The Zhou family waited for Zhou Yiding, Zhou Huaiqing and Xu Laosan to come back with the delivery, but still did not wait for Zhou Huairong and the others to come back. When they heard Xu Laosan, who came back last, say that he did not see any trace of them on the road, the Zhou family felt like a huge stone was pressing on their hearts.
After unloading the goods and sending Xu Laosan away, Zhou's mother and Zhao Huifang were almost in tears, and it was useless for Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang to comfort them.
"It's probably collapsed. If it's just a traffic jam, it's fine. What if..."
"Nothing will happen!" Zhou Huaian said to his father, "I'll go take a look on my bike."
"Put on your raincoat. I'll get you a headlamp."
Yang Chunyan walked back holding an umbrella, and Zhou Huaian followed her pushing a 28-inch bicycle. As soon as they reached the vegetable field, they saw the tractor having driven into the woods.
"Huai'an, look!"
"Mom, old man, big brother and the others are back!" Zhou Huaian yelled at the top of his voice, turned around and ran back, and everyone in the house ran out.
Seeing the tractor slowly approaching, the huge rock that was weighing on everyone's heart finally fell away.
Zhou Huaishan drove a four-wheeler and stopped at the edge of the vegetable field, followed by a walk-behind vehicle. Zhou Huaian hurried to meet them.
Zhou Jiaming and Li Qiuyue jumped down from the four-wheel drive platform and grabbed Zhou Huaian to complain, "Dad, we were scared today. When we turned the corner, we saw the road suddenly collapsed in half."
Zhou Huaian smiled and stroked him, "You're scared, call your grandma to make you a bowl of fried eggs to calm you down."
Zhou Jiaming held his stomach and said, "I don't want to eat eggs. I'm starving. I want to eat the臊子面 my grandma cooked."
"Okay, grandma will cook some noodles for you." Mother Zhou looked at her eldest grandson with concern, "Oh, your clothes are wet too." She turned around and called Zhao Huifang, "Hurry up and cook some ginger soup for them."
"It's ready. I'll bring it right away." Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang immediately brought out the steaming ginger soup and each got a bowl.
Li Qiuyue drank several sips and said to Yang Chunyan, "You don't know, we were about to get out of the mountain and the asphalt road collapsed in front of us.
We sat there watching the rocks and mud slide down, feeling very nervous, as we were afraid we would be stuck in the mountains and unable to get out. We would have to dig all the mushrooms into soup.”
"You've worked hard. I'll make you some good food tomorrow to replenish your body!" Yang Chunyan smiled and pushed her. "Hurry up and finish your drink, take a hot bath, and change your wet clothes."
"I'll go check on Xiao Long'er first. My milk has increased over the day, so I finally have enough to feed him." Li Qiuyue rubbed her swollen chest, looked at her in confusion and said:
"I just don't understand. When Xiaoru and Xiaolin were born, what did they eat? The two sisters couldn't finish the milk. But when Xiaolong came, he ate better and played more than before, so how come he had no milk?"
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "Maybe you were under too much pressure when you were pregnant with Xiaolong, that's why you became like this!"
After hearing this, Li Qiuyue also recalled the past. "What you said makes sense, especially when I lived alone in Ning'an for a few months. I was worried about being discovered and taken to the hospital. I also missed Xiaoru and Xiaolin. Sometimes I would cry while eating..."
"It's all over." Yang Chunyan smiled and patted her shoulder. "You have Xiaolong as you wished. God has been very kind to you."
"Hmm!" Li Qiuyue thought about it and said, "Chunyan, to be honest, ever since I saw how my elder sister and my youngest sister live, I feel that God really cares about me. Now I am satisfied."
Yang Chunyan looked at her in surprise and said with a smile: "It's a good thing to be able to think positively."
"Chunyan!" Li Qiuyue turned her head and looked at her. "To be honest, sometimes I really feel that you are much older than me. You speak in an old-fashioned way, and you are a bit like the Buddhist monks who used to live in the temple. You have the feeling that you have let go of everything."
Yang Chunyan glared at her in reproach, "Really? You make me sound so old? I don't agree with that!" Having lived two lives, isn't that very old?
"Hehe, I'll give you more delicious food tomorrow." Li Qiuyue went back to change clothes with a smile.
Zhou Huaian drove the hand tractor to the door of the drying room, and everyone started to unload the goods. It took more than an hour for a group of people to unload the goods and move them into the yard in the rain.
Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang first cleaned out the morels and handed them to Jiang Yu and the others to wash. Under the bright light, the water in the pipes made a gurgling sound.
The water pipe here is connected to the water pipe next door. The water from the two large wells is used in rotation, and it finally provides enough water for washing throughout the day.
At the dinner table, Zhou's mother looked at Zhou Jiaming who was eating voraciously and kept reminding him, "Eat slowly, don't choke."
"Grandma, I'm so hungry." Zhou Jiaming said with his cheeks puffed out and his face humped.
Zhou Jiakang and the others looked at him, "Brother, did you really see the road collapse with your own eyes?"
"Hmm!" Zhou Jiaming swallowed the noodles in his mouth and stretched out his hand. "We came back after cutting trees to clear the road. Look, the blisters on my hands are all rubbed off. It hurts me a lot."
Zhou's mother said with a smile: "This little bit of broken skin is nothing. In the past, your old man's hands were full of blisters and he didn't even have iodine to wipe them off. Your grandma wiped you with iodine. Children recover quickly and will be fine tomorrow morning."
"My old man said the same thing. He also said that if you get your skin broken a few times, you will not break your skin when you work after you have calluses."
"Of course not." Zhou's mother stretched out her calloused hands. "Look at your grandmother's hands. They have looked better in the past two years. Go and look at your ancestors' and grandfather's hands. They are no different from the bark of old trees in the mountains."
The children looked at her hands, then at their own, and fell silent.
The whole family, including Jiang Yu and a dozen others, were busy until after twelve o'clock to get all the mushrooms into the drying room.
After the workers left, Zhou Huaian asked Zhou Huaishan, "Is the collapse of that section of road serious?"
Zhou Huaishan said: "It collapsed halfway. If it doesn't collapse further, there will be no problem getting in and out tomorrow from the road we opened."
"We'll have a batch of mushrooms tomorrow morning. After we deliver them to Ning'an, we'll go over and take a look." Zhou Huaian yawned, "It's time to go to bed. Let's go back and sleep early."
"Old man, Dakun, you go to bed first. I'll keep watch for half the night." Father Zhou said to the old man and Lao Xiazi.
"Okay!" The two were tired after a whole day, so they didn't refuse. They got some hot water, washed up, and went back to their room to sleep.
Next door, Yang Chunyan returned to her room after washing up and saw Zhou Huaian still keeping accounts under the lamp. "Brother, if the road is too narrow, it's best to go in and talk to Secretary Zhang and the others to make the road wider before going in. Otherwise, it's too unsafe."
"Brother said... Let's go check it out tomorrow." Zhou Huaian put the account book away, "Go to bed, it's already one o'clock."
Yang Chunyan looked at her son, put up the mosquito net, and then went to swat the mosquitoes. "We've already sent a batch of morels and bigfoot mushrooms. Have you decided on the purchase price?"
"We'll know tomorrow." Zhou Huaian held his head and lay on the bed. "I was planning to collect that nest of bees tomorrow, but I can only go two days later."
"How about I take the beehive and put it there tomorrow. If they want to separate, they can have an extra nest of little bees."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian looked at her sideways, "Remember to put some beeswax inside the beehive, and bring a piece of cowhide felt to cover the beehive, press it down with stones, and put a few more stones underneath to prevent the beehive from rotting in the rain."
"Got it!" Yang Chunyan turned off the light, and they fell asleep side by side.
The next morning, Zhou Huaian and Zhou Huaishan set out for Ning'an. After arriving at the county town, Zhou Huaishan went to the guesthouse to deliver food, and Zhou Huaian went to Deshengtang next to the hotel.
When he got there, he saw a big Liberation tractor parked at the door. Just as he parked the tractor, Wang Zhen and two middle-aged men walked out of the yard.
One was an engineer from the hydropower station, and the one wearing gloves should be the driver of the Jiefang truck. Zhou Huaian greeted them, and the driver and the engineer got on the Jiefang truck together.
Zhou Huaian saw several wooden boxes on the car and said to Wang Zhen, "Has the equipment arrived?"
"We're here! I'll ask Master Sun to help pull in the rich cattle." Wang Zhen said as he opened the gate, "Drive the tractor in, I'll call someone to unload the goods."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian started the tractor and drove into the yard, parked it near the warehouse gate, and began to untie the tarpaulin ropes.
Yang Dongmei walked in from the backyard door, saw him, and asked with a smile: "Brother-in-law, have you had breakfast?"
"It's ready to eat." Zhou Huaian took down the mushrooms, seasonings, vegetable moss, young pumpkin, and beans and handed them to her. "Your sister prepared them for you. Wash the mushrooms and dry them. They're perfect for frying at noon."
"I heard from Wang Zhen that Boss Zheng said the chicken mushroom oil and mushroom sauce my sister brought over tasted really good, and he wanted more!"
"It's just too much trouble to make that stuff. For the ones I sent you last time, your sister and my mom stood in front of the stove, working in the smoke and fire for an entire afternoon before they were fried."
"It will take a lot of time to fry all the mushrooms dry." Yang Dongmei said with a smile, "Wang Zhen has prepared a table fan for you. You can go over here this afternoon and take it back by the way."
"It's much hotter in the county. It's not hot at all when it rains here. We don't need a fan."
"You don't need it now, but you will need it in a few days." Wang Zhen walked in with two workers who were helping to unload the goods. "I prepared a floor-standing type for you. You can use it when you eat. It's much cooler."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian couldn't refuse the kindness, so he nodded in agreement.
Yang Dongmei smiled and said to the two of them: "The wontons are ready, brother-in-law, shall I cook a little less for you?"
Zhou Huaian nodded readily, "Okay! Cooking two liang is enough."
Yang Dongmei went to cook wontons for the two of them. Wang Zhen and he untied and removed the tarpaulin. "Brother-in-law, have you been to the power station?"
"I'm so busy every day, who would go there!" Zhou Huaian folded the tarpaulin, "My brother said that the factory and dormitory have been built, and the sluice gate seems to be ready soon."
Wang Zhen laughed and said, "You haven't even visited it so close, you are such a relaxed boss!"
"That's right!" Zhou Huaian laughed, "With you and my second brother here, I feel more at ease than if I saw it with my own eyes."
"You!" Wang Zhen smiled and nodded at him a few times, "It's obviously you who are lazy, and you still have to make excuses!" (End of this chapter)
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