Chapter 4: The First Glimpse of Great Treasure

  Lin He thought of this and asked Huang Shi: "Mother, how will we spend this winter? The weather is about to turn cold. How did we spend it in previous years?"

  Huang learned from San Ya that Lin He woke up and couldn't remember some things very clearly, nor did she feel anything was wrong, but felt that this eldest daughter seemed more sensible than before, and didn't think much of it.

  "Huang said: 'Anyway, we have to get through this. Father and mother should take advantage of the fact that winter has not yet arrived and prepare more food at home. At night, mother can do some needlework to sell for money. After a while, your brother will come back from town and bring back some big money.'"

  Huang's expression was somewhat helpless, with a hint of pain in his eyes. His eldest son was only 10 years old and could only be sent out as an apprentice.

  They say it's an apprenticeship, but in reality, it's just doing odd jobs for people. Eating last and working the most, you can't even earn a few hundred yuan a month. But our family really can't afford to raise so many children. Our 10-year-old eldest son is still young, but he loves his younger siblings dearly. Seeing that our family really couldn't raise so many kids, he went to become an apprentice himself, just to lighten the burden on our family. At least one less person eating at home, and every month he can bring back some money, even if it's very little. As the saying goes, "even a small mosquito is still meat".

  Thinking of this, Huang Shi felt very guilty. It was all because she and her husband were incompetent that their family ended up like this. Lin He noticed the guilt in Huang Shi's eyes and changed the subject.

  "Don't worry, daughter, we've always made it through the years before. Once this winter is over, I'll be a year older and considered an adult, and things will get better at home next year."

  Lin He intentionally imitated the child's tone, with a crisp and tender voice, and deliberately widened her eyes to talk to Huang Shi. When Huang Shi saw her like this, she burst out laughing, pulled her over, and fortunately, this eldest daughter had always been a sensible child. Since the eldest son left, the family has relied on this daughter alone.

  It's been over half a month since Lin He arrived in this world. This day when she got up, she saw that the people at home seemed to be much happier than usual, with smiles on everyone's faces. San Ya and Xiao Bao also got up very early, and Lin He saw them constantly glancing towards the gate of the courtyard from time to time, so she asked them what was going on.

  Huang said with a pat on her head, "Your brother comes back every month around this time. You can stay home for two days today and tomorrow." Oh, I see, Lin He understood and she was also looking forward to the return of this brother, so she sat down with them to wait for his return.

  After waiting for about half a time, I heard the cheers of Xiaobao and Sanpiao. Then a little boy wearing a green coarse linen jacket came in, with a small package on his body, presumably my brother.

  Huang saw his eldest son walking over and immediately stood up, taking the bundle from his hand, asking "Dabao, have you eaten breakfast?"

  Lin He also stood up and shouted "Brother!", Da Bao touched Lin He's head and said "Have you eaten?"

  As they entered the Huang's house, Da Bao opened his bundle and handed a hundred taels to Mrs. Huang. Lin He looked at the money with pity, looking at her brother who knew that he had been an apprentice for a month just for this hundred taels. A ten-year-old child in this era already had to bear the heavy responsibility of supporting the family.

  Lin He looked at the large sum of money and felt heartache for her brother. What could this hundred taels buy? Lin He had been here for over half a month and knew the exchange rate of silver to copper coins. White flour was 15 wen per catty, coarse rice was 4 wen per catty, black flour was 7 wen per catty, corn flour was 12 wen per catty, and pork was 25 wen per catty. Her family couldn't afford white flour, they only ate coarse rice, and as for pork, it was even more out of the question. She had been here for so long and hadn't even seen these things before.

  Dabao then took out two red hair ties from the bundle and gave them to Er Ya and Lin He. He also took out a wooden top for Xiao Bao, who was delighted and immediately ran into the courtyard to play with it.

  Lin He looked at her brother and said, "Brother, don't buy us things in the future, just buy more delicious food for yourself."

  Lin He tried hard to imitate a 7-year-old girl's speech, but it was unexpectedly difficult and sounded awkward. Da Bao smiled and said, "Big brother eats his fill at every meal, I'm very good there, don't worry about me."

  Lin He knew he didn't want his family to worry, so he said that, eating well and still being so thin, a 10-year-old boy looked less than 9 years old, Lin He's nose was sour. Huang had already turned around and wiped away tears. Alas, it's really worrying to death.

  Although Da Bao said he had eaten and was full, he still ate a simple breakfast with the whole family, chatting and laughing together. Lin He said to Da Bao, "Big brother, let's go to town and take a look, it's been a long time since we last went".

  "Huang said; 'Yes, Da Bao, you take your younger brothers and sisters to go, Dad and Mom are busy with farm work and have no time to take them out. The food at home is running out, we need to buy some.'"

  Dabao nodded, and Lin He thought of going to the town to take a look, to see if there were any ways to make money. It was unlikely that they could earn a lot of money in a short period of time, but improving their living conditions should still be possible.

  Lin He and Da Bao brought their younger brother and sister, walking for about ten or twenty miles, finally arriving at a small town near Linjia Village. The town was called Huayu Town. Today happened to be the day of the fair, so there were many people in the town, and many vendors selling things.

  Lin He looked around and found that there were many vendors, but the variety of goods was pitifully small. For example, when it came to fruit, it was just a few kinds like pears, apples, oranges, etc., some common fruits, and other types of fruit were basically non-existent.

  Dabao took them to the grain store and bought 10 kilograms of coarse rice and 3 kilograms of black flour. Half of the money in his hand was spent. The black flour was used to make Wotou (a type of Chinese bread). White flour was too expensive, so they didn't even look at it. In this era, there were only a few types of grains available. Linhe also saw that there was rice for sale.

  The rice is a bit different from the current one, it's like broken rice, very small grains, but not crushed, just a single small grain. Unlike the plump rice grains of the past, the color is also not as crystal clear as regular rice. However, this type of rice is very expensive, and with two silver coins, you can only buy a few catties, ordinary people can't afford it, let alone poor families like Lin He's.

  After buying the grain, they continued to walk forward. Xiaobao saw a place selling baozi in front of her and stood there refusing to move, staring at the big baozi with eager eyes. At that time, each baozi cost 2 cents, and each mantou cost 1 cent.

  Dabao looked at his brother standing there and refused to leave. He sighed, told Linhe and Sanyao to stand under a tree, put the groceries they bought there, and went to bring his brother back. Linhe stood there, looking around, and saw a meat stall in front of her. In her previous life, she had tried to lose weight by eating out and often picked out the meat and threw it away in the end.

  Now I'm craving meat so much that I'm going crazy, especially when I see the white and tender fatty meat and pink lean meat hanging there, it makes me think of the taste of meat and Lin He's saliva is starting to secrete.

  Lin He stood there for a while and saw the butcher put all the pig's internal organs in an old wooden basin. The people who came to buy meat didn't ask about the internal organs either. Lin He thought about this, turned to San Ya and said: "San Ya, you stay here and watch, I'll go take a look over there." San Ya nodded.

  Lin He walked up to the meat stall, and the owner looked at her with a smile, asking "Little girl, what do you want? I'll give you a discount." Lin He pointed at the bowl of pig innards and asked "Boss, how much is this?" The boss said "You're talking about the pig's lower parts? These are not for sale, can't be eaten. After I sell all the meat, I'll throw them away." It turned out they called it "pig lower parts". Lin He said "Boss, sell it to me, my brother has money."