Chapter 97 Providing Good Logistics
Without saying a word, Xie Wanniang stuffed the money into Wang Xiaozhi's hand. "It's the lean season right now. Even radishes, cabbages, winter melons, and squash are not as expensive as they are in autumn. Besides, most families probably don't have much stock left. You might have to go to town again, sister."
Wang Xiaozhi: ......
Holding the pile of silver coins stuffed into her hand, Wang Xiaozhi couldn't help but smile slightly. "Do you want these wild vegetables, dried vegetables, mushrooms, and mustard tubers?"
Xie Wanniang replied without hesitation, "Yes, I want some. If you have chicken eggs or duck eggs, you can buy some too, sister."
Wang Xiaozhi nodded: "Okay."
Xie Wanniang smiled gently, "Then I'll trouble you, sister."
"It's no trouble at all, it's just running errands back and forth." Wang Xiaozhi carefully put away the loose change. "Then I'll go back to buying groceries."
After calling over the two women she had recently hired, Wang Xiaozhi, carrying the money, hurried off to the village again.
Just as Xie Wanniang said, the households in the village really did not have much stock left, and the prices they asked for when selling to her were indeed slightly higher than in the fall.
Even so, she had already bought up almost all the radishes, cabbages, winter melons, and squash.
If Xie Wanniang hadn't also wanted dried vegetables, mushrooms, and wild greens, Wang Xiaozhi would indeed have had to make a trip to town this afternoon or tomorrow morning, just as she said.
While Wang Xiaozhi was buying vegetables from door to door, the construction site was already bustling with activity. The situation that Aunt Chen had worried about—a large influx of people—did not happen. It wasn't true that every household in the village had able-bodied men to come and help with the work.
The number of villagers who came to help was finally settled at eighty-five. In addition to the fifty or so people, including the craftsmen, there were eight people helping in the kitchen, including Wang Xiaozhi and her daughter-in-law, as well as Xie Wanniang, Jiang Yuan, Hao Yu, Xiao Yang, Chen Yuan, and Chen Fang. Xie Wanniang and the others needed to prepare meals for about one hundred and fifty people in total.
To ensure everyone had enough to eat, Xie Wanniang prepared the ingredients in portions of one large bowl of vegetables, one large bowl of soup, and five steamed buns made from two kinds of flour for each person.
It's impossible to steam steamed buns for every meal. Xie Wan's plan is to steam the portion for dinner at noon and set it aside. Anyway, it's not too hot today, and the steamed buns won't spoil even if they're left for two days.
So, Aunt Chen and the others took the three bags of flour that Xie Wanniang had brought out, mixed them evenly, and put them on the heated kang to speed up the fermentation.
After making up the mess, they spontaneously found other jobs to do.
They drew water from the well, took the firewood Jiang Yuan had chopped and delivered it to the kitchen and the entrance to the east wing room, and helped Xie Wan's mother prepare the pig's head, trotters, and offal for dinner...
Several women were working while talking loudly to each other.
The only sound that could drown out their conversation was the constant clanging from the kitchen—the sound of Aunt Hu, the strongest and most robust woman, hammering pig bones with a small iron hammer.
At the same time as this sound, but at a significantly lower decibel level, came the splashing of water while washing vegetables, the rhythmic clinking of the knife against the cutting board while chopping vegetables, and the two young women responsible for cutting meat, who were carefully slicing the meat into thin slices while whispering, "There's so much meat," and "It looks delicious."
Xie Wanniang, who originally thought she would be the main labor force, had all her work taken over by the aunties and sisters-in-law who were exceptionally efficient at their jobs. As a result, her main role has now changed from cooking to taking care of everything inside and outside the house.
Her job has seamlessly shifted to giving Wang Xiaozhi money, receiving the ingredients Wang Xiaozhi bought, deciding the amount of each ingredient to cook for each meal, and promptly finding out what's missing so as not to delay the aunties and sisters-in-law from using the food.
Separated by a wall, both sides were bustling with activity. While working, everyone was also chatting loudly with acquaintances.
Hearing the commotion outside, Xie Wanniang took advantage of the fact that the stoves were still idle and had four pots of water boiled in one go. She planned to add a little coarse salt and brown sugar to the water after it cooled to lukewarm temperature so that everyone could quench their thirst and replenish their energy.
She didn't understand the intricacies of building houses, and with Hao Yu, Jiang Yuan, and Wang Xiaozhi's father-in-law and husband around, she didn't need to worry about those things.
All she needed to do was to handle the logistical work and ensure that the new houses for the three families could be completed smoothly.
At noon, even through the wall, the craftsmen, laborers, and villagers could smell the aroma of meat wafting from Hao Yu's house.
Everyone gasped involuntarily, and one of the young men who was close to Jiang Yuan asked directly, "Yuan, is this meat you made? It smells so good, you must have used a lot of seasoning!"
Jiang Yuan nodded, "There is meat."
Upon hearing this, everyone became even more enthusiastic about their work.
The host is willing to feed them well, so they can't be sloppy, right? Otherwise, the host won't be satisfied and might stop feeding them meat in the future.
After bustling around for about half an hour, Aunt Chen walked out of the courtyard with a big smile and called out to them from afar, "Dinner's ready!"
Upon hearing this, everyone quickly put down the tools and materials they were holding.
Jiang Yuan walked up to Hao Yu and said, "I'll watch over things. You go back and eat first."
Hao Yu didn't stand on ceremony with him, "Okay."
After saying this, he invited Old Master Chen and the three craftsmen to go home with him.
The craftsmen held a special status, and the host family would usually arrange for them to sit alone. So the group of laborers and villagers who rushed over to grab food would not affect their meal.
Xie Wanniang had their meals set out in the main room, while the others' meals were served in wooden buckets, which were distributed to them one by one by Aunt Chen and two other older women in the open space outside the courtyard wall.
The laborers and villagers, who only brought a pair of chopsticks, a bowl or a basin, lined up to wash their hands and faces with well water before taking out their own utensils to rinse with water and go to Aunt Chen and the others to collect their share of food.
The three elderly women's loud voices came in very handy at this moment. While serving people food, they shouted in their loud voices, "One bowl of vegetables and one bowl of soup per person. Take the vegetables first, then take the soup."
The dish was a huge bowl of braised pork belly with cabbage, with plenty of cabbage but only seven or eight thin slices of meat. Even so, everyone's eyes lit up because of the abundance of meat.
For ordinary farming families, it would be considered extremely generous of the host to include a little meat in their dishes so that they could taste the flavor of meat. How could they possibly let them eat seven or eight slices of meat in one meal?
Even when they buy meat to satisfy their own cravings, the whole family always shares a pound or even half a pound of meat.
Forget sliced meat, you'd be lucky to even get a little minced meat.
But now! Each of them has about seven or eight pieces of meat in their bowl!
Not to mention the pork bone and radish soup floating with oil in the wooden bucket next to it.
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