Two days after the Lantern Festival, on March 2nd, the kiln factory delivered the bricks that Shen Anning had bought. The residential land approved by Wang Wenjia was just behind the left side of Shen Anning's courtyard, behind Aunt Sufen's private plot, very close.
Wang Wenjia announced to the public that the bricks were made with the help of an acquaintance that Lin Erjun met when he was helping someone in the county town. He did not mention Shen Anning's name. There were many people in the village who were on good terms with Lin Erjun. After all, Lin Erjun had a good temper and was loyal. Even with such a bad mother, he still had many friends.
Before starting work, everyone helped him drag adobe bricks, lay the foundation, and build a house. It took about ten days, and a small courtyard was built. It was similar to the one built by Shen An Ning, except that theirs did not have the two rooms of the infirmary.
On the day of raising the beam, Wang Wenjia invited Shen Anning to a banquet. Shen Anning found two iron pots in the space and sold them to them for thirty yuan without a ticket.
On March 20th, the Spring Equinox, the village began to arrange strong laborers to plow the land. The soil was frozen, and the frozen soil had to be cultivated before crops could be planted.
This kind of work that requires strength is usually assigned to young and middle-aged people. Shen Anning is still the same as usual. Every day he is either in the infirmary or going up the mountain. School has started, and a group of children have also resumed their daily exercise activities of running up the mountain.
This winter, Shen Anning prescribed traditional Chinese medicine for many elderly people in the village to keep fit, so many of them lived much more comfortably this winter than in previous years, and the villagers also became better to Shen Anning.
On this day, Shen An Ning was training Shen Zixi to sit on the kang. Now she was six months old and could start exercising the strength of her spine, but the little girl was very uncooperative. She always stretched out her legs and wanted to stand, which made Shen An Ning very amused.
I was playing with my little niece when I heard a voice in the yard, "Shen Zhiqing, are you home?"
"Wang Zhiqing, why are you here? Come in quickly." After bringing Wang Wenjia into the house, Shen Anning poured a glass of water and put it on the kang table.
"Chen Zhiqing, I'm here today to pay you back. I sent a letter to my cousin before, telling him about the situation here, and he remitted the money to me." As he spoke, Wang Wenjia took out a large stack of Great Unity notes from the basket. Shen Anning glanced at it and found it was too much. She only lent Wang Wenjia 150 yuan, but the Great Unity notes on the table looked like there were about 300 yuan.
Raising his eyebrows, looking at Wang Wenjia, Shen Anning had some doubts.
Wang Wenjia took out everything from the basket and placed it on the kang. "You lent me 150 yuan. Here are 300 yuan. The extra money is a thank-you gift from my cousin Cao Jingheng. Thank you for the gifts he gave to his grandparents. And these are the specialties he bought for you in Guangzhou: coconut candy, almond cookies, and water chestnut cakes. This piece of cloth is Guangdong embroidery. You can make some handkerchiefs or silk scarves that would look nice."
Shen An Ning looked at the pile of gifts on the table. This Cao Jingheng was quite good at giving gifts, including food, daily necessities, and money. She didn't know why he had never appeared in his previous life. In fact, logically speaking, the Cao family only had him as a child. If there hadn't been this movement, they probably wouldn't have agreed to let him join the army. After all, the Cao family's power was all in the business world, and joining the army was not a good choice.
"Okay, I'll accept the gift and the money. If Grandpa Cao needs anything in the future, I'll send it over." Grandpa and Grandpa Cao were friends, and Shen Anning also hoped that everyone could hold on until the day the darkness was over.
After seeing Wang Wenjia off, Shen Anning opened the gifts Cao Jingheng had given her. They were all wrapped in several layers of oil paper, and it looked like they had been made with great care. Shen Anning tasted each one first. The coconut candy nowadays was not that sweet and tasted more fragrant, which Shen Anning liked very much. The water chestnut cake tasted good too, and there were a lot of almonds in the almond cakes, about two kilograms each, and it was estimated that he had spent a lot of money on it.
Put the food in the kang cabinet and save it for Shen Anyu and Shen Anxuan to eat when they come back. Shen Zixi on the kang looked at Shen Anning eating, and was very greedy. She screamed "ah ah ah", and howled dryly if she ignored her. She had a strong sense of presence.
Now that the month is older, Shen An Ning feels that the little girl is getting smarter and harder to fool, so he closes the door and takes the little person into the space. She is six months old and can eat some complementary food. He takes an apple and steams it in a pot. He uses tools to clean it and puts it in a bowl to make apple puree. He adds the powder made from dried chicken and takes a light bite. It tastes pretty good.
After feeding the little girl a bite, Shen Zixi liked it so much that she stretched out her two chubby hands and tried to grab the bowl and spoon from Shen Anning's hands, "Ah, ah"
"Don't be anxious, little greedy cat, auntie will feed you. Tell me, why do you like to eat so much?" After half a bowl of food went into his stomach, looking at Xixi's little expression, Shen An Ning seemed to read a feeling of dissatisfaction.
"You can't eat anymore today. Let's try something else tomorrow." He carried the little one to the sofa in the living room, turned on the TV and let her sit and watch TV. Only the chef Xiao Fugui could hold her and sit for a while. Maybe because she was well taken care of, the little one developed faster than other children and now she can stand for a while.
Back in the room, I looked at my watch. It was almost eleven o'clock. Shen Anning started to prepare lunch. The family had eaten simple meals in the past few days and hadn't cooked meat for a week. The two elementary school children were a little greedy.
Thinking that the twins' birthday is on March 27th, which is tomorrow, Shen An Ning plans to take out a cream cake from the cake shop and give them a surprise. Anyway, she can change the shape and splice it to make it fit the ones sold in foreign trade stores now, and then say that she made it herself.
In this space this year, fruits and ribs were consumed the most, while only half a pig was eaten. A lot of it was given to grandpa and parents. I took out a piece of lean hind leg meat and made Northeastern dish, sweet and sour pork, for lunch today. I marinated the meat briefly, made a batter to wrap the meat, fried it in oil until golden brown, then poured the prepared sauce into the pan and stir-fried it together. After taking it out of the pan, I took a bite and it tasted good.
Add some hot and sour potato shreds, a portion of Chinese cabbage, and some steamed sweet potato rice, it’s just right for three people.
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