After Yang Chunyan and Yang Chunyan finished their meal, Zhou Huaishan gave the money from selling herbs to Zhou Huaian, "Qiuyue and the elder sister-in-law dug some Poria cocos and brought them back. Together with the dried goods, they sold for more than fifty yuan. You get twenty-six. Tomorrow morning you go to Ning'an, and I'll stay at home to work on the kiln."
"Yes!" Seeing that he didn't mention the tractor, Zhou Huaian thought it wouldn't happen so soon so he didn't mention it either.
Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue came back carrying the cleaned herbs. When they saw Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian coming back, they told them about Cai Ermei and the others encountering a black bear when they went into the mountains.
Zhou's mother came over from the backyard carrying a pig feed bucket and said to the others, "Huifang, Xiuxiang, and Qiuyue will help with the kiln tomorrow. When the kiln is ready, send the rapeseed to the oil press in town for oil pressing. Each of you will carry ten kilograms of rapeseed oil back to your parents' home."
She thought that her family had not been doing well in the past few years, and that it was thanks to the help of her relatives that they did not mind the shabby gifts from her family. Now that her family was doing better, it was time to repay their kindness.
Li Qiuyue said, "Mom, I won't go back." She would rather stay at home than send gifts to her brother and sister-in-law from her mother's family.
Zhou's mother did not try to persuade her. "If you don't go back, you will also have a share of the ten kilograms of rapeseed oil. I will give you ten kilograms more when the family is divided."
Li Qiuyue nodded happily, "Okay!"
Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang were also very happy. They thought of taking the money to the town to buy a few pounds of meat, and then buy some candies and cakes to bring back and bring honor to their parents' home.
Yang Chunyan poured out the fine-leaved Dendrobium, and after the few people picked them, they went back to their rooms to sleep.
Zhou Huaian lay on the bed with his head in his arms, "Yan'er, let's go to Ning'an tomorrow. What can I buy for my father-in-law and mother-in-law?"
Yang Chunyan took a dry towel and sat on the edge of the bed, slowly wiping her hair. "What do you think I should buy?"
Zhou Huaian took the handkerchief from her hand and helped her wipe it. "My father-in-law often goes up the mountain. Buy him two pairs of yellow rubber shoes to wear alternately, and buy two pairs of boots for the two of them, and some cloth to make clothes."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Okay! Buy two pairs of sandals for the two nephews, and two pieces of cloth to make clothes."
"You are the head of the family, just do whatever you want." Zhou Huaian rubbed her hair, "Don't wash your hair at night in the future. You have a lot of hair and it's not easy to dry. My mother said that my head hurts after going to bed with wet hair."
Yang Chunyan touched it and found it was still moist. "You sweat so much that your hair has become sour and smelly. You go to sleep first. I'll sew up the torn clothes and let your hair air out before you go to sleep."
"Sewing with a kerosene lamp hurts your eyes." Zhou Huaian hugged her and looked at her with a smile, "Let's talk for a while, and then go to bed after your hair is dry."
Yang Chunyan slapped his dishonest hand away and said, "Just talk, don't move your hands."
Zhou Huaian smirked and said, "You've been very quiet for a long time. I almost couldn't hold it back any longer." He moved closer to her, covered her mouth, and leaned over to press on her.
The next morning, Yang Chunyan seemed to hear Zhou's mother calling her in a daze, and she struggled to wake up. It was indeed Zhou's mother calling them to get up outside the window.
She responded quickly, turned over and sat up, taking his hand off her waist, "Huaian, mom is calling us, get up quickly."
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian sat up, squinting his eyes and sighing, "I can't wake up, I can't wake up! It seems I need to buy an alarm clock."
Yang Chunyan shook her head, "Wait until we move into the new house before buying it, otherwise it will wake Xiaolin up."
When the two of them went out, Zhou's mother had already prepared breakfast, and Zhou Huairong and others were already sitting in the main room eating.
Zhou Huaian picked up the bowl and said, "Brother, what are you doing up so early?"
Zhou Huairong looked back at him and said, "The kiln is open today, it won't be so hot if you go earlier."
Yang Chunyan asked: "Brother, how many bricks and tiles are there in a kiln? Have you hired anyone to help?"
Zhou Huairong smiled and said, "A kiln has about 20,000 bricks and 10,000 tiles. The old man hired two people to help him fill the kiln and start the fire."
Zhou Huaian: "It takes ten days or half a month to produce a kiln. No wonder the construction will not start until the second half of the year."
Zhou Huaijun: "We have four brothers and four houses, which requires more than 100,000 bricks and tiles in total. Even if we start the construction of the house, there are still not enough bricks and tiles. We can only build the house while firing the kiln. By the time the house is finished, at least a layer of bricks will be lost."
Zhou Huairong smiled and said, "It's hard to fire the kiln by yourself, but it saves most of the money, which is more cost-effective than doing odd jobs."
"That's right, if Brother Nong Er is not suffering, then who is?" Zhou Huaishan put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth and walked out.
The Zhou Huairong brothers also put down their bowls, took their straw hats and went out.
Yang Chunyan glanced at Zhou Huaian and said, "The family is busy today, so let's quickly hand over the vegetables and help."
Zhou Huaian looked at Zhou Huairong, who had lost a lot of weight, and nodded.
Zhou's mother came over and said, "Chunyan, I'm going to treat the kiln workers to a meal today. After we sell the vegetables, you can buy a piece of meat, some pig liver, and half a pig head."
"I understand."
The two of them finished their meal in a few bites, went out, hung two bamboo baskets on the cart, placed the sacks full of herbs horizontally on the bamboo baskets and tied them up, then pushed the cart out the door together.
When Zhou Huairong and his brothers arrived at the earthen kiln, they saw that Zhou's father and the old man had already started working in the kiln.
The three of them carried baskets and entered the earthen kiln. A burst of hot air rushed out. The temperature inside the kiln was much higher than outside.
The old man and Mr. Zhou’s heads and faces were covered in black and gray, only their teeth were still white.
The three brothers replaced two of them and went back to have breakfast and carry the bricks and tiles down.
After Zhou's father and the old man went home for breakfast, Zhao Huifang also carried the prepared tea and went to the earthen kiln with them.
Liu the potter and his son and the two invited villagers also came.
There were about ten people, some were standing in the earthen kiln carrying tiles and bricks out, while others were carrying the still hot bricks and tiles to the open space that had been leveled long ago and placing them.
The people outside were better off, but those inside the kiln would get soaked after working for a while.
Potter Liu picked up a green brick and saw that the fired brick was round in shape and uniform in color, and it made a "dangdang" sound when he knocked it in his hand.
Father Zhou happily gave a thumbs up and said, "Master Liu's craftsmanship is well-known in the surrounding area."
Liu the potter was proud in his heart, but said modestly, "As long as you are satisfied, brother."
*****
Yang Chunyan and the others arrived at Ning'an, but Deshengtang was not open yet. "Huai'an, please deliver the food to the guesthouse first. I'll wait here for them to open."
“Yes.”
The two men carried the herbs down and placed them at the entrance of the alley. Zhou Huaian pushed the cart to the guesthouse to weigh them.
After getting the money, Huang Yongcai said with a smile, "Youngest brother, I've asked someone to find out about the tractor. There should be news the day after tomorrow."
Zhou Huaian didn't expect it to be so fast, and looked at him in surprise, "Brother Huang, what do I need to prepare?"
Huang Yongcai laughed and said, "What do you need to prepare? Just prepare the money!"
"Hmm!" Zhou Huaian scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "Brother Huang, what I mean is that you need favors when you ask for help. I can't let you pay for it!"
Huang Yongcai looked at him with satisfaction, thought for a moment, and said, "How about this, you can just make two bottles of the pollen and old honey you gave me last time." (End of this chapter)
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