Without any excitement to watch, the onlookers dispersed, and those who were selling vegetables and those who were busy with business went about their business, each getting busy.
Yang Chunyan looked at Zhao Meina, who was becoming more and more beautiful. "Jiaming will also come to town to study in junior high school in the second half of the year. When the time comes, you can make an appointment and come to town together at Guanyin Road. If you encounter any problems, go to Qiao Jiaren to find Aunt Yumei."
"Pretty Girl" is the signboard of Zhou Yumei's clothing store. It was Fang Dongming who asked someone to help her choose it. Zhou Yumei was born to be a businessman. The clothes she picked out were novel in style and of good quality. Her business has been getting better and better since the opening.
"I'll remember that." Zhao Meina looked at Yang Chunyan and the others gratefully, "Aunt Yang, Uncle Zhou, what are you going to buy?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "I want to fry some mushroom sauce. I'm still short of some ingredients at home. When I came here, I saw so many mushrooms for sale. I planned to buy some if I saw something suitable."
Zhao Meina pointed across the street and said, "The mushrooms from that old man's shop are pretty good. They are all freshly opened. I heard them selling them for 10 cents a pound. If you buy them all, there will still be some left."
Yang Chunyan turned her head and saw a large row of fertilizer bags on the ground, and there were still many in the backpack. "Huaian, help Mina clean up, we will go over to take a look."
"Aunt, I'll clean it up myself. You go and watch it with Uncle Zhou. I'll stay here and watch the bicycles." Zhao Meina said as she went to clean up the vegetable basket.
"Great!" Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian went to the opposite side and saw two or three shops selling mushrooms, all with umbrellas open.
Seeing that the old man selling mushrooms had all white hair, the two men did not bargain and bought all the shiitake mushrooms in the basket, as well as a few pounds of chanterelles and porcini. The total amount of mushrooms was more than 90 pounds, and they only paid a little over nine yuan.
Seeing that the two had bought the things, Zhao Meina hurriedly handed the backpack over. Zhou Huaian hung the backpack on the back seat of the 28-inch bicycle and patted the cotton-filled cushion that he had put on in the morning.
With a bitter face, he said to Yang Chunyan, "It's more than 100 kilograms in total. We need to buy several dozen kilograms of beef and spices later. It's enough for us to carry."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Okay, let's send the things to Sister Yumei first, and then go buy beef."
After hearing this, Zhao Meina said, "Aunt Yang, Xiu Na and Xiao Chuan are out picking mushrooms. I have to go and see them, so I won't go with you."
Seeing that she had hung all her things on the bicycle, Yang Chunyan said, "Okay, ride slowly on the road."
"Well! You guys go slower too." Zhao Meina pushed her bicycle out of the town. Yang Chunyan and the other person pushed their bicycles like snails. They squeezed slowly for a long time before they arrived outside Zhou Yumei's house.
The clothing store was doing good business on market days, with three or four people looking at clothes. Luo Haili was standing in front of the ironing board, busy ironing clothes. There were two large cloth bags next to her, apparently new goods had just been received.
Zhou Huaian parked his bicycle at the door, walked to the front of the shop and said inside: "Sister, my mother asked me to bring you some vegetables."
"I haven't finished eating what my elder brother sent me last time!" Zhou Yumei came out happily, "I'll open the door, you guys push the bicycles in and put them there."
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian pushed the bicycle into the yard, "Sister, we still need to buy beef and spices, you go and do your thing, don't worry about us."
"Okay, come over after you buy your things and have lunch before leaving." Zhou Yumei said this and without waiting for the two to reply, she hurried back to the shop to greet the customers.
Seeing her impetuous look, Yang Chunyan smiled and said to Zhou Huaian: "Sister Yumei is getting younger and younger!"
"Business is good, and there are no worries. It would be strange if they are not young!" Zhou Huaian parked his bicycle and took down the basket of vegetables. "We will leave some chicken mushrooms, porcini and other mushrooms for them."
"That's right!" Yang Chunyan went to the kitchen and took out two baskets, scooped up two pounds of chicken mushrooms and some mushrooms and put them in them, "Do you think that's enough?"
"That's enough. I'm worried that they don't even have time to wash them." Zhou Huaian put all the vegetables in the basket into his back, picked two tomatoes, rinsed them with water, and handed them to Yang Chunyan. "Let's go. If you go too late, the good beef will be gone."
Yang Chunyan took it and lifted the backpack, "Tell me, we're going out this way."
"Okay!" After Zhou Huaian greeted them, the two walked towards the beef shop on the corner. Before they got there, they smelled the beef odor coming from the beef restaurant. "Yan'er, shall we buy some rice noodles to eat at home?"
"Okay, let's get some beef bones to make soup. The rice noodles cooked with beef bones will taste great!"
"Or you can eat it, what kind of beef should I use for the fried mushroom sauce?"
"Last time I bought pork belly beef and shuttlecock meat and fried them together, so I bought the same thing this time." Pork belly produces more oil when fried, and Yang Chunyan feels that the mushroom sauce has butter in it, which makes it more fragrant.
The boss who was selling beef also saw the two of them and pointed at the beef hanging on the iron rack with a smile, "Look, the yellow cattle we slaughtered today are so fat. There are still more than 800 kilograms left after slaughtering."
Yang Chunyan and the others took a look and found it to be quite good. "Boss Liu, we want to buy 56 kilograms this time, with half of the pork belly and half of the shuttlecock meat. Or will you give us two large bones as well, like last time?"
"Okay!" Boss Liu picked up the knife and neatly cut off a large piece of pork belly beef, then cut a few pieces of minced meat from the beef leg. After hanging them on the scale hook and weighing them, the total weight was 62 kilograms.
Zhou Huaian handed over the basket to catch the beef, and took two beef leg bones from under the iron rack, "Boss Liu, another 15 kilograms of rice noodles."
"Okay!" Boss Liu took a large piece of butter and put it in the basket, saying happily, "Beef is not delicious without butter."
Yang Chunyan felt that this was the good thing about the beef vendors here, and it was still the same decades later. As long as the buyer bought braised or stewed beef, they would give the buyer a piece of butter.
Fifteen pounds of rice noodles and beef cost only over seventy yuan in total. The two men left their backpacks at Boss Liu's store and went to buy sugar, sesame seeds, and earthenware jars. Each of them carried two large net bags back to the beef stall and took the beef back to Zhou Yumei's home.
Zhou Yumei and her husband were already busy. When she saw them, she took out a cloth bag and said, "Inside is the cotton silk I bought in the provincial capital. Take it back and make two sets for each of you. Last time my eldest brother and his wife came, I was very busy and forgot to bring any back for them."
Yang Chunyan took a look and saw some old blue, lake blue, white with small floral patterns, and several other colors. "Why did you buy so many?"
"I found a bargain." Zhou Yumei said with a smile, "The fabric was soaked in water and had spots, so the boss was selling it for a lot. I saw the price was cheap so I bought it all for him. I only went home for two sessions and it was all sold out. These were the ones I saved in advance."
"Okay, I'll be welcome then."
"You're still being polite to me!" Zhou Yumei smiled as she took the ironed clothes from Luo Qiaoling and hung them on the hanger. "Youngest, you and Chunyan should have lunch here before you leave!"
"I'm not going to eat anymore. Our family is waiting for us to send some aniseed and beef back. We'll just sit for a while and talk a few words, then leave."
"It's like this every time I come here. I don't even have a meal."
"I've been so busy at home these past few days, I'll talk to you after this period is over."
They chatted for a while, and then another customer came, so the two said goodbye and left with their bicycles.
After leaving Baima Town, it was fine to ride the bicycle on the asphalt road, but when he turned into the Fangtian mechanized farming road and rode on the bumpy dirt road, Zhou Huaian felt a burning pain in his buttocks. He endured it for a while but couldn't bear it anymore, so he would rather get off the bike and push it back.
Yang Chunyan, who was behind him, also stopped after catching up with him. She looked at Zhou Huaian, whose eyes and eyebrows were wrinkled together, with amusement, "You should do the same as when you came here. Don't let your butt touch the cushion, and it won't hurt."
"It's OK to go uphill without sitting firmly, but going downhill with something hanging behind you, you have to sit firmly."
"We've already reached Fangtian. It will only take us half an hour longer to walk. We can just push the cart back."
Zhou Huaian looked at the villagers who were going home from the market ahead, "There are many people going to the market today. If there is a bullock cart later, I will stop one and take it back."
The two pushed their bicycles all the way to the Guanyin intersection, where they met a bullock cart from the same village returning from Guanyin. They then took the cart back.
When they arrived at the grove, they saw Qu Qiulin and his group walking in front. Seeing him, Yang Chunyan suddenly remembered something, "Huaian, I forgot to show you the deer antlers that Village Chief Qu brought last time."
"I can only take Ning An with me tomorrow." Zhou Huaian pushed his bicycle and walked a few steps quickly to catch up with the mule team in front. "Village Chief Qu, you guys are walking pretty fast!"
Qu Qiulin turned around and saw that it was him. He grinned and showed his white teeth. "Brother Zhou, you didn't go to Baicaoping to pick up the goods today?"
Zhou Huaian smiled and shook his head, "No, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable. I'm going to rest at home for a day. I can only send your antlers to you for a checkup tomorrow."
"It's okay, don't worry, it's the same if you go after you get better."
"I heard you're having a wedding on National Day? Chunyan said your fiancée is a very nice person."
"She is from the same team as me and is a primary school teacher there. I think she is a very nice girl too."
Seeing him so happy that his teeth were showing, Zhou Huaian secretly sighed that another henpecked man had been born, "How are the crops in the mountains growing this year? Is the harvest good?"
"It's too dry." Qu Qiulin sighed, "Potatoes are better, but the sorghum and corn died after we planted them. We just replanted them a few days ago. I plan to learn from your method. After this busy period, I will go down the mountain to buy a few tons of cement and build a few more reservoirs."
Zhou Huaian nodded repeatedly, "The idea of building a reservoir is really good. If you build it this time, you can dig it a little deeper and harden the bottom of the pool with cement, so you don't have to worry about leakage."
"Okay, before we start, I'll bring my master here to learn from you."
"It's very simple, just building a big pool, no technical skills required."
The two chatted and laughed, and soon arrived outside the baking room. The old man and Zhou's father came out to greet them, and everyone helped to unload the rattan baskets. Yang Chunyan called Jiang Yu and others, and everyone started sorting and weighing.
Zhou's mother cooked a bowl of noodles for Qu Qiulin and the others and began to pack the things in the basket. Only then did she discover that the two had bought a large bag of rice noodles and two baskets of mushrooms.
I mentioned it and felt that the mushrooms in the basket, plus the ones I harvested at home, would be enough to fry 50 kilograms of mushroom sauce.
I hurried to the wine cellar, cut off a piece of streaky beef, took it out and blanched it with beef bones, then stewed it in a pot, and ate it with boiled rice noodles at noon. (End of this chapter)
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