The next day, Zhao Qiming and Li Yuemei finally found time to find the village head and discuss the matter of the land next door with him.
The two sat down in the courtyard of the village head's house. The village head's wife came over with tea and poured a cup for each of them. Zhao Qiming picked it up and took a sip, thinking that the village head's family was quite particular. Usually, the villagers would just give guests a bowl of water.
"Village chief, the family next door has moved away for many years. Is he going to sell the land?" Zhao Qiming asked bluntly.
"You're lucky you came at the right time. His family had been planning to keep this land for future expansion, and then come back to live there in their old age. But just last month, the whole family moved to the next county. His eldest brother was doing business there, so he took the whole family with him. Before he left, he asked me to oversee the sale of the land."
Li Yuemei was delighted: "What a coincidence! How do we sell this land?" The villagers always spoke directly without using official language.
If you don't count the old house next door, there is about half an acre of land, which is enough to expand the tofu shop.
"What are you going to do with it? Do you want to buy his old house as well?"
"To be honest, we want to expand the tofu shop, so we don't need the old house for now."
The village head stroked his beard. He wanted to sell the old house as well. "How about this? I'll give you fifteen taels of silver for the house and the whole thing. Is that okay?"
"This..." Li Yuemei glanced at Zhao Qiming, feeling a little hesitant to make a decision. This plus the old house was almost one acre, which was a bit too big. However, she was also afraid that when Yan Ge had children in the future, the house would not be big enough.
She winked at Zhao Qiming, who said, "We don't need such a large space to expand the tofu shop. Besides, we bought the old house, so it's likely that we'll have to postpone the reconstruction. It's a pity."
"I know, but I thought it would be more convenient if you bought it together." The lowest price the family offered was ten taels. After all, it was just a shabby thatched house and not worth much.
"Let's put it this way. We can only give a maximum of twelve taels, and we have to go back and discuss it with the children. You, the village head, should also consider it. We will come back tomorrow." Zhao Qiming thought it would be better to discuss it with his family.
"Okay, then come back at this time tomorrow."
The two men left the headman's house, whispering to each other all the way. One moment they said the land was too big and it would be too expensive to expand it, the next moment they said there might not be enough rooms if they had more children in the future, and the next moment they talked about what kind of house they wanted to build.
When they got home, Lin Yan was in the kitchen cooking lunch. He hadn't made porridge that morning, so he planned to knead some dough to make scallion oil noodles.
He opened the cupboard and saw the tofu skin he had put in there yesterday. He picked it up and smelled it, but didn't detect any strange smell. Lin Yan could only leave it there.
Scallion oil noodles are easy to make, and soon three bowls of noodles were ready. Lin Yan brought them to the main room and invited Li Yuemei and Zhao Qiming to eat noodles.
At the dinner table, Li Yuemei briefly told Lin Yan about the land. Lin Yan had an idea. In fact, he was planning to buy the old house as well. When the time came, he could rebuild it, add two more rooms to the house, and expand the yard.
"Let's discuss it together when Brother Yun and Brother Yu come back, and then we'll make a decision," said Lin Yan.
"Okay, that's what I think. If we can't decide, we'll just follow the majority."
After finishing the noodles, Lin Yan wanted to wash the dishes, but Li Yuemei got there first and said, "Go back to your room and rest for a while. I'll wash it."
Lin Yan nodded and didn't refuse. He was indeed sleepy. After resting in his room for about an hour, Lin Yan reluctantly got up. He was feeling a bit lazy and didn't want to make tofu skin in the afternoon. Today wasn't a market day, so Zhou Chunlan should be home. Lin Yan wanted to go back and see his mother.
Lin Yan left without hesitation. He took a basket and filled it with some tofu skin he had made in the morning, intending to take it to his mom to try.
It felt like the distance was about the same as going to town. Lin Yan walked along the road and met a few uncles and aunts from the village. He briefly greeted them. One aunt asked, "Brother Yan, what are you carrying? Are you going back to your mother's house?"
"It's the tofu made at home. I haven't been back for a long time, so I went back to take a look." Lin Yan raised one corner of his mouth.
"Your belly is getting bigger, so you have to be careful."
"I know, thank you, auntie. I'll be leaving now."
Lin Yan nodded and continued walking towards home.
Finally arriving at the door, Lin Yangang stepped into the yard and looked around but couldn't see Zhou Chunlan. He could only shout, "Mo, where are you?"
Zhou Chunlan was sewing tiger-head hats for her two little grandsons in the room. When she heard Lin Yan calling her, she thought she had misheard. It was only after Lin Yan called her the second time that she quickly put down her needle and thread and walked out.
"Why are you here now?" Zhou Chunlan took the basket from Lin Yan's hand and asked, "What are you holding?"
Lin Yan sat down in the yard, poured a glass of water, and took out the tofu skin from the basket: "Ah, this is the tofu skin I made. You can try it tonight."
Then she told Zhou Chunlan a few ways to make tofu skin. Zhou Chunlan nodded to show that she understood. Then she said that she was sewing a tiger head hat for her grandson. Lin Yan said in surprise: "Is it done? I want to see it." Zhou Chunlan smiled and went back to the room to take out the half-sewn tiger head hat and handed it to Lin Yan. Lin Yan took it and looked at it carefully. The outline of the tiger head has begun to take shape. The stitches are fine and the colors are very eye-catching. "Auntie, you have great craftsmanship. When the baby is born, he will wear this tiger head hat and it will be very cute." Lin Yan touched the tiger head hat lovingly.
"Of course, my little grandson will definitely be adorable. I'll send it to you once my mom finishes sewing it." Zhou Chunlan took back the tiger-head hat and continued sewing.
Lin Yan had nothing to do, so he planned to go to the utility room to see if A-mo had pickled any new sour foods, and then take some home.
Winter is coming, and many vegetables need to be prepared and dried to be eaten in winter. There are also radishes, sour beans, and pickled peppers, which need to be made more gradually. Last month, Li Yuemei pickled a lot of sour beans and pickled peppers. These two ingredients are used the most in Lin Yan's shop. They are needed in spicy and sour chicken offal and pickled pepper noodles.
I picked a basket of radishes two days ago, washed them, cut them into strips and dried them in the sun. I will store them after they are dried and eat them in winter.
The utility room was filled with sour foods and dried vegetables that Ah-mo would make in previous years. Lin Yan found a jar in the corner. He opened it and saw that it was fermented black beans. He was surprised and scooped up some with a spoon beside him, smelled it, and then picked up another one to taste.
"Mom, did you make fermented black beans?" Lin Yan shouted towards the yard.
"Yes, I made a can when I harvested soybeans. If you want, I'll pack some up and bring it back later."
Lin Yan came out of the utility room and sat next to Zhou Chunlan. "Mo, is this all you made?"
"Yeah, what's wrong?"
"I have a dish in my shop called steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce, which requires fermented black beans. If I had known you wanted to make it, I would have asked you to make more. I will buy some to use in the shop later." Lin Yan said regretfully.
"Then you can only wait until next year, or I can ask who still has soybeans and make some for you." Zhou Chunlan tapped Lin Yan's nose lovingly.
Lin Yan held Zhou Chunlan's arm and leaned against her shoulder, "Mom is the best!"
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