Not Enough Money

Feng brought a bowl of boiled eggs over, but the children had already finished the sugar and were now gathered around Manbao, admiring her four coins.

Upon seeing the money, Feng paused and asked, "Little sister, where did you get the money?"

Manbao proudly lifted her head and said, "We earned it ourselves by selling sugar."

Feng thought the sugar cubes were bought by her late husband for Manbao and said helplessly, "Why didn't you eat them instead of selling them?" "It's meant for your health."

Every time Zhou Erliang went to the market, he would buy one coin's worth of sugar. He would give one piece to the children to make sugar water and keep the remaining four pieces for Manbao.

It wasn't that they were particularly favoring Manbao over the other children, but rather because when Manbao was young, a doctor had said, "This child has a weak spleen and stomach, shortness of breath, so she should eat more eggs and honey."

At that time, the family's situation was not very good, and Manbao was only a few months old. She couldn't tolerate bitter medicine, so she could only consume egg water and honey water.

The honey was bought at great expense after Zhou visited several nearby villages to find it. It was difficult to find and especially expensive.

Later, the doctor said, "If there's no honey, maltose can also be used." Both are beneficial for the lungs and spleen.

It can be said that Manbao was able to grow up healthy and plump because of the eggs and sugar in the house.

Because of Manbao's significantly improved health over the past two years, the Zhou family came to realize that the doctor's prognosis was indeed accurate. They couldn't afford to give Manbao other luxuries, but they could provide eggs from their own chickens and still manage to buy sugar.

Every three days at the market, she could buy four pieces of sugar each time. In Manbao's mind, she really didn't lack sugar. When she first met Keke and he tried to bribe her with sugar, she didn't buy it.

After eating the sugar Keke gave her, she found it too sweet and ended up sharing some with her nephews and nieces as usual.

Seeing them so happy, Manbao finally became friends with Keke, who had suddenly appeared.

Manbao didn't lack sugar, as her family provided for her needs, and Keke occasionally rewarded her, unbeknownst to Feng.

She glared at Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, who didn't know how to advise, and handed the bowl to Manbao, asking, "Are you hungry? Your sister-in-law has cooked eggs for you." Go ahead and eat.

Manbao held the bowl and offered it to Feng, saying, "Sister-in-law, have a bite." "You didn't eat the cake just now."

Feng smiled and pushed it back, saying, "I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat with your older brothers when they come back."

Manbao didn't suspect anything because she also enjoyed eating with her family. Why didn't she wait for her older brothers before eating the cake just now?

It seemed like she had let them down a bit.

As she thought about it, she handed the eggs to her older brothers.

They shook their heads and refused to eat the eggs. Although they really wanted to, they knew that the eggs were not just eggs for their little sister, but medicine.

After eating all the eggs, Manbao asked Feng to take her to buy medicine for her mother.

Feng patted her head and said, "I don't have any money on me." "We'll go after your older brothers come back."

Manbao handed her handkerchief to Feng and said, "I have money!"

Feng sighed, "This isn't enough."

Her mother had been taking medicine for years, but it was the cheapest kind, only treating the symptoms and not addressing the root cause. To truly cure her, who knew how much money it would take?

There were two prescriptions for Qian's medicine. One could be purchased from the doctor in Dali Village, the sole healthcare provider in the four neighboring villages. Most of their medicine was collected by the doctor himself from the mountains.

Buying from him cost only eight coins for a prescription, and it could be brewed four times, enough for two days.

If Qian's condition worsened, they would have to go to the county pharmacy to buy the other prescription, which contained a more expensive medicine costing twenty coins per prescription.

Feng really didn't have any money on her. Today, everyone who came to buy baskets and dustpans was bartering with goods. They received a lot of eggs and grain but not a single coin.

They had no choice but to squat behind the stall and wait for Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang to come back.

It wasn't until noon that Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang returned, pushing the cart with two large bags of grain still on it.

Feng was surprised and hurried over to help push the cart, asking, "Why didn't you sell it?"

Zhou Erlang's face looked grim as he said, "The price was too low, only eight coins for a bushel."

Feng couldn't help but exclaim, "Only eight coins?" "Wasn't it ten coins before?"

Zhou Dalang squatted on the ground and said, "The grain has all come down." "The harvest is good this year, and it seems the grain shop has plenty of grain."

They were all from the same village, and Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang had talked to them for a long time, but they couldn't raise the price. With the family really needing money, the brothers couldn't bear to sell the grain at such a low price, so they brought it back.

Feng couldn't help but tear up and ask, "What should we do?"

Zhou Erlang squatted on the ground for a while and said, "There's a family at the market who wants to trade for hemp cloth. We can use the grain for trading, and we can also exchange it for cotton cloth to make shoes." But we must use money to buy mother's medicine, so we still need to sell the grain. "If not, we'll go to the county tomorrow and see if we can get a better price there."

Manbao immediately took out her four coins and said, "Big brother, second brother, I have money!"

Upon seeing the four coins, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were stunned and asked, "Where did you get them?"

"Selling sugar!"

Zhou Dalang took the money and sighed, "We still need four more coins."

Manbao thought she might have to sell another twenty pieces of sugar to make up the difference, but Zhou Erlang had already stood up and said, "I'll go and trade with someone."

Zhou Erlang knew many people at the market. He took out some of the wheat he had received from Feng and estimated its weight before leaving.

He soon returned with five coins.

Zhou Dalang was curious and asked, "With whom did you trade?"

In the village, hardly anyone spent money at the market.

"I traded with Old Wang, who sells sugar." He needs wheat to make sugar, and I sold it to him at a fair price.

Zhou Dalang breathed a sigh of relief and handed over Manbao's money.

Zhou Erlang used the money to buy medicine. As the number of people at the market began to decrease, everyone lost interest in setting up stalls. Zhou Erlang went to trade for cloth and cured meat, then packed up and went home with everyone.

The cloth was given to their mother, who would then assign tasks to make clothes. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang went to talk to Old Zhou about the market situation.

Manbao followed them, trotting behind with her hands behind her back, imitating their father. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang couldn't help but laugh when they saw this. They picked her up and then went to talk to Old Zhou.

Old Zhou sighed and said, "We need some cash at home, not just for your mother's medicine, but also for emergencies."

Zhou Erlang nodded, "I've also saved a lot of eggs from going to the market recently." We need to sell them in the county.

Although there were occasional buyers for eggs at the Dali Village market, most of them were traded for grain. In the end, Zhou Erlang had to sell the eggs to the grain shop to obtain money.

Zhou Erlang rarely sold eggs at the market; he preferred to sell them in the county, where they fetched a better price than grain.

Old Zhou nodded and said, rubbing his old pipe, "The day after tomorrow, you two will come with me to take Manbao to school."

Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang agreed.

Manbao then spoke up, "Dad, I want to go to the county too."