"It's a pity that the weather in January is so unpredictable. It's too cold today, and it must be even colder by the pond. I wish it were warmer!"
Niu Cuihua said.
Shen Changyi grabbed a few more eels and threw them into Niu Meihua's large bucket. "Let me see how many there are!"
"My goodness! This must weigh eleven or twelve pounds! We've never caught so many before! Baozhu, Meihua, take the bucket, let's go home!"
“Alright then!” Niu Baozhu and Niu Meihua said in unison.
Twelve-year-old Shen Changyi carried a small bucket from Niu Baozhu in one hand and a large bucket from Niu Meihua in the other.
After returning home, Niu Baolan walked shakily to the big bucket and peeked inside with her little head.
Little Fu Bao stretched out his cute little head, watching with great interest, and then gave Shen Changzhu a kiss on the cheek.
Shim Chang-soo was somewhat dazed.
He insists that his mother also have two such adorable little sisters.
Old Mrs. Zhong strode out and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! Where did you get so many loaches and eels?!"
“Grandma, we caught them in the ditch. You can ask Big Brother if you don’t believe me,” Shen Changyi said.
“Yes, Grandma, they caught them in the ditch! I’ve been watching them the whole time!” Shim Chang-soo said.
It is indeed a rare thing to be able to catch eleven or twelve pounds of loach and eel with bare hands.
If you properly prepare eleven or twelve pounds of loach and eel, stew them with a little meat, that's a true delicacy.
Little Fu Bao was craving meat and kept poking her lips. When Shen saw this, she scooped up a spoonful of clear soup for Little Fu Bao and said with a smile, "Our Little Fu Bao wants to eat too. Little Fu Bao, you'd better grow up quickly!"
Little Fu Bao drank the soup with great satisfaction.
Old Mrs. Zhong said, "When you go back, you'll have to build a house, do chores, and take care of these three very young children. Your mother-in-law died young, how can you manage without someone to care for you?" "My youngest grandson and granddaughter are already seven years old. If you don't mind that I'm an old woman, I'll go and help you take care of the children for a year. I'll come back when you're done with your work!"
Niu Da thanked him profusely.
Niu Er was home alone.
He collected about a hundred eggs every day, which tempted Niu Fangyuan. Taking advantage of the fact that Niu's second son was home alone, he started stealing chickens in the middle of the night.
In the dead of winter, Niu Er went to bed early. After midnight, Niu Fangyuan sneaked out and went into the Niu family's vegetable garden.
The surroundings were so quiet that there wasn't even a sound of wind. Niu Fangyuan lit a small candle, reached for the chicken coop, opened it, and saw a chicken staring at him with its round eyes.
Niu Fangyuan shuddered in fright. Being stared at like that by a chicken in the middle of the night was quite scary. He walked around the chicken that was staring at him and reached out to grab another chicken.
Suddenly, Niu Er was awakened by Niu Fangyuan's strange cries. He quickly lit a lamp, put on his shoes and socks, and saw sixteen chickens pecking at Niu Fangyuan.
"What's going on?" Only when Niu Er spoke up did the chickens that had flown onto Niu Fangyuan fly down, one of them even pooping a huge pile of droppings on Niu Fangyuan's head.
Niu Er couldn't help but laugh: "Ouch, my stomach hurts from laughing! Haha! So, you came here to steal my chickens, haha!"
He tried to steal a chicken, but ended up being bullied by it instead.
One of the chickens even pecked off a large chunk of his flesh, no wonder everyone said that it was Yuan's bad luck to marry him.
Niu Fangyuan ran back to the house. When he got home, his wife, Yuan, was still sleeping inside. They had been married for sixteen years and had fought a few times, but each time it ended in a draw.
Ever since the last time fifteen-year-old Niu Yuan and his wife gave him a mixed doubles beating, he's been terrified of the tigress and her cubs at home.
He didn't dare to speak loudly, and tiptoed in, afraid of waking Yuan Shi, whose lips, kissed by the old hen, were still swollen the next morning.
Upon seeing this, Madam Yuan asked, "What's wrong with you?"
“I went to the toilet last night and fell, I fell!” Niu Fangyuan said.
Madam Yuan didn't believe her. She slammed her chopsticks down heavily, making Niu Fangyuan's heart tremble. Madam Yuan said, "Did you go and steal someone's chicken?"
"No, I didn't steal it!"
They tried to steal it, but failed.
“You’re good at teaching our son! Finish your meal and go apologize! Tomorrow, go to the county to find some work. Don’t stay here and embarrass me; I won’t even look at you!” “I’ll go with you! I’ll see if I can find a good girl for our son!”
Madam Yuan added, "I wonder if your lowly father-in-law will ruin our son's marriage prospects!"
Yuan, pulling Niu Fangyuan by the ear and carrying half a pound of meat, came to apologize to Niu Er, "My old man is no good. He even sneaked into your house to steal chickens yesterday, and he deserved to be pecked like this by the chickens!" "You must accept this half pound of meat."
Niu Er probably understood what Yuan Shi meant, and touched his ear, saying, "Well, Sister Yuan, you don't need to pay for this. Actually, he didn't steal anything. Just don't come stealing chickens again, or he'll get pecked by my chickens."
Niu Fangyuan quickly said, "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare!"
"No, you absolutely have to accept this meat!"
Seeing her resolute attitude, Niu Er accepted the meat.
After Niu Da and his wife returned home with Old Lady Zhong and Shen Zishan, they built a pig cage in their house.
"Put it here, cover the timber with the material." Niu Da bought a lot of ordinary timber from Jia Dafu's family in town. The Jia family sent four or five carts of timber with them.
The villagers were incredibly envious of the large courtyard the Niu family had built, and Chen even exaggeratedly remarked:
"Wow, this is incredible! The Niu family is going to be rich! They'll need to build seven or eight houses, right?" Mrs. Chen said with a hint of envy.
“It’s going to be ten houses!” said Mrs. Tan.
Mrs. Chen said, "Oh my goodness, after his daughters get married, will these ten rooms be enough to house them all?"
The craftsmen, as instructed by Niu Da, placed the timber in another pig cage that had been built, and ten craftsmen laid the foundation a little in front of the old house of the Niu family.
The old house cannot be demolished yet; if it is, the Niu family will be unable to live there until the new house is built.
Niu Da, Niu Er, and Shen Zishan busied themselves helping to pass the wooden planks.
Around noon, Chen Yu stir-fried pork belly in a pot, and the aroma of the meat wafted to the neighbors.
Niu Baozhu, with a sweet tooth, dragged her little legs to the stove. At three years old, she wasn't even as tall as the stove, yet she craned her neck to peer into the pot. She couldn't see anything; she was too small to see more than the edge of the large pot.
"Mom, what's this? It smells so good!"
Chen Yu smiled and said, "Mom is making braised pork for you and the craftsmen uncles today!"
She knew about braised pork; she had eaten it during Chinese New Year, and it was delicious. However, her mother said that the cuts of pork, both the front and back, were hard to find, and they had to save them to eat slowly, so she had only ever eaten it during Chinese New Year.
"Wow, we get to eat braised pork!" Niu Baozhu cheered and clapped her hands as she jumped out. "Big sister, second sister, Mom said she's making braised pork for us and the craftsmen uncles today! We get to eat braised pork!"
The craftsmen became even more motivated when they heard that there would be braised pork to eat.
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