The shopkeeper did the math, "It's 16.6 in total, I'll give you 17. Next time you have any duck feathers, save some for me."
Xu Lai smiled and said okay, took the money and put it in her grandmother's room, then continued cooking.
In the afternoon, the village committee was up to something, demanding that one person from each household go to the village committee for a meeting.
When Xu Lai arrived, Zhao Qingyun hadn't finished get off work yet. Grandma Jiang told her to go ahead and talk to him after he got off work.
The people on the road were all representatives sent by their families. They walked together and chatted as they went. "What are we doing today? I was just about to cook dinner."
"I don't know, this radio hasn't been used for hundreds of years."
When they arrived at the village committee, there were already quite a few people standing in the open space. There were benches in front of them, but no one sat down. It was only after the village chief used a loudspeaker to tell everyone to sit down that people gradually took their seats.
Xu Lai found a seat and sat down. Then she heard the village chief say, "I called everyone here today to announce that a new village secretary, Xiao Qin, has arrived. Please introduce yourself."
Xu Lai looked ahead and saw the girl who had asked for directions that morning. She took the megaphone and said, "Hello everyone, I am Qin Huan, 23 years old. I am very happy to be here in Shangxi Village and become the village secretary. I hope that with our efforts, the village will get better and better."
Sparse applause broke out below, and someone called out, "Village chief, is there anything else? It's almost lunchtime, and we're all rushing back to cook."
Qin Huan said, "Don't rush, let's get down to business. I noticed that there are no streetlights or trash cans in the village, so I called everyone here to sign a document. Tomorrow I'll go to the county to get the funds for village construction."
Some people are starting to worry: "Won't this make us pay for it ourselves?"
Qin Huan reassured everyone, "No, it won't happen."
People stepped forward to sign their names, but Xu Lai was the last to do so. Before she could sign, Zhao Qingyun arrived and asked, "What did they say?"
Xu Lai whispered, "They need to get the county to approve the funds to install streetlights and trash cans, and they need us to sign off on that."
After everyone in front of her had finished signing, Xu Lai picked up the pen and signed her name. Qin Huan recognized her as the person who had given her directions earlier that day and smiled at her in a friendly manner.
The village chief introduced the two: "Little Qin, this is Xu Lai, who is now leading our village to make money. Xu Lai, this is Qin Huan."
Xu Lai extended her hand: "Hello."
Qin Huan grasped her hand and said, "I know you, that short video blogger, the one who filmed the videos of returning to the village, right?"
Xu Lai nodded: "Then it should be me."
After Zhao Qingyun finished signing his name, he stood next to her. The village chief's eyes lit up, and he began to introduce her: "This is Zhao Qingyun, an entrepreneur. The largest company in the county belongs to his family."
Zhao Qingyun said modestly, "That's too much of an exaggeration, Village Chief."
Qin Huan's eyes lit up, and she extended her hand: "Hello, senior."
Xu Lai, with a look of schadenfreude, asked, "You two know each other?"
Zhao Qingyun looked at the person in front of her, tried hard to recall, but really couldn't remember.
Qin Huan explained, "My senior and I are alumni from the same college, but I hadn't enrolled when he graduated, so I've never met him in person, only heard about his achievements."
Zhao Qingyun nodded and asked, "Which teacher taught you?"
Qin Huan smiled and said, "It's Teacher Liu Xun."
“I’ve taken his class. You have a very humorous tutor.”
The two chatted about school and gradually became acquainted. Zhao Qingyun asked, "How did you end up becoming the village secretary?"
Qin Huan explained, "It's like this: my parents wanted me to take the civil service exam, and I felt it was necessary to see things from the grassroots level, so I chose Shangxi Village."
The village chief coughed, "Well, you two continue your conversation, we'll be leaving now."
The village chief called Xu Lai over and prepared to leave, as he had some things to discuss with her.
"Are you interested in leasing that peach orchard?" the village chief asked.
Xu Lai was surprised for a moment: "Who's not planning to continue?"
The village chief whispered, "He's been losing money for the past two years. Seeing that you're selling well, he came to me wanting me to ask if you want to buy his products."
Xu Lai thought for a moment and said, "I need to think about it."
As she came out of the village chief's house, she saw Zhao Qingyun waiting at the door. "What are you doing here?"
Zhao Qingyun walked side by side with her and said, "I'll wait for you."
Xu Lai looked at him and asked, "How did you know I was at the village chief's house? What if I had already gone back?"
"I guessed," he said with a smile, "but it seems I guessed right."
Xu Lai asked casually, "Are you two finished talking?"
Zhao Qingyun nodded: "Let's just chat for a bit. After all, it's fate to meet a fellow alumnus here."
Xu Lai nodded and said, "It really is quite a coincidence."
When she arrived at her doorstep, she pushed open the gate and went straight in without saying a word to him.
Zhao Qingyun belatedly realized that she was a little unhappy, and he wondered if it was because of Qin Huan.
Xu Lai did have a strange feeling in her heart, which she attributed to the discomfort of a stranger suddenly arriving in the village.
...
With nothing to do today, she picked some grapes from Xu Shen's vineyard to make grape milk curd. She used Kyoho grapes, peeled them, kept the pulp, put the grape skins in a pot with water and boiled them, added white agar powder, and let it sit for two hours.
When the time came, she took the food out of the refrigerator, where it was already frozen. Then she added grape pulp, coconut milk, or milk, and it was ready to eat.
She made a lot of things, putting them all in disposable cups, and then carried them to the peach orchard and vineyard. There were people guarding the orchard, and these days quite a few customers still come to pick peaches.
Xu Lai distributed the drinks to them, saying, "It's hot, have some of this to cool down."
Everyone finished it in one go and said, "It's pretty good, it's icy cold, like jelly."
Xu Lai used white jelly powder this time. She had seen jelly fruit in the village before, but she didn't know if it was ripe yet. She would go and check in a few days, pick some, dry them, and make handmade ice jelly.
When it was lunchtime, she planned to make a steamed fish head and stir-fried beef with Sichuan pepper.
The fish head used is that of a bighead carp, which they call a male fish here. It has a lot of meat and is suitable for making chopped chili fish head.
Clean the fish head, make diagonal cuts on it, marinate it, place it on a plate, spread Litsea cubeba sauce on top, steam for twelve minutes, and drizzle with hot oil before serving.
This was the first time she had made stir-fried beef with Litsea cubeba. She asked the vendor to weigh out a pound of beef, washed it, cut it into chunks, added egg whites and mixed it well, then added salt and cooking oil to lock in the moisture.
Heat the wok, add the Litsea cubeba oil, then add the chopped chili peppers and minced garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the beef and stir-fry until cooked through, then it's ready to serve.
Litsea cubeba has a pungent smell, but it tastes delicious and is especially good with rice. People who don't like it might think it smells like dish soap.
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