Zhou Huaian looked at the honey in the bucket and said, "If you filter out all the honey, there will be about 6 to 7 kilograms of winter honey."
Yang Chunyan took a look and said, "These are not bad at all."
Zhou Huaian turned the honey comb over with a bamboo stick and said, "Just let it drip slowly. I'll go to Erchun's house to check."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Yang Hui came this afternoon and told me..."
"Didn't Erchun come with her?"
"No, judging from her tone, Erchun doesn't seem very happy, but Aunt Xu is quite happy."
"Erchun has to go up the mountain to dig truffles and repair the house all by herself. She is like an outsider who only knows how to pick up the ready-made things and is so troublesome. I would not be happy if it were me."
Yang Chunyan put the spinach soup on the table and glared at him, "You are the only one with a bad temper!"
"Everyone has a temper. If we can't get along, it's better to say goodbye as soon as possible!" Zhou Huaian sucked the honey on his fingers, "Yan'er, I'm leaving now!"
"Bring a flashlight." Yang Chunyan hurriedly took the flashlight and chased him into the yard. "It's almost dark, aren't you afraid?"
Zhou Huaian took the flashlight and said stubbornly, "I'm not afraid. I'm a grown man, so what's there to be afraid of?"
Yang Chunyan rolled her eyes at him and went to the kitchen to clean up.
Zhou Huaian rode his bicycle and hurried over. Before he got there, he saw Zhou Yiding and him squatting on the edge of the field. "What are you two doing here?"
Zhou Yiding said to Xu Erchun, "This guy is wondering whether he should go to Yangjiapingzi with Yang Hui tomorrow."
Zhou Huaian squatted next to Xu Erchun, "Didn't you guys say you would hold the wedding banquet within a hundred days?"
"That was my mom talking to her, I didn't say a word!" Xu Erchun said distressedly, "When Yang Hui didn't come, she was eager to worship right away. When Yang Hui arrived, my mom's attitude changed immediately, fearing that I would worship her and be single for the rest of my life."
Zhou Yiding: "Then did you ask her why she didn't come to help with the house repairs? And about the betrothal gift?"
Xu Erchun: "She said it was all her mother's idea. I felt uncomfortable when I heard that. Everything was her mother's idea. Doesn't she have her own ideas?"
Zhou Huaian thinks that people without their own opinions are most likely to be pushed around. "Marriage is not a joke. You must think it through carefully, otherwise you will hurt others and yourself."
Zhou Yiding nodded, "Erchun, the youngest is right, you have to think about this carefully before making a decision. As long as you two get married, you have to spend your whole life with her, not just playing house when you were little. It doesn't count after the party ends."
Xu Erchun scratched his hair in annoyance, took out a cigarette and handed one to each of them. He took a few puffs in succession, and after making up his mind, he threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out. He looked at the two of them and said, "My mother asked me to send Yang Hui back tomorrow to tell them about the engagement and wedding banquet within 100 days."
"If her mother is reasonable and agrees, I will marry her. If her mother still wants to ask for a betrothal gift or other conditions, and she still doesn't have her own opinion, then it's better to break up."
Zhou Huaian nodded and said, "That's fine. We have to go up the mountain tomorrow, so I'll give you the bicycle."
Xu Erchun looked at his two good friends with gratitude, "Yiding said the same thing, but it's a pity that I only have one butt and can't use two bicycles."
Seeing that he was still in the mood to joke, Zhou Huaian and the others finally felt relieved. They asked about his old man's condition and then went home to rest.
When Xu Erchun got home, he saw Yang Hui sitting on the steps. He walked up to her and said, "We have to get up early tomorrow. Why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Yang Hui hesitated for a moment, then looked up at him, "Erchun, come to my house tomorrow and tell my mom about the wedding banquet within 100 days. I don't dare tell her. Also, when you come to my house tomorrow, if my mom says something unpleasant, can you please not argue with her?"
"As long as she doesn't say anything too hurtful, I'll just pretend I didn't hear it." Xu Erchun looked at her and asked curiously, "Your mother doesn't look like an unreasonable person, so why are you so afraid of her?"
Yang Hui pursed her lips and said, "You don't know, whenever we do something that doesn't please her, she will lie in bed and not eat until we agree to do what she says, then she will get up to eat, and we can't do anything about it."
Xu Erchun thought of his mother who would make a fuss whenever she was unhappy, and suddenly felt that his mother was the best, whose temper came and went quickly.
Seeing that he lowered his head and kept silent, Yang Hui whispered again, "My mother said that she asked Aunt Liu to bring a letter to your family and asked you to send those things just to save face for me. If she talks about this tomorrow, just agree to it."
Xu Erchun frowned and said, "Why didn't your mother bring it up when we were discussing the engagement?"
Yang Hui curled her lips, "Because I didn't know Chunyan's family was going to harvest truffles at that time! This year, everyone has made money digging truffles. My mother even said that if she had known earlier, she would have kept me for two more years so that I could help earn more money at home!"
Xu Erchun felt that he understood. This was exactly what Yang Hui's mother was planning. She was deliberately making things difficult for him so that she would keep Yang Hui to help the family dig truffles and earn money.
Thinking of this, he felt a little sorry for Yang Hui, "So you also want to stay at home and help make money?"
Yang Hui glanced at him and said, "I'm not a fool. If I wanted to stay at home and help my brother and sister-in-law make money, I wouldn't come to you."
She took out a wad of money from her pocket and handed it over. "This is the money I secretly saved from digging truffles. There are three hundred and sixty in total. Give it to my mother tomorrow. When we get married, we can earn back the money we spent together."
Xu Erchun looked at the thick stack of big unity in her hand and looked at her in surprise, "How did you save it all?"
Yang Hui said proudly: "Every time I dig ten kilograms, I report seven kilograms. She doesn't know that I will save money secretly."
Xu Erchun looked at the chilblains on her hands and felt a little sad. "Does my sister-in-law know about this?"
"I don't know. How could I possibly tell her such an embarrassing thing?" Yang Hui pulled his pocket, stuffed the money into it, and pointed at him, "Don't tell Huai'an. If he knows, Chunyan will know too. She and Xiaoxue will laugh at me."
After she said that, she didn't give Xu Erchun a chance to speak. She turned around, pushed open the door and closed it.
Xu Erchun looked at the closed door, and the heavy stone pressing on her chest suddenly disappeared. She thought that as long as Yang Hui was on the same page with her, and her mother-in-law's house was so far away from Funiu, and it was impossible for her to come to her house often, she could deal with her in spite of herself!
…
The next day, Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding went up the mountain again and brought back more than ten kilograms of winter honey, a few fat bamboo rats, and some winter bamboo shoots.
On the morning of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Yang Hui and Xu Erchun came to Yang Chunyan's home and told her that her family had agreed to their engagement and wedding banquet within 100 days.
Yang Chunyan, who originally thought that their relationship was probably over, was happy for them after hearing this. "When are you planning to do it?"
Yang Hui said embarrassedly: "Aunt Xu asked someone to look at the date. The engagement will be on March 8th, and the wedding will be on the 18th. I have already told Uncle Xu the date. He opened his eyes and looked at us. Auntie even fed him some canned pears."
Just as Yang Chunyan was about to speak, Xu Erchun said in a low voice: "My mother said it was a last burst of energy. She said that now that she knows that Yang Hui and I have settled the matter, she can rest assured..."
“…”
At around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, Yang Chunyan, Zhou's mother and Zhao Huifang were cutting shoe patterns at the gate of the yard when suddenly three loud cannon shots were heard in the village, followed by the sound of firecrackers.
Mother Zhou stood up and looked at the village and said, "Falling gas cannon, old man Erchun is gone."
There is such a custom in rural areas that when an elderly person in the family passes away, they will first set off three cannon shots and then firecrackers. The three cannon shots are called "falling air cannons" and they are to inform the villagers that an elderly person in the family has passed away.
There is a rule in the countryside: no one will go to a wedding without an invitation, but people will come to a funeral without an invitation. At this time, even if the two families have some minor conflicts, they will come to help spontaneously, which is also the rule in the countryside.
The elders from the same clan will come to help the deceased wear shrouds, the women in the clan will help make room for the head of the family, and the men will help set up the mourning shed in the yard, help buy incense, candles, money and paper, and help to twist hemp ropes and cut mourning cloths. Families that are close will also keep vigil together.
Zhao Huifang sighed, "Uncle Xu is not yet sixty, right?"
Mother Zhou nodded. "He is a few years younger than your husband. He is not even sixty yet."
Nowadays, all deaths in the age of sixty are considered "happy funerals", those who die before the age of 60 are called "young deaths", and those who die before getting married and starting a family are called "early deaths".
In both cases, the funeral is usually not a big deal. If there is a suitable day, the body will usually be kept at home for three days before being sent to the mountain.
Yang Chunyan was pregnant and it was inconvenient for her to go to Xu's house, so Zhou's mother went to buy incense, candles, and paper money and went to Xu's house to help.
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding arrived home and rushed over to help after hearing the news. Yang Chunyan and the old man were at home cleaning up the game and honey they brought back.
The two of them brought back a lot of game these days. The restaurants in the city were not open yet, so the leftovers were pickled and hung on the stove to be smoked.
Zhou Huaian was still talking about the ice cave in the forest farm, saying that it would be nice to have one behind his house so that he wouldn't have to worry about the game going bad if he couldn't finish it.
After the father and son squeezed the honey out of the honey comb, they placed the honey comb on gauze and let it slowly seep in. Before yesterday's honey had completely seeped in, today's honey came.
Yang Chunyan felt that filtering winter honey was too troublesome. She had to use a bamboo stick to roll out the honeycomb from time to time, otherwise the holes in the gauze would be blocked by honey.
After dark, Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding returned home, took their cotton coats and said to Yang Chunyan, "Go to bed early. We will help keep watch at Erchun's house tonight."
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan handed him the flashlight, sent the two of them out of the yard, and closed the gate.
On the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, the day Zhou Huaian had agreed with Baicaoping, he drove a tractor to take Zhou Huairong and others to Baicaoping early in the morning.
Zhou Huaijun went to Ning'an to deliver food to the guesthouse and to see if Wang Zhen had returned from the provincial capital.
Zhou Huaishan returned from Ning'an at around ten o'clock and told Yang Chunyan that Wang Zhen had returned and Yang Dongmei was also there.
At noon, Qu Qiulin brought a team of mules to deliver the first batch of truffles after the New Year, as well as more than 60 kilograms of winter honey.
Yang Chunyan discovered that the winter honey from Huangqinggou was better than that from Funiu. The honey in the barrel was shiny like lard.
Zhou's mother called Jiang Yu and others to help pick out the truffles, Zhou Huaishan weighed them, and Yang Chunyan kept the accounts.
The old man kept the oven burning vigorously, and after the truffles were cleaned, they were sent in for drying. (End of this chapter)
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