At night, Erni expressed a lot of worries and cried. When she woke up the next day, she seemed to have forgotten everything and happily discussed with Yingbao how to spend the money she had.
She and Dani each planted two hundred golden ears, and this time they sold them for fifteen taels of silver.
Adding the twenty or so taels she earned last year, she now has more than thirty taels. Compared with girls of the same age in the village, Erni is simply a little rich woman.
"When you get married, use the money you save to buy a shop in the county town. Even if you don't do business in the future, you can still make money every month by renting it out to others."
Yingbao suggested to Erni: "So you have to save more money now."
Erni agreed and asked with a look of longing: "How much money does it cost to buy a shop in the county town?"
"That depends on the location. If the location is good, a shop will cost at least two hundred taels."
"What? So expensive." Erni calculated and thought about the money she had, which didn't seem to be a lot.
Next time when I differentiate the strains, I might as well plant 200 more golden ears.
But the problem is that there must be a place to put the fungus.
That thing is delicate and cannot be exposed to the sun and rain, and it cannot be planted too densely. Ten or twenty plants are no problem, but if there are more, you will have to build a new bamboo shed to store them.
Erni scratched her head. Building a bamboo shed is not easy. It is almost the same as building a house.
After breakfast, Chunniang took the children to see the bride.
When I walked into Jiang Erlang's yard, I saw that almost all the members of the Jiang family were present.
Yan Ru was wearing a red dress and holding a tea bowl to serve morning tea to her parents-in-law.
Morning tea is egg water made with boiling water and sugar added.
"Dad, Mom, please have some tea." Yan Ru handed over the bowl respectfully.
Old Man Jiang and Mrs. Jiang Liu took it and took a sip, then gave their new daughter-in-law a red envelope each.
After serving tea, Jiang Erlang took his wife to introduce herself to the people.
"This is my eldest brother and his wife."
"Brother, sister-in-law." Yan Ru called them obediently.
Jiang Dalang and his wife nodded at her and said nothing.
"This is my third brother and his wife." Jiang Erlang introduced his younger brother and his wife.
"Third brother, third brother's wife."
"Second sister-in-law." Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang nodded at her.
"This is my eldest brother's family, Dacheng, Erquan, Dani, and Yuanbao." Jiang Erlang introduced them one by one: "Over there is my third brother's family, Yingbao, Xiaojie, and Xiaowu."
Yan Ru took out a handful of silver dates and distributed them to the children, two for each person.
The children thanked in unison: "Thank you, Second Aunt (Second Aunt)!"
Jiang Erlang then pulled his two children over and said, "Give your mother your greetings." He then said to his new wife, "Yan Ru, this is my eldest daughter Er Ni, and this is my eldest son Hu Zi."
Erni and Huzi looked awkward, but still called her mother.
Yan Ru gave each of the siblings an exquisite silver locket and put them on them personally.
After recognizing the people, Yanru went into the kitchen to cook, and Erni followed her in to help light the fire.
The mother and daughter worked together in perfect harmony, taking turns to cook.
Jiang Liu breathed a sigh of relief and whispered to her second son, "Now that you've married, live a good life in the future. Yan Ru looks pretty good, you have to treat her well."
"Got it, mother." Jiang Erlang said with a smile, "Don't cook lunch today, stay and taste Yan Ru's cooking."
Zhou and Chunniang smiled and nodded.
After seeing their new aunt, Yingbao and a few other children ran out because Jiang Quan said he would take them to the pond to catch shrimps.
The pond on the south slope is already quite large, and a lot of lotus roots are planted beside it. The lotus leaves have grown very large now, and can be used as a hat if you pick them and wear them on your head.
Several children, each holding a large lotus leaf, used a small scoop net to catch shrimps by the pond and soon caught half a basket.
After catching the shrimps, Jiang Quan took them to see his breeding puddle, where many loaches were rolling around.
"I raised these. We'll take some loaches back later, coat them with flour and fry them in lard. They'll be delicious."
Yuanbao and Huzi were drooling after hearing this and quickly asked their second brother to catch more loaches and bring them back for frying.
Yingbao also likes fried food, but she prefers sour and sweet apricots and peaches.
There are many fruit trees planted around her house, including peach trees, apricot trees, pear trees, persimmon trees, jujube trees, two apple trees, and several unfamiliar foreign vines.
After pruning and grafting, the fruit trees are blooming and bearing fruit this year, but because it is the first time to bear fruit, the number is not large. There are only dozens of fruits hanging on a tree, and some have only a dozen or so. But there are so many fruit trees.
It is now the end of May, and most of the apricots have turned yellow, so they should be edible by now.
"Second brother, let's go pick apricots." Those apricot trees were too tall for a little kid like Yingbao. The apricots were hidden among the leaves and could not be reached even with a long bamboo pole.
"Okay, I'll come back after I bring the shrimps and loaches home." Jiang Quan caught enough loaches, ran home quickly with the basket, and then ran back again dragging a long bamboo pole.
So the children started knocking apricots again.
The bamboo poles were hit with a snap, and the ripe apricots on the treetops fell down. Xiaojie and Xiaowu picked apricots under the tree, screaming. When they found a big one, they handed it to their sister to see, and they were very happy.
Yingbao and Yuanbao Huzi also picked up broken apricots. They wiped them with their sleeves and started eating.
Ripe apricots are very delicious, sour and sweet, much better than cherries.
But eating too much of this stuff will hurt your teeth and stomach. Yingbao soon felt that her teeth could no longer bite anything, but she still couldn't help wanting to eat it.
After knocking on half the basket, Jiang Quan stopped knocking and started to discuss with Ying Bao, "Ying Bao, when there is a market tomorrow, can we sell the apricots we can't finish eating on the street?"
He knew that these fruit trees belonged to Yingbao, so he wanted to discuss it with her.
Yingbao nodded: "Well, you take me there when the time comes."
"No problem!" Jiang Quan laughed and rubbed his cousin's head: "We'll split the money in half when we sell it."
"good."
At noon, the whole Jiang family had lunch at Jiang Erlang's house.
Yan Ru really cooked two large tables of dishes. She put a lot of thought into each dish. Not only were they fragrant, but they were also presented in beautiful shapes.
The shrimps and loaches that Jiang Quan brought back were also fried as he requested and served on a large plate. A small round lotus leaf was placed at the bottom of the plate, which looked very tempting in its green color.
Zhou and Chunniang have been cooking for their entire lives, but they didn't know that dishes could be presented like this.
For example, a circle of leaves can be placed next to the steamed fish, with a small piece of yellow apricot flesh on each leaf, which looks very beautiful.
When eating, the adults sat at one table and the children sat at another. The dishes were the same, except that the children's table had more fried shrimps and fried loaches.
After dinner, Yan Ru started to clean up the dishes. Chun Niang, her sister-in-law, and Dani and Er Ni also went to help.
Yingbao took her two younger brothers home.
After eating too much at noon, she took her two puppies for a stroll in the yard.
The gourds planted in the spring have already grown vines and are now blooming with many small white flowers. Under the flower stalks are small green gourds, some of which are half the size of a palm.
Xiaojie found these small gourds interesting and reached out to pick them, but Yingbao stopped him, "These are still immature gourd babies, so we can't pick them. Let's wait until they grow up and then pick them, okay?"
The little fellow had to retract his hand and muttered, "The little gourds are not big enough to be picked. I will pick them later."
"So good." Yingbao touched Xiaojie's head.
Xiao Wu suddenly ran over, lowered his head and came close to his sister to let her touch him, saying, "Xiao Wu is the best."
Yingbao had no choice but to touch him again and praised him, "Xiaowu is also a good boy."