After selling today's things and closing the door, Qi Ning moved the meat and oil, salt, sauce and vinegar back to the backyard of the new home, and then washed things in the well in the backyard, by the way, a few cauldrons in the shed were made, and now Qi Ning has five cauldrons, no longer have to shrink like before, two small pots can be used for cooking, very convenient, and a few bundles of firewood have also been moved, and the rest is not worth much to leave to Wang Zhutou, anyway, there are still firewood to send during the market day. Qi Ning is not good at pasta, so he stuffs a pot of rice every day, and if he is willing to eat, he will pay a big bowl for three cents.

In the next few days, Qi Ning opened the door in the morning as usual, and when it was past lunch time, the customers who ate in the store left, so he closed the door and cleaned up his small home.

It turned out that a few yellowish moon-red trees in front of the corridor were also carefully watered by chrysanthemums, green and green, and dozens of small buds had grown. A few clumps of bamboo were planted outside the back window of the shop, so that when the window was opened on a hot day, the backyard would not be unobstructed and bright to outsiders. Out of the external window of the shop, the other windows were fixed with beige curtains, and there were no flies and mosquitoes when the windows were opened, and the back door was hung with a curtain made by Wu. The open space in the backyard Qi Ning plans to make a vegetable garden, but she can't grow vegetables, so it's empty for the time being. Qi Ning's bedroom in the main room, the east wing room was empty, and some sundries were placed in the upside-down seat, which was also empty.

After sending off the last wave of customers who had breakfast, Qi Ning sat behind the counter leisurely holding a piece of pork liver and watching the flow of people on the street while eating, waiting for the wave of customers before noon.

"Sister Ning, is that you?" Qi Ning looked at it, and there were one big and one small standing outside the door wearing white-washed dresses.

"Auntie? Big girl? Is that you? Qi Ning couldn't believe that these two thin and out-of-shape people were her only two relatives in this world, her aunt Qi and the eldest girl, and she hadn't seen these two people for two months, and they were like refugees fleeing the famine. I didn't hear that this Qing'an City was also affected.

"Sister Ning." The eldest girl took the lead and said with tears in her eyes: "We finally found you." Woohoo......"

"Auntie, come in." Qi Ning hurriedly wiped his hands and went out to help Qi into the house.

"Did you receive the letter from my car owner?"

"I got it, and I got what you brought." Qi tugged at the placket of his clothes in restraint, put a suffocating burden on his arm on the table, and then sat down with his buttocks.

"Ningning, are you okay? You opened this shop? ”

"Yes, Auntie, you haven't eaten yet, have you?" The two of them had sallow faces, and their lips were dry and peeling. Anyone who looks at it knows that they definitely didn't care about eating when they came out early in the morning.

"I didn't eat, Sister Ning, we haven't eaten for two days, and we walked dozens of miles to find you before dawn, and we didn't even drink saliva." The big girl hurriedly said.

"Eat first, and then we'll talk about it after eating." Qi Ning looked at the Qi clan with an ominous premonition, went to the counter and cut a few plates of meat, took the bamboo basket with steamed buns and put it on the table, and poured two large bowls of water for the two, so that they could eat first. The eldest girl lowered her head and gobbled it up, Qi wiped her eyes, took a steamed bun, lowered her head and ate it without knowing the taste. At this time, the guests who bought meat came, Qi Ning hurriedly went to greet him, weighed the package and sent it away, the Qi family and the two were also full, and the eldest girl burped: "Sister Ning, the dishes you made are really delicious, we didn't taste a bite of the dishes you sent last time." They were all eaten by grandma and second aunt. The big girl held her mouth.

"It's not a precious thing, the big girl likes to eat, so she can live and eat enough every day." Qi Ning sat down next to them, refilled the water and then asked seriously: "Say, did you encounter something?" How did you two lose weight like this? ”

With the help of the Qi family and the eldest girl, Qi Ning learned what happened.

The Qi family gave birth to a big girl after more than ten years of marriage, and has always been dissatisfied with the in-laws, Zhong Dashan doesn't know how to hook up with a widow in the village, the widow is also surnamed Zhong, and she is from the village, but she is not an ancestor with the Zhong family. Widow Zhong is an only daughter, and when she grew up, she sat on the mountain to recruit a husband, and recruited someone who came from other places to find relatives. Less than two years after the marriage, the man died, leaving Widow Zhong with a son who couldn't walk, and a widow who couldn't afford to earn money made ends meet by hooking up with the village idlers to get some silver.

Zhong Dashan didn't know when he had a head and end with this widow, the widow came to the door the day before yesterday and said that she was pregnant with Zhong Dashan's child, and sat at the door of the courtyard crying and making trouble. The eldest girl was playing grass and went home to meet her, but she was angry and scolded the widow a few words, who knew that Zhong Su and Zhong Erniang were afraid of hurting the child in the belly of the Zhong widow, so they beat the eldest girl, losing money one by one, and scolded Qi Shi for being a chicken that does not lay eggs. Later, Zhong Laoshi and Zhong Dashan, who were working in the fields, ran home with hoes, and Zhong Dashan slapped the big girl open and helped the widow into the door.

The old and young of the Zhong family muttered in the house, Zhong Erniang packed a few pieces of Qi and the eldest girl's clothes with a torn bag, and the family drove the Qi family and daughter out of the door. The two of them slept in the doorway of the ancestral hall for two nights, and it was not dawn today, so they had no choice but to walk all the way into the city to find Qi Ning.

Qi Ning looked at the Qi mother and daughter who were crying and out of breath, and sighed. In this era of male superiority and inferiority, who doesn't know how important a son is to a woman? Even if he is a fool, a disabled person with missing arms and legs, he is still a man who is a top family, his daughter will marry out sooner or later, and recruiting a son-in-law is looked down upon.

"In this case, you can stay with me in the future, although my shop is newly opened, but it can earn some silver, and it is enough to eat and drink. I'm planning to put on some new varieties, just you can help me, and the foreigners in the province are not at ease. ”

"Well, I'll do some housework and do some rough work, can I do it?" Qi Shi raised his teary eyes and asked hesitantly.

"I can do it, why not, I can do anything, I will do it. Sister Ning, we won't eat in vain. The big girl hurriedly said.

"Look at what you say." Qi Ning wiped her face with a handkerchief: "We are close relatives, if my aunt hadn't taken me back, maybe I would have died of illness at home alone." In fact, Qi Ning knew in his heart that the former master was afraid that he was sick and died at home, and he happened to be possessed, so he woke up.

"It's me who is useless." Qi Shi said a word and cried again.

"Don't cry, auntie, let the people on the street see it and think something happened." Qi Ning was a little impatient, she hated people who didn't want to solve things and could only cry when she encountered them.

"Yes, mother, you are crying endlessly in Sister Ning's shop, let her still do business." The eldest girl saw that Qi Ning's face was a little impatient, and she was startled, and hurriedly comforted Qi.

Qi Ning looked at the eldest girl with some satisfaction: "In the future, you will live in the east wing, there are all things in the house, and I will go buy some futons in the afternoon." There is a well in the backyard, and the stove is in the shed, so you should go and wash up first. ”

Qi Shi hurriedly dragged the eldest girl to the wing, she was afraid of delaying Qi Ning's business.

Qi Ning cleaned up the table and began to greet the customers who came to the door.

At noon, Qi fried a green vegetable in the backyard and brought it over, and the three of them ate with their own thoughts, Qi Ning closed the door and took the two of them to the backyard to wash the water and other things that were sent over in the morning.

Qi Shi and the eldest girl rushed to help Qi Ning get things after running and washing the pork intestines.

"Auntie, you can do it here from now on, I'll take care of your food and lodging, and the other person will be paid 500 wen a month, okay?" After Qi Ning threw the last piece of pork liver into the pot, he straightened up and looked at the mother and daughter who were busy washing the dishes by the well and asked.

"We don't need silver, it's good if you can give us a place to live, don't need to be paid, just tell us if you have any work." Qi Shi hurriedly waved his hand.

"That's not good, the more you are your own people, the clearer the accounts, this is not a matter of a day or two, the eldest girl is also seeing that she is getting older, and in the future, her mother-in-law's family cannot be without a dowry. If business is good in the future, I will give you more. ”

"Sister Ning!" The big girl ran out shyly.

"But I'm your aunt, how can I ask you for wages!"

"Auntie, don't think too much, I'm already too busy, I'm going to hire people, and the money is earned by others, so it's better for you and the eldest girl."

"That's a tael of silver is too much, I know you want to help my aunt, but the strong laborers on the dock can't earn a tael a month. What we do is a light life, you can just give the big girl a few copper plates. Qi said sincerely.

"Okay, auntie, don't talk about the salary, since you are here, I want to have a few more fresh food, and when the time comes, I will count on my aunt to help me do more in the back, so let the eldest girl be responsible for delivering the food before and after, and I will take care of the guests during the day." If you know how to make noodles, steam some steamed buns, roll some noodles, and stuff a pot of rice every day. If we can't buy it, we can eat it ourselves. ”

Qi wanted to refute, but he was very powerless, and he was very clear about her good intentions. Qi Ning went to the cloth shop on Main Street to buy some cotton for Qi's family, and asked her to make two futons for her first. Before going to bed, Qi Ning took twenty taels of silver to the east wing and gave it to Qi, Qi was sewing the quilt, with red eyes and repeatedly shirking, and finally looked at Qi Ning, who was insisting, and reluctantly accepted it.