Chapter 119 Cleaning the Creek

"I also asked Dad to buy one for Mom. Mom gets up before dawn every day to cook breakfast, and it is convenient for her to go to the kitchen from the bedroom. Dad, can you buy a flashlight for Mom?" Yi Ke said as soon as he thought of it.

"I understand. Just watch the road." Li Haoran answered from the front.

"Brother Ziyi, do you know how to buy these thermoses? They require industrial tickets. Are they also sold on the black market?" Yike asked in a low voice.

The gift Li Haoran and his family gave this time was a big red Double Happiness kettle, one for each family member, and they bought three in total. Du Qingcang gave an enamel cup, one for each family, which came with a thermos. This was what Li Haoran had discussed with Du Qingcang before he came out of seclusion.

"Yes, there are, but it's hard to buy an identical one. I think it should be bought from the supply and marketing cooperative with the industrial ticket obtained by Brother Tang." Ziyi also answered in a low voice.

"So is our gift heavy or light?" Yi Ke didn't know the prices of items in that era, so he asked.

"It's considered heavy. Usually people just give ten eggs or vegetables or something like that. Things like this that require industrial coupons are something that few relatives can afford. Even that enamel cup requires industrial coupons, but few people can afford to give it as a gift." Ziyi analyzed the situation carefully for Yi Ke to hear.

When the sky was just getting light, Ziyi and his group also arrived at the paradise. A wooden fence gate was installed at the entrance of the paradise. After they went in, they found that the uneven parts of the crack had been chiseled out, the road was much easier to walk on, and the narrow places had been widened. Entering through the crack, the shore of the lake was also swept clean. Walking around the lake and past the iron trees, you will see three wooden houses.

Not only the walls of these three wooden houses are made of wooden boards, but the roofs can also be seen to be made of wooden boards, but a layer of grass is laid on the wooden boards. If you don’t look carefully, you might think they are thatched roofs. There are the most trees in the forest, so it is indeed convenient to build wooden houses.

"Brother, you came so early! Thank you for coming to help!" Li Youcai, Chen Shengli and Hu Haohan saw Ziyi and the others and came out to greet them warmly.

"Congratulations! Congratulations on moving into your new home and wishing you all the best! May you make a lot of money and have many children and grandchildren!" Li Haoran bowed and congratulated.

"Okay! Thank you for your good words, brother!" Li Youcai and the other two said gratefully.

Ziyi and Du Jiankang handed the kettle and enamel cup to Li Youcai and the other two. Li Youcai and the other two expressed gratitude by saying "you are so polite, this is so precious" and so on, and warmly welcomed everyone into the main hall of the new house.

"The child's mother, eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law are here. Bring out the sugar balls." Hu Haohan shouted loudly towards the kitchen.

"Hey! Here they come, here they come!" Sun Meili and Tao Xiu'e came out carrying a soup pot, while Chen Hongmei and Chen Yue'er followed behind with bowls and chopsticks. Li Dashan, Li Xiaoshan, Li Xiaoying, Chen Dawang and Chen Fugui also swarmed into the main room.

"Brother, Brother Du, Sister-in-law, Cuihua, Ziyi, Yike, Jiankang, you are here."

"Everyone, eat some sugar balls first."

"Uncle Hao, Uncle Du."

"Brother Ziyi, stay healthy."

"Sister Yike, Sister Yike."

"Sister Yike, I miss you so much! You never come to play with us."

There were too many people, and everyone was talking at once, calling out to others. It felt so chaotic and I didn't know what to say, so I just picked up the candy balls and started eating them seriously.

There are not many sugar balls, only a small bowl per person, mainly because glutinous rice flour is hard to buy. Not a lot of sugar is added, just a light sugar flavor, and sugar is a precious thing. Yike ate the sugar balls in just a few bites, and was then pulled away by the sisters Chen Fugui and Hu Fenfen who were standing next to him. Li Xiaoying also followed them.

"Sister Yike, the calf you gave me is so big, bigger than Fenfen's calf." Chen Fugui boasted.

"No way! Mine is bigger than your calf." Hu Fenfen argued unhappily.

"You two stop arguing. Sister Yike will see who is bigger later." Li Xiaoying pushed the two people who were arguing away, took Yike's hand and continued walking towards the cowshed. Yi Ke was really at a loss for words. She hadn't even had the chance to visit the new house, but had to visit the cowshed first.

The cowshed was quite clean, surrounded by wooden boards and covered with thatched roof. There were two wooden sticks between each cow. The cows were lying on the ground to rest obediently. It seemed that the wildness of these cows had been worn away.

"Sister Yike, look at the calf I raised. Isn't it very big?" Chen Fugui couldn't wait to pull Yike to his calf.

"He's been raised so well! He's grown a lot. Fugui is so capable!" Yi Ke praised him without reservation.

"Hehehehehe!" Chen Fugui, who was praised, touched his head and grinned foolishly. His cleverness just now seemed to have disappeared.

"Sister Yike, look at me, look at me." Hu Fenfen pulled Yike towards her calf pen.

"Yours is also well raised and has grown a lot, and you are so capable!" Yike also used the words she used to praise Chen Fugui to praise Hu Fenfen. She didn't dare to change the words she used to praise him, as it would be troublesome if the two little people started arguing about whose words were better. So she gave them both the same and there was no comparison.

"Sister Yike, you haven't seen my calf yet?" Li Xiaoying couldn't help but get anxious when she saw that Chen Fugui and Hu Fenfen were both praised.

"Oh, okay. Let's go see how Xiaoying's calf is doing." Yike followed Li Xiaoying to see her cow again.

"Xiaoying has taken good care of the cows! Look how big they have grown. You are so capable too!" Yike praised all three children.

"Sister Yike, I go find the tenderest grass for the cows to eat every day." Chen Fugui became lively again.

"Me too, me too." Hu Fenfen probably loves to argue with Chen Fugui, so when she heard what Chen Fugui said, she quickly said that she felt the same way. Only Li Xiaoying followed Yi Ke silently.

"Let's go back and see if your mother needs any help, okay?" Yi Ke felt embarrassed to stay with a child all the time. Even though she was only fourteen years old, she was still a child. Who said her soul was not that of a child? I felt a little embarrassed for not helping.

"Great, there are so many delicious foods in the kitchen." When Chen Fugui thought of the delicious food in the kitchen, he immediately forgot about his Xiao Niu and took Yi Ke's hand and went to the kitchen.

So the four children happily went into the kitchen again, but were driven out again within a minute. The reason given was that they were allowed to play by themselves, but in fact the public was afraid that they would cause trouble in the kitchen.

There were two tables set for lunch, each with ten dishes, symbolizing perfection.

The most common meat is rabbit meat. Before dinner, I heard Chen Fugui and the other kids say that there are a lot of rabbits here and that their father and brothers often catch rabbits in traps. The most common vegetarian dishes are sweet potato sprouts and kudzu leaves, and the soup is kudzu soup. Each man had a glass of wine, which was brought by Li Haoran. In short, everyone was very satisfied with the family dinner and everyone had a happy smile.

In the afternoon, Li Haoran took everyone to check out the rice, sweet potato seedlings and corn, and pulled out the weeds growing in the corn field. Everyone went home together when it was getting dark.

At dawn the next day, the intimate Tian and Di reluctantly left each other's arms, and Yi Ke also reluctantly climbed up from Zi Yi's arms... "Let's go clean up the creek today, and cut bamboo to make a bamboo raft tomorrow. Yi Ke and Jiankang don't have to go. You can feed the pigs at home and take the cows out for a while. We adults can go." During breakfast, Li Haoran began to arrange today's work, "We will eat at Haohan's house at noon, and bring some food and meat later."

"Dad, let Yike go with us. Godmother stays here to do the housework. The vegetable garden also needs to be watered and fertilized, and Yike can't do these." Ziyi said. He didn't want to leave Yi Ke behind to be with Du Jiankang.

"Okay, then come with us and help cook." Li Haoran glanced at Ziyi and he immediately saw through Ziyi's little thoughts.

After breakfast, everyone took their tools and set out for the orchard. When they arrived at the orchard, they saw that the adults from Li Youcai, Hu Haohan and Chen Shengli's families had all arrived, and they had already started cutting down the bushes by the stream. Li Haoran, Du Qingcang, Ziyi and others also took machetes to cut the bushes, while Yike, his two mothers and several aunts including Sun Meili used sickles to cut the weeds.

They mainly cleared the bushes and weeds on the orchard side of the stream and on the stream surface. The bushes and weeds on the opposite side of the stream were not cleared, so the cleanup was quick.

There is strength in numbers. In less than half a day, all the bushes and weeds along the stream and on the surface of the stream at the entrance from the orchard to the paradise were cleared away.

At this time, you can see clearly that the stream is less than three meters wide, but at least one and a half meters deep. The bushes and weeds around the pond at the entrance of Paradise have also been cleared away. Li Haoran said that the water in the pond is at least two meters deep.

For safety reasons, everyone decided to transplant several large trees around the pond, use these large trees as stumps, and use sticks to surround the pond.

They acted right away. In the afternoon, everyone moved several big trees that were big enough for one person to hug and planted them beside the pond. They also tied sticks horizontally to the big trees, thus surrounding the pond on three sides.

"Next time I will go out to buy some fish fry and raise them in the pond so that we can enjoy fish during the New Year." Li Haoran said, looking at the pond.

"Great! I haven't eaten any big fish since I came into the mountains." Li Youcai said with emotion.

"Don't even mention the big fish. I've only eaten the small fish once or twice, okay?" Hu Haohan said.

"That's right. We caught them in the creek there when our elder brother Haoran took us there many years ago. The water in that creek is too shallow to support fish. I almost forgot what the fish tastes like." Chen Shengli said regretfully.

"Dad, please buy more fish fry and put some into the lake in the cave." I couldn't help drooling at the thought of how delicious the fish were.

"Aren't there geese in the lake? The fish fry won't be eaten by the geese." Sun Meili said.

Yi Ke shook his head and said, "No, the geese only eat a little at most. Only with the geese in the lake can the fish grow fat and big."

"Okay, if available, I'll buy more." Li Haoran thought about it and felt it was feasible.