Manbao's eyes sparkled, and he held the two Ligustrum lucidum fruits in his hands without saying a word.
Old Zhou and Qian sat by the bed. In the light of the fire they saw the light in their daughter's eyes, as bright as the morning star in the sky. Both of them were a little dazed and remained silent.
Manbao looked up happily and stretched out his little hand to show Old Zhou and Qian, "Dad, Mom, look what this is?"
Qian came back to her senses and asked with a smile, "What is it?"
"It's Ligustrum lucidum. My fifth brother picked two bunches for me today. It turns out that they look like this when they are dried. They can also cure mother's illness."
Qian touched Manbao's head with a smile, looked at her kneeling on the ground, and said to her excitedly that they could buy one less medicine next time.
Qian listened with a smile, but did not tell her that the medicines were prescribed one by one, not one by one.
Manbao said, "Let the eldest and third brothers pick all the Ligustrum lucidum fruits and dry them for mother to eat."
Qian nodded with a smile, "Okay, I'll let your eldest brother go tomorrow."
Manbao was very excited and didn't want to sleep anymore. He put down the Ligustrum lucidum in his hand, climbed onto his parents' bed, rolled to the innermost part and lay there motionless.
Then he opened his blinking eyes and looked at his parents.
Old Zhou couldn't help but pat her fat butt , "You're so old and still sleeping with your parents, aren't you ashamed?"
"Don't be ashamed, don't be ashamed, the three of them are sleeping with the eldest brother and his wife. "
"It's not long since the third grandson finished speaking. He's still young, so of course he should sleep with his parents." In Old Zhou's heart, although his third grandson is the same age as his daughter, or even two months older, his daughter is actually much older in his heart.
There is no way. Children in rural areas mature late. They can work but they become sensible late.
The children in their family are considered to be sensible at an early age, and that's because they have enough food and drink. In some families, due to lack of food and clothing, the children of seven or eight years old still look like four or five years old and can't even speak fluently.
But no matter how early it is, it will not be as early as Manbao.
At least in the entire village, even the eldest son of the white landlord could not walk unsteadily at nine months old or call his parents at ten months old.
Therefore, they all agreed that their child Manbao was the smartest child in the village, or even in the township.
Because she was smart, sensible and early, she was given a small bed to sleep in early on.
There was no way out. When she was over one year old, she would complain to Qian that her father snored very loudly and she couldn't sleep at night.
God knows she was sleeping like a dead pig with her head tilted to the side, and even thunder couldn't wake her up.
When she was two years old, she became even more disgusted and complained to her mother that her father didn't wash his feet and his feet were smelly.
So Old Zhou gritted his teeth, stomped his feet, and took his sons to the mountain to cut down a tree. He paid someone to make a small bed for her, and asked his second son to weave a bamboo wall to separate the room. Only then did the disgust stop.
Since then, Manbao rarely asked to sleep with her parents. But it was a good thing for the child to be close to him, so Old Zhoutou didn't drive his daughter out of bed, but just got out of bed and brought her little quilt to her.
Manbao rolled over on the bed with his quilt in his arms and told his mother about the interesting things that happened in school.
Qian listened quietly, asking a question or two from time to time to encourage her to say more.
So, Qian knew that Manbao now knew a lot of words. Mr. Zhuang not only taught them how to read and write, but also taught them arithmetic. Her best friend now is the young master of the Bai family named Shanbao.
Speaking of Bai Shanbao, Manbao talked a lot . He talked about how he was bullied by Bai Erlang, and then mentioned that his family was going to build a house.
Manbao was still talking to Old Zhoutou, "Dad, I've already told Shanbao that we'll ask Big Brother and the others to help. We'll call more people and we'll be able to build their house in three to five days, so he won't be bullied by Bai Er anymore."
Old Zhou's eyes flickered as he asked, "Did the young master say when he would build the house?"
Manbao yawned and said, "It's almost done. It'll be built once the location is decided."
Old Zhou remained silent, and Manbao urged him in a low voice, "Dad, have you agreed?"
Old Zhou said, "I agree. Go to bed quickly. You have to go to school tomorrow."
Manbao's breathing gradually became longer and longer. Seeing that she fell asleep in the time it took to say this, Old Zhou couldn't help but shook his head and laughed, "This child is just like her father. She falls asleep as soon as she closes her eyes."
Qian gave him a warning look.
Old Zhou quickly skipped the topic and said, "I originally wanted to tell Dazhu to take Dalang and Sanlang out to do hard labor. Since the Bai family is going to build a house, there is no need for them to run away. Just stay at home."
Qian nodded slightly. "The rich families build houses differently from us. They need both stone and wood. They all need labor. The work can last until after winter."
The family needed money. Although the white landlord needed short-term workers to prepare the land, it was after the autumn harvest and there was limited work. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Sanlang had not had much work to do these two days.
Qian originally wanted her two sons to pack up and go to the county to work as laborers. Even if they couldn't make money, at least they could make enough food for themselves. At least the family could save some food.
It was a blessing from heaven that the Bai family was going to build a house.
The next morning, when Manbao closed his eyes and washed his face, Qian called her three sons in and said, "Go with Laowu. Let Laowu show you what Ligustrum lucidum is. Pick all the ripe fruits."
Manbao, who was washing his face nearby, instantly became alert. He ran back to his own bedside and pretended to take the bunch of Ligustrum lucidum from under the bed, but in fact he took it from Keke and gave it to his elder brother. "That's it, elder brother. If you see any rare plants in the mountains, such as those that we don't have around here, be it flowers or fruits, pick them all and bring them back to me."
Zhou Dalang and his brothers all knew that Manbao liked to pull flowers and plants since she was a child. In the past, she often went to the family's vegetable garden to harm the immature seedlings. She would .
He glanced at his mother, agreed, took the Ligustrum lucidum and went out.
Qian then said to Manbao, "Hurry up and have breakfast, or you'll be late for school."
Manbao agreed and ran to the main room, but instead of going to the kitchen to eat, he slipped into Zhou Silang and the others' room first.
The four, five, six and three brothers lived together. Zhou Silang was about to go out with his hoe on his shoulder, and Zhou Wulang was also ready. Manbao whispered to him, "Fifth brother, be careful on the road. If you see Ligustrum lucidum again, pick them all. They are mother's medicine."
Zhou Wulang didn't understand how the fruit became his mother's medicine after a nap, but he still nodded and agreed, and asked: "Manbao, can you talk to your friend and give us more candies next time? One hundred is a bit too little."
He said, "I plan to ask Miss Fu Er to introduce us to a few more customers. I think selling candies is more profitable than selling flower baskets. Don't you buy candies for ten pieces for one penny?"
Manbao was reluctant to spend her points like this, as she had to save them to buy medicine for her mother, so she refused and said, "One hundred a day is not a small amount. Can't you sell a little less to Miss Fu Er? She is alone, and eating too much candy can easily cause tooth decay. This time when you go to the county town, if she still wants to buy some, tell her that people with tooth decay are particularly ugly."
Zhou Wulang: ...Saying such things to a girl, does he want to stop living, or does he not want to do the Fu family business anymore?