Chapter 143: Your Love is a Burden
The word "talking about business" touched a nerve in Yu Zhile, making her realize the strangeness of the transaction in Shantao Village, and she felt as if everything had suddenly become clear.
The real benefactor of Shantao Village is not her, but Lan Yuanyuan.
"For example, order one thousand bottles of pickled pepper sauce, or one thousand cans of spicy stir-fried abalone." Seeing that she didn't respond, the other party continued to throw out bait.
Yu Zhile directly refused: "Mr. Du, Haiyu Village will not cooperate with you."
As she spoke, she made no effort to conceal her scrutiny, nor did she try to hide her surprise.
She could tell from Ning Tan's sporadic words that the Du family's assets were huge, but she didn't expect that the person who built it looked like a weak scholar. He didn't look like someone who had crawled out of a pile of corpses at all.
"Haiyu Village is seven and I am three. Would you like to reconsider it?" The smile on Du Sheng's face always maintained the same arc.
Yu Zhile smiled and said, "You don't need to test me anymore. The friendship between Yuanyuan and I has nothing to do with interests."
"You are worthy of being the brain of the sideline group of Haiyu Village. You are very smart." Du Sheng restrained his smile, but his eyes showed admiration. "I hope we can have a chance to cooperate in the future."
After saying that, he turned around and prepared to leave, but was stopped by Yu Zhile.
"Mr. Du, your love is a burden to her." She said bluntly.
In an instant, Du Sheng's aura changed, and he looked at her as if he was looking at an ant that could be crushed to death with ease.
"I don't know what happened between you and Sister Lan, and neither does she." Yu Zhile looked him straight in the eye. "She knows nothing about you, and your behavior has caused her a lot of trouble."
At this time, Lan Yuanyuan's voice came: "Le Le, where are you? I grabbed half a piece of woolen fabric and planned to make a coat for my mother in winter."
Her joyful tone made Du Sheng frown slightly.
The clock on the wall was ticking, her voice was getting closer and closer, Du Sheng turned around and walked away quickly.
"Le Le, so you are here, look!" Lan Yuanyuan showed the cloth in her hand excitedly.
Yu Zhile cooperated and touched it, feeling the subtle plush texture, and said, "This fabric must be warm to wear in winter. My classmates in the provincial capital have worn it."
"Really? Do you still remember the styles? I want to collect a few more so that mom can choose carefully." Lan Yuanyuan's eyes sparkled when talking about making clothes.
Yu Zhile took her arm and said repeatedly, "Remember, remember, I'll draw it for you when I get back."
"Okay. There should be some extra fabric by then. I wonder what else I can do with it." Lan Yuanyuan began to worry.
Yu Zhile suggested: "Hats, gloves or scarves."
"It sounds good. I'll make a note of it." Lan Yuanyuan said with a smile.
The two walked out of the supply and marketing cooperative hand in hand, chatting and laughing all the way.
Back at the state-owned restaurant, Lan Yuanyuan proudly showed Hu Lan the cloth she had snatched, and received a lot of compliments in return.
The two sat in the store for a long time. After lunch, they slowly walked to the old place to meet Erye.
After a while, Master Yu drove a ox cart over and asked them to get on.
The sun is not very bright today, and there is an occasional breeze, so the journey back to the village is quite pleasant.
As soon as Yu Zhile arrived home, Zhang Wenxin ran to Yu’s courtyard.
"Le Le, good news, you can act in both scripts." She blushed with excitement.
Before going to work this morning, the female educated youth came to her collectively to sign up. Those with talents reported their programs, and those without talents expressed their hope to be included in the candidate list of model opera actors, and they would actively cooperate with the rehearsals.
Zhang Wenxin calculated the total number of people and found that it was more than enough to perform two scripts, so she immediately decided to put both scripts on the stage of the Autumn Harvest Gala.
"You finally don't have to worry anymore." Yu Zhile poked her between the eyebrows.
She had been so worried about choosing a script these days that wrinkles appeared on her face. Now she can finally relax.
Zhang Wenxin shook her head. "Not yet. There's a problem with the location of the shrimp pond. Teacher Qu said that we need to continue investigating, so the time for digging the pond will have to be postponed."
"Good things take time." Yu Zhile comforted, and then turned the topic to the pickled pepper sauce, "What did the glass factory say?"
During this period, the task of coordinating the progress of various matters fell on Zhang Wenxin. She would find the relevant person in charge every day to confirm the progress.
"The delivery will be made the day after tomorrow morning, and the label paper is also ready." Zhang Wenxin flipped through her notebook, "Haimei and Haizhu have discussed that we can start frying the sauce and canning it at noon that day, and let Ge Tai deliver the goods the next day."
Yu Zhile nodded and reminded, "Ask Haizhu to fry a few cans of abalone and snails and send them to Sister Yun."
"Didn't we plan to start canning after the autumn harvest?" Zhang Wenxin was a little surprised. The progress was nearly two months faster than expected.
There is no relevant equipment in the village, and the steps of exhaust, canning and sterilization are relatively cumbersome, so the seasons with lower temperatures are more beneficial to them.
Yu Zhile told her about his concerns, hoping to increase the popularity of Haiyu brand as soon as possible.
Zhang Wen understood that no one could be sure of the cannery's intentions, and she didn't want Haiyu Village to fall into such a predicament.
Then, the two of them sorted out all the current work content, and Zhang Wenxin handed over part of it to Yu Zhile, freeing up time to arrange the autumn harvest party.
During the next two days, nothing special happened in the village, and everyone was still immersed in the joy of the upcoming party.
For Zhile, the biggest change was that Lan Yuanyuan moved into her house.
Not only that, Zhang Haiyan also moved the sewing machine directly to the Yu family courtyard and taught the sisters Yu Chunqi and Yu Dongxi.
Yu Wanqin also learned dyeing techniques from the two sisters. Her life became more fulfilling and the courtyard was always bustling with activity.
On the day when the glass factory delivered the goods, the weather was fine and more than twenty people gathered in the courtyard of the sideline group.
Getai approached with the ox cart, and the clanking sound of glass made the children run beside the cart.
"Let's make the sauce! Let's make the sauce!" they shouted and laughed.
After everyone worked together to unload the glass jars, the courtyard was officially divided into two large areas. The left side is the pickle sauce making area, and the right side is the jar boiling and disinfection area.
Zhang Haimei led people to chop pickled peppers and prepare spice side dishes. Zhang Haizhu and Zhang Ling used a half-person-high spatula to stir-fry the sauce. Ge Xiaoju boiled the bottles and caps to disinfect them according to Yu Zhile's instructions.
While working, everyone wore cotton masks specially made by Zhang Haiyan and others, and the operation process was in compliance with the regulations stipulated by Yu Zhile.
Soon, the courtyard was filled with the spicy, sour and fragrant aroma, and pots of bright red pickled pepper sauce were placed on the long table to cool.
When the sauce cooled to the right temperature, Chen Zhao and his team began to can the sauce, filling each bottle to 90% full and then immediately sealing it. When the half-filled frame was moved to the last step in charge of Yu Chuyue and Zhang Wenxin - water bath sterilization.
Heat the jars of pickled pepper sauce in water at about 80 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, wipe the surface dry, and stack them in a cool corner.
"It's time to eat!" Yu Wanqin said loudly.
Today's lunch was prepared by her and Zhang Haiyan and others. It was a simple and quick spicy hot pot with rice.
The high-fat and salt content of the meal helped everyone recover their strength quickly. After a short rest after the meal, they devoted themselves to the work of making the sauce again.
More than 20 people worked until five in the afternoon and made a total of 356 bottles of pickled pepper sauce.
As for the spicy fried abalone for Wu Yun, they plan to make it tomorrow morning to ensure its freshness.
"Huh, I'm finally done." Zhang Wenxin breathed a sigh of relief. "Although I'm tired, I still feel a sense of accomplishment looking at the half-wall."
Everyone followed her gaze and nodded in agreement.
At this time, Yu Wanqin and others brought a large bucket of mung bean soup that had been soaked in the well, so that everyone could drink to their heart's content.
The cool mung bean soup tasted sweet and greatly reduced everyone's fatigue, rekindling their fighting spirit. They divided into several lines and started to stick labels.
There are two types of labels printed this time. One has the Haiyu brand’s trademark and information such as production date and shelf life, and the other has recommended ways of eating, listing methods for cooking noodles and several home-cooked dishes.
"I've never eaten canned food in my life, but now I'm making canned food," someone said.
The others joined in with laughter.
Zhang Wenxin said proudly: "Everyone work hard, and if the sideline group develops well, we will not only give out money at the end of the year, but also canned food."
This sentence immediately heated up the atmosphere, and everyone's enthusiasm increased.
"The atmosphere is so good, who wants to sing a song?" Zhang Wenxin asked.
Zhang Ling started singing without saying a word, and the lively folk song made everyone applaud.
Yu Zhile looked at them with a smile, while Li Ran looked at her while holding a reference book that he hadn't opened for a long time.
At this moment, he truly understood the meaning of the collective. Being a part of the collective does not mean being needed all the time, but spending every moment of joy and sorrow together with everyone.
Li Ran put down the book, opened his notebook and started writing quickly. He would occasionally stop to think for a moment, but would soon continue writing.
The next morning, Ge Tai packed up the pickled pepper sauce and set off. Li Ran followed closely behind with the letter, riding his bike to the town post office.
Yu Zhile got up earlier than usual. Breakfast at home was not ready yet, so she sat on the swing in a daze.
"Xiaobao, let's continue listening to music programs today instead of opera, okay?" Chen Zhao clasped his hands together and looked at Yu Chi eagerly.
Since the radio came home, listening to the radio has become a regular morning program for the adult and the child. The two have agreed to take turns listening to their favorite programs.
"Brother Xiaozhao, a man should not go back on his word." Yu Chi spoke in a condescending manner.
Chen Zhao sighed, resigned himself to his fate and handed over the radio, asking him to tune it to the opera channel.
When switching channels, the crackling sound brought Yu Zhile's attention back a little, and he watched Xiaobao's movements.
"Welcome to today's morning news. Today's headline is about the investigation of enemy agent Wang--"
The clear female voice was soon replaced by chaotic electric sound.
Yu Zhile stood up suddenly and asked Xiaobao to change the channel.
The female voice continued to report the news: "It is reported that Wang was arrested three days ago... During the operation, many of our soldiers were injured..."
Yu Zhile caught some of the words and felt his head buzzing for a moment.
At the same time, the sound of a car braking was heard outside the yard.
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