Chapter 6
Fu Wenyu had no objection at all to not drinking alcohol, not getting married, and not being able to take the imperial examination during the period of mourning.
But not being able to eat meat is simply anti-human. Although he has only been a vegetarian for a while, he is already worrying about how to spend the next two years or so.
Fortunately, there are eggs.
Although eggs are not as good as meat, they are better than nothing.
At the same time, he also realized that there were no eggs at home before. It was probably because Zhou was running out of money, so he cooked pickles every day when he could, and only occasionally was willing to spend a penny to buy a piece of tofu. And because of the lack of seasoning, the tofu you bought could only be boiled into soup with vegetables, which didn't taste very good.
It's fine now. Eggs only cost two cents for three eggs. In order to have a steady supply of eggs for the family in the future, Zhou even gritted her teeth and bought two half-sized hens. After taking them back and raising them for another month, they would be able to lay eggs. . This caused Fu Wenyu to look at the pair of hens with green eyes on the way back.
After returning to Fujiacun, it was already past Xiangwu.
By this time, every household had already eaten.
Although Fujia Village is not rich, the local rice is harvested twice a year, so most people have no shortage of food at home. If they drink porridge in the morning and evening, they can eat three meals a day, but they are generally short of oil and water.
Like many nearby villages, some people whose families had little land and had finished their autumn plowing gathered under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village. They were either rubbing ropes with straw, or gathering in small groups to chat, or they were doing nothing but sitting on their own benches and falling asleep.
Most of these figures are old people and women.
Fu Wenyu and the others were discovered by them as soon as they appeared at the entrance of the village.
"I bought a chicken!"
The first one to come over was Wenshi, the famous long-tongued woman in the village. Fu Wenyu wanted to call her fourth aunt. When she saw the chicken coop in Fu Wenyu's hand, her eyes rolled.
"Hey, isn't this the scholar lady? There's also Wen Yu. You ladies must have just come back from the city. These two chickens we bought are really fat and delicious!"
Mrs. Zhou first asked Fu Wenyu and Fu Rong to call her "Fourth Aunt", and then said softly: "I went to the city. His Fourth Aunt, we are busy at home, so we will go back first."
"Hey, hey, don't leave yet!"
Wenshi quickly took her hand and asked, "Do you want the chicken you bought to be cooked or stewed?"
"I heard from your sister-in-law, Chunhua's mother, that you have never killed a chicken before, and always hide away. But you are afraid of me, but you are not afraid. I will kill these two chickens for you, and I will make sure not a single hair is left. ”
As she spoke, she stretched out her hand to grab the chicken coop from Fu Wenyu's hand.
Wait, who said we should kill people to eat meat?
Even though Fu Wenyu had read a lot of bloody rural period novels and TV series in his previous life, and he had written them himself, he was also shocked by her attitude. And looking at her appearance, even if she were killed, she wouldn't be able to give all the meat to them. What she would get back would definitely be missing arms and legs.
Mrs. Zhou was also stunned and said hurriedly: "His fourth aunt, we are not going to kill these two chickens, but we are going to take them home to lay eggs. Besides, Wen Yu is a scholar, and our family does not eat meat as a filial piety."
Otherwise, it would be spread out and it would affect the imperial examination. Mrs. Zhou wanted her son to take the exam, so the most she could do on weekdays was boil an extra egg. She didn't dare to do anything out of the ordinary, let alone eat meat openly.
Wen's hope failed and she was not happy.
"What do you want to do?"
"I said, mother Wen Yu, why don't you look at your Wen Yu, oh, and Rong girl, right? How thin have they become? If the wind gets stronger, they might be blown away. Brother Qingshan's Hundred Days It's all over, you guys can eat when you need to and drink when you need to, so that Brother Qingshan can feel at ease underground."
"Let me tell you..."
Hearing her mention her biological father, Fu Rong pursed her lips unhappily, "Mom, I'm hungry!"
Fu Wenyu also said: "Mom, let's go back. Fourth aunt, we appreciate your kindness. But we still have to keep filial piety to my father. To keep filial piety, you can't eat meat." Although he also wanted to eat, he felt that since When you come here and become someone else's son, you must abide by what you should abide by.
Eggs are enough to supplement nutrition, but don’t eat meat.
Wen didn't give up and was about to say more, but at this moment, a woman who was older than Zhou came out and stopped her, "Let go quickly, how can you rush to kill chickens for others like you?" Are you afraid that you want to take two back and only give one to others?”
"Looking at it, who doesn't know?"
"You bully Qingshan's wife, aren't you afraid that Qingshan will find you as the head of the family at night?"
If Fu Qingshan comes to your door, doesn't that mean you've hit someone evil? Wen was shocked and said, "Don't talk nonsense." Then she hurried away without even looking back.
The visitor sneered, and then said to Ms. Zhou: "Mother Wen Yu, don't pay attention to her. She is just a bastard. She doesn't keep her mouth shut. She even pulls two leaves from someone's vegetable patch when she passes by. Isn't that right? If you're like this, don't be polite, just scold her, and if she doesn't, let your Wen Yu go find her boss and ask her boss to teach her a lesson."
Mrs. Zhou responded and said to Fu Wenyu and Fu Rong: "Wenyu, Rong'er, this is your Aunt Chunfeng, you call me Sixth Aunt."
Fu Wenyu and Fu Rong both called Aunt Six.
Although Fu Wenyu was not familiar with this Aunt Chunfeng Tian, he still knew about it. Because her son-in-law also planned to take the scholar examination, he borrowed a book from Fu Wenyu and was one of his customers.
In addition to this, their family has two cows, one of which is used as an ox cart. Every day, they will deliver some vegetables grown by themselves and collected from other families in the village to the city for sale. They took their ox cart to the city this morning, and each person had to pay one penny.
Because of this relationship, she has a lot of prestige among the women in the village.
Tian helped to drive Wen away. Seeing that they were in a hurry to go home, she didn't say much nonsense, but said cheerfully: "Wen Yu, the book you gave me, my son-in-law said it is very useful."
"Sixth Aunt has nothing to thank you for. Your family was busy a few days ago, and I guess you didn't open up the vegetable garden. If you want to eat something fresh, just come to Sixth Aunt, you can have enough!"
After saying this, she also said to the curious villagers who gathered around: "Disperse, Wen Yu's family hasn't eaten yet, how can I chat with you here."
"Hehe, let's take a look." The villagers said in a flurry.
"Mother Wenyu, you bought so many things, your family must have made a fortune."
"Wenyu, I heard from your second uncle that you were sick before and almost used up all the money from the family division. Where did the money come from to buy things this time? Did you sell the land?"
"No, I haven't heard of it."
"Hey Wenyu, if you want to sell land, come to me. I can give you eight taels, no, ten taels, ten taels of silver for one mu of land!"
"Wenyu is going to sell land?"
"Whose family is going to sell land? Wenyu, are you going to sell land?"
These people talked to themselves, and without the need for Fu Wenyu's family to respond, they made it clear that they were going to sell land, as if they had already agreed, which made him laugh and cry.
He hurriedly explained that he didn't plan to sell the land.
This dynasty has been passed down for three generations, and the fourth emperor is currently in power. During the more than 60 years of the reign of the first two generations of emperors, although the court issued some measures, the people had inevitably fallen into land annexation, and many people lost their land. Even if ordinary people had money, it was difficult to buy land.
So after the third emperor came to power, he dealt a very harsh blow to land annexation and local nobles. During that time, many families were broken up.
But in feudal society, land annexation could not be eliminated.
So more than 30 years later, the emperor changed, and the land of the people gradually concentrated in the hands of a few people, and it was still difficult for ordinary people to buy land.
This is also one of the reasons why the second branch of the Fu family used small means to split the family.
Although Fu Wenyu could not farm, he also knew that as long as there was land, his family would not starve to death, so of course he did not plan to sell the land. If possible, he would still like to buy it. If he can own more land than Fu Qingshi in the future, his second uncle will definitely look very good at that time.
After rejecting several villagers who asked him if he wanted to sell the land, the three hurried back home.
After arriving home, Fu Wenyu found that his grandfather Fu Dashi and his second uncle Fu Qingshi were not at home. Only his second sister-in-law Liu and his cousin Chunhua were at home. Aunt Fu didn't know if she was scared by Fu Wenyu's previous broom. When she saw them coming back, she immediately pulled Chunhua, who wanted to greet them, back to the room and slammed the door.
Zhou: "..."
Fu Wenyu: "..."
Fu Rong: "..."
Okay, they don't want to pay attention to her yet.
But when he saw Aunt Fu, Fu Wenyu suddenly remembered one thing, that is, she didn't seem to mention the marriage between the son of the landlord Chen and Fu Rong later.
Fu Wenyu asked Zhou worriedly, "Mom, Aunt Fu didn't mention the marriage of the landlord Chen's family to you again, right?"
Zhou nodded, "Your Aunt Fu didn't mention it again."
Fu Wenyu was relieved immediately.
What made him even more satisfied was that only a few people knew about this marriage, and it didn't spread to the village, otherwise those people wouldn't be quiet at the entrance of the village just now.
It's great that the matter was resolved smoothly.
As expected, you can't be nice to evil people.