"My Xiuyan, I'm not bragging myself, she's really capable." Aunt Du doesn't know what humility is. Besides, she raised her own daughter with her own hands. Doesn't she know whether her daughter is excellent or not?
Seeing that Du Chunyan didn't respond to her, Ding Ersao was not someone who could be easily defeated. This was her personality. If she couldn't get the information she wanted to know, she wouldn't take it away. So she looked directly at Luo Xiuyan and said, "Yes, you are really capable! Xiuyan, auntie, where did you pick the chestnuts?"
Aunt Du also knew what kind of personality Ding Er's wife had. She knew that if she didn't ask her today, she would definitely not stop. So she gave her daughter a look and said, "Where did you find it? Tell your Aunt Ding Er, how can I sleep tonight if I don't?"
Ding Laoer's wife didn't feel embarrassed at all, but Jin Cheng's wife, who came with her, blushed red with embarrassment at what she said.
Luo Xiuyan received her mother's gaze and understood immediately, "Just because there's nothing nearby doesn't mean there's nothing deep in the mountains. Today, I walked two hills further in and saw a chestnut tree. Most of the chestnuts under the tree had been eaten by wild boars, so I used a bamboo pole to knock down some and brought them back."
Before Aunt Ding could say anything, Aunt Du flew into a rage and started looking for a firewood stick to beat Luo Xiuyan. "Well, you little bastard, how many times have I told you not to go into the mountains? You're taking your mother's words for granted? If I don't beat you up today, where's my firewood stick? Where's my firewood stick?"
Aunt Ding wanted to continue asking, such as which direction of the deep mountains they were going, but Jin Cheng's wife pulled her out with all her strength, so she had no choice but to leave with them.
The two walked more than ten meters away and heard Luo Xiuyan's screams, so they left reluctantly.
Aunt Du in the house estimated that the two had gone far away, so she threw the fire stick aside and said to her daughter who was screaming loudly, "Okay, it's time to go."
Luo Xiuyan, who had been screaming just now, immediately fell silent and patted the dirt off her body. "It's so annoying. You keep staring at my stuff every day. I don't know why you are so short-sighted. Fortunately, I was smart and left most of the chestnuts with Tian Cai."
Aunt Du glanced at her daughter and asked, "Into the mountains? Did Tian Cai take you there?"
"Of course!" Luo Xiuyan's eyes lit up when she thought of Tian Cai climbing up the tree in just a few moves. Then she started bragging to her mother, "Mom, let me tell you, Tian Cai is amazing. He climbed up the tree in just a few moves..."
The next day, Tian Cai and Luo Xiuyan went into the mountains together again. They had not gone far when Tian Cai felt someone following them. "Someone is following us."
Luo Xiuyan was about to look back, but was stopped by Tian Cai.
"It must be Aunt Ding. She's really annoying." Seeing Tian Cai's puzzled look, he told her what happened last night.
Tian Cai didn't take this little trick seriously at all. He pulled Luo Xiuyan around a corner and said, "Follow me."
So Luo Xiuyan, who claimed that she had never lost her way in the mountains, was also confused by Tian Cai, not to mention Aunt Ding Er and Jin Cheng's wife, who had no idea where they had been taken by the two men.
However, Tian Cai was very sensible and did not take people into the mountains. As long as they climbed to the top of the mountain, they would find that the place they were actually staying was not far from the village, but in two directions from where they usually went.
After getting rid of the people, Tian Cai led Luo Xiuyan back to the chestnut tree where they had been yesterday. The two of them put the remaining chestnuts into the basket, and took the bamboo pole they had used to beat the chestnuts yesterday. They walked a little further in. This time their destination was the soapberry tree that Tian Cai had long had his eyes on.
The soapberries are ripe and hang high on the trees like dry beans, making rustling sounds when the wind blows.
"Be careful, there are a lot of fallen soapberry thorns here, you might get pricked by one." Tian Cai reminded Luo Xiuyan who was looking around.
She estimated the height and judging from the thickness of the trunk, the tree must be very old. Tian Cai took off the bamboo basket on her back, rolled up her sleeves, stretched her body, and climbed up.
Fortunately, there were only a few soapberry thorns on the tree trunk. Tian Cai carefully avoided them and stopped in the lower middle position, calling Luo Xiuyan to hand her the prepared bamboo pole.
Tian Cai tied the bamboo pole to her wrist and climbed up a little further until she felt she had reached the right position. If she climbed any higher, the branches would not be able to bear her weight.
She looked down and called out to Luo Xiuyan, "Find a place to hide. I'm going to start smoking!"
After making sure that Luo Xiuyan had dodged, Tian Cai climbed up the tree trunk with his legs and one arm. With his free hand, he took a bamboo pole and hit the soapberry hanging on the branch, and also pulled out a lot of soapberry thorns. This thing is also a medicinal herb that can reduce swelling, discharge pus, and promote qi and regulate energy. It was a good opportunity to take some back.
You need to use skill to beat the soapberries. If the bamboo pole hits the soapberries, the already dried soapberries will easily break. Tian Cai broke a lot of them in the first few times, and then he slowly got the hang of it.
After taking care of several directions, she threw the bamboo pole down and slowly came down.
Luo Xiuyan accompanied Tian Cai to carefully search for fallen soapberries and soapberry thorns on the ground nearby. The soapberries filled a whole sack, and the soapberry thorns took up some space, so Tian Cai broke them into small pieces and put them in a bamboo basket. Although there looked a lot of them, they were actually not that heavy.
Luo Xiuyan wanted to help her share the burden, but Tian Cai refused. "You still have so many chestnuts in your basket. I can do it myself. I'll give you a few bars of soap when I get home."
"It's a deal!" Luo Xiuyan happily carried the soapberry down the mountain with Tian Cai.
When they came back, it was already past one in the afternoon. There was no time to go up the mountain again, so they separated and went home.
Tian Cai poured a sack of soapberries onto the bamboo mat and found a fine bamboo basket to put the dried ones in. She would not need much in one soap making, and the rest could be stored in the cellar for later use.
After cleaning the stone floor in the front yard, Tian Cai directly hung the soapberries and soapberry thorns on the ground to dry. Except for the aisle, the rest of the ground was covered with them.
On the other side, the educated youth also moved into the educated youth dormitory and officially started living together.
In just a few days, the yard was almost cleaned up and everything was basically ready. The stone floor had not been arranged yet because the villagers did not have time, but Xu Bingshuai always remembered this.
Liu Yanqing, who had suddenly had some free time, discovered that the yards of the surrounding villagers' homes were full of mountain products, including pecans, mushrooms, hazelnuts, pine nuts, and some families even had chestnuts. She was very envious. When she was in the city, not every household could afford these things. There were many children in her family, and many of the things her parents bought were only enough for them to taste.
Now that I've arrived here with my brother to support the countryside, I didn't expect such a good thing to happen! The two of them wanted to go up the mountain to try their luck, but Liu Yanqing felt that living in a collective, it would be bad not to tell everyone about good things, and she didn't want to offend anyone.
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