Outside, Chu Dai and Chu Zhao were chopping wood, Gu Tiezhu and Chu Yuan were drinking tea and chatting, Gu Yin was planing wood to prepare for Gu Qingqing's dowry, and Gu Bao and Gu Xiong ran to the pond at the end of the village to check on it.
They are all waiting to bring back the fish to enjoy a feast.
Gu Qingqing went back to her old job, lighting a fire in front of the stove.
"Qingqing," Han Lianxin said while kneading dough, "I think this little Chu is pretty good. He works hard and he's already chopped wood outside right after he got here."
She thinks this guy is really nice.
Shi Rushuang was adding water to the pot and waiting for Han Lianxin's noodles to be cooked. She nodded and shook her head when she heard this, "It's hard for our Qingqing. She will go to the southern island with him after the New Year. I heard from Qinglie that the conditions there are too harsh. The troops only send supplies once every half a month. It's too difficult to eat meat on weekdays."
Seeing that Gu Qingqing didn't say anything, Han Lianxin smiled: "The child is willing to do it, sister-in-law, let's not worry about it. I think the in-laws are easy to get along with. It's not easy for a military commander to be so approachable and not arrogant."
Shi Rushuang really had nothing to say about this.
In order to entertain the in-laws, pure white flour was used to knead the dough this time, without any cornmeal mixed in. Zhang Cuifen ran to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a piece of fat meat, boiled the oil residue, chopped the meat into pieces, fried it, and added beans and chopped green onions.
The sauce for fresh noodles is ready.
Gu Qingqing smelled the aroma and kept looking towards the pot.
Shi Rushuang smiled and said, "Go get some big bowls to serve the noodles, and then go call your father and brothers back."
"Okay!" Gu Qingqing quickly brought over a stack of large bowls.
Han Lianxin took out moldy tofu, sour radish and fermented soybeans from the altar and used them as side dishes.
Gu Qingqing went out and pulled Chu Dai's sleeve: "Brother, Dad asked you to call him back for dinner. Shall we go together?"
Chu Dai stopped, put away the axe in his hand and stood in the corner. He went to the water well to wash his hands: "Okay."
Chu Zhao had a sore butt and was too lazy to go, so he simply went to chat with Gu Qinglie.
Gu Qingqing was not shy either. She held Chu Dai's hand and walked along the country road. The villagers of Datunzi Village lived densely together, and the fields were on the other side.
When she left, she didn't forget to introduce him: "This is Uncle Zhao's house. Did you see Aunt Zhao Qian Guihua in the crowd? She's a little fat and talks a lot. Um... she looks a lot like Aunt Yu."
Chu Dai smiled and nodded.
"This is Uncle Bufan's house," Gu Qingqing took him to the end of the village through a shortcut, "He didn't like to work before, and always liked to steal his eldest brother's chickens and ducks. He's the one riding on the ox cart with Ah Zhao today."
"But now it seems to have changed, and he is a good herder."
Chu Dai listened to the girl next to him mumbling, and nodded from time to time to indicate that he heard it.
The fish pond was near the educated youth site. When Gu Qingqing and the others came over, more and more people gathered there. Some were carrying buckets, some were holding basins, and some were carrying burlap bags.
"Abacus, there must be one or two thousand kilograms of fish in this pond, right?" The person asking the question was from Dagouzi village. They had put in some fish fry in the past few months and they cut grass to feed the fish after work every day. At a glance a few days ago, they saw some big fish weighing four or five kilograms each.
Now we are rubbing our hands together, waiting to carry the fish back home so that we can have a big meal tomorrow on New Year's Eve.
"Uncle Abacus, five pounds and four ounces, grass carp." It was Gu Xiong who was weighing.
The captain of the team, Suanpan, was using his left hand to hold an abacus, and with his right hand he was writing down the number of fish he had just weighed in a notebook with a pencil. He didn't even raise his head. "More than that, this pond is quite big, I estimate it must be around 4,000 to 5,000 kilograms."
This is a large pond of two mu. When it was dug, it took strong young men from two villages a week to complete it. A lot of fish fry were released. Although they are only three or four months old, the weight of the fish is not large, but there are many of them.
There are twelve ponds in total, and each family should be able to get four or five fish weighing about two kilograms.
"Dad!" Gu Qingqing dragged Chu Dai behind Gu Jin, who was looking at the account book behind the abacus, "Let's go home for dinner!"
"Right away." Gu Jin was even more satisfied when he saw Chu Dai coming.
Someone nearby asked him, "Captain, this is your son-in-law. He is so handsome. He is comparable to your son-in-law, Canyang."
Gu Canyang has been the most handsome boy in the Gu family since he was young, and he is well-known in Datunzi Village and Dagouzi Village.
This boy has a very good temperament. Qin Wu could tell at a glance that the son-in-law of the Gu family was a soldier.
However, Gu Qinglie was definitely looking for only soldiers in the army.
"Yes, my son-in-law." Gu Jin said proudly, "He also bought me a bicycle, and we have a TV and a refrigerator at home. A while ago, Lao Xu from the Red Flag Production Team boasted to me that the TV in their village is now in my house."
"I have to go back to eat. My father-in-law is waiting. I'll leave the fish division to Suanpan. By the way, if you are free in the evening, come to my house to watch TV. Luckily, we got electricity a while ago."
"Of course I'll go. I haven't even seen what a TV looks like."
"I'll go too, but I'm afraid there won't be enough room in your yard."
Gu Qingqing was stunned when she heard this: "Dad, has our production team been connected to the electricity?"
"It happened just half a month ago," Gu Jin said to Qin Wu, "Mengzi, let's go home. Remember to come over to watch TV in the evening."
Qin Wu: "... Hurry up and get out."
Chu Dai just stood by as a foil throughout the whole process. When his father-in-law was proud, he reached for the cigarette box in his pocket and took out a box of Daqianmen to distribute to the villagers.
After the father and his two daughters left, the villagers sighed: "This really is... a good son-in-law." No wonder they wanted to suppress Qingqingwa's marriage.
"Alright, alright, hurry up and clean the pond, Xiong boy. Your uncle Abacus will divide the fish later, and you can take your fish back." Qin Wu gave instructions from the side.
"Okay." Gu Xiong and his brothers were still standing in the pond, fishing out fish.
They are tough guys, so it’s okay for them to go back later for dinner.
"Adai, why are you giving away such good cigarettes? They cost 3.5 cents a pack and I need coupons for them." Gu Jin felt distressed as he pushed his bicycle.
Although it gave him face, this was money! It was expensive. He had heard of Daqianmen, and he couldn't buy it even if he had money.
"Dad, we still have a few boxes at home. Don't worry, it's enough." Chu Yuan prepared a lot of cigarettes and alcohol. He originally planned to make his son and daughter-in-law's wedding in the countryside more lively and grand for them, so as not to let the girl down.
Unexpectedly, Gu Jin is reluctant to part with it now.
Gu Qingqing held his arm and gently advised: "Dad, you don't smoke, why do you feel bad about it? It's useless to keep it, and you can't go to the supply and marketing cooperative to return it for money."
Chu Dai echoed: "Qingqing and I still have some industrial tickets, we will give them to you when the time comes."
Gu Jin was coaxed into smiling by the young couple, and the matter was finally settled.
When they returned to the Gu family's yard, Chu Yuan, Chu Zhao and the guards were already slurping noodles from large bowls. It was the first time that Chu Dai saw his father being so approachable, and he was stunned for a moment.
In his eyes, Chu Yuan was always either cold or furious, and rarely was he so kind and amiable.
"Adai? You're back." Zhang Cuifen came out with noodles in her hand. "Come on, come on, it'll get cold if you wait any longer. These are rolled by your auntie herself. They're famous for making noodles."
"Okay, thank you grandma, thank you aunt."
"Why is this kid so polite? We're family, so this shouldn't happen." Zhang Cuifen pulled him to sit next to Chu Yuan. The father and son looked at each other and then looked away.
Chu Yuan and Gu Tiezhu chatted and laughed: "When I was fighting in the war in my early years, I also stayed at a fellow villager's home. Although they were all wild vegetable dumplings, I can't forget the taste. Not to mention how delicious it was. I still miss this taste of farm food now."
Chu Yuan suffered a lot when he was young, from a small gangster to a military commander. He had eaten all kinds of bran and grass roots. At that time, he didn't think it was bitter. As long as he had a stutter and didn't starve to death, it was fine. Later, after he married a beautiful and wealthy wife, his appetite became a little better.
"In the early years, we also went to the mountains to dig wild vegetables," Gu Tiezhu recalled with narrowed eyes, tapping the cigarette holder in his hand against the chair leg. "At that time, there was no food to eat, so we ate those bitter little fruits. They were hard and hard to chew, but at least they had some taste and could barely fill our stomachs. That's how we survived."
Chu Dai and Chu Zhao ate their noodles slowly and listened to him.
"Life is better now. Except for the lean period in February and March, when we eat wild vegetables, it is not a problem for us to eat rice every day if we are diligent."
Now that grain production is high, his eldest son has started growing cash crops. Originally, the wage was only 20 cents a day, and that was capped, but now the strong young man can earn 70 cents a day, and he also gets meat and cloth coupons at the end of the year.
In the second half of this year, Datunzi Village was busy growing medicinal herbs, raising fish, pigs, cotton and ramie. In addition to the requisitioned grain and pork, each person was given 300 kilograms of grain and 1.5 kilograms of pork.
This was something that we would not have dared to think of in previous years.
In the past, Datunzi Village and Dagouzi Village envied other production teams, but now it is others who are jealous of their prosperous days.
"My father-in-law is really..." Chu Yuan thought for a long time and then praised him: "Intelligent."
Gu Qingqing almost laughed out loud.
Chu Dai was also a little helpless. Ever since he became the commander, his father loved to use flowery words that never quite got the point across.
Gu Qingqing sat next to him and picked up all the oil residue in her bowl and put it into his bowl: "Brother, try this, it's especially delicious. There's also a kind of sauce in it. I don't know what it is. Second Aunt said it's their family's secret recipe passed down from generation to generation."
Chu Dai gave her the lean meat from his bowl and smiled, "Okay."
Han Lianxin happened to come out and heard it, and said helplessly: "What kind of secret recipe is this? Qingqing, if you are willing to learn, Second Aunt will teach you everything. You have never liked to touch pots and spatulas since you were a child, but you are good at making fire."
Gu Qingqing lowered her head to eat noodles and dared not say a word.
Chu Dai and Gu Qinglie looked at each other, obviously recalling something. Their expressions were very intriguing, even a little painful.
Gu Qinglie grinned: "Second Aunt, if you give her your spatula, it will be useless. You don't know that she has done a job in the Corps..."
Before he could finish his words, a foot stepped hard on him from under the table.
Looking up, his sister was grinning at him.
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