Chapter 13: Not Enough Money

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

Ms. Feng paused when she saw the money and asked, "Young girl, where did this money come from?"

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

Ms. Feng thought the sugar had been bought by her husband for Manbao in the past and said helplessly, "Why didn't you eat it, but sold it instead? It was meant for your health."

Zhou Erlang would buy a coin's worth of sugar every time he came to the market, and he only took out one piece to dissolve in water for the children to share, while the remaining four pieces were always for Manbao.

It wasn't that they favored Manbao especially and didn't care about the other children.

Rather, it was something a doctor had said when Manbao was very young, "This child has a weak spleen and stomach, shortness of breath, and lack of strength; she should eat more eggs and honey."

At that time, the family's situation was not good, and Manbao was only a few months old. She couldn't swallow the bitter medicine, so they could only feed her egg water and honey water.

That honey was something Old Zhou had to ask around in several nearby villages and spend a lot of money to buy, as it was hard to come by and very expensive.

Latter on, the doctor said, "If there's no honey, maltose will do; both are good for the lungs and strengthening the spleen and stomach."

You could say that Manbao owes her growth and healthy appearance to the family's eggs and sugar.

It was also because Manbao had grown healthier over the last two years that the Zhou family truly believed that the doctor was right. They might not have been able to offer her other luxuries, but they had their own chickens for eggs, and they could afford sugar.

With three market days every week, she could get four pieces of sugar each time. So, in Manbao's heart, she really didn't lack for sugar. That's why, when she first formally met Keke, who tried to win her over with sugar, she wasn't very interested.

After trying the sugar Keke gave her, she even complained it was too sweet and ended up sharing some with her nephews and nieces as usual.

Seeing their eyes squint with joy, Manbao then became good friends with the suddenly appearing Keke.

Manbao didn't lack for sugar, because in addition to what was bought for her at home, Keke would give her treats now and then, but Ms. Feng didn't know this.

She gave Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang a stern look for not advising her and handed the bowl to Manbao, "Hungry, huh? Your Second Sister-in-law cooked you some eggs, eat up."

Holding the bowl, Manbao first offered Ms. Feng a taste, "Second Sister-in-law, have a bite too. You didn't have any of the cake earlier."

Ms. Feng pushed it back with a smile, "I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat with your Dalang and Second Brother when they come back."

Manbao didn't suspect anything, for she too enjoyed eating meals with her family. Wait, why didn't she wait for Dalang and Second Brother before eating the cake?

She felt a bit guilty about that.

As Manbao pondered, she offered the egg to Datou and the others.

Everyone shook their heads. While they were happy to eat the sugar, they wouldn't take the eggs. Though they longed to eat them, they knew those eggs weren't just eggs for the young girl; they were her medicine.

Only then did Manbao eat all the eggs and afterward asked Ms. Feng to take her to buy medicine for her mother.

Ms. Feng stroked her head with a smile, "Second Sister-in-law doesn't have any money with her. We'll go after your Dalang and the others come back."

Manbao handed over her handkerchief with the coins, "I have money!"

Ms. Feng sighed, "But this isn't enough."

Their mother-in-law was on medication all year round, but she only took the cheapest medicine, which only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. To truly cure her, who knew how much money they would need.

Ms. Qian regularly took two prescriptions. One could be purchased from the doctor in Dali Village, which was the only doctor in the four surrounding villages. Besides the portion of medicines procured from a pharmacy, most of what the doctor had was harvested by himself from the mountains.

Buying from him, a prescription only cost eight coins, and the Zhou Family was very frugal. They would use one prescription to brew four doses, which was Ms. Qian's medicine for two days.

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

Ms. Feng didn't have any money on her. Today everyone buying baskets or sieves had bartered with goods, and while they had collected quite a few eggs and grains, they had not received a single coin.

There was no other way, so everyone could only squat behind their stall and wait for Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang to return.

It wasn't until past lunchtime that Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang came back with gloomy faces, pushing the cart with the two large bags of grain still on it.

Ms. Feng was alarmed and ran over to help push the cart, asking, "Why didn't it sell?"

Zhou Erlang said with an ugly expression, "The price was too low, just eight coins for one dou of grain."

Ms. Feng couldn't help raising her voice, "Only eight coins? Wasn't it ten coins before?"

Zhou Dalang squatted on the ground and said, "Grain prices have fallen, this year's harvest was not bad, and they say the granaries aren't lacking grain."

Being from the same village, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang had talked with the other party for a long time, yet they couldn't raise the price. Their family really needed the money, and the brothers couldn't bear to sell the grain at such a low price, so they pulled it back home.

Ms. Feng's eyes reddened as she could hardly hold back her tears, "So what do we do?"

Zhou Erlang squatted on the ground for a long while before saying, "There are people at the market wanting to exchange the grain for hemp cloth, and the cotton cloth used for making shoes can also be bartered with grain, but mother's medicine must be bought with money. We still need to sell the grain. It won't do, we'll go to the county town tomorrow to see if we can get a better price than at the market."

Manbao immediately took out her four coins, "Big Brother, Second Brother, I have money!"

Seeing these four coins, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were taken aback and asked, "Where did you get this?"

"Selling sugar!"

Zhou Dalang took it, sighed, and said, "We're still short by four coins."

Manbao was considering whether she should peel another twenty pieces of sugar to sell when Zhou Erlang had already stood up, saying, "I'll take some things to barter."

Zhou Erlang had many acquaintances in the market, and he took a portion from the wheat collected by Ms. Feng, weighing it roughly before heading out.

It wasn't long before he returned with five coins.

Zhou Dalang was curious, "Who did you barter with?"

Very few people at this village's market actually spent money.

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

Zhou Dalang was relieved and handed him Manbao's coins as well.

Zhou Erlang used the money to buy a prescription of medicine. As the number of people in the market began to decrease, they lost the drive to keep their stall open. Familiar with the area, Zhou Erlang went to barter for cloth and cured meat before packing up with everyone to head home.

The cloth was handed over to their mother, who allocated tasks for making clothes, while Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang went to speak with Old Zhou.

Manbao followed behind, trotting into the house with them.

Seeing her imitating their father, walking behind them with her hands clasped behind her back, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang couldn't help but sweat a little and decided to simply lift her onto their lap, then reported to Old Zhou about the market situation.

Hearing that the grain couldn't sell for a good price made Old Zhou want to smoke again.

He sighed and said, "We need to have some cash at home. Not to mention your mother needs the medicine, but what if we have an emergency?"

Zhou Erlang also nodded, "I've gathered quite a few eggs while going to the market recently, and I need to sell them in the county town."

Although Dali Village market occasionally had someone buying eggs, most people would barter with grain, which meant that Zhou Erlang had to sell grain to the granaries to get the money.

That's why Zhou Erlang rarely sold eggs at the market, preferring to take them to the county town, where eggs sold better than grain.

Old Zhou nodded, caressing his old smoking pipe and said, "The day after tomorrow then. You two will accompany me and Manbao to school tomorrow."

Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang agreed.

It was then that Manbao voiced her opinion, "Dad, I want to go to the county town too."