At the beginning of Shenshi (3-5 PM), Gu Qingshan returned from town and saw a long queue forming in front of his house.

Most of them were women; the men must still be busy on the mountain!

"Brother Gu, you're back?" The women greeted Gu Qingshan warmly. Nowadays, they weren't afraid of this scarred man anymore! They had heard that he was incredibly brave, the kind of brave man who could take down a wild boar single-handedly. Having such a fierce man in Shiligou was practically a guarantee of safety.

Besides, everyone knows he's Liu's godson, and since those families came, the villagers' lives have improved considerably! What's so scary about Scarface? Those smiling tigers and two-faced bastards are the real threats!

Many women were secretly wondering if their own families had any suitable widows. If Gu Qingshan took a liking to one, wouldn't that be like falling into a lucky hole?

Feeling the women's warm welcome, Gu Qingshan, if he knew what they were thinking: Thank you all...

"Uncle, you're back!" Da Wa'er and Lu Song poked their heads out from the crowd. Their mother had temporarily conscripted them to come here to collect fruit!

Keeping accounts was still a bit difficult for them, so Qin San Niang had no choice but to call Luo Huan over from the school.

Luo Huan stayed by He Yingyuan's side and acted as the school's gatekeeper. No one knew what he was doing all day, but he was always busy.

Upon hearing that Da Wa needed help, Luo Huan immediately went to tell He Yingyuan and then hurried over. She thought to herself, "If I can help with the chores, maybe I can have dinner at Madam Qin's house today..."

Wu Chunhua and Liao Hongying hurriedly began sorting the apricots. They figured they would be harvesting even more later, and in this weather, if they piled them all up in the yard, they would only last for three days at most; after that, they would probably all dehydrate and wilt!

At this point, no one objected to hiring more people. Even if they worked day and night, they still couldn't finish the work!

Therefore, Wang Guixiang, He Xing, and He Xing's mother-in-law were all invited over.

Half an incense stick's time later, a few people who were picking apricots on the mountain heard about Da Wa's purpose and hurriedly put down their baskets and told the men in their families.

When their family heard that they were going to work at Da Wa's house, they were overjoyed and couldn't possibly say anything.

Chen Dahe secretly felt that his wife was now more like the pillar of the family than he was, and she had contributed a lot of money to the family coffers in the past few months! It made him, a man, feel ashamed! Even his elder brother's family stopped gossiping! Da Xiong's illness was now really cured, and his frequent seizures had not recurred. The atmosphere at home had reached the best level of harmony in history.

The core secret to making dried apricots is actually the method of making white sugar, which is currently mainly in the hands of her and Liu. As for the steps of boiling the dried apricots and coating them with sugar, Wu Chunhua is planned to be in charge.

It wasn't that Qin San Niang didn't trust them. Firstly, people's hearts are fickle, and even if they were very close now, there was no guarantee what would happen in the future. Secondly, she was also worried that her behavior would be too different and arouse suspicion from others!

After all, people nowadays believe that if something is out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy going on!

Wang Guixiang and the others' main task was the initial processing of apricots! This wasn't the first time they had worked together, and the method for making dried apricots was really not difficult. Many women who were skilled at cooking could make them after watching a few times.

But Qin San Niang wasn't afraid of that. Why? Because white sugar is expensive! Even if they could make it, they couldn't compete with her on price.

Three words: No! It's not worth it!

Furthermore, she plans to make licorice apricots, apricot jam, and almond cookies, as every part of an apricot is valuable.

Once everyone was in place, Qin San Niang said briefly, "I'll be troubling you all again these next few days!"

"Hey, stop talking about how troublesome it is! Third Sister-in-law, just tell us what we need to do?"

Qin San Niang smiled and said, "My family harvested a lot of apricots today, and I invited everyone over to help process them."

First, cut the apricots in half with a knife and remove the pits. Divide everyone into three groups: one person washes the apricots, the others cut them, remove the pits, and marinate them.

After she finished speaking, Wu Chunhua demonstrated it again. She did it quickly and well, picking out apricot flesh that was perfectly intact, and removing the pits very cleanly. The apricots were now lying in another wooden basin.

The women were all used to doing chores, so this was no effort for them. At first, they were a little slow because they weren't very familiar with it, but they quickly got the hang of it and their speed improved significantly!

Besides, this was the first time they had ever used such a useful knife! It was the size of a dagger, unlike the heavy kitchen knives they usually used; it was exceptionally small and nimble, and it must have been quite expensive!

These daggers were fruit knives that Qin San Niang had taken out of her spatial storage; they had wooden handles. The colorful plastic handles were harder to explain; if asked, she could simply say they were custom-made from a knife shop, and the women wouldn't suspect a thing.

Seeing the knives flying in their hands, Qin San Niang was worried that they might accidentally cut their hands. After thinking for a moment, she went to her space and found a few thick cotton gloves, which she then distributed.

I didn't expect they'd even give out gloves for this job! And they're such white cotton gloves, everyone's looking at each other, a little reluctant to wear them.

"Third Aunt, your hands are very rough, this knife can't cut through them!" Grandma He Xing said with a smile, and stretched out her hands for Third Aunt to see.

On those large, withered hands, the knuckles were protruding, and the palms were covered with thick calluses of all sizes, just as she had said, they were indeed very thick!

Seeing these hands, Qin Sanniang thought of the elderly people she had helped in her past life. They had worked tirelessly their whole lives and also had such rough hands! She felt a pang of sadness for no reason!

"Auntie! You all have to wear these gloves. I'll feel so guilty if your hands get hurt. Besides, gloves are nothing compared to your hands! Put them on now. If they get chafed, I have more here. Don't be stingy!" Qin San Niang said firmly, probably because she was afraid they wouldn't want to wear them.

Actually, she would have preferred to give them stab-proof gloves, but that was just a thought. First, she had a limited number of stab-proof gloves. Second, those gloves had a special design that was difficult to explain. She had plenty of thick cotton gloves, which could at least offer some protection against cuts, and besides, the fruit knife she gave them wasn't the very sharp kind.

Hearing her say that, everyone felt a warm current flowing through their hearts, and for a moment, they almost shed tears. No one had ever said that their hands were also precious! When they were girls in their mothers' homes, their mothers always said that hands were for doing farm work and housework, that they could use sickles and were not afraid of being burned.

Liu took the lead in putting on the gloves, then changed the subject with a smile, saying that the gloves were quite interesting to wear and didn't hinder their work at all; they were much more flexible than the cotton gloves they made last year!

Everyone then put on gloves, but they were thinking about how to work hard for them, as these gloves were probably worth a lot of money! Afterwards, they saw Wu Chunhua and others marinating apricots, sprinkling layers of white sugar on them. Oh dear, it was heartbreaking to see them being so expensive!