Another thing to worry about is that the aunts and grandmothers in the village have to rely on the fat people to buy them when they come back from picking mountain peppers.

If you offend the fat people, and the fat people don't buy the mountain pepper in Baishi Village in a fit of anger, it will be an unbearable harm for everyone.

After all, not everyone can eat meat every day.

Just like Lu Wenen's mother, she is seventy or eighty years old, and after pulling out the peanuts and selling them at home, she has to go into the mountains to pick wild mountain peppers.

Last night, I heard from the village chief that the day before yesterday, when Lu Wenen's mother went into the mountains to pick mountain peppers, she tripped over green vines and fell.

If Chen Yang is angry and fat, then the mountain pepper they finally picked back will have nowhere to sell.

Even if today's mountain pepper is taken away by the fat people, what about tomorrow?

The old ladies are looking forward to this season coming soon every year, and now they have finally waited for this season, if they can't sell mountain pepper anymore because of Chen Yang's quarrel with Fat Ziwen, it is estimated that they will hate Chen Yang to death.

When Chen Yang was hesitating whether to go home and bring the floor scale, another figure appeared in sight.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, in the cold village road, an old lady with pale hair hunched over her back and a snakeskin bag on her back was walking towards the courtyard with difficulty.

Her figure was emaciated, like bamboo swaying in the cold wind. The withered bamboo leaves are her thinning hair, and the tough bamboo poles are her rickety body. She's rickety, but she's still tough.

Isn't this exactly Lu Wenen's mother?

There were also clearly visible blood marks on her face, which must have been left by the fall the day before yesterday.

Although she is poor and she is down, she will have a faint smile on her lips whenever and wherever she is. The smile seemed to be a light irony of the life that had given her many hardships, and it seemed like the helplessness of nostalgia for this hard day.

Chen Yang hurriedly greeted her and took the snakeskin bag from her hand: "Grandma Lu, why do you still go into the mountains to pick mountain peppers?"

Because of her advanced age, no one else in the village dared to accompany her, for fear that she would have an accident in the mountains and then be implicated. So many people advised her not to go into the mountains, but she didn't listen, every year at this season, she would definitely go into the mountains to pick pepper.

Grandma Lu smiled: "Hehe, go into the mountains to pick some mountain pepper and sell it, if you can sell it for fifty yuan, it is fifty yuan, sitting at home, who will give me fifty yuan." ”

Chen Yang checked the mountain pepper in the snakeskin bag, and it was estimated that it was only about twenty-five catties, but it was fifty yuan.

It seems that Grandma Lu has kept an eye on it, and she has weighed it with a scale at home.

Chen Yang nodded and said, "Yes, but you also have to pay attention to safety, if you can, don't go, let your son go." ”

Speaking of her son, Grandma Lu smiled awkwardly and didn't speak again.

She knew that her son had made bad friends, and many people in the village secretly called her son stupid. But she is old, her husband is frail and sick, and her youngest son is disabled, and the family is supported by her eldest son.

What kind of friends does the son want to make, that is his freedom, how can she, an old lady, have the right to discipline him?

She also planted crops and went into the mountains to pick wild goods, and she could earn one yuan for one yuan.

"Why did you memorize it yourself?" said Grandma Aiqiang with a frown, "Wait a minute, he'll go to your house to collect it." ”

Grandma Lu smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid that he is too late, and if he sells mountain pepper, I still have to go to the vegetable field to pour vegetables." ”

"Boss, look at how many catties there are here?" Grandma Lu looked at the fat people who were standing aside without saying a word with a flattering expression.

The fat man opened the snakeskin bag, looked inside, and instantly frowned: "You have too many leaves, you must pick them up a little." ”

"Ah, is it a lot?" Grandma Lu obviously didn't expect the fat people to say this, and the whole person was stunned for a moment.

"Many, too much. The fat man grabbed a handful of mountain pepper from the bag and emphatically said, "Look at your mountain pepper, the stalk is so long, and there are many leaves, if you have to go on the scale like this, then I can only give you a price of five cents a pound, and then I will work hard, and I will go home and pick out the leaves." ”

A piece of five cents a pound? Grandma Lu's body trembled slightly.

Chen Yang pulled open the snakeskin bag, glanced at it, and said, "There aren't many leaves here, isn't it like this in previous years?"

"Huh. The fat man pushed the big scale in front of Chen Yang and chuckled, "Since you understand it so well, then you can collect it, and the pepper in your whole village will be collected for you." Let you earn those few cents. ”

Chen Yang's brows furrowed, and he didn't know what to say for a while.

Because buying mountain pepper is really not something that everyone can do.

Although Redwood Town is a high-yielding area of mountain pepper, many middlemen are reluctant to come to buy mountain pepper because of the high mountain and the low population density.

Over the years, there has been only one middleman who has persistently come to buy the local mountain pepper.

As a result, this middleman has a monopoly on the purchase of local mountain peppers. In order to prevent other middlemen from sharing the cake, the middlemen signed contracts with various buying points in Redwood Town, requiring that the mountain pepper collected by all purchasing points should not be sold to others.

And he promised to buy the point, and he would never collect the mountain pepper from the villagers privately.

In this way, several acquisition points jointly lowered the price, and always controlled the first-hand purchase price of mountain pepper.

Last year, they collected it from the villagers at a price of one yuan per catty, and then transferred it to the middlemen for five yuan a catty.

This year, the weather was dry and dry, and the work of picking mountain pepper became more difficult, so in order to motivate the villagers to go into the mountains, they had to raise the price to two yuan a catty.

However, in order to make more profits, they have manipulated the scales.

Aren't they afraid that the villagers will find out?

Don't worry, the people who stay in the village are basically the elderly. Not only do these old fellows not know a single word, but they also have bad eyes and inflexible brains, so they won't even notice their tricks.

The fat people looked at Chen Yang, who was speechless, and felt funny in their hearts. Such a person wants to fight with me? Hehe, it's too tender.

The reason why Chen Yang knew that it was not easy to buy mountain pepper was because he once squatted on the big truck that came to buy mountain pepper every morning, and finally got the answer that they only needed to buy the mountain pepper from the point, not the villagers themselves.

Grandma Aiqiang pulled Chen Yang's arm and whispered, "Forget it, Xiaoyang, don't say it, let's help pick up the leaves." ”

"Yes, yes, yes. Grandma Lu suddenly realized, "Let's pick up the leaves now, that's all right." ”

"Then you guys hurry up and pick it up. The fat man said impatiently, "I'll have to collect it from someone else later." ”

Grandma Aiqiang pulled Chen Yang to help Grandma Lu pick up all the leaves in the mountain pepper.

The fat man hung the snakeskin bag on the scale, and after counting the catties and taels, he said casually: "Eighteen catties and two taels, which is eighteen catties." ”

"Ah, it's only eighteen pounds?" Grandma Lu was stunned again, looking at the thin leaves scattered all over the place with an unbelievable face, just like looking at the scattered renminbi.

Do these dozens of thin leaves weigh six or seven pounds?

How is this possible? How is this possible?

The leaves of mountain pepper are light and thin, and although they look a bit like the leaves of the camphor tree, they are definitely less than half the weight of the leaves of the camphor tree.

But with such a thin leaf, how can it weigh six or seven pounds?

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