It was past four o'clock in the afternoon when Yang Chunyan's family and Zhou's mother returned to Funiu from Ning'an. When the tractor entered the village and just arrived at Zhou Yiding's house, they saw him waiting at the door.
Zhou Huaian stepped on the brakes, "What's the matter?"
Zhou Yiding walked up to him and said, "My old man's comrade in Chuancheng is sick. He needs to go there and asked me to go to the forest farm to replace him for a few days. Will you go?"
"Okay, when are we leaving?" Zhou Huaian thought that it would only take three or four days to go to the boat city and back, and the truffle wine seller would not come until next week, so it would be just right to go there and come back.
Zhou Yiding looked at him and asked, "How about leaving at six tomorrow morning?"
"Okay, six o'clock."
Seeing that the two had agreed, Yang Chunyan picked up two pears and said, "Yiding, go into the house and get something to eat. Take some pears home."
"Just take two." Zhou Yiding stroked Xiao Jiuer before reaching out to take the pear. "Golden Flower Pear, this variety is good."
"Brother Chunyan's is very sweet. Take two more."
Zhou's mother gave him two more. Zhou Yiding hurriedly lifted up his cotton vest to hold them, and Yang Chunyan put two more on top.
"Enough, enough. It would be a pity if it fell to the ground and broke into pieces." Seeing that the two men were still giving him more, Zhou Yiding turned around and ran back in a hurry.
Seeing him carrying the pears carefully, Zhou Huaian smiled, released the clutch, and drove the tractor back home quickly.
After Yang Chunyan waited for him to park, she handed Xiao Jiuer to him. The little guy turned around and pointed at the toy train, "Big train, big train!"
"Okay, a big train!" Yang Chunyan handed the bamboo basket containing the toys to Zhou Huaian, "Nothing else is surprising, only this one."
"It's Jiu'er's!" Little Jiu'er picked up the toy train from the bamboo basket, and with his short legs, he ran towards the old man who was smiling at him on the steps, "Grandpa, the big train!"
The old man hurriedly took a few steps forward and took his hand, leaning forward to look at the toy train he was holding. "My dear, where did you get such a beautiful big train?"
"Auntie, buy some!" Xiao Jiuer pulled his hand and started chattering.
Zhou's mother carried the backpack and walked towards the kitchen. Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian moved the things in the tractor's bucket to the main room, put away the newly bought account books and passbooks, and picked up some pears to send to the eldest third room.
Zhou Huaian came out of the main room holding a pear, "Grandpa, can I peel one for you?"
The old man smiled and nodded, "Your eldest uncle's?"
"Well! After eating pears, we can eat persimmons and jujubes." Zhou Huaian pulled a straw stool and sat next to him. "Will those jujubes we planted at home bear fruit this year?"
"It's only about one meter tall. It will take two years for the fruit to grow, right?"
"It's just right to top it at a height of more than one person!" Zhou Huaian smiled and told him what Yang Weiguo said about pruning and shaping the fruits.
The old man nodded after hearing this and said, "This is a good idea. We won't have to worry about not being able to pick the fruit from the top of the tree in the future."
Zhou's mother came out of the kitchen with a porcelain basin and placed it in front of him. "Look, old man, Chunyan and I washed the pig intestines this morning and put them in Dongmei's refrigerator. When we took them out, they turned into a big block of ice."
The old man reached out and touched it. "Oh~ No wonder it's called a refrigerator. The pig intestines are frozen hard."
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "If you like it, we will buy one when the power station starts delivering electricity."
Zhou's mother hurriedly said, "It costs more than a thousand yuan apiece. I heard the battery inside was humming. The electricity bill is also high. It's expensive and consumes a lot of electricity. What's the point of buying it?"
The old man nodded and said, "It's not hot in the mountains, there's no need to buy this stuff, just put the meat and vegetables in the wine cellar."
"That's right. There are two wine cellars. You can put as much as you want." Zhou's mother picked up the porcelain basin. "I'll go pick some beans. You go to the fish pond and catch some fish. We'll cook fish with intestines tonight."
Zhou Huaian handed the pear to the old man and told him about the house in the county town. "It's still early. I'll go to the river to cast a net."
The old man smiled and nodded, "Go ahead! The river is slippery, stand firm!"
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian went to change his clothes.
Zhou's mother came out of the backyard carrying a basket and met Yang Chunyan who was returning with a basket of vegetables. "Let's go pick some beans and make tofu pudding in the evening. Ask your sister-in-law and the others to come over to eat."
"I'll go with you!" Yang Chunyan put down the vegetable basket, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went out together and walked towards the rice fields.
The Jerusalem artichoke flowers by the ditch and the fish pond have bloomed, forming a golden patch. After the fish pond was fenced off with wooden sticks, Zhou Huaian went to the old house and dug up a banana tree and planted it by the fish pond. It is now half a person tall.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked across the stone bridge. The land where the corn stalks had been cut was bare and overgrown with weeds.
After going down the ridge, I saw soybeans planted on both sides of the rice field. Most of the bean leaves on the bean stalks had turned yellow and fallen off, revealing the plump green and yellow bean pods on the branches.
Yang Chunyan pulled up a nest and shook off the mud at the roots. Zhou's mother also put down her basket and started pulling up the beans. She felt sad when she saw the bean pods that had been eaten by mice.
"Come and pull out all the bean stalks tomorrow, or the rats will eat them all."
"Come tomorrow afternoon."
After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked along a ridge in the field, their backpack was full. Yang Chunyan squatted down, picked up the basket and walked back.
Mother Zhou reached out and plucked a grain of rice, put it in her mouth and took a bite, then looked at the golden field in front of her and said happily, "This year's harvest is no worse than last year's."
Yang Chunyan laughed and said, "I was worried that the crops wouldn't be able to grow!"
"Of course not!" Zhou's mother happily followed her back. After climbing the ridge, she saw Wang Chunhua's new house, which was almost completed, and said with emotion:
"This guy is really asking for trouble. When Cai Ermei comes out of jail, his wife and children will belong to someone else."
"Did she and Li Wu succeed?"
"It didn't work. Wang Chunhua planned to recruit a man from the mountains like Ye Xiaoshuang did. I heard that it was Ye Xiaoshuang who arranged the relationship. The man is from the same village as her husband."
Mother Zhou paused for a moment. "Wang Chunhua's family really loves her. I heard that she renovated her new house and her brothers helped her pay for half of the money. If she has her own house and marries a son-in-law, and they have another baby, it will be better than being a stepmother in Li Wu's house."
Yang Chunyan thought so too. It was difficult to be a stepmother, especially when there was a woman like Zou Cuifen in the Li Wu family. Even if she married into the family, Li Wu and his mother would have to be on guard against her.
When the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law arrived home, the old man took Xiao Jiuer to the back mountain. Just as they took the bean stalks out of the basket, Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang came.
"The youngest one said he's going to have tofu pudding tonight and asked us to help."
"You've come at the right time. Help me peel and grind it. I'll go braise the pig intestines and wait for the youngest to come back with the fish." Mother Zhou stood up, pulled down her apron that was drying on the bamboo pole, and went to the kitchen to busy herself.
Zhao Huifang pulled a straw stool and sat down with Zhang Xiuxiang. "Did you buy some pig intestines?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Huaian has gone fishing, tonight we will eat fish with pig intestines and dipped in tofu pudding."
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "They are all delicious. It's better to have some free time. I can also make some delicious food."
The three of them peeled the soybeans for more than half an hour and finally peeled out all the soybeans in the basket. The soybean stalks were not wasted and were tied up with straw and dried in the sun. They were perfect for making matches.
A basket full of bean stalks was peeled and a porcelain basin full of soybeans was peeled out. Two or three pounds of beans were placed in the wine cellar. There was no need to soak the fresh soybeans. Just rinse them casually, add two scoops of water to them, and bring them to the millstone to start cleaning the stone mill.
Yang Chunyan went back and got a rice spoon and put it in the basin. Zhao Huifang picked up the rice spoon and scooped a spoonful of beans into the center of the mill. "Xiuxiang and I will push the mill, and you go pick green and red peppers to make the dipping sauce."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan picked up the basket and went out, and saw Zhou's father put a large bundle of yellow bamboo in the ditch and pressed it with stones. "Old man, what are you doing with soaking yellow bamboo?"
Father Zhou looked up and said, "Yellow bamboo strips are not as tough as green bamboo strips. Soak them overnight, and the things you weave will last longer."
"Oh!" Yang Chunyan went to the vegetable field with a basket and saw two yellow papayas on the papaya tree. She thought of picking them later and bringing them to her younger sister when she gave her tofu pudding tomorrow.
There is a large patch of red Erjingtiao peppers in the vegetable garden. Only this variety of peppers can be used to make bean paste, which is fragrant. Just wait until the moldy bean paste at home is ready, and then you can pick it to make bean paste.
Yang Chunyan thought that using all the erhu branches would not be spicy enough, so after picking half a basket of them, she picked a handful of chili peppers and mixed them in. She then pulled out a handful of green onions and a handful of cilantro that had already grown moss and took them back.
As I walked into the yard, I could smell the unique aroma of braised pig intestines. "Mom, is the braised pig intestines ready?"
"Just simmer it over a fire." Mother Zhou took the basket and said, "I'll chop it. I'll try to make the dipping sauce that Xiaomei mentioned."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "You still have to try. Whatever Chef Chen makes is delicious."
Zhou's mother was so happy that she couldn't close her mouth. She smiled and patted her, "You also learned bad things from the youngest."
"No way, I'm speaking the truth." Yang Chunyan smiled and went to the backyard to get a sickle, and then fetched a high stool. She went to the vegetable garden and placed the stool under the papaya tree. She stepped on it and cut the ripe papayas.
"Chunyan, the pears at your eldest brother's house are so sweet. It would be great if ours were the same variety as his."
Yang Chunyan turned around and saw Li Qiuyue coming over with Xiaolong in her arms. "It doesn't matter if they are not the same species. We can just go to his place and cut some branches and bring them back for grafting."
"Yeah!" Li Qiuyue reached out to catch the papaya, "Did you see Qiuxia in Ning'an?"
Yang Chunyan turned around to cut another one. "I saw it. She said that business has been good these days."
Li Qiuyue said happily: "I heard from the third brother that the Tiezhu brothers have also come to the county to work. I will go to Ning'an with the third brother tomorrow to deliver the goods and visit them by the way."
"Your sister and her family don't make tofu pudding to sell?"
"I did it. I heard that when things are good, you can earn one or two dollars a day, but when things are bad, you can't even earn one dollar a day. My sister and brother-in-law can do it alone, so Tiezhu and the others have to go out and find work."
Li Qiuyue said gratefully: "Thanks to Brother Huang and Wang Zhen's help in finding connections, they were able to go to the coal yard to help load the trucks. I heard that they can earn more than a hundred yuan a month."
Yang Chunyan picked up the stool and said, "A cart of coal only costs fifty cents, and I can earn more than a hundred yuan a month, which means I am willing to work hard."
"They stay in the mountains and work during the busy farming season. During the slack season, they either sleep or play cards." Li Qiuyue helped her carry the papaya back. "The kids have little education and can't cook. They are so happy to earn more than a hundred yuan by doing manual labor." (End of this chapter)
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