Chapter 150 Chapter 149: Vicious Tongue
Zhang Xiuxiang said to Zhou Xiaoqian who was standing at the door of the main hall, "Hurry up and finish your homework, and go call your sister back to help you pick the herbs."
Zhou Xiaoqian pouted, "My brother and the others went to the earthen kiln to help tread the mud. I want to go too after I finish my homework."
Zhang Xiuxiang rolled her eyes at her, "You are just a bunch of idiots, you just like to step on the mud!"
Mother Zhou wiped her hands and came out of the kitchen, "Xiao Qian, go call the ancestors to come back for dinner."
"Oh!" Zhou Xiaoqian packed her books and ran out of the house.
In front of the earthen kiln, Liu the potter was still busy making adobe bricks. He cut off a piece of clay, put it in the brick mold, and skillfully scraped off the excess clay with a bow, and then took it to the site to knock out the bricks.
After packing up the tools, I walked towards the pile of yellow mud in front.
Father Zhou and Zhou Huairong stood in a pile of yellow mud, pulling up their trouser legs and stomping back and forth in the mud. Both of their legs were covered with yellow mud, and sweat flowed down their temples onto their dark faces, and then dripped into the yellow mud again.
After checking, Liu the potter said to the father and his sons, "It's all right. Just shovel it out and pile it up, and we're done."
Father Zhou nodded and handed over a cigarette, "Yes, take care!"
"Okay!" Potter Liu put on the homespun jacket placed aside and walked down the mountain.
The Zhou family hired him as a contractor, with no food provided, and paid him three dollars a day.
Zhou's father and Zhou Huairong picked up a pry and shoveled the stepped clay into the shed, piling it into a mud wall.
Four sons need four houses, and four houses require hundreds of thousands of bricks and tiles, all of which are made manually, which requires a lot of labor.
On the open space next to them, the old man led Zhou Jiaming to line up the earthen bricks, which had gradually hardened after two days of drying, one next to the other, and used a homemade wooden clapper to beat the bricks to make them smooth and flat.
When the bricks are about 80% to 90% dry, they are moved into the shed and stacked. After the bricks are naturally dry, they can be loaded into the kiln and fired.
Zhou Jiaming worked very hard, hoping to move into the new house tomorrow so that he wouldn't have to live with his parents and would have his own room.
Zhou Jialiang, along with his three younger brothers, carried the bricks that were already about 80% to 90% dry into the bamboo shed, and piled them on the open space, waiting for Zhou's father and others to stack them.
Zhou Xiaolin sat on the ground playing with mud, her face covered with mud.
Zhou Xiaoqian ran to the earthen kiln, and her father, who was panting as he dug clay to build the earthen wall, said, "Grandpa, grandma is calling you to go back for dinner."
Father Zhou nodded and said, "Take Xiaolin back first. Grandpa will cover this up and then go back."
"Oh!" Zhou Xiaoqian went over and saw the yellow mud on Zhou Xiaolin's face, and hurriedly pulled her up, patting the dust off her butt like a little adult, "Xiaolin, you're making mud again, Auntie San will spank you when we get home."
Zhou Xiaolin opened her five fingers and slapped her clothes, "No spanking, big sister is bad!"
Zhou Xiaoqian looked at the yellow mud handprints on her clothes and jumped up in anger, "Little rascal, I won't find fruit for you to eat in the future."
Zhou Xiaolin looked at the handprints on her clothes and clapped her hands and giggled, "Sister, you are a bad guy, a bad guy..."
Zhou Xiaoqian threatened: "Grandma has cooked some delicious meat. If you don't behave, I won't take you back to eat it."
"Xiaolin, be good. Xiaolin, don't get muddy!" Zhou Xiaolin said as she threw the mud in her hand on the ground and held her hand. "Sister, let's go home."
Zhou Xiaoqian yelled at the old man, "Grandpa, go home and eat."
The old man waved his hand and said, "Jia Ming, you go back first."
Zhou Jiaming: "Let Jiakang and the others go first."
"Sister, wait a minute, we want to go back too." Zhou Jiakang and others hurriedly followed.
****
Zhou Huaian walked into the yard with a shrimp basket in one hand and a urea bag in the other.
Seeing Yang Chunyan and the others picking herbs on the steps, he walked over with a smile and opened the urea bag, "Look, we're lucky today. We got a few big crucian carps and a few carps weighing a few pounds each. It's enough for Ning An's steel loach and stone crawler."
Yang Chunyan took a look and said, "Not bad! Hurry up and kill the crucian carp and give it to mom to fry. Send the rest to Dr. Wang and Huang the purchaser tomorrow."
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian walked to the well, poured the fish into buckets, went back to the house to get a kitchen knife, killed the fish neatly and sent it to the kitchen.
Li Qiuyue saw him coming out to pick Patchouli in the vegetable garden and asked, "Youngest brother, have you sold the steel bar quota?"
Zhou Huaian thought of his mother's words, "Doctor Wang said the buyer will come tomorrow."
Li Qiuyue: "One ton of steel bars costs 700 yuan. I'm happy if I can make 20 yuan per ton."
Zhou Huaian curled his lips and said bluntly: "Third sister-in-law, I still remember you said before that you would be happy to get two yuan a day for digging herbs with us. What happened? I think you are not sincere!"
After hearing this, Li Qiuyue's face turned red like a cooked shrimp, and she looked at Yang Chunyan awkwardly, "Chunyan, you give us the money, and I, your sister-in-law, will remember your kindness."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "We are one family and don't talk behind each other's backs. You know Huai'an has a bad mouth, so don't bother with him."
"Well! I'm too lazy to bother with him!" Li Qiuyue concentrated on picking herbs.
Yang Chunyan rolled her eyes at Zhou Huaian, thinking that he was what people in later generations called a poisonous tongue, the kind that could choke people to death!
Zhou Huaian touched his nose and went to the kitchen with the patchouli. "Mom, Yiding and I have agreed that I will take Chunyan to the mountains to find him after I return from Ning'an. Remember to take the sisters-in-law to dig some mountain radishes the day after tomorrow."
"I understand!" Zhou's mother said, glancing at him, "You didn't tell Erchun and Dakuan about sending vegetables to Ning'an and going up the mountain to get herbs, did you?"
"No, I waited until Erchun and Dakuan left before I told Yiding about going up the mountain."
Ever since the last incident of Cai Ermei stealing his business, he understood that people have different minds. Some people you can be confidant with, while others you have to be wary of.
Erchun is a good person, but he talks too quickly. He says things that he should and shouldn’t say. To put it bluntly, he is just like me before!
Dakuan is a nice person, but he has brothers and sisters at home. If we really depend on each other, our brothers will definitely be the closest to us!
Among several friends, Yiding and I are best friends. We are also uncles and brothers, so we are closer than Erchun and the others.
Mother Zhou glanced at him and said, "If you had listened to us before and kept your mouth shut in front of outsiders, it would be great if we were the only family catching eels now!"
Zhou Huaian: "Buying and selling eels is not a long-term business. Isn't it better to deliver vegetables to Ning'an every day?"
Zhou's mother thought about it and said, "Let's start planting vegetables tomorrow!"
Zhou Huaian came out of the kitchen, eager to tell Yang Chunyan about the big money he made from the sale, so he found an excuse and said, "Yan'er, I used some of the money from the sale today. Give me some money and I'll share it with my brother and the others later."
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan understood what he had to say, so she put down the herbs and stood up, "I'll get it for you!"
Zhao Huifang joked, "Oh! The youngest one is really awake now. He gave all the family money to Chunyan."
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "Grandpa said that a wife who manages the money will prosper. Isn't all the money that my eldest brother earns given to my eldest sister-in-law?"
Mother Zhou: "Put it away for Chunyan, so you don't have to spend money lavishly."
(End of this chapter)
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