Chapter 46 Chapter 46 I always want to deal with him
Father Zhou turned around and saw the bulging sack. He sat up straight, touched a handful of it, looked at the people, and frowned, "Is there someone stealing our corn again?"
"Yes! It was that bastard Xu Hongbing..." Zhou Huairong recounted what had happened.
Father Zhou was so angry that his face turned blue. "Shameless thing, I will go find the captain tomorrow."
"You bastard..." Zhou's mother cursed loudly, and cursed all eight generations of Xu Hongbing's ancestors.
Father Zhou took a few puffs of his tobacco and said, "Okay, don't wake the old man up."
Zhou's mother stopped angrily, sighed, and looked at the few people. "Jia Ming and the others are asleep. Wash the lazy cicadas, scald them to death, and prepare them. Leave some for your grandfather and the kids. I will fry them for them tomorrow."
"Oh!" The sisters-in-law went back to their rooms to get scissors.
"Mom," Zhou Huaishan shouted, "We want to go catch some yellow eels. The day after tomorrow, the youngest brother and his friends are going to the city. Let's take some of them with us and see if they sell well."
Zhou Huaian took over the conversation, "I heard from Erchun that the town sells it for more than 20 cents per pound, and Ning'an's price should be even higher."
When Zhou's mother heard that they could sell the eels, she immediately agreed, "The pine cones are hanging on the cupboard, go get them." Then she glared at Zhou Huaian, "Erchun knows how to catch eels and sell them in Ning'an, but what about you? You just wander around all day!"
... Zhou Huaian was speechless. He felt that whatever he said was wrong, so he turned around and went back to the house.
Yang Chunyan walked to the door with a pair of scissors in her hand. Seeing his gloomy face, she frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Alas!" Zhou Huaian sighed, "I won't say anymore. I'm upset!"
Should I tell my wife that I don’t like me and always want to punish him? It’s so embarrassing and it will hurt my self-esteem!
Yang Chunyan looked at his depressed face, and thinking of his position in the Zhou family, she felt angry and pity for him, "Then are you still going to take care of the eels?"
"Go, if you don't go, I don't know how much you'll scold me for!"
"Okay, then I'll go wash the lazy cicada."
Zhou Huaian waved his hand and walked slowly into the house.
Zhou Huaishan and Zhou Huaijun went to the backyard and took down the lantern hanging on the ceiling of the pigpen and the bamboo basket containing the eels.
The lantern is made of bamboo, with a bamboo strip frame and a lamp holder made of iron wire inside. The outside of the cage is pasted with a layer of white window paper and is held in the hand with a stick about one meter long.
Put a few pine torches in the small earthenware bowl on the lamp holder and light them for lighting.
There is also an eel clamp in the basket.
The bamboo basket is made of thin strips of green bamboo. It has a big belly and a small mouth. It is also called a fish basket in other places.
The clamps for catching eels are made of a kind of bamboo called hard-headed spring.
Cut a section of hard-headed spring and split it, cut out three pieces of bamboo about two feet long, each about two fingers wide, and grind them smooth.
At one end of each bamboo piece, use a machete to cut out teeth about 20 cm long, and another bamboo piece with teeth facing each other is sandwiched between the two pieces.
Then use a red-hot iron nail to burn a hole in the middle of the three bamboo pieces, and then rivet them with a large iron nail to fix them into a clamp shape, with the teeth of the two serrated bamboo pieces facing each other.
After opening it, a yellow eel clamp that is somewhat similar to a crocodile's mouth is ready.
When you find an eel, open the clamp, aim the toothed end at the eel, and quickly close it. The teeth on the bamboo clamp will clamp the eel tightly, and even the most slippery and ferocious eel will not be able to escape.
The best part is that bamboo clamps will not hurt the eels.
"Youngest, let's go!" Zhou Huairong shouted towards Zhou Huaian's room.
Zhou Huaian walked out of the house slowly, took the bamboo basket, untied the hemp rope on the basket, tied it around his waist, and took a look at the eel clamps in the basket.
"Hurry up! Men are not good at doing things efficiently!" Zhou Huairong put the lantern on the ground angrily and turned around to clean it up.
Zhou Huaian curled his lips and picked up the lantern.
The four brothers packed up, lit a pine torch, held a lantern in one hand and a clip in the other, and went out.
Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang poured the lazy cicadas in the sack into the basin and began to wash them.
By the time they were clean, Li Qiuyue had already boiled the water, scooped a few scoops of water into the bucket, and grabbed two handfuls of salt to make brine to use for soaking the lazy cicadas later.
The lazy cicadas I caught tonight weighed more than ten pounds, filling two large baskets.
They have been washed several times, but some are still stubbornly trying to crawl out.
Zhao Huifang poured the lazy cicada into boiling water to scald it to death, then scooped it up with a colander and put it into a winnowing basket.
Yang Chunyan grabbed a handful of mugwort, rolled it into long strips, lit it and placed it in a broken pottery basin.
Zhou's mother also brought a small stool to the kitchen. Several people sat around it and cut the lazy cicada's limbs clean and soaked them in salt water.
Zhao Huifang looked at Zhou's mother with a smile, "Mom, Chunyan and the youngest want to take us into the mountains to dig herbs to sell."
"Okay!" Zhou's mother looked at Yang Chunyan happily, "I knew that Chunyan was a generous person."
She thought for a moment, then said to Zhao Huifang and the other two, "It's a good thing that Chunyan and the youngest are taking you along. I think you should first discuss how to divide the money from the sale, so that you don't end up arguing over money later."
Many people in the village beat brothers to pieces just for a little profit.
She didn't want to see the brothers who used to get along well with each other become enemies in the end.
Zhao Huifang repeated what Zhou Huaian said to Zhou's mother, "We didn't expect that the youngest child would be more serious than Huairong in both words and deeds."
"The youngest wasn't like this when he was little, he became like this when he grew up." Mother Zhou said to Zhao Huifang and the other two, "Chunyan is willing to teach you to identify herbs, you should thank her very much."
Yang Chunyan smiled and waved her hands, "Mom, it's too formal for you to say that. We are family and we shouldn't have different opinions."
Mother Zhou looked at her daughters-in-law happily and said, "A harmonious family brings prosperity. If you are harmonious, your husband and I will be able to close our eyes when we die."
Zhao Huifang looked at her in reproach, "Mom, you must live a long life and don't talk about death."
Yang Chunyan looked at Zhou's mother and suddenly remembered that on the first day of her death in her previous life, she told them that the old man and Zhou Huaian were here to pick her up and she was leaving.
She thought of her rebirth and felt that there are some things in the world that you can disbelieve, but you cannot disrespect them.
Zhou's mother laughed and said, "I heard them say that they went to the coal mine to carry coal, and each load weighed more than 100 kilograms and delivered it to the mine. They had to walk more than 20 miles along the mountain road, and each trip only cost 2.5 yuan.
The youngest brother and his family sold 21 yuan yesterday. If we give half to your family, we will get more than 3 yuan. It is much easier than carrying coal."
Zhao Huifang looked at Yang Chunyan gratefully: "Yes, the youngest and Chunyan are still generous."
"People are mutual. Hello, Huai'an and Chunyan know it in their hearts."
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law cut out the lazy cicadas and soaked them all in a bucket. Zhou's mother said to them, "You go take a bath, I'll fry them."
"good."
Yang Chunyan scooped a bucket of hot water and brought it to the vegetable patch. She washed her hair first and then went back to the house to wash her body.
I'm thinking about renovating my house and building a bathroom by the end of the year. When solar energy is sold on the street, I'll buy one. They have plenty of sunlight all year round, and using solar energy is the most convenient thing.
We also need to buy pigs, cows and other livestock. No matter what we do, we need money, so we have to work hard to make money.
(End of this chapter)
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