Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Chapter 374 New Year’s Day 1

After wrapping the buns, there was still a large bowl of dumpling filling. Zhou Guo felt that this dry filling would not taste good for buns, so it could only be used to wrap dumplings.

The family was busy until late at night. When they heard the sound of firecrackers from the village, they knew that the old year had passed and the new year had arrived.

Li put all the dumplings into the pot and cooked them. Everyone got a big bowl, and Zhou Guo's bowl was the biggest.

Everyone looked at the strange-looking dumplings that looked neither like buns nor wontons, and took a bite.

His eyes lit up, and Zhou Mai took one bite after another and said, "It's thinner than the bun skin, thicker than the wonton skin, and the meat is also thick. It's delicious. It tastes different from the wonton, but just as delicious!"

Despite this, everyone is more looking forward to the steamed buns, which are more greasy and fragrant than dumplings.

After Zhou Guo finished a bowl of dumplings, a pot of steaming buns was ready.

Everybody couldn't wait to gather around and watch; this was the first time that their family had made dumplings. It was a little hard to believe as they had always bought the dumplings and now one day they could make them themselves. They could make as many dumplings as they wanted to eat; although flour and meat were expensive, they were still cheaper than those sold outside.

As soon as Li opened the lid of the steamer, white steam gushed out instantly, and the room instantly became like a fairyland.

When the fog cleared, white steamed buns appeared in front of everyone. Some of them had red oil on the skin, which looked particularly appetizing.

After the old man took one first, everyone rushed forward, taking one after another, and in the blink of an eye, half of the tray of buns was left.

Zhou Guo quickly picked the best-looking one, turned the side that was soaked in red oil over, blew on it twice and took a bite. It was juicy and fragrant, with a thin skin and a large filling. It was only pork filling, with pine mushrooms added in it, which made it even more delicious. It was better than the ones bought outside! !

There were exclamations in the room, as well as the sounds of slurping soup and smacking buns.

Zhou Mi looked at the buns in the bowl and pondered, "I think we can all go sell buns. If there is nothing to do in the fields after the New Year or the beginning of spring, why don't we go to the city to sell buns? They smell so good, they must sell well!"

Zhou Mai said, "The county town is too far away. If we want to sell buns, we have to get up before the rooster crows and rush to the county town. When we come back in the afternoon, we have to start kneading the dough and mixing the stuffing. We have to work until late at night. It's too tiring. We are exhausted. I don't know if the money we earn is enough to pay for medical treatment and medicine."

Zhou Guo was stunned, and couldn't help but think of her previous life, when people were busy all their lives, and when they got old they were full of illnesses and had no money to see a doctor. Her brother was really far-sighted!

Zhou Mi didn't say anything. What he said was true. It's not worth it to let the pharmacy and the doctor take all the money you earn.

Zhou Xing said, "I think if I want to sell buns, I can sell them in town. I can go there every time there's a market. The market is close to us, so I won't be late. I can come back to work in the fields after the market. I won't make much money, but it won't be so tiring, and I should be able to earn enough money for oil, salt, sauce and vinegar."

After fleeing famine, the whole family paid great attention to their health, as illnesses caused by exhaustion are not easy to cure.

Zhou Guo suggested, "In addition to selling steamed buns, you can also sell steamed bread and dried meat. Dried meat is what the traveling merchants who pass by like to buy the most."

However, there don't seem to be many traveling merchants in the town. They are either in the county town or the provincial capital, and there are more opportunities in the provincial capital.

Zhou Gu patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, we'll make more when the time comes, and Zhou Mai and I will take them to the city to sell. We'll come back after we've sold them all, and we should be able to make a lot of money."

Zhou Mi said, "Then we have to take Guoguo with us. Otherwise, if we carry so much money on us and encounter three or five robbers on the road, we will not be able to defeat them."

Li smiled and said, "Enough, you are getting more and more irrelevant. We haven't even started yet, but you are already talking about this. There is a lot of meat for making jerky. Where does it come from?"

Everyone looked at the old man.

Zhou Guo thought for a moment and said, "Master is alone. Even though he is very powerful, he only has a pair of legs and a pair of hands. Besides, there are not so many prey for us to hunt in the mountains. If we want to make jerky, there is only one way, which is to raise them ourselves. But we have no place and no seedlings, and the seasonings are not cheap. I don't think it will be possible to do it in a short time."

After all, we only have so much money. If we don’t make any money after all the hard work, we won’t know where to cry. “We have to take it step by step. We can’t go too fast. If we go too fast, we will fall.”

She was the one who said making meat jerky was possible, and she was also the one who said it was not possible. No one complained after hearing that. Think about it, making meat jerky is easy to say, but making money from it is not an easy thing.

After eating the buns, everyone yawned and fell asleep. They didn’t know what time it was. If the rooster crowed early, it would have already started crowing.

Zhou Guo falls asleep quickly and wakes up early. After doing a few sets of boxing and sword techniques in the morning, he immediately becomes energetic. Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year.

We had a big meal of meat and fish in the morning. So many people came yesterday, but they didn’t finish all the dishes made in the twelfth lunar month. I’m afraid they can still eat them for two days.

After dinner, Zhou Gu took Zhou Mai and Zhou Mi to visit relatives. He had agreed with Wang Fugui and others yesterday that they would go to the head of the village home together today. There were many people from his hometown there, and they hadn't visited them in such a long time.

Li, a woman, would not go. The house must be empty during the first month of the year. If so many people came to visit like yesterday, she would not let them go empty-handed.

Zhou Xing didn't even want to go.

Zhou Guo didn't go either. She didn't like visiting friends and relatives. It was better for her to stay at home, drink tea, eat melon seeds, eat snacks, and play cards when she had nothing to do.

I don’t know if it was the effect of the leaf card yesterday, but sure enough, not long after we had finished our meal, people from the village came. Everyone was laughing and saying that they had come again. Of course, there were still many people who didn’t come, probably because they had guests at home.

Zhou Guo was still serving tea and adding firewood to boil water.

Playing cards are addictive no matter what era they are in.

In just two days, these cards made of leaves began to spread like wildfire in the village.

People were punished at the beginning for losing, and they started to lose melon seeds, peanuts, beans, snacks, and even their jobs. If you lost, you had to work for my family for half an hour. It seemed that the trend was turning to money, and in the blink of an eye it was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

The fifteenth day of the lunar year is a big day. The New Year atmosphere is long gone by this time, and everyone is staying at home. Every year at this time, the county town holds a Lantern Festival. The young people in the village love to have fun, so after lunch, they put a few steamed buns in their pockets and run to the county town. There is no fun or excitement in playing cards or anything like that.

When the Zhou family heard the news, they were also not calm. They didn't expect that there were lanterns here as well.