Chapter 93: Visiting Auntie on the Farm (Page 1/2)

The three of them sat down to eat, and Lin Man suddenly thought of Huo Qingci's aunt Xiao Rong.

She asked Huo Qingci, "Have your aunt and her family come to the island?"

"On the way."

"Which farm were they finally assigned to?"

"Before we came, my grandfather said there were many farms here and we could arrange for them to work on a farm thirty kilometers away. But last time, Commander Lu told me that they should be assigned to the Nantian Farm, which is only seventeen or eighteen kilometers away."

"Nantian Farm, about 17 or 18 kilometers away? It's not far from us. When Auntie and the others arrive, we should go see them! I wonder if they'll get used to life here."

"I gradually got used to it, and it's more comfortable to spend the winter here than in Beijing. Although there is endless farm work here, at least I won't be tortured by others.

The last time I called back, my aunt and uncle had their hair shaved. Sigh…"

Lin Man was thinking, their family of six took the train to the island, and they probably wouldn't buy sleeper tickets, so how did they get through the past few days? Liao Siyu was a year younger than Huo Qinghuan.

"Qingci, when Auntie and the others arrive, we'll send them some daily necessities."

"Just give them the pots and pans and go over there. I guess it's hard to buy all these tickets."

"I feel like your relationship with my aunt is closer than your relationship with my two uncles."

Huo Qingci picked up a piece of vegetable and put it in Lin Man's bowl, saying, "My mother has a good relationship with my aunt. My aunt got married when I was seven years old. When we were young, my aunt often made clothes for me and my second brother and bought snacks for us.

When I went to primary school, she gave me an umbrella and rain boots when it rained. Because she loved children, she later became a teacher.

Lin Man finally understood why her grandfather was willing to help her aunt's family. Her aunt had been very nice to Huo Qingci and his family before.

"It's not my aunt's fault that I have to be a teacher. Everything will be fine in the future. When my aunt and her family come, we will go see them."

"Manman, I asked someone to buy a stone mill so you can grind beans and make soy milk. You need more protein now that you're pregnant. If you stop vomiting, you can eat more fish."

"Yes, I understand. I plan to use the rice sieve to sprout beans tonight."

Huo Qinghuan interrupted, "Sister-in-law, do you want to sprout mung beans or soybeans?"

"What kind of bean sprouts do you want to eat?"

“Mung bean sprouts fried with chives are delicious, and soy bean sprouts fried with pork slices are delicious.”

Lin Man smiled and said, "Bean sprouts are also good for making boiled fish."

"Then let's make both kinds of bean sprouts."

"Okay."

Lin Man suddenly remembered that there were at least tens of thousands of pounds of soybeans in the warehouse, so she decided to take out three hundred pounds of soybeans to dry in the soy sauce, since they were just sitting there anyway.

As a result, she went to discuss it with Huo Qingci, who said that May was the only suitable month for making soy sauce. The cooked soybeans needed to be fermented and grown with bacteria, and summer was suitable for drying the soy sauce.

Since you don’t have soy sauce, take out a bag of soybeans. If you want to make tofu, make tofu. If you want to grow bean sprouts, make bean sprouts.

The next day at noon, Huo Qingci asked someone to deliver a stone mill and two tofu boxes. In the afternoon, Lin Man began to soak beans and grind soy milk. In the evening, she boiled the soy milk and started making tofu.

I made a box of soft tofu, pressed another box into firm tofu, and then fried the tofu.

Worried that the prepared tofu and bean curd would spoil easily, Lin Man put them all into her own space. She made a batch of tofu and bean curd and still couldn't finish them for a whole week.

There was finally no tofu on the table at noon that day, and Huo Qinghuan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother, I want to eat crabs. Let's go to the beach again tonight!"

Huo Qingci said, "My aunt and her family have arrived at the farm. We are going to visit them at Nantian Farm tomorrow. Go to bed early tonight."

Lin Man asked: "Have you asked for leave?"

"I've taken half a day off. I just need to be back to work before 2 p.m. tomorrow. We can take the bus there in the morning. It only takes 20 minutes."

The bus is very slow now, running at most forty or fifty yards per hour, about the same speed as an electric scooter. If Lin Man drove there, it would probably take about ten minutes.

(This chapter is not yet finished, please click on the next page to continue reading) Chapter 93: Visiting Auntie on the Farm (Page 2/2)

In the evening, Lin Man began to prepare things for her aunt. She prepared a set of bowls and chopsticks, ten bowls, ten pairs of chopsticks, four large bowls for vegetables, four plates, a large soup bowl, and a large aluminum pot for boiling water for bathing.

I also prepared three or four pounds of dried oyster meat, razor clam meat, and dried kelp, as well as ten pounds of dragon beard noodles and five pounds of peanut oil.

When Huo Qingci and the others arrived, Lin Man learned from the farm manager that the house her aunt and her family lived in was even more dilapidated than the adobe house they were living in.

They live in thatched houses built with wood, and they don’t know if the roof will be blown off during a typhoon.

The person in charge took them to find Xiao Rong and Liao Hongyuan's family. When Lin Man saw them again, she was shocked. Not only were her aunt and uncle-in-law much thinner, but all the hair on their heads was shaved off.

Watching them taking the children back and forth in the pineapple field, Huo Qingci's eyes turned red.

Pineapple leaves are full of thorns, and Lin Man found that her cousins' arms were covered with scratches.

It's miserable, they are really miserable. If it weren't for those things, they should be able to study comfortably in school.

"Aunt! Uncle!" Huo Qingci shouted towards the pineapple field.

Xiao Rong came out of the pineapple field, dragging a woven bag. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and said, "Qingci, you're here."

Lin Man and Huo Qinghuan stepped forward at the same time and called out, "Auntie."

"I'll go talk to the manager and ask for leave first."

"Okay, go ahead!"

After Xiao Rong finished her leave and returned to the thatched cottage with her husband and children, Huo Qingci asked them, "Aunt, Uncle, are you all right?"

"Apart from being a little tired, everything else is fine. The people working on the farm are all from the Corps. They're all nice people and didn't give us any trouble."

Huo Qingci placed the things he brought on the table. Liao Hongyuan said, "You're here, so why are you bringing so many things?"

Lin Man explained, "Those dry goods were brought back by Qing Huan and I from the sea. This aluminum pot is for you to boil water. I also gave you a complete set of bowls and chopsticks."

Liao Hongyuan added, "It's really a waste. How much are these things? I'll give you the money."

Huo Qingci said, "Uncle, you're being too formal. It's only natural for us to send you a set of dishes and chopsticks since you've settled down here. Uncle, how many days have you been here?"

"We have been here for three days and have been eating in the cafeteria these days. You can bring the bowls and chopsticks over today. I will set up a small stove next to it and buy an iron pot so that we can cook at home.

To be honest, we really can't get used to the food in the cafeteria here. Everything is boiled or steamed."

Liao Sijie said, "My cousin, the worst thing is that they talk in a gibberish way and we can't understand a word. Fortunately, there are people from other provinces in the Corps who can help translate."

Huo Qingci smiled and said, "You'll understand after a while."

"Alas, as soon as we arrived, they asked us to cut pineapples. Yesterday, our family cut 3,000 kilograms of pineapples. Pineapple leaves are so prickly."

Huo Qinghuan asked: "Can you eat the pineapples you cut?"

“You don’t know, the farm manager asked us to throw the ripe pineapples on the ground to make compost, and we asked him why?

He said these pineapples were to be shipped to Guangzhou, and those that were too ripe would rot easily and damage other fruits as well.

We ate as much ripe pineapple as we wanted, and after two days of eating pineapple, we got blisters on our tongues."

Xiao Rong smiled and said, "Coming here, you can eat fruit for free. This farm is huge. Not only do they grow pineapples, they also grow bananas, sugar cane, and mangoes. There are also many lychee trees planted around the Corps dormitory.

Xiao Man, when you finish your meal, bring a big bag of pineapples back with you! We'll pick some for you in the fields later."

Lin Man didn't expect that the ripe pineapples on the farm could be picked up casually, and if she didn't pick them up, they would become fertilizer.

"Auntie, you can actually pick up these pineapples and dry them in the sun."

"Yeah, why didn't we think of that?"