Chapter 10: Winter Bamboo Shoots

After moving to Lingyang Village, Xia Meizhen quickly adapted to life in the village, and that weird dream gradually disappeared.

Three months have passed in the blink of an eye.

Today is a bit unfortunate, there is still a little sunshine in the morning, and in the afternoon it will snow lightly. This is the first snow since the beginning of winter. And Jiang Yunxian had already gone out to the state capital in the morning because the price of homespun cloth in the state capital was higher.

Xia Meizhen sat in the corridor and watched the snow with great interest, although this was not the first time she had seen snow, but she was also fascinated by it. She remembers that in her previous life, when she went to live at her grandmother's house during the winter vacation, her grandfather was always willing to take her to dig winter bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest.

And this season is also the time when winter bamboo shoots are on the market, Xia Meizhen had a flash of inspiration, turned her head and looked at the back of the village, where there is a large lush bamboo forest, there must be a lot of winter bamboo shoots!

Winter bamboo shoots are tender and delicious, crisp and refreshing, not only can they eat fresh, but the dried bamboo shoots not only last for a long time, but also have a taste that fresh bamboo shoots do not have, which is simply what they urgently need now!

When they moved to Lingyang Village, they had already spent most of their money, so after the winter came, the money they used to weave and sell cloth alone was no longer enough to meet their living needs. At the beginning, she also thought about doing some small business, or going to a restaurant to be a cook or something, but because she was too young, no one wanted her at all.

And now, the good deal in front of her, how can Xia Meizhen not take advantage of it?

The more she thought about it, the more Xia Meizhen felt that she was looking forward to a good life - with winter bamboo shoots, she still didn't believe that she couldn't turn over, and she couldn't afford to live a good life.

In the evening, as soon as Jiang Yunxian came back, she couldn't wait to say her thoughts, "Mother, haven't you been worrying about how we will spend the winter, I have a way, as long as we can dig up winter bamboo shoots, and then take them to the market to buy, fresh winter bamboo shoots will definitely be sold at a good price." ”

In the previous life, winter bamboo shoots were vegetables comparable to meat, and the price here will definitely not be cheap.

Jiang Yunxian glanced at her suspiciously, hung the changed clothes on the hanger, and then asked, "Where did you hear this?" I haven't seen anything before, so how can you find it casually? Don't get carried away with it. The owner of the cloth village told me today that the price of homespun cloth has dropped again, and soon we will not even be able to afford salt. ”

Xia Meizhen saw that her eyebrows were tightly locked, and she was even more surprised by what she said: People here don't know about winter bamboo shoots? It's not a joke, is it? Or is it because the winter bamboo shoots don't come out, so they haven't been discovered?

"I'm not joking, mother, tomorrow I'll go up the mountain and dig it for you, and then we'll sell it at twice the price of spring bamboo shoots, I still don't believe it, we will be poor to death!" She swore that she clenched her fists as if she was ready to do a big job.

They really wanted to do a big job, Jiang Yunxian changed his clothes, hurriedly ate two mouthfuls of food, and then entered the house, and the creaking weaving sound was almost a night.

Their family was driven out, and being able to be at the foot of Lingyang Village was already a great grace from the village, and they did not divide the land - at the beginning, the Jiang clan patriarch and the clansmen heard that their mother and daughter were going to move out, and they were all anxious and red-eyed and thick-necked and refused to move.

Everyone knows that this is the Jiang family thinks that this orphan and widow are easy to bully, and they will not let go if they don't squeeze the money left by Xia Zhiyuan, and Jiang Yunxian is willing to spend money in order to get out of this demon cave, and he no longer wants to have anything to do with them, so their mother and daughter are now destitute.

Xia Meizhen was a little wilted after her interest was hit, but she still planned to find time to go to the mountains to have a look - it was better than sitting at home and waiting to eat and drink.

Because the melting snow will increase the difficulty of digging bamboo shoots, Xia Meizhen waited for two days, chose a sunny afternoon, carried a hoe and sickle, and tied a cloth bag around her waist to go up the mountain.

Because the people here don't know about the winter bamboo shoots, if they dig the winter bamboo shoots by themselves so that others can see them, they will cut off their own financial routes, and it is better to cover them up.

After two days of sunbathing in the mountains, it really slackened a lot and the stickiness was much smaller. Xia Meizhen learned a lot of skills in digging bamboo shoots with her grandfather when she was a child, so she chose a gray-blue bamboo, planed it from the roots, found the bamboo whip, and found the winter bamboo shoots after a while.

With the first winter bamboo shoots, Xia Meizhen is even more interested, although it is not a good time to dig winter bamboo shoots, but because the people here do not know the existence of winter bamboo shoots, the probability of digging bamboo shoots is much greater, and it took an afternoon to dig three or four catties of bamboo shoots by her.

According to what Jiang Yunxian said, the people here don't know about the existence of winter bamboo shoots, so the chance of digging up bamboo shoots is much greater.

When Xia Meizhen came home in the evening, Jiang Yunxian was shocked that her eyes forgot to blink, and she only said: Why are you so stubborn!

While hurriedly pulling Xia Meizhen into the house, finding her clothes to change, and finding ointment to apply to her. Because of the relationship between holding the hoe tightly, Xia Meizhen's hands were blistered with blood, and it fell into Jiang Yunxian's eyes, which was very unpleasant.

Xia Meizhen is not a person who is afraid of hardship, with this harvest, she runs into the bamboo forest every day, if she meets an acquaintance and asks, she says that she goes up the mountain to collect firewood and dig herbs, and no one suspects it. In order to catch up with the progress of the homespun cloth, she also began to weave cloth at night, and finally completed the order of the homespun cloth when she accumulated fifty catties of winter bamboo shoots.

"With so many bamboo shoots and homespun cloth, I think we're sure to have a good year this year." Watching Jiang Yunxian cut the cloth from the loom, Xia Meizhen said happily, as if these things were already silver.

Jiang Yunxian glanced at her strangely, arranged the cloth neatly, and said, "You want to go with me tomorrow?" ”

"Of course, I haven't been out in a long time."

Seeing her expectant look, Jiang Yunxian didn't say anything, it was a tacit acquiescence.

Early the next morning, the mother and daughter loaded the cloth and winter bamboo shoots into a wheelbarrow and headed for the state capital. The state capital that Jiang Yunxian went to was Xuanzhou Mansion, which was the only place for the Dongnu people to go south, and it was also one of the few state capitals on the border of the Great Zhou Dynasty that had strict checks on entering and leaving the city gates.

"Mother, after making money, can you buy a few taels of meat, I haven't seen meat for three months." Xia Meizhen looked at the things in the car, turned her head and asked Jiang Yunxian.

Jiang Yunxian said: "It depends on whether your winter bamboo shoots are worth anything, I don't have the money to sell meat for you to eat." ”

As the two of them spoke, they saw that the city gate was approaching, and the sight made them stop talking unconsciously.

It was morning and there were many people entering the gates, some glamorous and magnificent, some unclothed and unclothed, and most of them were people like them dressed like coarse cloth and dressed as countrymen.

The city guards, who had cultivated a pair of sharp eyes, swept their eyes lightly over them, and let them in without interrogation.

“…… Wait for me to deliver the goods to the boss of the cloth village, and you will wait for me outside the door. Jiang Yunxian said, and the two entered the city gate.

Xia Meizhen didn't speak, raised her head slightly, and glanced at the armor of the city guard, the last time she saw the city guard was three months ago, and the gray armor she saw at that time really impressed her too much, and now it may be the relationship of the upcoming New Year, the armor on the city guard is much cleaner.

"The mother and daughter in front of you stop!" A neutral male voice sounded.

Xia Meizhen immediately had a thought in her heart: But just a glance at your armor, won't you detain me?

At that time, her legs and stomach went limp.

"Master Jun?" Jiang Yunxian immediately stopped and asked.

It was a young city guard in his thirties, with a thin face, two mustaches, and a pair of piercing eyes, which made his stare feel like he was being held to the neck with a knife. Because of these eyes, he has a nickname called Li Laoying.

Li Laoying stepped forward, looked their mother and daughter up and down, and said, "The state capital has not been very peaceful recently, and this official is responsible for the inspection of the city gate, so you have to tell the truth." ”

"Where are you from? Where are you going? What's in the car? ”

"We are from Lingyang Village, and we are going to deliver goods to the cloth village, and this car is loaded with homespun cloth." Jiang Yunxian said methodically, "Does the official want to take a look?" ”

"What's in this bag?" Li Lao Ying circled around the wheelbarrow, pointed at the winter bamboo shoots on the cart with the saber in his hand and asked.

"It's a bamboo shoot."

"Nonsense, how can there be bamboo shoots now, open it and I'll take a look." The young city guard was on guard in an instant. Although Li Laoying's only hobby is to eat bamboo shoots, he also knows that bamboo shoots are something that only grows in spring, and these two people are clearly deceiving him!

After this conversation, Xia Meizhen naturally figured out what was going on, so she was naturally not afraid, and generously opened the cloth bag for the city guard to check.

"Look, sir, it's bamboo shoots."

Li Laoying has eaten bamboo shoots for half his life, and it is the first time he has seen them on a cold day, which is really strange, but at the same time, he is still very puzzled, glanced at Xia Meizhen, and then stabbed a winter bamboo shoot with a saber, and with a snort, a half-sized bamboo shoot was split in two.

The tender yellow bamboo shoot meat was exposed, and a unique fragrance of bamboo shoots hit the nose, and Li Laoying was stunned for a moment.

"It's really bamboo shoots?" He muttered and put away his saber, "Alright, the inspection is over, you can go." Li Laoying said, and went to check on the others.

Xia Meizhen hurriedly tied the cloth bag tightly, and hurriedly walked to the city with Jiang Yunxian, but she was stopped after walking less than three steps.

"Hey, hey, I said what about you," Li Laoying, who went and returned, chased after him again, "I said you don't sell this bamboo shoot?" If I sell it, I want it all, as much as I want. ”

Jiang Yunxian didn't react for a while, Xia Meizhen said, "Of course it's sold." It's just that we only have this bamboo shoot, and we can't sell them all to you, but we have to keep a little bit for our relatives, you see, how about I send you a little more in two days? This way you will eat fresh. ”

She said neither humbly nor arrogantly, although she had a shallow smile on her face, but she didn't mean to please at all.

Li Laoying was puzzled, looked at Jiang Yunxian, and said, "Do you sell this bamboo shoot?" ”

He didn't believe Xia Meizhen's words.

"This is my daughter's bamboo shoots, and she calls the shots." Jiang Yunxian said.

Li Laoying had to say secretly: There are really no surprises in this world, and he doesn't do the business sent to the door. But he didn't embarrass Xia Meizhen, nodded, motioned for her to open the cloth bag, picked out the four largest winter bamboo shoots, and then touched ten copper coins from his belt to her.

The city guard didn't covet her bamboo shoots, Xia Meizhen was already very satisfied, so she didn't have too little, rearranged the wheelbarrow, and went on the road again.