Over the boundless fields, the red round sun hanging in the sky slowly sets. The clouds in the sky are like the sea tide, lifting and shading the red sun. A pair of figures are walking slowly towards the direction of the sunset.
As dusk fell and the setting sun in the sky gradually disappeared, Yu Jiao and Yu Qizhe returned to Qingyu Village.
Smoke rose from the cooking fires in the village. The farmers had all returned home from their busy farming season. When they saw Yu Jiao and Yu Qizhe on the road, they greeted them warmly. They happened to pass by Zhou Huai's house, and the gate was not closed. Zhou must have just returned from the fields and was squatting in the yard washing her hands. When she saw Yu Jiao and Yu Qizhe, she quickly stood up and greeted them enthusiastically, "Meng girl, fifth brother, where have you been?"
Yu Qizhe said, "Accompany her back to her parents' home to see her mother-in-law."
Hearing Yu Qizhe say this, Zhou couldn't help but feel that the couple had a very good relationship. Although Meng Yujiao was a bought wife, Yu Wulang now accompanied her back to her parents' home, which showed that the Yu family really recognized this marriage.
With a smile on her face, she said affectionately, "Haven't you eaten yet? Meng girl, I haven't thanked you properly for what you did last time. You two can have dinner at my house today. I'll make you some pancakes."
Zhou Huai also chimed in, "Your Aunt Zhou's pancakes are amazing, I'm not bragging, you two come and try some."
Yu Jiao smiled and politely declined, "No, the family has already prepared the meal. Thank you, Uncle Zhou and Auntie. I'll try Auntie's cooking when I have time."
After hearing what Yu Jiao said, Zhou Huai and his wife had no choice but to give up and watched Yu Jiao and Yu Qizhe leave with a smile.
When they returned home, Song had already prepared dinner. Yu Qiaoshan and the others took advantage of the free time in the afternoon to make two more oil-paper umbrellas, waiting for Yu Qizhe to come back and paint on the umbrellas.
Song asked Yu Jiao with concern, "Are your mother and younger brother okay? Are they still short of anything? If they need anything, ask your uncle Mengshan and Qizhe to send it to them."
Yu Jiao smiled and shook her head, "We don't lack anything. We have enough food at home to last for a while."
Song was relieved and said to the two of them, "Are you hungry? Let's eat now."
She went to the kitchen to serve the rice, while Yu Jiao and Yu Qizhe drew water from the water tank to wash their hands.
While they were eating, there was a knock on the courtyard door, and Zhou brought over a plate of pancakes she had made herself.
Yu Jiao didn't expect that she was so thoughtful and even specially made pancakes for her. She stood up and thanked her.
Song asked Zhou to stay for dinner at home. Zhou waved her hand, and after the plate was cleared, she left with a smile.
Yu Jiao tasted a pancake made by Zhou. It was thin and soft, and it seemed that eggs were added to the batter. It was very chewy and fragrant. It was indeed delicious.
After dinner, Yu Qizhe took the umbrella cover with paper pasted on it and let it dry back into the house to paint. Yu Zhixing also went to his room and made a painting with paper next to him, asking Yu Qizhe for guidance.
Yu Qiaoshan and his companions became more and more skilled in making oil-paper umbrellas. Yu Zhixing made four or five sample paintings. After Yu Qizhe's instruction, Yu Zhixing was in charge of painting on the umbrella surfaces. Yu Qizhe had some free time, and he spent the past few days reading in the study.
Fearing that the room would be dull, Yu Jiao filled an urn with water and made a simple vase on his desk. Sometimes she would pick a bunch of wild flowers, and occasionally she would break off a green branch and stick it in the urn to add a little embellishment to the room.
Yu Hanshan would close his stall early and go home to drink these days. Except for the first day when he set up the stall, his pork sales were pretty good, but they have been going downhill these days.
The villagers could not eat meat every day. After buying meat once, they would not eat meat for a long time. The remaining half of the pig of Yu Hanshan had become smelly and was difficult to sell. But they were reluctant to throw away so much meat, pork and liver, so they had to keep it at home and eat it.
Song put the flavorful pork into the pot and blanched it several times in water to make the smell less obvious.
Following Yu Jiao's advice, I added a lot of spices to the pot. The taste was unexpectedly good, and there was no noticeable change in the taste at all.
The food at home has improved a lot because of this. There is meat every day. Song also uses the method given by Yu Jiao to make cold dishes such as braised pig ears, liver, etc. The men in the family all like to eat them, especially Yu Ruhai. Recently, he has asked someone to get wine for almost every meal, and he drinks it happily with the braised meat and cold-cooked pork offal.
When Yu Qiaoshan and his friends had made more than twenty umbrellas, Yu Jiao observed the sky and saw that it was about to rain, so she asked them to put the oil-paper umbrellas into the house.
In the middle of the night, a cool breeze blew and it began to rain.
The next day, the sky was still not clear, so Yu Qiaoshan, Yu Zhixing and Yu Hanshan got up early in the morning and went to the town with their oil-paper umbrellas, hoping to sell the umbrellas they had made during the past few days while it was raining.
Because of the rain, Yu Hanshan was unable to set up his stall. The business had been bad in recent days, which made him very worried. He followed Yu Qiaoshan and others to the town, hoping to discuss business with those restaurants and hotels to see if he could take over the supply of pork to the restaurants and hotels.
In the evening, several people came back in the rain, with only an oil-paper umbrella left in their hands. Without even changing their wet clothes, they could not wait to tell their family, "It's raining now, our umbrellas are very popular, and we only have one left."
Zhang and Song were also very happy to hear this, and they urged their husbands to go back to their rooms to change clothes.
An umbrella cost twenty cents, and they sold twenty-one, earning a total of four hundred and twenty cents. After changing into clothes and eating a hot meal, Yu Qiaoshan and his wife could not wait to divide the copper coins and sent the second wife's share.
The first and second wives made money and were all very happy. Zhao couldn't help but feel jealous. She said to Yu Hanshan in the house, "Why don't we stop running the pork stall? You can go sell umbrellas with the first and second wives. It's hot today and pork can't be stored. If we can't sell it every time, we have to give it to our family. Why should we bother?"
Yu Hanshan went to the town with Yu Qiaoshan and the others. He saw with his own eyes how much money they made. Although he felt envious, in his mind, selling pork was the legitimate business, while selling oil-paper umbrellas was just a small business and his livelihood depended on the weather.
"Why are you panicking? I didn't go to the town today and did nothing. Although I was rejected a lot, the owner of a noodle shop was very easy to talk to. I agreed with him that I would deliver the meat to their noodle shop in the future." Yu Hanshan said proudly.
Zhao was overjoyed when she heard this. "Really? That's great. If we can have a regular customer, we won't have to worry about selling our meat. Take advantage of the bad weather these past two days and go to town more often to see if we can negotiate with a few more restaurants and eateries."
"I saved it." Yu Hanshan groaned, "Those restaurants and food halls have people in charge of purchasing in the kitchen. It's not that easy to recruit them."
He didn't tell Zhao that the reason the noodle shop agreed to let him deliver meat today was because of Meng Yujiao's favor.
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