Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

Chapter 44: Dark Clouds Rolling
Shen Zhao laughed: "I'm not a three-year-old child, how could I fall down?"

Shen Ang also looked at the kang and said in amazement: "The rich families in our Central Plains also have this kind of kang, but we don't know how to build it. I didn't expect that foreigners also use kangs."

Shen Zhaoxin lied: "The north of the foreign country is even colder than here. Without this in winter, I probably wouldn't be able to survive."

Zhang Shanyue lit a handful of grass with a lighter and stuffed it into the kang hole, saying with a smile, "This year our family won't be freezing. With this kang, we don't have to live in a cave anymore."

Shen Ang pinched his chin and said, "This thing must be very hard to burn. If we want to burn it for a whole winter, how can the straw we have at home be enough?"

"How about we go to the market and buy some firewood to keep as a backup in case it snows and we can't buy any." Zhang Shanyue watched the fire burning in the kang hole before blocking it with square stones.

Shen Ang nodded: "We do need to prepare some grass. If it gets really cold, let Ah Heng sleep in the same room with you."

Zhang Shanyue subconsciously looked at her daughter, and seeing that she didn't react, she said, "How can that be? The children are grown up, how can they still sleep together?"

Shen Zhao said: "We can put a kang screen on the big kang. My mother and I can sleep on this side, and my second brother can sleep on that side." In order to save firewood, it's okay for the whole family to sleep on the same kang.

Moreover, he built a small stove in the house. If the weather is too cold, the whole family can eat and drink in the same room. What is there to be afraid of?
As for the kitchen, its walls were made of millet stalks and only covered with a layer of yellow mud inside and outside. When the cold wind blew in winter, it was so cold that it was impossible to stay there.

"That's fine too." Shen Ang said, "Wait until your eldest brother comes back and build a kang. Then your second brother can live in the same room with him."

Then he turned around and asked his daughter, "A Zhao, are these bricks expensive? How much is one?"

"Thirty cents a piece, and a kang costs about fifty yuan." Shen Zhao replied.

"So expensive?" Shen Ang scratched his head: "I'm also thinking of building a big kang in Tingyi."

He lives in Tingyi most of the year, and sometimes he goes on business trips to other places, and can be gone for ten days or half a month.

If he was tasked with escorting grain or prisoners, it was normal for him to be away from home for a month or two. Even if he were asked to spend one or two thousand coins to build a big kang in the post station, he still couldn't bear to do so.

Shen Zhao suggested to his father: "You can split the cost with Ting's father and the others, so that each of you only needs to pay a few hundred."

"They won't share equally." Shen Ang said helplessly: "Those misers, let alone hundreds of coins, they won't pay even a few dozen coins."

As they were talking, the tofu sellers came back.

As soon as Shen Heng entered the yard, he started calling out, "Mom! Have you cooked yet? My son is starving!"

Zhang Shanyue hurried out of the room and saw several people pulling back a cart of food, looking exhausted.

"It's ready, and it's still hot." Zhang Shanyue went to the kitchen, fetched a basin of hot water, and placed it on the floor. "Wash off the dust first. I'll give you some steamed buns."

As he spoke, he brought a small table, picked up a basket full of plump white buns from the steamer and took it outside.

Although the four of them were tired, their eyes were bright.

After washing their hands and faces, they knelt down beside the small table.

Zhang Shanyue poured a few more bowls of yellow rice porridge and called Uncle Qin, "Uncle Qin, come and have something to eat. It's almost dark."

Only then did Uncle Qin put down his tools and walked over with a dusty face.

Shen Zhao scooped a bowl of soybean paste from the jar and placed it on the small table as a side dish for their porridge.

A few people were drinking porridge and eating buns, and no one spoke.

Shen Ang also washed his hands and face, stood at the door of the kitchen with a bowl of porridge in hand and asked, "How is the tofu business?"

Shen Heng smiled and said, "That's great. If the journey wasn't too far, we could make more to sell."

The county town is indeed different from the countryside. People there are willing to spend money on food. However, you have to pay to enter the town and to set up a stall, which is very troublesome.

Shen De also said: "Second Uncle, if it weren't for the fact that my mother was about to give birth, I would have wanted to open a tofu workshop in the county town."

"That's a good idea." Shen Ang praised: "It will take several months before we can plant seeds in our fields. You might as well go to the county town and sell them immediately, so you don't have to travel back and forth."

Shen Heng's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Really? If we take the stone mill and the big iron pot away, what will happen to our home?" Shen Zhao said unhappily: "Why do you want to take things from home? You can just spend money to buy a new set?"

"I can't buy it." Shen De swallowed a mouthful of bun and said seriously, "There are no big iron pots for sale outside."

Ah Zhu added timidly, "I can't even buy a stone mill."

Shen Zhao:.
She almost forgot that there were no stone mills or iron pots for sale in the wild northwest.

"If you really want to go to the county town, I can find a way to buy back the iron pot and the stone mill." Shen Zhao pointed to the wooden frame on the cart and said, "You can also buy these."

Uncle Qin glanced at the wooden frame and whispered, "This is easy. I can help you make it for free."

"Really?" Shen Heng turned his head and looked at Uncle Qin, his eyes burning: "Really don't want wages?"

Uncle Qin nodded.

Zhang Shanyue poked his son's head and scolded him, "You're talking nonsense again! How can you let your Uncle Qin make so many tofu frames for nothing?"

"I just said it casually, why did you take it seriously?"

Shen Heng protected his head with one hand and ate a bun with the other, glancing at his mother with dissatisfaction: "If my son becomes stupid one day, it must be because of you who beat him stupid."

"You're so talkative." Zhang Shanyue glared at his son, took his bowl and served him another bowl of porridge.

After dinner, several people gathered around a small table to count money.

The gross profit this time was 1,650 coins, plus three stone of beans.

Shen Heng deducted two hundred coins for brine and firewood, and then divided the remaining money into three equal parts, giving each family one part.

I didn’t share the three stone beans because I would need them to make tofu tomorrow.

Shen Heng added yesterday's 690 coins to the total, so each household could get 700 coins.

Ah Zhu's father held the seven hundred coins in his hands and almost cried for joy.

This was earned in just two or three days, which was equivalent to the money he earned from raising three sheep with great effort throughout the year.

"Are you going to soak beans tonight?" Ah Shi's father asked tremblingly, with a look of anticipation on his face.

Shen Heng waved his hand: "Let's go to the bar tomorrow. It's just in time for us to go to the market in Yuli Township the day after tomorrow." He has been exhausted these past two days. If he continues like this, he will surely age prematurely.

"Oh." Azhu's father was a little disappointed, but he still happily said goodbye to his son and went home.

Shen De was also very happy. He put seven hundred coins in his pocket and loaded the cart back home.

At this time, his wife and daughter had already gone to bed, only his old mother was still looking forward to it.

Seeing her son coming back, Aunt Shen hurried to the kitchen with an oil lamp and fetched a basin of hot water for her son to soak his feet.

"Ade, have you eaten yet? Mom left two steamed buns in the pot."

"I've eaten." Shen De took off his coat and handed the purse in his arms to his mother: "This is the money I earned in the past two days. Take it and keep it."

Aunt Shen took the heavy purse and smiled, "Oh! That's all?"

Shen De smiled and nodded: "Here is 700 yuan. When I make more money, you can buy a few chickens and raise them."

"Why raise chickens? It's too wasteful of food." Aunt Shen counted the copper coins one by one and muttered, "Save all of these. If the Huns attack us one day, we can flee to the Central Plains."

Shen De said helplessly, "Mother, why do you always think the Huns will attack us? We are well-protected here now. There is no way they can come again."

Aunt Shen suddenly stopped counting the money and lowered her voice and said, "Ade, don't disbelieve me. I have learned physiognomy from your grandfather. There has been a lot of black air in the northwest recently. Something ominous must be coming."

(End of this chapter)