"Men and women who can work are both welcome. The daily wage is 200 yuan, and an additional 150 yuan will be paid for night shifts."
Those interested should register at the hotel before 1:30 PM. Wages are paid daily. Limited spots available, first come, first served. If you're interested in earning money, hurry up!
Say it again…
Chen Hong smiled. "Is the village chief abusing his power for personal gain? Look, there are advantages to being a village cadre. If there's something to say, you can just broadcast it over the loudspeaker in the village committee. You don't have to go door-to-door to notify everyone!"
Whether it was because the village chief was popular and influential, or because the villagers were really short of money, before the village chief, who had gone to find someone, had even returned, six young men came to the hotel.
Xiao Feng, Wang Yusheng, and Wang Yuyong put down their rice bowls and quickly led their men to work in the orchard.
After the village chief arrived home, more than thirty people came one after another, including men, women, young and old.
The number of people who came to sign up exceeded the limit, so the village chief clapped his hands and said, "Since you're all here, stay!"
It was a good division of labor: the young people were in charge of producing the vegetables, while the older women and the older women worked together in groups.
Many hands make light work, and no one will be idle! Xiaofeng, Yusheng, and Yuyong are in charge of transportation, so let's all get to work in the fields!
"Chen Hong, give me the keys. Two tricycles definitely won't be enough; we'll need your pickup truck this afternoon too."
Chen Hong obediently handed the key to the village chief: "Uncle, we're so busy, will we have time to slaughter a sheep this afternoon?"
The village chief paused for a moment: "If we don't have time to kill this afternoon, then we'll kill it tonight. If we can't kill it tonight, then we'll kill it tomorrow morning."
Anyway, I have to slaughter two sheep this year. I've already planned out what dishes to cook for the New Year: chicken, duck, fish, pork, and lamb—I can't do without any of them!
"Alright, you women should hurry up and get to work; the kitchen work isn't easy either!"
The people who were serving the food went down to the ground through the snow. Xiao Hao's mother and Wang Xin's mother went with them. Aunt Guo and Aunt Erhu also took Chen Hong and Xiao Feng to the kitchen to start kneading dough and steaming date buns.
In the afternoon, Chen Hong and Xiao Feng's main task was to knead the dough vigorously, doing purely physical work.
After kneading each dough ball until smooth and initially shaping it, it was time for Aunt Guo and Aunt Erhu to demonstrate.
They used simple chopsticks, scissors, new combs, and rolling pins as tools to transform dough balls into different shapes.
After Chen Hong and Xiao Feng added water to the big pot, lined the steamer with a cloth, and brought firewood from the stove, they came back and saw: wow, the steamer was already filled with all kinds of fancy steamed buns!
There are longevity peaches, lucky bags, large gold ingots, treasure basins, large goldfish, treasure-hunting mice, and jujube buns!
This is no ordinary steamed bun; it's a work of art! The lifelike appearance is so exquisite and realistic!
"Auntie, your cooking is absolutely amazing! If this were steamed, would anyone even want to eat it? It looks so good!"
Chen Hong thought to herself, no wonder Aunt Guo told her to knead several pieces of dough of different colors when she was kneading the dough!
To meet their demands, she juiced spinach, pumpkin, and watermelon, and made doughs in three colors: green, yellow, and pink. She also made a red dough using red rice koji.
The two old ladies are truly skillful; they cleverly combined four colors of dough: green for leaves, red for flowers, yellow for fruit, and pink for embellishment.
Once the dough has risen and been steamed, it becomes even more beautiful, transforming into a true work of art.
After steaming the buns, steam the rice cakes; after steaming the rice cakes, divide the tofu; after dividing the tofu, fry the dough fish and fry the fried dough sticks.
Chen Hong set up another oil pan and started frying tofu puffs, lotus root slices, crispy sardines, crispy pork, and mung bean and vegetable balls.
The aroma of jujubes had just dissipated from the kitchen when the fragrance of soybean oil and peanut oil began to waft up!
Aunt Erhu laughed as she tended the fire, "This is the true taste of Chinese New Year!"
By the way, Chen Hong, you didn't go to the market. Did you buy any couplets?
Chen Hong scooped the fried food out of the pot and drained it on a bamboo sieve. "Auntie, I bought them all. They're also sold in the supermarket this year."
The supermarket has set up several special counters for New Year's goods. They sell not only couplets, but also all kinds of items for vehicles, ships, livestock pens, and grain storage.
I also bought two pairs of lanterns; one pair will be hung at the hotel entrance, and the other pair will be hung at my house entrance.
I also bought couplets for the hotel, and lots of big "Fu" (good fortune) characters!
They were busy until dark, and the frying of goods alone filled seven large stainless steel basins, each about ten inches in size.
After the steamed buns cooled, they were covered with clean gauze and placed in bamboo baskets. Five large bamboo baskets, each a meter high, were filled to the brim, and three large baskets of steamed cakes were also filled.
As darkness fell, the women began preparing dinner. They had hired many people to help out today; including the five families, there were over fifty people to eat.
Chen Hong cleaned four large cod weighing over ten kilograms each, cut three pieces of tofu, and stewed a large pot of cod and tofu stew.
I chopped up a bowl of pork belly, stewed a pot of braised pork, and since cabbage is indispensable in winter, I'll also make a pork and cabbage stew with glass noodles.
Finally, stir-fry some garland chrysanthemum with garlic and cook a pot of red date and millet porridge.
After preparing dinner, I called the village chief, who arranged for people to come back for dinner in two shifts.
Those who want to work overtime can go back to the orchard to work after dinner, while those who don't want to work overtime can go home to rest after dinner and collect their wages.
Chen Hong originally thought that apart from the young people staying to work overtime, the elderly and women would all go home to rest.
Unexpectedly, only two elderly gentlemen were in poor health and couldn't stand the cold, so they didn't work overtime.
Everyone else stayed, and Chen Hong understood that they weren't just there to make money.
They were also helping to finish selling the vegetables as quickly as possible, and they were happy for Chen Hong and her family if they could make more money.
Chen Hong gave each of the two elderly men who had returned home a hundred yuan as a wage, and also packed them a bunch of chives and a bunch of rapeseed.
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