The Resplendent Farming Apothecary - Chapter 104

[Chapter 104: Out of Food Crisis]

Widow Li hurriedly said: “Child Home, I can’t help you much, how can I let you spend another salary?”

“Sister Xiuhong can do it. She used to go up the mountain to pick up more goods than adults! As long as the prescribed workload is reached, her salary is absolutely indispensable. !” Gu Ye’s words instantly brightened Li Xiuhong’s darkened eyes. She believes that she can definitely do better than her mother! She will cherish this hard-won opportunity to make money!

“Sister Ye Zi, I can also help. I don’t need your wages, you just need to teach me to recognize herbs…” Li Xiaohai came over and looked at Gu Ye timidly with a nervous smile.

“Xiao Hai!” Widow Li interrupted her son eagerly, for fear that he would annoy Gu Ye and cause them to lose the opportunity they just got, “Miss Ye’er, the child is ignorant, don’t take his words seriously. Unexpectedly

, Gu Ye agreed: “Okay! Come on, help me pick up the herbs. Did you see that the herb that Aunt Li is cutting now is called Gastrodia elata, an oval tuber. We can pick it up on the mountain. The stem is upright, up to two meters high, and has no leaves…”

Li Xiaohai listened carefully, suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed cheerfully: “I seem to have seen this plant, just somewhere in the back mountain. In the valley. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it was a medicinal material at the time… Sister Ye, is Tianma valuable?”

Gu Ye nodded and said, “Gastrodia is a precious medicinal material, and a pound of raw gastrodia is worth about two taels of silver.”

Li Xiaohai was stunned. “It turns out that herbal medicines are so valuable! A few hundred pennies are in front of me, but I don’t even know them. Sigh…”

“It doesn’t matter, Tianma is suitable for digging in winter and spring. When the snow on the mountain melts, let my brother take you there. Dig it! Gastrodia elata dug in winter is of better quality than spring, and the price is higher. If you dig it back, I will charge it at the market price!”

Widow Li hurriedly said: “No, no! Just follow the rules of the money shopkeeper, which is 20% lower than the price in the town. Miss Ye’er taught him the ability to make money, and we can’t take advantage of the girl without conscience.

” Li Xiaohai, who couldn’t stop nodding, smiled slightly and said, “I purchased medicinal materials from outside the mountains, and this is the same price, and I have to work hard to get them back. Who earns the money or not? Aunt Li, the shopkeeper’s rules are set by him. Of course I have to follow my rules.”

Tian, as if someone had stabbed a hole in it, the snow continued to descend, for another ten days. Fortunately, most people have enough food and vegetables for the winter when winter begins. However, I don’t know when the snow will fall, and we can’t supply supplies from outside the mountains. In order to prevent their own food from running out of food, many people in the village have two thin meals a day. Even so, there are still insufficient reserves, facing the situation of running out of cooking.

The food that Widow Li brought over was saved and saved, and it was still eaten up on the tenth day of the first lunar month. She originally had a hundred ten cents in her hand, and after working for five days at the Gu family, she earned another hundred cents. But the mountains were covered by heavy snow, and there was nowhere to buy food with money.

Gu’s family has no land to farm, and all food is bought. She didn’t know how much food the Gu family had in storage, and she felt that it was enough trouble for her family to pick up and live in the Gu family’s house, so how could she be so embarrassed to buy food from others? If there is not much food in the family, she speaks, wouldn’t it make people embarrassed?

It was Aunt Yan. While cooking, she found that in the porridge cooked by Widow Li, there were hardly any grains except for some dried wild vegetables. Originally, one steamed bun was warmed a day, and the family shared it, but the only steamed bun disappeared.

During the meal, Aunt Yan brought up the predicament of the Li family. Gu Xiao put down his chopsticks, thought for a while and said, “How many days can we eat our food?”

Aunt Yan didn’t even think about it, she opened her mouth and said, “Steamed steamed buns and bean buns can be eaten until the 16th day of the first lunar month. Refined grains Well, I can eat it for ten days at most. By the way, there are still coarse grains left over at home, which look like 20 to 30 catties…”

“If the snow continues to fall, we must organize people to buy food outside the mountains!” It is estimated that, like Widow Li, there are more than two households in the family who are in short supply of food. Gu Xiao tapped his index finger on the kang table and made up his mind, “Well, our family’s coarse grains, which the children don’t like to eat, sell them to Widow Li and the others. In a few days, the wind and snow will ease, and I will go out to buy grains! ”

Grandpa, I’ll go too!” Gu Ye’s big eyes shone with anticipation and pleading, making people unable to bear to refuse. She was trapped at home by the wind and snow, and every day except for pharmaceuticals, she was almost a pharmaceutical machine. Skiing to town is much more fun than staying at home.

Before Gu Xiao could speak, Gu Ming did not hesitate to put out the little flame of her hope: “Don’t even think about it! After a day of freezing in the wind and snow, don’t you want your little body?”

“I’m done! You guys have made me as strong as an ox now, I don’t believe that we are stronger than anyone else!” Gu Ye glared at his brother angrily, like an angry toad croaking.

Gu Ming gave her a sideways look with a contemptuous look, and said, “If someone’s cow is as thin as yours, let alone ploughing the land, even walking would have to shake. Don’t make trouble, grandpa and I? I might let you go. I won’t go either, I’ll watch you at home!”

“Brother stinky, bad brother! I’m ignoring you!” Gu Ye turned his anger into appetite, and took the rabbit legs in the spicy fried rabbit meat as Gu Ming , gnawing at it.

After the family had a lively meal, Aunt Yan went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Gu Ye went back to her room, picked up the medical handbook given to her by her uncle, and looked at it leisurely while peeling off the pine nuts.

At this time, the door curtain was lifted, and a biting cold wind took the opportunity to get into this warm room. Gu Ye didn’t lift his head and said, “Aunt Yan, isn’t the dishwashing liquid I made easy to use? It’s pure plant essence, easy to clean oil stains, and it doesn’t hurt your hands!”

“Ye’er…it’s me…” Li Xiuhong held her hands Tightening his hands, he stood inside the door curtain, his eyes turned to one side, and he did not dare to meet Gu Ye’s eyes.

Gu Ye put down the handwritten note in his hand, patted the kang, and said with a smile, “Sister Xiuhong, I was just going to talk to you and Aunt Li about your wages.”

Li Xiuhong sat on the edge of the kang with a handful of pine nuts stuffed into her hand by Gu Ye. She asked nervously: “Is there something we can’t do well? My mother and I are just getting started now, and we are not skilled enough. We will get better and better in the future. We will be given less wages for these few days. It doesn’t matter!”

Gu Ye put his hand on the back of her hand, patted it lightly, and reassured: “Don’t be nervous! It’s not that you did a bad job, but it’s too good! You and Aunt Li can get started very quickly. Work carefully and meticulously. After the half-month probation period, I’m going to increase your wages to fifteen cents a day!”

“Ah? And… still give you a wage increase? No… no need, ten cents already. Enough!” Li Xiuhong’s uneasy heart gradually calmed down, and a surprise flashed in her eyes.

“You have helped me a lot, and I can afford the wages.” Gu Ye looked at her thin face, was silent for a moment, and asked, “You and Aunt Li already have a hundred wen in wages. If you need it urgently, you can withdraw it in advance…”

“No…no! I’m not here to pay the wages…nor…I…I’m just here to ask…whether your family has much food,” Li Xiuhong She mustered up her courage and said, “If there is, can we use grain as wages. For five days’ wages for me and my mother, just give us ten catties of coarse grains…” At the

end, her voice was almost low. Can’t hear. She also knows that the blizzard has blocked the road to the town for several days, and every household has not much food reserves. Gu Wuye’s family does not farm, and the food he eats is bought from the town. After almost twenty days of eating, there should be not much left. But… Her family really can’t open the pot, if they don’t speak again, they will be out of cooking tomorrow.

Gu Ye was thinking about how it was not too deliberate to lend the food to Aunt Li’s family, but Li Xiuhong didn’t expect to speak first.

“Wait a minute.” Gu Ye got off the kang, put on his cloak and went to the kitchen. Not long after, he came in with a small bag of grain, “This is 20 catties of coarse grains. There are five cents a catty of coarse grains on the market, and you and Aunt Li’s wages can buy exactly 20 catties.”

“No, the price you’re talking about is the price of food when the weather is good. It’s been snowing for more than ten days, and the price of food will definitely rise. In the year of disaster, one hundred yuan may not buy ten catties. What!” Li Xiuhong blushed and waved her hands quickly, refusing to accept the grain bag.

Gu Ye shoved the grain bag into her hand and said, “We bought these grains for five cents a pound. The folks in the big hometown can still earn your money…”

“Xiuhong!” Widow Li rushed from outside. He came in, snatched the grain bag from his daughter’s hand, and yelled loudly, “Why are you so ignorant, child? At this time, no one has much grain. You borrowed grain from Gu Ye’s family. Have you ever thought about them? Will you be hungry?”

Widow Li is cowardly and has a good face, but her heart is kind. Doesn’t she feel sorry for her two children? She knew that if she opened her mouth, the Gu family would definitely save some food from her mouth to lend her. But living in someone’s house already owes a lot of favor. If they let people starve, how could she feel sorry for her?

“Mother, now is not the time to talk about face! Our family’s food has been exhausted, and the vegetable cellar is overwhelmed by the beams. What will we eat tomorrow without food? Do you have the heart to watch your brother starve?” Li Xiuhong’s eyes were filled with tears Tears, pleadingly looked at the mother.

Widow Li’s skinny face was wrinkled, showing a bit of sadness. She thought for a while and said, “Tomorrow, I will go to the village chief’s house to ask. He has a lot of land, so he should be able to share some for us…”

“But, the village chief grandfather has a lot of family… I don’t know when Fengxue will be released. It will stop, his family may not lend it to us.” Li Xiuhong glanced at the grain bag on the ground reluctantly and lowered her head.