Chapter 95 Toys
In the early morning, Qin Yao, who had just fallen asleep in the middle of the night, heard the roosters crowing in the village and got up.
After packing up briefly, I picked up the two drawings I had drawn late at night and prepared to go out.
Erlang poked his head out of the room, looked around, and when he didn't see his father, he called out softly, "Auntie."
Qin Yao was about to step out the door when she heard someone calling from behind. She turned around and asked in confusion,
"Why are you up so early?"
Morning exercises in the past were not so active.
Obviously, the little guy didn't want to do morning exercises, but had something else to do.
He ran over with his hands on his chest, took out eight cents from his pocket, and asked her if she was going to Xiahe Village and if she could help him buy something.
There are also peddlers in Xiahe Village, and the things they sell are much more complete than those sold by Liu the peddler.
"What do you want to buy?" Qin Yao asked with an interested smile.
The last time she went to the Ding family, she left two cents of silver for Erlang as an emergency fund, but she didn't use it, so the money is still there.
After she returned home, Erlang secretly found her and wanted to return the money to her.
But she didn't want it, thinking that every child should have their own pocket money, so she called the four brothers and sisters together and asked them to use the two cents of silver as pocket money, and asked Erlang to keep it temporarily.
Qin Yao doesn't care how the money is spent. She even hopes that her four children will be bolder and more willful, and buy some random things as long as they are happy.
But it seems that they did not do so, and Erlang made a rule that an application report must be submitted before using money, and arranged the pocket money for the four brothers and sisters reasonably.
Two qian of silver, with a limit of fifty wen per person. This time, the four brothers and sisters each contributed two wen to buy something together. It was also the first time for the four children to use it.
So Erlang seemed a little cautious. He looked at Qin Yao several times with his big eyes to make sure she would not be angry. Then he said,
"I want to buy a bamboo cuju, is that okay?"
Qin Yao: "Bamboo ball?"
Jiro nodded expectantly, "hmmmm".
"Okay, got it." Qin Yao took his money and went out. The little guys just wanted a toy, so they had to satisfy them.
Watching Qin Yao walk away, Erlang was still a little dazed. He had been preparing himself mentally for most of the night, but he didn't expect his stepmother to agree so readily, without even saying a word like "playing around and losing one's ambition".
Just... so happy!
Erlang ran back to the room. Dalang and his two siblings all raised their heads from the quilts, saw Erlang and nodded with a smile. The three siblings rolled around happily in the quilts.
"I love my mother the most~" Si Niang muttered.
Sanlang also hummed and said, "Aniang is the best!"
Dalang smiled as he looked at the happy faces of his younger brothers and sisters. He pulled Erlang, who wanted to climb into bed for a nap, dressed him, and dragged him out for morning exercise.
Erlang's eyes widened, but before he could react, he was taken to the river by his brother. All the entanglement last night was in vain!
Qin Yao first went to Carpenter Liu's house and gave him the blueprint of the waterwheel to be built in Xiahe Village, and then walked towards the village entrance and headed for Xiahe Village.
At the entrance of the village, I saw the two Dalang brothers running around on the ridges of their own fields from afar. Under the blue sky in the early morning, the naughty children were running around in the green rice fields. The scene was healing and warm.
Qin Yao walked quickly and arrived at Xiahe Village in just over an hour.
The blueprint was given to Wang Yu, who then called the carpenters in the village. After both parties finalized various details, Qin Yao went to the peddler in Xiahe Village and bought a bamboo Cuju, spending six cents and having two cents left.
It was already noon when I returned home.
The four brothers and sisters went back to the house for a nap, so they could get enough rest so that they could practice calligraphy and recite in the afternoon.
Qin Yao pushed the door open quietly and placed the Cuju and the remaining two cents on their large desk. She imagined the surprised expressions of the four little ones when they woke up and saw the toys, and her brows softened unconsciously.
After putting the things away, I quietly closed the door and walked out, having cleaned the yard. However, the four grown-up chickens that were released from the cage defecated on the ground again.
Qin Yao picked up the small shovel beside the door, shoveled the fertilizer and covered the vegetable field with it. Is this natural fertilizer?
After cleaning the chicken shit and washing my hands, I heard Liu Ji's reminder from the main room, "The rice is warm on the stove."
After saying that, he buried his head in copying the book, writing very seriously.
If Qin Yao hadn't heard him humming a little tune just before she entered the door, she would have almost believed his lies.
When I entered the kitchen, I saw a pot of hot rice and vegetables being heated on the stove with the remaining fire.
Reserve some of the extra vegetables you stir-fried in the morning for noon, cook porridge, pour the vegetables into the porridge and mix it. If you think it is not fresh enough, pick a handful of greens from the yard, wash and chop them up and sprinkle them in. It may not look good, but it tastes very good.
Qin Yao picked up the whole pot, took two small stools, used one as a table and the other as a stool, and sat at the kitchen door to eat.
The yard was very quiet, with only the rustling sound of copying books coming from the main room. The eaves blocked the scorching sun at noon, casting a cool shade. Qin Yao was eating, wishing she could sit there forever.
Too bad, I'm still busy.
After finishing her meal and filling her stomach, Qin Yao told someone in the room, "Make some meat dishes this afternoon."
Liu Ji raised his head hurriedly, "There is no meat at home."
Qin Yao leaned against the kitchen door frame and said unhappily, "You won't buy it if you don't have it. I don't care about the things in the kitchen. You are responsible for it. You can figure it out yourself."
"So go get some bacon?"
Qin Yao shrugged indifferently, "It's up to you. Anyway, I want to eat meat and white rice in the evening. I will be very busy and tired recently, so you should prepare better food."
Otherwise, she would be very angry if she worked so hard all day and couldn't even have a good meal when she got home.
Liu Ji nodded quickly and said he understood. Seeing that Qin Yao had just returned home and was about to go out again, he asked in confusion:
"Where are you going out again?"
"Where are you going?" She immediately asked, "I'm going to make money, so I can go anywhere! Hurry up and copy your book."
Liu Ji wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought to himself that this woman was as wild as the June weather.
Forget it, if you can't afford to offend him, can't you just avoid him?
After sighing, he watched Qin Yao go out in the hot sun with the rope, shoulder pole and other things, and was glad that he could stay in the cool room to copy books without going out to suffer this.
Qin Yao came to the Liu family's old house. At noon, the whole family, young and old, were resting under the eaves to enjoy the cool air.
Jinhua and Jinbao are full of energy and are not afraid of the heat. They run out to play at the village well.
When she saw Qin Yao, she called her Auntie San. Jin Hua even asked her, "Where are Sanlang and Si Niang? Why don't they come out to play?"
Qin Yao smiled and replied, "He's taking a nap at home. You guys go play first. They'll come find you when they're free."
Although they have to study, Qin Yao calculates her time according to the seven days a week, and still gives the four brothers and sisters two days off on weekends to relax.
If Dalang and Erlang were old enough in modern times, they would be in elementary school. I always want them to learn more.
However, before dinner in the afternoon, they would go out to play for a while, catch insects for the chickens, and then go to the water mill to get the cash box so that Liu Ji could calculate the day's income. The four brothers and sisters enjoyed it very much.
(End of this chapter)