Cross-country exchange

"Xia Chengyou, since we went to the county with you, why has our boy become weird these days?" Xia's grandma and Xia's father hid by the door and watched Xia Yu sitting under the shade of a tree with his back to him. They don't know what they are doing.

The father of the Xia family was silent, and couldn't help but sighed twice.After Xia Xiaozi came out of that so-called Shugeer workshop, he dragged him to several shops, and he came back like this.

He guessed that his kid probably encountered setbacks in this matter. His own kid has a good face and hides something in his heart, so he is unwilling to tell them.

"Hey, the boy has grown up and has his own ideas, let him go."

The grandmother of the Xia family was dissatisfied with his statement, and glared at him and said, "No matter how big our little Yu is, isn't he still married? Besides, no matter how old he is, he is still a child in my eyes, and so are you, kid If you have something on your mind, you will make sarcastic remarks here."

Dad of the Xia family was completely speechless. If he said a few more words, maybe his wife would be able to talk about him for a long time, "Yes, you are right. Well, the boy is not young anymore. Last time you asked about it. How do things go?"

As soon as this matter was mentioned, Xia's grandmother's face suddenly collapsed, and she said angrily, "What else can I say, they are all of the same virtue, and push things against each other, don't they just dislike our family's poor conditions, and they can still say Then there is a high-sounding reason. In addition, there are six brothers in our family staying in the same room."

The father of the Xia family was silent again, and after a while he said, "If the boy gets married, he will have to build a new house and let him and his new brother-in-law move out to live alone."

"That's what I said, but our family hasn't spared much money for the sake of a few children over the years. Xia Chengyou, do you know how much it costs to build a house?" He thought of all these years of hard work from dawn to dusk, The house is well-organized inside and out, and seven children have to be raised to grow up. The grandmother of the Xia family was so sad that her eyes were red, "Don't bother with the kid's marriage, Xia Bing is in his twenties this year, and he still hasn't found his husband's family, what should you say, but it makes me anxious to death."

Father Xia's family patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, "Okay, there is always a solution to the problem. As for the matter of building the house, don't worry about it, I'll find a solution."

Xia Yu didn't know that Aunt Xia and Apa Xia were so annoyed that their hair was turning white because of his marriage. He was crazily carving a pile of wood at the moment, and the ground around him was full of wood shavings.

He went to several stores and consulted many professionals in the industry. It is very gratifying that they recognized the level of his engraving on the comb, but they all said that the material selection of the comb is not good, and the method is a bit rough. It is surprising to be able to carve flowers. If the material and knife workmanship are more refined, then the price will not only be doubled.

The material of the comb reminded Xia Yu of one thing.

I went to a small mountain before, wandered around randomly, and found something good by accident, and he even marked it.

Thinking of this, Xia Yu took advantage of the gap between Xia's grandmother and Xia's father talking, and rushed towards the hill with a machete.

Grandma's previous warning was blown away like a gust of wind.

After going up the mountain, Xia Yu found a few trees that had been marked before, and walked all the way inside, and finally found the flower palm tree that he made a circular mark in the middle of a lot of trees.

Flower palm wood, also known as flower raccoon, has purple eyes and a slight fragrance. Its texture looks like a ghost face, and it is also similar to raccoon spots.The veins of the old are curved, while the veins of the young are straight, and the knots are as round as money.Now the flower palm tree in front of me has a relatively straight grain, obviously it has not been a long time since it reached adulthood.

When Xia Yu just found it, he was really happy, because this thing was also one of the choices for making furniture and bed wood in the past.Although it is not as expensive as red sandalwood, it can emit fragrance, which is similar to Jiangzhen incense.

However, it is a bit overkill to make a comb.Xia Yu pondered carefully, the next meeting is not only to make combs, but also to make more valuable things.

After a few days of hard work, Xia Yu chopped down the flower palm tree, and then cut off only a small section as thick as an arm. He dragged the rest back from the mountain in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep. own home.

With such a small piece of flower palm wood, carving will be more effective with less effort.Just after dawn that day, Xia Yu sat under the shade of a tree and began to concentrate.

Xia Yu devoted himself wholeheartedly to making combs. He hardly heard of the outside world, and even ignored the things in the field. In his opinion, the Xia family's grandmother and father had been farming for almost a lifetime. In addition to eating corn bread every day and drinking corn flour soup to fill his stomach, he can barely support the nine people in his family, and he is not even willing to eat a bowl of delicious rice.The only few meals of rice were because he injured his waist at that time. When he first came to this place, he didn't know how poor the conditions at home were, so he changed his ways to make the people in the family eat well, and cooked a meal or two of rice.Unexpectedly, the few catties of rice at home were planned to be used for emergency in case of some unexpected situation.

After listening to it, he felt as if he had been knocked over the five-flavored bottle, with all kinds of ups and downs. Now that he thinks about it, this life is too unpleasant.

Fortunately, the family didn't complain too much. The elder brothers went to work in the fields with their faces facing the loess and their backs facing the sky every day, and they never thought too much about their own affairs.Recently, he followed his father to the county town to sell vegetables. He saw that the buddies in the county town were dressed up every day, and sometimes they even painted powder and perfume.But these brothers of his may not have even seen rouge and face powder, and they come back all covered in mud every day.

Such a comparison made Xia Yu feel even more uncomfortable.

"Stinky boy, I said why I can't find a kitchen knife, so it's here with you." When it was time for breakfast, Xia's grandma planned to make a small dish and eat it with steamed buns, which tasted delicious.Unexpectedly, what I searched and turned at home was that I couldn't find a kitchen knife for cutting vegetables.

When she found the kitchen knife in Xia Yu's hand, two or three holes were missing on the blade, and it was covered with wood shavings, Xia's grandma suddenly became furious.

Xia Yu was carving to a critical moment, not only was his knife confiscated by his grandma, but he also suffered two fried chestnuts on his head.

"Grandma." Xia Yu looked at his grandma bitterly.

The grandma of the Xia family didn't care about her boy's pleadings, she just didn't go to work in the fields every day, and even made trouble for him. These days, she didn't even look at the figure, and she didn't know what unscrupulous things she was doing every day .

Xia Yu looked at his semi-finished product and wanted to cry, but he almost finished carving the pattern on the comb. Now it is fine, and the only tool was taken away by grandma.

He sighed at the half-finished product for a while, and then immediately decided to sell these combs tomorrow no matter what, and pooled the money to buy some knives.

Thinking of this, Xia Yu was immediately relieved.

After dinner, Xia Yu pulled Xia Bing aside and asked in a low voice, "Brother, do you know who in our village can forge iron?"

Xia Bing was puzzled, "Strike the iron, what do you want to do, little brother?"

Xia Yu didn't hide anything, and told Xia Bing about the price assessed in the county, "Today, the kitchen knife was taken away by grandma, and I thought about making another one, so that I don't have to fight with grandma. It's a kitchen knife."

Xia Bing also saw his younger brother being beaten twice by grandma today, so he couldn't help but smiled and said, "Your brother is indeed the only kid in our family, he is really smart, if these combs can be sold at a good price, then big brother will give it to you." You start. By the way, I remember that you are going to go to the county town with Dad tomorrow. There are more blacksmiths in the county town. You should ask the price first. If it is reasonable, go to the county town to fight. Big brother will also help you go to the village tomorrow. Ask for the price."

"Okay, thank you, brother."

The next day, Xia Yu offered to go to the county seat. He and Xia's father rushed to the county seat early in the morning. As usual, they first went to the vegetable market to occupy a favorable location, and then began to sell vegetables.

But this time, Xia Yu put all the combs he made before and the one made of flower palm wood yesterday in front of every grandma or little brother who came to buy vegetables, and asked, "Who is this comb?" Grandma (little brother), do you need a comb at home?"

I said one more sentence than usual. I didn't expect that after asking many people, someone really needed it.

There is a grandma who comes to the vegetable market every day, and Xia's father can see him when he comes to set up a stall. Basically, he will come to their vegetable stall to pick one or two vegetables. Today, Xia Yu is so talkative. , the grandma really responded, "Xia's boy, your comb is very beautiful, and there are flowers on it. It happened that my brother's comb was broken by him, and he clamored every day to buy a new one. Woolen cloth."

Xia Yu saw that this grandma's eyes were very vicious. Among so many combs, what he took was the comb that he almost succeeded in carving yesterday. It was intended to carve a vine flower on it. After the flower was formed, there were only long entangled vines left. It will extend all the way to the handle of the comb, but it was interrupted by Grandma Xia at a critical moment. At this time, the vines on the comb have a somewhat flirtatious beauty, and they are really beautiful at first glance.The small calculation in Xia Yu's heart began to crack and crackle again, and after a little thought, he said, "Grandma, you are also a person who knows the goods. You can feel the material of this comb yourself. The flowers on it are also It is really carved, it is not like a painted flower, it will wither with time. The most important thing is that there is only one in the whole county, if your brother chooses it, he will definitely not be with others Zhuangshan. Seeing that you often patronize my vegetable stall, you are considered a regular customer, so I will not make random price with you, I will sell it to you at a lower price, just forty pennies, do you think it will work?"

This grandma is also a person with insight, and she usually visits a lot of Comb workshops. The places that sell ordinary combs cost [-] to [-] yuan. The comb in his hand is a comb. It is beautiful, the weight and feel of the comb are really good when weighed in the hand, the most important thing is that this comb smells like a little bit of fragrance, he seems to have really earned the forty cents, he thinks that after he goes back, he will My little brother must be very happy too.

After thinking about it, he took out the worst comb among them. It was the first comb Xia Yu made in his life. There was neither carving nor anything on it. What about thirty cents?"

Xia Yu immediately shook his head and said, "This one only costs five cents."

The grandma nodded after hearing this, and was sure that the Xia family boy was not asking for a price indiscriminately, so she immediately paid and said, "Yes, Xia family boy, your price is quite fair, just give me the comb with flowers, my family If you use it well, I'll bring you more business." After finishing speaking, he paid forty copper coins and happily left.

The father of the Xia family was stunned watching from the sidelines, he dared to work hard all morning, the money he earned from selling vegetables was not as much as that of his boy selling a comb directly, the father of the Xia family patted his boy proudly , Said: "Boy, okay, I will make money by myself."