Jiang Sanlang and the brothers Li Dayong and Li Eryong quickly cut 500 pepper vines and handed them over to Chen Changsheng and others.
He was so kind as to give them ten more and then pocketed the silver.
Turning around, I saw my little girl watching and asked with a smile, "Have you finished picking the apples?"
"Yeah." Yingbao looked around the pepper garden and saw that the vines were much thinner. She thought about watering them with Pupil Spring water. "Dad, who else wants to buy pepper seedlings?"
Jiang Sanlang thought for a moment and said, "That's a lot. Village chiefs from several surrounding villages have made reservations, but we don't have enough pepper vines."
No matter what, I can't cut back all my pepper vines, so I can only let those people wait in line for new vines to grow.
Yingbao nodded and looked around.
My dad and his family always cut the vines in intervals, at most cutting two small roots from a pepper plant, so it doesn't affect the flowering and fruiting of our own pepper plants.
Fortunately, pepper, like kudzu, is a perennial vine that can grow for many years, so she doesn't worry about having to replant it next year.
The problem is how should I get the pepper vine seedlings out and give them to my dad to sell
She is short of money, not only her, but her parents are short of money too.
During this period, the family bought a house and a shop in the county town. In addition to renovating and making furniture, shelves, counters, etc., they also bought a lot of household items, and basically spent all their savings.
Even though my parents later sold a batch of golden ears, they were all invested in a house in the county town.
The dividends that he and his eldest cousin received were also spent in the shop.
Because the thatched houses behind the shop needed to be rebuilt, she wanted to convert the low and damp thatched houses into several large blue brick and tile houses to facilitate living and storage.
So she would use her monthly dividend to have her eldest cousin help her buy bricks and tiles and pile them up in the yard, waiting for enough materials to start work.
When I came out of the pepper garden, I saw a few children doing horse stance in the martial arts training ground not far away.
And his younger brother Jiang Wu has already been practicing with Master Zhang on the plum blossom pile.
Yingbao and her two puppies stood not far away and watched.
Zhang Meng's punches were very fast, but Jiang Wu dodged quickly and even kicked Zhang Meng out of the blue, but because of his short calves, it didn't hurt at all.
Yingbao looked for a while and then turned her gaze towards the children on the field.
There was five-year-old Chen Bozhong, and a few unfamiliar-looking kids, probably from neighboring villages.
Hu Zi was not at home. He had to study and learn to read in school, and he only had time to practice martial arts in the afternoon.
His younger brother practiced martial arts in the morning and went to school in the afternoon. The two brothers staggered their schedules so that Master Zhang Meng could teach them one-on-one.
"Sister!" After Jiang Wu finished practicing with Master Zhang Meng, he jumped down and ran towards his sister.
"Let's practice sparring." The little kid made an attacking gesture towards his sister.
"Okay!" Yingbao took the bag and threw it to Dahuang and Xiaohei to guard, while she fought against her brother.
Relying on her height advantage of being one year older than her brother, as well as her experience in dancing in her previous life, she had strong speed and reaction abilities, and was able to compete with Jiang Wu on equal terms, even having the upper hand.
But after all, he had never practiced two-person fighting before, and in the end he was knocked down by his younger brother in one fell swoop.
"Not bad, not bad!" Master Zhang Meng came over and asked with a smile, "Do you want to learn from me?"
Yingbao nodded: "I want to, but I still have to go to the pharmacy, so I can only come to study occasionally."
Zhang Meng: "Women learn martial arts only for self-protection. You can learn more moves to fight against enemies. I heard from Jiang Wu that you practice basic skills every day?"
"Um."
"Then I'll teach you a few tricks to deal with the enemy." Zhang Meng pulled Jiang Wu over and gave him some pointers: "Women are weak, so you should find the enemy's weak spot and defeat him with one strike."
He gestured to Jiang Wu as he spoke, "The enemy's vital parts are the head, throat, chest, abdomen, ribs, and crotch. Hitting these vital parts will temporarily incapacitate the enemy."
As he spoke, Xu Xu punched, kicked, chopped, kneed, and elbowed Jiang Wu.
Then he waved at Ying Bao and said, "Try sparring with Jiang Wu."
So Yingbao and her brother practiced each move in the martial arts training ground until noon, when Chuchu called them to eat.
Because the journey was long, several children from neighboring villages brought food to Master Zhang Meng's place at noon, and Chuchu usually helped with the cooking.
Occasionally Jiang Wu would also eat here, but today his sister was back and his mother had cooked delicious food at home, so naturally he and his sister would not stay for dinner.
"Yingbao, stay and try the fried loach I made." Chuchu tried to persuade her to stay.
Yingbao looked at Chuchu, then at Zhang Meng, and shook her head: "No, I'll go home and eat."
Seeing that Yingbao really didn't want to stay, Chuchu picked two melon leaves and wrapped some fried loaches in them and gave them to Yingbao and Jiang Wu. "Fried with lard, it's delicious."
In the morning, she went to pickle pepper with Da Ni and Er Ni. They caught a lot of loaches in a small mud pit by the Chuan River with a bamboo basket. When they came back, they gave a lot to Chun Niang.
Yingbao didn't hesitate to take it and ate while going home.
Turning back to look at Chuchu again, he saw that she and Zhang Meng were sitting opposite each other at the table eating. From time to time, she would pick up some food with her chopsticks and put it into Zhang Meng's bowl, and Zhang Meng would accept it calmly.
There were several children sitting on either side of them, and the scene looked like a family.
The sixteen-year-old girl is bright and beautiful, and seems to be a perfect match for Zhang Meng at this moment.
After shaving off his stubble, this Zhang Meng looked surprisingly young, no more than 28 or 29 years old. His appearance and temperament were quite heroic. It was a pity that he was missing several fingers on his right hand.
Yingbao thought all the way back home.
Chunniang had already prepared the meal and was about to go out to call her children back. When she saw the two of them come in, she brought the meal and placed it under the grape trellis in the yard, inviting them to eat.
Today I made braised fish, fried leeks with shrimps, deep-fried loach, winter melon soup, a few boiled and cut salted eggs, and a bowl of white rice.
Yingbao and her brother washed their hands and faces, sat down at the small dining table, and took the bowls and chopsticks handed to them by their mother.
"After dinner, I'm going to soak some soybeans and cook them to make paste in the evening."
Chunniang said to her husband while eating: "Please go to town and buy some more salt. I will use it to make the sauce later."
Jiang Sanlang: "Didn't you buy salt yesterday?"
"That little bit of salt is not enough. I want to dry more so that I can have it until next spring."
"Oh, I'll go in the afternoon then."
After dinner, Chunniang cleaned up the dishes and washed them, Yingbao wiped the table with a rag, and fed the two puppies some rice with winter melon soup.
Chunniang washed the pots and bowls, and picked out the mud and rotten beans from the soybeans under the grape trellis.
Yingbao also moved a stool and sat down to help pick up the trash, listening to her mother's chatter as she picked up the trash.
"I went to the county town to see Xiaojie last time, and he asked why you didn't go to see him."
"Then I'll go back and talk to Grandpa Li to adjust the rest time to the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month, and then I'll go to the county town with you." Yingbao said.
Chunniang nodded: "Alright, let's go together on the first day of next month."
In the evening, Yingbao took the two dogs to the pepper garden alone to water it, and then went to the martial arts training ground to practice fighting skills with Jiang Jie.
With Master Zhang Meng constantly guiding her, she made rapid progress.