After planting the seedlings, Ran'er and Qinglian were idle. When the seedlings are small, as long as there is no shortage of water in the field, you don't have to worry about it. It's just that Ran'er's family has never raised pigs and has no fertilizer. Ran'er found Grandpa Li and told him that he wanted to buy some fertilizer and use it in the rice field. People in the countryside all farm, and basically there are few people who sell fertilizer. Grandpa Li knew that it was not easy for Ran'er and the two sisters, so he still looked around, found a few familiar families, and each took out some of their own fat, and sent Li Shun to send Ran'er to the ground in an ox cart. And help Ran'er to spread the fertilizer evenly. It just so happened that a batch of pickled sour bamboo shoots was ready, so he moved a jar and put it on Li Shun's ox cart. Seeing that Li Shun didn't want it, he said:

"I told my grandfather that when it was pickled, I would give my grandfather a jar to taste."

Li Shun didn't know that Ran'er was lying, so he pulled him home. As soon as he said to his father, Grandpa Li said to Li Shun:

"Since you brought it, let's keep it and eat it. Ran'er, like her deceased mother, is a sensible child. I remember to take care of the little sisters more in the future, two children without fathers and mothers, it is distressing to watch. ”

chased fertilizer in the rice field, and Ran'er was completely relieved. At this time, the pickled bamboo shoots of the two were all pulled away by the Zhou Ji Wine Shop, with a total of 62 jars of sour bamboo shoots before and after, and they actually got 2,470 yuan, which was equivalent to 224 coins of silver and 70 copper coins. Fifty jars of money, Shopkeeper Zhou didn't ask for it, saying that the jar was his and lent it to the sisters for free every year.

In the evening, the two sisters sat on the kang and happily counted the copper coins in their hands, and Qinglian said to Ran'er:

"Sister, let's pickle more next year and sell it for more money."

"Okay, let's take some out of this money this year, and we'll all make new clothes. And just buy some pork to eat, do you want to eat it? ”

Qinglian swallowed her saliva when she heard Ran'er say to buy pork, but she still gritted her teeth and insisted:

"Sister, let's wait until the New Year to buy meat to eat."

Ran Er made up her mind to pay attention to it, this time she didn't listen to Qinglian, and when she waited for the next day of the market, she would go to buy new clothes and pork. After Xiao Qinglian came here, although her face was not as pale as before, she still looked a little yellow and had little blood. Ran Er knows that when he was young, he couldn't lose his body, otherwise he would fall ill in the future.

After three days, Ran'er led Qinglian to see the seedlings in the field. It has been more than a month since it rained the last time the eggs were sold, and it hasn't rained for almost two months. When Ran Er thought of this, she couldn't help but think of when her mother was there, and said to herself:

"In recent years, the wind and rain have been smooth, and it is the first time that my mother has grown so big. Heaven can't always be so easy, buy some rice and save it after a while, in case there is a disaster, so as not to starve my little Ran'er. ”

Soon after saying this, my mother became ill and put down the matter of buying food. Now that a year and a half have passed, Ran'er thinks that if the harvest is not good, I am afraid that I will not be able to buy a few catties of rice with this little money. It is better to buy some rice together and save it at the market, so as not to starve when you get it.

After Ran'er calculated it in her heart, when she arrived at the market, she not only brought the copper coins that sold sour bamboo shoots, but also brought all the copper coins left by her mother, leaving only the ten taels of silver. Nearly 3,000 copper coins are still quite weighty. The weather was hot again, and when I arrived at Yangzhuang, Ran Er was sweating. He led Qinglian to the grain market in the woods first, casually inquired about the price of rice, and took the opportunity to cool off in the shade of the trees.

Because the year has been good for many years, prices are very low. One stone of rice is sold for only 4560 yuan. One stone of rice is almost two months to buy the sisters to eat, and Ran'er calculated that it would be good if the remaining rice at home could eat the new rice. If this year's harvest is good, like last year, there will be more than eight stones left after paying taxes, and since you want to buy it, you have to buy enough grain for the sisters to eat for a year. Not counting the harvest after autumn, you need to buy six stones, which is exactly 2,800 yuan.

Ran'er didn't buy it right away, worried that she didn't understand, and it would be bad to buy rice that had been aged for many years. So he led Qinglian to Zhou Ji Wine Shop, and saw that the shopkeeper Zhou was sitting at the counter reading a book, and hurriedly shouted:

"Uncle Zhou is good."

"Oh, it's Ran'er and Sister Qinglian, who are here to catch up?"

"Yes, Uncle Zhou, I want to buy some rice, but I can't see that it's good."

"Is there no rice at home?"

"It's a little bit."

"How much rice does Ran'er want to buy?"

"Six stones."

"How do you buy so much?"

However, it was difficult to say that buying rice was to prepare for a bad year, so she had to say to the shopkeeper Zhou:

"There is not much rice at home, and although the seedlings in the paddy fields are planted, there is no fertilizer, so I am afraid that I will not be able to produce much food. So I want to buy enough food for my sisters to eat for a year. ”

"Well, I'll buy it for you."

"I'm causing trouble to Uncle Zhou."

"It's okay, it's still early, and there are no diners, it's easy to buy food, just take a while."

Shopkeeper Zhou led the two to the grain market in the woods, looked around, and found a middle-aged man who was familiar with him, and the man drove an ox cart and pulled more than ten stone meters. Shopkeeper Zhou discussed with him, 445 wen per stone of rice, and sent it home to the Ran'er sisters to collect the money. After speaking, Shopkeeper Zhou went back to the wine shop. Ran Er said to the middle-aged man:

"Uncle is waiting for us at the head of the market, we still have to go buy something."

"Go, I'll wait for you under the big willow tree at the head of the market."

Ran Er took Qinglian to the ready-to-wear shop first, gave Qinglian eighteen wen, and spent twenty-five wen for each of them to make a new set of clothes. I came to the butcher shop again and bought ten catties of standard oil meat and five catties of pork bones. Only then did he come to the big willow tree at the head of the set, meet the middle-aged man, sit on the ox cart, and come to the small courtyard. The uncle helped to carry the six stone rice to the back wall of the outer room and stacked it. After collecting 2,670 yuan, he drove away in an ox cart.

Looking at the tall rice bags stacked by the wall, Ran Er'er felt much more at ease.

Let Qinglian help light the fire, Ran'er cut the standard oil meat finely, put it in a pot to boil the oil, put the oil into a black magnetic jar, and carefully cover the lid. Take out the boiled oil stains and put them in a bowl, grab a little fine salt, sprinkle it on it, pick up a piece with chopsticks, put it to your mouth to blow it cold, and hand it to the mouth of Qinglian who is burning the fire. Qinglian chewed carefully, her two big black and white eyes narrowed happily into a slit. Ran Er also ate a piece, put it on the table, and said to Qinglian:

"Sister, we won't cook for lunch and dinner, so let's eat this, okay?"

"Okay, it's delicious."

After boiling the oil, put five catties of pork bones in the pot and boil until the soup in the pot turned milky white and there were a lot of oil flowers floating before they were put into a magnetic basin. I simmered enough rice for two people to eat twice, and the weather is hot, so I don't dare to cook too much, otherwise it will easily spoil.

At the lunch table, Qinglian ate rice, and ate very sweetly with the grease stains in the bowl. After eating the rice, there was another bowl of thick bone broth, and the bones in the pot, the two of them also ate one piece each, leaving a few pieces to eat at dinner.

"Qinglian, eat more if you can. You can't eat too much at night, and if you eat too much, you will have an upset stomach at night. ”

"Sister, Qinglian has already eaten. It was the best meal Qinglian had ever had. ”

There is no need for Qinglian to say, Ran'er can also see it from Qinglian's face.

"Sister, we have spent all the money from selling bamboo shoots, and we will have no money in the future."

"Sister, don't worry, with rice, as long as we don't go hungry, we won't be afraid. You tell me? ”

Qinglian turned her head to look at the rice stacked by the wall, and her face was also happy.

"When it rains again, a lot of grass mushrooms will grow on the grass by the bamboo forest behind the house, which can also be exchanged for money. There are also four old hens, who have accumulated their eggs and bought us oil and salt. Today's boiled lard can be eaten for two or three months. ”

It's just that the two sisters were looking forward to the rain so that they could pick up grass and mushrooms, but they didn't realize it until mid-May. It's mid-summer in mid-May, and it hasn't rained for more than three months since the last rain. The seedlings in the paddy fields are wilting, and I can only worry about it. The small stream in front of the door has become a trickle, and it is not enough to water the fields. In recent days, the sisters have caught small shrimp in the river and scrambled eggs for two days. In the end, he also drove the four old hens to the river to forage for food.

The last time I went to the market to pick up the new clothes made by the two of them, Ran'er had already heard that the price of rice had risen from 450 wen to 600 wen, and if it didn't rain again, I was afraid that it would go up even more. Ran Er couldn't help but secretly congratulate herself in her heart for her decision to buy rice. Qinglian also said to Ran'er:

"Fortunately, my sister bought so much rice last time, otherwise, it would be precious now."

"Lian'er, my mother once said that generally the disaster will not end in a year, and most of them are caused by drought and flood locust plagues. We still have to eat frugally, otherwise in case of a famine year, we will suffer. ”

"Well, Qinglian listens to my sister."

The drought lasted until early July, when the rice was about to be harvested. The stream in front of the door had been completely cut off, and even the sisters had to dig a deep pit in the dry riverbed to get the clear water seeping out of the sand.

Because there is no irrigation from the stream, and it doesn't rain every day, the two acres of paddy fields of Ran'er's family have to harvest about 10 stones of rice in previous years, but this year it is dry, and the rice in the field is not as high as the knee, barely harvesting less than three stones, about 250 catties of rice, of which almost half is grain. Fortunately, the imperial court knew that the local area was suffering from a drought, so it ordered the county to exempt the taxes of that year. Originally, after the rice was harvested, another crop of wheat was planted. Ran'er can't do so much work because of her small size, and since her mother died, she only planted one crop of rice. This year, even if I wanted to plant, I couldn't, and the fields were dry and cracked, and there were gaps everywhere that were much wider than Ran'er's fingers.

Due to the favorable weather for several consecutive years, although there has been a drought this year, because most of the families have surplus grain, the price of rice on the market has only risen to about one penny, although it is more than twice as expensive as when I bought it, but such a price is still affordable for ordinary people.