Chapter 453 455: So Many People
The smell of alcohol in the room was too strong, so Yang Chunyan handed Yang Weidong over to the old man and went to the vegetable garden with a bamboo basket to look for vegetables.
Master Liu and others came to help with the work this time, so the Zhou family provided them with lunch and afternoon meals.
Jiang Yu and a few others cleaned the truffles that were delivered this morning and the leftovers from last night, put them into the baking room, and then went home to prepare lunch.
She pulled out a few celery lettuces and planned to go back and stir-fry the pork slices with black fungus, cook the pork belly with green vegetables and add salted vegetables to the pan, and stir-fry the beef heart with lard.
There are also red rapeseed mosses that have just sprouted a few days ago. The bitterness of the rapeseed mosses that have been frosted is already very light. Add a few dried chili peppers and dried Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry them, and the taste is perfect.
Yang Chunyan came out of the vegetable field carrying a bamboo basket and saw the tractor parked under the wall. She hurried into the yard and just happened to see two people coming out of the kitchen.
"Are you back?"
"Hmm!" Zhou Huaian sniffed, "Such a strong smell of alcohol!"
Yang Chunyan pointed to the side room and said, "The whole room is filled with wine. Do you think it's strong?"
"Let me take a look." Zhou Yiding walked towards the wing room.
"Did Doctor Xiao Wang find the steel plates and iron sheets for me?"
"I found it!" Zhou Huaian patted his head, "It's still inside the tractor. I'll get it in right away."
"Give the blueprint to Master Liu later. We'll use the oven to bake large truffles so they don't take up space in the oven."
"That's right!" Zhou Huaian handed her the purse, "This is the money from today's sales. There's also a bill for buying meat in it. Go and deposit the money for buying steel plates into the account."
Since yesterday, everyone has been cooking at his house, and everyone has to share the money for food and vegetables, so they have to keep another account book.
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan took over the main room.
Zhou Huaian walked into the side room and saw the old man carrying a basket and adding truffles into the wine jar, while Yang Weidong scooped up sticky yellow mud from the basket to seal the mouth of the wine jar.
This time, the Yang family came with two mule carts, carrying a total of twelve jars of wine. Together with the cart that brought them in the morning, the total number of 18 jars was 2,200 kilograms of sorghum wine.
After the two exchanged a few pleasantries, Zhou Huaian called Zhou Yiding from last week to move the steel plate.
Yang Chunyan put the money and the bill away, locked the door and went to the backyard. Zhang Xiuxiang was washing the pig intestines. There was a big pig's head in the porcelain basin, and there were a few pieces of meat and some pork ribs in the bamboo basket next to it.
"Yiding said he wanted to eat braised pork, so my sister-in-law went home to get some pine resin and said she would pick some radishes to stew the bones."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan said as she took out the pork and saw the pig lungs in the back of the bag. "There are more pig lungs underneath!"
"Then let's marinate the big bones and stew the pig lungs." Zhang Xiuxiang said with a smile, "That's how men buy things. They buy whatever people say is good!"
Yang Chunyan recalled the scene when they went to buy meat for the first time and couldn't help laughing. "The youngest one is more sophisticated than me when buying things. The pig lungs and bones must have been given by the owner of the meat stall. I tell you..."
Zhang Xiuxiang also laughed after hearing this, "If you hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have been able to tell!"
"Chunyan!" Li Qiuyue came in with a basket of vegetables. "My mother asked me to bring a basket of ginger over so that we could boil a pot of ginger soup in the yard for the villagers who brought truffles."
There was a lot of frost on the mountain, so I didn't feel cold while working. But after coming down the mountain and standing in the yard for a while, I felt the chill.
She thought for a moment, "The ginger soup will get cold soon if we take it out. We have to go to the old house to get the stove and use it for two days. I will return it to the old house when Huai'an goes to Ning'an to buy a new one."
Zhang Xiuxiang said, "You don't need to buy it. Your second brother made a clay stove. Qiuyue, go to my house and pick it up."
"Ugh~" Li Qiuyue covered her mouth and looked around nervously, then she remembered that Jiang Yu and the others had already left, "Why did I think of buying pig intestines? They are so stinky and disgusting."
Zhang Xiuxiang waved her hand and said, "Stop talking. Let the youngest one carry the stove."
"Oh!" Li Qiuyue suppressed her nausea and walked out hurriedly.
Yang Chunyan whispered, "Tell my third sister-in-law to stop coming to the backyard when we cook in the future. It will be troublesome if someone finds out."
"Yeah!" Zhang Xiuxiang glanced at her and said, "You have to be careful too. Being too tired is not good for the baby."
"I know! I slept at noon, too."
Zhou Huaian brought back the iron plate, iron sheet and baking tray, and went to Zhou Laoer's house to get the clay stove. He saw the old man holding Yang Weidong and not letting him leave.
"Youngest, hurry up and hold on to your uncle. He's been busy for a long time and he's leaving without even having a meal."
Yang Weidong said with a smile: "Grandpa, my family is waiting for me to go back and make wine. I will come back to play after I am done with this busy period."
Zhou Huaian also smiled and tried to keep the guest, "Brother Weidong, Chunyan is already cooking. No matter how busy you are today, you must have a quick meal here before leaving!"
Yang Weidong said in embarrassment: "My husband has not been home these days, and there is a cellar of wine that needs to be taken out at noon today. I must go home to look after it."
Zhou Huaian didn't believe it, "Didn't my second uncle go back?"
Yang Weidong smiled and shook his head, "He can't do it. If you don't believe me, ask Chunyan. Are my husband and I the only ones guarding the wine cellar? We'll meet again next time!"
Seeing that he had come to this point, Zhou Huaian silently calculated the remaining money for buying wine, "Okay! When your 50-proof wine is out of the cellar, send another ten jars over."
"I'll bring it over the day after tomorrow!" Yang Weidong walked out with his belongings, "I'm leaving now! Tell Chunyan."
After hearing what the old man said, Yang Chunyan also came to keep the guest, "Brother Weidong, are you really going to leave? The meal will be ready soon, eat here before you leave!"
"The wine in the wine cellar can't wait for anyone, so the second brother can only guard it and do nothing. Next time, next time I will accompany Huai'an for a good drink." Yang Weidong said and walked out.
Yang Chunyan and the other person had no choice but to send him outside, and Zhou Huaian helped to harness the mule cart.
"Go slowly. Next time you come, you must have a good drink before you leave."
"Okay!" Yang Weidong got on the cart, "Let's go!"
The two waved and watched him walk away.
Zhou Huaian said: "Yan'er, go back to the room. I'll go to the hallway to help."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Second sister-in-law is still waiting for me to stew pig lungs!"
"Yes! Pig lung stewed with radish is also delicious!"
The three sisters-in-law were busy for an hour or so, stewing pig lung and radish soup, braised pork intestines, stir-frying two dishes, and setting up two tables in the backyard.
After dinner, Master Liu and Zhou Huaian looked around and finally chose the cowshed next to the baking room.
The oven can be built tonight and the roof will be covered tomorrow, so it will be finished before dark, but there is still a lot of work missing on the bamboo planks and bamboo frames at home.
The Zhou family’s bamboos have been almost completely cut down, and there are only a few old bamboos left in Zhou Yiding’s family.
After discussing with Zhou's father, the old man went to find the elderly people who stayed at home in the village to weave bamboo flats and sell them to the Zhou family. They went to the bamboo forest of Zhou San's father's house to cut bamboo to make bamboo frames.
The whole family was busy, and only the two pregnant women had time to take a leisurely nap.
When Yang Chunyan woke up from her nap, Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang had already cleaned the pig's head and put it in the pot. The rich aroma of braised meat wafted through the backyard.
"Aunt Jiang, there is a batch of goods that can be shipped out of the oven."
Jiang Yu pointed to the basket at the back and said, "They have been taken out. We also moved the truffles in the middle of the oven to the racks against the wall."
Wu Qiufang smiled and said, "It's only a little after two o'clock, why don't you sleep a little longer?"
Yang Chunyan looked around and said, "I have been sleeping for more than an hour. Where are my sister-in-law and the others?"
"Huai Rong and Huai Jun went to help the old man build the scaffolding, and the other two went to help mix the mortar and pass the bricks."
Seeing that they were all doing needlework, Yang Chunyan went back to her room and got out some woolen socks for the baby to knit. After a while, Zhao Huifang and the other person also came back.
Zhang Xiuxiang scooped up some hot water and washed her hands, "The youngest and Yiding are here, let's come back and rest for a while."
Jiang Yu moved to the side and said, "Come sit over here, it's warm here!"
"Great!" Several women sat outside the oven, chatting while doing needlework and knitting sweaters.
Yang Chunyan has knitted four small cardigans, knitted trousers, and two small jackets for the child, and has started to knit wool socks. The little boy's socks are knitted very quickly, and a pair of socks is knitted in less than two hours.
Zhao Huifang is deft and the stitches of the sweaters she knits are smooth. She knits for the old man using the Yuanbao stitch. This knitting method produces some waste thread, but the sweaters knitted using this method are warmer than those knitted using the plain stitch.
A few people were chatting and laughing, and time passed very quickly.
Zhang Xiuxiang looked at the alarm clock on the low table and said, "It's four o'clock. People are coming down the mountain."
"Mom and Sister Haili haven't come yet!" Yang Chunyan put the socks into the sewing basket, "Let's spread the straw mat first and get the steel pot ready in the front yard."
"I'll do it!" Jiang Yu put down his shoes, picked up the steaming steel pot and walked towards the outer courtyard.
After several people prepared the platform scale, beam scale, and straw mat, Zhou's mother and Luo Haili came. "There are many people coming to the village entrance. We will be busy today."
"Let's go and take a look."
Yang Chunyan and her companions walked out of the yard and saw that indeed many villagers carrying baskets had come to the road, and some had already reached the grove.
Not only were they looking at the villagers who came into the village to sell truffles, but there were also people looking gloomily at the endless stream of villagers...
Zhang Xiuxiang brought out the lit charcoal and put it into the clay stove, then put the steel pot on top to keep it warm.
Mother Zhou took out two enamel teacups and said, "Let them scoop and drink for themselves."
As they were talking, Li Qiuyue led Zhou Xiaolin into the yard, "Mom, there are so many people."
"You know so many people, but you still brought Xiaolin with you." Zhou's mother glared at her in disapproval and took Zhou Xiaolin's hand. "Qiaoling, take your sister to play with Xiaowen and the others."
"Oh!" As Luo Qiaoling led her to the door, several villagers peeked in from the gate, "Is this Zhou Laoyao's house?"
“Woof woof woof…” Wangcai and Laifu in the backyard started barking wildly.
"Don't be afraid of being tied up." Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and went to meet him, "Come in!"
"Hey!" the older man laughed, "The villagers told us to head towards the big tiled house at the foot of the mountain when we entered the village, and it turned out to be true."
Zhou's mother smiled and said, "Are you from the Fangtian Brigade?"
The man smiled and nodded, "Hey! From Fangtian Team 4."
Yang Chunyan pointed at the straw mat and said, "Put your baskets in the yard and line up. The first one to put the truffles on the straw mat will be sorted by us. There is ginger soup in the steel pot on the stove over there. If you want to drink it, just go and scoop it out yourself!"
"Thank you very much!" The man poured the truffles onto the straw mat, and Zhao Huifang and others squatted down and began to sort them.
"I'll head down the mountain to your house. I'm dying of thirst."
As the man spoke, he took the enamel pot and scooped out some ginger soup, drank it, handed it to another person, and hurriedly stood beside his backpack waiting to be weighed.
(End of this chapter)
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