When the old man saw her come in, he stopped and asked, leaning on his crowbar, "Guilan, the youngest one hasn't come back yet?"

"Not yet!" Zhou's mother stepped forward, picked up the shovel, shoveled the coal and put it into the furnace, "Old man, go and have a rest for a while."

The old man looked at the alarm clock at the door of the oven and said, "It's already ten o'clock. You're not coming back tonight, are you?"

Zhou's mother: "Chunyan said he would come back. Even if the youngest one doesn't come back, Yiding will come back too."

"Alas!" The old man sighed, "I heard that the mountain road over there is not as wide as the one at the foot of Guanyin Mountain, and there is a cliff below. Come back and tell him that it is better to walk at night or get up early in the morning."

Zhou's mother smiled and said, "Old man, when he comes back, tell him that my words are not as effective as yours."

"Who told you to scold him all the time?" The old man put down the crowbar, untied his waist, brushed off the coal dust on his body, and walked towards the gate of the yard.

After Zhou's mother added charcoal, she went to the baking room. Zhou's father, who was rake-ing truffles in front of the wooden rack with a small bamboo rake, saw her come in and said, "It's so hot in there, what are you doing here?"

"Let me see how fast the new oven is drying?" said Zhou's mother, pinching the truffles in the bamboo basket.

Father Zhou said happily: "Master Liu's improvements are much better than before. When the stove here is lit, the temperature in the oven rises quickly, and it saves firewood compared to the oven over there."

Now there are eight baking rooms in the two locations, so we don't have to bake different grades of goods together as before.

From left to right, from the last to the special, the last dries the fastest and can be shipped tomorrow morning, followed by the third and second grades, and the first grade will have to wait until noon to be dried.

Zhou's mother also felt that the temperature in the new oven was higher than that over there. She felt very hot after wearing her jacket for a while. "How many are left to be turned over? If there are many, I'll take off my jacket and help you."

"No need, there's only one row left to turn over." Father Zhou said as he walked towards another row of wooden racks.

"Then I'll go clean up outside first!" Mother Zhou said to Jiang Yu and the others after she went out, "We can't finish washing today, let's clean up and call it a day!"

"Okay, let's wash these baskets outside and call it a day." Jiang Yu said, turning his head and pointing at the two bamboo baskets on the shelf, "Gui Lan, the truffles picked from the bottom and the rotten ones are placed separately here."

"Great!" Zhou's mother stepped forward and lifted the bamboo basket onto the eaves, took down a few bamboo sticks, poured the truffles into it, and spread them out to dry.

These rotten truffles are used to make truffle wine. Just dry them off.

After the cellar behind the house was dug, Huai'an bought a lot of sorghum wine and stored it in it, so that he could make some money from the truffle wine next year.

I heard from Chunyan that after she sent the dried mushrooms to the city, she could sell them for more than 100 yuan a day, which means she could make a few yuan profit per pound. Young people are really smart and can make money by doing anything.

Zhou's mother put the bamboo basket full of truffles on the wooden rack and swept the water in the yard. Then Jiang Yu and the others washed the baskets of truffles outside.

Jiang Yu straightened up and patted his lower back, "Oh, my old waist can't even stand up straight."

Jia Chunhong smiled and said, "Go back and ask your old man to give you a massage!"

"Forget it!" Jiang Yu curled his lips, "Let him pinch your waist? He'll probably beat you up a bit!"

"That's right. You still expect him to massage your waist. My old man, I work here to earn money, and he eats at home and goes to bed without even washing the dishes."

A dozen old women were laughing and joking, hanging up their aprons and sleeves. Zhou's mother opened the steamer and let them take out steamed buns and steamed cakes. She sent them to the gate of the courtyard and was about to close the gate when Lai Fu, who was lying at the door, suddenly rushed out quickly.

"Old man, the youngest is back!" Zhou's mother shouted happily inside, and walked out quickly without even taking a flashlight.

When I arrived at the vegetable field, I saw two tractors coming from the woods, one in front and one behind. Zhou Yiding was driving the four-wheel drive in front, and the one behind should be the youngest one!

Yang Chunyan was also standing at the door waiting, and she finally let go of her worries. "It's already eleven o'clock, and I don't know if Lin Wu and the Lai brothers will come. Why don't we just unload the goods ourselves?"

"Don't worry, they will be waiting for you to make money even in the middle of the night." Before the old man finished speaking, they saw Lin Wu running towards them.

Zhou Yiding and Zhou Huaian parked the tractor, and Zhou's father came over carrying a wooden ladder for unloading the cargo. "You're finally back. Your grandfather has asked about it several times."

"Mom, old man, I'm back too." Zhou Huaijun smiled as he opened the door of the cab and jumped down.

Mother Zhou hurriedly asked, "Second brother, how can Xiuxiang handle the work alone if you leave?"

"We will go back early tomorrow morning." Zhou Huaijun said as he picked up the wooden ladder, put it on the car, and started unloading the goods.

Zhou Huaian handed the backpack to Yang Chunyan, "Inside are the medicinal herbs that my fellow villagers from Chuancheng asked me to help sell. Cut off a few pounds of venison and camphor meat, and store the rest in the wine cellar. We will send it to Ning'an together tomorrow."

"Okay!" Yang Chunyan took the backpack and hurried towards the yard.

Luo Haili, who was guarding in the backyard, saw her come in and hurried over to her, "Just do it for me."

"The venison and musk deer meat were given to me by others. Huai'an asked me to cut two pieces and send them to Ning'an to sell tomorrow morning." Yang Chunyan said as she took out the venison legs and musk deer legs and placed them on the table. She saw something wrapped in vegetable leaves and deer antlers underneath.

Wild musk, bear bile, and deer antlers are all valuable things. This trip can help them sell them for a lot of money, and they can also earn two or three hundred yuan for themselves.

Luo Haili picked up the antler and looked at it. "People over there send all the good medicinal herbs they find to Huai'an to help them sell them?"

Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Yes, we can earn a little, and they can also increase their income."

"It's because they trust Huai'an that they dare to give him such a valuable item to bring back."

Luo Haili put the chopping board and knife on the table, and they both cut two pieces of meat, one weighing about two pounds, and the rest were sent to the wine cellar.

"Yan'er, can you give Huai'an and the others something to eat?"

"I made some pickled cabbage and put it in the cupboard. There are also pea tips in the basket. I'll cook them a bowl of noodles with pickled cabbage after I finish unloading the truffles."

"Okay, I'll go wash the pea tips and cook them when you get here." Luo Haili took down the vegetable basket, and after looking at the pea tips, she thought that the pea tips she picked at home were the real pea tips, so she pinched the tenderest ones.

Yang Chunyan looked at Xiaojiuer who was sleeping soundly in the cradle, tucked in the quilt, and then went out of the yard.

Lin Wu and the Lai brothers were unloading bamboo baskets from the four-wheel drive, while Zhou Huaian and his men were unloading goods from the tractor. Seeing her coming, they waved their hands and said, "We are enough. You go back and look after Jiu'er."

"Sister Hai Li is watching in the backyard!" Yang Chunyan smiled and walked forward to help Zhou's mother lift a basket of truffles, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked towards the new baking room.

With everyone working together, it didn't take long for all the goods to be unloaded and loaded into the warehouse next to the new oven.

Yang Chunyan paid all the wages for today's unloading to Lin Wu and the Lai brothers, "Brother Lin, Brother Lai, thank you for your help."

"No trouble, no trouble!" Lin Wu and the other two happily took it. "Take your time with your work, we'll go back!"

"Have a good walk!" Yang Chunyan turned and said to Zhou Huaian and the other two, "Come over and eat the sauerkraut noodles later!"

"Okay, don't cook too much. It's hard to sleep if you eat too much!" Zhou Huaian said with a smile.

The old man saw that his hair was blown by the wind like a chicken coop, and said distressedly: "It would be great if the tractor had a cab like the four-wheeled ones to protect it from wind and rain."

"We are not cold even with our snow caps on." Zhou Huaian looked at him and his father with a smile, "Are you tired today?"

Father Zhou said cheerfully, "We are not tired. We are so happy today. We never dreamed that we could harvest so many truffles in one day."

Zhou Huaian was also very happy, "Let's go see if the new oven is useful?"

Father Zhou and the old man took the three of them to look at the ovens one by one, and praised them highly, saying, "The new oven is great. The last and third-class goods will be ready for shipment tomorrow morning, and the first and second-class goods will be ready before lunch."

"That's good!" Zhou Huaian calculated the shipment volume of several drying rooms, "I will send the last and third grade to Ning An to sell tomorrow morning, and give the proceeds to my second and eldest brothers to make up another 5,000 yuan of capital.

After Yiding sold the first and second grade products, he gave 5,000 yuan to the three purchasing points at home, and put the remaining money in the public passbook. Remember to ask them to write a receipt for you. "

"Okay!" Zhou Yiding picked up his jacket and said, "Let's go and have some noodles."

Zhou Huaian looked at the old man and his parents, "Grandpa, you guys eat a little too."

The old man waved his hands cheerfully, "We don't want it. We can't digest it at night if we eat it."

After the three men left, Zhou's father and the old man began to add coal to the furnace, "Old man, wait until the furnace is full, and then we will go to sleep before getting up."

The old man shook his head. "Tianman, you stay here and I'll go to the youngest's place to help watch over them. Let Chunyan and Haili rest early."

Father Zhou said, "I'd better let me go over there! The furnace over there is small, and you need to add coal every now and then. I'll set the alarm clock for you, and you can have a good sleep here."

Zhou's mother came out of the house and said, "Old man, I have made the bed. Dahe will come to work tomorrow, and then you and Dasong can take turns to rest."

The old man frowned, "Why hire someone again? A day's diesel, labor, coal, these expenses are not small, the more you can save, the better!"

Mother Zhou said happily: "Chunyan was worried that we were exhausted, so she urged me to find someone after the work was done. She asked me to hire two people. I was worried about the others, so I only asked Dahe to come."

"Alas!" The old man sighed distressedly when he thought of the wages he paid out every day, "Chunyan has learned bad habits from the youngest child and spends money lavishly."

Zhou's mother smiled and consoled him, "Old man, don't feel bad. Think about it. The youngest ones already make quite a bit of money a day. The children feel bad for us and are worried that we'll get tired. We should be careful so that we don't cause trouble for them when we get sick."

"Yes, they still have to worry about me when I'm sick. If I'm not sick, I'm helping them." The old man thought about it and said, "The ones who suffer the most are the youngest and Chunyan. They have to worry about everything in such a big business." (End of this chapter)