Chapter 73 Radish Dumpling Soup, ready to go home!
Soon, we arrived at the construction site.
The snow added a lot of difficulty to the construction work at the site. Everyone was shoveling soil in the snow with their necks hunched and their hands trembling.
With one shovel, the mixture, half soil and half snow, soon mixed together and turned into mud.
Mrs. Huang had a hard time identifying the people in the snow and wind, but she finally found the people of Liujiawan.
"Boss! Boss! Stop it, let everyone have a drink!"
Liu Lai Fu was carrying soil and slipping with every step. He seemed to hear his wife's voice. He looked around and saw a group of four people coming against the wind and snow.
"Lotus is here! I, Lotus, am here! Stop what you are doing! I, Lotus, am here to bring us hot tea!"
When the people from Liujiawan heard this, they immediately put down their tools and gathered around.
Mrs. Huang was furious when she saw the man whose hair was turned white by snowflakes!
"You idiot! Where's your hat? It's so cold, you don't want your head anymore. If it freezes, you'll be a idiot!"
Liu Laifu shrank his neck when he was scolded: "Isn't that the new educated youth named Xiao Cai? His ears and face are all frostbitten. He looks so pitiful to me."
Mrs. Huang saw Cai Mingcheng coming over and found that the sheepskin hat he was wearing belonged to her husband.
Upon hearing this, Cai Mingcheng immediately apologized: "Sister-in-law, I'm sorry, I'm giving it back to my brother!"
Mrs. Huang looked at his red nose and pale face from the cold, sighed, and stopped him from taking off his hat: "Don't take it off, you'll definitely catch a cold from the sudden change of temperature!"
Cai Mingcheng's hands were held down and he nodded with red eyes.
Liu Guoqiang asked everyone to line up and get ginger tea.
Ming Dai asked Zhou Sinian to place the clay pot in the charcoal basin and opened the lid of the pot. A stream of hot air turned into white mist and gushed out, which quickly dissipated in the cold wind.
Holding bowls of boiling hot ginger tea in their hands, everyone couldn't help but sigh before even drinking it. It was so comfortable!
I picked up the bowl and took a bite. The hot sensation went all the way to the bottom of my stomach and warmed my whole body.
Is there anything more comfortable than drinking a bowl of hot ginger tea in the snow?
Soon, the earthenware jar of ginger tea was distributed, and the revolutionary warriors of Liujiawan took their combat tools and once again plunged into the battle against the wind and snow!
Amid the envy of others, the four of them walked back holding the clay jar.
Mrs. Huang arrived at the shed, pulled out a red spare headscarf from her bag, and rushed to the construction site in a hurry.
After a while, the second man wearing a red headscarf appeared in Liujiawan.
Thinking about the weather outside, Mingdai took out the dried herbs, mixed them in the right proportions, and put them into the clay pot to cook again.
Taking Zhou Sinian with them, they dug open the radish cellar covered with snow, dug out the radishes, wiped off the mud with the snow outside, and then washed them clean with warm water.
In the pot, Mrs. Huang used the few broken rice she had to cook a pot of rice.
Mingdai fried the frozen cabbage that had been frozen in advance on a small stove. It took her three small pots to finish frying and she added oil three times.
Fortunately, they will be able to go back in two days, which is just right for them to use it up.
After the rice is steamed, put it into a large iron pot and cover it. Do the same with the vegetables, keeping them warm on a small stove.
Mingdai started to cook radish soup.
Scoop up a spoonful of oil and heat it in a pot. Pour in the chopped peanuts and fry them until fragrant. Then pour in the shredded radish and stir-fry for a few times. Add water and bring to a boil.
When the shredded radish becomes soft, she peels a large bowl of kneaded dough into the pot.
This is the last of the mixed grain noodles, and it’s just the right amount to finish.
The fire started, the steam rolled up, and soon a pot of radish dumpling soup was ready.
Mingdai put out the remaining fire and took the three of them to other people's sheds with firewood.
A bonfire was lit in each shed, and the warmth soon dispelled the cold, turning the small shed into a warm haven in the icy land.
The bell rang for the end of work, Mingdai brought out the food, and people began to line up. She and Huang Saozi worked together, one adding rice and the other distributing the dishes. They distributed the food in the fastest time possible, making sure everyone's bowl was filled with steaming hot food.
After receiving their meals and instructions, everyone returned to their respective huts, and as soon as they entered, they were hit in the face by the heat wave.
Everyone sat around the shed, roasting a fire, eating rice and frozen cabbage, looking extremely content.
A skinny dark man sighed, "I don't remember which year it was, but when we were digging the reservoir, it snowed so heavily. We ate outside with our meals, and the snow flakes fell into our bowls. The rice turned into ice before we could eat it. We could only melt it with our mouths while eating. I never thought that we would be able to sit by the fire and eat hot meals today!"
(This is what the author’s grandmother told me about their experience of digging the canal in those days. I still cannot imagine it. The canal in my hometown that could carry cargo ships was dug by humans. Their life was really hard at that time. My grandmother said that she often didn’t have enough to eat. At night, she followed others to steal beans from the bean fields. She didn’t dare to cook them, so she ate them raw.)
People who had experienced those years followed suit and once again thanked the four people who cooked this time.
Mingdai saw that everyone had almost finished eating, so she scooped the radish soup into a bucket and carried the bucket to distribute a bowl to everyone in each shed.
After eating and drinking a bowl of dumpling soup, the people in Liujiawan feel like they can work for two more hours!
When it was time to go to work, Mingdai fed everyone a bowl of medicine soup, which warmed everyone up.
At the end of the day, people from other villages either collapsed from exhaustion or fell sick from the cold. Only the people from Liujiawan gathered around the warm fire, drinking bean sprout soup and laughing happily.
In the evening, Mingdai weighed the remaining public rations and thought about discussing with Mrs. Huang about how they would supply breakfast for the next two days.
Mrs. Huang had not expected that there was so much food left, and she readily agreed. In her family, it was absolutely not allowed to embezzle public food.
So early the next morning, everyone in Liujiawan had a bowl of thick mixed-grain porridge with some garlic pickled by Mingdai. They drank it up with gulps, then carried their tools and went to work in high spirits!
People from other villages looked at this group of people and thought they were extremely perverted!
Mingdai managed the situation very well. In the last two days, all the food was eaten up, and the radishes, cabbages, lard, and salt were also used up. It can be said that she made the best use of them.
What everyone was most concerned about was the dried field mice. No one chose to eat them, but instead shared them and took them home.
There were 60 people in Liujiawan, each with two, and Liu Guoqiang decided to give the remaining two to Zhou Sinian, and no one objected.
After Liu Guoqiang verified that it was correct, he entered it into the account, and Mingdai's final work was completed!
The next day, everyone started packing their luggage early in the morning. Mingdai had the most things. She had several sacks of dried Chinese medicinal herbs and quite a bit of steamed charcoal.
The familiar sound of horse hooves rang out, and Mr. Liu, dressed as a bear, reappeared in everyone's sight.
Mr. Liu Sanye was quite anxious before he came. It snowed again this year. He didn't know what had become of the people in Liujiawan. How many of them were unable to move? Would his carriage be able to accommodate them all?
When he saw the crowd in the camp, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
Why are they all smiling? In previous years, wouldn't they all burst into tears when they saw the carriage coming to pick people up? !
Just as I was thinking about it, I heard crying and wailing coming from the shanty area in the next village.
Master Liu: Is this the normal procedure? What's wrong with you?
Unfortunately, no one answered his questions and everyone was anxious to go home.
Everyone worked together to load the carriage. Liu Guoqiang looked at the stunned Third Master Liu and reminded him, "Third Master, let's go!"
Master Liu San finally reacted and subconsciously turned the horse's head to look at the full car in surprise: "Are you so frugal this year? You haven't even finished eating anything."
Liu Guoqiang smiled and said, "That's not leftover food, it's the medicinal herbs that Xiao Ming the educated youth collected."
Upon hearing the noise, Master Liu San looked towards the car and said, "Wow, there are sacks and sacks of them? No, how can an educated youth like Xiao Ming pick herbs?"
Liu Guoqiang explained to him patiently, and from time to time Mr. Liu Sanye would exclaim in cooperation.
Finally, he touched his leaky teeth and said, "I don't know if Xiao Mingzi Qingfei will get a tooth filled?"
Liu Guoqiang smiled and shook his head: "You can ask her about this when she starts practicing medicine. But Third Master, your front tooth will not affect your eating and drinking, so why do you need to fix it?"
Master Liu San glared at him unhappily, because the people in the village no longer called him Old Bachelor Uncle or Old Bachelor Master, but called him Uncle Gap-Toothed and Master Gap-Toothed instead!
How ugly!
He still wants to be called the old bachelor!