After exchanging pleasantries, Old Wang offered water instead of wine, and the men relaxed and started drinking more freely.
Fortunately, all of them were men. Although they were a little reserved at first, Cheng Shi mediated and eventually everyone had a good time!
Hearing that Gu Qingshan and his group had come from the north, traversing three thousand miles, Old Man Wang and the others were utterly astonished. They knew that this journey had involved not only fleeing from famine, but also enduring war and chaos!
As the saying goes, natural disasters are easier to overcome than man-made ones! It's not just about luck; you also need strength! It's not that no refugees have made it here, but most of them are from large clans or even a coalition of several clans. Very few have actually made it to settle down here! Even if they do settle down, they are penniless and have to start from scratch. How can they expect to build a house with bricks and tiles right away?!
Having made up his mind, Old Man Wang thought to himself that this family was not simple and that he needed to be more careful about building the house. He might need to ask them to build a house for him again in the future!
In the near future, it was proven that his idea was correct, and Qin San Niang did not disappoint him.
Before they had finished eating, Gu Qingshan noticed several children peeking around in the yard, while the women of Old Wang's family had not yet come to the table to eat.
At first, he thought that since men and women should keep their distance, they were probably eating in the kitchen! But upon closer inspection, it turned out they hadn't eaten at all! Why? Because the kids were practically drooling.
Gu Qingshan suddenly felt a pang of pity. One of the girls was about the same age as his own Azhi. He absolutely could not bear to see Azhi suffer from hunger like this!
In fact, Wang Tieniu was in the same boat, but he had no choice! He knew exactly how much rice, grain, vegetables, and meat he had at home, and the rice jar was almost empty! After this meal, he would probably have to go to his uncle's house to borrow more grain that night!
Thinking this way, he ate very slowly and in small portions, wanting to leave more food for his wife, mother, and children. However, the portions were small to begin with, and since they were all men in their prime, a bowl of rice was only a few bites for them.
Even Gu Qingshan, who wasn't particularly interested in eating, ate a bowl of sorghum porridge. This sorghum porridge wasn't mixed with rice, so it was a bit dry and hard to swallow, but the rough-and-tumble man naturally didn't mind.
Even so, for Old Wang's grandchildren, this was an excellent meal. Sorghum porridge was at least a grain, much better than coarse grain porridge mixed with rice bran.
Old Wang has four granddaughters and one grandson. The grandson is too young to meet anyone yet, and the other four are all girls. At this moment, they are standing awkwardly in the yard. The little one is only three or four years old, with a runny nose and sucking her fingers!
Gu Qingshan felt he had to do something, but the sorghum rice in his bowl was gone! Then he remembered that Liu had prepared scallion pancakes on the carriage. The pancakes were very soft, and the scallions inside had been fried in advance. With the aroma of pork fat, they attracted the attention of the children as soon as they were taken out!
That's made with white flour and lots of oil; it looks much tastier than our own plain, watery rice, and even better than sorghum rice.
Gu Qingshan smiled and said to the eldest girl, "These are scallion pancakes. Uncle grabbed them in a hurry this morning to eat, but I didn't expect to be so warmly treated by your grandpa and grandma. I can't eat any more! Don't mind them, they're a bit cold, but you can heat them up on the stove and they'll still taste good."
At first, Da Ya felt resistant to this scarred-faced uncle. Even though he was smiling, he still looked a bit scary!
But now, she thought this uncle was really nice. No wonder her grandfather asked her grandmother to bring out the cured meat that had been stored in the house for a long time. It was a New Year's gift that her aunt brought from her husband's family. She said it was to be saved for the Spring Festival.
Like Daya, the other girls' eyes were also bright and eager. They hadn't eaten white flour buns or rice in a long time, let alone scallion pancakes! But without their grandfather and father's permission, none of them dared to come forward to take them, not even the youngest, Siya. If her older sisters didn't dare, she certainly wouldn't dare either! The most valued children in the family were the younger brothers in their mother's/aunt's arms; they were all considered a waste of money!
This wasn't Wang Laohan and his wife's intention, but rather because their two daughters-in-law were constantly arguing about not being able to give birth to a son, and the baby naturally took it to heart.
Seeing that they didn't come forward, Gu Qingshan turned around and handed the scallion pancake to Wang Tieniu. That man must be a doting father!
"Brother Tie Niu, hurry up and heat up the kids. I just remembered!"
Wang Tieniu knew that Gu Qingshan's family was wealthy, but he didn't expect them to be this wealthy. They had only been out for half a day, yet they had prepared white flour scallion pancakes. No wonder they could afford to build a house with blue bricks and tiles!
Let alone the kids, even he, a grown man, was incredibly craving it! He hadn't eaten pure white flour for years!
Old Wang glanced at his father and nodded. In any case, he had provided meals for them and would be going to measure them in the afternoon. He wasn't guilty about taking these scallion pancakes, but he still felt he had gotten a little extra money!
"Brother Tie Niu, just take it if Brother Gu tells you to. These pancakes smell really good!" Cheng Shi urged. Thanks to his wife, he had tried scallion pancakes and fried dough stick pancakes before, and they were absolutely delicious!
"Okay, thank you, Brother Gu!" Wang Tieniu took the pancakes and went to the kitchen excitedly.
In the kitchen, his mother, wife, and younger siblings were picking wild vegetables. They couldn't waste the leftover sorghum scraps from lunch, so they added a few ladles of water and started cooking them, intending to have a watery meal!
On the stove, there was a small amount of pickled vegetable and scrambled eggs left, though there were hardly any eggs left. This was meant to be served with the children's porridge.
No one complained about the small amount of food; on the contrary, everyone smiled!
"Mother, how come this family is so rich? They're building four big brick and tile houses. Father's going to make a lot of money this year!" The speaker was the youngest daughter-in-law. Her youngest son had gone to work in the county and hadn't been home for the past few days. If it weren't for the work in the fields, the eldest son, Wang Tieniu, would have gone too.
The eldest daughter-in-law was rather reserved, perhaps because she hadn't given birth to a son; she merely smiled, though inwardly she was overjoyed. With ample food at home, there was no reason for her to even consider selling her daughter!
The in-laws were honest people. Even when they were eating tree bark last year, they never mentioned selling their daughter! You see, there were quite a few people in the village who were told by the broker that as long as they sent their daughters to work as maids in wealthy households, they could earn a few pounds of flour and rice by selling them, so they all rushed to sell them.
Her in-laws and husband were all good people, and the more they were, the more guilty she felt, as if her inability to give birth to a son was due to her own womb being unworthy!
Mother-in-law Han smiled and said, "This family is quite polite; you can tell just by looking at the man! We are so grateful to Guixiang's family for making the match. When your father and his family earn some money, they can buy some more fabric for Niu Niu and make her a summer dress."
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