North and South groceries

Ever since Luo Yongchuan came here, I would see Erniang and the others cooking in pottery pots every day, although it was a bit inconvenient, but as time passed, I gradually got used to it.

Everyone knows that iron kettles are good, but the price of iron kettles is too high, ordinary people would not be willing to buy them for cooking, and ceramic kettles are not the same.Luo Yong was also reluctant. With that money, he might as well buy a few more saplings and plant them in the ground.

Putting on a new pot, Si Niang continued to cook. She was making noodles, and Er Niang also came out from the backyard. Today, the family has a batch of fermented bean curd to be put into the vat. Luo Yong is a little busy because of collecting pork, so this job is He was picked up by Er Niang.

When Erniang heard that the pottery cauldron was broken, she felt a little distressed: "Why didn't you be careful?"

Because the pottery pots have to consider the heating problem, they are all made of better clay, and the workmanship is relatively fine, with uniform thickness and regular shape, so the price is naturally much higher than ordinary pottery pots.

That is to say, in their house, if they change to someone else's house, any young lady who boils the kettle will be scolded a few times, money and food are not easy to come by, and whoever lives is not careful.

"I always use it to boil lard on weekdays, so it will spoil quickly." Luo Yong said.

"You speak for her again. If I don't know, Siniang must be impatient again. Before the pottery pot cools down, she hastily poured cold water into it." When the pottery pot is hot, you can't immediately add cold water, like this Erniang and the others also know the common sense of life.

"Sister, I've touched it with my hands, and it's not hot anymore." Si Niang argued.

"Next time you pour hot water into it, don't use cold water." Erniang said to her.

"Oh." Si Niang felt aggrieved.

"This side is reconciled, but do you want to help?" Erniang also realized at this time that her tone of voice was not good, so she softened her words. She actually felt sorry for that Tao Ke, but she didn't blame it very much. The meaning of Si Niang.

"It's reconciled, put it there to wake up." Siniang said.

"Then how many onions shall I peel for you?" Er Niang asked again.

"En." Si Niang nodded, feeling a little more comfortable.

Luo saw the interaction between the two sisters with a smile, and didn't say much.

In his opinion, these children in his family are very good, but maybe sometimes, his so-called good children's standards are still too low for this era. Fortunately, there is a second mother at home.

"Sanlang, change some miso for me." At this time, a yellow and thin little girl walked in from the door of the grocery store, and she struggled to lift a basket of wet bean dregs to the rectangular wooden table in front of the kang.

"It turned out that Xiang'er is here, why haven't you seen your elder brother recently?" Luo Yong recognized this little girl, when Tian Chonghu helped him in the past, he often brought her here for a meal.

Luo Erniang at the side saw that Tian Xiang'er's face was dirty and her clothes were dirty and torn, so she couldn't help but frowned.

As for the situation of Tian Chonghu's family, everyone in the village knew a little bit about it. They lived their own lives on weekdays, and no one could care about the affairs of other people's families, but they felt sorry for the two children of their family.

Now every family in their Xipo Village earns money and food by making tofu, and their life is much better than before. In this village, apart from Feng Gou'er, Tian Xiang'er is probably the dirtiest and most dressed Broken, even the Yin Lan sisters who lost Ye Niang have better food and clothes than Tian Xiang'er.

This Tian Xiang'er has both parents, and there is no elderly person to support her. There are only two children in the house, she and Tian Chonghu. Then Tian Chonghu can still help with the work. How can life be like this?

"My elder brother broke his leg a few days ago, and he is taking care of it." Tian Xiang'er sniffed and said.

"Why did you fall?" Luo Yong was startled.Being sick and injured is no joke in this day and age.

"I went to sweep snow on the roof two days ago and fell." Tian Xiang'er said.

"May I ask the doctor to read it?" Luo Yong asked her.

"Cunzheng came over to have a look, and he said that he didn't hurt any bones, so it should be fine." Although Tian Xiang'er looked rough, she spoke smoothly.

"When did this happen?" Luo Yong frowned, fell off the roof, and didn't even ask a doctor to take a look. Even if he didn't hurt his bones, what if he hurt his internal organs?

"A few days after New Year's Day." Tian Xianger replied.

"I'll go with you to see him." Luo Yong said immediately.

Speaking of it, he hadn't seen Tian Chonghu for a long time. Since he learned how to make tofu from him, that kid didn't come out and walk around very much. He just stayed at home and made tofu every day. With regard to the matter of the aunt, it has come and gone so that he didn't know about Tian Chonghu's injury until now.

"Why is Sanlang here?" When the two of them went to Tian's courtyard, Tian Chonghu's Ye Niang saw that it was Luo Yong, and hurried out to greet him.

"I heard that Chonghu fell. If Xiang'er hadn't mentioned it just now, I wouldn't have known about it." Luo Yong handed them the few eggs he brought over.

"It's just a sprained foot. It's not a big deal. You come here as soon as you come, and you still take things." Tian Chonghu's mother declined and took the things.

"I'll take a look at him, but this house?" Luo Yong didn't have a good impression of Tian Chonghu's parents, and he didn't want to talk to them at this time.

Tian Chonghu's mother saw that Luo Yong was about to enter her son's house, and quickly followed her in: "Look, I've been so busy these days that I haven't cleaned up the house."

"Don't be busy, I'll just sit down and leave." Seeing that she was arranging things and sweeping the floor, Luo Yong also tried to persuade her.

The word "clean" really doesn't match the inside of this room, it's dark everywhere, and the ground hasn't been swept for some time. Tian Chonghu was lying on the kang at first, but when he saw Luo Yong, he went Also sat up.

Luo Yong had greeted him, and felt that the room was not warm enough, so he went to the kang head, intending to help light the fire, but he saw that the side of the kang head was supposed to be a place for piling up firewood. How could there be any firewood at this time? , only a few scattered twigs were left, and looking inside the stove, he didn’t know how long it had been since the ashes had been removed, and the ashes were about to flow outside, so he got up and lifted the kang. I looked at the pottery urn, and there was only a little water at the bottom of the urn. The urn hadn't been washed in a long time, so it looked dirty, and the water inside was not clean either.

What the hell is this?

Luo Yong covered the pottery urn, turned around and sat down on the edge of the kang next to him. The straw mat on the top of the kang was also sleepy, probably since the kang was built the year before last and has not been replaced until now. The pile of quilt-like things on the table were also so old and dirty that they couldn't see the shape and color.

Looking at Tian Chonghu again, this kid is obviously much thinner than before.

"I heard that you broke your leg, but is it better?" Luo Yong asked him.

"It's just a sprained foot, and it's almost healed." Tian Chonghu looked nonchalant, with his eyes wandering, and Luo Yong felt embarrassed and uncomfortable seeing himself in such a shabby state.

"Let me see your feet." Luo Yong said.

"It's very interesting. If it wasn't for the village Zhengfei asking me to stay on the kang for a month, I would have been able to work." Tian Chonghu muttered, seeing Luo Yong frowning with a serious face, somehow , I felt a little weak in my heart, and honestly stretched out my injured foot to show him.

Luo Yong checked his injuries, and there was indeed no major problem. He should have fallen from the roof before and was sprained when he landed. At this time, he is almost healed. Judging by his mental outlook, he does not seem to have suffered internal injuries. people, so they also feel relieved.

"Just follow what Tian Cunzheng said, stay on the kang for a month, and be careful not to leave the root cause of the disease." Luo Yong said to Tian Chonghu.

"Oh." Tian Chonghu answered absently.

Luo Yong knew that he must have lost face at this time, so he didn't stay at his house any longer, and after a few more words of advice, he got up and left the yard.

Tian Chonghu's Ye Niang came out to see him off again, Luo Yong waved his hand, and walked out of his yard without saying anything more.

A few days later, after Tian Chonghu had been on the kang for almost a month, Luo Yong asked him to go to Lishi County with him.

"You can go to the city by yourself, why do you have to call me?" Tian Chonghu was still a little unhappy: "I, Aye, soaked fifty catties of beans last night, and I still want to stay at home and make tofu."

"It's not because of you, Ye Niang, how could I send you?" Luo Yong said.

"They don't work well. Now my family's tofu is the worst seller in the whole village. If it weren't for people from other places often coming to collect the goods, my family's business would have been ruined." Tian Chonghu sat on the car and moved a little uneasy. Butt: "You really don't take a car, my foot is almost healed."

"You sit in your seat." Luo Yong said, "Then how did they live when you were too old to work?"

"Just fool around, as long as you don't starve to death anyway."

"Then you just let them continue to fool you."

"How can I do that? If this goes on like this, I won't be able to find a wife in the future, and my younger sister won't be able to find a good husband."

"Now I'm starting to think about my daughter-in-law? Is this a young lady from someone's family?"

"..."

The two chatted all the way, and when they entered Lishi County, Luo Yong went straight to the place where the ironware was sold.

At this time, the salt and iron wine were both government-run and privately owned. There were many vendors selling salt and wine in Lishi County, but for ironware, it had to be mainly government-run.

There is a blacksmith shop in the county town, which is privately owned. It mainly helps people process some small pieces of ironware, refurbish and repair them, like the two small tools that many people in the county use to make bamboo chains. Part of it came from this blacksmith shop.

There is also a government-run ironware shop. Basically, the villagers go there to buy kitchen knives and agricultural tools.

"Why did Sanlang come today, but he wants to buy farm tools?" Now in Lishi County, there is no one who doesn't know Luo Sanlang, and the person in charge of the iron shop is a very gentle middle-aged man with a goatee .

"I want to buy an iron kettle." Luo Yong said.

"What size iron kettle do you want?" The middle-aged man led him to look at the iron kettle. There were three sizes of iron kettles, large, medium and small, and one of each was placed there.

The black lacquered facade of this ironware shop is not very bright, but there are quite a lot of things in the shop, mainly farm tools, and there are all kinds of farm tools. Compared with the lively farm tool area, the few iron kettles are there. Alone, with a lot of dust on it, it has obviously been neglected for a long time.

"How much is this?" Luo Yong pointed to one of the iron kettles and asked. The diameter of this iron kettle is about one foot, and it is already the smallest one in this shop.

"This iron kettle costs [-] yuan." The iron seller replied.

"..." Hearing the price, Luo Yong wanted to ask if it could be cheaper, but at least he still remembered that this is not a roadside stall in the 21st century, and bargaining is not popular at this time, especially in this kind of place. In the government-run shop, it is even more true.

At this time in the early Tang Dynasty, with the continuous development of iron smelting technology, the use of iron has become more common. In the past, iron was more expensive than copper. At this time, copper is more expensive than iron, but it is not much more expensive.

At this time, each copper coin weighed one penny. According to the current measurement unit, one thousand copper coins weighed six catties and four taels, and four thousand six hundred copper coins weighed almost 29 catties and a half.

Luo tested the weight of the iron cauldron with his bare hands, and found that it weighed about forty catties.Because the smelting and pouring techniques are not very developed, the iron kettle at this time looks quite bulky, and such a large piece of iron lump, even if it is left in later generations, the price will not be cheap.

Luo Yong bought the iron kettle and asked someone for some hot water to clean the iron kettle inside and out.

Now every household in Lishi County burns a kang with hot water on top of the kang. Luo Yong knows a lot of people in the city, so it is very easy to ask anyone for some hot water.

The pottery cauldron that had been scrubbed was placed on a stove by Luo Yong, and firewood was lit underneath to burn it, and a few large lumps of lard that condensed into a snow-white paste were added to the cauldron.

"I just thought of a new business in the past few days. From now on, you will stay in the city and sell this for me." Luo Yong said to Tian Chonghu while busy with his hands.

"Then what should I do at home?" Tian Chonghu said.

"This business is more promising than making tofu." Luo Yong told him, "If you work hard for me for three or two years, the money for marrying a wife will be settled, and your sister's dowry will also be settled."

This kid was unlucky, he didn't meet a good mother, after seeing his house last time, Luo Yong wanted to get him out.

For such a family, even Luo Sanlang, who has cheated on him, has no good solution. He can only get him out early, so as not to be dragged down to death by his unreliable Ye Niang one day in the future.