CH 72

The first snow Zhulan witnessed in this ancient times was heavy snow, and the earth changed into new clothes overnight. When she got up in the morning, she couldn’t even open the door. The snow had already piled up to the calf through the crack of the door, and it took some effort to push the door open.

Zhulan looked at the sky, the snowflakes were flying in the gray sky, and the windless weather was heavy with snow. It was bone-chilling cold and she looked down at the cotton shoes on her feet. She couldn’t walk out. If she walked outside in these cotton shoes, they will be soaked within minutes. She missed her boots.

“Mother, you’re up.”

Seeing that it was the boss, Zhulan didn’t need to go out to fetch firewood by herself this time, “Boss, go and bring some firewood for Mother, I am going to burn the kang.” Feeling in her heart, it was great to be at the top of the food chain!

Boss Zhou rubbed his hands and breathed out, “Ok, Mother!”

The firewood at home was neatly chopped and stacked.

Zhulan lit the firewood, and the second child and Rong Chuan both got up. They first burned all the kangs in the house, and then the three of them started to sweep the snow. When the sweeping was halfway done, the third son and the fourth son got up and joined in. Zhulan curled her mouth, she was all for her two sons working when they were not studying. After Zhou Shuren left, she often ordered her two sons to work. Only by working on their own can they know that physical labor was not easy. They shouldn’t be complacent to think that they were doing a great favor to the family just because they were studying.

The effect was obvious, the third son was more attentive when studying, and the fourth son had also learned to be considerate of others.

During breakfast, Boss Zhou asked, “Mom, pigs were slaughtered on the first snowfall in previous years. Shouldn’t this year be the same?”

Zhulan had always been thinking about the slaughter of pigs. In winter, she was waiting for the snow to kill pigs, “When the snow stops.”

Second Zhou said with some worry: “It is said that the auspicious snow heralds a good year, but the first snow is too heavy If this goes on, there will be a disaster in the next few days.”

Zhulan looked up at the roof of her house and was worried. In ancient times, most of the rural houses were mud houses, and the roofs were really not strong. She also learned from the memory of the original body, that house collapsing due to heavy snow was quite common in the rural areas. She said, “Boss, you and the second child will clear the snow from the roof.”

The eldest is also thinking about it, “Ok, Mother.”

Second Zhou looked at the two younger brothers who were studying and frowned, “You can’t go to your school today.”

Zhulan had no choice, “You have to wait for the road to clear.”

Again, from the memory of the original body, Zhulan learned that it is common for private schools to have holidays in winter. This was unavoidable as the traffic in ancient times was really bad. One memory of the original body was about a snow disaster in one year, when the road was blocked by heavy snow for two months, and the salt at home was gone.

With these thoughts in mind, Zhu Lan felt uncertain about the unpredictable weather in ancient times without any weather forecasts. She contemplated waiting for the roads to open and then going to the county to purchase supplies. She would rather buy more than risk not having enough.

After breakfast, the whole village became lively, and every family was cleaning the roof of the house to prevent the roof from collapsing due to the deep snow.

Zhulan called Li shi, “Wang Orion’s (1) house has a lot of rabbit skins, go and buy ten skins and come back.”

As she said that, Zhulan counted out a hundred coins, and the price of rabbit skins didn’t fluctuate much. She gave this amount considering the highest price, “If this year’s leather is cheap, buy some meat with the remaining money, the first snow this year, eat dumplings with sauerkraut and meat at night.”

Li Shi is about to drool, “Mother just by looking at it, there will be enough money left over to buy meat.”

She was thinking about how to bargain, and completely forgot to ask why her mother-in-law asked to buy so much rabbit skin!

In less than half an hour, Li shi returned with the skins and meat, triumphantly, “Mother, I bought the leather for eight wens a piece, and with the remaining money bought more than two catties of pork belly.”

Zhulan praised,” Good job.”

Li shi put down the rabbit skin, “Mother, why are you buying so many rabbit skins?”

Zhulan replied, “For making shoes.”

Li shi’s heart ached and trembled, “Mother, we have cotton shoes at home.”

Why was mother-in-law so fussy now!

There was a huge crashing sound coming from the backyard, startling Zhulan and Li shi, and Li shi responded first, “Whose house’s roof collapsed?”