Yun Qi secretly asked Yun Liping what her aunt was thinking.
"You were absolutely right. Later, under my father's questioning, she finally revealed her change of heart. It turns out that after the earthquake, she saw that every household in the village, thanks to their sons, was able to build houses and harvest crops much faster and better than us. That's when she started to feel resentful. Later, my father went on a few trips with your husband, and she felt that the heavy responsibility of the family was all on her shoulders, which made her very uncomfortable. So she started to resent me for not being a son, and even began to try every means to keep me by her side, even thinking..." She paused here and looked at Yunqi.
Yunqi understood what she meant from that look. "Is she saying that you should find a son-in-law with the same qualities as my husband, and preferably one who also lives with his in-laws?"
Hearing Yun Qi directly expose the matter, Yun Liping nodded shyly.
"Xiao Qi, my mom really didn't mean anything by it. She was just thinking about our family. Please don't tell Cheng Ge about it."
"No, and Cheng-ge doesn't care about these things. If he did, he wouldn't have moved back to the village with me."
"So now many people in the village envy your family. Brother Cheng is very capable and good to his family."
"Why don't you say I have good taste? But what about that other person who introduced us and said we could bring our mothers to move in?"
When Yun Qi asked about this, Yun Liping looked at her, hesitant to speak.
Judging from her expression, Yun Qi couldn't help but wonder if this matter was related to him. Sure enough, he heard Yun Liping speak.
"Later, my dad inquired and found out that the person who introduced the mother and son was a new villager. According to them, they had moved here from the city together. On the way, he overheard them whispering that a son had moved to our village and didn't care about their lives, but they wanted to be closer to their relatives, so they thought of settling down here." At this point, Yun Liping couldn't help but glance at Yun Qi again. "Later, my dad found out that the mother and son both had the surname Gao. Since Cheng Ge's uncle was from Gaojia Village, he wondered if it was related to Cheng Ge."
Yun Qi was speechless upon hearing this; it was very likely the Gao family mother and son. She simply told Lin Liping the whole situation. If they really did get married, she and Si Cheng really didn't know how to get along with them.
"I don't know if you're talking about them, but if it's Cheng Ge's mother, she should have married someone surnamed Lian, and she has a son and daughter-in-law there, not just the two of them they said they only have." Seeing Yun Liping's surprised expression, Yun Qi simply poured out all the family scandals, including their desire for their own dowry house before the earthquake and their various behaviors after moving to Baijia Village and staying at Uncle Gao's house. These stories left Yun Liping speechless.
"This is the real deal, a real-life example of the worst. We can't mess with people like this. I have to talk to my dad. He was thinking about it when he heard it was related to Brother Cheng. Luckily he asked you, otherwise he would have pushed me into a fire pit. No, he would have dragged our whole family into a fire pit." After saying that, he rushed off to find his father.
Seeing his childhood friend back to her old self, Yunqi couldn't help but feel happy for her, but the thought of his mother-in-law, whom he had never met, made him frown.
However, because he had been busy picking tea seeds, Yunqi didn't want to bring up these matters and cause Sicheng any more trouble. He thought he would talk about it after he finished picking the tea seeds, but he ended up forgetting about it after all that work.
After picking the tea seeds, the tea oil will be pressed. It was agreed beforehand that whoever brought back the tea seeds would own them and would have to press the oil themselves. However, there was only one set of pressing tools, so everyone had to take turns pressing.
Now that everything is mostly arranged, the village also needs to make some arrangements in the back mountain, otherwise they will be caught off guard if the wild beasts on the mountain come down.
After discussion, everyone decided to dig a trench around the foot of the mountain and then set up traps on the side closer to the village, which would provide double protection.
In the days that followed, everyone was either digging trenches or pressing tea seed oil at home; there wasn't a single person in the entire village who was idle.
The process of manually pressing camellia seed oil is very laborious. In addition to splitting the camellia seed kernels, they also need to be ground into powder. In the past, this step could be done by machine, but now even if there is oil, it is impossible because the machine has been broken down due to lack of use for too long. So everyone can only rely on manual labor to crush them into powder bit by bit.
After being crushed into powder, the tea leaves need to be stir-fried until fragrant and cooked through. Then, while still hot, they are formed into tea cakes. These cakes are then placed one by one between four fixed wooden posts, and iron pressing discs are placed on top, with weights added to the four corners. After pressing, the tea oil slowly flows out.
Almost everyone in each household pitched in, because crushing all the tea powder into powder was no easy task. Everyone was sore from the effort, complaining that it was much more tiring than picking and transporting tea seeds.
Si Cheng, however, was very relaxed. In less than half a day, he crushed all the tea seeds into powder. Moreover, when he pressed the tea oil, he did not use the four pounds on the other side. Instead, he controlled his strength and applied force directly to the iron cake from a high place. With this operation, he managed to extract as much oil as possible from the tea cake.
Although Si Cheng was strong, he only brought back the amount he and Yun Qi had picked, not much more than the others in the village. However, when pressing tea cakes, perhaps due to his strength, their oil yield was better than others. Looking at the several large buckets full of tea seed oil, Yun Qi had a smile on his face all day.
"You weren't this happy even with all that oil we stored before."
"How can this be the same? This is the result of our joint efforts, and it contains our hard work and sweat."
Si Cheng chuckled and patted her head. He was growing to like Yun Qi's hamster-like personality more and more.
"Brother Cheng, do you think we should have everyone plant some more crops in the fields? Otherwise, the days ahead will be tough. I've noticed that the water level in the irrigation ditch in our backyard has dropped a lot lately."
"I'm afraid some people in the village won't agree. Many people were worried that it would be like the previous freezing, so they've been busy storing firewood lately."
"What can we do? We're going to have this kind of weather for the next few years. If it gets dry, we won't be able to grow anything." Yunqi said anxiously.
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