When Gu Qingqing was sleeping soundly, Chu Dai gently pulled her hand away, got out of bed quietly, put on his clothes, and tried not to make any noise when closing the door.
"Adai, how did you sleep last night? Are you still used to it?" Shi Rushuang brought him a cup and a toothbrush.
"It's a habit. Mother, I'll do it myself." Seeing Shi Rushuang helping him to get water from the pressure well, Chu Dai went over to get a cup and did it himself.
Shi Rushuang did not compete with him. Having a handsome young man at home was a blessing. Her son Canyang would be back in the afternoon, and the family would be reunited and the atmosphere would be even more lively.
It would be another year or two before they would see each other again, and she had to hurry up and arrange the marriages for her two sons.
"Qingqing is a lazy child. She won't get up until mealtime or when she smells something delicious. It will be difficult for you to ask her to make breakfast for you in the future." After saying this, she stared at Chu Dai's expression.
The man thought of his wife's pot of soup, so he dared not let her make breakfast: "There is a canteen in the army, I can just make it for her and bring it back every day."
Gu Qinglie came out with a bucket and complained, "Mother, let me tell you, Qingqing sleeps until noon every day in the Corps, and I have to go to the canteen to get her food after morning training. Even so, Gousheng said that I fed her so much that she became thin."
The child's chattering in her ear was like thunder. Shi Rushuang's ears hurt from hearing it so much. She went to the kitchen and said, "Mother is going to cook. Go and collect the baskets and come back quickly. We will have tofu pudding in the morning."
"Hey!" Gu Qinglie was happy this time. Seeing Chu Dai also carrying a bucket after washing up, he asked, "Are you going too?"
"Let's go get some more snails. There weren't many last night." Chu Dai put his left hand on his shoulder, "Let's go, brother."
Gu Qinglie's mouth never stopped grinning.
Chu Yuan had woken up a long time ago. The military habits of so many years had been engraved in his bones. After waking up, he would never lie in bed for a moment longer. After washing up, he took the guards to stroll around the village.
Hearing from his father-in-law that there were many medicinal herbs grown in the village, such as Angelica dahurica, Astragalus membranaceus, Gastrodia elata, Angelica sinensis, and Codonopsis pilosula, he couldn't wait to go and see them.
The soil at the entrance of the village is fertile. Chu Yuan led the guards to squat there, touching and moving the soil, and kept sighing: "My father-in-law is really bold. He reclaimed wasteland to grow medicinal herbs and sold them to pharmacies and shops to increase the collective economy. It is in line with the policy and beneficial to the people. No, when I go back this time, I want to tell the chief about the current situation in the countryside. He has been worried about the country and the people all his life. He will be so happy to know."
The guard nodded and said, "I heard from the comrades in the village that the Gu family took the lead in bringing all the young people in the family to the mountains to quarry and move stones, repair rivers and dig reservoirs, and build power stations together with the Red Flag Production Team and the Red Star Production Team. Now several surrounding production teams have electricity."
No matter how well the production teams in other places did, they could only install a light bulb in every household. But they had electricity everywhere, and even hung a light in the toilet.
It can be seen that the Wudi Production Team has indeed become much richer in the past few months thanks to the collective economy. When the villagers see them early in the morning, they greet them happily and there are even a few strips of meat hanging in the yard.
When Chu Dai and Gu Qinglie passed by here, Gu Qinglie's brain suddenly twitched and he shouted loudly: "Dad, Brother Xu."
Chu Dai walked quickly past Chu Yuan. The father and son looked at each other for a moment and then pretended not to see each other.
Chu Yuan was furious, but he still felt that Qing Lie was the most likable guy. He was tall and sunny, and like his daughter-in-law, both brother and sister were sweet-talkers.
Gu Qinglie hurriedly followed Chu Dai, "Why are you walking so fast? There's no dog behind you."
"You can't get over this hurdle, right?" Chu Dai glanced at him and said coldly, "It's not like you don't have leverage over me, Platoon Leader Gu."
Gu Qinglie shrank his neck and said, "Brother-in-law, let's quickly put away the cages and go back to eat the tofu pudding. It won't taste good if it gets cold. By the way, you guys also add sugar, right? The pot that Lao Yu made in the Corps last year added salty pickled mustard and soy sauce. I almost couldn't drink it."
"Same." Chu Dai reached the edge of the field ditch, rolled up his sleeves, revealing half of his white arms and thin wrist bones: "Go collect yours, don't worry about me."
"I know." Gu Qinglie found the cage that his elder brother had placed in the grass by the river last night and pulled it up with force.
He eats a lot and has a lot of strength. After pulling up the fine net, he pulled it forward piece by piece. When he saw the fish and shrimp in the front part of the net, he smiled and said, "This will make two large plates of fried fish."
This small fish may not look small, only the size of a finger. But it has no scales or bones, so it is great to fry it and eat it as a snack or with wine.
The shrimps are bigger than what Gu Qingqing and the others came to fish during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Maybe it’s because the people in the village are too busy during this period. The young and middle-aged people go to the mountains to cut stones to build rivers, while the old women go to the fields at home to plant vegetables, medicinal materials, and cotton. The children had to go to the mountains to cut grass and feed the pigs after school in the afternoon. No one had time to go down to the river to catch fish and shrimps.
We have finally had some free time these few days, and the villagers are busy distributing fish and pork. There is enough meat and food at home, and even the playful kids don't want to go into the river in such a cold weather.
Gu Qinglie was very satisfied with today's spoils. It filled a large bucket, but there was almost no water in it. It couldn't hold any more water if he added more.
When he got to the shore, he saw Chu Dai still catching snails, so he simply started catching crabs by the river.
Eat enough today and have a prosperous new year. When Chu Zhao goes to pick up his brother in the afternoon, he will ask them to bring back some firecrackers from the town.
The crabs they caught were all very big, and they were waving their pliers very ferociously. Gu Qinglie was afraid that they would eat up all the fish and shrimp in the bucket, so he simply threw them into Chu Dai's bucket of snails. The two brothers hurried back to the yard before seven o'clock.
Dinner hasn't started yet. Gu Tiezhu has just ordered his tofu pudding. Chu Yuan is standing by the big wooden barrel, holding his bowl, waiting to eat.
Da Mi was running around in the yard. Gu Cai dealt with the remaining fish from yesterday. He threw the fish gills aside and Da Mi quickly went over to pick them up and ran away.
"Brother, stop thinking about that wood. Come and help me peel the shepherd's purse. I have to fry the meatballs later." Gu Cai called over to the other side. In the entire Gu family, only his second brother had the patience to do such delicate work.
Gu Yin nodded, put down the planer in his hand, went to the water well to wash his hands, sat down next to Gu Cai, picked up the broken tiles and started planing without saying a word.
The Gu family was busy. Gu Xiong carried a bag of millet from the granary, put it on the back seat of Gu Jin's bicycle, and went to the rice mill to grind the rice.
Zhang Cuifen came out and told her eldest grandson: "Xiongwa, when you come back, don't forget to bring back those barrels of rapeseed oil from the oil mill. Your uncle needs it to fry fish and meatballs."
This year we harvested rapeseed, and because of Gu Jin's money, we had the fields all fertilized, so the soil became extremely fertile, the grass grew taller than people, and the rapeseed harvest was a bumper one.
Two days ago, the women who stayed in the village had just harvested rapeseed and sent it to the oil mill. Each family in the entire production team could get two barrels of rapeseed oil, each barrel weighing 15 kilograms.
More than 500 households, this is not a small number.
Every income and expenditure of the team was recorded in a notebook, not a cent off. This year, he, the accountant of the team, was the busiest, with the abacus clacking away. Qin Wu took care of the fish pond affairs and took a break. Instead, the team leader Gu Jin was the most relaxed.
He has been walking unsteadily these past two days and has to ride a bicycle if he wants to go more than ten meters. Qin Wu has laughed at him several times.
"Okay." After tying the burlap bag containing the grain with a rope, Gu Jin held the handle and Gu Xiong supported the bag from behind, and the uncle and nephew walked towards the rice mill.
Chu Yuan was already drinking hot tofu pudding in the kitchen. The strong soybean flavor reminded him of the tofu pudding his mother made when he was a child, and the taste seemed to be not much different from this one.
After drinking two bowls at once, Gu Tiezhu took the spoon and said, "My dear nephew, don't overeat. You still have to eat breakfast later."
Chu Yuan laughed heartily: "Uncle, I can be full with just a sip of tofu pudding."
The guards have been eating better at Gu's house these past two days than in the army, and they are all very happy.
The Gu family was good-tempered and very friendly to him. They would invite others to eat with them and enthusiastically pile meat into his bowl.
He was also accustomed to the simple and honest Gu family, and thought that the chief's relative was indeed a good one.
"Adai, Qinglie, stop working." Seeing the two boys carrying two full buckets of seafood, Zhang Cuifen smiled until wrinkles appeared on the corners of her eyes. "It's cold outside, just stay here. You two brothers, go to the kitchen and warm yourself by the fire to eat tofu pudding. The sugar is on the stove, you can add it yourself."
"Hey, grandma, let's go right away."
Gu Qinglie poured the fish and shrimps in the wooden barrel into a large wooden basin. Chu Dai added some water to the basin, and the fish and shrimps were still alive and kicking.
"Okay, let's have breakfast first."
Chu Dai put down the water scoop and said, "I'll go see if Qingqing has gotten up."
"It's only a few o'clock, just heat up her food. She doesn't like to get up so early. She sleeps a lot." Gu Qinglie walked towards the kitchen and turned back: "Are you coming? If not, I'll eat first."
"You eat first." Chu Dai waved at him and went back to the room.
Gu Qingqing was still sleeping soundly with the quilt in her arms. Chu Dai sat down beside the bed and raised his hand to pinch her face.
She woke up rubbing her eyes, and seeing him get up, she asked, "What time is it, brother?"
Chu Dai looked at his watch and said, "It's past seven, get up and eat tofu pudding. Don't sleep in."
Gu Qingqing responded, sat up, and slept on his shoulder for another ten minutes before finally getting up reluctantly.
It was already half past seven when the whole family sat down at the table, and Gu Xiong and Gu Jin also came back with rice.
I had tofu pudding in the morning and was very full, so I just ate a little.
Fragrant noodles are Han Lianxin’s specialty, and there is also a big pot of stewed potatoes with meat. There must be at least two taels of meat on the big bone, and there are pancakes stuck on the side while it is cooking.
Gu Qingqing went to the kitchen and brought the fish jelly from last night's boiled fish. She loved eating this kind of crystal clear jelly made from fish soup.
Shi Rushuang picked out some pickled radishes and shallots from the pickle pot, mixed them with the kelp they brought from the south, and a dish of pickled vegetables, which were best eaten with steamed buns.
Chu Yuan originally thought he was full after drinking the tofu pudding, but when he saw the noodles and pork ribs in front of him, he couldn't help but pick up the bowl and chopsticks.
"My dear relative, don't be polite, just eat as much as you want." Gu Jin smiled innocently and directly picked up a large bone soaked in soup and put it into Chu Yuan's bowl.
"Ah Zhao, Ah Xu, you two brothers, don't just stand there, eat quickly. Cold food gets cold easily in this weather, and you'll get hungry easily even if you don't eat enough. We won't be serving food until after 2pm, so eat more, there's noodles in the pot."
Chu Zhao and the guard looked at each other, picked up the bowl of noodles and started eating.
Gu Qinglie scooped a spoonful of bone soup into the noodle bowl. Seeing Gu Qingqing eating the noodles in small sips, he slurped his words, "Sister, we are all family, no need to be reserved."
Gu Qingqing glanced at him and gave him a bare bone: "Just eat yours and leave me alone, okay, brother?"
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