Chapter 11: On the first morning after traveling through time, everyone has their own life
Shen Qing got up early, and there were people in the family who got up even earlier than her.
Huo Bing was the first to get up. He went to the kitchen to boil hot water for the whole family. After boiling, he poured the water into a large wooden barrel and covered it with a wooden lid to keep it warm, so that the family could use it whenever they wanted.
The empty big iron pot was used to cook cornmeal porridge - mother said that from today on, the family would have three meals a day, and everyone had to keep their bodies strong and healthy.
It was not yet the busy harvest season in May. In the past, when there was enough food, they would switch to three meals a day ten days in advance, and when there was not enough, they would only switch to three meals a day two or three days in advance. And women like her and her younger sister were not included. Now it was only mid-March, and for some reason their mother asked them to start taking care of their health.
He also specifically told her to take good care of her health and make up for the loss from giving birth to the baby.
Even though her mother told her last night that she should just concentrate on her confinement and not worry about or do any housework, not go fishing or go out to dig wild vegetables, and even don't have to do the light work of washing clothes, she didn't think it was a big deal as long as she could just light the fire and cook, without having to touch cold water or feel tired, and she could also warm herself by the fire.
Her mother treats her well, so she should treat her mother well!
The head of the household was forced by her mother to take over the care of Xiaocao. Xiaohua had worked hard for her mother to take care of her last night. Her brother-in-law and sister-in-law at home each had their own work to do, so she couldn't just keep shirking her responsibilities. She still had to do what she had to do.
After putting the corn flour into the pot, Huo Bing chopped up the gray vegetables that his sister-in-law picked yesterday afternoon and threw them in. He would add salt when the food was ready, so that the least amount of salt could be used to make the taste saltier.
Finally, place the steaming rack and arrange the leftover dumplings from last night on it one by one.
There are still twenty-three left!
In fact, if we had eaten as much as we wanted last night, even if Jiang Xiangzhong didn't eat, we could have finished all 23 of them. But in the lean months, it's good enough to have a full stomach. If we overeat, it would be a waste of food!
So everyone stopped eating when they felt full.
Huo Bing instinctively swallowed his saliva as he saw the white flour dumplings with full filling and thin skin.
Mother was not used to eating porridge. Out of the twenty-three big dumplings, she ate ten, Xiaohua got one, and they also had half a bowl of corn ash and vegetable porridge to fill their stomachs. The remaining twelve could be shared by the six of them, and with the big pot of porridge, it was even more sumptuous than during the busy harvest season.
After eating well, Huo Bing started to worry again. Will there be enough food? His mother said that they were going to the city today to find a job that would earn money. If they found a job carrying heavy bags, they would let the head of the household go with the brothers-in-law. Each person could earn thirty or forty coins a day.
After a while, Jiang Xiangnan and Jiang Xiangbei walked quickly into the kitchen.
Jiang Xiangnan yelled, "Sister-in-law, my breakfast is still warm in the pot. I'll come back to eat it after I get the eel cage ready."
I took great pains to dig up a lot of earthworms yesterday afternoon and put them all in the cage. I have to go collect them early in the morning, otherwise if someone steals them, my thighs will be swollen!
Jiang Xiangbei smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, mine is the same."
His mother said that they were going to the city to sell eels today, and he wanted to go with her to see for himself. He took back the eel cages and went to the city early so that they could sell more fresh and alive ones.
Huo Bing responded blankly: "Okay."
She was not used to her brothers-in-law being so polite.
In the past, Xiangbei was fine and would nod in greeting, but Xiangnan usually acted as if he didn't see her. When he scooped water or left food for her, he would either remain silent or have a gloomy face. He was nowhere near as smiling and greeting her as he was today.
But it feels so good.
Jiang Xiangnan and Jiang Xiangbei scooped hot water into the wooden basin, too lazy to go to the yard to add cold water. While they were screaming in pain from the burns, they used their palms to dip a little hot water to wipe the corners of their eyes, and considered it as washing.
He then rushed to the yard, picked up a shoulder pole and two baskets, and ran to the river bank in the dim light in the sky.
Jiang Shui came out after her two brothers ran away. She glanced at their brisk backs and began to let the chickens and ducks out.
Release the ducks first, open the yard door, and the nine ducks will stagger forward all at once, making loud quacking sounds.
After a while, groups of equally noisy ducks came out from the neighbors' houses in front, behind, and on both sides.
Jiang Shui went forward and closed the yard door, then opened the chicken coop and let the chickens out.
The four old hens and one rooster, who had been locked up all night, flapped their wings and dug in the dirt in the yard looking for food.
The river water chased the chickens a little further away from the chicken coop, so he lowered his head and bent down to crawl into the chicken coop, holding a bamboo basket and began to pick up eggs.
The weather has been much warmer recently compared to winter, and with the fish and shrimp caught and mixed with wild vegetables, the chickens and ducks have laid significantly more eggs than in winter.
Three chicken eggs and five duck eggs were piled high in the small bamboo basket.
In the past, if Jiang Shui had collected so many eggs at once, whether for himself or Xiao Hua, he would have hidden one out of selfish motives and secretly used it to replenish the bodies of both of them.
But thinking about yesterday, she finally carried the bamboo basket to the large water tank and began to carefully clean the chicken and duck droppings off the chicken and duck eggs.
In the past, I didn’t know how to wash the chicken and duck eggs I picked up, because they would spoil easily after being washed. But today my mother is going to the city, so the eggs accumulated at home and in the basket must be taken to the city to exchange for salt and other things. After being cleaned, they will look better and be easier to sell.
This was the scene Shen Qing saw when he came out. In the morning mist, his daughter was carefully scrubbing chicken and duck eggs beside the water tank. In the dim kitchen, his eldest daughter-in-law was cooking breakfast for the whole family. The flickering firelight brought a sense of warmth in this cold weather.
She warned, "Xiaoshui, Mom will go to the city later. Huahua is still sleeping. Please keep an eye on her after you have breakfast."
"Oh, okay!" Jiang Shui replied in a clear and loud voice.
For the first time, I had no complaints at all.
It was because she said last night that she would take care of Xiaohua, but her mother said that she was only fifteen and she was still a child, so how could she let her stay up late to take care of a sick child.
Is she still a child at the age of fifteen?
Ever since she could remember, her mother would only tell her that as a girl, she had to be sensible, obedient, virtuous and hardworking, only then would she be useful. She couldn't be lazy or else her in-laws would be displeased, and all the housework would be done by her and her elder sister-in-law by default.
When Xiaohua was born, she was younger. When she took care of Xiaohua, her sister-in-law could do more tiring work.
She never thought that three years later, she would be treated like a child.
Jiang Shui's eyes were hot, she quickly lowered her head and repeatedly scrubbed the duck eggs with a bundle of weeds.
Shen Qing looked at the clean eggs and asked in confusion: "Why are you washing the eggs?"
The eggs in the house haven’t been washed yet, why are they being washed today?
But I have to say, it’s good to wash it clean!
Many of the things at home were covered with chicken and duck droppings and were very dirty. When she picked them up, she only dared to pick them up with her thumb and index finger.
Without meat, eggs are the best nutrition. However, there are only five duck eggs and three chicken eggs. There are more than ten people in the family, and one egg per person a day is not enough.
Especially Huo Bing. According to the custom in her hometown in China, the eldest daughter-in-law would have a bowl of brown sugar poached eggs every day these days.
It would be great if the mall opened a sales area for eggs. Those cheap and big imported eggs can be bought for four or five yuan per pound, and one pound of wild river shrimp can earn thirty-seven yuan, which can buy eight or nine pounds of imported eggs!
Even the small wild fish used to feed chickens and ducks here can buy three pounds of eggs per pound.
Oh, it would be great if it could be activated. I don’t know what conditions need to be triggered to activate it.
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