Chapter 140 Expressing gratitude with love [6.6k]
"Let's go up and take a look."
After taking a look at Xiongba, Lin Heng went ashore and walked upstream.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba found a place far away from Lin Heng, shook off the water, and then trotted after him.
"Help!"
Lin Heng walked about a hundred meters and came to a place where women often washed clothes, and saw someone asking for help.
Jin Hai was sitting by the water with a snake biting his ankle. The cry for help came from his sister Jin Yan.
"Lin Heng, help, save my brother, she was bitten by a water snake." Jin Yan saw Lin Heng hurriedly asking for help, her face full of anxiety. She was afraid of snakes and didn't dare to get close.
Jin Hai, a man, was pale and trembling all over, and he didn't even dare to look at his feet.
"Water snakes are not poisonous, why are you so scared?" Lin Heng glanced at Jin Hai. This kid is usually very arrogant, but he is so scared when he encounters a snake.
“Not... not poisonous?” Jin Hai was stunned. He glanced at the snake on his feet, but his whole body was still weak.
Jin Yan was also stunned. She was crying so hard. You told me that water snakes are not poisonous? "What's wrong?" Yang Zhaotao, who was working in the field, ran over.
"Go and see for yourself." Lin Heng smiled.
Freshwater snakes make a living by catching fish, but their fancy patterns are scary, and some people even say that freshwater snakes are poisonous. He even opened their mouths to see that they had no fangs at all.
Yang Zhaotao took a look and said with a smile: "What's there to be afraid of? This thing is not poisonous."
He walked over to take a look and said with a smile: "You have already pressed the water snake, it will definitely not let go."
"Xiongba, let's go." Lin Heng smiled, turned around and walked back, holding the almost dried red dates on his body.
Soon, Jin Hai and Jin Yan also appeared behind. Lin Heng took a glance and Jin Hai immediately lowered his head.
It was so embarrassing that he could no longer stand up straight in front of Lin Heng.
"Lin Heng, thank you!" Jin Yan ran over and said.
Her clothes were wet and she looked somewhat pitiful.
"I didn't help, no need to thank me." Lin Heng waved his hand.
After saying that, he left. When he returned home, he led Hongzao to the newly built stable for him, which was filled with some straw and chopped horse grass and corn leaves.
Xiulan stayed at home all day playing with Xiaoxia. Because she had her period these two days, Lin Heng didn't want her to get tired.
"Have you finished bathing Hongzao and Xiongba?" Xiulan asked when she saw him.
"It's done. The boiling water is gone. I'll go boil some water." Lin Heng nodded, picked up the kettle, and poured the remaining hot water into his wife's cup.
"Why didn't you put brown sugar? Don't you have any at home?" Lin Heng asked curiously as he looked at the red dates soaked in the cup.
"I thought there was something, but it turned out to be gone. It's not a big deal." Xiulan shook her head softly.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "It's okay. The sugar sticks are old now. I'll make some brown sugar for you myself."
The so-called sweet stalks are sweet sorghum, which they grow here to make wine. Like the sugarcane grown in the south, the stalks of sweet sorghum are also sweet, and they are eaten as sugarcane.
"Do it yourself?" Xiulan was a little surprised.
"It will be quick, just wait for me at home." Lin Heng said, and ran out with a hatchet.
Lin Heng went to his own sweet stalk field and cut ten sweet stalks with red tops, weighing about forty or fifty kilograms.
After taking it home, he peeled off the leaves to feed the horse. Xiulan came over and looked at him curiously: "We don't have any tools at home, how can we make brown sugar?"
"If you don't have any tools, just find one."
Lin Heng smiled slightly. He removed the outer skin of the sweet potato sticks one by one, leaving the core containing water and sugar. This was also the core of the sweet potato stick that they ate when they were young.
After everything was processed, he found a stone mortar and put the sweet potato stems into it and crushed them bit by bit.
If you are someone who often makes your own brown sugar, you will have a sugar cart and a sugar bed, similar to the one used to press noodles. It uses the lever principle and saves a lot of effort.
If you don't have it, it's not impossible to make it, as long as you can crush the sweet potato stalks and extract the juice.
The crushed sweet potato residue and juice are all poured onto the tofu cloth and squeezed out to produce a greenish turbid sugar water.
After finishing all of them, Lin Heng felt it was not enough, so he cut fifteen more and spent an hour to mash them. He made two large basins of 20 kilograms of concentrated sweet potato juice.
After tinkering with it from 4:30 to 6:00, Lin Heng finally cleaned the pot, poured the sweet potato juice in and started to boil it.
Let the sweet potato juice in the pot boil first, Lin Heng went out to chop two bamboos, came back with ten bamboo tubes, and then put the brown sugar in them.
In fact, he could just go to the village and find someone to buy some brown sugar, he had money too.
But I just wanted to make brown sugar for my wife myself, and I didn’t have any other ideas.
Xiulan had been watching from the side, quietly watching him work while taking care of her daughter.
Dry acorn firewood was placed in the pot, and the fire was very strong. As the sweet potato juice in the pot boiled, the color quickly changed from turbid light green to dark red, and some foam floated on the surface, which needed to be scooped out.
As the water continued to bubble and boil, it gradually evaporated. The pot was heated up, and after half an hour, the water had almost evaporated. Lin Heng turned off the fire, leaving only the burnt charcoal.
Using chopsticks, I kept stirring the little dark red liquid left at the bottom of the pot. It started out as big bubbles, which quickly turned into dense small bubbles.
At this time, there is basically no water. Lin Heng dipped a little sugar liquid in cold water and the sugar liquid became extremely hard. This shows that the sugar liquid in the pot has cooled to this extent.
Immediately, he used a spoon to scoop the sugar liquid into the prepared bamboo tubes, filling each bamboo tube only partially, not completely.
When the sugar liquid was almost full and could not be scooped up, Lin Heng poured boiling water in to dilute it into sugar water again.
Then add two handfuls of rice, a few pitted red dates, and two dendrobiums, and prepare to simmer over low heat to make the brown sugar, red dates, and dendrobium porridge.
After preparing the brown sugar in the pot, Lin Heng put the bamboo tube in the water and went to clean the floor that he had made dirty by making the brown sugar.
When he came out, Xiulan had already cleaned up everything. Lin Heng poured the remaining sweet potato residue into the badger pen to feed the badgers.
Only after finishing all this did I have time to sit down and rest.
"It's really that serious. It's really tiring." Xiulan handed over a towel and said helplessly.
Lin Heng wiped the sweat off his face and laughed: "What's the big deal? I feel very fulfilled. The main thing is to let you see my cooking skills."
As he said this, he stood up again to change the cold water for the bamboo. After a few times, the brown sugar was completely solidified.
Xiulan felt warm in her heart watching Lin Heng busying around in front of her. If it weren't for the relatives coming, she really wanted to hug him and thank him.
"Okay!" Lin Heng took the bamboo tube to the table, split it with a knife, and took out a beautiful piece of brown sugar.
There were ten pieces of brown sugar in ten bamboo tubes. Lin Heng weighed them and found that they were only one pound and one ounce. The sugar yield was really low.
"Wife, this is for you!"
Lin Heng put the brown sugar in a wooden bowl and handed it to his wife and said with a smile.
"Thank you, husband!"
Xiulan blinked and looked at him, her eyes bright as water, filled with endless tenderness.
She picked up some brown sugar crumbs and put them in her mouth. Not only was the brown sugar sweet, but her heart was also sweetened by this man.
"Mom, I want to eat too!"
Xiaoxia seemed to be tired from playing with Jinbao. She noticed her mother eating, put on her shoes, ran over, hugged her legs, and looked up at her.
"This is what your father made for me. You can only eat a little bit of it." Xiulan glanced at her and gave her some brown sugar crumbs.
"sweet."
Xiaoxia wanted to eat more after eating it, and looked at Lin Heng with her big eyes full of pleading.
Lin Heng spread his hands: "I gave them all to your mother."
"Mom~"
Xiaoxia hugged her mother and acted coquettishly. Lin Heng went to stir the porridge in the pot. The porridge was almost cooked.
The light red porridge is full of sweet aroma, and you'll want to eat it just by smelling it.
He turned down the heat, scooped up the porridge and divided it into two bowls, one large and one small, then took two spoons and carried it out to place on the table.
"Eat it, I made it myself." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Xiulan scooped a spoonful, blew on it and tasted it. Her smile was sweeter than the porridge. She blinked and said, "It's really sweet and delicious."
"Daddy, feed me." Xiaoxia didn't want to eat at first, but when she heard it was sweet, she 'consciously' climbed onto Lin Heng's legs.
Lin Heng shook his head and could only pick up the spoon to feed her. During this time, Xiulan also fed him two more bites.
Not long after they finished eating, the food was ready at their eldest brother's place, so Lin Heng took his wife and children straight over there.
The food at his eldest brother's place was still a lot worse than what he had at home yesterday, but it was still much better than that of other families in the village.
Except for the lack of matsutake and black truffle, there are fried grouper and stir-fried yellow eel, as well as stir-fried meat with broom mushroom, which Lin Heng loves to eat.
The fried crispy river grouper was so delicious that we finished it all in no time, one by one. My eldest brother even finished a whole pot of it.
There was nothing much to do these days, so everyone was chatting and eating, it was very leisurely.
"Lin Heng, you and Xiulan are going back to your mother's house together. When are you planning to leave?" Father Lin asked after taking a sip of wine at the dinner table.
"August 14th, let's go over and play for a day and come back on the 16th. I plan to get a wooden cart and have a horse pull it and go over slowly." Lin Heng replied after taking a bite of mushroom.
Mother Lin looked at him and said, "This is your first time going back with Xiulan. You need to buy more things. Have you bought them all?"
In that era when there were no roads, the two counties were really far apart, so after getting married I never had the chance to go back.
Lin Heng nodded: "I've bought it. I bought a set of clothes and shoes for the two elders, a bottle of Sanliangye, a box of mooncakes and two bags of sugar."
These things are definitely expensive gifts, adding up to about fifty yuan. In this era, a bag of sugar is considered an expensive gift. Not to mention the countryside, even in the city, you may not be able to give so much when you meet your father-in-law for the first time.
"That's absolutely enough." Lin's mother nodded. She even felt that it was too much.
"You don't have to rush back after you go. Spend more time with Xiulan at home. Your mother and I will take care of the livestock at home." Lin's father also said.
The eldest brother Lin Yue also said: "Yes, you can play with Xiulan for a few more days, and there is no need to worry about the family."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded in agreement.
Then Lin's mother took Xiulan aside and told her some of her true feelings. When Lin Heng and Xiulan got married, the family handled it rather hastily. Xiulan didn't even ask for bracelets or rings, let alone a four-piece wedding set.
Xiulan responded to Lin's mother with a smile. There was nothing to say about the past. She had done it voluntarily. It was enough to have Lin Heng around.
My eldest brother's family made sauerkraut noodles in the evening, but it wasn't too sour or salty enough. We poured some stir-fried pork with broom mushrooms into the noodles and it immediately tasted much better. We ate a bowl and a half in a row.
After dinner, Lin Heng took his wife and daughter back home. He boiled hot water for Xiulan to wash her feet and filled the kettle to ensure that Xiulan would have some hot water to drink if she wanted to in the evening.
By the time I had read to my daughter and lulled her to sleep, Xiulan had also fallen asleep.
Lin Heng looked at his sleeping wife. Xiulan was fine now and in good health. In her previous life, when she gave birth to her second and third sons, she didn't take good care of herself during the confinement period, and later she developed a serious illness.
After covering her with the quilt, Lin Heng lay down and went to sleep.
When he woke up in the morning, Lin Heng found that she had leaned against him, sleeping with her little face against his shoulder.
He didn't move, just looked at the ceiling and thought about life, waiting for his wife to wake up.
Half an hour later, Xiulan woke up slowly. When she saw Lin Heng, she immediately smiled tenderly and asked with a wink, "How long have you been awake?"
Lin Heng shook his head: "Not long."
"I don't believe it." Xiulan lay in his arms, and her stomach felt a little cold.
"You take a nap, I'll get up and cook for you." Lin Heng turned around, tidied his wife's hair, and touched her little face.
"Let me hold you for a while before you get up." Xiulan said in a low voice.
Lin Heng nodded helplessly. It was really hard to hold such a beautiful wife in his arms. He also ate a lot of eels in the past two days.
Xiulan seemed to have noticed this problem as well, and after hugging him for a while she let him go.
Lin Heng got up and poured his wife a glass of brown sugar water, then went out to wash his face with cold water and went to the toilet.
When I returned to the house to prepare dinner, I saw Jinbao eating something with a snorting sound. Upon closer inspection, I found that it was a mouse.
"You're quite capable!" Lin Heng smiled and went to the front yard to pick a few eggplants and some green beans.
He made rice in the morning, and he didn't plan to cook anything complicated, just some stir-fried green beans, some braised eggplant, and some egg yolk soup.
The mushrooms had already been dried, so he didn't fry them today.
"The food today is very good!" When Xiulan got up, she looked at the table full of food and praised it.
She picked up the chopsticks and took a bite of the braised eggplant and immediately loved it even more: "This braised eggplant is so delicious!"
"I knew you like sweet and sour food." Lin Heng said with a smile. He can eat anything, but he prefers sour and spicy food.
Lin Heng first held Xiaoxia and fed her. She loved the egg yolk flower soup with black truffle very much. She drank a small bowl and wanted more.
After finishing the meal, Xiulan smiled and said, "I feel like your cooking tastes better than mine."
"Then next time if you don't want to do it, just leave it to me." Lin Heng replied with a smile.
"Okay!" Xiulan nodded along with the brown sugar water.
After dinner, Lin Heng washed the dishes and went to the back mountain to bring back some firewood left over from building the stable and stacked it under the eaves.
Lin's father and elder brother went to the mountain to pick Schisandra chinensis. Lin Heng stayed at home to take care of Xiulan and waited for them to come back and eat some at the night market.
After preparing the firewood, Lin Heng fed the animals, shoveled out the horse manure from the stable and piled it aside for composting, fed the chickens and ducks at home, cut some pig grass in front of the door, and picked some lotus seeds from the lotus field.
At noon, he made eight-treasure porridge with red dates, lotus seeds, dendrobium, pumpkin, tender corn, dried sweet potatoes, and brown sugar.
Needless to say, the taste was sweet and delicious after it was stewed. Xiaoxia ate two big bowls.
On the eleventh day of the eighth lunar month, Xiulan's relatives had gradually left, and Lin's father and his friends could no longer pick Schisandra chinensis, so they all returned.
Lin Heng went to Hongfeng Mountain with them to continue building the wooden house. He put up the frame in one day and started nailing the planks of the wall on the 12th.
A circle of wooden boards are nailed horizontally on the outside to form the wall, and the roof is also made of wooden boards nailed close together. Finally, a waterproof gray tarpaulin is nailed on.
After all the wooden boards are nailed, mark the positions of the doors and windows, turn on the diesel saw and saw them along the lines, then nail the door and window frames for reinforcement, and the square little house is basically built.
"It still looks pretty." Lin Heng said with a smile. Although the wooden board was not smooth enough, it was still pretty.
Because he was using wet wooden boards, he didn't apply tung oil or paint for the time being. He would wait for two months until the boards were dry before painting them. He planned to go to the city to buy some better waterproof paint and paint it dark brown.
"You know what, this wooden house seems to be better to live in than a mud house, but it's not very safe due to fire." Father Lin said with a smile.
"Do we still need to renovate the house?" Lin Yue looked at Lin Heng.
"No need. Xiulan and I are going back to my parents' home tomorrow. Let's do it slowly when we get back." Lin Heng shook his head.
That’s it for now. The rest will be improved slowly later, so there’s no need to rush.
The overall frame of the house has been built and can shelter from wind and rain, but another layer of wooden boards needs to be nailed inside, and some fireproof cotton or foam boards need to be filled in the interlayer between the inner and outer wooden boards, otherwise no one can live in this house in winter.
As for furniture and the construction around the house, these have to be done step by step, there's no point in rushing.
Just like building in the wilderness, take your time and you will eventually get it done.
It would be meaningless if we asked a bunch of people to do all of this at once.
Lin Yue slapped his head and said, "Oh, yes, I forgot that today is August 13th."
"And I can take care of the rest slowly. It's not that troublesome." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Then let's go back. It's getting late." Father Lin nodded.
Holding the tools, the three of them left Red Maple Mountain and walked back.
Lin Heng glanced at the twenty acres of land at the foot of Hongfeng Mountain. Two acres of wheat fields had become two ponds. The disinfection had been completed and they were now filled with water. From a distance, they looked like two small mirrors.
The one acre of peanuts planted here has been dug up, and what remains are soybeans, red beans and corn, which can all be harvested soon.
After all the crops were harvested, Lin Heng prepared to continue digging the fish pond.
After returning home, Lin Heng took a towel and went to take a bath in the river with his elder brother. They soaked for a while and swam back and forth a few times. He felt refreshed.
Lin Heng returned to the house, and Xiulan said with a smile: "The meal is ready, try it and see if it tastes better than what you cooked."
"That must be because my wife's cooking skills are good." Lin Heng smiled.
After dinner, Xiaoxia took a break to cool down and started to ask for stories to read.
"Okay, okay, I'll read you a story." Lin Heng carried her to the bed.
After reading a long story to coax her to sleep, Lin Heng pulled the opaque mosquito net over her, washed his feet and went to bed.
Xiulan, who had already washed up and gone to bed, took the initiative to move closer to him, with her long and beautiful legs wearing the white stockings that Lin Heng liked.
"Wife!" Lin Heng was a little surprised.
"Don't talk!" Xiulan hugged his neck and kissed him.
The man who had taken such good care of her for so many days deserved her deep gratitude.
Xiulan expressed her passionate love for him in Lin Heng's favorite way.
…
…
Early in the morning of August 14, Lin Heng and his family got up very early.
Although Lin Heng said he was a little tired last night, he had to get up early today. Going to Lushui County was farther than going to Taibai City, and it might take half a day to take a carriage.
There was no other way. The road was difficult to travel on and we still had to use horse-drawn carts, which were no match for cars.
Lin Heng didn't change his clothes. He first made a large bowl of corn paste and went to the back mountain to feed the red dates.
While it was drinking corn porridge, Lin Heng looked at its body, which was a little dirty as it hadn't been washed for two days.
"It's really hard to take care of it." Lin Heng shook his head. After it finished drinking, he pulled it to the front yard and washed it with water.
Mainly the hind legs were dirty, and it didn't take much effort to clean them with a brush.
Lin Heng washed the horse clean, and Lin's father and elder brother also came over.
"You pull the horse to the road and leave the wooden cart to us," said Lin's father.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded.
He pulled the horse out on the road, and his eldest brother refilled the air in the wheels, installed them under the wooden cart, and then pushed it out with Lin's father.
This is his family's own wooden cart. In order to make it more convenient for people to sit on it, it was modified in the past two days. The bed was raised by 50 centimeters and padded with a straw mat.
There are also several handrails on the truck bed.
After pushing the wooden cart onto the road, Lin Heng and the other two began to put the horses' leads and reins on. These things are available in every village, so even if they don't have them, they can make them themselves.
The journey this time was quite long, and Lin Heng also took good protective measures for the red dates to avoid rubbing their bodies.
After putting it on and trying it again, Lin Heng went back to the house to wash his hair and change his clothes.
Xiulan and Xiaoxia had already changed. Xiulan was wearing the summer clothes he bought for her, but she changed the floral skirt into blue flared pants. She still looked like a queen.
Xiaoxia was also dressed neatly, like a little fairy.
"Just wear this one." After Lin Heng washed her hair, Xiulan found clothes for her.
A white round-neck short-sleeved shirt, black trousers and a pair of sneakers, simple and handsome.
In addition, Xiulan also gave each person a set of clean clothes.
"Okay, let's go." He looked at Lin Heng, nodded with satisfaction, with a smile on his face.
"Okay." Lin Heng picked up Xiaoxia, who was still half asleep. It was only half past five and the sky was just getting light.
Xiulan followed Lin Heng out carrying bags.
"Woof woof~"
Xiongba realized that Lin Heng and Xiulan were going on a long journey, so he dragged an iron chain over to rub against them, wanting to be together.
"Just stay at home and look after the house. It's too far and not suitable." Lin Heng touched its head and turned away.
We told our parents yesterday that they would come over regularly to feed the animals at home.
After spreading a piece of cloth on the straw mat, Lin Heng helped his wife get into the car first. After she put her things away, Lin Heng carried their daughter up to her.
"Why are you still holding the bow and arrow and dagger?" Father Lin was stunned when he saw the things.
"It's not safe on the road, and if you encounter a pheasant or something, you can fight it." Lin Heng said with a smile. You always have to have something to protect yourself when you go out.
"Okay, then you guys be careful, play for a few more days, and don't rush back." Father Lin said to Xiulan.
"I understand, Dad. Let's go now." Xiulan nodded with a smile.
"Let's go." Lin Heng said, and then he whipped Hongzao with the whip, and the carriage started moving immediately.
It was cooler in the morning, so Lin Heng drove the horse faster.
If the sun is too strong at noon, you can only find a cool place to hide.
But if we hurry up, we should be able to arrive before noon.
Their place is more than 80 kilometers away from Lushui County. If Hongzao is transported at the minimum speed of 20 kilometers per hour, it will arrive in about four or five hours.
The premise is that there are no accidents, such as road collapse.
Xiulan held Xiaoxia in her arms and looked at the scenery along the way with some emotion. She almost didn't recognize the road after leaving Huangtan Town as she hadn't walked there for many years.
There are five siblings in her family, namely the eldest brother, the second sister, the third brother, the fourth brother, and her, the youngest.
Her parents are also much older than Lin Heng's parents, and are now in their fifties.
Apart from her parents, the ones who treated her best were her eldest and third brothers. For some reason, her second sister never liked her since she was a child and often bullied her. Her fourth brother was just average to her.
When she left, her eldest brother had just gotten married, and her eldest sister-in-law didn't like her and wanted her to get married quickly so that she wouldn't have to eat for free.
Her second sister got married very early, one or two years earlier than her eldest brother. Now I don’t know whether her third and fourth brothers are married.
She didn't know what the situation was at home, and she was a little nervous, so she didn't say much along the way.
But when she saw the man driving the car in front of her, she felt warm in her heart. No matter what the situation was at home, she had him to rely on.
Lin Heng was concentrating on driving the horses all the way, chatting with Xiulan from time to time, and he didn't have many thoughts in his mind.
* * * PS: Friends, I am really sorry that I can only write 6,600 words today. I have been having a writer's block these past two days. And then there was a funeral at my neighbor's house, with drums and gongs playing, so I really couldn't concentrate on writing, so I only wrote this much.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
