"What a stupid fool!"
Aunt Wang was so angry that she wanted to hit her son with a spatula. "Er Ni is already ten years old, and she can talk about her in-laws right away. If you don't go and get along with them, the good daughter-in-law will become someone else's."
"Mom, you better wake up. You don't know what's going on in our family. How can you claim to be related to the Jiang family?"
Wang Erlang didn't want to argue with his mother about useless things, so he picked up a piece of hot pancake, switched it between his left and right hands, and walked out of the kitchen while eating.
Instead of having unrealistic dreams like my mother, it is better to plant more golden ears. When you make a lot of money, you will not have to worry about not finding a good wife.
There are many people who have the same thoughts as Aunt Wang. The door of the Jiang family has been almost broken down these days.
Some proposed marriage to Jiang Cheng and Jiang Quan, while others went directly to Jiang Erlang to propose marriage to Erni.
There are a few even more outrageous ones, who actually wanted to arrange a marriage for Jiang Jie and Jiang Wu, who were both over four years old.
Chunniang was speechless and politely declined the aunts and uncles who came to visit.
For some reason, no one mentioned Yingbao.
Yingbao has been very busy lately, studying medicine and practicing martial arts, and also has to go out into the wild with her master to identify herbs.
Many medicinal herbs can be found in the countryside, such as great burdock, Scutellaria barbata, Bupleurum chinense, mint, Pinellia ternata, Isatis indigotica, Pulsatilla chinensis, etc.
Each one has different effects. For example, great burdock can stop bleeding and reduce inflammation, bupleurum and isatis root can treat typhoid and colds, white scutellaria can treat postpartum blood deficiency and diarrhea in women, and cat's claw can treat sore throat.
After some identification of the herbs, Yingbao realized that the wild grasses and vegetables she usually saw were actually medicinal herbs.
Including some trees, fruits, flowers, etc., each has its own medicinal effect.
Yingbao used to use a shovel to dig herbs, but later she stopped and just carefully recorded the names of the weeds.
Combined with the prescriptions she had memorized before, she felt like she had entered a huge natural medicine storehouse.
Every blade of grass in the wild is a medicine, and every wild vegetable is also a medicine. If you want to make medicine in the future, you can use local materials yourself and don’t have to buy them at a pharmacy.
"Hey? Look at that hen!" Erni, who was learning to identify medicine with her, pointed to a place and shouted.
Yingbao looked up and saw her own chicken fighting with a wild duck, with the feathers on its neck blowing up.
The flat-billed wild duck was no match for the big fat chicken with a pointed beak, but it did not run away. It surrounded the hen and quacked angrily.
There were a few fluffy ducklings in a cage under the hen, eight in total.
It turned out that this egret chicken had actually stolen the ducklings of someone else's wild duck, and was gently feeding the ducklings with insects.
The ducklings are also very attached to it, and they follow the chicken wherever it goes.
The mother duck was unwilling to have her baby taken away, so she kept rushing forward to try to get it back.
Unfortunately, the duckling did not follow its mother duck, but followed closely behind the mother hen.
Everyone was stunned, including Yingbao.
This hen is too domineering.
Not only did they steal the ducklings, they also took them home.
The mother duck followed all the way to the gate of the Jiang family. When she saw her children being taken into the house by the damn fat chicken, she was so angry that she clucked outside and finally flew away unwillingly.
Chunniang was very happy to see that her own hen brought back a group of ducklings, and immediately grabbed a handful of millet to feed the ducklings.
Since then, Jiang Sanlang's family has had a group of ducklings.
In mid-April, the fruits in Jiang Sanlang's orchard began to ripen.
Apricots and peaches are laden on the branches, their bright yellow and pink color making people drool.
This made Jiang Quan very happy.
With his cousin's consent, he picked a few baskets of apricots and peaches and took them to the market to sell, but the results were not satisfactory.
After a bandit attack in Chuanhe Town, families were living in poverty and few were willing to spend money on snacks.
That’s right, in the eyes of the villagers, these fruits are just snacks that don’t satisfy hunger, and only pregnant women and children eat them.
Most villagers would rather spend two cents to buy a black-faced steamed bun than spend one cent to buy two apricots to try.
This made Jiang Quan very frustrated.
Yingbao picked an apricot and took a bite. It was sweet and a little sour, and tasted better than last year's apricots.
The peaches are also good, big and sweet, with a strong peach fragrance. They are much more delicious than last year's peaches.
Could this be the result of the pupil spring
A while ago, she used the pupil spring to water all the plants in her home, including the pepper seedlings and grape seedlings.
The crops that were watered with spring water grew so fast that she was scared and dared not water them again.
After that, he would occasionally water the vegetables in the garden. Because the Jiang family had many people, and the two martial arts masters, Zhang Meng and Xu Kun, had big appetites, the vegetables were consumed quickly and had to be grown quickly.
The apple trees planted by Yingbao on the brown land grew even faster. They are now more than ten feet tall and seem to be still growing.
However, the apple trees did not bear flowers or fruits. Instead, they stretched their branches and leaves wildly and grew upwards. It was estimated that in a few days, they would reach the top of the cave.
The melons planted with them have ripened and are very crispy, sweet and delicious.
Yingbao took out some melons from the vegetable garden under the name of cantaloupe and distributed some to her family and her master.
Master Xiao Zhenniang liked it very much and lamented that her son and husband did not have the chance to enjoy it.
Sister Wen also likes it very much, but she is reserved and won’t say it out loud.
"There are so many fruits that can't be sold and can't be eaten. What a waste." Jiang Quan sighed as he looked at the fruit trees.
Ying Bao didn't care, "If you can't finish it, make it into preserved fruits. Second aunt told me yesterday that apricots are the best preserved fruits."
Jiang Quan's eyes lit up: "Can it really be made into preserved fruit?"
"Yes, why don't you go ask Second Aunt, and when the preserved fruits are made and sold, the money will be divided equally among the three of us."
Yingbao picked another peach and took a bite. It was fresh, sweet and really delicious.
It’s incredible that no one buys such delicious fruit.
Jiang Quan ran to find his second aunt Yan Ru, "Second aunt, Ying Bao said you can make preserved fruits, is that true?"
Yan Ru nodded: "It's not difficult to make preserved fruits, but it takes a lot of sugar. Ten kilograms of apricots require at least two kilograms of icing sugar."
"Ah? So many." Jiang Quan scratched his head. This was a bit difficult.
As we all know, sugar is expensive, even more expensive than salt.
The cheapest one at the moment is brown sugar, but it is not very sweet, not as sweet as sugar sand and icing sugar. Jiang Quan has eaten candied fruit before, and it is very sweet, so it is definitely not made with brown sugar.
The price of icing sugar is 60 cents per pound, and two pounds of icing sugar can make ten pounds of apricots. After the prepared preserved fruits are dried, it is estimated that there will be less than one pound.
This is not worth it.
Jiang Quan left dejectedly.
I found my cousin again and complained, "It's not cost-effective. Second Aunt said that ten kilograms of apricots need at least two kilograms of icing sugar, otherwise it won't taste good. Two kilograms of icing sugar costs more than a hundred coins, and in the end, we can only get one kilogram of dried apricots. How can we make money?"
Yingbao asked: "How much does a pound of dried apricots cost in the market?"
Jiang Quan blinked, thought for a moment and said, "I've never bought dried apricots, but I have bought candied fruits. Six candied fruits for a portion cost fifteen cents."
Six candied red dates weigh at least two taels, which means two taels of candied fruit cost fifteen cents, and one pound of candied fruit costs one hundred and twenty cents.
It takes more than 100 coins of sugar to make a pound of preserved fruit, not to mention the cost of the apricots.
No matter how you look at it, it's a losing deal.
"Candied fruit has pits, so they must be weighed. Apricots don't have pits, so the price is naturally higher." Ying Bao said, "Why don't we make a little and try it out? If it doesn't work, we can just eat it ourselves."
Jiang Quan reluctantly agreed, "Okay, let's try it first."