One afternoon, Shen Ruolan was lying on the kang, thinking over and over again how to find money, she would definitely not be able to borrow money from her relatives, she dared to bet a strand of hair that if she borrowed money from her aunt and uncle, she would not be able to borrow a penny Not to mention, she still has to make her feel idle, she doesn't have the habit of looking for abuse, since she can't borrow it, then she won't be ashamed of it.
In fact, her home is very close to Wolong Mountain. It takes more than ten minutes to walk up the mountain from the backyard. If she is in good health, she can go into the mountain to try her luck. Maybe she can pick some mushrooms and chop some firewood for money. Mile.
But her small dry body is too weak. With her current state, let alone going in to pick mushrooms and chop firewood, it would be a problem even walking up the mountain. Besides, there are many wild animals on the mountain. She didn't even have the strength to run away, so she had to wait for the beast to chew on her. Think about it, she should pull it down.
After thinking about it for more than an hour, I finally decided to go to the town or county to try my luck tomorrow to see if there is any way to make money that does not require capital. Based on her extra thousands of years of social experience, she should be able to find a way, anyway, let's try her luck first.
After making up her mind, she got up and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, so that she would be able to do big things tomorrow if she was full and refreshed.
The kitchen at home is the gate of her bedroom. One room is divided into two, the south half is used as her bedroom, and the north half is used as the kitchen.
The kitchen is on the shaded side, with only a small north window, and the light is very poor.
There is a stove near the south wall of the kitchen, and a big black pot with eight seals is installed on the stove. The stove is connected to the kang in her house. When cooking like this, the kang is burned by the way, which is the most common in the north. In her previous life, she also grew up in the northern countryside, so she is no stranger to this kind of kitchen.
This family is indeed very poor, so poor that they don’t even have a grain of rice, so they only put eight or nine pumpkins and dozens of Chinese cabbages next to the water tank, and a small pile of sweet potatoes, which weighed only forty to fifty catties. These were planted in my own garden before.
In fact, she also planted some other things, but there were too many weeds in the garden, and her body was too weak to manage them at all. As a result, the harvest in the garden was very poor, and in the end, only a few things were harvested in autumn.
In the north corner, there is a simple wooden shelf on which are placed two or three large rough ceramic bowls, a few pairs of black chopsticks, and several bottles and jars of different sizes, which should be for seasoning. Shen Ruolan is leaving I went over and looked, and found that the bottles and jars were all empty. They must have been empty for a long time, and the ashes inside were as thick as money.
She picked up the gourd ladle, scooped two scoops of water into the water tank, cleaned the pot, took out two eggs from the space, washed two sweet potatoes, put them in the pot and cooked them.
She was not idle during the time when the fire was burning. She took a rag and wiped off the bottles, jars, bowls and chopsticks on the shelf, and wiped the shelf and pot table again.
Now, the kitchen looked much cleaner, and she felt much more at ease.
Seeing that the pot was boiling, she lifted the lid of the pot, used a gourd ladle as a strainer, fished out the eggs and sweet potatoes, pulled them out with cold water, and ate them.
Eggs and sweet potatoes also taste good, but they are too dry, and she chokes when she eats them. After a few mouthfuls, she chokes and turns white. She has no choice but to take out a bag of milk from the space. The sweet potato finished dinner with a sip of milk.
After eating, the sky gradually darkened, and there were no oil lamps or candles in the house. Taking advantage of the last gleam of light, she boiled some water and washed her feet and face.
In fact, she really wants to take a bath. As far as she remembers, the last time she took a bath was in summer. She hasn't washed in the past few months, and she has been working all day, and now her small body has grown a lot. The layer is thick and chapped, and the sour smell can be smelled from a long distance.
Shen Ruolan is a clean person, she can't stand herself like this, she couldn't move a few days ago because her body was too weak, but now she can move, of course she has to wash herself well.
However, I don’t have a bathtub or a large basin at home, so I can’t take a bath. I can only dip a rag in the warm water in the basin and wipe it slowly. This kind of scrubbing is not as effective as soaking in a bathtub up.
She secretly made up her mind that when she had money, she would definitely buy the best bathtub, take a bath every day, and make up for what the original owner hadn't soaked before.
After wiping her body, it was already completely dark. She poured water, groped and lay down on the bed, and when she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly remembered that her cousin had already started crying and singing at this time in the past, but for some reason there was no movement today.
What's wrong with this? Why are you still on strike? Could it be that his throat is broken from crying and he can't howl? Or is the problem solved? Otherwise, with her cousin's temper, she wouldn't stop beating her to death.
No matter what, she was finally able to sleep well. Shen Ruolan covered the quilt and soon fell asleep.
A good night's sleep.
Before dawn the next day, Shen Ruolan got up early. After washing, she took out the birthday cake in the space and cut a piece for breakfast. She also took the two most valuable things in the house—the only kitchen knife and two The big bowl, which seemed to be in good condition, was put in a basket, and I carried the basket to the Peach Blossom Village next door.
Taohua Village is the wealthiest among the nearby villages. There are two horse-drawn carriages, one for Qisong Town, twenty miles away, and the other for Nong'an County, fifty miles away. Who are the villagers in the nearby villages? If you want to go to the town or county, you usually come to Taohua Village by car.
Of course, there are also those who are economical and can't bear the few cents for the fare, so they just walk on two legs.
In fact, the fare is not expensive. It only costs two yuan to go to Qisong Town and back, and only five yuan to go to the county town, and you can bring things.
But Shen Ruolan didn't have any money. To achieve her goal, she took the two most valuable and unsinkable things at home, a kitchen knife and two large bowls, and prepared to use them as collateral for the fare.
She left in a hurry because she was afraid that she would not be able to catch the carriage. In ancient times, there were no clocks and clocks, and the time was measured by the sun. Sometimes it was earlier, sometimes it was later. .
I wanted to arrive earlier, but just in response to the saying "the heart is just going to die", halfway through the walk, my unbelievable little body couldn't move, and my legs seemed to be filled with lead. tremble.
In the end, when she dragged and leaned on a tree branch and moved step by step to Taohua Village, the sun had already risen so high that there was only one of the two carriages left.
"I have to go, I have to go, those who go to the county will leave immediately!"
The man driving the car saw a man from another village, guessed that he was in the car, and immediately shouted.
Shen Ruolan panted and said, "... wait... I..."
The man glanced at Shen Ruolan's shabby dress, then at her bony figure, and said, "Go to the county for five cents, pay first and then get on the bus."