You are really my living father.
The car was so quiet that the teenagers looked like eggplants that had been through wind and frost, with their faces drooping in their seats.
Jiang Lin took out bananas from a red plastic bag and distributed them to everyone. "Why do you all look so sad all of a sudden? Don't you like bananas?"
The car was filled with a strong smell of bananas. Song Yifan said in disbelief: "I never thought I could buy so many bananas for more than 100 yuan!"
Li Xuran peeled the banana slowly and methodically, and agreed, "I never thought that less than 200 yuan would fill up the trunks of two cars. My takeout meal would cost more than that."
Jiang Lin handed the peeled banana to Pei Xu's mouth. He took a big bite while steering.
Jiang Lin said: "When my brother was helping us load the bananas into the truck just now, he was laughing so happily. He didn't make any money from this order, but it was better than watching the bananas ripen and rot. That would be torture to the farmers!"
Pei Xu praised: "Young Master Jiang has not been around much, but he has already begun to sympathize with the people, which is cause for celebration."
Jiang Lin took back the banana handed to him, took a big bite, and let the sweet taste linger between his lips and teeth. Then he slowly said, "Last time I sold sugarcane with you, I earned less than a hundred yuan in a whole day. I also experienced the difficulties of selling agricultural products."
Afternoon is the busiest time in Peijia Village, with children skipping ropes and playing games on the open ground, and adults gathering under the big banyan tree picking vegetables and chatting, while the big yellow dog lies on the side and listens quietly, sometimes playing with its own kind, biting and rolling around.
The teenagers unloaded bananas under the big banyan tree, and the children immediately stopped playing and gathered around, "Wow! So many bananas!"
Cheng Enyue smiled and teased them, "Students who study hard and get high scores can get one."
The little girl with twin ponytails smiled shyly. She was in the period of changing teeth, so her two front teeth were empty and she spoke with a lisp: "Brother, I got 93 points in the exam and became a Young Pioneer last semester. Can I get it?" After saying that, she shyly hid half of her face behind others.
"That's amazing!" Cheng Enyue praised, "You must give me a bunch as a reward." He picked one and handed it to her while squatting, "Keep up the good work."
The little girl thanked him and happily walked home with the banana in her arms.
The kids watching were excited and started talking about their grades. Those with poor grades started to show off their positions and become class leaders.
"Take your time, one by one, and line up."
Jiang Lin smiled and said, "You guys distribute the bananas to them. I'll go home and cook."
Pei Xu's eyes lit up when he heard this. He stood outside the car window and said, "Mr. Jiang, can I go to your house for dinner?"
Jiang Lin raised one corner of his mouth and said proudly, "Come and help add fuel to the fire and you'll have food to eat."
The two men unloaded the daily necessities and piled them all on the kitchen floor. The huge potatoes were peeled with pits and half of their weight was gone.
Pei Xu couldn't help but comment: "Young Master Jiang is so generous that he even used the Dubai knife technique to peel potatoes. That's amazing."
Jiang Lin gave him a glare, and Pei Xu got angry.
The constant interaction and collision between the kitchen knife and the chopping board produced thick potato strips, messy cabbages, and eggplant strips with only half of the pulp left.
Pei Xu wondered, "Why do we have to remove the flesh of eggplant?"
"The flavored eggplant without the pulp is even crispier!" Jiang Lin poured oil into the pot. The fire in the stove began to burn strong, and the hot oil sizzled in the pot with small bubbles.
Jiang Lin was like he was facing a formidable enemy. He picked up the pot lid and blocked it in front of him. He looked at Pei Xu and said, "I'm going to pour the potatoes. Move aside."
Pei Xu calmly made a gesture of invitation and asked, "Can you really cook?"
Jiang Lin ignored him, lifted the lid a little, held a pot of potatoes and stretched out his hand to pour it forward.
The sizzling sound became louder. Jiang Lin took a few steps back. Pei Xu said helplessly, "Hurry up and fry it. It will get burnt soon."
Jiang Lin said stubbornly: "Fry it to make it crispier. Haven't you ever eaten French fries?"
Pei Xu was speechless and had to pick up a big spoon and stir-fry the potatoes properly.
After a while, Jiang Lin took back the spoon, picked up a bottle of soy sauce, and pulled the plastic spiral strip of the sealing lid with force. With a "click", the spiral strip broke!
The light yellow potato strips gradually turned a little burnt. Jiang Lin thought quickly and poured cold water into the pot.
Taking up the knife, Jiang Lin conquered the soy sauce bottle.
When the eggplants were put into the pot, Pei Xu couldn't help but ask again: "Why do we need to remove the flesh of eggplants?"
“If you don’t remove the flesh of the eggplant, it will lose its flavor!”
Pei Xu asked: "Do you think the flesh will affect the taste of the eggplant?"
Jiang Lin said confidently: "Yes."
Pei Xu continued to argue: "I have never seen anyone stir-fry eggplant without removing the flesh. Where did you learn cooking skills?"
“It’s a short video.”
Pei Xu covered her face and said, "Fortunately you didn't go to the barbecue. You removed the flesh of the eggplants, and you have to argue with the guests about whatever they say."
Jiang Lin looked at him resentfully: "Why are you picky when there's food to eat? Then you cook it." As he said that, he handed the big spoon to his hand.
Pei Xu wisely shut up.
The teenagers walked into the yard with laughter, and Jiang Lin was already washing the pot.
Under the white light, the boys set up a table. Cheng Enyue picked up the shredded potatoes beside the stove and praised: "Brother Lin, these enoki mushrooms look good."
Jiang Lin stood there in a daze, holding the big spoon, as if struck by lightning.
"Hahahahahaha." Pei Xu let out a goose-like laugh.
Jiang Lin squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "This is shredded potatoes."
"Hahahahahaha." Pei Xu laughed even louder, holding his stomach and clinging to the edge of the stove.
Cheng Enyue said, "I was carrying lime during the day and it fell into my eyes. My eyesight is a little bad. I can smell the fragrance of potatoes now."
Changing the subject to Chuzhe: "Brother Xu, aren't you a local? Why don't you go home for dinner?"
Pei Xu put away her smile under Jiang Lin's deathly gaze, "Your brother Lin is cooking for me personally, how can I..." Pei Xu couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth again, "It would be a pity to miss it."
"Then eat more!" Jiang Lin put a handful of mushy potato shreds into his bowl.
At six o'clock in the morning in winter, the moon is still hanging in the sky, and the street lights illuminate the hard-working figures of the villagers. They wear gloves and masks, waiting for the order, and then they start working quickly.
Pei Xu stood on the tricycle holding a loudspeaker and shouted, "I have already calculated the approximate number of crops in each field. Just follow my instructions and put enough crops there. To facilitate subsequent transportation, we will transport the fields far away first."
So, the boys and villagers were divided into two teams, one team was responsible for transporting quicklime and the other team was responsible for spreading it.
Busy figures were moving back and forth between the stacking point and the fields. After less than an hour, everyone was already a little tired. A layer of pale white light filled the sky, and Jiang Lin knew that sunrise was about to come.
He asked loudly: "Aunts, uncles, grandpa and grandma, it's very tiring for everyone to move it alone. There are too many things! We all want to think about it. Is there any better way? For example, teamwork, or using transportation or something like that."
Pei Xu and Cheng Enyue carried the stacked red plastic buckets to the field. Pei Xu said, "Everyone divide the work and cooperate. A small number of people will be responsible for cutting open the bags and putting the bags into buckets. Some people will be responsible for spreading the bags. Be sure to protect your eyes and hands and protect yourself."
The older generation of farmers used their wisdom to bring wooden boards from their homes and pushed over a dump cart.
The fields have become much drier in winter, and laying wooden boards on them reduces a lot of resistance. The villagers push fully loaded dump trucks back and forth on them to transport goods.
After Aunt Li's guidance, Jiang Lin started the tricycle with confidence, "This is something that can be done with ease."
Pei Xu imitated the villagers, holding the red plastic bucket in his left hand, tilting the bucket with the mouth facing forward, and paddling with his right hand like a dog. The brown soil was covered with a thin layer of slaked lime.
Cheng Enyue, who was standing at the edge of the field, was cutting the bags with a sickle, but the cuts were not neat, which delayed the packaging process.
Aunt Li beside him taught him with a smile: "Handsome boy, you can open it without a knife."
Cheng Enyue looked confused.
Aunt Li squatted down and twisted the white thread that sealed the bag on one side. "Look, this is the thread end. Pull one of the threads."
Aunt Li pulled one of the sealing lines and applied force along the direction of the sealing line, and the white line gradually loosened like a zipper.
Cheng Enyue clapped excitedly: "The older you are, the wiser you are, Auntie."
Aunt Li straightened her back somewhat embarrassedly and said with a smile: "We have been doing farm work for decades, and these are all summed up experiences."
"Farming is very hard work." Cheng Enyue nodded and said.
Aunt Li lifted the bag with him and poured the slaked lime into the bucket. She said, "It's hard work! We don't make much money. We work in the fields all year round, growing rice and vegetables. We earn two or three yuan per pound of vegetables, but we can't grow much."
“Sometimes we can’t sell all of them and have to eat them ourselves.”
Aunt Li waved her hands and denied it, "They can't eat much. The children eat the same vegetables every day, and they don't want to eat them. We can only chop them up and feed them to the chickens and geese."
Cheng Enyue comforted her: "Auntie, if you sell vegetables in Beijing, you will be very popular. The vegetables are safe and pesticide-free and pollution-free."
Aunt Li said proudly: "We never use pesticides on our vegetables. We only use farmyard manure. We don't use growth-promoting agents on our beans or ripening agents on our fruits. We can eat them with peace of mind."
"The bananas we bought yesterday were very sweet, with ripe skin and flesh. The boss repeatedly assured us that they had not been treated with ripening agents."
Aunt Li untied the bag with a smile, and teased with bright eyes: "Banana was 80 cents a pound when it was the cheapest. Even if I wanted to give you ripening agents, I didn't have the money to buy them. The maintenance cost is barely earned back."
Cheng Enyue sighed: "It's hard to be a farmer!"
Jiang Lin was driving a tricycle transporting quicklime to the fields, but due to a broken wooden board, the wheels got stuck in the mud. He tried to tighten the accelerator to save himself, but the wheels slipped on the spot, throwing spots of mud backwards.
Pei Xu stumbled over in his water shoes and said, "Don't twist it, or the engine will burn out."
Jiang Lin said with a wronged look on his face: "My driving skills are not to blame."
Pei Xu used a branch to scrape off the thick mud on the wheels and said, "You are really my living father. You didn't call for help when the car got stuck."
Jiang Lin raised his hand and signaled, "Everyone is busy, I don't want to delay everyone's progress."
From the stacking point to the field, everyone is responsible for their work in an orderly manner. They wear straw hats. Some form a team to carry slaked lime in an assembly line, some push a fully loaded dump truck together, some pack slaked lime and carry it to the ridge, and some collect the slaked lime bags. A picture of farmers working hard in the fields is unfolding in Peijia Village in an orderly manner.
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