Chapter 272 260: Thin Noodles, Wide Noodles
Xiong Jianbin nodded, "There is one more important point, our family must have a good relationship with the villagers!" He paused and said, "Old man, we don't have any evidence about the bezoar now, so let's not make trouble with the Zhou family. Wait until I become the secretary."
"I think even if the youngest one becomes the brigade secretary, there's no way to get to the bottom of the bezoar issue." The third brother Xiong muttered in dissatisfaction.
Xiong Dahai stood up and looked at the somewhat unconvinced Xiong Laosan, "In the beginning, we asked the Zhou family to compensate for the money we paid for the cow, because the cow was killed by Zhou Laoyao. We had a good reason, so they could only swallow their anger and accept the loss!"
"I bought a cow for 450 yuan, and they also gave me bezoar as a gift. I feel very comfortable now!"
"The bezoar is gone, what can I do if you call me? You are not an official!" Xiong Dahai said and glared at him, "Behave yourself and don't hold me back! Wait until I become the brigade secretary!"
"I understand!" Xiong Laosan responded unhappily and walked out.
Xiong Laoer watched him leave and said with a gloomy face: "Old man, we shouldn't have listened to that bitch Yang Chunyan and wrote a receipt for their family to settle the debt." Damn it, the brick house and the tractor were originally mine.
Xiong Dahai also regretted: "By the time we heard about bezoar, the beef had turned into shit. I went to ask Zhou Dasong, but he refused to admit that he had ever seen bezoar."
"Besides, we were the ones who carried the dead cow to his house, and he paid us compensation in front of so many people. Even if he didn't write a receipt, you can't do anything to him."
The second bear said unwillingly: "Then we will just watch them use the money from selling bezoar to build brick houses and buy tractors?"
The youngest Xiong stepped forward and advised, "Second brother, the Zhou family didn't steal or rob, and the bezoar was in the cow's stomach. They didn't catch them at the time, so it's useless to say anything now. We need evidence for everything we do!"
"It's better to save face than to suffer in life!" Xiong Laoer went out and returned to the house next door.
…
Over there, Yang Chunyan and her sisters-in-law also arrived at the wasteland. There was no one in front of the tractor, and bursts of children's laughter came from the barren slope not far away.
Li Qiuyue looked at the plowed land happily, "As expected, the machine is faster. It can do more in two hours than we can do in a day."
Zhao Huifang nodded, "I won't have to worry about not being able to plow the land anymore."
I saw Zhou Jiaming and his brother and several boys from the village, wearing "field caps" made of sweet potato vines and wild flowers on their heads, with sweet potato vines wrapped around their waists several times, and holding "flags" tied to tree branches with handkerchiefs in their hands, they looked very majestic.
Each one of them made the mud in their hands into a round bowl, made the edges of the bowl thicker, and pinched the bottom of the bowl thin, and a firecracker was ready.
Several children held up the bowls with one hand, blew a few breaths of "fairy air" into the bowls while muttering something, and then looked at Zhou Jiaming. At his order, they threw the bowls with the mouths facing downwards to the ground with all their might. With a "pop" sound, a hole exploded at the bottom of the bowl.
Zhou Jiaming walked forward proudly to check and see whoever had the biggest hole in the clay bowl would win.
Zhao Huifang shook her head and sighed, "Let them come and pick the lantern fruit. Look at them, they are going crazy again."
Yang Chunyan looked around and saw Xiaoqian and Xiaowen picking lantern fruit on the slope with urea bags. She pointed at them and said, "Xiaoqian and the others are picking them!"
Looking at the happy children, she felt that children these days were still happier. The boys played with mud in various ways, such as throwing mud bowls, building walls, making cars, ships and cannons. They also played with waste paper in various ways, such as folding airplanes and firing cannons...
They would go fishing in the ditch, climb trees to pick wild fruits, rob bird nests, and look for ash bags in corn and sorghum fields. As long as their stomachs were full, they would not go home even if they shouted.
The girls played cat and tuck, toss handkerchiefs, hopscotch, skipping rope, claw... they played a variety of games.
Zhang Xiufang laughed and said, "I don't know what's so fun about playing with mud. People have been playing with mud since they could walk, and they are still playing with mud when they are in their teens!"
"That's Jiaming! When I asked him to take care of his brothers and sisters, he would just play in the mud with them!"
Zhou Jiaming saw several people going up the hill, and hurried over, pointing at the urea bag under the tree, "Mom, we picked the lantern fruit before playing."
Zhou Jiakang and Zhou Jialiang didn't care about the sweat and mud on their faces, and were busy patting the mud off their red cotton vests and pants. They didn't even look at the mud on their hands, and their clothes and pants were getting dirtier and dirtier.
Zhang Xiuxiang frowned, pulled Zhou Jiakang over and slapped him on the butt twice, "Mud monkey, you are covered in mud again. I can't keep up with you washing clothes every day."
Zhou Jiakang rubbed his butt and said awkwardly: "I'll ask my sister to wash it for me when I get home!"
Zhou Xiaoqian came over with a urea bag and said, "I told you not to break the earthen bowl, but you insisted on doing so. Go back and wash it yourself!"
Zhou Jiaming and his brother huddled and looked at their mother, "Mom, we'll wash the clothes ourselves!"
Zhao Huifang saw the mud on the two brothers and said unhappily, "Look at the mud on your bodies. You don't want to wash it off. Do you want to eat thin noodles or wide noodles? You can choose."
The thin noodles are thin bamboo strips, and the wide noodles are bamboo slices. No matter which one you use, it hurts the same when you are hit!
Zhou Jiaming didn't want to choose either of these two things, and quickly expressed his attitude, "Mom, I'll go back and wash my clothes and pants right away!"
"First go to the earthen kiln to help the old man and grandfather pick up bricks and tiles for a while, then go back to wash them!"
"Oh!" Zhou Jiaming winked at the younger ones, and they all ran away after him in shame.
Zhang Xiuxiang looked at the children running fast and said, "Sister-in-law, I think Jiaming is much more naughty than before!"
"Yes! He used to be like a little adult. Now that life at home is better, he is jumping up and down now."
Zhou Xiaoqian put the urea bag on the ground and said, "Aunt, look how much we picked."
Yang Chunyan took it and took a look. She saw that the bag was already half full of Chinese lantern fruit. "Take it home and take out the seeds and dry them. I'll make it for you when I get back."
Zhou Xiaoqian pouted, "Is it so troublesome? You can do it when you get back!"
"You want to eat delicious food, but you're afraid of trouble?"
"Hehe!" Zhou Xiaoqian took her arm, "I want to go play with Xiaoru and the others."
Before she finished speaking, Zhou Xiaoru ran over and picked up the medicine hoe in the basket. "Aunt, let me use the hoe. There are two nests of wild squash over there."
"Wow! I want to go too." Zhou Xiaoqian turned around and ran after her.
Yang Chunyan smiled and shook her head, "When did the earth melon become so rare?"
"You don't know Geguoxiang!" Zhang Xiuxiang looked at the two people's backs and smiled, "Two months of summer vacation is too long. It's better to start school earlier so that we don't have to run around everywhere."
"The busy farming season will start a few days after school starts, so I'm back to help thresh the grain."
"I saw that the ears of millet that had fallen over were still not very plump after being propped up."
"It's much better here. Look at Fangtian Brigade. They'll harvest at least 100 to 200 kilograms less millet per mu of land this year."
"Alas! Brother Nong Er depends on the weather for his livelihood, what else can he do?"
Zhao Huifang pinched open a lantern fruit, put the seeds inside between her fingers and rubbed them back and forth for a few times, and felt that her fingers were a little sticky. "It takes more than ten minutes to soak the dried ones before rubbing them. I think the fresh ones can also be rubbed out."
"Okay, I'll use fresh fruits to knead them when I get back!"
The sisters-in-law carried bags and gently picked off the yellow lantern fruits on the lantern fruit. Those with fewer fruits on the lantern grass were dug up with the roots and put into the backpacks.
(End of this chapter)
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