In the afternoon, Zhou Huaishan and Zhou Huaijun pushed their bicycles to the old house and carried over the dripping white cloth bags filled with glutinous rice flour.
Zhou Huaishan came to Zhou Huaian's house with a bag in his hand, "Youngest, the glutinous rice flour needs to be hung overnight."
"Great! Take it and hang it in the room where the bacon is hung." Zhou Huaian carried the bag with him, "These glutinous rice flour, after drying, must weigh about 20 to 30 kilograms, right?"
Zhou Huaishan smiled and said, "Mom said she bought 120 kilograms of rice for wine. Together with rice, the family should have at least 30 kilograms of glutinous rice flour."
Zhou Huaian thought about the past, "In previous years, I would just eat a few glutinous rice balls on New Year's Day, but this year I'll eat them until I get sick of them!"
"That's right!" Zhou Huaishan carried the bag and went with him to the room where coal was stored.
The beams were hung with cured goods, including sausages, bacon, cured pig's trotters, cured chicken, cured duck, cured goose, smoked rabbit, some old hams, pickled lamb, and badgers.
The cured goose and duck were sent by Secretary Xu and Zhou Datian’s families, and some cured chickens were sent by villagers from several nearby villages who came to sell truffles.
From time to time, the old man looked at the cured meats crowded on the beams, and said with a smile that the landlords in the past did not prepare so much.
Zhou Huaian carried the wooden ladder over, climbed up and hung the rope of the cloth bag on the beam, "Third brother, pull it up."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaishan pulled the rope to hang up the cloth bag, and placed a basin under the bag to collect water. After hanging it overnight, the water would drip off, and the dumplings could be cooked tomorrow morning.
Zhou's mother, Yang Chunyan, Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang began to make the fillings for the glutinous rice balls, starting with the brown sugar fillings.
First, fry the peanuts, sesame seeds, and walnuts, rub off the skins, and then process the brown sugar.
The brown sugar here is the kind of sugar bricks. You have to cut it into pieces first, then pound the roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, and walnuts in a pestle and mortar. When the fillings start to clump together, put the chopped brown sugar in and pound them together. After adding the brown sugar, the mixture becomes thicker and thicker until it sticks together.
For black sesame filling, grind the fried sesame seeds with a stone mill, add sugar, chopped lard residue and lard, and let it sit and solidify before the sesame filling is ready.
Mother Zhou thought that after sending away the last batch of truffles on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhao Huifang and the others would start cooking at home, so she asked a few people to go back and get enamel jars, and each of them would take a jar back.
In the afternoon, villagers brought some truffles one after another. Jiang Yu and his colleagues washed them clean and put them all into the baking room.
Zhou Huaian rarely went to bed early. After finishing the account, he took out the velvet bag from the box and sat on the edge of the bed with a smile, "Yan'er, stretch out your hand so I can put it on for you to see. Does it look good?"
Yang Chunyan glared at him in reproach and stretched out her hand, "Hey!"
Zhou Huaian put the bracelet on her and said, "It looks good! My wife's skin is like mine, white and tender like a peeled egg..."
"Go to hell!" Yang Chunyan slapped him, "What do you mean I'm like you? Are you taking advantage of me?"
"Unfair!" Zhou Huaian rolled up his sleeves with a playful smile, "Look, your skin is not even as white as mine!"
Yang Chunyan glanced at him and said, "You are the one who tells lies with open eyes."
"Hehe!" Zhou Huaian laughed and put down his sleeves, "I used to be whiter and tenderer than you, but now I've worked too much and it's become rough and darker."
Yang Chunyan clapped his hands and said, "This is normal. A man with such a white face is obviously lazy and doesn't work."
"Yeah! What my wife said makes sense!" Zhou Huaian took out the ring, picked up her left hand and put it on her ring finger. "Doctor Xiao Wang said that married men and women should wear wedding rings on the ring finger of their left hand."
Yang Chunyan took a look and said, "It seems that Doctor Xiao Wang has taught you a lot!"
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian said as he put his own hand on and held up Yang Chunyan's hand to put together with his own. "It looks good! I didn't expect that Doctor Wang is good at shopping."
Yang Chunyan looked at him in surprise, "Did Doctor Wang buy all these?"
"Yes! Doctor Wang bought it for me in the provincial capital!" Zhou Huaian said as he remembered something, "Yan'er, I told Doctor Wang about the black thing. He said he would come and see it when he comes back, and take a look at our medicinal fields."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Yes! I still don't know what it is after so long, let him come and take a look!"
"As for the piece of land in the city, he said he has found a construction team to help the Li family build their house, and the steel bars have been selected. Construction will begin after the New Year. Yiding asked Uncle Daqing to help him get the timber quota, and all we have to do is pay the money."
Yang Chunyan thought that it didn't take much time to decorate a hotel these days. "You have to tell Yiding. We need to find a carpenter to make beds and cabinets. If you can get a quota, make more. We also have to pay for the money spent on connections."
"I told him, but he was still unhappy after hearing it. He said that I didn't treat him as a brother if I bothered with him about it!"
"Doctor Xiao Wang, you should also ask about the cost of buying steel bars and asking for favors. You can't ask people to help you and then make them lose money."
"Yes, he said we'll settle it together after everything is done." Zhou Huaian held her against the head of the bed, "Next year's red mushroom business has been decided. I wonder if the truffles shipped out from there will sell well? It would be great if the truffle business could be decided as well."
Yang Chunyan thought that the goods in her previous life were not as good as the goods now, so she comforted him, "Don't worry, we are sending good goods, they will definitely make a lot of money shipping them. Just like the red mushrooms, if they made money, wouldn't they have booked it early?"
"Besides, even if they don't collect truffles anymore, we can just look after the herbal fields at home, go up the mountain to collect herbs when we have time, and sell wild honey to make money, but we'll make less."
Zhou Huaian thought about it and said, "Sell all the goods the day after tomorrow, ask mom and sister-in-law to prepare wine and food, and call Secretary Xu and Uncle Datian home in the evening to settle the accounts and divide the money."
Yang Chunyan nodded, took off her bracelets and rings and put them in a velvet bag, "Let's put them aside for now and wear them later."
"Well!" Zhou Huaian put the bag away, blew out the oil lamp and went to bed, "Go to bed. I have to get up early to go to Baicaoping tomorrow. Now I have to rely on their goods to support me."
"Come back early tomorrow, we still have to put up Spring Festival couplets!"
"Well! Xu Hongbing said he would send some fish tomorrow and asked mom to make pickled fish!" Zhou Huaian laughed, "I didn't expect that guy to be a hard worker. He fishes and sells it in town every day. He can make a few dollars a day and he even said he would give me a cut on New Year's Eve!"
"Now that I have a wife and children, I know how to work hard." Yang Chunyan said with a smile, "I want fish for the New Year's Eve dinner, and it has to be carp!"
It is a custom here to eat carp for the New Year's Eve dinner, which symbolizes abundance and good luck every year.
Zhou Huaian nodded and said, "Let Lao Xu go get some information online and bring it back."
…
The next morning, Zhou Huaian had just finished washing up when Zhao Huifang came over with some glutinous rice balls. "Youngest, it's time to eat some glutinous rice balls!"
"Sister-in-law, you're here so early!" Zhou Huaian looked at the dumplings in the bowl, "There are so many, how can I finish them all?"
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "Your elder brother ate twenty, so I gave you a few less. There are ones with brown sugar filling and ones with sesame filling, both are delicious."
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian ate twelve in one breath. There were still three left in the bowl. He couldn't eat any more. He stood up and burped, "I'm so full. My throat is full."
The old man patted him on the back and said, "Ha! If you can't eat more, just eat two less!"
Zhou Huaian jumped twice with a smile, "It's okay, the tractor will be gone after a few shakes!"
Zhou Huaishan also came over, "Youngest, what are you doing? We're all waiting for you!"
"You start the engine, I'll be right back with the kettle." Zhou Huaian took the kettle handed to him by the old man and ran out.
The tractor drove to Zhou Huairong's house, and Zhao Huifang and others who were waiting at the door climbed onto the tractor wrapped in coats.
Yang Chunyan got up. The old man was cleaning the pigsty. She scooped up some corn crumbs and mixed them with the bran and went to the backyard to feed the chickens.
These chicks at home have been raised for four months. Without added feed, the chicks grow very slowly. They weigh only a few pounds at most, and it will take about two months for them to start laying eggs.
After the chicks had eaten, they swarmed out of the backyard and were driven by Lai Fu and Wang Cai towards the woods beside the vegetable field.
Yang Chunyan followed them, and after they all went in, she closed the fence gate and stroked the dog that was circling around her, "Be good, go back and guard the yard. I'll cook lard rice for you later."
"Woof woof!" The dog ran happily to the backyard.
Yang Chunyan looked at the chicks foraging for food in the woods. Now that they have grown so big, she no longer needs to feed them three times a day like before. She only feeds them once in the morning when she lets them out and once when they return to the nest in the evening. They spend the entire day foraging for food in the woods beside the vegetable patch.
The ramie, flowers, plants and reeds scattered in the woods were all pecked into a mess by them.
As the Chinese New Year approaches, the weather has become much warmer. The peas and broad beans beside the vegetable fields are blooming with lavender flowers. Some have already produced pods, and the hairy broad beans are half an inch long.
When she saw the potatoes in the vegetable garden, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't been to the back mountain of the old house to see the Chuanxiong for a long time, and she didn't know how they were growing.
Yang Chunyan picked a handful of pea tips and went home to see the old man drying grass in the yard. "Grandpa, what do you want to eat for breakfast?"
"Don't worry about me. Your eldest sister-in-law cooked glutinous rice balls early in the morning. The youngest and I ate them." The old man said, "The flour on the glutinous rice balls hanging from the beam has also dried up. If you want to eat them, I'll put them down for you."
Yang Chunyan: "I'll cook a bowl of noodles and then go to the old house to check on the chuanxiong in the field. I'll put the glutinous rice flour down when I come back and take it upstairs to dry in the sun."
"That's right! Tell your old man to bring a load of straw over to make the pig sty."
"Hmm!" Yang Chunyan cooked a big bowl of sauerkraut noodles. It tasted sour and spicy and was very appetizing. In the end, she even drank up all the noodle soup.
I put some oil residue in the noodle soup and cooked two bowls of cold rice, then poured them into the dog bowls. Wangcai and Lai Fu ran over, wagging their tails.
After washing the pots and pans, I went to the main room to get some cakes, melon seeds, and peanuts that I bought yesterday, and then went out to the old house.
Just as they reached the door of Li Qiuyue's house, Zhou Xiaoru and her sister came out from the yard, "Aunt Yao, where are you going?"
Yang Chunyan stopped and asked, "Let's go to grandma's house. Are you going?"
After being scolded that day, Li Qiuyue rarely came here except for meals. Xiaoru said that she was hiding at home knitting a sweater for her little brother! (End of this chapter)
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