Chapter 39
After the autumn harvest, everyone in the village was exhausted. Meng Daguo had always been a good worker, always at the forefront of things like planting and harvesting. He worked hard and suffered the most, not only did his face get sunburned, but his hands were also rubbed with a layer of wrinkles.
He never complained about his work, and people in the village all said that Daguo had never brought shame to his father.
When it comes to farm work, Meng Daguo is the mainstay of the family.
It's useless to count on Meng Eryong. This kid is a little smart. Not to mention his selfless contribution, it's also kind of him not to take advantage of others.
Fortunately, with Meng Daguo supporting them, the good reputation of the Meng family can continue.
After paying the public grain, Li Decheng organized the grain distribution. Batou Village was lucky enough to pay the public grain, as there was not much grain left to distribute.
Only one pig could be slaughtered, and each family was considered lucky if they could get one or two pounds of meat.
But this is normal. If there is enough food every year and enough meat, there will be no problem of not having enough to eat.
But one can't help but complain that this year they are looking forward to a better year, but next year they will still have to wear worn-out cotton jackets. After years of hard work, the villagers still can't eat enough, and no one knows why.
The Meng family only got two kilograms of meat. For example, Zhang Cuihua's family, whose daughter was married off and who only had a five-centimeter-tall son, only got a little over one kilogram of meat, which was definitely not enough to last until the end of the year.
Judging from the situation, there would be no meat distribution before the New Year, so she came to Zhen Zhen that night and ordered three pounds of offal and one pound of pork meat.
After the autumn harvest, it was time to prepare for winter. The villagers distributed straw and hay to each household for use as firewood, and also distributed some farm manure.
Last year, Zhen Zhen just came here without any advance preparation. This year is different. In November, he asked Meng Daguo and Meng Eryong to go to the mountain to chop firewood.
The two brothers worked hard inside and outside for a week and finally stacked the haystacks and chopped the firewood.
Even though the porch, kitchen and yard are piled high with firewood, it burns out very quickly in winter. In the northern village of Batou, heating is a big problem in winter.
Daya climbed up the firewood pile, shouting, "Firewood is distributed, firewood is distributed."
This year, Meng Daguo had to take care of the piglets and could not go to dig gangue, so he reserved 300 kilograms of gangue from the villagers who dug gangue. Zhen Zhen also found a way to reserve more than 500 kilograms of broken coal on the black market.
With Zhao Meilan's husband acting as a guarantor, everyone was not worried about her having any problems, and they gave her a good price, charging her less than fifty yuan.
For rural people, this is a lot of money, but these fifty yuan can keep the whole family from feeling so cold in the winter, and greatly increase their sense of happiness. Zhen Zhen thinks it is worth it. Besides, this kind of crushed coal is better than gangue, with less smoke and less irritating, which makes people feel comfortable just thinking about it.
When the house was built last year, a fireplace was left in her room. Everyone said it was not practical because rural people would not have such a thing. But in the fall, Zhen Zhen tried it by burning firewood, and the effect was surprisingly good.
Burning firewood is always more economical than burning coal. Rural people lack everything, not just wood. There is plenty of free wood in the mountains. All you need to do is chop it and dry it in the sun.
Although it was laborious to go up the mountain to chop wood, she had little else but her son, so she could just tell her son to do it.
Over the past six months, she has consumed a lot of vegetables in her space. Before winter, she asked Meng Daguo to fetch a truckload of cabbages and put them in the cellar to prevent the five chickens at home from pecking at the cabbage leaves.
Fifteen packs of milk powder were hoarded, and it took Zhao Meilan a whole month to deal with it. She also took out a lot of things from the space to exchange before she got the matter settled.
The third child has also started eating complementary food. Even if the milk powder supply is insufficient, it’s not a big problem if we stop supplying it.
But Zhen Zhen still prepared some, planning to wait until the warmer spring weather comes before weaning the two kids off milk powder. Otherwise, if the children get sick in such freezing weather, it would be a loss.
She had no shortage of rice and flour, as the brigade had distributed nearly 100 kilograms of them to her, but she also took out a few hundred kilograms just for show.
Potatoes, radishes, vermicelli, onions, and sweet potatoes are also essential for the winter. Buy as much as you can. You can't go to the street to buy vegetables in this freezing weather, right?
Red beans, mung beans, brown sugar, rock sugar, salt and oil are also indispensable.
Zhen Zhen had almost finished eating the red beans and mung beans in her space, so she asked Meng Daguo to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some to use in cooking porridge and making red bean paste steamed buns in the winter.
I also bought some of Daya’s favorite peach cakes, candies, fried fruits, and Sanzi. We can’t let the child be greedy, right?
As for the most important pork, there is even less need to worry about it.
The Meng family just slaughtered a pig before the Chinese New Year, and they expected the pig to grow to about 300 kilograms. After distributing it to the villagers, the Meng family could eat the remaining pork meat, bones, blood, and offal as they pleased.
Jiao Huilan has become more confident this year. Her cowardly temperament has faded away, and she has gradually become a woman who can stand on her own.
She brought out more than 200 kilograms of cabbage and more than 200 kilograms of snow red mustard greens, intending to pickle them.
"Mom, I know how to cook snow cabbage and mustard greens, but how do you cook Chinese cabbage?"
Zhen Zhen can make this. She has learned how to make Yanji spicy cabbage. The spicy cabbage she makes may not be the best, but at least the taste is acceptable.
There is not much to eat in winter, so she wants to prepare some.
"Are the chili powder, garlic, ginger, and apples I ordered ready?"
"I've prepared everything for you." Jiao Huilan smiled. Her mother-in-law had so many ideas and could do everything.
Zhen Zhen sat down with a smile and used a wooden barrel to methodically cook kimchi. Not to mention that the kimchi she made was very flavorful. Jiao Huilan took one bite and found it very appetizing. It was really good to eat in winter.
The cabbage and sauerkraut are pickled, and Jiao Huilan wants to stuff sausages.
Zhen Zhen didn't give in, as a batch of sausages were eaten by mice in the early spring.
The mouse is so abominable, taking a bite here and there, ruining the good sausages.
She plans to wait until before the Chinese New Year to get it done. It's not even the 15th month yet, so why rush? There's plenty of time to prepare.
But winter clothes have to be prepared. The cotton-padded jacket I made for Daya last year is still wearable, so this year I made two more cotton-padded jackets, two pairs of cotton trousers, and two pairs of cotton shoes for Daya, and also knitted a hat and a pair of woolen trousers.
Even though Arya couldn't walk yet, she was made two sets of clothes.
There are two sets for the three kids. I took out an unused blanket in the space, cut it, and made two blankets. When it’s cold, I wrap them outside my clothes and hug them. They keep me warmer than anything else.
I made a set of clothes for Jiao Huilan and Tao Aihong respectively. Although Tao Aihong usually seemed to be grumbling, when something good happened, she was happier than anyone else. She stood in front of the mirror in her new clothes and looked beautiful for several days.
The three sets of clothes that Zhen Zhen made for her when she got married last year were withheld by her parents, who said they were to be used for her brother's marriage. Normally, she was not as diligent as Jiao Huilan and was a bit pretentious, so she didn't get any new clothes. If Zhen Zhen hadn't made her a new one, she would have had to wear old clothes during the New Year.
Zhen Zhen knitted another sweater for Meng Eryong. Meng Eryong had been waiting for a year and finally got it. He happily touched his chest and showed off to Meng Daguo, saying that the new clothes were very comfortable to wear. However, Meng Daguo was very angry.
She didn't prepare herself, not because she wanted to sacrifice herself for others, but mainly because she didn't want to be assimilated by the aesthetics of this era. This was her last bottom line.
She was only 25 years old before she came here, and suddenly she was asked to wear clothes that were suitable for people in their thirties or forties. How could she be happy?
Who would have thought that Jiao Huilan would bring out a red cotton jacket with big flowers that night and insisted that Zhen Zhen put it on, and then she brought out a pair of bright red woolen cotton shoes with a proud look on her face.
"Mom, this is what I made for you. It's much better than the cotton jackets worn by Gouzi's mother and Cuihua's aunt. I make sure you can press them down when you go out." Meng Daguo said.
The two of them forced it on Zhen Zhen.
Zhen Zhen looked at herself in the mirror, completely speechless.
Oh, the sky! Oh, the earth! Suddenly, it changed from before returning to the village to after returning to the village.
She had to wear it and show off to her daughter-in-law, and she had to pretend to be satisfied. Whenever anyone asked about the dress, she would praise her son and daughter-in-law for being filial.
This dress made Zhang Cuihua and Gou Zi's mother extremely jealous. One said it was fashionable and the other said it was trendy. Jiao Huilan was praised so much that she completely lost herself. She threatened to make a few more for her mother-in-law, but Zhen Zhen stopped her.
After showing off, Zhen Zhen took off her clothes and folded them neatly in the closet when she got home.
Meng Daguo asked: "Mom, why don't you wear your new clothes?"
Zhen Zhen is all smiles:
"You and Huilan made such nice clothes for me. For a moment, I felt it was unreal. These clothes are so nice! They are warm and beautiful. I was afraid that the new clothes would be worn out, so I took them off and saved them for visiting relatives during the New Year."
Meng Daguo winked at Jiao Huilan, and after returning to his room, he started praising her:
"You really understand me. The clothes I made are really beautiful. The old cotton shoes are also nice. Look how happy I am!"
Jiao Huilan felt embarrassed for exaggerating, but fortunately she did not mess up the gift giving to her mother-in-law, and it was worth it for her mother-in-law to be so good to her.
Zhen Zhen thought the matter was over, but when Meng Eryong found out, he blamed Tao Aihong for being a bad person and urged her to buy something more fashionable.
Tao Aihong was of course reluctant, as she didn't have much money before the family was divided, and she was counting on buying snacks.
But if I don't do this, it would be embarrassing to tell others about it.
So, Zhen Zhen got another big cotton-padded jacket that was even redder and more flowery than the previous one, which made her grit her teeth for a long time.
At the dinner table the next day, Zhen Zhen began to express his feelings again:
"Old man."
These words were spoken to heaven, but the lyrical audience was the whole family sitting at the dinner table.
"Although you are gone, my son and daughter-in-law are very filial! Daguo Huilan is very kind to me and bought me a big red cotton shirt. Eryong and Aihong are also very considerate and all the clothes they bought are beautiful! How could I, Zhen Guizhi, be so lucky to have such a good son and daughter-in-law!"
These words made several people burst into tears. Even Tao Aihong, who was usually unhappy, felt a lump in her throat and felt embarrassed by what her mother-in-law said.
"Mom, you eat pork."
"Mom, you eat pumpkin."
"Grandma eats stewed eggs. Daya gives all her stewed eggs to Grandma."
The whole family served her some food.
Zhen Zhen wiped away the unnecessary tears from the corners of her eyes and accepted it with a smile.
Seeing that the cabbage had been pickled for more than twenty days, Zhen Zhen opened the jar to taste it and found that the Yanji spicy cabbage tasted very good, so good that she wanted to have some wine.
She cut the spicy cabbage and gave ten kilograms to Zhang Cuihua, ten kilograms to Gou Zi's mother, and twenty kilograms to Meng Dasao's family.
Don’t think that ten or twenty kilograms sounds scary. One cabbage weighs four or five kilograms, so twenty kilograms only weigh four cabbages.
Gou Zi's mother gave her a bottle of chili sauce in return, and Zhang Cuihua also gave her some day lily.
Mrs. Meng didn't send any food. The harvest this year was not good. Zhang Qiaohong will give birth in March next year, and Zhou Shufen will give birth in January. She has to take care of two more babies while her daughter-in-law is busy with her confinement. The family can't give her any food.
But Zhen Zhen mentioned it last time, saying that he wanted to build a chicken coop for the chickens in the west.
Before winter, Mrs. Meng called her elder brother Meng and her two sons to help. Meng Daguo and Meng Eryong also joined in, and the chicken coop was built in less than two hours.
As soon as the chicken coop was built, Zhang Cuihua came to tell Zhen Zhen the news.
"Do you remember your classmate, Zhao Weimin, who your mother brought home last time and said she wanted to arrange a blind date for you?"
Of course Zhen Zhen remembered it, and she even used a knife to communicate with the other party in a friendly manner.
"Remember, what happened?"
"He was reported and that happened."
That means being criticized. This guy is not a good person. He actually hooked up with the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family in the village and was caught by the Zhang family. The matter became a big deal. The daughter-in-law's family came to plead for mercy. For the sake of several children, the Zhang family said to the outside world that the daughter-in-law was forced and kept her.
Therefore, Zhao Weimin was identified as a man who forced women.
Forcing women is a serious crime!
Leaders have said that women hold up half the sky.
These days, the law enforcement is very strict, and Zhao Weimin committed a crime against the wind, so he was taken as an example and dealt with severely.
It is said that it will take decades to get out, and he might even be shot.
Zhen Zhen felt very happy, but when they started talking about Song Xiaoyu again, Zhang Cuihua became unhappy.
I complained in my heart that there is not a single good thing in the mushrooms from your Meng family!
You see, my daughter was hurt after Meng Hua left. She stayed at home all day and never went out, always staring at the old yellow dog at home.
However, she didn't say this to his face. She could see that Meng Hua was arrogant and her daughter couldn't control this man.
Putting this aside, her daughter's appearance is really unacceptable.
She inherited all the ugly genes of the old Song family. Although Zhang Cuihua's appearance was not stunningly beautiful, she had the advantages of being tall and fair-skinned when she was young. However, it is hard to describe the old Song family.
"You don't know. The day before yesterday, I went to my mother-in-law's house and saw a photo of my mother-in-law's ancestors! I said that my father-in-law looked pretty good, and my mother-in-law was fine except for her ugly nose. Why are the Song family members, including my two daughters, uglier than each other? Good guys, the case has been completely solved! It turns out that the problem lies with my mother-in-law's mother. She has a bulbous nose and dead fish eyes. It's really a one-to-one relationship! But my mother-in-law said that the problem was not with her, but with her mother, but her mother was also passed down from her ancestors. In other words, the ugly genes on their side completely destroyed the good genes of the Song family."
Zhang Cuihua was eating melon seeds and was worried:
"My daughter is so ugly, what will I do if no man wants her in the future?"
Zhen Zhen was amused by her, "Is it as exaggerated as you say?"
"How could there be none? That bulbous nose and those green eyes make me feel sick just looking at her! You don't even know how ugly she was when she was born. I didn't even want to feed her because of her ugly appearance."
Zhen Zhen thought it was funny, "I think Xiaoyu is pretty good, she's simple and cute, and men don't just look at looks when looking for a partner."
"You're lying! You don't look at the appearance? If you don't look at the appearance, you should at least look at the figure, right? You said that although my breasts are not as beautiful as yours, they were still impressive when I was young. My dear, my daughter is different. She is like two sesame seeds on a plate. You can't find where she is unless you look closely!"
Zhen Zhen glared at her, gave her a corn cob and asked her to help rub the corn.
"I've never seen you complain about your daughter like this. Children need to be praised. The more you praise them, the more beautiful they will become, right?"
"If a problem can be changed by exaggeration, then it is not a problem!" Zhang Cuihua disagrees. If she is ugly, she is ugly. You can't say she is beautiful against your will, right? "I just don't have money. If I had money, I would ask her to go to a big city and get her eyelids pierced."
Zhen Zhen laughed when he heard this, "You also know about plastic surgery?"
"Of course not! Someone in my hometown got into a car accident and had his eyelids punctured. The doctor sewed them back together. I heard that big cities have this technology."
Zhang Cuihua and Gou Zi's mother are addicted to spicy cabbage and come to Zhen Zhen for help.
Within two days, everyone in the village heard about this great way to pickle vegetables from them, and they all took out 100 to 200 kilograms of cabbage to pickle spicy cabbage.
Cabbage is cheap these days and every household can afford it. If you have nothing to eat in the winter, you can pickle some spicy cabbage and eat it with coarse grain cakes to get through the winter. It is better than eating dry snow cabbage in previous years.
Zhen Zhen was not stingy either. She asked all the old ladies to bring cabbages to her doorstep and she would eat them.
If you don’t have apples or pears at home, you won’t have to add these two ingredients. The general process will be fine.
This year, everyone in Batou Village is eating spicy cabbage in unison.
Last time, Zhen Zhen asked someone to dig a new well.
Zhang Cuihua's family doesn't have a well, so she often comes to Lao Meng's house to fetch water. Sometimes, she comes too often and feels a little embarrassed, so she goes to other people's houses to fetch water a few times. However, it is inconvenient to fetch water back and forth for people who live far away.
Zhen Zhen wanted to hit them in the middle.
Zhang Cuihua felt a little embarrassed when she saw that she didn't mention money.
Her husband felt that he shouldn't take advantage of others, so he decided to share the expenses with the Meng family. Zhen Zhen thought about it and agreed.
In this way, both families spent half the money and had water to drink.
The next evening, Zhen Zhen got some water and planned to clean the pigpen and the chicken coop. Meng Daguo came back and didn't let her do it, and told her to go inside and rest.
The sky had been cloudy for several days, and finally it snowed.
By the afternoon, the roof was already covered with a thick layer of roof, and the mountain scenery in the distance looked like an ink painting.
The air is fresh, and everything is good except that it is a bit cold.
Zhen Zhen rubbed his hands and ran into the kitchen, took out a chicken, put red dates, ginseng slices, wolfberries and dried mushrooms into the pot to stew.
The red dates were what she had just bought, and the rest were what was left in the space.
These are veritable chicken soup companions.
Cook over high heat first and then on low heat. There is no need to blanch the food in advance. Just skim off the foam when serving.
At this time, open the lid of the pot, the chicken soup is boiling and steaming, the chicken is stewed to a golden brown, but the soup is clear. Take a sip, it is so fresh and fragrant!
The whole kitchen was filled with the aroma of chicken soup.
It wasn't time for dinner yet, but everyone in the family, young and old, had gathered around. Even Erya knew there was chicken soup to drink and kept looking into the pot.
Pour the chicken soup on the stove and keep it warm over low heat.
Jiao Huilan stir-fried shredded cabbage with pork fat, stir-fried pickled mustard greens with shredded pork, and made egg custard for the three children.
Jiao Huilan always felt that the food at home was too good. There was no need to waste so much. Four dishes were too many. Two dishes would be enough. Do you think there was any family in the village that ate more luxuriously than them?
There is no need to make egg custard for children. Children in the village eat with adults and can eat chili peppers at the age of one.
But the mother-in-law disagreed, saying that the food was not needed and the child's health was the most important thing.
Tao Aihong was so moved by the smell of chicken soup that she cried. Ever since she had a fight in the middle of the year and was suppressed by her mother-in-law, she dared not mention the word chicken soup again.
The old hens at home are used for laying eggs, so she couldn't think of taking these five chickens. She had been feeding them for half a year, but who would have thought that her mother-in-law would stew a delicious chicken soup on a snowy day.
Meng Daguo sniffed, the chicken soup smelled so good!
He picked up a chicken leg, poured some soup and red dates and ginseng slices, and handed them to Zhen Zhen.
"Mom, you've worked hard. Drink some chicken soup to replenish your body."
Meng Eryong was one step slower, and he regretted it so much!
Zhen Zhen picked up the chopsticks with a smile and took a sip of the soup. She was so satisfied!
It's so cold in this weather, you should drink a bowl of hot chicken soup.
The people at home only started eating after seeing her pick up her chopsticks.
Zhen Zhen said, "Give some to the children. San Wa can also drink chicken soup. Blow it down a little so he can drink it."
Meng Eryong had a flash of inspiration and served chicken soup to Daya and Erya, and then held Sanwa in his arms to feed him.
Zhen Zhen smiled and boasted:
"Eryong is good. He knows how to take the initiative to take care of the children. None of my three sons have made mistakes."
The chicken soup should naturally be sent to Old Lady Meng and her father.
The Meng family was already accustomed to Meng Daguo delivering meals to them, and this time they were tempted by the smell of the chicken soup. While the old couple were eating meat and drinking soup, everyone else in the next room was swallowing their saliva spinelessly.
My goodness, what kind of life are we living in! We are already drinking chicken soup before the Chinese New Year.
Before the Chinese New Year, the Meng family started preparing to kill pigs. After killing all the pigs at home, they also had to kill the pigs in the mountains.
The whole family became very serious, fearing that if any detail was not done well, it would be discovered.
Zhen Zhen was not in a hurry to kill the pig, because the pig at home had almost been taken away by someone, and she was worried about the group of pigs in the mountains.
Pork is tight before the Chinese New Year and the price is high, so there is no need to worry about selling it.
But Zhen Zhen hadn't been to the black market for a long time and didn't know what the situation was there. Even if Zhao Meilan's husband was familiar with the black market, it was still a big question whether he could eat so much pork by himself.
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