Chapter 10

Zhou Pingguo arrived in the county town and knocked on the door of the Red Star Hotel. Manager Tao was not there today, but when he heard that she was there to sell leeks, the young man who greeted Zhou Pingguo started inspecting and weighing the goods without saying a word.

It was about the same weight as Zhou Pingguo’s own, 50.5 kilograms. The young man said to Zhou Pingguo, “Our manager Tao said that the New Year is coming soon, and the price of everything has increased. Four dollars and a half per kilogram, do you think it’s okay?”

Zhou Pingguo nodded. She also knew that the Red Star Hotel must earn more money than her, but this was due to their brand effect and their sales channels. They were in the agricultural product business, so they should be happy to have such a profit margin.

The other party was quite honest and did not lower her price. He even raised the price proactively.

In this way, she earned 25 yuan more today. Holding the money, Zhou Pingguo was full of energy, and the fatigue from the previous period seemed to be swept away.

However, her excitement was only temporary. She rushed home without stopping and gave all the money to Zhou Sen, asking him to keep it first. When she came to settle the accounts later, Zhou Pingguo was so sleepy that her eyelids were fighting each other.

Zhou Jing looked at her worriedly, “Sister-in-law, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m sleepy. Jingjing, stay with me for a while.”

“Okay.” The little girl nodded obediently and helped Zhou Pingguo into the room. Zhou Pingguo couldn’t bear it as soon as she got on the bed. She closed her eyes and snored softly. She didn’t snore usually, but she was extremely tired today.

The little girl gently helped Zhou Pingguo take off her shoes. It was cold, so she didn’t need to take off her socks. She took great pains to help Zhou Pingguo adjust her sleeping position so that the quilt could cover her entire body. Only then did she feel at ease and went to the living room to continue doing her homework.

Nowadays, the theory that studying is useless has become popular. “The income from making missiles is not as good as that from tea eggs.” It may sound ironic, but it is an indisputable fact. But Zhou Xin has been telling them since they were young that they must study!

What can they do at this age?! They can’t do anything. The most important thing is to stay in school and study hard.

So no matter how anxious he was and the risk of running out of money, Zhou Sen still kept his patience and studied hard in school.

With the encouragement of their second brother, the twins studied hard after entering the first grade. Zhou Lei was more active and usually wanted to fly to heaven, but he would listen carefully to the teacher’s lectures with his big eyes open. Zhou Jing was originally a quiet person, unlike her brother who was very nervous. In addition to listening carefully in class and completing homework in time, she would also flip through the old dictionary left by her brother after returning home and slowly preview the lessons for herself.

In her previous life, Zhou Ping had many clients who were so tired of tutoring their children that they jumped up and down every day. The most exaggerated case was that one of them had a cerebral hemorrhage and was sent to the ICU for emergency treatment. Compared with those, Zhou Ping felt that she was quite lucky. When children are willing to study, parents can be relieved of a lot of worries.

But even if Zhou Pingguo wanted to tutor them, her level was not enough. After all, Zhou Pingguo had only completed literacy and could recognize words and write her own name. As for the rest, asking her to recite a few lines of poetry would be too difficult.

When Zhou Pingguo woke up, it was already 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Today, the children cooked lunch. Since Zhou Ping was reborn as Zhou Pingguo, she asked for a share of the housework. She did more, but no one was allowed to be idle and everyone had to do what they could.

Zhou Sen was responsible for sweeping the floor, Zhou Jing was responsible for hanging and collecting clothes, and Zhou Lei, the little glutton at home, was responsible for cooking. The first two times he did not do well, but he improved by leaps and bounds afterwards. Zhou Pingguo often worried about how to show off her skills to get back 10%, but she did not do so for a long time.

Whenever someone helped him to light the fire, he was too young to change the honeycomb coal.

The fire was burning brightly, so Zhou Lei took a small stool and started working hard.

Cooking is no longer a problem for him.

The most important thing is that he enjoyed it, and Zhou Pingguo and others also enjoyed it.

Zhou Jing saw Zhou Pingguo coming out, “Sister-in-law, you’re awake. The food is in an aluminum box and is warming in the kitchen. Hurry and eat it.”

“Okay, what do we have for lunch?” Zhou Pingguo asked.

“Fried eggs with leeks, and stewed Chinese cabbage with vermicelli. My brother said someone in the village is slaughtering a pig today, so he took Lei Lei to watch. He will buy some pork later.”

The New Year is coming soon, and many people in the village have started to slaughter pigs for the New Year. The pigs are cheaper than those sold in the market, so many families who don’t raise pigs buy more and bring them home to make bacon. If they save money, the bacon can be eaten for a year.

Zhou Sen originally planned to eat last year’s bacon for a whole year, but Zhou Pingguo cooked it all in one meal, which almost broke his heart. In the past, he would only eat so much when his brother came home.

But later, Zhou Pingguo earned enough money to guarantee them at least one egg a day and meat for every meal, so he didn’t say anything more. After all, he ate well, he was in high spirits, and his younger brothers and sisters were obviously growing faster than before, which were all good things.

It’s what you put into your mouth, so it doesn’t matter if you spend a little more money. It’s not a loss.

“Okay, I’ll prepare some firewood and make bacon later.” Although Zhou Pingguo felt that one should not eat too much bacon, the villagers had the habit of making bacon, and it would be nice to eat it occasionally to change the taste, so she began to prepare the things needed to make bacon.

Zhou Jing put down her books and put them back in the bookcase. She had very good living habits and never threw things around. She put them back in their original places. She walked out of the room to help Zhou Pingguo.

“Jingjing, come in. It’s cold outside. I can do it myself.” If it was Zhou Lei, Zhou Pingguo would have asked him for help without any psychological burden and ordered him around. However, Zhou Jing was weak and had a slight cough a few days ago. Zhou Pingguo didn’t have the heart to ask her to come out.

To make bacon, you have to smoke it in the yard, otherwise the kitchen will be like a fire. If you smoke it indoors, it’s okay to ask Zhou Jing to help, but don’t smoke it outdoors. It’s been frosted here for the past few days. Although it won’t snow, it’s really cold.

“Okay.” Zhou Jing was not a stubborn child. After hearing what Zhou Pingguo said, she went back to her room obediently. She fiddled with the radio at home. She liked to listen to “Little Trumpet”. She didn’t know if it was playing at this time, so she slowly figured it out by herself.

Zhou Pingguo had almost prepared everything, but her stomach started to growl. Zhou Pingguo forgot that she hadn’t eaten yet and quickly went to the kitchen to eat.

The aluminum box was filled to the brim. Unlike city dwellers, villagers were not willing to spend more money on vegetables than meat in winter. Regardless of the season, eggs and meat were precious. The children probably left a lot of eggs for themselves. Zhou Pingguo took a bite of the chive egg and laughed. It seemed that her education during this period was still somewhat useful.

In the past, they didn’t talk it out, and Zhou Sen always put too much pressure on himself and Zhou Pingguo to raise the two children, because Zhou Pingguo had always taught him that loving others is based on loving yourself first, and that a family should give to each other, not just one-sidedly. Now he is slowly treating himself better. This shows that the child still listens to advice and is not hopeless.

However, he still had that stingy stinginess that wouldn’t change. When a pencil had reached the end, he would use a small bamboo stick to connect it and continue writing.