CH 53

Chapter 53 – New Discovery

Mrs Zhou glanced at the rooster, looked at Man Bao, turned around and instructed Xiao Qian, “Since she has bought it, let’s put it in the chicken coop.”

Man Bao ran up to her mother and said, “Mother, the rooster is for you to eat.”

Mrs Zhou stroked her hair and smiled, “There’s still fish and meat. Let’s finish those first before we eat the rooster. Let’s raise the rooster together with our hens. Perhaps we’ll get more fertilized eggs. Once those are hatched, we’ll be able to raise more chickens next year.”

A lot of food is required to raise chickens and the average family cannot afford to raise too many of them.

There are three households who raise the most chickens in the village; the village chief’s family, Zhou Hu’s family who live at the end of the village, and the Zhou’s.

Raising chickens are easy for the Zhou’s as there are many children who help feed these domestic fowls.

Even if you can’t bear to feed them with chaff, you can cut fresh wild vegetables and boil them to feed the chickens. There are also various types of insects, especially the cabbage caterpillars.

Man Bao only learnt that their chickens have been eating cabbage caterpillars, and many other types of insects the day before yesterday. They also eat crops and vegetables, and the family will prepare these different types of food for the chickens. It’s just that Man Bao disliked the smelly chicken coop, so she avoided the coop, and didn’t realise all these.

Man Bao was actually very enthusiastic about catching the cabbage caterpillars which Keke wanted. Only then did she learnt that her family had been feeding the chickens with the cabbage caterpillars all along.

Man Bao didn’t even have to lift a finger. Da Tou and the rest of the kids just took a walk around the fields and brought her more than a dozen cabbage caterpillars. However, the kids were quite apologetic, “There are less bugs now, there were more at the beginning of summer. At that time, our chickens also loved to lay eggs.”

Although Man Bao bought the rooster home for her to eat, Mrs Zhou had no intention to kill it as the rooster suffered from shock. She also specifically instructed Xiao Qian to give it a handful of grain so that it can enjoy a good meal which would soothe its heart, soul, and spirit. 

He whispered, “Mother, do we really need to keep this rooster? It cost 53 wen.”

Mrs Zhou eyes were half-closed, and she replied nonchalantly, “If we don’t keep the rooster, do you have the face to return it?”

“Dazhu and Sanzhu’s families are just too shameless. Aren’t they fooling our little sister-in-law? I’ve just touched it and the rooster is full. If they took it to the county, the rooster would have lost a couple of kgs. Besides, they have to pay to enter the county, it will take them a day to get there and yet, they ended up charging our little aunt so much money.”

Mrs Zhou, “That’s why over these two days, you should set your heart on taking good care of the rooster. We’ll use the rooster for ancestor worship during Chinese New Year. This way, it will not be a loss.”

Xiao Qian said, “Man Bao said she wants you to eat the rooster to nourish your body.”

Mrs Zhou laughed, “The child thinks it will happen but in a couple of days, she won’t remember.”

Her three daughters-in-law kept quiet.

Old man Zhou had a different opinion, “Man Bao is filial, and somehow, she is fixated on roosters at the moment. I think she would be thinking about this rooster as soon as we finish eating the meat within the next couple of days. “

Mrs Zhou replied with a smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll persuade her. She can’t kill the rooster unless she buys me another one.”

Old man Zhou laughed, “She might just do that!”

“She originally had 61 wen, and she has spent 53 wen. How much money does she have?”

Old man Zhou stopped talking.

How much money does Man Bao have?

Of course, she has a lot of money – well, at least she thinks so.

Furthermore, Wu Lang and the others returned from the county today having made money. The two of them brought their group of pals into their room to count the money.

The adults outside the room only heard a flurry of exclamations but they had no clue about what was going on in the room.

The adults are certainly not going to interfere when the kids get along so well. Furthermore, they generally don’t bother about the kids as long as they don’t fight with each other.

Early this morning, Wu Lang and Liu Lang carried two pack baskets filled with small bamboo baskets to the county, and Da Ya went along to decorate the baskets with flowers.

The flower baskets were sold at the same price as before, five wen each. After the baskets were all sold, Wu Lang made a special trip to the magistrate’s office and found the side door of the Fu family to sell all the surplus sweets to Miss Fu.

Because the magistrate raised the entrance fee into the county, Wu Lang and the others also unjustly increased the price, charging one wen for a sweet.

However, the sweets this time were different from the ones they sold previously, so it’s fair to say that the price is different.

The sales totalled 220 wen.

Of course, it was still Man Bao who did the calculations, as Wu Lang couldn’t get the same amount when he counted a couple of times. Man Bao’s final count tallied with Si Lang’s calculations.

Si Lang looked at the pile of copper plates on the bed sheet, his heart was fiery hot and he reached his hand out to touch the money. However, Wu Lang immediately slapped his hand away and said, “Fourth brother, you don’t have a share.”

Feeling heartbroken, Si Lang said, “I helped too, I went to cut the bamboo yesterday, and I also helped to peel the bamboo strips.” 

Wu Lang felt what he said seemed reasonable and looked at Man Bao.

Man Bao raked all the money in front of herself and said, “You have to pay taxes first.”

Paying taxes means giving their mother 60 per cent of the earnings which goes into the public fund.

Man Bao instructed Da Tou to go to her room and fetch the little book she made, as well as brush, ink, paper and inkstone, and then she started to keep accounts, “We have to keep accounts, otherwise we won’t remember how much money we made in the future.”

This is what Keke reminded her, mainly so that she would have a general idea of what she earns and spends. She would have liked to keep it all in one place, but he said there was no such thing, so she had to prepare another small book to keep her accounts. However, she hasn’t bought any paper yet, and the ones she had now were given to her by Shan Bao, which she had cut into smaller sheets and sewed together.

Man Bao sighed repeatedly and felt that she had to come up with a handful of money for her fifth brother so that he can buy paper for her.

While Man Bao kept the accounts, she also calculated her share, and then, she said to Keke confidently, “I’ll earn another rooster soon!”

The system couldn’t help saying, “Host, in fact, you can buy paper in the mall. It’s good quality and cheap, and it’s way cheaper than the ones in the county.”

Man Bao, “Why, is there paper for sale in the mall?”

System …everything is available in the mall. After opening the mall, other hosts are obsessed and addicted to shopping. How come his host don’t buy anything other than sweets?

It consumes only one point at a time, and although Keke doesn’t get a cut of the host’s purchases, he still felt very anxious.

Man Bao finally found the correct way to open the mall. After keeping the accounts, calculating the amount of money to be paid to the public fund and dividing the rest, she put all her share in her little pocket and made her way back to her room, and hid under the covers to look through the things in the mall.

With the system’s guidance, Man Bao finally learnt that in addition to being able to scroll down to find various things in the mall, she can also type in the items she needs.

If the product you want is not available, the mall will make recommendations based on the products you have viewed.

The first time Man Bao opened the mall, she didn’t know what to do, so she just scrolled down and found a list of things that she was totally unfamiliar with which didn’t interest her at all.

Every day when she wakes up, she’ll take a look at the mall which recommended a host of the latest products which again, were unfamiliar, and hence, Man Bao lost interest in the mall.

But these days, she has been keeping an eye on the green medicine, so the mall kept recommending different types of medicines, all with exorbitant prices. Although Man Bao is more confident than others, every time she sees the price, she felt that the medicine is way beyond her reach.