Afterwards, Wei Zhan asked his uncle to send someone to the town to buy a lot of gifts, all of which were children's toys, such as small chickens, ceramic balls, wooden spinning tops, bamboo dragonflies, etc., and distributed them to the children in the village.
He also bought pens, ink, paper, and inkstone as gifts for Huzi, Yuanbao, Erni, Yingbao and others.
Wang Xian prepared another twenty pieces of cloth and gave them to the Jiang family as a thank you gift for taking care of Wei Zhan.
Old man Jiang couldn't refuse, so he had to accept it.
The next morning, the Jiang family sent Wei Zhan to the carriage. Yingbao saw Mrs. Wen and her two daughters sitting on a mule cart with several baskets of dried golden ears tied to the back of the mule cart. It seemed that they were going to leave with Wang Xian and the others.
Good going!
Yingbao didn't want to get entangled with this person who looked like the heroine in the book, lest her family become their stepping stone.
The production of golden ears in the village was extremely low this time, and Manager Zhou did not come for some reason, so the villagers' golden ears were sold to Madam Wen San.
It wasn't much, only about 40 pounds in total, but Mrs. Wen San bought it at the price of 10 taels per pound, which made the villagers very happy.
But because Mrs. Wen San had no cash, she wrote an IOU for more than 400 taels in the name of the Wen family and asked the head of the Chen clan to be a witness.
Although the villagers were puzzled, since Mrs. Wen was still teaching here, they accepted the offer without much hesitation.
The Jiang family did not sell the golden ears, firstly because there were not many of them, and secondly because they wanted to wait for Manager Zhou to make a decision.
When doing business, one must be honest. If Manager Zhou comes and fails to collect the money, wouldn't it make people think that the people of Chencun are not trustworthy
The golden ears of Jiang Sanlang's family are all in Yingbao's cave, and she would never sell them to Mrs. Lin, the third wife of Wen.
The carriage brought by Wang Xian finally drove away.
Wei Zhan leaned against the car window and cried so hard that the women of the Jiang family couldn't help but wipe away their tears.
"I'll be back soon... woooooo... Huzi Yuanbao, don't forget me."
Hu Zi cried loudly and followed the carriage for a long distance.
He is closest to Wei Zhan because he has always eaten and slept with him and has already treated him as a brother.
When Wei Zhan saw Hu Zi chasing him, he cried even harder. If Wang Xian hadn't held him tightly, he would have jumped off the carriage and never gone back.
When the women in the village saw this, they sighed and watched the cars go away.
…
A few days later, it was the twelfth lunar month. Jiang Liu and her three daughters-in-law and several granddaughters sat on the porch basking in the sun, sewing clothes and muttering:
"It's almost the La Festival. Alas, our ancestors will have to go hungry this year. In previous years, we could have a pig's head or a goat's head, or at worst two chickens and two fish. But now, all the livestock have been killed by bandits. Even the old cows in the village have been killed by the damn bandits for meat. How can we have anything to offer to our ancestors?"
Zhou: "If it doesn't work, we still have a few chickens. We can kill one or two as sacrifices when the time comes."
"That's impossible. There are only a few chickens left, and we're counting on them to lay more eggs and hatch chicks in the spring. How can we kill them?"
Jiang Liu immediately shook her head in denial.
The family has spent a lot of money recently, especially Jiang Dalang and Erlang's families, who have to build houses, buy daily necessities, and make some necessary furniture, almost spending all the family's money.
Da Ni and Er Ni took the initiative to contribute their money to buy things for their home.
Fortunately, Jiang Sanlang's family found a lot of food, which was enough for the whole family to eat until next summer harvest, so they didn't have to go to other counties to buy food like other villagers.
But the La Festival is approaching, and livestock are indispensable for offering sacrifice to ancestors.
Nowadays, let alone livestock, even chickens, ducks and geese are hard to find and you can’t buy them even if you spend money.
"Why don't we go fishing? We caught a lot of fish last year. If we can't finish eating them, we can make smoked fish and cured fish." Dani gave Grandma an idea.
Jiang Liu's eyes lit up, "Yes, your second uncle and third uncle are the best at fishing. When they come back, ask them if they are free."
Using big fish as sacrifice does not mean insulting the gods and ancestors. After the sacrifice, you can bring them back to smoke and eat them until the beginning of next spring.
In the afternoon, when Jiang Sanlang and his elder and second brothers came back, they heard what their mother said. "Sanlang, the La Festival is coming soon, are you going to go fishing?"
Jiang Sanlang: "We'll see when the time comes."
Fishing requires bait, and it is always the little girl who prepares it. He doesn't know if his little girl still has that kind of bait.
"What do you mean by wait and see? The day after tomorrow is the twelfth lunar month. We have to start preparing early."
Jiang Liu said, "Your father has been nagging me since early morning. Your uncle's situation is not good. His house has been burned down and he has no money. If we hadn't sent some food a while ago, his family would have to beg for food.
So your father took over the matter of the sacrifice."
Jiang Sanlang scratched his head and nodded helplessly: "Okay, I'll take a look when I have time."
When I got home, I took off my muddy outer clothes and put on clean cotton clothes.
"Where are Baoer, Xiaojie and Xiaowu?" Jiang Sanlang asked casually as he didn't see his children.
Chunniang put the dirty clothes aside and served her husband a bowl of porridge.
"I'm writing in the room." Chunniang sat down across from the table. "Mother asked you to go catch some more fish for the La Festival. What do you think?"
"Then just arrest him." What else can we do
Jiang Sanlang was thinking while drinking porridge.
I remember that last time my daughter made fish bait by mixing golden ear crumbs in wheat bran. How about making some yourself
I happened to have some fine golden ears at home, so I tried some that were not in good condition.
The next morning, Jiang Sanlang came to his eldest brother's house with a basin of mixed fish bait.
"Brother, we're going to ask a few people to go fishing today. Do you want to go?"
How could Jiang Dalang not go? He nodded quickly and said, "Go!"
"Okay then, I'll call you second brother."
Jiang Sanlang shouted directly in the yard: "Second brother! Do you want to go fishing?"
Jiang Erlang immediately responded: "Of course! When are you ready?"
"Now, I'll go home to get the scoop net and rope, and you just take two iron forks." Jiang Sanlang shouted and went home.
When the people from Dongcun saw Jiang Sanlang going fishing again, they followed him in a large group.
Even many women and children joined in the fun.
The fish bait that Jiang Sanlang mixed himself was very effective. As long as he threw down two handfuls, fish would soon come swimming over to feed.
The villagers screamed and used baskets, bamboo baskets and other tools to catch fish, and they caught quite a few.
The three brothers Jiang Sanlang caught a lot of fish, big and small, and they couldn't fit them all in the backpacks.
The noise from the East Village people at the riverside attracted people from the West Village and surrounding villages.
While no one was paying attention, the people from West Village quietly picked up baskets and scooped up some fish. Surprisingly, they caught quite a few.
This was like stirring up a hornet's nest, and many people went home to get tools.
Suddenly, the riverside was crowded with people, and they slowly moved forward following Jiang Sanlang's steps.
By the time the people of Dongcun reacted, it was already too late to stop others from intervening.
"You are so shameless! Stealing our fish!" The people from Dongcun couldn't help but curse.
The people of Xicun retorted, "Which one is yours? This river belongs to everyone. Everyone has a share of the fish in it. You can catch them, but we can't?"
"Then why don't you go somewhere else and fish for it? Why are you following us?"
"The road is wide open, we can go our separate ways. I can go wherever I want. What the hell is it to you?"