A family with three widows, after severing ties with relatives, she became wealthy and married into

Chapter 21 Taking an oxcart back

Several oxcarts were parked outside the city gate.

These oxcarts came from different villages; they brought villagers to the county town in the morning and took them back in the afternoon.

Generally, coins are collected according to the distance traveled.

It takes two and a half hours to walk from Qingliu Village, but only one and a half hours by oxcart.

Many villagers go to the county to sell things they have stored at home, such as eggs and vegetables.

If it's difficult to walk with things, you'll take an oxcart.

Once they had sold everything, they were reluctant to take the oxcart back home.

The oxcart would wait at the city gate to see if it could give people from other villages a ride along the way.

"Let's take the oxcart back," Liu San Niang whispered to Lu Tao. "The sooner we get back, the sooner we can make the bean curd sheets."

With an extra hour, they could make several more kilograms of bean curd sheets, which would mean earning several hundred more coins.

In comparison, the cost of riding in an oxcart was negligible.

Lu Tao nodded, "Okay."

She's still capable of doing the math.

"Are we going to Qingliu Village? Is anyone passing by on our way?" Liu Sanniang asked.

"I'm from Qingliu Village." Suddenly, someone stood up.

When Liu San Niang took a look, she realized that it really was from Qingliu Village.

It was Zhou Dahai, who lived at the entrance of the village.

He was also the younger brother of Zhou Chunlan, the mother-in-law of Zhao Jinhua, who lived in front of her house.

"Third Sister?!" Zhou Dahai recognized Liu Third Sister. "It's you?"

"You're going back to the village? It'll cost three copper coins per person to ride in an oxcart."

Liu San Niang pulled Lu Tao and Tian Tian over, saying, "There are five of us."

When Zhou Dahai saw Lu Tao, Tian Tian, ​​and Tian Jinghe, his expression changed. "Them? I'm not taking them."

People from other villages nearby asked curiously, "Dahai, why don't you take them? There are five of them; you can take them back in one trip."

A single oxcart can only carry a few people. It might take five or six people out in the morning and five or six back on the way back, earning about thirty coins for each trip.

If you can get other business in the county town, you can earn more.

A cow costs twenty or thirty taels of silver, and for the first two or three years after they bought the cow, all they earned was the silver from buying the cow.

It wasn't until three years later that they really started making money.

Zhou Dahai is actually ignoring the 15 copper coins he's offering...

“Those girls…” Zhou Dahai waved his hand dismissively, “They’re notorious in our Qingliu Village for bringing bad luck to their husbands, I wouldn’t dare bring him along.”

People from other villages looked at Lu Tao, Tian Tian, ​​and others.

"What does your fate of being a 'husband-killer' have to do with you?"

"You're not someone's husband."

"Hahaha."

Liu San Niang scoffed. She didn't believe that no one would want the copper coins.

“The five of us are going to Qingliu Village. It’s twenty coins. Anyone want to go?” she called out.

Tian Tian smiled; she really liked Liu San Niang.

"Dahai, aren't you going to bring it?" a middle-aged man asked Zhou Dahai.

Zhou Dahai wanted to take them, it was only twenty coins, and he could take them back in one trip without having to wait any longer.

But what he just said...

"No!" he said, waving his hand defiantly.

“If you’re not taking it, then I will.” The middle-aged man led his oxcart around the area.

“I’m from Liushu Village, which is next to Qingliu Village. My name is Zhang Fusheng. I’ll take you back.”

Liu San Niang turned around, "There are still people who don't want to make money, humph!"

"Let's get in the car."

Zhou Dahai was furious as he watched Zhang Fusheng lead the five people away.

He turned to the others, saying, "They really are cursed to bring bad luck to their husbands, but Zhang Fusheng doesn't believe it."

"That Madam Lu, her husband died half a year ago. That older girl is her second daughter; she cursed her husband to death on their wedding day. She also has an older daughter, who married the young master of Chu Xing Restaurant, and she died a few days ago..."

*

The oxcart creaked and groaned, moving a little faster than walking.

But Tian Tian clearly heard Zhang Fusheng's ox panting heavily, saying...

"Ouch, my feet hurt, my feet hurt so much..."

"Ouch, Master, please stop hitting me, my foot hurts."

"It's already moving, stop pulling, it hurts so much..."

Tian Tian coughed lightly, touched her nose, and slowly moved behind Zhang Fusheng, asking, "Uncle Zhang."

Zhang Fusheng turned around. "Hey, little girl, what's wrong?"

"Uncle Zhang, how old is your cow?" Tian Tian asked.

Zhang Fusheng lashed the ox with his whip, saying, "Well, it's just bad luck."

"The person who sold me this cow said it's only three years old and has more than ten years to live."

“I bought it for twenty-five taels of silver, thinking that I could carry people and goods and make a living.”

"It turned out that after paying the money, they discovered that the ox was already six years old."

"I've only been working on it for a year, and it's already becoming clumsy."

The cow, panting, said, "My legs hurt, how can I move around more easily?"

Zhang Fusheng sighed again, "If it doesn't survive another winter, I'm going to kill it and sell it for meat to break even."

Upon hearing this, the cow cried out, "You dead leg, run!"

Tian Tian pursed her lips. "Uncle Zhang, is it seven years old this year?"

"Ah."

Seven years old is not old.

"Uncle Zhang, I think it's sick, that's why it's so clumsy."

"Do you want to have someone take a look?"

Zhang Fusheng clicked his tongue and said, "Who would treat an animal?"

Tian Tian glanced at the ox that was running at full speed and felt a pang of sympathy.

Liu San Niang and Lu Tao are now widows, and to avoid gossip, they sit at the very back of the oxcart.

So Tian Tian whispered, "Uncle Zhang, my family wants to cultivate a vegetable garden of less than one acre."

"Why don't you bring the cow over tomorrow morning?"

"I'll take a look at it while I'm at it."

Zhang Fusheng was surprised, "Little girl, you know how to treat animals?"

Tian Tian gestured for him to speak softly, "I can treat some simple ailments, but my mother doesn't really want me to treat animals, so..."

"Oh, I understand." Zhang Fusheng cracked his whip. "Then I'll drive the ox over there tomorrow."

"Yes, my house is the last thatched hut in Qingliu Village."

Zhang Fusheng still hoped his ox could be cured. "Young lady, if you can really cure my ox, I'll plow your less than an acre of vegetable garden for free."

"Okay." Tian Tian chuckled. "If I cure Uncle Zhang's ox, you have to come right away if my family needs it to plow the fields in the future."

"That's no problem."

The two talked and laughed.

Lu Tao and Liu San Niang, sitting in the back, couldn't hear very clearly, but they knew that Tian Tian and Zhang Fusheng seemed to have made some kind of agreement.

After an hour and a half, they arrived at the entrance of Qingliu Village.

Several people got off the oxcart and walked into the village carrying empty bamboo baskets on their backs.

"Oh, Third Sister, you're back?"

There's a big tree at the entrance of the village. When they have nothing to do, the village women gather together, shred vegetables, and chat.

They could see Liu San Niang and her companions getting off the oxcart from afar.

Looking closer, all of their bamboo baskets were empty...

"Third Sister, we heard from Zhao Jinhua that you didn't make tofu this morning. What did you sell then?"