Li Xiuju poured the whole basket of plums into a round winnowing tray, took a bamboo basket, picked out five catties of plump and good-looking plums, and stuffed them into Zhou Chenyu's hands, "Take this to him."
Zhou Chenyu took the basket and went out the door. Huangdou followed her. Li Xiuju often went to Grandma Wang's house when she had nothing to do. Huangdou was already familiar with the road. It ran wildly through the grass by the roadside. When it met other dogs in the village, it sniffed and sniffed them together. When it saw Zhou Chenyu slowly falling behind, it stopped and rolled around frantically in the grass, its fur covered with burrs.
Zhou Chenyu gradually passed it and called out, "Huangdou, come quickly."
Soybean immediately emerged from the grass, wagging its tail as it followed.
When Zhou Chenyu arrived at the gate of Grandma Wang's house, the wooden door was ajar, revealing a crack. He looked inside and saw a child sitting alone on the ground playing with a broken palm-leaf fan, while Grandma Wang, who was taking care of him, was washing clothes beside him.
Zhou Chenyu stepped forward and knocked on the door. "Is anyone home?"
Grandma Wang replied, "Is it Chen Yu? The door isn't closed, come in by yourself."
“Yes.” Zhou Chenyu carried the basket in, her face beaming with the old woman’s delightful smile. “Grandma Wang, I’ve brought you some fruit. This morning I went to my sworn brother Chen’s place and picked a whole basket of plums. We can’t finish them all, so I’m bringing you a few pounds as well.”
Grandma Wang dried her hands, saw the basket of plums, and exclaimed, "So many? You're giving us so many, is it enough for your own family?"
Zhou Chenyu handed over the fruit, saying, "Don't worry, we have plenty left at home, more than we can eat. That's why we asked you to help us."
"You're such a good talker, thank you so much." Grandma Wang brought over a winnowing basket, filled it with plums, and before Zhou Chenyu left, she said, "Come over for dinner sometime."
Zhou Chenyu carried the empty basket out the door, and Huangdou followed her out the door, but suddenly stared intently at the mossy stone steps and empty alley ahead, and let out two alert shouts.
Zhou Chenyu looked over there and saw several children around ten years old walking down from the alley. Each of them was holding a bamboo stick with a teardrop-shaped ring made of bamboo strips stuck into the end of the stick.
They used bamboo to prop up the water droplet rings under the eaves, stuck Spider-Man on them, and rolled up one spider web after another, turning the originally thin layer into a very thick one.
What are you doing?
The children had taken the bamboo strips from Li Xiuju. When they saw Zhou Chenyu, they obediently replied, "Sister Chenyu, we'll use these to catch dragonflies."
Catching dragonflies?
How do we catch them?
Zhou Chenyu followed them to the edge of the field. Although it was afternoon, the sky was dark, as if a rainstorm was about to come. Dozens of dragonflies hovered above the field, and some landed on the grass.
The oldest girl spotted a dragonfly, gripped the bamboo with both hands, aimed at the spot where the dragonfly was temporarily resting, and, taking it by surprise, covered it with a thick spider web.
The dragonfly, which was about to take flight, was instantly stuck to it. It tried to flap its wings a few times, but its wings were stuck tighter and tighter. Finally, it lay there like a corpse, giving up all struggle.
So that's how it is.
"Can I try?" Zhou Chenyu asked, and the children scrambled to put their bamboo stalks against each other.
Zhou Chenyu borrowed the bamboo from the little girl she had picked up river clams with that day. Watching a dragonfly slowly land on a purple wildflower, she tiptoed over, but just as she was about to grab it, the dragonfly heard the noise and flew away.
"Sister Chenyu, there's another one on your right." Someone reminded you from behind.
Zhou Chenyu glanced in that direction, held her breath, and swiftly and accurately shot at the dragonfly, "Hey, caught it!"
Zhou Chenyu had his fill of playing with the items, returned them to them, and then went home.
The plums used to make plum wine had been washed clean. Li Xiuju came out carrying a jar and a jar of rice wine and asked, "Have the plums been delivered?"
"It's been delivered. Brother Shuqing and Sister Hongmei aren't home, only Grandma Wang is here." Zhou Chenyu sat down in front of the fruit to help.
They used a sharp knife to make two shallow cuts at the pointed bottom of the plums, forming a fork shape. A sudden rain shower forced them to quickly move their things back into the house to take shelter from the rain.
But shortly after moving into the house, the dark clouds dispersed and the sun came out again.
After making slits in all the fruits, they put them into a jar, added a few hard candies, poured rice wine over them to cover the fruits, then covered them with a small bowl like pickling green beans, poured well water around the bowl, and sealed them for one or two months before they could be eaten.
The plum wine was ready, the sunlight gradually weakened, and it was time for dinner.
Li Xiuju carried the jar back to the storage room and, without stopping for a moment, busied herself thinking about tonight's meal. "Chenyu, the river clams you picked up yesterday have almost all vomited up. Tonight, Mother will make a stir-fried river clam and a river clam and loofah soup, how about that?"
Compared to chicken, duck, fish, and meat, Zhou Chenyu preferred seafood and clams, and excitedly replied, "Okay!"
Li Xiuju immediately took a knife to the vegetable garden, cut a loofah that had just formed, and picked a handful of scallions.
As darkness fell, the ducks that had been free-range in the pond returned to their pens to forage, while one chicken lingered in the hills behind the village and did not return for a long time.
Zhou Chenyu searched all over the mountains with soybeans, and it took her a lot of effort to catch it. She carried the chicken back by its two wings, fed it, and then put it in a cage.
Before even entering the house, Zhou Chenyu vaguely heard Chen Tongsheng's voice. She quickened her pace and returned to the courtyard, where she indeed saw Chen Tongsheng sitting there with a cup of tea in his hand, and Huangdou barked wildly when he saw him.
After finishing his tea, Chen Tongsheng glared angrily at Huang Dou, "Hey, you little brat, you've only been away from home for a few days, and you don't recognize me anymore?"
"You start by scaring our soybean as soon as you arrive." Zhou Chenyu stroked the dog's head and walked up to him. "When did you get here?"
Li Xiuju came out of the kitchen, looking very happy. "Tongsheng has been here for a while now."
Chen Tongsheng put down his teacup, wiped his mouth, and smiled, "Godmother, Chenyu, I've come to discuss something important with you. This afternoon, I took on a job. In a few days, a local gentry in town is celebrating his housewarming, and he asked me to deliver some fresh fruit over on time. When he told me about it, he also mentioned mung bean sweet soup, saying he had tried it and found it very refreshing. He wanted to hire someone to make it for the guests at his house, but unfortunately, he couldn't find anyone. I thought to myself, in Qingshui Town, you're the only one selling mung bean sweet soup, aren't you?"
What?
Is there really such a good thing?
Zhou Chenyu suppressed her restless heart, "You mean, during the days of the banquet, they want to invite me to their residence to make sweet soup?"
Chen Tongsheng clapped his hands vigorously, "That's good, are you willing to go?"
With his money-making scheme of selling sweet soup blocked, Zhou Chenyu was worried about not having a way to make money. Now that he was going to someone else's house to make sweet soup, he figured he wouldn't ruin their business with his mountain of money.
She excitedly replied, "Yes! Of course I'll go!"
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