Lucky husband

The matter of buying food was not only caused by the second room of Li's family, but also by Li Erye's house next door to Li's family, who had different opinions at the beginning.

Li Caoye has been following Bai Xiuhe to push the wooden cart to the county town to sell rice noodles every day. At first, she didn't know that the extra things brought back every day were grain, but she slowly guessed it later.

In the last few days of March, on the way back to the village, Li Caoye asked Bai Xiuhe quietly: "Sister Xiuhe, is there really going to be a drought this year?"

Bai Xiuhe nodded: "That's what my parents said. I see that my parents have been to my second uncle's house. Don't you know?"

Li Caoye bit her lip and struggled for a while before telling what happened at home.

Li Erye and Li Mistress believed in the old man Li and the old lady Li. When they heard that their eldest brother and sister-in-law wanted to hoard food, they asked to use money to buy food at home.

It stands to reason that she is Mistress Li's housekeeper now, so if she wants to buy food, she can just buy it directly without discussing it, but she is soft-tempered and thinks that buying food is a big deal and should be discussed with her two sons.

As a result, Li Caoye's two younger brothers disagreed, and her two younger siblings also thought the same, thinking that it was not that serious, and there was no need to buy food and store it away.

Because of this incident, the family almost quarreled, and Li Chengliang's daughter-in-law slipped her tongue in a hurry, saying that they thought the family's food was not enough because there were two more people in the family, Li Caoye and Li Qiusheng. Li Erye was very dissatisfied with his two sons.

A few days later, every time Li Caoye recalled the expressions of her younger brother and younger siblings at that time, she felt a chill behind her back. She was very afraid that if there was a real drought, her younger brother and the others would be even more unwilling to let her and Brother Qiu continue to live at home. .

There have not been many droughts in this area, but there have been floods and locust plagues. Li Caoye heard from the old people in the village how fragile human nature is when disasters occur.

"Sister Xiuhe, I, I...didn't I say that my daily wages were [-] Wen? Before, I only gave me [-] Wen. The rest... the remaining [-] Wen can, can I trouble you to help me?" I will replace it with food and put it in the hands of my aunt."

Li Caoye stumbled a word, she was very embarrassed, she always thought that she could have ten cents a day's wages was enough, but in the face of the possible drought, she mustered up the courage to mention the rest Ten texts, just to make Brother Qiu full.

"Well, I can't make the decision, why don't you go back with me later and ask your mother." Bai Xiuhe, the family's food, can't make the decision, and she doesn't know how to make the decision, so it's okay to ask her.

Li Caoye was very nervous along the way, and her palms were sweating a lot. When she arrived at the gate of Li's courtyard, she was still thinking about what to say to her aunt, but her mind was blank, and her insides were all muddled, and she couldn't think of what to say.

Granny Li heard movement at the door, and walked out of the yard to help get the table and chairs. She saw Li Caoye standing at the door stupidly, and pushed her: "Grass leaf, grass leaf, what are you thinking about so preoccupied, you either Help get things in, or move out of the way."

Li Caoye hurriedly stepped aside, cleared her mind, and helped move things into the yard as usual, not daring to mention wages for food.

But she didn't want to mention it, it doesn't mean Bai Xiuhe forgot.

After the wooden cart was also pushed into the house, Bai Xiuhe took Li Caoye to find the old lady Li: "Mother, just now Miss Caoye asked me if she could exchange her remaining wages for food and put it in your hands. I asked her Come back and ask you directly."

Seeing Mrs. Li's gaze, Li Caoye felt that she had no place to put her hands and feet, and stood there helplessly, as if she had made a mistake and was waiting to be scolded.

Granny Li sensed something was wrong as soon as she heard Bai Xiuhe's words, and she directly asked, "Caoye, did something happen to your family?"

It was difficult for Li Caoye to speak, but Bai Xiuhe said clearly in a few words at the side, and the old lady Li became furious: "Second younger brother and second younger sibling are really good, they are suppressed by two brats!"

After finishing speaking, thinking that Li Caoye was still in front of her and it was not easy to continue scolding, Old Madam Li counted up and didn't give her the amount of Li Caoye's salary.

Li Caoye has been selling rice noodles for Bai Xiuhe since the beginning of spring plowing in February, and now March will pass, which can be regarded as two full months, with a total of [-] characters: "By the way, Caoye, the money in your hand is ready Are you using it to buy food?"

"In my hand?" Li Caoye thought for a while, the money in her hand was originally intended to be used by Zan Duo to go to the cloth shop to pull a piece of cloth for Brother Qiu to make a new summer dress.

Now that the drought is coming, filling the stomach is more important than new clothes. She gritted her teeth and said, "Well, let's buy food together."

Li Caoye always felt that it was not good for her to buy food secretly behind her family's back, so she explained a little helplessly: "Auntie, I bought food without telling my parents because I was worried about the drought, brother Qiu didn't eat, brother Qiu They already grow slower than ordinary children, if the drought delays them a little longer, I'm really worried..."

Li Caoye didn't finish her sentence, but all the women present could understand her worry about her child as a mother.

So Mrs. Li said directly: "You should think more about it for Brother Qiu. If you count the 120 cash in your hand, the total is 720 cash. If you buy white flour and rice with this money, at the current price, You can only buy fifty catties, which is not enough for you mother and child to eat for a few days, do you think you can change it to something else?"

Li Caoye thought for a while and said, "If it's convenient, I only need ten catties of fine cornmeal, and the rest can be replaced with sweet potatoes?"

Fifty kilograms of white rice is a whole bag. If it is replaced with sweet potatoes, it will take several bags. It is not so convenient to buy and carry, and it will be a lot of trouble.

Li Caoye was very embarrassed, if it wasn't really helpless, she didn't want to bother her auntie and the others like this, she believed in her parents, but they still had to take care of their two younger brothers and their wives and children, so they were not as good as Uncle Niang and the others made her feel at ease.

Granny Li thought about it and agreed.

Li Caoye wanted ten catties of fine cornmeal, and she didn't have to ask her son to buy it deliberately, as long as she gave some of the fine cornmeal at home to her.

As for the sweet potatoes, the family has been buying them all the time, there is still a stubble in the field, and when the time comes, they will be collected and put at home. The amount that the eldest niece wants will not be too much. Just give it to her when she wants it. Her wages for April are the same.

Speaking of the sweet potatoes in the field, at the beginning everyone watched the old man Li and Li Chengzhi tear up the rice seedlings in the paddy field and replaced them with sweet potato seedlings, and still laughed at them in their hearts. The more wilted, and the Li family's sweet potato seedlings grew taller and taller, everyone began to think that maybe the Li family's approach was correct, and some people began to follow suit.

In this way, April also passed, and there was still no rain for a whole month.

Those who followed the Li family to pull out the rice seedlings in the field and plant sweet potatoes were very fortunate. Sweet potatoes grow fast and do not require a lot of water like rice. They only need to water once a day in the morning and evening, and wait for them to grow. The family can have a lot more rations to survive this drought.

It was May, and the weather was already hot. Jiang Zhiyun changed Li Mingjin into a thin summer shirt. Li Mingkang was about to be half a year old. He was more than twice as big as when he was born, and he was also much heavier.

Li Mingjin has always wanted to hug his younger brother, but he didn't dare to hug his younger brother when he was young. Now that his brother is older, he can't hold him anymore, so he can only watch by the small bed with aggrieved eyes.

Jiang Zhiyun patted Li Mingjin's little head: "When Brother Jin grows up for another two years, you will be able to hug your younger brother."

"Why?" Li Mingjin was puzzled, "Brother Jin is growing up, and my brother is also growing up. I can't hold my brother now, and I probably won't be able to hold my brother in the future."

Jiang Zhiyun analyzed it to him: "You will grow very fast in the past two years, and your brother will grow slowly for a period of time after he is more than one year old. During that time, you will be able to hug your brother."

To be honest, Li Mingjin couldn't understand, but he had quickly adjusted his lost emotions, and he poked his little brother's face: "It's okay, if I still can't hold my brother when he grows up, I can carry him on his back. "

As he said that, Li Mingjin began to think about the scene of going out with his younger brother on his back to make others envious, and said happily: "In the future, my brother will carry you on his back when he goes out to play, so that you can know how fun we are in the back mountain of Shanghe Village."

Jiang Zhiyun wanted to say a few words about Li Mingjin. Brother Jin is a brother after all. Now he is still young and can go out to play casually. When Li Mingkang can go out to play in two or three years, Li Mingjin will try to stay at home as much as possible. Stop going out and showing your face.

After struggling for a while, Jiang Zhiyun didn't say anything in the end. The atmosphere at home was already tense due to the drought this year. Let Brother Jin relax a bit, and teach him slowly when the situation improves next year.

Li Mingjin didn't know what his mother was thinking, he had already regained his good mood, and teased his younger brother with the little red drum tied with a bell.

Because the Li family has a lot of children, they have enough food, and there are sweet potatoes in the field that will soon ripen and be harvested, so there will be laughter from time to time.

Most of the other families in Shanghe Village are very dull, and the children in the family dare not make noise easily, which makes the adults in the family even more disturbed.

The atmosphere in the county is becoming more and more tense. Fortunately, there is still water in the wells for drinking, but everyone is flustered when they see the grain tanks decreasing day by day.

Nowadays, some of the grain shops in the county are not open at all, and they no longer sell anything with a daily limit. No matter how much grain is still in the warehouse, they will be closed for a while.

At this time, it is already certain that there will be a drought this year. Anyone with a brain can know that in a month or two, food will become scarce, and the shopkeepers of the grain shop do not want to sell food at this time.

The corners of Zhao Chengze’s mouth, the county magistrate’s mouth, were frothing. He encountered such a natural disaster in his first year in office. He didn’t dare to relax. He arranged for servants to patrol the streets every day. Whatever causes it, it must be stopped immediately.

At the same time, they also sent people to farther counties, states, and government offices to inquire about the news and see the extent of the drought outside.

In addition, he wrote several letters to the capital, one to talk about the situation on his side, and the other to ask if there was enough food at home.

At the end of every letter, Zhao Chengze would remind his wife to stay in the capital and take care of the baby, not to rush to Changping County where he took office, everything will be done after this drought is over.

Author’s gossip: Thank you Meiyan y () for supporting me)