Manbao patted her small pocket and heaved a sigh of sorrow, "All my money is gone now," she announced solemnly to her family, upon returning home and giving the fabrics and cotton to her mother, "from now on, you'll have to pay for the meat!"
Old Zhou glanced at the fabrics and cotton in his wife's hands, and as he fondled his smoking pipe, he thought, at least all the money had been spent.
He nodded his agreement, but then turned to his sons and said, "From now on, when you go out to sell soup, save a jar for your sister to eat when you warm it up at night."
Everyone agreed it was no problem, and Zhou Erlang even offered, "We can also bring back bones with some meat on them for Manbao to gnaw on."
With that, the issue of meat was settled.
In this era, information spread slowly. Apart from Laoding and his family, who returned home every ten days and knew about the Zhou family's business, it was rare for anyone else to find out.