Chapter 142

Chapter 142

The autumn sun was not as scorching as in summer; the air was noticeably cooler. A bowl of hot noodle soup was just right to warm one's insides, making both body and spirit feel rejuvenated. After a good meal, one's mood naturally improved.

There were still six eggs left in the basket, much to Gu Lanshi's delight. Without shouting his wares on the street again, he walked out of town with Pei Yan. Although they had been walking around all morning without a break, selling so many goods made it worth the exhaustion.

Passing by a stall selling flaky pastries, the aroma caught their attention. He stopped for a moment, eyeing the treats. Pei Yan also halted, asking, "Do you want some?"

Gu Lanshi paused, then said, "A bowl of noodles is quite filling; I couldn't eat another bite now. Let's buy a few to take home for our dinner later."

"Alright, boss, wrap up six pastries," Pei Yan said, pulling out his purse from his chest and counting eighteen copper coins. Under the watchful gaze of the stall owner, he placed them directly into the money bowl on the counter.

Without a word from his partner, the stall owner knew the amount was correct and didn't bother checking the bowl. He handed over the wrapped pastries.

The flaky pastries were still warm, noticeable even through the oil paper. Gu Lanshi placed the package of pastries in the bamboo basket before continuing on his way.

Outside the town, Chen San'er's family was having their meal. The food basket was on the ground, and his wife was pouring tea for the family from a teapot, which she had just brought.

"Dad, you eat, I'll go," said Chen Decheng, Chen San'er's son, putting down his bowl and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Smiling, he went to untie the donkey cart.

Seeing Chen Decheng help by leading the donkey cart to the side of the road, Pei Yan didn't intervene. Instead, he took out half a wooden token from his sleeve and counted five copper coins. Walking to the donkey cart, he handed them to Chen Decheng.

"Just right, have a safe journey," Chen Decheng said with a full smile. After Pei Yan and Gu Lanshi left with the donkey cart, he returned to his stool, picking up the bowl from the ground and hastily slurping down the noodles.

*

"Woof!"

Before the gate could be opened, the sound of barking dogs grew closer.

Gu Lanshi unlocked and pushed open the door. Three large dogs couldn't wait to squeeze through the gap, circling around them and wagging their tails, rubbing their furry heads against their legs.

Pei Yan was fine, leading the donkey cart ahead, and the three dogs didn't often brush against him. However, Gu Lanshi found it more difficult to walk, as the three dogs were not small in size, making it hard to step over them, causing him to stumble several times.

"Alright, alright, go inside," he called out, and the dogs finally calmed down a bit. He turned around to close the fence gate first.

Dahei ran ahead, occasionally stopping to look back at him. Huaihuai and Huazai, a little crazed by the presence of people, sprinted past Dahei into the courtyard.

Pei Yan stopped the donkey cart in the front yard and began untying the harness. Gu Lanshi came in, carrying down the baskets from the cart.

After a bumpy ride, despite his careful handling, several eggs in the basket had cracked, letting the egg whites seep out. He entered the kitchen, placing the two intact eggs in a bowl and the package of flaky pastries on the countertop.

Seeing that four of the remaining eggs were covered in straw, he took the basket outside again. Squatting at the kitchen entrance, he made a series of whistling sounds, immediately drawing the three large dogs around him.

Taking out the straw stained with egg whites and the four cracked eggs, he placed them on the ground. The three dogs lowered their heads, eagerly licking and eating.

Dahei and the others were accustomed to eating broken eggs, wagging their tails while they ate, clearly enjoying it. They even fought over the eggshells, devouring them in the process.

Leaving the straw on the ground, with the egg whites not yet licked clean, Gu Lanshi didn't bother. He got up, put away the bamboo basket, and took out two packages of pastries from the basket, heading towards the room.

In the countryside, it wasn't easy to have enough food to eat. Most things bought with money were kept in the room, and they were no exception.

Hearing the pigs squealing in the backyard, Gu Lanshi put away the pastries and hurriedly headed for the kitchen. It was about time to cook the pig feed.

In the backyard,

Pei Yan didn't immediately feed the donkey after tying it up, allowing it to rest after the long journey before feeding it.

The pigs squealed louder when they heard him enter the backyard, signaling their hunger.

He hadn't planned to approach them, but when the squeals from one of the pens suddenly became pitiful, he quickly walked over.

Unlike last year, this year they had built three additional pigpens. The sow had given birth to seven piglets. Except for one female piglet that was returned to his father-in-law, the remaining six were castrated. They had originally intended to sell three half-grown pigs before summer, but since there was income from selling scorpions during the summer, they decided not to sell the piglets.

Apart from the old sow, each pen housed two pigs. Now, after being raised for five or six months, they all looked like large pigs, with the thinnest weighing around 100 pounds.

Although they were all castrated, unable to mate or give birth, their temperaments were generally docile. However, there was one larger boar that was quite aggressive, even biting the other boar it shared the pen with.

Pei Yan stood outside the pigpen, frowning. Upon seeing a person, the larger boar stopped pushing the other one with its mouth and head. It grunted, opening its mouth, begging for food.

Pei Yan grabbed a handful of grass from the pile under the eaves of the west house and tossed it into the pigpen. The two pigs immediately buried their heads in the food, with the larger boar clearly eating more.

This was the grass they had harvested yesterday, which was now half-dry and half-wet. However, pigs were greedy eaters and rarely picky.

Seeing that they weren't fighting anymore, Pei Yan headed back to the front yard. Hearing the sound of chopping vegetables coming from the kitchen, he stood at the door and peered inside. Gu Lanshi was slicing sweet potatoes, which would be cooked and fed to the pigs.

He said, "They fought again, the big one bullying the other. By afternoon, we should try moving the smaller one into the old sow's pen. Now that they've grown, they shouldn't be suckling anymore. If that doesn't work, we can sell the smaller one another day. We can keep raising the bigger one for another two or three months, and sell it by the end of the year."

Gu Lanshi threw the sliced sweet potato pieces into a wooden basin, looking up upon hearing this. He said, "That's a good idea. If it keeps getting bitten, it might get injured, which would make it harder to sell if it gets sick."

The backyard space was limited, so the pigpens weren't very large. Raising two fat pigs in one pen was just right, but three would be too crowded. For now, they would have to share space with the old sow.

As for the more aggressive boar, since it ate a lot and grew fat, keeping it until the end of the year might result in a weight of 200 pounds. Selling it would definitely bring in more money, so it was worth keeping and fattening up.

After a brief discussion, noticing that the water jar was only half full, Pei Yan didn't rush to fetch water. Instead, he brought in the chicken feed basin from outside, scooping four ladles of bran into it and half a ladle of firewood bean flour.

He placed the basin on the ground and started to draw water for the pot, preparing to boil it. Before cooking the pig feed, he would first scald the chicken and duck feed.

Before returning from town, they had mentioned taking a rest, but once they arrived home, they were busy nonstop. After feeding the pigs, chickens, ducks, and donkey, the two of them finally had a chance to rest indoors.

Feeding the dogs was simple; breaking a few coarse steamed buns would suffice.

Having beaten off any grass and wood shavings from their bodies, Gu Lanshi and Pei Yan took off their shoes and climbed onto the kang bed. They did the same.

They didn't lie down immediately but sat cross-legged on the kang bed. First, they emptied the copper coins they had earned today from their two purses and the bamboo basket.

Clatter, clatter, clatter—

The sound of the copper coins colliding filled their hearts with joy, their faces involuntarily wearing smiles.

Gu Lanshi grabbed a handful of copper coins, smiling broadly. "Today, we spent eighteen cash on flaky pastries, twenty-six cash on noodles, fifteen cash for a bowl of meat gravy noodles. It's quite expensive, but trying it once is enough. A pack of hawthorn cakes cost twenty cash, twelve cash for a pack of plum blossom cakes, and the four loose cakes totaled eight cash."

He lowered his eyes and whispered as he calculated how much they had spent that day. Pei Yan helped him organize his thoughts and said, "Eighteen, twenty-six, that's forty-four coins. Add another twenty coins to make sixty-four coins. The plum blossoms cakes and the loose cakes also cost twenty coins, so in total, it's eighty-four coins."

"So much," Gu Lanshi clicked his tongue. Without calculating, it seemed fine, but once they did the math, it was quite a lot—almost a hundred coins.

Pei Yan laughed and said, "We don't always indulge ourselves like this when we go to town. Besides, isn't the point of making money to eat well and drink well? Why worry about it, as long as our income is greater than our expenses, everything is fine."

The two were young and didn’t have elderly people or children to support. Compared to households with many mouths to feed, they had their own house and land, and they didn’t have to worry about food and drink. Therefore, they didn’t feel too guilty about spending more money, and after hearing Pei Yan’s words, Gu Lanshi smiled again happily.

Pei Yan took the ball of hemp thread from the table, cut several pieces of the same length, and faced Gu Lanshi as they began threading the coins. They counted softly while they worked, both focused on their task without disturbing each other.

They threaded one hundred coins onto each string. After threading them, they tied the ends together to form a string of coins.

Counting money always brought joy to their hearts. After putting away five strings of coins, there was still a small pile of loose change left.

After counting the loose change, Gu Lanshi looked up and said with a smile, "I took twenty coins with me this morning. If we subtract those twenty coins, we have thirty-four coins left."

In other words, not counting what they spent, they earned five hundred and thirty-four coins from selling eggs today.

Pei Yan’s smile didn’t fade as he said, "It’s about what we estimated before leaving. Today, luck was on our side, and we sold everything."

They had calculated on their way out early in the morning. With 220 eggs, if they could sell 200 of them, they would earn six hundred coins. They hadn’t expected to sell all of them.

Gu Lanshi opened his purse and stuffed the fifty-four loose coins inside, saying cheerfully, "We can make so much money from selling eggs. It’s great to have so many chickens."

"It’s just the right time for egg-laying. In another month, when it gets colder, the number will probably decrease slowly," Pei Yan said, then added with a laugh, "By next spring, the young hens will be laying eggs just like the older ones, from spring to autumn. Next year, we’ll have even more eggs."

Gu Lanshi tightened the drawstring of his purse and said excitedly, "When that time comes, we must feed them well."

"Of course," Pei Yan smiled.

Just like ducks, the hens could lay an egg every day only when they had fish, shrimp, earthworms, and eels from the river to eat daily.

Now that it was getting cold, the mud by the riverbank was hard to dig, and the river water was icy. They weren’t greedy; it was already great if the hens and ducks could lay twenty eggs a month.

In this case, if they only counted fifty hens, they might have over a thousand eggs in the coming month if things went well. Even if they only had seven or eight hundred eggs, the money from selling the eggs would add up to around two taels of silver—a considerable sum.

Glancing at the half-open window, it was almost past noon.

Gu Lanshi went to the end of the bed and opened the chest, stuffing the five hundred coins into the bottom. As for the copper coins in his purse, they would be kept outside for daily expenses.

They pulled the quilts aside and lay down, their hearts filled with happiness, yet unable to fall asleep immediately.

Gu Lanshi turned over and lay on his side facing Pei Yan, smiling and whispering, "Do you want to have chicken soup? Now that autumn has arrived, the thin bamboo shoots in the other bamboo grove are ready to be eaten. Let’s dig some up another day and stew a rooster with them."

They had slaughtered a rooster last month, and now they had four roosters left. Since they wouldn’t be breeding chicks for the next few years, having so many roosters wasn’t particularly useful. It was perfect for satisfying their cravings.

Pei Yan also lay on his side, facing him. He propped his palm under his cheek and said with a soft laugh, "Good idea. If we have time tomorrow, let’s go dig for bamboo shoots."

"Save some of the chicken soup for another day, and we can have two bowls of chicken noodle soup." Gu Lanshi placed his hand on Pei Yan’s body and thought for a moment before saying, "Save some of the chicken meat and make shredded chicken noodle soup. When I ate noodles today, I saw that they made pork noodle soup. The pork was stir-fried with sauce, which gave it a rich flavor. Chicken cooks quickly when stewed, so stir-frying it again probably wouldn’t improve the taste much. Just tear it into strips and put it on top of the chicken noodle soup. It’s also less work."

As he spoke, he draped a leg over Pei Yan’s body.

"Mm, let’s eat it that way," Pei Yan’s deep voice was lowered even further. Even so, the tenderness in his voice could still be heard.

In the span of a few sentences, the two drew closer to each other. Gu Lanshi was still thinking about their meals for the next few days. If he didn’t plan ahead, sometimes he really wouldn’t know what to cook when it was time for a meal.

Due to his parents and the hardships he and Pei Yan had endured before, he felt that only by eating well could people have the energy to work. Therefore, he always tried to think about ways to make their meals better and more delicious.

Before he could come up with any other ideas, Pei Yan suddenly reached out and pulled him into his embrace.

He didn’t resist. Instinctively, he snuggled against the warm and strong body, holding each other for a while until they gradually became drowsy.

There was no more talking in the room. Outside, the three large dogs were lying in different places. The autumn wind swept across the vegetable field, stirring up ripples of green.