Chapter 300: Installing the Sofa, a Chicken Died
"You came to steal the chickens on a rainy day, didn't you?"
Lin Heng looked at a red-bellied snake spitting out its tongue next to the box. This thing had red patterns on its body and was a non-venomous snake.
Lin Heng picked up the fire tongs, grabbed the seven-inch stick and lifted it up, walked along the corridor to the front door, and threw it into the ground outside the street with a whoosh.
Fortunately, it was discovered early, otherwise the little chick might have been killed.
After taking a look at the chicks, he went back to the house to cook, boiled the water, and called Xiulan.
The brown clear soup is filled with chopped green onions and fish balls, and there are white noodles.
Xiulan took a sip and tilted her head to ask, "Why isn't my cooking as delicious as yours?"
Lin Heng smiled and said, "Maybe you didn't add lard. Clear soup noodles need some lard to be fragrant."
"Then I'll try it next time." Xiulan nodded and started eating. The fish ball sour soup noodles were really delicious.
Lin Heng likes eating noodles the most, and he also likes fishing, so he is good at cooking noodles and fish.
After dinner, it was still raining heavily outside and the wind was still howling, but not as strong as in the afternoon.
Lin Heng stood at the door, took a look, and then went back to the house to rest.
The next morning, when Lin Heng opened his eyes, the rain outside had not stopped and was still heavy, moderate rain.
Just as he expected, it was a continuous rainy day that would probably last for two or three days.
He glanced at Xiulan who was still sleeping next to him, pulled his arm free and got out of bed.
When I opened the back door, a cool breeze blew in my face. It was a little too cold for me in my short-sleeved shirt and shorts, and I shivered.
After stretching his body, Lin Heng walked into the pavilion and watched the raindrops hitting the delicate lotus flowers. In the clear fish pond, koi and other small fish were chasing and playing happily.
He leaned on the bench and watched for a while, liking the quiet feeling in the rain.
I didn't go to the bathroom until I felt bored, then came back to wash up.
After coming back from milking fresh milk, he looked at the yogurt he had made last night.
He boiled an extra egg in the morning, made some extra potato pancakes, and served a cucumber salad.
When Xiulan and the others got up and washed their faces, there was a knock on the door: "Son, open the door."
"Here I come."
Lin Heng walked over, opened the door with a smile, and welcomed his father in.
Father Lin held some carpentry tools in one hand and a basket of vegetables in the other and said, "I picked some leeks and fruits for you."
"Come in quickly and eat, it's just ready." Lin Heng took the basket and said with a smile. His father came here to help assemble the sofa.
"This breakfast is so rich." Father Lin said in surprise as he sat down at the table.
"Just add a cucumber." Lin Heng said with a smile.
The four of them enjoyed breakfast together. Lin Heng and his father began to assemble the sofa, while Xiaoxia made trouble beside them.
Xiulan cooked the remaining fish and shared it with Xiongba and Fengshou. She kept half of it when feeding the dog last night. She thought it would be preserved until today due to the low temperature on rainy days, but when she smelled it just now, it was still spoiled.
"How about we have leek dumplings for lunch?" After feeding the dog, Xiulan looked at the leeks in the basket and said to Lin Heng.
Lin Heng nodded: "Sure, put more eggs in. Eggs can't be kept for too long in summer. They will go bad if not eaten."
"I know." Xiulan waved her hand and went into the house to knead the dough.
Unlike Lin Heng's model which was all glued together, this big sofa still uses a lot of mortise and tenon joints. Lin's father felt that it was too cheap to just use water and nails, so he insisted on using mortise and tenon joints.
Therefore, the corners and joints of the sofa were changed to mortise and tenon structures, which are more troublesome to install and require constant debugging.
After kneading the dough, Xiulan pulled the messy Xiaoxia aside, tidied up Xiaoxia's baby clothes, and took out the newly bought cloth to make new clothes for the unborn baby.
Although she has money to buy things now, she is still in the habit of making clothes for her children herself. While saving money, she can also gain a sense of accomplishment. She would feel useless if she let Lin Heng buy everything.
…
At one o'clock in the afternoon, Xiulan walked out of the kitchen and said, "Take a break. It's time to eat."
"Okay, let's eat first. The aroma of leek dumplings has made me drool." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Although they installed the chaise longue in one morning and the process was slow, we still had to eat.
The father shook the chaise longue that had just been installed and said, "Although it's slow, it's strong enough. It won't break even if you drop it. The one that's nailed in will fall apart after just a few shakes."
"Indeed, this is more useful than nails and glue." Lin Heng nodded in agreement. His father's carpentry skills were getting better and better. It seemed that he had learned a lot from helping Carpenter Liang before.
Mortise and tenon joints are naturally the best, but he finds it troublesome. However, his father is a man who strives for perfection, and he wants to plant rice in a straight and horizontal direction.
It was still raining outside, probably moderate rain. The Shiban River had turned into a yellow angry dragon. Many people ran to the rice fields to fend off the water, fearing that the field ridges would be washed away.
But rain also has its advantages. The weather has become cooler and not as unbearable as before.
After washing his hands, Lin Heng walked into the kitchen to help serve the dishes. Seeing Xiulan sucking her fingers in front of the bluestone chopping board, he walked over and asked with concern, "What's wrong? Let me take a look."
I took her little hand and looked at it, but there was no knife cut on her soft and white hand.
"It was a needle prick. The needles at home are not very useful. I pricked myself three or four times while sewing clothes. Now it has come into contact with the salt and it hurts a lot, but it's nothing serious." Xiulan took her hand back and shook her head.
"I'll buy you another box of needles another day." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"It's okay, let's eat." Xiulan brought out the dishes with a smile, and Lin Heng helped bring out the leek dumplings and fermented bean curd with chili sauce.
For lunch today, I made stir-fried sour beans with bacon, a cold vegetable stew, and a loofah soup.
Father Lin took a bite and exclaimed in surprise: "This chive dumpling is so delicious!"
The outside of the chive dumplings is fried in oil until golden and crispy, and the inside is filled with soft chive and egg fillings, which fills your mouth with fragrance when you take a bite.
Lin Heng likes to spread some fermented bean curd chili sauce on one side, which makes it taste richer. He finished one in one go and nodded repeatedly: "My wife's cooking skills are getting better and better."
Xiulan smiled and said, "Everything tastes good. If you use more oil, everything will taste better."
"Mom, it's so hot." Xiaoxia wanted to eat but was afraid of the heat, so she could only look at her mother.
"Let me blow you." Xiulan leaned over and blew her for a while.
Chive dumplings are about a circle with a diameter of ten centimeters. They are filled with chives and eggs. They need to be fried in oil to taste delicious.
Lin Heng ate four in a row, his father also ate four, Xiaoxia ate one, and Xiulan ate two.
"Dad, please take the remaining four eights back to my mom this afternoon." Xiulan said as she took a bite of the cold dish.
Everyone was busy eating the leek dumplings and didn't eat anything else except the soup and vegetables. Now they can't eat anything else even if they want to.
"Okay." Father Lin drank a mouthful of soup and nodded in agreement. He had a big appetite, so he could also have a bowl of loofah soup.
After dinner, they continued to assemble the sofa frame. The afternoon was long, and they worked from 1:30 to 7 o'clock until they finally finished the sofa frame.
"It turns out pretty good." Father Lin looked at the frame and nodded with satisfaction. He thought it was better than the sofas he had seen in the city.
"Of course, Dad, you can make one over there. It's more comfortable to sit on than ordinary benches." Lin Heng looked at his father and said that there were still a lot of wooden boards left from the purchase this time and they could make another one.
"Wait until you finish this and let me feel it first." Father Lin said with a smile.
"That's fine, let's push the sofa over and see." Lin Heng said, pointing to the wall over there in the study.
The front yard of his house faces north and slightly east, and the study wall is on the east side.
Pushing the sofa frame to the wall near the study, Lin Heng found that it was not what he expected. It was not appropriate to put the sofa here because the stairs were right above it.
Although his wooden staircase is fully enclosed and has no impact on the people below like a concrete staircase and does not attract dust, the staircase gives people a sense of oppression and makes people very uncomfortable sitting on it.
"That's easy. We can just move the big cabinet over here." Father Lin measured the length with a ruler and said with a smile. "It's just the right length to fit in."
The large cabinet is three and a half meters long, and one and a half meters high and wide. Every household in the rural area has such a large cabinet to store food and other things that are easily destroyed by rats.
Lin Heng was not in a hurry to move, but said: "Actually, this big cabinet can also be put upstairs, and then a small cabinet can be placed here."
A small cabinet doesn't take up much space and is enough to store some daily rice and flour foods. The big cabinet mainly stores unshelled grains.
"I think this is a good idea." Xiulan also nodded.
She had the idea of moving this big cabinet a long time ago. It didn't match the overall style of the main room, and Lin Heng Xiaoxia always liked to throw things on it, making it look very messy.
Father Lin nodded slowly: "That's fine. The grain will not be easily damp if it is stored upstairs, but it will be a bit troublesome to move it."
"Let's wait until later. The sofa still has a long time before it can be used, so let's put it here for the time being." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Father Lin nodded and packed up his things: "Then I'll go back. It will be dark if I don't leave now."
Lin Heng helped his father pack up his things and brought out the dried raincoat and waders. After Lin's father put them on, he left with the chive boxes he had made in the morning.
Lin Heng sent him to the gate and took a look at the rain outside. It had been raining all day today, and it looked like it would continue to rain for two more days.
After closing the door and returning to the house, he picked up the broken wood on the ground and threw it into the firewood pile in the kitchen, and then cleaned the floor.
"You go feed the chickens, ducks, cows and horses. I'll make dinner. Let's have knife-cut noodles." Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said. She had kneaded the dough for the knife-cut noodles in the morning and had been awake the whole time.
"good."
Lin Heng took the chicken feed he had prepared and went to the back mountain to feed the chickens. If they were fed corn directly, the chickens would lay very few eggs, so they needed feed like his that was nutritionally balanced.
"Another one died?"
Lin Heng looked at a chicken that had fallen to the ground in his cage. This was one of the chickens he had hatched. With the death of this one, there were only seven left.
These small chickens weighing about one pound always die for various reasons. There is nothing we can do about it but wait until the weather clears up to let them out and then disinfect the chicken coop.
Fortunately, the little black chicken with a pitch-black body did not die, otherwise Xiaoxia would have cried for a long time again.
After taking out the chicken's body and checking it, Lin Heng immediately found something wrong: "Damn, this chicken was bitten to death, what did it do?"
I saw that the chicken's neck was torn open and a large piece of meat was missing, and a small hole was squeezed out at the bottom of the chicken cage. The thing was trying to drag the chicken out but failed.
"I want to see what bit me." Lin Heng went back to the house and got a clip and placed it under the small hole of the chicken coop, leaving the hole as it was to avoid alerting the snake.
After feeding the chickens and ducks in the big chicken coop, he counted and found there were seven chickens and three ducks. The rest were eaten.
The big chickens have strong immunity and rarely die. When all the chickens went to grab the food, Lin Heng picked up the eggs again. Today, a total of three eggs were laid, which was not bad.
Basically now there are three or four like this every day, because there are only six hens left.
After providing fodder for the cows and horses, Lin Heng took the eggs and the dead chicken back.
"This chicken was bitten by a wild animal. Boil some water and I'll scald it and feed it to Xiongba." Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and said. Since it didn't die of illness, it could be boiled and fed to the dog, so it wouldn't be a waste.
"What ate it?" Xiulan came over curiously and asked in surprise, "We didn't hear any noise, and there's a dog in the back mountain. How dare this thing come here?"
"Maybe it was because it rained too heavily last night, and it's normal that we couldn't hear the lightning and thunder. I have already set a trap, and if that thing comes again it will definitely be caught." Lin Heng nodded, but he was actually a little confused.
"That's the only way." Xiulan said as she scooped the boiling water she was going to use for cooking into the bucket.
Lin Heng carried some water to the gate and made some chicken soup. After plucking out all the hair, he looked at the wound. It was the mark of an animal bite, very much like that of a weasel.
Cut open the intestines and chop up the internal organs. When Xiulan's rice is ready, pour everything into the pot and cook.
After eating the knife-cut noodles, Lin Heng mixed the cooked chicken with the remaining knife-cut noodles and brought them to the two dogs.
Since it was raining, they had to go back to the bedroom early to rest. Lin Heng told Xiaoxia a new story and she fell asleep quickly. She had played all day and went to bed especially early at night.
Lin Heng leaned on the bed and read for a while, then felt a little bored, so he lifted the mosquito net and put the book on the desk.
It was still a little cold because of the rain, so they both covered themselves with blankets, with Xiulan leaning against him.
The rain continued all night and was still falling in the morning, but it was lighter than before, but there was no sign of stopping.
"Sleep a little longer."
Lin Heng wanted to get up, but Xiulan pulled him back to sleep, lying on his chest in a daze.
She was not wearing any clothes and she didn't seem to feel anything. This was naturally related to the long night.
It’s such a long night and I can’t sleep, so I can only do something I love to pass the time, and I can usually fall asleep quickly after exercising.
"Oh, you hit me." After sleeping for a while, Xiulan was awakened by something like a stick.
Lin Heng looked at her without saying anything.
"Why are you looking at me with lustful eyes?" Xiulan glared at him, then said weakly, "Didn't I just..."
It has been a while since they had in-depth communication, and she is still a little tired and doesn't want to do it again.
Lin Heng touched her face and said with a smile: "I was just looking at you. When did you become lustful? I got up and went to check the clips."
"Go ahead, I'll sleep a little longer." Xiulan yawned. She has been particularly sleepy since she became pregnant.
After washing up, Lin Heng walked to the yard holding an umbrella and carrying feed. Under the green grape racks, he could see several bunches of grapes hanging down, which were as big as peanuts.
After taking a look, he took the feed and went to the back mountain.
Looking down the chicken coop, the clamp was still intact. The guy didn't come back last night.
"What a pity." Lin Heng shook his head and scattered feed to feed the chickens.
While feeding the chickens, Lin Heng grabbed one of the white ducks while they were eating.
“Ga ga ga!!”
The white duck flapped its wings and screamed when Lin Heng grabbed its neck, and the other chickens and ducks were scared away.
"I'm going to roast you today, stop struggling." Lin Heng grabbed its wings and said with a smile.
There are three ducks in the house, besides this white one, there is also a green-headed one and a brown one. The other two occasionally lay eggs, but this one just eats rice.
He carried the duck home and weighed it first.
"Not bad, it weighs five kilograms." Lin Heng said with a smile. This family has been raising it for a year, and it must taste much better than the force-fed duck that was fed for half a month.
I went to the back mountain to milk the cows. Today's breakfast will be a simple milk and eggs, and he is busy preparing roast duck.
“Are you going to make roast duck?”
When Xiulan got up to eat, Lin Heng had already killed and blanched the duck.
"Yeah, if it's raining and you have nothing to do, then let's eat duck. I want to eat it too, so let's make some honey roast duck." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Xiaoxia ran over and looked for a while, then said, "Dad, I want to eat the pressed duck leg!"
"No problem. Then you can finish eating the eggs first." Lin Heng agreed.
He had already eaten. He plucked the duck's feathers and burned the down with a handful of pine needles. Then he cut open the duck's intestines and processed the internal organs.
"Xiu Lan, this duck has a belly full of eggs."
Only after cutting open the belly did Lin Heng see the small eggs, and a duck egg the size of a ping-pong ball that was about to take shape. He actually killed the wrong duck.
Xiulan looked at it and shook her head: "It's a pity, but it doesn't matter since it's already been killed. I'm going to light the charcoal fire."
Lin Heng processed the duck's internal organs one by one and put them all into a small bowl. He liked to eat both chicken and duck offal.
After the duck was marinated, Lin Heng found a green bamboo and tied it on it, then placed it on the charcoal fire and slowly roasted it. At the same time, he brushed some white vinegar and honey water to make the skin easily crispy.
As the duck is slowly roasted, its skin gradually turns red, sizzling with oil and exuding fragrance.
"Dad, can I eat now?" Xiaoxia drooled at the smell.
"It's still early. This duck is so big that it will take a long time to roast. We can only eat it in the afternoon." Lin Heng shook his head.
"But you can try the roasted venison jerky first." Lin Heng handed her a piece of roasted and softened spiced venison jerky.
The dried meat was almost gone, with only two pounds left. The rest was given to Xiulan as a snack when she was suffering from morning sickness.
“Wow, delicious.”
Xiaoxia took the dried venison and asked her mother to tear it into pieces, shaking her head with joy.
“Boom boom boom!!”
At this time, there was a knock on the door.
"Is Xiulan in the house?" Li Caifeng's voice came from outside the door.
"Hey, what is she doing here?" Xiulan walked over and opened the door curiously.
As soon as she opened the door, Li Caifeng said with a smile on her face: "Xiu Lan, you have ink at home, right? I'd like to borrow some. I'll buy some and return it to you next time when the weather is fine."
"Yes, come with me to get it." Xiulan nodded, turned around and went into the house to get the things.
Li Caifeng looked around the beautiful bluestone courtyard of the Lin family curiously, then smelled the tempting aroma. Upon closer inspection, she found that Lin Heng was actually roasting a duck in the main room.
(End of this chapter)
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