Chapter 40
After taking a closer look to make sure there were no threatening small animals, Sangluo crawled through a few horizontal branches of the bushes, put down the backpack, bent down and picked up one.
I wiped off the dust with my hands and tore off the peel. Yes, it was the Chinese jujube. Just seeing the flesh made me drool and I couldn't control myself.
When she took a bite, the juice tasted sweet, but the flesh became more and more sour, and Sang Luo's whole face was squeezed into a ball.
Hiss, this is so sour!
She got over the sour feeling, finished eating the sour date in her hand, and threw the fruit peel back to the ground to continue to return to the mountain.
There is really no shortage of mountains in Shili Village. Every household has several hills around the village. Few people go to the deeper places. When the sour jujubes were just ripe, they fell quietly to the ground and no one picked them up. She picked up ten, and three of them were already rotten.
It’s not a pity, just throw it aside. We came from the mountains and we will return to the mountains.
The sour jujubes are delicious only when they are ripe and fall naturally. There are so many fallen jujubes all over the ground, and she doesn't need to shake the branches or pick the jujubes. The jujubes on the ground alone are enough for her to have a big harvest.
I picked carefully, discarding the rotten ones, and it didn't take me much time to fill half a basket.
Sangluo looked inside again and soon found another one. She kept picking until her basket was almost full and then she started her return journey feeling satisfied.
Whenever I saw wild vegetables on the road, I would pick them and cover the backpack with them.
The mountain road was difficult to walk on, and it was almost late in the afternoon when we got back to the hill where our home was. Old Man Chen and his group of five were just coming out of the other side of the mountain carrying a newly processed tree trunk. When they saw Sang Luo, Old Man Chen looked at her carrying a basket and asked with a smile, "Just came out of the mountain?"
The old farmers who work in the fields have a natural liking for those who are diligent.
Sang Luo smiled and said, "Yes, I'm picking some wild vegetables to sell tomorrow. Grandpa, you all worked hard today."
As the two chatted, Shi Erlang and the others' eyes were all on the basket on Sang Luo's back. They saw that she was carrying a basket full of ferns.
He did not dare to ask in front of Sang Luo. He waited for Sang Luo to exchange greetings with Old Man Chen. Sang Luo made way for them to carry the tree first. When they were a little further away, Shi Erlang asked Chen Youtian in a low voice: "Your wife and A Lie's wife went to the county to sell bracken? Are there really people who spend money to buy this?"
Chen Youtian was an honest man who would never lie. In addition, he had a few people around him who had a good relationship with his family, so he said honestly, "Yes, there are some. The county is not like us where we have mountains. There are many people willing to give it a try."
At this point, he remembered his mother and wife's advice not to show off Sang Luo, so he said, "But not many people buy it. After all, it's not as delicious as real food. Besides, you have to pay an entrance fee to enter the city, and you have to pay market tax to go to the market. You can't sell many of this thing a day, so there's not much money."
He really wasn't lying. Not all the wild vegetables he brought every day could be sold out. It was pretty good to earn a few cents a day, and sometimes six or seven cents was also possible.
Shi Erlang was a little surprised that Sang Luo was carrying such a large basket. Why did she pick so many if it wasn't easy to sell?
But I have known Chen Youtian for decades and I know that he is a very honest person and would never lie, so I wondered if that handful was really big.
He even didn't believe that one handful was not much and two handfuls could be sold for a penny. There were so many of them in the mountains that you could easily pull out a plate after walking around the mountains for half a circle.
When Shi Erlang thought about it this way, he was able to make up for the lies that Chen Youtian would never tell.
After returning to the thatched house and putting down the felled tree, Old Man Chen said to Sang Luo who followed behind him, "Alie's wife, you should mark out the exact size of this house and what to build in which area. This way, when we bring back mud to make bricks tomorrow, we can leave one or two people here to clean the ground. The stones need to be dug out and the grass roots need to be dealt with. Then we can start digging the foundation."
Sang Luo became excited when she heard this: "Okay, Grandpa, wait for me to put the basket in the house and I'll be right back."
Shi Erlang and others were also resting and waiting, watching together. They had to understand clearly about the house they were going to help build, otherwise they would be confused.
Sang Luo came out quickly, and pointed to the left side of the thatched house where she was living with the five people helping her. She said, "Let's build the bathroom here. My hometown is about going to the toilet and the kitchen. The toilet is usually in the northeast corner of the yard, so I'll build the bathroom here."
It is also convenient to take a shower and get up at night. You don’t have to walk too far in the dark, especially in winter, when it is too cold to get up at night.
Old Man Chen already knew that what Sang Luo meant by toilet was just a toilet bowl, which would be cleaned promptly every day. It didn't matter if it was close to the main house, so he nodded.
Shi Erlang and the others didn't know what this bathroom and toilet were. What was it? Shouldn't we go to the toilet in the outhouse? How did it have anything to do with the bathroom?
Besides, people in rural areas really don’t have bathrooms. Men wash in the river. In summer, they fetch water and wash in bathtubs in the house. After washing, they just carry the water out and pour it out. Why do they need a separate bathroom?
They were not familiar with Sang Luo and did not feel comfortable asking, so they kept the information to themselves and waited until they could ask Chen's father and son about it.
However, Chen Youtian, after seeing Sang Luo's gesture, turned around and walked away for a while, went around to the area behind the thatched house where the children were clearing land, picked out some small stones from the pile of stones that the kids had cleared and piled on the side, and called a few other children to help carry some over there.
As Sang Luo spoke, he used stones to bury lines as marks. The stones were laid out densely, which made it very intuitive. He asked where the wall was, where the door was, and where the window was.
A few little kids thought it was fun and were playing house, sending stones here and there. Shen An was thinking a lot, as he was building his own house, so he just followed and passed stones and listened without making a sound.
Sang Luo also thought it was convenient to use stones to bury the wires. She grabbed a few stones handed to her by Chen An, walked a few steps to the left, and said, "Let's build the kitchen here. I want a bigger kitchen..."
As he talked, he placed stones, and when the positions of the walls, doors, and windows of the kitchen were clearly indicated, Shi Erlang and his friends were stunned. This time, it was not a sensitive matter like taking a bath or going to the toilet, so there was nothing wrong with asking, so he asked directly: "Isn't this kitchen a bit big?"
It was about half the size of their kitchen and almost as big as the east room.
Sang Luo smiled and said, "It is bigger, but my family doesn't have any land, and I'm thinking of making some food to sell in the future, so I'm going to build two big stoves inside, and put some buckets and wooden basins in the back, so it's more spacious and convenient."
In fact, she was planning to place the stone mill for making tofu in this kitchen. Otherwise, it would be very inconvenient to put it in the yard when it rains. Therefore, the kitchen would have to be spacious to make it possible to use it.
When Shi Erlang and the others heard that she wanted to set up two big stoves to cook food to sell, although they didn't know what food she was going to cook, they understood that the eldest branch of the Shen family had no land except for this hill where they could chop firewood and grow vegetables. Otherwise, they would have to walk more than 20 miles every day to the county to sell wild vegetables to make a living, so they all nodded.
Old Man Chen and Chen Youtian thought that what she meant by making food to sell was the magic tofu, and they also understood that they helped build the kitchen because they were afraid that she would not be able to cook the food.
After the kitchen was determined, the location of the courtyard wall and the gate was next. Seeing the mulberry trees placed in a circle, Old Man Chen thought it was finished. However, she did not place any more flowers on the right side of the courtyard wall away from the thatched cottage.
Sang Luo pointed to the back of the thatched cottage and said, "Grandpa, I want to build a backyard here. I'll leave the land for growing vegetables untouched, and I'll build a wall around the house so it'll be convenient for drying things."
Then he pointed to where he was standing and said, "Between the right side of the thatched house where I live and the west wall, right where we are standing, let's build a door here, which will be the gate between the front and back yards. Do you think it's okay?"
When Old Man Chen heard this, he glanced at Sang Luo.
Most rural homes have a yard surrounded by several houses and a wall on one side. Few families have a front yard and a back yard as well, and even fewer have a back yard separated by a door.
But thinking that he didn't know how Sang Luo's magical tofu was made, maybe a secret place was needed to process the materials, he didn't say much, nodded and said: "Okay, Youtian can do some simple carpentry work. If you don't mind his rough craftsmanship and the doors he makes are not so good-looking, we have the wood anyway, so let him help make the two courtyard doors and the kitchen door. Although they are not good-looking, they are still solid and easy to use."
This was simply a godsend, so how could Sang Luo dislike it? She smiled and said to Chen Youtian, "Uncle Youtian, I'm sorry to trouble you."
Chen Youtian waved his hand in a simple manner: "It's not hard at all. As long as you don't mind the roughness, it's fine."
Thinking about how the Shen family didn't get any belongings when they split up, he said, "Take this opportunity to think about it again. If you want to add anything, I'll make it for you. Don't you have tables and chairs?"
"I really don't have that. It would be great if you were willing to help, Uncle Tian. To be honest, we either stand or squat to eat every day, so this is very necessary. In addition, if you have time, see if you can help make a small bed for me. When the kitchen is built, we won't need the simple stove in our house now. I think we can tear it down and use reed mats to separate the inner and outer rooms. Xiao An will live in the outer room then."
Chen An was already nine years old in terms of his lunar age, so how could he sleep in the same bed with his sister-in-law and younger sister? This was because people in the countryside didn't care about this and the conditions were really difficult, so no one would gossip about it. If conditions allowed, they would naturally keep them apart.
So Sang Luo asked Chen Youtian to help make a bed, and Chen Youtian agreed.
Sang Luo was very happy. Although she did not have any theories about boys and girls sitting differently when they were seven years old, she would try her best to give herself better living conditions if she could.
It was such a narrow bed with three people squeezed on it. To be honest, we couldn't even turn over. If we were not careful, we would fall under the bed. Our bones were so stiff and painful after sleeping all night.
As for where Chen An will live when he grows up, it won't take long. Sang Luo plans to wait until next year to fill in a more spacious residential land in the area west of the house that is obviously lower in terrain. Then she will move the west courtyard wall outward and build a west house divided into two small rooms, so that the little brother and sister can have their own rooms.
As for this time, she would not bother with it. The busy farming season was approaching, and she was already very grateful that the Chen, Shi and Lu families could come to help her build the wall of the kitchen. How could she ask for more? Filling in the land for expansion was no small project.
Moreover, Sang Luo did not dare to delay the construction period too long. The money she earned every day was limited, and there were expenses everywhere. She also had to store food for autumn and winter, and buy clothes and bedding for the three people in the family. Money was everywhere.
After a round, all the places where the lines should be buried were neatly buried. Qin Fangniang came up the mountain just in time and called everyone down to have dinner.
It was late in the afternoon. The group of men who had been busy all day were actually very hungry. They simply washed their hands by the spring and went down the mountain. Sang Luo did not push forward and went back to the house first. She waited for a while until everyone had left before she washed her hands and went down the mountain to eat.
Chen Ershan and Xiao Yaer followed their mother down the mountain first. The three Shen Jin brothers were still very excited and jumped around the stone lines buried by the adults.
As Shen Jin strolled around, he envied, "Shen An, this is what your house looks like. Your sister-in-law is so nice to you. She even asked Uncle Arita to make a bed for you alone."
The corners of Shen An's lips also rose straight up, and the next moment he became alert: "I know my sister-in-law is good to me, so I don't need you to tell me."
Don't think he doesn't know. Shen Jin has been eyeing his sister-in-law who brings food home from time to time. He is just thinking about the meat and Hu Bing.
He looked at Shen Jin with disdain: "Besides, you're talking as if your parents didn't give you a bed to sleep in."
Shen Jin raised his voice: "How can that be the same? We are four siblings living together, and Tianya always wets the bed. It's not as good as you having your own bed."
Thinking of Shen Tian who could wet the bed twice in one night, Shen An shut up and said nothing.
However, Shen Jin is a typical person who thinks everything about others is good. Although Third Aunt is a bit fierce, she is usually nice to Shen Jin and his friends. Shen An has always envied Shen Jin and his siblings for having a father and a mother who love them.
He was slacking off here, and Shen Jin had already walked around the kitchen, the bathroom, the front yard and the back yard, and then came back to Chen An, his eyes twinkling and shining: "Chen An, Chen An, this house of yours will take some time to build, right? Can it take a month?"
That look of anticipation.
Shen An: …
"So are you thinking about having meat every day?" Chen An rolled his eyes and pushed away the head that was so close to him: "What are you thinking about? Go home and eat. We have to go eat too."
"I told you not to come, but you didn't listen. When your mother comes and finds out that you brought Xiaoyin and Xiaotie here to make land for me, you'll get a beating."
Shen Jin pouted, still angry when he thought of the beating he got in the morning. He snorted, "Can't I run? Do you think I'm that stupid that I would stand there and get beaten? I was caught off guard that morning and my mother grabbed my ears. Let's see if she can hit me next time."
Shen An looked quite pleased with himself seeing him like that.
After Shen Jin finished speaking, he immediately turned back to the main topic and confirmed with Shen An with an unwilling look on his face: "Are you really not eating meat every day? When Erniu was building a house, my father said that there would be meat every day."
Chen An had no idea, so he just said, "I don't know. If there was, he certainly wouldn't eat such big pieces of meat every day."
There were only a few small slices cut from the dish, and kids like them might not even be able to get one, so who could give him one?
Shen Jin felt a little regretful and said, "Then remember, if there is meat, you must save half a bite for me to taste. I work for you every day."
Thinking of Hu Bing again, he drooled: "If your sister-in-law buys you Hu Bing, please save a bite for me. I haven't eaten it yet."
Shen Ning on the side snorted: "You have no conscience. Where have you not eaten it? My eldest brother gave it to me and my second brother when he bought it before. Xiaotie was too young to eat it, so you and Xiaoyin also had a share."
Shen Jin and Shen Yin, who were playing in the mud, looked confused.
Shen Jin: "Really? Why don't I remember?"
Shen Ning pouted: "You don't lack food, what can you remember."
The early warning radar in Shen Jin's mind immediately stood up, and he keenly captured the resentment from his cousin. Thinking about the past at home, he and his siblings had delicious food, but Shen An and Shen Ningke might not have had it. He felt guilty for a moment and immediately gave in.
"I'm younger than you. My mother said that children don't remember things when they are young. That happened many years ago. How old was I at that time? How can you blame me for not remembering it?"
Then he flattered her, "I will give you food when I have it in the future. I've seen my mother's oil tank, and there's not much oil left. Really, next time my mother makes oil residue, I'll give it to you and Shen An. I keep my word."
This prompted Shen Yin and Shen Tie, who were playing in the mud at the back, to promise: "We'll give ours to our elder sister and second brother, too."
Sang Luo almost couldn't help laughing out loud when she heard this in the thatched cottage.
It was the first time that she realized that this little naughty boy Shen Jin was so funny. He was really trying hard to get a bite of food, even trying to curry favor with Shen Ning and make promises to bribe him.
The little bear girl spends hours digging the soil here every day. Well, should she buy a Hu pancake tomorrow and bring it back to share with the little guys?
There is a reward for every effort. These little guys have worked really hard. Should we reward them with something delicious?
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