Chapter 39
The gate of the Shen family's courtyard was closed, but the noise from inside could not be blocked. This time, not only Shen Jin and Shen Tian were crying, but even Shen Yin and Shen Tie, who were half-pulled and half-thrown in, were frightened and crying.
With the Chen family as the center, on one side there was the lively sound of villagers discussing while eating, and on the other side there was the crying of a quartet of children in the Shen family yard amid Li's scolding.
Old man Chen and his companions had been felling trees in the mountains for half the morning. Now they had entered the Chen family courtyard. Only the four children were still standing outside. They turned around and listened to the howling of Shen Jin and others in the Shen family courtyard, and were unable to move.
Li didn't know whether she had lost face or not, so she whispered to the child to stop crying. But once a child starts crying, how can he stop crying just by being told?
Shen An and the others who were outside heard his third aunt's voice getting louder again, and they were all worried for Shen Jin. Fortunately, Shen San in the house heard the noise and felt that further noise would only make it more embarrassing, so he came out to stop Li and asked the four children to go back to the main room to eat.
Shen Tian was carried in by Li, while Shen Yin and Shen Tie went to see Shen Jin.
Shen Jin felt the most aggrieved today. He didn't understand why he was beaten for no reason.
Being hit by his mother while holding his ears and crying in front of so many people is different from pretending to cry and begging for food. It is extremely embarrassing.
He felt really wronged today, he was crying so hard and couldn't stop.
Shen Yin and Shen Tie both went to see him, but he ignored them and just sobbed.
It is always quieter when one child cries than four. Shen San ignored him and just called Shen Yin and Shen Tie to come in quickly.
The two brothers tried to pull Shen Jin, but Shen Jin broke her hand away from her brother's hand and continued to stand in the yard wiping her tears.
Chen An and his friends were quietly peeking through the crack of his uncle's door, and this was what they saw.
After Chen Erlang patted them on the shoulders, signaling that it was time to go home for dinner, they stepped away and walked a little further away. Then the little girl asked in a low voice: "Sister Aning, why did your Third Aunt beat Shen Jin?"
Shen Ning was also somewhat puzzled and had no idea how this happened.
She shook her head: "I don't know, but my Third Aunt hits people very hard."
Chen Xiaoya was still terrified when she thought about how her sister Aning had also been beaten in the past: "My mother never beat me, nor my second brother."
Aunt Shen is really a murderer.
Shen An guessed two points, but he pursed his lips tightly and said nothing.
…
Mrs. Chen was busy in the kitchen when she suddenly heard the sound of children crying outside. Then she heard Li's scolding and Shen Jin's wailing. She paused in her cooking.
Just then, her husband and son brought Shi Erlang and the Lu brothers in. She quickly collected her thoughts, leaned over to the window and greeted them with a smile: "Are you back? Wash your hands first, drink some water and take a rest. Dinner will be served soon."
Shi Erlang and the Lu brothers all smiled shyly and responded one after another.
The third child of the Lu family just became an adult this year and is still a boy who has not yet married. He poked his head into the kitchen window and said, "Aunt Chen, did you make pork with preserved vegetables today? I can smell it from far away."
Mrs. Chen smiled and said, "Yes, Alie's wife sent me some money yesterday, saying that building a house is a laborious job, and asked me to make you a good meal."
Then he asked, "What's going on outside? Why do I hear Shen Jin and Shen Tian crying so hard?"
Lu Sanlang said awkwardly: "Shen Jin was greedy for meat. I guess he saw Shen An and ran over. Many people in the village came out after smelling the meat. I'm afraid Shen Sansao couldn't save her face..."
Having said this he smiled and said nothing more.
Everyone in the village knew about the affairs of the two branches of the Shen family, including the fact that the Chen family took the lead in arranging the construction of the house for the eldest branch. People in the village talked about it, and they also talked about it a lot when the family members sat together.
Shen Jin was just unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. It was so pitiful that he received such an unfair beating.
Mrs. Chen didn't know what to say, so she smiled and said, "Go, wash your hands and sit down to rest. We'll be eating soon."
As he spoke, Chen Youtian had already put down his axe, went into the kitchen to scoop up some water and asked people to wash their hands.
Lu Sanlang and his friends went to wash their hands. Mrs. Chen glanced outside the courtyard gate for a few times. After a while, she saw her grandson bringing Chen An and the other children in. She felt relieved.
It's good that you're back. No matter whether it's the people from the Shen family's eldest house or the Chen family, if they stand outside, they will probably irritate Li. The one who will be unlucky is Shen Jin who will run into the trap.
The little naughty kid is a bit naughty, but what bad intentions does a kid have? He was obviously implicated and beaten, and it sounds quite pitiful.
…
Mrs. Chen was efficient and well-planned for the task. When Shi Erlang and the others were almost unable to hide the embarrassing fact that they could not control their saliva, Chen Youtian carried the rice steamer from the kitchen to the main room, and Chen Erlang took the bowls and chopsticks and prepared to eat.
As soon as the lid of the rice steamer was opened, the aroma of rice, meat, and preserved vegetables, along with the steaming hot air, filled the main room.
It was so richer than before that it was covered by the rice steamer lid, and it made the men, who had just been maintaining their image as guests in someone else's house, lose all their image.
Gulp~
Gulp~
Whose sound is that of frantic swallowing?
Oh, it’s me.
Just move your eyes away. It's okay. Everyone in this room, young or old, is the same. No one should laugh at anyone else.
Chen Youtian had rough hands and he didn't even need a towel. He took the hot bowl of braised pork with preserved vegetables from the rice steamer and brought it to the table with his bare hands.
Old man Chen hurriedly invited several people to the table. When they arrived at the table, they saw the substantial portion of the pork with preserved vegetables. Shi Erlang swallowed his saliva and said, "Uncle, this dish is too substantial. It's so expensive."
Old man Chen had to invite Sang Luo, the real owner, to come out and praise her.
Mrs. Chen brought in Chen Erlang and Chen Youtian, who had returned to the kitchen, and brought in another four plates of vegetarian dishes and an egg soup. Upon hearing this, she smiled and said, "Alie's wife is a kind person. Although she is young, she is honest in her conduct and never lets anyone suffer any loss. If you come back to help, the mother, daughter-in-law, aunts, and sisters-in-law in the family will be able to follow her example and know that what I said is true."
Shi Erlang and Lu Dalang nodded repeatedly.
The fact that the Chen family could help with the arrangements showed that Sang really won the Chen family's favor.
The two of them made up their minds to tell their families about this when they got back. In the future, when they met Sang in the village, they would be more friendly. From this time on, they would become friends.
The food was served, and Chen Youtian had set the table, so it was time for everyone to start eating.
This was the first meal of the day, and Mrs. Chen also invested money. Although building a house does not require meat, Sang Luo gave her so much money. Today, she also gave Mrs. Chen sixteen pieces of fairy tofu to sell, so she made eight cents in the time it took to buy vegetables. Mrs. Chen was also willing to prepare the meal for Sang Luo.
So out of the eighteen cents she collected yesterday, she used sixteen cents to buy meat today and one cent to buy corn bones.
The meat she picked was pork belly at 15 cents a pound. She went early and asked for the best piece, which she cut neatly.
Most of it was used to make the main dish, Braised Pork with Preserved Vegetables, and the remaining part was added to the vegetarian dishes in the evening, just for the first day's meal. Everyone who builds the house later will put in a lot of thought and effort to ensure that the rammed earth wall will be absolutely solid and durable.
As for the vegetables and eggs, they were all from her own vegetable garden, so she didn't charge them. She just kept the extra cents for tomorrow.
Now that the dishes were on the table, looking at the reactions of Shi Erlang and the Lu brothers, Mrs. Chen knew that her goal had been achieved. She smiled and asked them to sit down and eat.
The men took their seats according to age. Here, when there were guests at home, children and women mostly did not sit at the table. However, Mrs. Chen was the elder, and Shen An and Shen Ning were also guests. It was Sang Luo who paid the money, so they were not treated as ordinary children and were all invited to the table.
As a result, the brother and sister waved their hands, served themselves some rice, followed Chen Erlang and the little girl to pick up some dishes and went to the yard to eat.
They devoured the breakfast in no time and felt extremely satisfied. Because the meal was so filling, Shi Erlang and his companions did not want to rest for long. After the meal, they only sat at Chen's house for a quarter of an hour before heading back into the mountains.
Chen An and his companions were also going back to reclaim the wasteland. When they passed by Shen Jin's yard, they didn't hear any crying from inside. Chen An went over to look inside, but didn't see Shen Jin.
He was a little hesitant. This was clearly his home in the past, but now he was hesitant even to enter the courtyard.
I stood outside the door for a while, listening to Shen Tian's unclear babbling voice inside, but I didn't hear the voices of Shen Jin, Shen Yin and Shen Tie.
In the end, he turned around and went up the mountain with Shen Ning, the little girl who was waiting on the side.
The people who were not found in the Shen family courtyard were unexpectedly found behind their own thatched house.
Shen Jin, Shen Yin and Shen Tie were together, continuing to work on the land that had not been tilled in the early morning behind his house. The difference was that this time Shen Jin did not bring a hoe. Instead, he was using the stone hoe that Shen An and Shen Ning had used before.
Hearing footsteps, he turned around and saw that it was Shen An and the other two coming over. The usually cocky kid turned his face away, with his butt and the back of his head facing them.
Shen Ning, who loved to argue with him the most, stopped arguing today. Even Chen Xiaoya was very quiet, and she would carefully look at him from time to time.
Shen Jin felt uncomfortable and was stopped by Shen An: "Come with me."
The person was right in front of him, and they were staring at each other. Shen Jin had no place to hide his red and swollen eyes. He gave up and said to Shen An, "What are you doing?"
He also spoke with a strong nasal tone.
"Just come over here."
Seeing how miserable he looked after crying, Shen An's voice became warmer than usual.
The two brothers walked to the front of the thatched hut and came under the eaves. Shen An stopped, stretched out his hand that had been in his pocket, and handed Shen Jin a bunch of green vegetable leaves.
Shen Jin: ???
He did skip breakfast out of spite, but why give him the vegetable leaves?
Shen An pulled his hand and prepared to stuff the things over, but when he saw the dark hand, his face darkened: “Go wash your hands, and come back after you’re done.”
Shen Jin blinked her eyes.
Shen An has a problem of always asking people to wash their hands before giving them food.
What to eat?
He took the ball of vegetable leaves from Chen An's hand, and when he touched it, he realized that it was not vegetable leaves at all, and the feel was different.
Unfold the bunch of green leaves, and you'll see a piece of fragrant braised pork wrapped in the light green leaves.
Well, a small piece of the braised pork was taken away with chopsticks, but most of it was left.
Shen Jin's tear ducts suddenly felt sore. She had finally stopped crying, but tears suddenly welled up.
He wiped it with the back of his hand, and his dirty hands and tears left a stain on his face.
Shen An: …
Shen Jin had no idea how stained his face was. He twitched twice, changed hands, and smeared his right eye and right cheek as well.
"Chen An, you are so kind that you even saved the meat for me."
While twitching, he put the meat into his mouth, ate it, cried, and promised: "Don't worry, I will definitely treat you well in the future."
I cried, felt moved, and ate with relish.
Shen An: "...I didn't treat you well, I just felt sorry for you getting beaten."
Shen Jin: ???
Can you still eat meat after getting beaten?
He hiccuped and stared at Chen An blankly. While sobbing, he was already thinking about the possibility of getting a piece of meat from another beating.
Shen An could guess what he was thinking just by watching him blink. He was a little speechless. Seeing Shen Jin holding the meat and about to put it into his mouth, he suddenly said, "Why don't you leave some for Xiao Yin and Xiao Tie to taste?"
Shen Jin, who was twitching, froze. He stared blankly at Chen An, then looked down at the pork with preserved vegetables in his hand, which was only half a piece left after Chen An took two bites. He was stunned.
Seeing him like this, Chen An smiled with his eyes bent. Seeing that Shen Jin was so troubled that the meat in his mouth was no longer tasty, he stopped teasing him and said, "Eat it. Aning brought it to them. Are you also a brother?"
The brother and sister each got a piece today. Probably because they saw Shen Jin being beaten so badly before dinner, the two siblings had a tacit understanding and each tasted only a little. They asked the little maid to help get two clean green leaves from the kitchen, and Tuanba Tuanba took out the saved braised pork.
Chen An thought that it was because his sister-in-law had been trying her best to prepare good food for them every day that he and his sister were able to give up the meat today. If it had been a few days ago, he would not have been willing to give up even a few grains of rice.
Shen Jin didn't know what Shen An was thinking. When he heard that his two younger brothers had meat to eat and he didn't have to give it up, he immediately burst into laughter and said, "You can be the older brother."
He didn't feel embarrassed at all, and even forgot most of the grievance he had just received from being beaten. He stopped twitching and just stood there eating meat happily. It was amazing that his slightly swollen eyes could still smile.
…
When Sang Luo came back in the afternoon, as soon as she and Qin Fangniang entered the village, they were noticed by the villagers who had been keeping an eye on the village entrance.
Then people gathered around to watch. That cart was too eye-catching, wasn’t it?
Sang Luo was glad that she had carried all the buckets and pottery basins back through the small path, leaving only the baskets that could be used for "selling wild vegetables" and a pair of dustpans that she had bought today and a bag of grain on the cart.
No one was very familiar with Sang Luo, so they all greeted Qin Fangniang.
"Fang Niang, are wild vegetables so popular? Even on a cart?"
"Fang Niang, what wild vegetables do you sell?"
Qin Fangniang is a very honest person. Her acting skills are really showing at this moment. She smiled with a simple and shy face: "How can it be possible? Isn't it that A Lie's wife wants to build a house? She needs to buy some food and some household items. Why not just pull the cart and we can take turns to rest in the cart on the way."
As for whether the wild vegetables were easy to sell and how much they sold for, she didn't want to lie, so she just skipped the question.
The two of them were stared at all the way, but when they returned to Chen's house and entered the small courtyard, those glances no longer appeared.
When Mrs. Chen made breakfast, she specially left some good food for the two of them. When she saw them coming back, she hurried to heat them up and serve them.
Sang Luo called her back, "Grandma, it's very hot today, just eat something cold."
He and Qin Fangniang fetched water to wash their faces and hands, then sat down to eat comfortably. Mrs. Chen sat aside and took out the money from selling the magic tofu at the market today and the extra money from buying vegetables to reconcile the accounts.
Sang Luo didn't take it, so she asked him to keep it for buying groceries tomorrow.
At this point, after finishing the serious business, Mrs. Chen told Sang Luo about the farce that happened in the morning.
Sang Luo was surprised and not surprised. With the memories of her original body, she knew something about Li's temperament. Sang Luo didn't care much about the reactions of Shen San and Li. Everyone lived their own lives and did not interfere with each other. She didn't care what they thought.
If she had to consider the thoughts of someone she didn't like at all, how frustrating would her life be?
She suffers less in daily life and has fewer health problems. Sang Luo, who suffered enough pain from illness in her previous life, doesn't make things difficult for herself.
She said it was not a problem, and Mrs. Chen felt relieved.
Sang Luo didn't stay long. After dinner, she carried a pair of newly bought dustpans and went home. Along the way, she was inevitably stared at by the villagers. What was different from the past was that this time many people took the initiative to greet her.
He smiled and called her "Alie's wife".
Sang Luo didn't know who it was, so she just smiled back at everyone who asked her to do so, not offending anyone.
When I returned to the thatched cottage, I could see from afar four felled trees lying on the open space outside the house. Their branches and leaves must have been lost in the mountains. I couldn't tell what kind of tree they were just by looking at the bark, I just knew they were thick enough.
He looked behind the house and saw all seven children. Because of what Old Lady Chen said, he took a closer look at Shen Jin. After a few hours, his eyes were no longer swollen from crying, and he was still digging the ground happily.
As usual, Chen An and Shen Ning helped to receive the things. Sang Luo asked Chen An when she returned to the house, "Should you talk to your cousins about this? Otherwise, don't open up the land here. There is no wall that is impenetrable. If their mother finds out, they will be scolded."
Shen An made a helpless expression: "I told him this morning that he won't leave."
Chen An felt that he might not have chosen the right time. He had just been given a large piece of preserved vegetable and pork belly. Could he really not come?
Sang Luo laughed: "Then let him do it."
After all, he is her own child. Even if Li is angry, will she really beat him hard?
She just didn't care.
Perhaps this body was weak. Sang Luo was very sleepy after being busy from dawn to afternoon. She looked at the backpack at home and found it was full. She pushed aside the wild vegetables on the surface and found that it was filled with densely packed Shenji leaves underneath.
Sang Luo felt relieved and gave the two newly bought dustpans to Chen An: "Open up a small area of land. Tomorrow we can find some humus soil from under the trees nearby to make planting soil. We can start by growing seedlings for the seasonal vegetables."
Chen An looked at the two brand new bamboo dustpans with joy, and immediately agreed: "I will get enough soil tomorrow to make a piece of land. I'll ask Grandma Chen what to plant and how to plant it. Sister-in-law, you've been tired all day, take a rest."
The implication is that Sang Luo shouldn't worry about this.
Sang Luo smiled. She really needed a nap. Even if it was only for fifteen minutes, it would relieve a lot of physical fatigue. She asked Chen An to pay attention to the time to wake her up. After standing for a while to digest the food, she closed the door, lay on the bed and fell asleep.
She had no distracting thoughts and fell asleep as soon as she touched the pillow. She slept soundly. When Chen An came to wake her up, Sang Luo woke up a little, and all her fatigue was gone.
Looking at the sky, it was probably the end of the hour of Wei, or around two in the afternoon. Sang Luo took out the bag of snake repellent powder that the old lady had given her yesterday, sprinkled some on her trouser legs, shoes and socks, and then tied her trouser legs tightly with a cloth rope made of scraps of cloth.
He put the magic tree leaves into the empty wooden barrel, leaving a backpack, took the sickle and stone axe, the only two household items he could take with him, said goodbye to Shen An, and went out into the mountains.
The raw materials for the magical tofu are seasonal, and they can only be sold for a month at most. She has to go into the mountains to look for mountain products that can make money.
Shen Jin watched Sang Luo go out, and came to Shen An again: "Sister-in-law, are you going to the mountains to look for wild vegetables again? What kind of wild vegetables do you want? I can help pick some."
The voice of sister-in-law and the familiar tone made Chen An look at him with a cold face. He raised his hand and pushed away the head that was close to him: "Go and do your thing."
It's not enough to just give him some food, he's trying to steal his sister-in-law.
Shen Jin looked at Shen An's stinky face and thought to himself that he was stingy. Why couldn't he call her his eldest cousin's wife? He would get a stinky face when he called her that.
But he only dared to think about this in his mind. Chen An had just saved most of the pork with preserved vegetables for him in the morning, so he still remembered it well.
…
Sang Luo didn't know about the two kids' cleverness. With the snake repellent powder given by the old lady, she finally decided not to just walk around the surrounding mountains today.
She broke off a bamboo branch, removed all the branches and leaves, leaving only the main branch, and went into the mountains holding it. She did not stay outside for any time and went straight to a place she had never been to before.
There were obviously not many people walking inside. At first, there was a small path trampled by people, but the further you went in, the more bushes and weeds there were, making it much more difficult to walk than on the outer mountains.
Something often jumped past her feet, startling the grass leaves to sway wildly. Sometimes she could see clearly that it was a two-legged snake, but sometimes she couldn't even see what it was because it was nowhere to be seen.
Although she had the medicine powder given by the old lady, Sang Luo still became cautious and slowed down her pace. She even brushed past the grass leaves beside her before she dared to move forward.
It is indeed not easy to walk, but the products in such places are obviously much richer than those in the outer areas where people often chop wood and cut trees. Especially for someone like Sang Luo, who lived in the mountains for several years in her previous life and made some money by taking pictures of mountain life and mountain products and uploading them to her small broken station as a hobby, the mountains are simply full of treasures.
For example, right now, look at what good things she saw?
Konjac!
Do you know Weilong? Konjac Soup, Vegetarian Tripe, Konjac Jelly!
Sang Luo's eyes lit up!
She leaned over to take a look and confirmed that even though they were separated by a space and time, they were indeed the same species. She looked around and saw two large groups of them.
It was the middle of August in the lunar calendar, so it was actually time to harvest, but Sang Luo held back. Firstly, there were too many people at home, and secondly, she had no suitable tools for harvesting and processing.
If you want to store this thing for a long time, it is best to peel it, cut it into pieces, dry it and then grind it into powder. If stored properly, it can be kept for a year without any problem.
Sang Luo didn't think her bamboo sword could do the job, so she decided to wait until tomorrow and borrow a hoe and a kitchen knife from the Chen family.
She was in a good mood because she found the konjac, and she looked very relaxed as she walked further in. However, she didn't walk far when she seemed to see something good in the distance?
I cut the grass along the way and used a sickle to push aside the branches and vines. Only when I got closer did I confirm that I was not mistaken: it was Chinese jujube.
The Chinese sour jujube should have been ripe by this time of year. Sang Luo walked closer and saw some ripe ones falling to the ground, and a smile broke out on her face.
This is it, something great you can take home today!
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