Chapter 49
The answer came quickly.
When Sang Luo moved a low stool and sat in the yard to weave a nest for the ducks with straw, two little kids were leaning against the gate and looking inside. They found that their eldest cousin's wife had seen them, and they both smiled to please her.
"Sister-in-law, do you want more beautiful stones?"
It was Chen Tie with a cute little baby voice.
Shen Yin turned around and left for a while, then quickly came to the door dragging a short dustpan. Sang Luo put down the straw nest she was weaving, walked to the gate of the yard and saw that there was a shallow layer of pebbles in the dustpan, probably dozens of pebbles.
"You picked it up?"
The two little ones nodded in unison: "Do you want more?"
Sang Luo laughed and said, "If you want it, come into the yard."
As he spoke, he helped to lift the dustpan. Although there was not much in it, it was still a little heavy for a child.
When Shen Yin and Shen Tie heard Sang Luo calling them in, the two brothers turned around and looked outside the door.
Sang Luo raised her eyebrows, but before she looked outside, Hu Zi's voice came from outside: "Shen Jin, are you also delivering stones? Why are you standing outside?"
Shen Jin: ...
Sang Luo wanted to laugh.
She stepped out of the yard and looked outside. Five children, some carrying baskets and some carrying dustpans, were walking beside her. They were all here to deliver pebbles. Shen Jin was standing at the corner outside her yard and had come out obediently.
Tsk, it's rare that this little bear is too embarrassed to enter her house? He is so thick-skinned in front of Shen An and Shen Ning.
Of the other five children, she recognized Erniu, Huzi and Sangluo, but she did not recognize the three younger ones.
Erniu and Huzi were now quite familiar with Sang Luo, and were not shy at all. They carried the things to the door, and smiled at Sang Luo when they saw her: "Mrs. Shen, we are here to deliver the stones."
Sang Luo smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Come into the yard. How come you all know that my family is looking for stones?"
Hu Zi smiled happily and scratched his head: "I saw Xiao An and Aning looking for them this morning. We heard that my sister-in-law wanted to pave the yard with stones, so we helped to look for them. We found some in the morning and these in the afternoon."
The little guy was very outgoing. He asked his little brother to carry the things to the yard, then smiled and pointed at the three boys next to him and said, "Sister Shen, this is Sanniu, Erniu's younger brother. The two younger ones are Shitou and Axu, my younger brothers."
Sang Luo smiled as he introduced them one by one, and then asked the older ones Erniu and Huzi, as well as Shen Jin who was standing at the gate of the courtyard, to take the younger ones to the mountain spring to wash their hands.
The three new cute kids from the Lu and Shi families didn't understand yet, but Erniu and the others who had been helping here for quite a while understood it right away. Shen Jin's ears trembled with joy.
Ahhh, he is so familiar with this!
When the eldest sister-in-law asks you to wash your hands, it is usually for food! ! ! !
I was so angry that I almost screamed. I no longer had the timid energy that prevented me from entering the yard just now.
The five people who were familiar with this were about to rush to wash their hands happily, and turned around and pulled the three confused people together to run to the spring. When they got to the spring, they noticed that the spring next to Shen An's house seemed different? ? ? ?
The puddle was expanded by adding bamboo pipes. A stone slab that could accommodate one person was laid at the water collection point for convenience. Many flowers and plants were planted on the pile of mud beside the puddle.
Of course, these are not important in the eyes of children. What is important is to have delicious food. They wash their hands quickly and run back one by one.
Just then, brother and sister Chen An and Chen Ning came back from picking wild vegetables and barnyard grass, and saw a group of friends gathering outside their house.
Sang Luo saw Chen An and Shen Ning coming over, so she waved to the little brother and sister to come over, and gently told them to wash their hands. Then she went into the house to get out a few pieces of crystal jerky and gave half a piece to each of the children.
The sour jujube cake is very easy to tear and is made in large pieces, so it is convenient for children to share some.
The first reaction in Shen An and Shen Ning's minds was to convert the number of pieces of sour jujube cake into money!
But looking at the several dustpans and baskets in the yard, they were all filled with beautiful round pebbles. There were so many of them, and I don’t know how long they had been looking for them. They had been looking for them today as well. They knew that stones were easy to find, but small, beautiful, round stones of similar size were not easy to find.
Chen An nodded, and took Chen Ning to wash their hands. They met their friends, and the children were so excited that they made faces at Chen An and Chen Ning. The brother and sister laughed a little, and whispered to everyone to wait a moment. After washing their hands, they went back to the house.
After a while, someone came out with a few pieces of sour jujube cake and joined the group of children.
Sang Luo heard Chen Ning say, "This is called crystal preserved meat. It sells for three cents and five dollars in the county. It's very precious. There aren't many of them. I'll give each of you half a dollar."
The little ones cheered with joy! These snacks were bought from the county!
Sang Luo took a look and ignored it, sitting down and continuing to weave her straw nest.
It is not complicated to weave a straw duck nest. It has two openings, large and small, and is round in shape, with a bottom and a top. As long as it is not exposed to rain, and some soft hay is spread inside, it is the best place for chicks, ducklings, cats, or dogs to live in.
A group of little ones got the sour jujube cakes and couldn't wait to put them in their mouths. Erniu thanked Sangluo first. Then the group of kids behind him, who were drooling just by looking at the crystal jerky, were also eager to eat them. They followed suit and thanked him.
Sang Luo smiled and said, "No need to thank me, just eat and go have fun."
After hearing this, the children seemed to have received an order. They no longer had any scruples and took a small bite of the food they got.
The food in the county town looks so delicious that I would never want to eat it all in one bite. Of course I would taste it first.
When I took that bite, I realized that my saliva wasn't secreted the most when I was craving for it before. The moment the crystal jerky entered my mouth was when my saliva started to flow.
“Sweet and sour!”
"tasty!"
“It’s delicious!”
Chen Tie and the kid named Shi Tou didn't bother to talk, they just slobbered and took one bite after another. But the youngest one, named A Xu, took a small bite, and couldn't help but took another small bite. When there was only half a piece left, he looked at it again and again, couldn't bear to eat it, and quietly stuffed it into the pocket sewn on his jacket.
Sang Luo was weaving a grass nest. Occasionally she would glance at the little kid as he ate with a satisfied look on his face, and she would smile to herself.
Shen Jin had sharp ears. While he was eating the crystal jerky, he could hear the sounds of chickens and ducks in the backyard. He moved closer to Shen An and asked quietly, "Shen An, did your family buy chickens and ducklings?"
Shen An nodded: "I bought it."
Hu Zi on the side interrupted, "My family bought the chicken, right? I heard Grandma Chen come to my house and ask about it this morning."
Shen An: "I'm not sure either. Grandma Chen helped me find it, I think."
"That is, my chickens are very strong and easy to raise."
Shen Jin looked envious: "That's great, we have chickens and ducks now, and we'll have eggs to eat in the future. Sister-in-law always buys you all kinds of food."
He had never seen the snacks in the county before.
Seeing Shen Jin's regretful expression, Chen An was too lazy to respond.
He looked at the stones that everyone had brought in. The dustpan at home could no longer hold the pebbles. He dumped the pebbles that his friends had brought in into the corner of the yard, and then said to them, "Okay, thank you for today. You've been drying them outside all day. Go home quickly. I'll help my sister-in-law with the work."
"Okay, I'll help you pick up stones tomorrow." Hu Zi said, and then added: "No need to give me food."
After eating, he realized that he was embarrassed, so Shen An laughed.
A group of children said hello to Sang Luo and left with their dustpans and baskets.
Shen An went to see someone off, Shen Ning came to Sang Luo's side, holding a piece of sour jujube cake in her hand and leaned over: "Sister-in-law, you eat too."
Sang Luo tilted her head back slightly and looked down, then said, "Just tear off half a piece and give it to me."
It's a habit I developed during the years of recuperation in my previous life, nowadays, no matter how good the food is, I only eat it in moderation.
Shen Ning knew something about her sister-in-law's temper, so she smiled and tore off half of the piece, tore off half of the other half for herself, and stuffed the other half into the mouth of Shen An who had just come in.
After eating, Shen Ning went to make chicken feed. He chopped up dandelions and mugwort with a bamboo knife, grabbed a handful of barnyard grass and a handful of bran and mixed them together. After he was done, he realized, "Sister-in-law, we don't have a feed trough at home."
It is impossible to feed chickens with a bowl. If the water is poured on the ground, the newly built house and yard will look so beautiful. It will be so dirty if the water is poured on the ground.
Sang Luo thought about it, and carried out the bamboo stalk that only a small section of it had been used yesterday afternoon. She sawed off a section of the thick end and split it in half, thus becoming two small feeding troughs and water troughs. She also picked out a slightly thinner section and prepared some for the ducklings.
"Use it like this for now, and change it when you find something suitable."
Chen Ning went in to feed the chickens. Sang Luo put down the saw and continued to finish the grass nest. After she finished weaving it and took a look at it, she felt that it was still very delicate. It was no worse than some beautiful cat nests bought online, and it had a more rustic beauty.
She looked into the yard and called on Chen An to help her lift the thin stone slab that had been placed on the ground at home as a small stone table, moved it into the backyard, and placed it under the eaves against the wall of the main house.
Sang Luo looked up and down and thought that even if it rained, she would not get wet, so she went out and brought the straw nest in.
There are stone slabs on the ground and an eaves on the top. As long as it is not raining heavily, it is fine to use this grass nest here for the time being. When the ducks grow bigger, they can be released outside to graze.
Sang Luo was fiddling with the grass nest and fixing the water trough and feeding trough, while Chen An went to move the soft hay he had found earlier, brought it back and spread it carefully in the nest. Then he caught the three ducklings one by one, carefully gathered them in his palms and put them into the nest covered with soft grass.
The three ducklings obviously liked this grass nest which was covered on almost three sides. They felt safer and looked up and down, babbling happily.
Sang Luo looked at the three furry little creatures, stood up and told Chen Ning to cook some half-cooked rice to feed the ducks later. She carried a stone hoe and went out of the yard, choosing a piece of land beside the house and started digging.
The land had just been cleared, so it was easy to deal with. She just had to make it flat. After a few moves, she silently calculated the size of the chicken coop and estimated that the remaining bamboo at home might not be enough. She took the machete and called Chen An to go with her to cut bamboo nearby.
After struggling for nearly an hour, the uncle and his wife came back dragging a bamboo, a small bundle of fir branches as thick as a child's arm, and a bunch of large banana leaves. Without going into the yard, they took out wooden blocks, saws, and machetes, and processed the thin branches of the bamboo outside the yard, leaving the main trunk, and started sawing by measuring the length.
After sawing the bamboo stalks, she split them into long strips two and a half fingers wide, and then wove them into six solid bamboo fences. The four vertical bamboo strips in each fence were more than a foot long. One of the fences had a door large enough for the chickens and ducks to come in and out, and she also had to be able to clean it herself.
After the six bamboo fences were prepared, they were moved to the previously leveled mud ground. One of them was placed flat on the ground as the bottom of the cage, mainly to prevent weasels from digging holes into the cage. The other four pieces were used to knock the grown bamboo strips into the soil around the edges, and a simple fence was formed.
Then he put the sixth bamboo fence on top, asked Chen An to go into the house and get the hemp rope, and then he carefully fixed the eight side seams and inserted the bamboo door. Then, a simple, rough but solid chicken coop was made.
Finally, I used branches as thick as a child's arm to hammer one end vertically into the soil on all four sides of the chicken coop. After I hammered it deep enough, I tried it with my hand and found it didn't shake. Then I started to use hemp ropes and thick branches to build a horizontal roof.
A roof frame that is twice as taller and twice as large as the chicken coop gradually takes shape in Sang Luo's hands. She then uses rain-proof banana leaves as the top and covers it layer by layer, so that it can provide shade and shelter from the rain.
Sang Luo looked at the double-decker chicken coop that was as tall as her and thought, wow, it’s a small villa in the chicken coop of Shili Village.
She was amused by the sight, and took out two unused banana leaves, carefully stuffed them inside to lay out the surface, and asked Chen An to bring out the remaining straw and spread a few layers of it on top of the banana leaves.
Perfect!
When the inside gets dirty in the future, just roll up the banana leaf slightly and pull it out, and all the dirty straw will come out, making it convenient to replace it with a new one.
After finishing the work, Sang Luo admired her masterpiece and finally had time to look at her hands. Although the bamboo strips had been simply shaved, she was not a proper carpenter or bamboo craftsman after all, so her craftsmanship was very rough and the processing was not smooth.
Without gloves, no matter how careful I was, I still got seven or eight cuts on my hands. It was okay while I was working, but now that I'm done with the work, my palms are itchy and painful.
She went back to the house and lit a fire. She held one of her only two needles between two branches and burned the tip of the needle over the fire. Then she sat in the yard and picked out the bamboo thorns that had pierced her flesh bit by bit, until there was no thorn left. Only then did she finish.
Chen An and Shen Ning were originally very happy to see such a beautiful chicken coop built next to the house, but when they saw so many small wounds on Sang Luo's hands, their happiness suddenly disappeared, leaving only discomfort and guilt.
"Sister-in-law, this is a man's job. I'll do it from now on. If there's anything I don't know, I'll ask Uncle Arita. You don't have to do this kind of work."
A serious look on his face.
Chen Ning on the side particularly agreed: "Yes, sister-in-law, your hands have so many cuts, it must be painful."
The actions of the little brother and sister made Sang Luo, who was feeling uncomfortable due to the tingling and itching on her hands, smile.
A man?
The little kids in first and second grade kept saying that this was a man's job, and Sang Luo wanted to laugh.
However, boys who are so responsible should still be encouraged. She smiled and said, "Okay, our Xiao An is a little man, so you should study hard. When you have learned well, Sister-in-law and Aning will rely on you when they encounter this kind of work in the future."
Shen An took it very seriously and nodded heavily: "I will definitely do it. I don't think it's difficult. I watched what my sister-in-law did today."
Sang Luo laughed, sat down to rest, went to the kitchen, poured a bamboo cup of water and drank it, brought in the wooden block, picked up the saw and continued to work.
Shen An was anxious: "Didn't we agree that I would do it after I learned it?"
Sang Luo held the wood saw, smiled and raised her eyebrows: "The day after tomorrow we will set up a feast, can you make a cutting board?"
Chen Youtian had so much work to do that he actually forgot about such a small thing as the chopping board. Others were doing it for her for free. It was impossible for Sang Luo to ask others to do everything for her. If she could find a way to do it herself, she should do it herself.
When Shen An heard that it was a chopping board for cutting vegetables in the kitchen, he was stunned. How to make this?
Sang Luo originally said it casually, but after she said it, she thought about it seriously and it seemed to be feasible. She searched among a pile of materials and found a log that Chen Youtian had sawed off. She knocked it again and again and felt that the material was quite solid. She turned to look at Chen An and said, "It's not difficult, the material is ready. This is the extra elm wood that we have for making beams. I think it's suitable for making a chopping board. Just saw off a piece of log. Do you want to try it?"
At this point, he became more certain, and called out to Shen An: "Come, if you want to try it, come and help me, I'll watch you do it."
If it's done badly it's just waste material and she can just make it again.
That's not right. How could it be damaged? The other side was originally sawed by Chen Youtian, so it is flat. Since one side is flat, no matter how she messes with the other side, it won't affect her ability to cut vegetables.
Shen An was a little unsure, could he really be a chopping board?
Then, seeing the encouraging look from his sister-in-law, his uncertainty quickly turned into eagerness: "Okay! Then sister-in-law, you teach me."
He could take care of some of the household chores, and Shen An even felt indescribably excited.
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