Chapter 117 The things Lin Chuntao and the others pulled today…
The plot of land that Lin Chuntao and her team pulled today was relatively close to the river. Villagers would pass by the plot when they went to the river to wash clothes.
Lin Chuntao pulled up a row of bean sprouts and carried them to the edge of the field to prepare to tie them up.
There was dew on the ground in the morning, and the grass on the ridges was wet. Lin Chuntao was about to find a stone to sit on when she heard a familiar voice.
"Chuntao, are you pulling up bean sprouts?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Chuntao looked over and saw Lin Qingqing's grandmother, who was carrying two wooden basins with clothes inside.
"Yes, Third Grandma, are you going to do the laundry?"
The old lady replied, "Yes, I'll take advantage of the good sunshine to wash a few clothes."
The old lady stopped in front of her, looked at her bean sprouts, and said, "Your bean harvest seems to be quite good."
Lin Chuntao said, "It's alright. There are a lot of green beans hanging, but I don't know if they're any good since they haven't been harvested."
"They look quite plump, and there shouldn't be any rotten ones if you collect them now."
The old lady was chatting while standing, so Lin Chuntao didn't rush to tie up the bean sprouts.
However, after chatting for a while, they ran out of things to say and fell into a brief silence.
The family has been in a gloomy mood lately. Lin Qingqing hasn't been found yet, and Wang Shi has been dragged into this mess by her family. She lies there half-dead every day and doesn't get up to do any work.
She overheard someone say that Lin Chuntao and Lin Chunxing had gone to look for Lin Qingqing, and the two sisters borrowed Aunt Guizhi's mule to go to the county town to look for her.
She didn't know about this before; it was only in the last couple of days that Aunt Guizhi next door mentioned it.
Lin Changhua has been going to the county town frequently these days, just wandering around, hoping to find Lin Qingqing. But the county town is not the village after all. How can you find someone like a headless fly?
Lin Qingqing couldn't be found, so Lin Chuntao even asked Lin Jiaye to help with the work. She was thinking, even if the young people had a good relationship, their family had still lost someone. Why did Lin Chuntao ask Lin Jiaye for help without any hesitation?
Could it be that they've already found Lin Qingqing but haven't told her?
The old lady pondered alone for two days. In the morning, she heard Lin Jiaye say that he was picking bean sprouts by the river. That's why she deliberately used the excuse of washing clothes to run into Lin Chuntao.
"By the way, Chuntao, I heard that you and Chunxing went to look for Qingqing. Did you find her?"
Lin Chuntao looked at the old lady, pursed her lips, frowned and said, "Third Grandmother, we did go for a walk, but we couldn't find it."
"Didn't you find it?" the old lady murmured.
Lin Chuntao hummed in agreement, then said, "Qingqing is a lucky person, she'll probably come home on her own soon."
Looking at Lin Chuntao's expression, the old lady couldn't tell whether Lin Chuntao was telling the truth or lying.
She was in low spirits and said softly, "It's all my fault. If I had kept a closer eye on her and prevented her mother from causing trouble, she wouldn't have been forced to leave home."
“She’ll be all alone outside. I’ve heard there are kidnappers in the city. Qingqing is still young. If she encounters bad people, her life will be over.”
The old lady kept rambling on, and Lin Chuntao listened quietly.
After she finished rambling, Lin Chuntao comforted her, "With you worrying about her, Qingqing will definitely be fine. In the eyes of adults, no matter how old a child is, they are still a child. Maybe Qingqing has learned to be independent after leaving home. Maybe she will be lucky and meet a good person. Third Grandmother, you don't need to worry too much."
Actually, Lin Qingqing is doing well now and could tell her family, but considering what Wang Shi did before, Lin Chuntao has to be careful with all the adults in the family.
If she were to reveal Lin Qingqing's affair, and Wang Shi were to go berserk and act unreasonably, even claiming that they were the ones who instigated Lin Qingqing to leave home, then she would truly be unable to explain herself.
Lin Qingqing is working in the county town. She said she would come back after she received her wages, and she would tell her family when she returned.
She repeated what she had said before. Seeing that Lin Chuntao kept her mouth shut and didn't reveal anything, the old lady sighed and said, "You often go to the county town. If you run into Qingqing, tell her that the engagement has been called off and ask her to come home as soon as possible. Her family misses her."
Lin Chuntao nodded slightly.
"Don't worry, Third Grandmother, if I happen to run into you, I will definitely pass on the message."
After saying that, Lin Chuntao added, "But people come and go in the county town, and running into an acquaintance depends entirely on luck."
Lin Chuntao and the old lady were talking on the edge of the field when Lin Jiaye and the others, who were still in the field, heard them. When they realized they were talking about Lin Qingqing, they all hid in the middle of the field and didn't come out.
After the old lady left, Lin Jiaye and the others crawled out carrying the bean sprouts. Lin Chuntao turned around and looked at them with a smile, "Why are you hiding? Are you afraid of Grandma?"
Lin Jiaye chuckled.
"No, I'm afraid Grandma will nag."
Lin Chuntao shook her head helplessly, and Lin Jiaye next to her asked, "Sister, do you really not know where Qingqing is?"
"Tsk~ If I had known, would I have kept it from your second uncle and the others?"
Lin Jiaye: "That's definitely not the case."
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Exactly."
Listening to their conversation, Lin Jiayang pursed his lips and asked curiously, "Sister Chuntao, is it easy to find work in the county town?"
Lin Chuntao said, "It's not easy to find a job. If you want to do hard labor, there are many adults waiting there. But if you want to do something easier, it will be very difficult if you are illiterate and have no skills."
They were all thirteen or fourteen-year-old boys, tall, but their eyes and faces still looked childish.
Hearing Lin Chuntao say this, Lin Jialiang, who was standing next to her, said, "I heard that the tuition fees for teachers are very expensive, and no one in our village can afford to go to school."
Lin Chuntao said, "The tuition fee should be fine, but the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone will cost a lot of money."
Looking at them, Lin Chuntao thought of Lin Duo'er and the others. Finding a teacher should be put on the agenda as soon as possible. She has too many things to do and can't be in two places at once.
Pei Ying and the others returned a little earlier today. There was still some pork tripe and chicken soup left from yesterday, and the braised large intestines that they hadn't eaten last night were all heated up and served. They also stir-fried a few other dishes before starting lunch.
I made this braised offal dish when we moved, and many people praised it highly. Lin Jiaye and his family had been looking forward to it for several days and finally got to eat it.
After lunch, Pei Ying washed and hung up her clothes, then went with them to pick beans. Lin Chunxing also had to braise the eggs first; she was very skilled at it, and by the time Lin Chuntao and the others came back from picking beans, she had already finished.
With Lin Duo'er and the other eight of them pulling together, they finished by sunset. Lin Chunhe steamed rice, and Lin Chuntao quickly cooked dishes and ate.
By the time they finished eating, it was already dark.
Lin Jiaye and the others also wanted to help hang the bean sprouts, but Lin Chuntao said, "We're all exhausted after a long day. We'll hang them slowly tomorrow."
But the teenager wouldn't listen to her advice and dragged Pei Ying along until they finished hanging the bean sprouts before going back.
After they finished their work, the moon had already risen high in the sky. Lin Chuntao said to Pei Ying, "Today, Jiayang even asked me if it was easy to find work in the county town."
Pei Ying raised an eyebrow slightly. They were all doing manual labor; what good jobs were there?
Lin Chuntao said, "I wonder how much it would cost to hire a tutor to come to our home."
Pei Ying looked at her and said, "You can go ask."
The two chatted as they washed up and rested, thankful that Lin Jiaye had insisted on hanging up the bean sprouts last night; otherwise, they would have woken up soaked by the rain.
Summer rains in Yizhou are mostly showers, sometimes lasting only for half an hour in the afternoon or evening.
Autumn rain is different; when it doesn't rain, the sky is clear and blue, but when it does rain, it's a light drizzle.
When they got up at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), it was drizzling. Pei Ying couldn't not go, and neither could Lin Chunxing. They had prepared a lot of braised eggs, minced meat, and vegetables. If the rain lessened, there would be more people at the market, so they still had to go.
Lin Chuntao packed her things, and to keep her clothes dry on the way, she also packed two sets of clothes and shoes to take with her.
After they arrived in the county town, the rain lessened a bit. If it had continued to rain, there would have been no place to shelter from the rain, and the customers wouldn't have been able to sit and eat, so the stall couldn't be set up.
They watched for a while, and as the sky gradually brightened, the thick fog dissipated and the sky became much brighter. Seeing that the weather was improving, Lin Chuntao went to the powder shop to get the powder.
Not long after, the rain stopped, but the sky didn't clear up. There was no sun, and every now and then a dark cloud would drift by. Taking advantage of the rain stop, the market suddenly became lively, but everyone was in a hurry and ate their noodles faster, just in case the rain came back suddenly.
After thinking about it, Lin Chuntao realized that it was necessary to rent a shop, which would be convenient for customers who came to eat noodles, and also convenient for Lin Chunxing to set up her stall.
Lin Chuntao pondered to herself.
After closing up shop today, Lin Chuntao called Lin Chunxing to go to the fabric shop together. The temperature will drop after the rain, and they had originally planned to make clothes after finishing their work in a few days, but now they couldn't wait any longer.
The tailors at the fabric shop were busy making winter vests. There were some ready-made, but they didn't seem to fit quite right. Lin Chuntao was thinking of bringing Lin Chunhe and Lin Duo'er with her tomorrow to have them measured and made two sets that fit properly.
After returning home, Lin Chuntao told the two sisters about it, and they were both very happy.
After finishing talking about making clothes, Lin Chunhe said, "Sister, I saw that the beans that were steamed the day before yesterday seem ready to be dried, but how are we going to do it in this weather?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Chuntao went with her to take a look and found that it was indeed properly covered up and needed to be dried and ground as soon as possible.
She looked at the stove fire. Since the sun couldn't dry it, she could only use a heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed). Lin Chuntao brought a bamboo tray and placed it on the stove. Firewood was burned underneath, and the heat from above could slowly dry it.
But after grilling it, I realized that this method was rather wasteful and the temperature wasn't high enough, so it was quite slow to grill. If it were charcoal, the temperature would be much more even, and there wouldn't be any flames.
For today, we can only roast them like this. Buying charcoal is too expensive, so Lin Chuntao called Pei Ying to go to the backyard to dig a kiln to burn charcoal.
Lin Chuntao's sudden idea surprised Pei Ying.
"Now?"
Lin Chuntao nodded and smiled, "Yes, right now. I don't have anything planned for this afternoon."
Pei Ying smiled, then went to get a hoe. "Where do we dig?"
"Let's look around at the foot of the mountain. I'll see if we can find a more convenient spot where we can just dig a hole." Lin Chuntao said as she and Pei Ying left the courtyard. Pei Ying asked, "So, we need to find a small mound or a slope?"
Lin Chuntao nodded.
Behind the yard was a small hill, but there were many trees there, making it unsuitable for digging. The two of them carried hoes and wandered around the area. They couldn't find the hill, but they did find a slope.
Pei Ying asked, "How do we dig this?"
Lin Chuntao looked at the location and said, "Dig directly from here, leave a small door so we can put firewood in, dig a small chimney here, and dig in from below to connect it to the inside."
She gestured as she spoke, and Pei Ying roughly understood what she meant. Then she asked, "Will you light a fire here later?"
Lin Chuntao nodded, and Pei Ying hissed, finding this somewhat interesting.
He turned to Lin Chuntao and asked, "We don't need to dig too big, do we?"
"Hmm, it doesn't need to be too big, otherwise it will be difficult to seal."
As he spoke, Pei Ying began to dig. He scooped out the soil, and Lin Chuntao moved the soil aside.
In just over an hour, the two of them had dug out a fairly large hole.
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