Soon the beans were picked. Song Qing originally wanted to work with Lao Gen's wife, but Aunt Tian refused. She borrowed a winnowing basket from Lao Gen's wife and took Song Qing and her son to her house.

"I can also make sauce, and it tastes just as good as Laogen's, so don't worry."

Aunt Tian's house and Sister Lao Gen's house are very close, separated by only two rooms. As soon as she got home, she didn't make any sauce, but pulled Song Qing to sit on the kang and started nagging. She talked until her throat was about to burst into flames, and finally patted her hand.

“I definitely have some connection with your maternal grandmother’s family. Your mother is older than me, and I have two older sisters. Just call me Third Aunt.”

She said the girl was so beautiful, and she felt a sense of familiarity upon meeting her; it turned out she was from her hometown.

"Third Aunt." Song Qing immediately called out to her, and Aunt Tian beamed with joy.

Even if Aunt Tian and her mother's family were from the same village, or even if they were from the same county, the fact that they had such a connection in this completely unfamiliar place made her want to get along well with Aunt Tian.

“My mother married someone from another place and hasn’t been back for many years. She misses home very much. Right now, only my eldest uncle still lives in the village; everyone else is living elsewhere.”

“Life was tough back then. During the famine, many people left. My parents carried us here on a shoulder pole, otherwise we would have starved to death.”

The same goes for Song Qing's maternal grandmother's family. The adults took the children to make a living outside, some of whom settled down there, while others chose to go back.

An'an looked at her third aunt, who had suddenly appeared, with great curiosity.

"Your name is An'an, right? This child is so beautiful. Auntie will make you some sugar water."

In those days of scarcity, people usually served guests a bowl of sweet soup. Aunt Tian even cracked an egg into the sweet soup, and An'an sipped the soup with gusto.

"I was too excited just now and messed things up. Let's make some sauce."

Aunt Tian's family has a stove in the yard. She needs to cook 30 catties of soybeans for herself, plus 10 catties for Song Qing, so she simply cooks them in two batches.

"The soybean paste made here is also called stewed soybean paste. It is made starting in the second month of the lunar calendar. The selected soybeans are stir-fried in a pot, washed clean, and then stewed in a pot with water until they are mushy and thick."

Then mash it into a paste, wrap it in newspaper, and place it in the corn granary to ferment for two months. In April, you can start making soybean paste.

The fire was burning in the stove. Song Qing sat on a small stool watching the fire. Aunt Tian was talking to her while stirring the soybeans in the pot. An An squatted next to the chicken coop, looking at the geese inside.

"An'an, don't get too close, that goose will peck you, it really hurts."

The door to the chicken coop wasn't closed properly, and the goose often escaped. It was also very fierce, and all the neighbors knew it was not to be trifled with; if you went too close, you might get pecked.

"My third aunt isn't fierce; she's eating."

A few rotten vegetable leaves that had been picked off that morning were lying in the chicken coop, and the goose was pecking at them. In An'an's eyes, it was very well-behaved, and although it was very big, it wasn't fierce at all.

"Why lock it up? It can't even stretch its neck out inside."

Aunt Tian picked up a bean, examined it, and saw that it had been cooked through.

"This goose is getting lazier and lazier. It only lays a few eggs before it starts brooding. It used to lay more than ten eggs at a time."

I'll keep it locked up for a few days to let it lay more eggs. When they hatch, my third aunt will give you one.

"Really?" An'an's eyes widened upon hearing this. "Mommy, can we raise goslings?"

“Song Qing, you can’t refuse this. It’s a gift from your third aunt to An’an. A single gosling is hard to raise. I’ll give it to you when it’s a bit bigger.”

Song Qing originally didn't plan to take them; the chicks and ducklings hatched in the countryside were meant to be sold for money. But An An's eyes were wide open, so she decided to go along with her this time.

"Quickly thank your third aunt."

An'an cheered and ran over, hugging Aunt Tian's leg. "Thank you, Third Auntie."

After stir-frying the beans and rinsing them several times with clean water, I finally put them in a pot, poured in enough water to cover them, and cooked them for more than an hour until they were finally cooked.

Aunt Tian crushed a soybean with her fingers, and when she felt it was cooked enough, she turned down the heat and put the lid back on. "Let it simmer in the pot overnight for the color to look good."

"Then we'll come back tomorrow."

"Come, come, you come often. I get bored at home alone, so you can come over and talk to me."

Aunt Tian's real name is Tian Cuihua. She is forty-two years old this year and has two sons. Her eldest son works in the city and her younger son is studying in junior high school in the county.

In winter, when there's no work, his eldest son found his father a three-month temporary job at the factory. Only his younger son and she are at home. His younger son doesn't come home for lunch, and no one talks to him all day.

She doesn't have a daughter, and her family lives far away. Song Qing is her distant niece, so she definitely hopes that Song Qing can visit her home more often.

Song Qing had to go home to cook, so she had to say goodbye to Aunt Tian. An An also said goodbye to her new friends.

She spent most of the afternoon lying by the chicken coop, talking to the geese inside. In fact, the geese rarely paid any attention to her, but she thought it was because they were good-natured.

When Lu Yang returned, he found that the mother and daughter were in a good mood. Song Qing hummed a song while ladling fish soup from the pot, and An An was poking at the corner where the wood was placed with a stick.

"Dad, you're finally back!" An'an rushed to Lu Yang's side with a wooden stick in her hand, and Lu Yang immediately reached out and picked her up.

"I wasn't worried about poking someone, so I took her to wash her hands and eat."

Lu Yang snatched the wooden stick and led the person outside. After Song Qing finished cooking in the large stove, the water in the small pot was already warm. He used a ladle to fill it with some hot water for her to wash her hands.

"Daddy, I'm going to have goslings. Can you make me a nest so I can live with them?"

?

"Why?"

“My mother said she would kick me out if I lived with the gosling, but my third aunt said she would send the gosling over when it got a little older. It doesn’t have a mother, so I have to take care of it.”

Song Qing heard it too, and she was both amused and exasperated. When she returned, An'an said she wanted to put the gosling on the kang (a heated brick bed), and Song Qing was somewhat surprised by her daughter's thought process.

I told her that if we were to raise the geese on the kang (heated brick bed), we would have to kick them all out. She stopped talking after that, and I thought she had given up on the idea.

I never expected that they would be bringing their goslings to live outside with them.

"Is it okay, Dad?" An'an had taken a liking to Lu Yang's cooking skills.

The last time they went to the furniture factory to order furniture, Lu Yang was particularly interested in the woodworking. He watched for a while, and one of the craftsmen jokingly said that the factory had a batch of old tools and suggested that Lu Yang buy them and learn to make them.

He was just joking, but I didn't expect him to actually go and buy them. He spent two yuan to pick out tools such as chisels, wood files, and ink lines.

The craftsman saw that he liked it, picked up a few planks and banged them together to make a small wooden box without a lid for him. He excitedly carried his tools back home.

That box is still in the side room.