It is said that after Tian mentioned Xia Yu on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, no one expected that a few days later, Xia Yu and his family really came back, Xia Yu couldn't walk so far, took a section of ox cart, walked a mountain road by herself, crossed a single-plank bridge, and took a section of ox cart, in short, according to herself, it was not easy to come back. It turned out that she had been married for more than three months, and there was no news of pregnancy, her mother-in-law's family was anxious, and Xia Yu couldn't say anything, so she wanted to go back to her parents' house to raise her for a while, so she found a familiar Langzhong to see.

Xia Yu went back to her parents' house and brought some production from the field to Ziqing's family, although the things were not valuable, but in the end, they were a heart, and the Shen family invited them over for a meal. After the meal, Qiu Yu and Xia Yu sisters took a bath at the same time, Qiu Yu said with a smile when she left: "Every time I come to my second brother's house for dinner, I say I want to take a bath, but every time I always break up unhappily, it's been half a year, and today I took this bath, it's so comfortable, Dad, Mother, if you want me to say that you should also take one, my second sister-in-law will really enjoy it, it's good to be rich." ”

Xia Yu twisted her and said in a low voice: "Wash you, where did all those gossips come from, you have to make everyone unhappy before you are willing?" ”

Ziqing saw that the old man and Tian glared at Shen, and hurriedly said: "Sister-in-law, where will my mother be happy, this is what my father and my eldest brother want to get, saying that my mother is a woman with such a child, and it is too hard to work at home and outside the house all day long, and taking a hot bath at night can relieve the fatigue." ”

Ziqing successfully saw that Tian's face had changed, and said angrily: "It's not that I'm done washing, why don't you leave?" ”

Sending them away, Shen poked Ziqing's head with his hand and shook his head, Ziqing hurriedly pulled Zishou and said, "Little San, my sister will show you that the watermelon is ripe?" ”

After that, Ziqing went to the field to knock watermelons almost every day, but there were still not many ripe ones, and after waiting for a few days, on May 15, Ziqing finally took a melon to send a letter to the shopkeeper Zhou, and asked: "Shopkeeper Zhou, can you discuss with your owner, you see, this year's drought, the melon production has decreased, but the melon is sweeter than last year's, you can taste it, and this year's melon is ten days earlier than last year, you go and ask the owner if you can give more hard money." ”

The next day, when the shopkeeper Zhou brought someone to pull the melon, he told the owner that twenty wen a pound can be sold until the end of this month, from the beginning of June to the middle of June, it is still eighteen, although it did not reach the expected goal, but Ziqing is still relatively satisfied. There is no merchant who does not seek profit.

Sending away the shopkeeper Zhou, taking the one hundred taels of silver in his hand, Ziqing went to find Li Zheng in Shen's house, and Shen asked: "Isn't it to buy a piece of pork on the street, such a large sum of silver, why are you so eager to send it to others?" ”

"Oh, mother, don't you care, hasn't Dad already agreed? Besides, didn't I make this watermelon, and you still don't believe me? I want to raise a lot of chickens, and I want to sell them at a good price before the Chinese New Year. "When Ziqing sold couplets last year, I asked in the vegetable market, and the steered chickens were sold for up to 20 wen a catty a year ago, and I thought that people would take care of us for the eighteen wen that I gave to the shopkeeper Zhou. The most important thing is that Ziqing wants to raise a thousand chickens, chicken manure is used to fatten the mountain, and then raise some sheep, and the nutrition of the fruit trees is almost the same, but these can't be said in detail, so they can only grind hard and be coquettish.

Shen couldn't screw Ziqing, so he had to take a small basket of eggs, and went to the house, and Ziqing followed. He accompanied Zixi and Zishou, and a few days after the holiday, Shen sent a letter to pick up her mother. When I arrived at Li Zheng's house, Li Zheng went out, Li Zheng's lady accompanied Shen to stand at the door and talk, and when she saw the basket of eggs in Shen's hand, the smile on her face was more sincere. Ziqing snickered when she saw it, this is easy to do.

Shen handed over the basket, and Li Zheng pretended to excuse herself, and while she was pulling, Li Zheng came back from the field with his two sons. Shen Shi said what he meant, Li Zheng grabbed a few beards on his chin with his right hand, pondered for a moment before saying: "Xiucai lady, that mountain even comes down to the land, how can it be estimated that there are forty or fifty acres, although the price of the barren mountain is cheaper, but with the ten or so acres of wasteland, there will be one hundred and eighty taels of silver, and this silver cannot be owed on credit." ”

"Li Zheng rest assured, my family is also because there are many children, I want to make a living, the paddy field is too expensive, and it will not be easy to buy for a while, so I scraped together some money to buy some barren mountains and wasteland, and I can take care of it diligently."

"It's easy to say that the silver is enough, who sells is not selling, so many years this barren mountain wasteland is also idle here, I see that your big yard is built, it is very convenient to raise chickens and grow vegetables or something, and the villagers don't want this small homestead to build a house in the future, the wasteland in the village should be easy to sell, even I want to get a big yard to live in." Tomorrow, I will go to the county government and find someone to measure you, and then I will complete the formalities, but I am afraid that I will have to go to the county school to find Zeng Xiucai to sign and draw the pledge. It's just that this way ... ”

Shen hurriedly handed over the four strings of money and said, "Then it's troublesome, take this to hire a car for a meal, and ask the people at the yamen to do things, so you don't have to make a point of putting it in." ”

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say, you can rest assured that you can wait for my good news." After taking the copper coin, Lizheng's face smiled into a chrysanthemum. Money can make ghosts grind, ancient and modern.

Two days later, Li Zheng sent the title deed, saying that yesterday someone came to measure the barren mountain, in fact, it is two small soil slopes, overgrown with thorns and weeds, it is fifty acres, one or two silver acres, and the wasteland at the foot of the surrounding mountains is ten acres, this one costs two and a half silver acres, Shen took eighty taels of silver and asked Tori to go to the county to find Zeng Ruixiang to go through the formalities.

Ziqing circled around the foot of the mountain, it was almost a rectangle about 200 meters long and about 150 meters wide, but there were two soil slopes in the rectangle, the courtyard wall of Ziqing's house leaned against the foot of the mountain, and the wasteland was mainly on the east side of the hillside, and the villagers basically walked from the west to the back mountain, because most of the west facing was paddy fields.

Ziqing saw that the weeds on this hillside were very lush, and she was afraid that poisonous snakes would hide in it, so she decided to set fire to it first, and these things were naturally handed over to Zeng Ruiyu to do. Because Zeng Ruixiang was not at home, Shen still invited the old man Zeng, and he invited ten people in the village to build a house to build the courtyard wall. Master Luo said that it was better to finish it before the summer harvest, which was exactly what Ziqing meant.

When the old man went back, he muttered to the Tian family, saying that he didn't expect the Shen family to buy a large piece of wasteland, but he was afraid that he would spend a lot of silver, "It seems that this watermelon is still very profitable, and I don't know how the Chunyu family planted it?" Look at the second daughter-in-law, a woman with a bunch of children at home, can live such a prosperous life in a year or two, the eldest son-in-law's family has been separated for so many years, and there is no improvement at all, and I don't know what to be busy with all day? With the time to fight the autumn wind, it is better to think about how to live the life, only blindly eat wine and brag, and I don't know where Chunyu fell in love with him? No wonder the boss doesn't look down on him. ”

Ziqing naturally didn't know this, this period of time she threw herself on the barren mountain, on the hillside, every twenty meters to set up a chicken nest, every five meters to dig a three-foot square tree pit, the sheepfold is located at the foot of the mountain, Master Luo They spent 20 days busy, mainly Ziqingyang They even dug the tree pit on the hillside, and the courtyard wall and chicken coop all cost less than fifteen taels of silver. Zeng Ruiyu's adobe was not enough, so he borrowed some from others, saying that he would pay it back later, so Shen gave him four taels of silver, including money to buy stones.