Tian Tian silently moved aside, staying away from these people who would make dirty jokes at the slightest disagreement.
The topic of several aunts has shifted from how capable Zhou Ni's husband is to how good her husband was when they got married.
Tian Tian was forced to listen to many private secrets and was worried that she would be assassinated by everyone.
"Do you know that the widow at the east end of the village seems to have changed her temper these days? Many people went to her house, but she refused to see them. She said that she wanted to take a break for a while and didn't need anyone to help her."
"This is a lie. I think she has some bad intentions again. Maybe next time he opens the door, she will seduce your wife."
"What nonsense are you talking about? If anyone is going to be seduced, it should be your wife. I know that Zhu Laosan still helps the widow fetch water. My wife is a decent person."
"Tsk! He looks quite decent on the outside, but we don't know if he is decent inside. After all, we don't live in the same bed with him. You can only swallow your bitterness. We don't know anything about it."
"Your wife sounds serious. Who would help a widow carry manure? It's only happened once or twice."
Tian Tian listened to them talking about these secrets and her jaw dropped. These people were really powerful. She felt that if something happened in the village, it could not be hidden from others.
She had just heard some kids saying someone's parents were fighting in the middle of the night, and then she was laughed at by these wives again.
Tian Tian only now realized how important it was to keep everything going on at home a secret from Tian Baobao and Tian Zhuo and the others, and that Old Lady Tian had repeatedly ordered the two children not to talk about family matters outside.
Nowadays a lot of gossip is spread by those kids. Kids don’t have that kind of understanding and don’t know what privacy is, so they often spread things going on at home.
It would be fine if they just spread some insignificant things, but some naughty kids even told others how much savings they had at home and where they hid them, and then the family would be robbed at night.
Tian Tian was distracted for a moment, and she didn't know how the topic of the aunts turned to the mainstream. Tian Tian was shy but wanted to listen. Although she was getting farther and farther away from the aunts, her ears were getting more and more pointed.
After Tian Tian finished picking up a basket of small root vegetables, she carried the basket home.
After returning home, she sat in the yard and picked small vegetables. Although there seemed to be a lot of small vegetables in the basket, there were many people in her family, so the whole basket might be eaten in one meal.
After Tian Tian picked and washed the veggies, Lin Meiyu took them into the house to cook.
Now that the autumn harvest is over, Lin Meiyu and Chen Guihua no longer have to be busy all day long like before.
During the autumn harvest period, no one in the family had a relaxing time. Lin Meiyu and Chen Guihua used to get up early and work in the fields late at night. They got up before dawn in the morning and could not even straighten their backs when they returned home at night.
Fortunately, the household affairs are taken care of by Grandma Tian and Tian Tian, so they don’t have to worry about it anymore, which can also allow Chen Guihua and Lin Meiyu to relax a little.
Like other wives in their team, they not only have to take care of work in the fields, but also have to go home and rush to cook lunch, deliver it to other people in the family, then come back to wash the dishes and clean up the house before continuing to work in the fields.
Compared to putting all the household chores on one person, people like the Tian family, where Lin Meiyu and her family concentrate on working in the fields, leave the household hygiene and cooking to old lady Tian alone. This way, one person won't be too tired, but it's not easy for anyone either.
Now that the autumn harvest is over, Lin Meiyu and Chen Guihua no longer have to worry about things outside, and the preparation of meals at home is up to them.
But Grandma Tian and Tian Tian will also help, so no one will feel particularly tired.
"We just got some new corn. Let's stew the corn with squash and potatoes tonight, and eat the small root vegetables with dip in the sauce. We can just cook the whole thing in one pot and not have to make any other dishes," said Lin Meiyu.
The last of their remaining food was eaten yesterday at noon, and they had stewed pumpkin for dinner last night. It happened that the food was distributed today, so they could make a simple one-pot dish and put the food and dishes together. It would be delicious and save trouble.
Tian Tian had no opinion on this. If she had been a little particular about food before, now that she knew how difficult it was to prepare a meal, Tian Tian no longer had any requirements on what to eat for every meal. She would eat whatever Grandma Tian cooked. If she didn't want to eat something, she wouldn't say it. She would just cook herself a pack of expired instant noodles in the evening as a reward and that was it.
When Tian Tian heard that Lin Meiyu was going to cook a whole pot, she volunteered to help Lin Meiyu cook.
Seeing that Tian Tian was so enthusiastic, Lin Meiyu told Chen Guihua not to help her anymore and to go and twist off some corn kernels. Then she would grind some new cornmeal the next morning and steam cornmeal cakes for lunch.
Chen Guihua had also been eating potatoes and pumpkins with their shells these days. When she heard that they would make pancakes tomorrow, she didn't fight with Lin Meiyu for them. She happily took the corn and went out to chat with others while cracking the corn.
Recently, she has been peeling corn in the field with others every day. Others tell her gossip while working. Chen Guihua knows a lot of gossip. Now that no one tells her these things out of the blue, she is a little uncomfortable.
Old Mrs. Tian in the house knew that Chen Guihua was going out, but she didn't say anything.
She did not interfere in the affairs of their sisters-in-law who had left. As long as it did not delay their work, she let Chen Guihua and Lin Meiyu discuss who would do more and who would do less.
Sometimes everyone is lazy and Mrs. Tian won’t say anything.
Tian Tian skillfully cut the pumpkin, potatoes, and corn into pieces and threw them into the pot. She also poured a little soybean paste and some soy sauce into it, and didn't add anything else.
The soy sauce at that time was pure brewed soy sauce, which tasted very different from the soy sauce of later generations. When cooking, just adding a little soy sauce to it would make the taste good. Add farmhouse sauce to it, and these two seasonings are simply versatile seasonings. No matter what you cook, it will taste good as long as you put some of them in.
In the evening, Chen Guihua came back with Tian Baobao and the others. After Tian Baobao came back, he put down his schoolbag and took Tian Zhuo to continue collecting grass for the pigs. In a while, when the weather gets cold, the two pigs raised by their team will have to be slaughtered for meat. At this time, if they feed the pigs fatter, they might be able to eat a few more bites when they slaughter the pigs for meat.
Tian Baobao and his friends also wanted to feed the pigs fatter at this time.
In the evening, Chen Guihua came back and talked about the gossip she heard in other people's homes. Most of the gossip she talked about was no different from what Tiantian heard from other aunts.
The only thing that was certain was that Zhou Ni was really pregnant, but Tian Tian had known about this a long time ago, so she didn't feel surprised when she heard it from Chen Guihua.
In this age with few entertainment options, listening to gossip has become a way to kill time. Old Mrs. Tian usually doesn't stop people from chatting about insignificant gossip at home, especially since it's a happy event like Zhou Nier's and the whole village knows about it, so Old Mrs. Tian would not stop it.
After hearing what Chen Guihua said, she just sighed and said that Zhou Nier and the others were very quick, and didn't say anything else.
Instead, he picked up a piece of corn for Tian Yuan with his chopsticks and said, "You have been staying at home for quite a while. When do you plan to join the army?"
After Tian Yuan distributed the food in the afternoon, he went to help Gu Zhao turn over the vegetable patch in the yard and planted cabbage and radishes. He also mixed some yellow mud to help Gu Zhao repair the house.
I was exhausted after this day and was now eating pumpkin and potatoes without even raising my head.
The pumpkin and potatoes at this time taste good, both soft and fragrant, and can be eaten as staple food. Although the corn is a little old, it tastes particularly fragrant.
Hearing what Old Lady Tian said, Tian Yuan said, "I will be back in the army in two days. Grandma, you don't have to worry this time. The army is very close to our home, and we don't have to sit on the train for several days. Maybe I can go home to eat pork during the Chinese New Year."
He has been on vacation for a month, which can be said to be a very long time. It is unlikely that he will be able to take a home visit leave during the Chinese New Year this year. However, this does not prevent him from talking about it now to make Old Mrs. Tian happy.
Although Mrs. Tian knew that Tian Yuan would not be able to stay at home for long, she still felt reluctant to let him go when she heard Tian Yuan say that he was leaving. "I'll make some more pickles for you. If you don't have enough vegetables, you can eat pickles with cornmeal cakes to fill your stomach. There are not many vegetables at this time, so I can only pickle some small vegetables for you to take away, or wait until the radishes and cabbages are harvested, and I will send you some radishes, pickles and spicy cabbage."
"No need for milk! There is enough food in our cafeteria, and we can even have meat every three to five days!" Tian Yuan refused.
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