Chapter 38
The next day, Shi Erlang and the Lu brothers arrived at Chen's house at dawn, each carrying a bamboo tube with water and a big axe. Old Man Chen and Chen Youtian did the same. Since no one had two axes at home, they borrowed one from a neighbor, and the five of them went into the mountains together.
The villagers had only heard about Sang Luo building a house yesterday, but today they actually saw it, and Shen San was not really inside, so everyone was watching secretly and having fun. Of course, at this point, everyone only saw the Shen family’s children jumping out happily, but as for Shen San and his wife, neither of them left the yard.
As for Old Man Chen, the five of them attracted quite a lot of attention. Whenever they passed by the door of a house, they were saluted from afar. When they got closer, the kinder ones asked, "Are you really building a house for the head of the Shen family?"
The dishonest one asked with a smile: "What are you trying to achieve? After a day's work, Sang will treat you to wild vegetable soup? Will you do that?"
Wild vegetable soup?
Old man Chen just smiled.
At noon, when every household in the village began to prepare or eat breakfast, a strong aroma of meat filled the air in the small village.
Unlike Sang Luo and her family who live alone in the mountains, the houses of the villagers in Shili Village are also surrounded by mountains, but the twenty-two households can be considered to live together.
If someone's family eats meat, not to mention the whole village, at least seven or eight out of the twenty-two families will know about it.
And if there happens to be wind, the small mountain wind will blow, and more than half of the children in the village will be sucked out.
What a coincidence, it is such a nice weather today.
In the village, those who had not yet started eating walked out of their houses and exchanged glances with their neighbors who had also walked out: "Who is cooking this meat?"
Those who had already started eating, holding the vegetable porridge in their hands, had not yet started eating. When they smelled the fragrance, the porridge at their mouths suddenly lost its fragrance. The family looked at each other and asked, "Who is eating meat?"
This is the one who lives far away, and this is the one who lives nearby. It must be the Shen San family who lives next to the Chen family.
Little Shen Jin and his two little brothers had a bowl of meat porridge from their eldest cousin's wife yesterday. They also knew how generous their cousin was in eating. Now, they don't need to fish with oil residue anymore. They are the most active little pioneers in the reclamation team.
As soon as Tian Cailiang saw his mother was still asleep, he picked up the small hoe from home and took his two little brothers with him to run up the mountain to perform.
After working for about an hour and a half, he calculated the time for dinner and returned home hungry. His mother beat him several times. He ran to the living room and picked up the bowl. Before he could even put the sweet white porridge in his mouth, he shrugged, put down the bowl and ran away.
Although Shen Yinchentie, who was kneeling on the bench, was not tall enough, he moved very quickly. He put down the bowl of porridge, pressed his hand on the bench, slid down from the table, and ran out following their third brother.
Shen Jin sniffed around in the yard and accurately found the gate. Holding the gate, his eyes fell on the small courtyard of the Chen family next door.
"Third brother, meat!" Chen Tie was so greedy that he started licking his lips.
Shen Yin sniffed: "Chen Xiaoya's."
Shen Jin nodded: "Preserved pork with preserved vegetables!"
Two-year-old Shen Tian staggered out holding on to the wall. She was still too young, and when she got to the yard she was in a hurry to catch up with her brothers. She didn't walk close to the wall, so she ran forward. Fortunately, she managed to hold on to Shen Jin's legs and stand firmly before she lost her balance and fell. A string of saliva was printed on the hem of Shen Jin's coarse cloth shorts.
When Li came out, she saw her four children huddled together outside the courtyard gate, drooling as they looked towards the Chen family.
Just at this time, Old Man Chen and his group of five came down the mountain on time. Behind them were Chen Ershan, Chen Xiaoya, and the siblings Shen An and Shen Ning, who had been working in the thatched cottage and came down a step later than Shen Jin and his group.
When Shen Jin saw food, his mind became very bright. When he saw Shen An and Shen Ning coming down the mountain with the Chen family, and remembered that the grandfathers and uncles of the Chen, Shi and Lu families were helping the eldest cousin's wife to cut trees and build houses in the morning, his eyes lit up.
He picked up Shen Tian who was hanging on his leg and stuffed her next to Shen Yin's legs, then went straight to Shen An.
Chen Tian was suddenly dragged away by her brother and moved to another place. She lost her balance and almost fell on her butt. Fortunately, Shen Yin was quick to catch her. However, this also frightened Chen Tian. She flattened her mouth, closed her eyes, and started to cry.
Shen Jin had only run a few steps, and before he could strike up a conversation with his buddies with whom he had developed some revolutionary friendship over the past two days, he was chased out by Li, who had seen what had happened, and was dragged back by the ear.
He protected his right ear and howled, "Mom, mom, what are you doing! Be gentle, my ear hurts!"
Li didn't care about his earache. It was her own son, so how could she not know what Shen Jin wanted to do?
Seeing Shen An and Shen Ning coming down with the Chen family at dinner time, she couldn't imagine what was going on with the meat next door?
Seeing the villagers who came out empty-handed or holding bowls due to the smell of meat, Li's face turned pale. She couldn't control the strength of grabbing Shen Jin's ear and dragged him home. No matter whether the meat was bought by Sang or Chen, she really wanted Shen Jin to come over and ask for food today. She couldn't afford to lose face!
But the more she didn't want to lose face and attract attention at this time, the more she failed to achieve her wish.
Shen Jin was so happy that he wanted to find Chen An to eat some braised pork with preserved vegetables, but his mother's physical attack came too suddenly and without any reason at all. He didn't even know the reason, and was pulled back by his mother by the ear.
Even though he tried his best to keep up with his mother's pace, there is a difference between the pace of an adult and a child, not to mention that he was being pulled by the ears?
Shen Jin's ears were pulled so hard that it hurt. It was no use shouting at his mother to let go. Besides, this happened in front of the whole village. Being pulled by the ears like this made him lose all his dignity. Shen Jin cried out, tears welled up in his eyes, and his next sound was an angry cry.
"Why did you hit me? What right did you have to hit me?"
Why? Because you want to embarrass me!
But can Li say this?
No, she could only keep the shame to herself. With half of the village watching, not only could she not say anything, she also had to make up for her behavior. So the answer Shen Jin got was her mother's scolding: "What's wrong with hitting you? You are my child, so why can I not hit you? Why did you run outside to eat? How can you watch your sister like that? Tian Ya almost fell because of you! Who else should I hit if not you!"
One is Shen Jin, the other is Chen Tian. The brother and sister performed a perfect duet. The two hens that were free-range and digging for food in the soil were startled by the noise and fled away with flapping wings.
Half of the villagers were attracted by the smell of meat. The crying of the brother and sister accurately guided them in the direction. Now they didn't have to work hard to find them. They followed the crying sound and saw this scene. No one thought it was strange to beat the child, and no one would blame Li for Shen Jin's crying. Beating children is too common. Who doesn't beat their children?
Shen Jin was particularly naughty. Normally, even if Li didn't beat him, he would roll on the ground and cry. No one really paid much attention to Shen Jin's crying and just treated it as a show.
Everyone was sure that the smell of meat came from the Chen family. When they saw Old Man Chen and his group, they all knew that it was the first day of work for the Shen family's eldest son to prepare the big piece of meat.
Ouch~
It’s lively.
The eldest branch of the Shen family was building a house and cooking at the Chen family, which made the child from the third branch of the Shen family cry with envy.
Looking at Li beating the baby in anger, the villagers holding their bowls no longer needed the pickled vegetables at home, and could eat with the aroma of meat and the noise.
They gathered together and chatted again: "The Shen family's eldest son is building a house, but he is actually cooking at the Chen family's house. When did the two families become so close? The Chen family is helping with the construction and taking care of the house."
"That's right, who knows, but it seems that Sang has been visiting the Chen family quite often recently."
Some people were concerned about something different. They smacked their lips and said, "The Shen family actually has meat to build a house. I would have gone if I had known there was meat. Do they still need people now? Five people are not enough, right? It takes dozens of people to build a house. Even if they build less, they need at least ten people, right?"
"You're so beautiful. Did they ask you for help? How dare you come forward? Wasn't it you who asked Sang to cook wild vegetable soup this morning?"
"You didn't say?"
The more astute women's eyes flickered, and they whispered to their family members: "Where did Sang get the money? Are there really people who buy wild vegetables? How much are they worth?"
And so on, blah blah blah…
The four-member group of Old Man Chen who were teased and watched by the villagers in the morning were fine with Old Man Chen and his sons, as they knew that Sang Luo had paid enough for the food and entertainment, so they didn't feel much. However, Shi Erlang and the Lu brothers were completely surprised. They walked with their backs straight and smiles on their faces, looking very heroic and proud.
The first meal had meat, and it wasn’t just a few small pieces of meat fried in the dish, but pork with preserved vegetables and preserved vegetables!
Not cut too thin, not cut too small, each person can eat at least one piece of preserved vegetable pork!
You know, only the poorer families in the village would be willing to cook this dish during the Chinese New Year. Even if they made it, the family members would not dare to eat it, and they would save it for entertaining guests in the first month of the year.
Shi Erlang and the Lu brothers suddenly felt that the hard work of this morning and the next ten days was not hard at all.
Worth it! It's totally worth it!
This meal alone is worth it just for the meat!
Before entering the Chen family courtyard, my mouth was already watering and my steps couldn't help but become bigger.
Shi Erlang's wife, who was not far away, looked at her husband with envy, feeling both envious and happy. Uncle Chen had really found a good job for her husband this time. Although it was tiring, the meat and white rice were very nutritious. It was a godsend to be able to make up for it for a few days before the busy farming season.
As for whether Sang's family gave them white rice, is there any need to think about it? The meat is already there, so how can the rice be missing?
Shi Erlang's wife's eyes were so happy that they curved into slits.
The Shi family's neighbors were jealous and envious: "The Chen family still gets along well with you. They won't forget your Shi Er for this good thing."
Why didn’t you come to my house and shout? My husband is free and can help build the house.
Oh, so envious.
I swallowed my saliva and felt envy.
Shi Erlang's wife was almost smiling, but she was still very modest: "It's not that I don't want to call you Uncle Chen. I heard that Sang made some money by selling wild vegetables. How much money can you make from wild vegetables? I'm afraid we can't afford to feed too many people."
As she was talking, she could even laugh out loud. It was better to invite fewer people. Only with fewer people could she dare to cook hard dishes like pork with preserved vegetables? If she invited more than ten people, who would dare to cook pork with preserved vegetables? Who could afford it?
The neighbors looked at her smiling face like a flower and felt so jealous.
In a flash, she saw Li dragging Shen Jin into the courtyard, and then dragging the other three crying children into the courtyard and slamming the gate shut. She said, "Li is too embarrassed to take her anger out on the children. Little Jin is unlucky today and has run into trouble."
Shi Erlang's wife nodded: "That's right, I'm just feeling unhappy, I've been avoiding people while washing clothes these past two days."
The third branch of the Shen family has lost face because of the house building incident, and now they have to eat vegetable porridge while smelling the aroma of meat from next door. Seeing Shen Jin getting close to Shen An, he decided to attack Shen Jin.
She curled her lips. The family division was so decisive, why was she taking her anger out on the child now? She looked down upon people like Li.
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