Liu Daya lowered her head and didn't speak; she was still afraid of the look her father gave her.
The family ate their dinner in silence. Li Cuihua didn't take out her steamed buns to eat, intending to save them for tomorrow. "Da Ya, after you finish cleaning up, go to the cellar and get a piece of frozen meat. Hongmei gave us some steamed buns today. We'll have a good meal tomorrow, with a pot of flatbread and stewed potatoes and meat underneath. We haven't had any meat since the first month of the lunar calendar."
"Mom, is this all you're giving us? Why not give us more?" Liu Daya said, pouting in dissatisfaction.
"You're all talk and no action! They're doing you a favor, how can you be so clueless?" Li Cuihua, afraid of upsetting Liu Maocai, quickly scolded her eldest daughter. She didn't know what was wrong with the child; the older she got, the more unreliable she became.
Liu Maocai was indeed angry, slamming his chopsticks down on the table. He glared at Li Cuihua.
"Dad, hurry up and eat, or it'll get cold." Liu Jianguo quickly intervened, picking up the chopsticks and handing them to Liu Maocai. This younger sister is becoming more and more inconsiderate.
Liu Daya was startled. She hadn't realized she'd blurted it out. She knew her father hated people who tried to take advantage of others, so she quickly grabbed her bowl and a pancake and went to the kitchen to eat. She was worried her father might actually hit her if she said something wrong again.
After Liu Daya left, silence returned to the dinner table, but everyone was unhappy. Liu Maocai and Li Cuihua were upset because of their daughter's lack of manners; she was already 14 and still acting like this, which would cause trouble when she found a husband. Liu Jianguo was also angry about his younger sister's lack of manners; even an orphan girl was grateful, yet she was so picky. She wouldn't be able to find a husband in the future. Liu Erya was always silent. Usually, she did all the work since her older sister didn't do any, but she was clever enough to figure out when her parents would be home and then pretend to work. If her father hadn't come home today, he would have discovered it sooner, and her older sister wouldn't have been so obedient. The two younger children didn't know what had happened, but seeing their parents were unhappy, they didn't dare to make a fuss.
Meanwhile, Liu Daya in the kitchen grew angrier the more she thought about it. If it weren't for those few steamed buns, how could she have made her parents angry? It was all because of that unlucky girl; nothing good ever came of her.
Zhang Hongmei was unaware of what had happened at the Liu family's place. She was currently eating in her spatial dimension. Not wanting to move, she ate the wontons from the storeroom; the hot meal made her feel much better. Yesterday she had cleared three acres of land, and today she planned to plant corn. She had worked in the fields with her parents when she was little, but back then they had livestock to pull the plow. In her spatial dimension, she had to do it all herself. The soil in the spatial dimension was good, so Zhang Hongmei used a hoe to dig holes, then placed a seed in, and covered it with her foot. After about three hours, she was too exhausted to continue and had only planted half of it. "Oh well," she thought, "I'll eat first, rest a bit, and then continue. I have plenty of time." Fortunately, the tenfold time limit in the spatial dimension only applied to plants. Otherwise, she wouldn't have bothered entering the space, or a month inside would be equivalent to a year outside—wouldn't she age prematurely? She had finally transformed herself from a forty-year-old single woman into a ten-year-old girl, and she cherished her youth greatly.
Zhang Hongmei ate another bowl of Lanzhou noodles, rested for a while, and then continued working. She smiled happily when she saw the corn seedlings sprouting outside. With this much work, she was willing to endure the hardship. Only after she finished planting did she realize she could barely straighten her back. Although the spiritual spring water could enhance her physique, it wasn't an immediate effect; she would have to take it slowly.
I took a hot shower and then lay comfortably in bed to sleep.
After getting out of the space, I immediately started a fire. The reason it's inconvenient to keep warm at home is because of heating. Once the weather gets warmer, I'll ask someone to help build a stove. Before, Xiaohongmei's parents didn't build a stove because they were afraid she'd get carbon monoxide poisoning if she lived alone at night. But now that she's on her own, she won't need to light the stove at night in winter, so it should be fine. Auntie is coming over today, so I have to cook outside. I took two sweet potatoes from the cellar and scooped out a bowl of cornmeal to make sweet potato porridge. It should be sweet and delicious.
I put the porridge in the pot to cook, only to remember that you need to add baking soda when making porridge. I looked at the baking soda that Xiao Hongmei used to use, and decisively threw it into the stove, replacing it with the baking soda from my own space. The baking soda I brought myself looked much better; the current baking soda was all grayish, which meant it wasn't properly refined and the process was outdated.
Once the porridge was cooked, I took out a stainless steel bowl from my spatial storage to scoop it out. I really didn't want to use an earthenware pot, feeling it would attract dust. Anyway, I wouldn't skimp on food. I ladled some into a bowl and tasted it; it was alright. Then I took out a bag of ginger brown sugar from my spatial storage and put a piece in the bowl. This was so sweet! Eating more sweet things is good for the body, it helps replenish the blood. After finishing my meal, I cleaned up the kitchen before starting to read.
When Li Cuihua came over, she brought Zhang Hongmei a bowl of soybean paste. Zhang Hongmei's family didn't actually have any. She used to love her mother's homemade soybean paste when she was little, but she didn't know what Northeastern soybean paste tasted like.
"Hongmei, we finished making the cotton-padded trousers today. Tomorrow we'll start learning to make shoes. We country folk wear out shoes quickly. These days, when girls from our neighborhood are looking for husbands, families always ask if the shoes are well-made."
"Okay, my old cotton shoes are all too big and my toes are sticking out, and my single shoes are too small too. I'll make a few more pairs during this time."
"Okay, I'll help you sew the soles. If you don't have the strength in your hands, the soles won't be sturdy. It'll just look like a waste."
As they talked, they both sat down on the kang (a heated brick bed). "Hongmei has grown up, and the house is so clean now. A maid's house should be neat and tidy," Li Cuihua said, taking out a pair of cut cotton trousers.
"Making cotton-padded trousers is simpler than making cotton-padded jackets, but you must add a slit at the crotch so that the crotch doesn't rip when you squat down. The waistband should also be high for warmth in winter. Try stuffing the cotton-padded trousers yourself."
Zhang Hongmei bent down and began to fluff the cotton. Actually, this work wasn't too difficult because the cotton was fluffed well and quite evenly, so there was no need for much filling. She then cut off the excess cotton following the shape of the trousers.
"Hongmei, the stitching on the cotton trousers should be vertical. Do it yourself, and make sure the stitches are tight." Zhang Hongmei decided to stitch first, then sew the lining and outer fabric together, so there wouldn't be any stitches on the outer fabric. Li Cuihua watched silently as Zhang Hongmei sewed. After Zhang Hongmei finished stitching and sewed, Li Cuihua's eyes lit up when she turned the trousers inside out. The cotton trousers looked really good this way; the outer surface was quite nice. "Hongmei is so capable! None of us older folks have ever sewed like this. It looks fine even without wearing trousers on the outside, and no one can tell. Young people really know how to do things quickly!"
"Auntie, please stop talking. What's this called? I just thought it would be easier to take apart and wash this way." Zhang Hongmei felt really embarrassed; was this a compliment? What's so special about it? Her mother made cotton-padded pants for her father like this in her past life; they really weren't anything special.
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