On the ninth day of the new year, Grandpa Li brought four people, all of whom were from the village, Ran Er and Qinglian also knew each other, and Uncle Shun was also among them. The four of them dug for a total of four days, with an average of 500 catties of lotus root per person per day, and the pond in Ran'er produced a total of 8,000 catties of lotus root this year, almost more than two and a half times that of last year. Yao Wenlin's car to pull the lotus root arrived at eleven, and one trip was not finished, and it was pulled again on the twentieth day of the lunar month before it was all transported away.

The lotus root alone brought twenty-eight taels of silver to Ran'er and Qinglian. The fish in the pond were also caught with the help of Li Shun and the four of them. More than one and a half catties of carp and silver carp were sold for less than 800 catties in total, which was about the same as Ran'er's initial estimate. and he got about twelve taels of silver for selling fish. Not counting the income from the duck eggs, the pond earned the sisters a full forty taels of silver. This made Ran'er and Qinglian laugh all day long.

When they were okay at night, the sisters also calculated the income from eggs and duck eggs in the past year. One hundred and thirty chickens can sell more than 1,500 eggs a month, and twenty ducks can get fourteen or five duck eggs a month. In this way, eggs and duck eggs also bring Ran'er and Qinglian forty or fifty taels of silver a year.

The two totals are almost ten taels. Ran'er took out the burden of saving money in the kang, and the sisters counted it carefully, removing the ten taels of silver left by their mother, and the net win was seventy-four taels, and five hundred and seventy copper coins.

"Sister, you said that next year we will buy all the vacant land next to the bamboo forest, okay?"

"Let's talk about it in a year or two. Otherwise, it's too noticeable, which is not good. ”

Ran'er's concerns are naturally reasonable, just the two young ladies, Ran'er is only fifteen years old, and Qinglian is less than eleven years old. If it is too ostentatious and is remembered by people with intentions, it is still dangerous.

In the Chinese New Year's Eve this year, Ran'er and Qinglian moved the wooden statue of their mother to the east room where Ran'er lived, and the sisters made a lot of delicious food, and kept watch with the wooden statue of Ran'er until the early hours of the morning, when the chickens began to crow, and then they both went to sleep.

On the first day of the new year, it is customary to go to the village to pay New Year's greetings. In addition to the original families, the Li family and Li Langzhong's family, Ran'er and Qinglian also went to pay New Year's greetings to the village chief. In the afternoon, Ran'er and Qinglian calculated whether to go to Zhou's house to pay New Year's greetings. After thinking about it, I finally felt that it would be better to wait a few days to bring some gifts and go on a special trip.

This year's weather has been a bit unusual. It was cold for a while at the beginning of winter, but it was warm after the New Year. The temperature is getting higher day by day. Ran'er and Qinglian don't have much to do, and now they have more money and no longer do everything themselves. For example, padding the soil for the pigsty and fattening are all spent on hiring people to do it. The two sisters go to the pond every once in a while to fish, and because they are fed fish, they are particularly easy to bite. If you catch a fish, you will send it to the hotel that you have contacted. There are also many neighbors, and there are guests at home, who come to Ran'er's house to buy fish, and gradually the reputation of Ran'er's family fish farming spread. This saves the sisters a lot of trouble, sometimes they don't have to take it out at all, they just wait at home.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Ran'er and Qinglian bought some gifts, came to Yangzhuang early in the morning, and saw that the Zhou family wine shop had not yet opened, so they came directly to Zhou's mansion. Although Chunshui is now a man, the Zhou family is still the same as ordinary people, and the gatekeeper is not invited to watch the door. Ran Er and Qinglian saw that the door was open, so they kept walking in. I just happened to meet the shopkeeper Zhou.

"Uncle Zhou has a good New Year."

The two sisters greeted Shopkeeper Zhou together.

"It's Ran'er and Qinglian, come into the house, I really didn't expect you two sisters to come."

"Yesterday, Chunshui was still muttering, and said that he would go to see your two sisters in two days."

"It's time for us to come and see Uncle and Brother Chunshui, how can we let Brother Chunshui go to see Ran'er and Lian'er?"

As they spoke, Ran Er and Qinglian followed behind Shopkeeper Zhou and came to the hall. Casually put the gift on the table of the eight immortals in the hall.

"You remember to come and see me, why do you pay so many courtesies?"

"Uncle is polite, it's not a valuable thing. Ran'er and Lian'er have been cared for by Uncle and Brother Chunshui for many years, and they have not been able to repay them, and this is just a gesture of affection. ”

Came to the inner room with Shopkeeper Zhou, sat down for a while, and Qinglian asked:

"Uncle Zhou, why didn't you see Brother Chunshui?"

"It's unfortunate that you came, so I accompanied my daughter-in-law to my mother's house early this morning."

"Oh, I haven't seen my sister-in-law Chunshui, and I don't want to see you again today."

Qinglian's tone was clearly disappointed.

"Uncle, isn't Brother Chunshui going to the school?"

"I'll leave in a few days, and I'm going to Wang's house today to resign."

"Is my sister-in-law going with you?"

The daughter-in-law wants to go, but Chunshui is still hesitating. I don't care about their business, whether they go or not, they just discuss it themselves. ”

"When will Uncle's liquor store open?"

"I was about to tell you this. If you don't come today, I'm going to write to you too. The wine shop was transferred out and transferred to a family surnamed Xie, who is also a native of Yangzhuang, and is honest. I have already said hello to him, the wine shop will accept your eggs and sour bamboo shoots as before, and the price is also the original price. ”

"Oh, now that Brother Chunshui is already a man, the uncle is naturally an old lady, and he should also enjoy the blessings."

"What old lady? We don't talk about this. ”

Ran Er and Qinglian sat down again, politely refused to leave the shopkeeper Zhou for dinner, and said goodbye and went home at the beginning of the day.

I didn't want to just turn around the foot of the mountain at the east end of Xia Village, and I saw three people sitting in the pavilion by the pond, one seemed to be Grandpa Li, and the other two, I recognized one of them when I was about to get closer, one of them was Yao Wenlin, and there was an elderly man, Ran'er and Qinglian didn't know each other. Judging by the old man's age, he should be slightly younger than Grandpa Li, and he is already full of gray hair.

"Grandpa Li is here, when did Uncle Yao arrive?"

"Ran'er and Sister Lian'er, we've been here for a long time. This is my father. ”

Yao Wenlin pointed to the old man beside him and introduced to Ran'er and Qinglian.

"Hello Grandpa Yao."

The two sisters walked a few steps closely, came to Yao Shuangcheng, and greeted Shi Li. And explained:

"I went to Yangzhuang early in the morning to pay New Year's greetings to the shopkeeper Zhou, but fortunately I didn't eat in Yangzhuang."

"It was you two sisters who saved Wenlin?"

Hearing Yao Shuangcheng ask, Ran Er immediately replied:

"Grandpa Yao's words are serious, and he can't talk about whether he can be saved or not. It's just that Uncle Yao happened to come to the door of Ran'er and Lian'er, but he just asked Lang Zhong to diagnose Uncle Yao's pulse and grab a few doses of Chinese medicine. If you want to say that you have a lot of strength, you might as well be Uncle Li Cheng of Grandpa Li's family. ”

"Well, it's really two well-informed girls. No wonder Wenlin always compliments you. ”

"Grandpa Yao, Grandpa Li, Uncle Yao, let's go home and talk, it's cool here."