Li Yuanyuan stiffened her neck and strode towards the village committee.
The old village chief was held tightly by Zhang Jucai and the others, his eyes wide open, staring intently at Li Yuanyuan's light and agile back.
Seeing Li Yuanyuan enter the house, Zhao Qingwan and the others quickly followed her in.
In an instant, all the villagers' eyes fell on Zhang Cheng.
Meeting the strange looks from this group of people, Zhang Cheng forced a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Uncles and aunts, please don't look at me like that. What... has this to do with me?"
Zhang Cheng's words sounded utterly innocent. An older woman chuckled, "Er Gouzi, what's so special about you that makes Li Yuanyuan so devoted to you?"
"Yeah, Er Gouzi, you're not exactly handsome either, but Li Yuanyuan looks like she stepped out of a painting..."
"Er Gouzi, you'd better hold on tight and not make a mistake!"
The old village chief abruptly shoved Zhang Jucai and the others aside, his grip on the carrying pole creaking. His face darkened as he strode toward Zhang Cheng, his teeth clenched tightly. "Er Gouzi, if you dare to flirt with that vixen, don't blame this carrying pole for not recognizing you!"
Zhang Cheng looked distressed. "Uncle, what are you saying?"
Anyway, remember what I said, and don't mess around!
The old village chief was lecturing Zhang Cheng with spittle flying everywhere, while Zhang Da Nao and Li Qiming, carrying empty baskets, walked towards the village committee, chatting and laughing.
Seeing so many people gathered outside the village committee, I thought they were waiting for them to come back.
"Er Gouzi, Er Gouzi!" Zhang Da Nao dropped his carrying pole and empty basket and ran towards Zhang Cheng.
The old village chief glanced sideways at Zhang Da-tou, who was running over, and finally loosened his grip on Zhang Cheng.
"How was it?" Zhang Cheng asked, looking at Zhang Da Nao who had run up to him.
"I exchanged about eighty catties of Polygonatum and nine catties of Panax notoginseng. I've put everything at my house." Zhang Da Nao said, beaming.
"Not bad!" Zhang Cheng nodded in satisfaction.
Li Qiming rushed over and grinned at Zhang Cheng, "Brother, I traded for about fifty catties of Polygonatum and more than three catties of Panax notoginseng, and I've left them all at Big Head Brother's house."
The exchange of grain for medicinal herbs went quite smoothly.
As it got dark, people who had gone out gradually returned.
All the Polygonatum and Panax notoginseng were piled up at Zhang Da Nao's house.
Zhang Cheng called his friends over and asked them to pick out the ones that were of decent quality.
Of the more than 300 jin of Polygonatum, only about 20 jin were of acceptable quality after careful selection.
Zhang Cheng thought for a moment, then asked Zhang Da Nao and the others to shave some bamboo strips. They would then use two small bamboo strips to hold the Solomon's Seal in place, making it look neater.
Life went on in a busy and hectic way. Although Li Yuanyuan kept saying that she wanted to pester Zhang Cheng, she never showed up.
Zhang Cheng secretly wished she would never appear.
...
Lunar New Year's Eve!
Zhang Cheng put on a new cotton-padded coat, which he exchanged for ten catties of white rice and five catties of white flour from an aunt in the village who knew how to sew.
Across the small table, Shi Yangyang was also wearing a brand new plaid cotton-padded jacket.
"Wife, let's eat!" Zhang Cheng grinned, picked up his chopsticks, and put a big chicken leg on Shi Yangyang's plate.
This chicken is a wild pheasant; Zhang Jianhao brought it back a few days ago in exchange for coarse grains from the neighboring Huangdian Village.
Shi Yangyang blinked, her heart filled with a warm, sweet feeling. She picked up the chopsticks on the table, gently biting her lip, and reached out to pick up another chicken leg, placing it steadily into the porcelain bowl in front of Zhang Cheng.
Zhang Cheng's eyes lit up immediately, and he grinned silently.
Unlike Zhang Cheng, who was happily munching on chicken legs, in the front yard, Old Zhang, his mother, Zhang An, and Er Ya were gathered around the octagonal table.
There were only three dishes on the table: two plates of salty pickled vegetables that were so salty they made your throat ache, plus a small dish of wolf meat.
"Sigh, everyone eat!" Old Zhang sighed almost inaudibly and was the first to pick up his chopsticks.
Zhang An's eyes immediately lit up, and his chopsticks flashed towards the plate of wolf meat, slurping it down like a starving ghost being reincarnated.
Er Ya pouted, looking at Zhang An's eating habits with a look of disgust.
They were born from the same mother, so why is there such a big difference between them and my second uncle?
Zhang An devoured the entire amount of wolf meat in no time.
Old Zhang and his mother remained silent, chewing their pickled vegetables quietly.
Within minutes, Zhang An licked the last bits of meat clean, then slumped into the chair, looking utterly exhausted and weak.
Old Zhang shook his head, took out four red envelopes from his pocket, handed one to Zhang An, and stuffed three into Er Ya's hand. He managed a rare smile on his face, "Er Ya, these two are for the baby in your belly. Good things come in pairs."
"Thank you, Dad!" Er Ya's eyes curved into crescents as she accepted the red envelope and responded sweetly.
About half an hour later, every household opened their tightly closed doors a crack. It's customary to open the doors to welcome the New Year, no matter how heavy the snow is outside.
Zhang Da Nao hooked up with Zhang Jianhao, who lived next door. The two of them strolled arm in arm toward the mud house, and on the way they ran into Li Qiming, Zhang Weiguo and a few others.
As I passed by the front yard, I saw Old Zhang sitting alone on the threshold, puffing on his pipe.
Zhang Da Nao hesitated for a moment. Although Lao Zhang and Er Gouzi had separated, Lao Zhang was still his biological father, wasn't he?
"Uncle Ming, have a smoke of this!" Zhang Da Nao grinned and leaned in, pulling out a pack of Pegasus cigarettes from his pocket and handing the whole pack to Old Zhang.
Old Zhang was taken aback for a moment, then grinned and said, "No, no, you're the junior, how could I accept your cigarette!"
"Uncle Ming, take this! Consider it a token of my respect as a junior!" Zhang Da Nao forced the cigarette into Old Zhang's hand, then called to the others and continued walking towards the mud house in the backyard.
"Er Gouzi!"
"Brother Dog!"
The door of the mud house was open, and Zhang Da and the others cautiously peeked inside.
"Come on, come on, have some pine nuts and sunflower seeds!" Zhang Cheng dumped all the nuts he had prepared onto the small table and invited everyone to join him.
Without any hesitation, everyone grabbed some melon seeds and pine nuts, found a place to sit down, and started snapping away.
While cracking sunflower seeds, Li Qiming looked up and asked, "Brother Gou, you mentioned before that you wanted us to help you harvest Polygonatum and Panax notoginseng next year?"
Zhang Cheng nodded, "Next year, five of you will travel all over the villages in Funing County to help me collect Polygonatum and Panax notoginseng. Big Head Brother and Jianhao, you two will come with me to the county to help me run the shop. Of course, running the shop doesn't just mean standing there; you have to watch carefully and learn diligently..."
If there's a way to make money, Zhang Cheng doesn't mind helping his brothers out.
"Er Gouzi, then... then do we have to go learn to read?" Zhang Da Nao asked with a bitter face. Recently, his mother has been going to the village committee every day to ask Zhao Qingwan to teach her to read, which has put a lot of pressure on him.
"Learning to read? That's just the most basic thing!"
When Zhang Cheng said this, the people in the room felt like the sky was about to fall.
"Brother Gou, we're not cut out for this! Besides, we're all too old for this, how could we possibly learn it!" Li Qiming said with a mournful face.
"Old?" Zhang Cheng laughed. "Are you as old as Aunt Hua? She goes to the village committee every day to learn from the educated youth."
Whoosh! All eyes were immediately fixed on Zhang Da Tou Nao.
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