The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 160: Sharing Family Life

The most direct impact of drought is the rise in food prices.

A decrease in autumn harvest was a foregone conclusion. Even when new grain came on the market, the price was 10% higher than in previous years. As he expected, Wang Hengzhi's suggestion of tax reduction to Prefect Ma was not adopted, and the taxes were no different from previous years.

Even if the amount of food received is not much, what can the common people do? They can only tighten their belts and save on food so that they can hold on until the next year when the food arrives.

Although these had no impact on Chen Cui's family life, because she was always cautious, she did not sell the harvested grain, whether it was from the farm in the provincial capital or the farm in the county town, but stored it well.

According to her plan, she had to store enough food for at least three years, and then sell the old food from the first year when the fourth year's food came in.

Not only food prices have increased, but the prices of vegetables and meat have also risen. However, the increase is not large. Although it has attracted complaints from the public, it has little impact on sales.

At present, it seems that this is just a slightly bad year due to drought, and it is far from a disaster.

But Chen Cui was also afraid that the situation Wang Hengzhi described would occur, drought this year and flood next year, which would have a huge impact.

No matter what, life had to go on as usual. When Changping passed the imperial examination and returned home, Chen Cui did not follow him and let him go alone.

An eighteen-year-old boy should learn how to behave and deal with people. Let him deal with those people by himself.

However, she also gave Changping a task, which was to bring the two elders of the Chen family over when he returned to the city and have them stay for a while.

Chen Cui knew that the old couple valued their grandson Changping very much and thought that he would be the future head of the family. His personal invitation would be more effective than Chen Cui saying it herself.

Sure enough, when Chen Cui asked them to come before, they refused. But this time when their grandson invited them, they agreed.

The old couple were a little tired after sitting in the car for a whole day, but they were still in good spirits. After they got off the car, they saw Chen Cui's house, which was more exquisite than they had ever seen before, and they were amazed.

The room had been tidied by Chen Cui a long time ago, and it was fully stocked with all the necessary items. The old couple could move in with just a few pieces of clothing.

Chen Cui asked them to come over this time, one because she missed them a little, and the other because she was worried about the health of the two elders.

The next day, she made an excuse to take the two elders out for a walk. After visiting a few shops, she took them to a clinic and asked the doctor to take their pulses and do a physical examination.

The old couple refused again and again and refused to go in, saying that they were in good health and did not need to see a doctor.

But now that they were here, how could Chen Cui let them escape again? This was the clinic where she had inquired in advance about a famous doctor, and it was not easy to get an appointment.

She and a few other children coaxed and dragged the old couple to the doctor.

As expected, the two people who claimed to be in good health had different health problems, either lumbar muscle damage or arthritis, and Chen Shangen even had cardiovascular risks.

Chen Cui was glad that she brought her parents here, otherwise she might have heard the bad news one day.

Even in modern times, many elderly people die suddenly from these reasons. She herself died of this. It was even more common in ancient times.

Those so-called healthy people who suddenly die, with no apparent cause of death, mostly die of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Diseases such as lumbar muscle injury and arthritis cannot be cured, but as long as they are well controlled, they are usually not a big deal. However, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases cannot be ignored.

Chen Cui bought a bunch of common pills at the clinic and gave them to the old couple as regular medicine. She already had some of these at home, so if anyone had a headache or fever, they could just find a pill and take it.

However, she and her children have good physical constitutions and rarely get sick. So far, only Xiao Ya has used it because she had a cold.

Chen Cui also took out the bezoar that she had treasured for a long time, and wanted the doctor to prepare it into pills such as Angong Niuhuang Pills, to be kept at home for future use.

Although there is no ready-made medicine called Angong Niuhuang Wan nowadays, there are pills with similar effects. However, because the ingredients include bezoar, musk, rhinoceros horn, and borneol, the price is very expensive. Ordinary people may not even have heard of it, let alone buy it.

When the old doctor saw the large piece of bezoar that Chen Cui took out, his eyes almost popped out. This was really rare.

After hearing Chen Cui's idea of ​​making the medicine, the old doctor pondered for a moment and put forward his own request. He only asked Chen Cui to pay the rest of the material cost, but he wanted to keep 10% of the finished medicine pills.

When Chen Cui learned that dozens of pills could be made, she nodded in agreement.

Coming out of the clinic, the old couple felt a little uneasy. They had not expected that they would have so many health problems. Although the doctor said that if they took good care of themselves, it would not affect their lifespan, they still couldn't help but think too much.

"Dad, Mom, you've heard what the doctor said. Let big brother take care of the charcoal burning this winter. Don't do it again. Your bodies can't stand it. If you get sick and in pain, it will be big brother's and the others' fault!"

Chen Shangen remained silent, but Zhang said unwillingly, "Then I'll just do nothing but cook. We can't have the whole family busy while we sit there doing nothing!"

"We are not too old to move. This year I will just watch over the charcoal pile and do nothing else. Leave all the worries to your eldest brother. I will not take care of anything else."

In fact, what the doctor said did have some influence on Chen Shangen, but he was not the type of person who would just watch the children busy themselves and do nothing, so he said so.

In fact, Chen Cui said that on purpose. She knew that the two elders would never let go completely. It would be great if they could really do what she said.

The group walked around the street for another round and then returned home. Despite the repeated dissuasion of her parents, Chen Cui still bought a lot of things.

Among them were good materials for making clothes for them, a set of gold jewelry for Zhang, a gold-foil inlaid pipe for Chen Shangen, and rouge, powder and jewelry for his two sisters-in-law and brother's wife.

Seeing Chen Cui spending money so lavishly, Zhang couldn't help but scold her, "It's fine if you buy jewelry for your sisters-in-law, but I'm already old, why do I need jewelry? I can't wear it even if I buy it!"

Chen Cui casually picked up a golden hairpin and inserted it into the old lady's head, saying with a smile: "Look, isn't this pretty? If you don't know, you might think it's someone's old noble!"

Zhang couldn't help but touch her head when she heard that. She even went to the mirror to look at herself. She asked Chen Cui hesitantly, "Isn't it too ostentatious to wear this on your head? There aren't many people in our village who wear silver hairpins. I heard that only the wives of the landlord Tang in town wear gold hairpins!"

"Don't worry, wear it. Your daughter is a seventh-rank imperial official after all, and your grandson is a scholar and a student. Is it possible that our status is not as good as that of the landlord in our hometown?"

Zhang was amused by Chen Cui, but after a while she carefully put the hairpin away, saying that she would wear it when her grandchildren got married.