Chapter 128
Gu Xi handed the gifts she brought to Cheng Yuanyuan. They included candy, pastries, brown sugar, and longan. The brown sugar and longan were for Cheng Yuanyuan to nourish her body.
Cheng Yuanyuan hurriedly said, "You're already here, why did you bring things?"
"This isn't our first time here, so we definitely can't come empty-handed, right?" Gu Xi said with a smile. "Besides, we're also looking forward to going to the fishpond to catch fish and eat pickled fish today."
"No problem, I've got it covered!" Cheng Yuanyuan patted her chest. "There are still many fruit trees on the farm. The persimmons are ripe now, so I'll take you to pick some later."
Hearing what the two said, Xu Huaisheng and Gu Tuantuan became restless.
Especially since Gu Tuantuan is still young and at the age where she loves to play, she has never done things like catching fish in a fishpond or picking persimmons before, and she is really looking forward to it.
Although Xu Huaisheng grew up in the village, she had no childhood. Playing and having fun were completely foreign to her. She had to help with chores since she was a child. This was the first time she had come here simply to have fun.
As the host, Cheng Yuanyuan first took them to visit the farm.
Gan Dongliang also accompanied them. As Cheng Yuanyuan's childhood sweetheart, the two were always inseparable and practically one. Since Gu Xi and the others rarely came to visit, he naturally had to help entertain the guests.
Gu Xi asked Cheng Yuanyuan how she was feeling.
"I'm all better now. I don't feel dizzy anymore, and my foot is fine. I can walk normally now." Cheng Yuanyuan smiled brightly. "This is the first time I've ever been hospitalized in my life. It's quite a novelty."
She has been healthy since childhood and has never been to the hospital.
Gan Dongliang's lips twitched when he heard this. Did she think that being hospitalized was something unusual?
Thinking about how she had been taken to the hospital after her accident, he was terrified. He called the provincial capital, which also scared both families. If he hadn't repeatedly assured them that Cheng Yuanyuan was alright, her parents probably would have bought train tickets and come over that very day.
Even her relatives in the city made a special trip to see her and made sure she was alright.
Cheng Yuanyuan, unaware of his anger, talked to Gu Xi about Sun Xiaomei.
“She’s already divorced and moved back to the educated youth settlement. But I heard that the Wang family isn’t giving up. The divorce was very unpleasant. The day before yesterday, Wang Fuqiang even came to see Xiaomei…” Cheng Yuanyuan said angrily, clenching her fists, “If he dares to bother Xiaomei again, we’ll beat him out.”
Xu Yuansheng frowned and said, "What if that guy surnamed Wang keeps bothering us?"
She'd seen this kind of thing a lot in the countryside. Why are divorces so rare these days? Besides people's old-fashioned ideas, it's because they can't stand the husband's constant nagging, and there are also many idle people who advise reconciliation rather than separation. No matter how difficult life is, they refuse to divorce.
"Xiaomei is planning to go home to visit her family in a couple of days and then come back later," Cheng Yuanyuan said softly. "Let's avoid the Wang family for now and wait until they calm down. If the Wang family dares to bother us again, we'll report them to the police and have them arrested."
After hearing this, Xu Yuansheng felt that this was also a solution. If the educated youth were united, they could withstand the Wang family's entanglement.
Cheng Yuanyuan took them on a tour of the farm, introduced the farm to them, and then went to get fishing nets, wooden buckets and other tools before leading them to the fishpond.
The fishpond is quite large, about an acre in size.
This is public property; you have to pay to catch fish, but no tickets are needed, so it's quite convenient.
There are also small wooden boats and bamboo rafts by the fishpond.
The fishpond was guarded by an old man who looked thin and wiry, but was very strong and could row the boat steadily and fast.
Cheng Yuanyuan greeted him cheerfully: "Grandpa Jiao, I brought my friends here to catch fish. Today we're going to eat pickled fish. Can you take us to the center of the fishpond? We want to catch two big ones."
Grandpa Jiao laughed and said, "Alright, come aboard."
The small boat was too small to carry many people, so only Gu Tuantuan, Xu Yuansheng, and Xu Huaisheng boarded it, while Gu Xi, Cheng Yuanyuan, and Gan Dongliang boarded the bamboo raft, with Gan Dongliang punting it.
Seeing Gan Dongliang skillfully rowing the boat, one could tell that they probably came here to catch fish quite often, as a way to add some food to their meals.
They rowed to the center of the pond and then cast their nets to catch fish.
Gu Xi and Cheng Yuanyuan set the net together, and in no time they caught several fish. They picked out two big ones and put them in a wooden bucket.
After catching the fish, Cheng Yuanyuan returned to shore and paid the bill.
Next, they delivered the fish to a family on the farm. The family had a slightly plump auntie, who was none other than Aunt Awang, whom Cheng Yuanyuan had mentioned as being very good at making sauerkraut fish.
Cheng Yuanyuan was well-liked at the farm. As soon as she entered, she said, "Aunt Awang, my friends are coming to visit today. They all want to eat your pickled fish. We'll have to trouble you today. We'll have dinner at your house."
Aunt Awang was a straightforward person. After hearing this, she laughed and said, "Oh, you're Yuanyuan's friend! We must treat you well! Besides the pickled fish, what else would you like to eat? I'll make it all together."
"We also want to eat your egg pancakes and chive dumplings," Cheng Yuanyuan immediately placed her order. "We have a lot of people today, so you can make more."
Aunt Awang nodded: "Okay, you can go to the vegetable garden and pick some scallions and chives, and you can also pick some other green vegetables to cook together with the sauerkraut fish."
The group then walked towards the vegetable garden.
The vegetable garden is behind Aunt Awang's house. There are two vegetable plots, surrounded by wooden fences, and a lot of seasonal vegetables are planted there. Even the gaps along the courtyard wall are planted with vegetables.
These days, every household in the countryside has a vegetable garden, but the size of the garden is regulated. In order to make full use of the land and grow more vegetables, they even plant along the fence.
Cheng Yuanyuan told them to pick whatever vegetables they wanted to eat, while she squatted there talking to Gu Xi.
"Uncle Awang and Aunt Awang have two children. Their son is a martyr who died in the army years ago, and their daughter is married to someone from the next production team. The couple lives on the farm. Aunt Awang is a good cook and helps out in the farm's kitchen. But when we're resting and craving something, we'll come to her house and ask her to cook for us..."
Gu Xi cut a handful of tender chives and listened with a smile.
At this moment, Cheng Yuanyuan looked around, leaned closer to her, and whispered, "Gu Xi, I heard that something happened to Uncle Qiu. We won't be able to buy meat from him anymore."
Gu Xi: "...Hmm, is that so? I haven't left the house in a while, so I really didn't know about it."
Thinking that she was unaware of these things, Cheng Yuanyuan told her about them.
"I heard it happened about two weeks ago. I was still in the hospital then, so I didn't know what was going on. I was a sent-down youth going to the market in town. I wanted to buy some meat there, but when I got there, I found that Uncle Qiu's house was locked from the outside. I asked the neighbors, and they said that someone had reported him for speculation and profiteering, and he had been arrested by the police and was going to jail..."
Gu Xi pondered that Uncle Qiu had been selling meat on the black market for several years, always being quite careful, and that everyone who needed to know knew about it, but no one had ever reported him.
The reason is simple: meat sold in legitimate stores is usually in short supply. Sometimes if you go too late, the meat is already sold out, or you can't buy it even if you have meat coupons, and there are also purchase restrictions.
People have a high demand for meat, so they naturally prefer to buy meat from places that don't require meat coupons or have purchase limits. Places like Uncle Qiu's, which are convenient for everyone, are understood by all without any deep-seated hatred, and very few people would deliberately report them.
The timing is too coincidental; too many coincidences are no longer coincidences.
Gu Xi realized that Uncle Qiu must be connected to that criminal gang.
Her heart sank. She wasn't regretful that she wouldn't be able to buy meat in the future; she only regretted that she hadn't discovered it before, allowing these scumbags to go unpunished.
“If you want to eat meat, you can buy it at the meat processing plant in the county town,” Gu Xi said. “Last time I went to the county town, I found that the meat processing plant there had a lot of meat. The farm is not far from the county town, so you can walk a little further to get there.”
Cheng Yuanyuan shook her head and said, "Going to the county town is quite far; the market in the town is closer."
Even so, she only sighed for a while before putting it aside. Although she wanted to eat meat, she was afraid of getting into trouble. Speculation was not a good thing, so she should be more cautious.
After picking the vegetables, they returned to Aunt Awang's house to help out, making sure that Aunt Awang didn't have to do all the work alone.
With more people, the work gets done faster. Gu Xi, Xu Yuansheng, and Xu Huaisheng are not the type to just sit and wait to be fed. When the three sisters get to work, they are much more efficient than Cheng Yuanyuan and Gan Dongliang, who are both native city dwellers. Even Aunt Awang couldn't help but praise them.
“You don’t look like you know how to do this kind of work. You’re much more efficient at starting the fire and washing vegetables than Yuanyuan and the others.”
Aunt Awang's stove is a traditional rural stove, heated by firewood. When city dwellers come to the countryside for the first time, they don't really know how to light a fire.
In Aunt Awang's eyes, the three Gu sisters and Gu Tuantuan were all well-dressed, had a bright and generous manner, and spoke fluent Mandarin. It was easy to misunderstand them and think they were girls from the city who came to experience life.
Xu Yuansheng smiled and said, "Sister-in-law Awang, we grew up in the countryside, this is nothing."
"Really? I really can't tell. You guys are so good-looking, and you look so energetic too."
"Thanks to my sister for raising us and bringing us to the army."
“Your sister is really great. As the saying goes, an elder sister is like a mother.”
"That's right..."
Xu Yuansheng had already started chatting with Aunt Awang, while the others went outside to sit and chat while waiting for their meal.
After the food was prepared, they brought it to the main room and sat down to eat together.
"Where's Uncle Awang? I can't find him." Cheng Yuanyuan asked.
Aunt Awang brought out the cooked rice, saying, "He left early this morning, don't worry about him, I've already saved some rice for him."
The rice was cooked with sweet potatoes, giving it the unique sweetness of sweet potatoes.
Sweet potato rice is very common in the countryside. However, because there is relatively little sweet potato, it is just used to add some flavor. It tastes very good. Paired with tangy and delicious pickled fish, it makes people want to eat two more bowls of rice.
Even Gu Tuantuan ate without looking up.
Xu Yuansheng was worried that she would get a fishbone stuck in her throat, so when he picked up fish for her, he would carefully remove the bones.
Seeing how carefully Yuansheng was taking care of the child, Aunt Awang couldn't help but ask, "Yuansheng, you don't have a boyfriend yet, do you? Would you like me to introduce you to someone? There are quite a few excellent young men on our farm who would be a good match for you."
The two became acquainted in just one meal.
Cheng Yuanyuan almost choked on her food and quickly said, "Aunt Awang, Yuansheng is only nineteen years old this year, younger than me, so there's no rush for him to find a partner."
"Nineteen isn't young anymore." Aunt Awang has old-fashioned ideas; whenever she sees an outstanding unmarried young man, she wants to play matchmaker for him. "Back in my day, I was betrothed at seventeen, married at eighteen, and had a baby at nineteen..."
The young people present looked at each other and realized that, apart from Gu Xi, everyone else was single and without a partner.
When a group of single young people get together, it inevitably gets the older generation's attention. They always want to introduce them to potential partners, and they only feel comfortable seeing couples together.
After finishing their meal, the young people quickly ran off after helping to wash the dishes, lest they be enthusiastically pulled aside by Aunt Awang to be introduced to potential partners.
Cheng Yuanyuan left some candy and biscuits that she had brought with her, as well as money for cooking, for Sister Awang.
We ate until we were stuffed, and then the group took a walk on the farm before picking persimmons.
The farm has many persimmon trees, and it's the season for persimmons to ripen. The branches are laden with fruit, which is a delightful sight.
Gan Dongliang made a special trip to the farm manager to tell him, and then brought a ladder, bamboo poles, and other tools to pick persimmons.
"It's so high!" Gu Tuantuan looked up at the persimmon tree. "Aunt Huaisheng, how are we going to pick them?"
Xu Huaisheng said, "You can climb the tree to pick them, or you can use a bamboo pole."
"Can Auntie climb trees?"
"Yes, but these persimmon trees are hard to climb. Their trunks are too thin, and you might fall."
"All right……"
Picking persimmons is an activity that gets more and more exciting the more you pick them; you just can't stop.
Besides climbing the trees to pick them, we also knocked down quite a few with bamboo poles. When we put them into bags, we found that they filled a whole bag.
Seeing that Cheng Yuanyuan was about to continue knocking down persimmons, Gu Xi quickly said, "Yuanyuan, that's enough. We can't take any more back."
Cheng Yuanyuan glanced at them and thought it wasn't much. "It's not even enough for one burlap sack. I'll pack two burlap sacks for you to take back. The ones that aren't ripe yet can be warmed in rice bran, and they'll be ready to eat in ten days or half a month." She said while tapping the persimmons, "The farm has a lot of persimmons. Every autumn, everyone can't eat them all. Even if we send them to the nearby towns, we can't sell many. The roads are bad, and it costs money on fuel. In the end, a lot of them just rot on the trees or are eaten by birds. It's a real pity."
Gu Xi said, "We can boil it into persimmon jam and sell it in the market."
"Persimmon jam? How is it made?"
Gu Xi told her about the recipe for making persimmon jam that she had seen online when she was a ghost.
Upon hearing this, Gan Dongliang realized that making persimmon jam didn't require any special skills; it was quite simple, just a bit troublesome. Making persimmon jam was a good way for the farm to generate income.
However, this matter needs to be discussed with the farm manager first, and a plan needs to be developed.
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