"Is Aunt Gan at home?"

"Aunt Gan!"

Just as he was patting on the courtyard door to call for someone, Zhang Fangyuan saw a woman with a striking silk flower come back twisting her waist from the outside.

The woman he called Aunt Gan was called Matchmaker Gan by others, because Zhang Fangyuan's father and the wife's husband were distant cousins, so they were somewhat related.

"Fang Yuan, why did you come here? The Xu family killed the New Year pig today, and you didn't go there?"

Seeing that the door of her own courtyard was slapped by strong and powerful palms, she seemed about to fall backwards into the courtyard, Matchmaker Gan hurriedly called to stop her, and she couldn't help complaining to her man, who would not come to open the door while lying down at home.

"I came back after dinner. It's not too far from home. I stopped by to see Aunt Gan. Aunt just came back?"

Matchmaker Gan did not expect that her cousin and nephew would come to make friends with her today. I am also an honest person, even if he died early, it would be pitiful to leave an only son behind.

"Yesterday, the wife of the Wang family at the head of the village asked me to show a girl to Da Langxiang of her family. I didn't eat the shaved pig soup from the Xu family on my side, and rushed to take care of her business."

Zhang Fangyuan said: "It is most appropriate for my aunt to handle these things in our village."

"Yo, you kid, your mouth is so sweet today."

"My nephew wants to trouble my aunt with something."

Matchmaker Gan immediately understood: "You are in a hurry, boy. I was not happy to talk to you two years ago. Now that I am tired of drinking, I think it will be more comfortable to ask a wife to support me."

Zhang Fangyuan laughed: "I'm not too young in the village, just now I saw that the people younger than me were holding dolls in front of me, so I shouldn't be in a hurry."

Matchmaker Gan smiled knowingly, being a matchmaker is born to be enthusiastic about gossip, and if someone took the initiative to ask for it, he was naturally enthusiastic in his heart.

It's just... Matchmaker Gan looked Zhang Fangyuan up and down. She is talented and skilled. She should be the best one to talk about. It's because of her reputation. I'm afraid things won't be easy to handle. She didn't agree too readily: "If there is a suitable aunt, I will call you to see her."

Zhang Fangyuan was sincerely asking for help, so he transferred the two catties of meat hanging from his finger to matchmaker Gan, and said in a good voice, "Auntie, please help me."

No matter which villager would not be envious of such a large piece of meat, the matchmaker refused, but her hands were deft, and she lifted the meat happily, and her tone became warmer: "My nephew is too Be polite, tell your aunt what you like."

Zhang Fangyuan thought for a while: "As long as it's not like Xu Shaochun."

Matchmaker Gan stared at Zhang Fangyuan with wide eyes when she heard the words: "Which single man in this village doesn't want to marry the second girl of Xu's family? You didn't say anything against it?"

"My nephew can't afford to support the second girl of the Xu family." Zhang Fangyuan laughed.

When he said this, Matchmaker Gan gave him a high look: "You silly boy can see clearly, but you saved some effort."

"In short, I don't pick anything, I just want to live a life."

"Come on, Auntie will compare and match the girls and boys of the right age on hand, go to people's houses to find out what's going on, and come to you if there are signs."

When Zhang Fangyuan saw that the most famous matchmaker in eight villages agreed, he felt more at ease: "Okay, my nephew will just wait for your good news."

Matchmaker Gan sent Zhang Fangyuan away, and shook the meat in her hand. This was a good move, and she didn't have to buy pork for the Chinese New Year. She opened the courtyard door, and her man came out of the house: "You dare to respond to anyone's business. If he comes to make trouble when nothing happens, he will make the neighbors look good."

"Zhang Fangyuan is also good at hands and feet, so maybe he can't be called a daughter-in-law?"

The man snorted and said, "How many days does he stay in the village in a month? When he comes back, he's like a drunkard. Who knows if he will go crazy and beat people after drinking. His old mother was beaten by his father when he was drunk. Who is willing to give him the girl and brother."

Matchmaker Gan said, "He's not the only bad guy in the village, and that ugly, limp Zhou Zhou'er met a little brother."

The man snorted: "Then don't you look at how much money the Zhou family spent to marry him back. Ten taels! Don't talk about emptying out the family's wealth, but make up all the money to borrow it. If there is a famine Enough to buy a wife, how much money can Fang Yuan spend?"

"Do you know that Zhang's family didn't leave money for Zhang Fangyuan to marry a wife? Zhang's family used to be very wealthy, and uncles in the village were also from the upper class."

The words are true, but Matchmaker Gan is a little guilty. Even if the Zhang family has a family background, it can't afford Zhang Fangyuan's spending and spending. Nowadays, his reputation is so bad, it's no wonder that Zhang's uncle wants to control Zhang Fangyuan.

Besides, when someone else came to ask for a matchmaker, they sent a basket of eggs and a few snacks wrapped in a handkerchief. Who would give such a generous gift before the matter was completed? Even the village chief’s family would not be so generous. In the final analysis, a single man can't live a life, so giving so many things can also show the sincerity of asking for a daughter-in-law, and he wants to find someone to take care of him.

But after thinking about it, Zhang Fangyuan said that he was indifferent and fierce, even if he asked his wife to go back, the little wife could still control him.

She withdrew her thoughts, and turned to lift up the pork in her hand to save some face in front of her husband: "Look, Zhang Fangyuan gave it to me."

Seeing the third-line meat, the man swallowed subconsciously. She pursed her mouth, and did not continue to fight on the intuitive meat.

Zhang Fangyuan still didn't know that his market was already bad, humming a popular little song in the city, and went home cheerfully.

I don't know that I was fooling around in the city for a few days, and the kitchen at home was covered with dust. It was cold, so he simply lit a fire and boiled a large pot of water to warm the room, and when the water was hot, he could wash the stove and pots.

After finishing his errands and coming back, he couldn't help but think that when the matchmaker got a letter and the daughter-in-law got it back, someone would take care of the kitchen. At that time, he will go out to earn money, and his wife doesn't have to do many things so diligently, she just needs to tidy up the house, and he won't have to make a fire by himself when he comes back from the outside.

After setting up two pieces of dry firewood in the stove, he walked through the middle hall to his bedroom. There was a faint smell of alcohol in the room. Where, when he entered the door, he almost tripped over his trousers that were thrown on the ground.

I don't know if a cat got into the house or I was drunk and didn't wake up. The carbon basin in the house was also kicked over, and it was thrown upside down in the middle of the house, with extinguished coals and ashes all over the place.

Zhang Fangyuan is a rough old man, he is not good at housework, and he is not like a girl who likes to be clean, so he didn't pay attention to it earlier, seeing this scene now, he can't help but feel bad.

He stepped to the edge of the bed, pushed away the long wooden bench beside the bed, pried up two floor tiles, and pulled out a small solid wooden box from the bottom. Hastily opened the box.

I saw a few pieces of broken silver lying alone in the box, and a silver bracelet with a mandarin duck carved with Ruyi Xiang pattern on the outside.

Five taels of broken silver, and four taels of silver bracelets. That is to say, except for some loose money and things that can be sold for money, this is the only savings in the family.

Both father and mother are hard-working and willing to do hard work. Although they don't know how to run a business, the couple still saved a lot of money for him.

Zhang Fangyuan remembered that after his parents were gone, when the box that stored the family's belongings came to him, there were twenty taels of silver in it. After wandering around for the past two years, most of the family's life savings were just spent, and nothing decent was left behind.

One did not repair and expand the house, two did not buy household items, and three did not get married and have children.

He hugged the box and sighed slightly, the bracelet must not be moved, it was his mother's dowry back then, and he was also asked to leave it to his daughter-in-law as a bride price in the future, not to his mother's family, but to make jewelry for his daughter-in-law. This also means that there are only five taels of silver at his disposal.

As far as daily expenses are concerned, it is already a large amount of money. It must be known that after paying taxes and corvee for a year, the upper reaches of the village households can have two thousand yuan or two taels of silver left over.

As long as he doesn't go to the city to eat, drink and have fun, and controls his wasteful habits a little bit, he still won't spend much money. It's just that there are important things to do right now, and he doesn't know the price of marriage proposals. After all, he can't go around borrowing money to marry someone back and pay back the money with himself. That's too shabby, and he can't do it.

Besides, he has a bad reputation now, and his uncles don't want to see him, who would lend him money, maybe they think he is lying about borrowing money to have fun.

The dog shook his head when he saw the situation.

Zhang Fangyuan slammed the box shut, money can't be saved, he still has to earn it, he's good at it, isn't he afraid that he won't be able to earn money?

Having made up his mind, he tidied up the inside and outside of the house. If it was a hot day, he would also like to use hot water to scald all the places in the house, but in winter, the weather is cold and gray, and if the house is not dry for a long time, it will easily smell of water and mildew.

After daybreak the next day, Zhang Fangyuan was carrying a large basket made of bamboo strips, which contained some hunting tools and a sharp long-handled sickle. Go to the main road at the entrance of the village and go in the direction of the city, but go to the back mountain of the village along the narrow path.

Before it snowed and the weather was not too cold, he went to the mountain to chop some firewood and come back. He could make firewood for the stove and burn some charcoal for the twelfth lunar month. In addition, go up and down the mountain to point traps, and try your luck to bring something back.

In this season, there are slightly more people going up the mountain than usual. After the autumn harvest, the fields are idle, and they can at least order seasonal vegetables. The crops cannot be grown, and the farmers are idle.

The land can be idle, but people can’t be idle. After all, they have to eat. People in the village either pick the vegetables from the field and sell them in the city, or find some casual jobs to do.

The Jijiu village where they live is far away from the county seat, and it takes several hours to go back and forth. It is unrealistic to carry the burden to sell vegetables, and there are very few people in the village who sell vegetables. As for casual workers, during the slack season, there is a lot of labor, it is difficult to find work, and the wages are lower than before.

In comparison, there are naturally more people going up the mountain, whether it is hunting and chopping firewood, or digging wild vegetables, there is always something to do.

However, Jijiu Village is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and there are mountain roads everywhere. This is why more people go up the mountain in winter to find a way out, but they may not be able to meet people. Only across the mountains and forests, they can hear the sound of chopping firewood from the opposite side. .

Zhang Fangyuan swung his long-handled sickle all the way, and the weeds and vines covered with mist were cut down by the roadside a few times. When he got up the mountain, a clear mountain path was cut out.

After entering the mountain, he walked all the way to the deep mountain area, installed small animal traps, and dug holes to put iron nail boards... These guys are really good hunters, and the iron is precious, and ordinary people don't have it.

In order to buy these iron lumps, all the meat and pigs he got from slaughtering animals were exchanged for money, and he bought damaged iron from the village at a low price and went to the iron shop in the city to beat them out. He didn't save a dime before. Next, I bought all these things.

Xu Shi was born with a strong physique, and his favorite things are these cold iron objects. Other people's treasures may be gold and silver, but his are knives, sickles, clips, nails, iron chains and so on.

Fortunately, I spent my money on buying these things before. If I had saved the money, I would have spent it earlier. These tools can support me anyway.

After placing the traps, he marked each trap so that it would be convenient to return to collect the cages, and it also prevented the villagers from accidentally falling into the traps when they went up the mountain. After doing this, he went out to the deep mountains to cut firewood, so as not to scare the prey out to eat.

He had only been able to walk for two hours before a figure stealthily went to see the marked trap.

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