Chapter 183 Progress in the Luo Family Mansion

In addition to wild rabbit meat, I also made fried tofu, a plate of stir-fried winter bamboo shoots with bacon, and a plate of baby spinach.

They also steamed a plate of dumplings stuffed with wild mushrooms and meat. Xia Juanjuan made a dipping sauce with sesame oil, vinegar and light soy sauce for the guests to dip in.

The staple food is steamed buns and cornmeal and sweet potato porridge, which is enough to fill you up.

Xia Shuangshan also came over in the evening, and the meal was quite sumptuous.

Before eating, Xia Juanjuan left some of the prepared food aside, planning to send it to the cowshed for Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi in the evening.

During the Chinese New Year, Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi were each given about a pound of pork, which they used to make some meat-filled dumplings as a way of celebrating the New Year.

How many dumplings can be made with one pound of meat?

Fortunately, Xia Juanjuan thought of it and secretly sent over some of the delicious food she made.

In addition, she saw that the cotton in Shen Wanxue's and Yang Qiushi's cotton-padded clothes and quilts was old, so she took out some cotton and duck down from the space and replaced the cotton in their clothes and quilts.

Duck down is light and warm. When mixed with cotton to make quilts and cotton-padded clothes, they are less bloated than if they were made entirely of new cotton. You can tell at a glance that it is new cotton, and it is still thin and very light.

Plus, the outer cloth and quilt cover are still old, so others can’t tell anything.

This year can be said to be the most fulfilling, warmest and most comfortable year for Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi since they were put under house arrest.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, both of them gave red envelopes to the six kids. However, Xia Juanjuan knew that their money came with difficulty, so she didn't ask them to give more, just fifty cents per person.

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru also gave one yuan each, and Yan Haotian gave two yuan each.

In addition, Xia Juanjuan also gave them one dollar each.

She gave fifty cents each to Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei and asked them to go to the village grocery store to buy candies. During the New Year, the village grocery store would also sell more firecrackers, candies, and fruit leather that children liked.

She saved the rest for them first and would give it to the six cubs when they grew up a little.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Yan Haotian rejoined his team and said that he would be able to come back again during the Lantern Festival.

He was assigned here by his leader for half a year, partly for work needs and partly for him to get to know his family and spend more time with them. Therefore, it was a little easier for him to take leave.

After seeing Yan Haotian off, Xia Juanjuan took advantage of the time before the Lantern Festival to supply the textile factory and timber factory with goods, mainly glutinous rice flour, black sesame, peanuts, red beans, pork fat, etc., materials for making Lantern Festival dumplings. The sugar was still not sold.

However, the quantity requested this time was obviously much smaller. Upon inquiry, it turned out that the two factories had changed their production to every other day due to insufficient raw materials, which was actually a disguised suspension of half of the production.

The canteens of the two factories were still open. The factories were not far from the workers' family buildings, so even if they did not go to work, they would still take their aluminum lunch boxes to get their meals and eat them at home.

But because of the semi-suspension of production, people get paid less. Many people no longer dare to eat three meals a day in the canteen as they did before. Instead, they just cook whatever they want at home to save money!

Wang Caigou from the wood processing factory said, "Alas! Our factory director is almost going bald because of this. He is now reporting to the higher authorities and asking if we can cut down some trees from the barren hills in the communes under our county and send them to the factory to deal with the emergency and pay the full wages. Otherwise, everyone will be restless!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Caigou could not help but feel envious: "Hey! It's not bad that you want wood! I see that our county has a lot of trees, but they are not as old and strong as those in the forest farms in the northeast, but at least they can solve the urgent problem. Our factory can't buy cotton. We have to wait until the next season of cotton grows and can be harvested, which will take a year! If our factory workers have to work half-time and get half the salary all year round, it will drive people to death!"

After hearing these words, Xia Juanjuan was still cautious and did not tell them that she had a way to get wood and cotton.

After the materials were handed over, Xia Juanjuan returned to the house in Tonghua Lane and cleaned it inside and out.

While I was doing it, I heard some noise on the other side of the wall.

"Ouch! Ouch! Is there anyone here? Help!" It sounded like the voice of an old woman.

When Xia Juanjuan heard this, she didn't care about anything else and hurried over to knock on the door and asked, "What's wrong? What happened inside? Is it Aunt He?"

When she was waiting for birth in the county, Xia Juanjuan noticed that most of the people living in the front and back rooms of Grandma Luo's house had moved out, and the doors of every house in the large courtyard were locked.

At least, during that month, Xia Juanjuan had only met an old lady named He, but she only came to stay for a few days occasionally.

Otherwise, when she suddenly went into premature labor, Lin Yuru and the three kids would have gone out to find someone to help, and it wouldn’t have taken them such a long time to find anyone.

The old man inside heard Xia Juanjuan's call and immediately said, "It's me... The door is not locked, just come in! I fell and can't get up... Ouch!"

Xia Juanjuan had no choice but to push the door open quickly, only to see Aunt He lying on the ground with her legs spread out, unable to get up for a long time.

Xia Juanjuan hurried over to help the person up and asked, "Auntie He, are you in pain? Do you want me to take you to the hospital?"

Aunt He waved her hands and said, "It's no problem! It's just an old problem with my waist. Alas, I'm old and my hands and feet are not as flexible as before. I can't get up after falling down. It's a pity that you, my daughter, are at home."

When Xia Juanjuan helped her up, she had already roughly felt her bones and knew that she had no fractures or anything, so she did not force her to go to the hospital.

Aunt He recognized her and asked with a smile, "Your daughter is the distant niece of Mrs. Luo next door. She asked you to come and look after the house from time to time, right? Didn't you come and stay for the birth of the baby before the New Year?"

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Auntie He, you have a good memory. It's me."

Aunt He sighed and said, "Alas! This area is really declining. Everyone has moved to live in the building. There are fewer people, so the houses are dilapidated. I can't even call a person for a long time... If it were twenty years ago, the people living here were all the rich and powerful people in the county... When Old Lady Luo was here, I lived here and I could still talk to her. After she went to Beijing, I was the only one left, so my son took me to live with them in the building. How can that building compare to the freedom of my own small courtyard here?"