"Xiu Xiang, I'm going to steam the rice." Zhao Huifang picked up the porcelain basin and scooped out a bowl of corn kernels from the rice jar. She added a bowl of white rice and poured them into the sorghum rice that had been soaked after dinner, and began to wash the rice.
Since they started harvesting mushrooms, several of them have sent food, oil, salt and seasonings, otherwise they would not have the nerve to eat at Chunyan's house.
Originally, Li Qiuyue was supposed to help with cooking, but after two days she complained of stomach discomfort, and no one dared to let her do it anymore.
When it was time to harvest truffles, Chunyan was already older, but she still helped out every day until the end of the work. I wonder why Qiuyue has become so pampered now?
Zhao Huifang was lost in thought as she brought the washed rice to the drying room, poured it into the pot, shoveled it a few times with a shovel, and then covered the pot with a lid.
When Zhou's mother went to the old house to collect vegetables, she prepared the dinner. She scraped and cleaned the soaked bacon, rinsed it with hot water, put it in another pot, boiled it, and then put the tender pumpkin, cowpea and green beans into the pot.
Stewed bacon with green peppers, a large pot of vegetarian dish, stir-fried potato shreds, and a large pot of stir-fried mushrooms. The simple three dishes and one soup are ready.
Zhou Jiaming and his friends carried some dried red mushrooms into the yard. "Mom, I'm starving. Have we fried our sandworms and mountain crabs?"
Zhao Huifang wanted to get angry, but she turned around and looked at the child who was sweating and blushing, and said gently: "I'm too busy today, I'll fry it for you tomorrow morning when I'm not busy!"
"Oh!" Zhou Jiaming nodded repeatedly after hearing this. "There are five baskets of dried red mushrooms over there. Let's go get them and then we can eat."
Zhao Huifang looked at the red mushrooms in the basket and said, "Don't fill it so full this time. It's too heavy and will hurt your waist."
Zhou Jialiang looked at her and said, "When I was collecting herbal seeds, I said my waist was about to break. Didn't you say we were too young to have strong waists?"
"..." Zhao Huifang didn't know what to say to him, so she slapped him and said, "I told you to drink less, so drink less. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"
"Auntie!" Zhou Jiakang pulled her, "When you adults wanted us to help with something, you said we didn't have backbone. When they were afraid that we would be weighed down by heavy objects and wouldn't grow taller, our backbone returned."
"Hahaha..." Everyone burst into laughter.
Jiang Yu was so happy that he couldn't straighten his back, "Oh my! Xiuxiang's kid is so playful!"
Zhao Huifang laughed and said, "Jiekang learned his tongue from his father, he is very slick."
Zhou Jiakang: "I'm not like my father, I'm like my mother. I can never win an argument with her!"
Zhou Xiaoqian grabbed his ears and said, "Let's go, you're the only one who talks too much!"
Zhou Jiakang grabbed her hand and said, "Sister, sister, dear sister, please spare my life. Next time I won't..."
Jiang Yu and the others couldn't help laughing, "These kids of yours are so fun to play with!"
After dinner, Yang Chunyan's family was about to close the gate and go to the backyard to wash red mushrooms when Xu Erchun and Yang Hui came pulling a cart.
She hurriedly opened the door and asked, "Why are you guys so late today?"
Yang Hui said with a tired face: "When I was halfway back, the tire got punctured by something. Luckily I met an acquaintance who borrowed a wheel and helped me get back."
"You are lucky, otherwise how could you two get so many bamboo baskets back?" Yang Chunyan said, "We just had dinner and have some leftovers. Why don't we eat here?"
Yang Hui smiled and waved her hand, "No need, my mother-in-law has already prepared it at home. When she was waiting for us in the sun, she also sent us two eggs."
After Erchun's old man passed away, he couldn't bear to see his mother living alone, so he asked her for permission to bring her to live with them.
She was originally worried that her mother-in-law would not get along with her after they moved in, but maybe it was because Erchun greeted her, and they got along quite well after they came. They went to pick mushrooms, and there was someone to take care of the chickens, ducks and pigs at home.
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Then take them in first. We will sort and weigh them, and you can come back tomorrow to settle the bill."
Yang Hui smiled and said, "You have to pay the interest when you settle the bill tomorrow!"
"What should I do if I can't find a way to make money?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and helped push the cart to the backyard. Zhou Huaian and his brothers hurriedly moved the bamboo baskets down. After counting the number, two of them pulled the cart away.
Zhou Huaijun looked at the bamboo baskets sent by Xu Erchun and his wife, "Youngest brother, today, except for Huai Qing and Xu Laosan, their goods are almost the same as before. Every family here has received more goods than before!"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Today, even the goods sent by the villagers are more than before. You can see that there is almost no place to stand in the backyard. In the past, we hoped for rain, but now we hope that it will be sunny for two days without raining, otherwise the oven will not be able to bake in time."
The old man came out and looked at the sky, "Don't worry, it should be sunny for a few days before it rains again."
"That's good." Zhou Huaian took the red mushrooms sent out from the drying room and put them in the warehouse. After drying them for a day tomorrow, they can be packed into baskets.
There were two baking rooms and two ovens that were burning non-stop. Baking trays were constantly being moved in and out of the ovens. There were more and more dried red mushrooms in the baskets. Everyone was busy until after twelve o'clock that night before they got all the red mushrooms into the baking room.
Zhou's mother and Jiang Yu left with flashlights. Zhang Xiuxiang pounded her waist and said to Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang, "How about we go into the mountains to pick spring grass and morels tomorrow morning?"
Zhao Huifang nodded repeatedly after hearing this, "Chunyan, let's go?"
Yang Chunyan looked at the two tireless people and said with a smile: "If you want to go, go at half past six. It's too early."
Zhao Huifang smiled and nodded, "You don't have to get up to make dry food tomorrow morning. I'll make it and you can take it with you."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan went to the bathroom carrying a bucket of water.
Zhou Huaian thought of what Wang Zhen said about the two elders not getting enough rest during this period, so he said to the old man and Zhou's father: "You go to sleep, and my second brother and I will watch over the oven."
The batch of red mushrooms sent in this morning will be out of the drying room in an hour. Two people must watch over it and quickly take it out when the time comes, and send the wet red mushrooms in the bamboo basket back in.
Father Zhou said, "Your grandfather can only sleep in the first half of the night, let him go to bed first."
"Then I'll go to bed first, and let Huaijun go back as well. We have to get up early tomorrow!" The old man walked to the front yard with a handkerchief in his hand.
Yang Chunyan came out of the bathroom and saw Zhou Huaian holding Xiao Jiuer leaning on the recliner, "Why don't you take a shower?"
"The old man and I will stay up for half the night and wait for Grandpa to come before going to sleep!" Zhou Huaian thought about it and said, "Are you really going to pick up the spring grass tomorrow morning?"
"There are so many in the woods, it would be a shame not to pick them up."
"Take the dog with you tomorrow morning." Zhou Huaian said as he handed the child to her.
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan took the child and walked towards the room.
…
The next morning, Yang Chunyan woke up and saw that Zhou Huaian had already delivered the vegetables to Ning'an. After feeding Xiao Jiuer, she handed him to Zhou's mother, then called Lai Fu, tied him up with a leash, and led him to carry the household items to the main room.
Zhang Xiuxiang was eating rice balls, and when she saw her coming, she handed her one, "I learned how to make it from you, sister-in-law, try it and see if it tastes good."
"I can't believe your skills, but my sister-in-law's is still trustworthy." Yang Chunyan took it, took a few bites, and broke half off and gave it to Lai Fu.
"Let's go!" Zhao Huifang put on the army green shoulder bag containing dry food, and the three of them went to the backyard together and walked towards the mountain.
Yang Chunyan untied Laifu's dog leash, patted him and let him run around, then said to the two of them, "We won't pick mushrooms on the way, let's go straight to that forest."
"Great!" The three of them climbed straight up the ridge, and Lai Fu followed them soon.
Zhao Huifang looked at Lai Fu who was playing around Yang Chunyan and said, "Lai Fu, go up the mountain today and catch some pheasants and stew them with mushrooms."
"Woof woof!" Lai Fu barked at her twice and rushed forward.
As we went along, the woods were full of people picking mushrooms, but we didn't see any chicken mushrooms, let alone a single bigfoot mushroom.
At around nine o'clock, the three of them arrived at the big-fruited banyan tree, picked some fruits to eat, and walked inside with the dog.
Not long after they walked in, they saw a few women picking mushrooms coming out with baskets on their backs. The three of them looked at each other and felt that the morels in them must be gone.
When the people on the opposite side came closer, Zhao Huifang saw that they were from the village. She smiled and said, "Sister Lai, are you going out so early?"
Mrs. Lai curled her lips and said, "I thought I could find something good if I walked a little further. I picked up a few morels, assorted mushrooms, and big-foot mushrooms when I came in."
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "We just arrived, let's go in and take a look first."
"Go ahead, let's go and take a look across there."
Zhang Xiuxiang saw them leaving, turned to Yang Chunyan and said, "There is no spring grass in their baskets."
Yang Chunyan also saw it, "Well! Let's go in and take a look first."
The three men and the dog wasted no time and soon arrived at the forest where they had picked spring grass last year. They saw a gorgeous red color under the dead leaves.
"Fortunately, they can't recognize it." Zhang Xiuxiang happily put down the backpack, picked up the crowbar and started working.
Yang Chunyan patted the dog to tell it to stay put and not run away, then she started to get busy. Soon the basket was full, and she poured the food into her backpack and got busy again.
"Awooo...Woof woof...Woof woof..." Suddenly Lai Fu started barking wildly into the woods.
Yang Chunyan quickly put down the basket and picked up the medicine hoe, "Second sister-in-law, eldest sister-in-law, come here, there may be wild animals in the woods."
"Oh!" After hearing this, the two hurriedly carried the basket and the medicine hoe to her side, looking in the direction where Lai Fu was barking, "Don't you see anything?"
Yang Chunyan stared at the direction where Lai Fu was calling, and then she saw a big snake as thick as a wrist hanging on a dead branch in front of her. "See? There's a five-step snake in front!"
Zhang Xiuxiang and the others followed the direction she pointed, and saw a tail hanging on the tree and flowing upwards. They immediately felt their hair stand on end, "Luckily we didn't go over there."
Yang Chunyan looked at the spring grass under the tree roots and said thankfully, "Luckily I brought the dog here today."
Zhao Huifang touched the dog's head and said, "Go back and cook a piece of bacon and give the bone to Lai Fu to chew on!"
Lai Fu kept wagging his tail and looked at her with a smile on his face, "Woof woof~"
Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and said, "Look, it seems to be smiling. I found that your Lai Fu and Wang Cai are almost becoming spirits."
Yang Chunyan stroked the dog and said, "Mountain dogs are very intelligent and they understand human nature the best. After spending time with them for a long time, they really understand human language."
Zhao Huifang and the others both felt that she was right. “Look at the way it looks at us, it’s like a child listening to an adult talking.” (End of this chapter)
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