Jiang Cheng brought his two sisters to his second brother and saw that he had almost sold out a basket of water chestnuts. He asked, "Do you want me to stay and help?"
"No need." Jiang Quan waved his hand and said proudly, "I can handle it by myself."
It was the first time he did business on his own and it went so smoothly. He felt very accomplished and naturally didn't want his elder brother to get involved.
Jiang Cheng handed a glutinous rice dumpling to his brother: "This is what Yingbao left for you."
Jiang Quan took it without hesitation, peeled off the mulberry leaves, bit off half of it, and said to his little cousin with a smile: "I will buy you a small whistle later."
Sakura: …
She doesn't want to whistle.
After returning from the market, Yingbao stood under the apple tree in a daze.
It has been almost two years since the apple trees were planted. Both trees are already ten feet tall, but they only grow and do not bloom, which makes Yingbao very depressed.
What went wrong
How about waiting for Dad to come back and ask him to ask someone knowledgeable to take a look
Oh, forget it for now. Let’s wait until we move to Nanshan. The priority now is to find a way to make more money.
At noon, Jiang Quan came back from selling water chestnuts. He poured his purse on the table and counted the money with his elder brother.
"A total of five hundred and sixty cents. Haha, I'm rich." Jiang Quan was so happy that he started to divide the money by counting on his fingers.
"Yingbao, Da Ni and Er Ni found these water chestnuts together. Let's give them half."
Jiang Quan took out half of the money.
"Li Dao and Li He also helped pick cattail leaves to wrap water chestnuts, so I'll give them twenty... ten cents each."
Jiang Quan took out another twenty cents.
"Give grandpa and grandma another fifty cents."
Another fifty cents was taken out.
"Give Aunt fifty cents too. The rest is mine, hahahaha."
Jiang Quan hugged the remaining one hundred and sixty coins into his arms and laughed.
When he looked up, he saw his elder brother looking at him with a dark face.
"Where's mine?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"Yours?" Jiang Quan wrinkled his nose, "But you didn't do anything?"
Jiang Cheng: "I counted the money."
Jiang Quan: …
I felt like punching the wall with regret.
He curled his lips, reluctantly counted out ten cents from his share and pushed them over, gritting his teeth and saying, "Here you go! Count the money!" Humph!
Jiang Quan quickly put his money into his pocket, and put all the money on the table into his purse. Then he went out to greet Dani, and went to his second and third uncles' houses to share the money with Erni and Yingbao.
Fourteen-year-old Jiang Cheng did not think the money was too little. He picked up the ten coins one by one in his palm and locked them in the cabinet.
The next day,
Yingbao put a rope around Yoyo's neck, patted its head and said, "Yoyo, I'm taking you to town. You must be obedient and don't run around."
Yoyo opened her big watery eyes and looked at her little master.
"Don't panic when you see strangers. I'm always by your side." Yingbao patted its neck.
Yoyo lowered his head and nudged his little master, then rubbed his head against him.
Yingbao understood and took out a handful of Wudingzhi to feed it.
When Jiang Sanlang heard that his daughter was going to the town to get a deer saddle, he immediately dropped everything and prepared to take her with him.
"You are a little kid and you will be bullied. Daddy will take Yoyo with him."
The deer at home is growing majestically, half a person's height, and antlers are beginning to sprout on its head. I estimate that they will grow into ferocious deer forks next year.
Such a large live deer could be worth twenty or thirty taels of silver if sold in the county town. Many evil-minded people might take risks for such a large sum of money.
Therefore, I must not let my little daughter go, even if her eldest and second cousins accompany her.
Yingbao shook her head: "Yoyo gets scared when he's in a crowded place, so he behaves well when I follow him. Dad, let me go with you."
"Okay." Jiang Sanlang picked up his daughter and prepared to put her in the backpack.
"Dad, I want to ride Yoyo."
When Yingbao was training Yoyo, she would occasionally ride it for a walk, so as long as Yoyo didn't run, she could sit on it steadily.
Jiang Sanlang then put his daughter back on the deer's back and told her, "Be careful, don't fall down."
"I won't fall." Yingbao sat steadily on the deer's back, and her father held the rope and walked towards the town.
Walk across the stone arch bridge, pass Xichen Village, and follow the dirt road to the official road.
The official road passes through the middle of the town, with one end leading to Qinchuan County and the other end leading to Yuzhou.
The father and daughter came to the saddle shop, and the tall and majestic deer stunned the two shop assistants instantly.
Even the shopkeeper came out and exclaimed in amazement, "I'm fifty years old, and this is the first time I've seen such a tall deer. No wonder you want to saddle it."
Then he called the boy over to measure the size.
When Yoyo saw a stranger approaching, he tapped his hooves nervously and hid behind Yingbao.
Yingbao comforted it and took out a handful of wheat from her small pocket and fed it to its mouth.
Only then did Yoyo calm down and lower his head to lick the dozen grains of wheat in the palm of his little master.
The clerk handed the recorded dimensions to the shopkeeper, then stood by and looked at the doll and the deer curiously.
The shopkeeper touched the deer's back and said to Jiang Sanlang, "Although your deer is big, its spine is thin and it cannot bear weight, so a cowhide saddle is not suitable. How about choosing a sheepskin saddle?"
Jiang Sanlang nodded and said, "Okay, this deer is not meant for adults to ride, only children in the family can ride it occasionally, so please be careful."
"No problem." The shopkeeper thought about it and went into the house to look for materials.
Jiang Sanlang waited for a while and asked, "Boss, when can you finish it?"
If it takes too long, he and his daughter will not wait any longer.
The shopkeeper took out a few pieces of leather and threw them on the ground, saying, "I'll cut them now. It will be quick. It will take at most one or two hours."
Jiang Sanlang looked at the sun and thought it was probably the beginning of the 9th hour, so he could wait a while.
He sat down on the stool brought by the waiter, while Yingbao looked around.
There were not many shops near the saddle shop. There was only a thatched shed not far away, under which someone was selling pork.
By now the pork had been sold out, and the butcher and his son were packing up to go home.
General Tu took down the iron hook hanging on the wooden frame, threw it into the big basket, put a few knives in, and then picked up the basket.
His fifteen-year-old son Tu Xiong didn't want to go back and said, "Dad, you go first. I have something to do and will be back later."
Tu Da glared at his son and warned him, "Don't run around with your bad friends. If you cause any trouble again, I'll beat you to death."
"What kind of trouble can I cause?" Tu Xiong touched his nose and said, "I'm going to go to the mountains to hunt birds with Chen Sanshi. What kind of trouble can I cause?"
Tu Da snorted and walked away with his load on his shoulder.
Seeing his father walking away, Tu Xiong smiled and shouted from behind a haystack, "Why don't you come out?"
Two young men, about seventeen or eighteen years old, one tall and one short, came out from behind the haystack, both with cow-tendon slingshots on their waists.
"Are we still going to Beishan?" Tu Xiong asked.
The tall, thin man had a sharp face. He smiled and said, "Why go to Beishan? Look over there..." and then he pointed in the direction of the saddle shop.
Tu Xiong turned his head and asked in confusion, "What are you looking at?"
"A deer." Daoxi's face smiled and said, "Can't you see such a big deer standing there?"
"I saw it a long time ago, what are you doing?"
"Guess?" The man with the sharp face put his arm on the shoulder of his short and pockmarked companion, his eyes sparkling.
Tu Xiong suddenly realized, squinted his eyes and said with a wicked smile: "Brother Sanshi, you are not up to any bad ideas, are you?"