its legs tenaciously.
Unfortunately, its legs and wings were tied, so it was dragged back home by Manbao.
Just when they discovered that their aunt was missing, Datou, Daya and the others were about to go out to look for her, staring at her with their mouths wide open as she ran towards them dragging a chicken...
Erya was the first to come to her senses. She ran up and asked, "Aunt, where did you get the chicken?"
Datou and the others also ran up, picked up the poor rooster, and touched it with pity. Although they were drooling, they still said, "Little aunt, stealing is wrong."
Zhou Silang and the others also ran out.
Manbao was unhappy and said, "Who said I stole it? I bought it!"
Manbao patted his pocket proudly and said, "I bought it with money!"
Zhou Wulang, who had just returned from the county town, couldn't help but exclaim, "Who did you buy it from, and how much did you pay for it? Were you ripped off?"
Everyone in the Zhou family was surprised that Manbao brought back an attack. After listening to her narration, Old Zhou couldn't help but touch his waist again, but found nothing. Then he remembered that he had given all the raw cigarettes to Laowu to sell in the county town early in the morning. He put the rest aside and planned to smoke them during the New Year.
Old Zhou then looked at his wife.