By this time, the villagers waiting in line were also getting impatient. They were also afraid of Chen Guixiang, who was notorious in Ningjia Village for her unreasonable and disruptive behavior. So they all spoke up:
"Yuwei, weigh your mother-in-law first!"
"Yes, we're family after all, so let's not make things too awkward."
"Yes, yes, hurry up and weigh her and get it over with, let her keep arguing until her head hurts!"
Seeing that the villagers all said so, Chen Guixiang tilted her head back and looked at Jiang Yuwei with a smug expression:
"So what? In the end, you still have to weigh me first! Hurry up and weigh me and pay me! I need to get home to feed the pigs!"
Jiang Yuwei looked at the two large baskets of wood ash that Chen Guixiang and Sun Shi had brought and immediately felt suspicious. She had only mentioned buying wood ash yesterday at noon, so how could Chen Guixiang have collected two large baskets of wood ash to sell overnight? Thinking this, Jiang Yuwei picked up a bamboo pole beside her and stuck it into the baskets.
"Hmm? Why does it feel like there's a hard lump underneath?"
Jiang Yuwei murmured to herself. Before Chen Guixiang and Sun Shi could react, she dumped all the wood ash from the two baskets onto the ground. The wood ash was mixed with pebbles, stones, weeds, and leaves.
Jiang Yuwei frowned and said:
"Everyone, come and see! If anyone dares to try to fool me with this kind of plant ash, don't blame me for never doing business with you again."
After saying that, Jiang Yuwei threw the basket in front of Chen Guixiang and said coldly:
"Take your things and go back before I lose my temper. I will never do business with your family again, and you don't need to come here anymore. I, Jiang Yuwei, mean what I say!"
Seeing that her little trick had been exposed in public, Chen Guixiang's face turned pale, but she stubbornly said:
"Well, you despicable woman, you'd rather spend money to collect other people's wood ash than spend money to buy your own. You're truly wicked."
As Chen Guixiang spoke, she sat down on the ground again and began to wail and scream, resorting to her usual tantrums.
"I'm so unlucky. I had a son who can't support his mother in her old age. The daughter-in-law I'm marrying is going to kill me. She accepts other people's ashes but not mine. She's trying to force me to die. I have no way to live. My own child is trying to kill me. God, open your eyes and take a look."
If it weren't for the large crowd of onlookers, Jiang Yuwei would have loved to slap her across the face. Jiang Yuwei first picked up the two baskets on the ground and threw them far out the gate, then forcibly helped Chen Guixiang, who was still crying on the ground, to her feet and said:
"Grandma, if you want to cry and scream, go outside and do it. Don't dirty my yard."
Jiang Yuwei was also very strong. She grabbed Chen Guixiang by the armpits and carried her to the courtyard gate, then slammed her to the ground.
With a "crack," it was the sound of the tailbone breaking again.
"Aaaaaah! You're going to kill me! You really want to kill me? Heavens above, is there anyone who can help me? Is there anyone who can save me? I can't live anymore! It hurts so much!"
Sun wanted to argue with Jiang Yuwei a bit more, but when she met Ning Huaizhi's murderous eyes, she swallowed all the words she wanted to say. Then she heard Chen Guixiang shouting loudly outside the courtyard, so she had no choice but to run out to check the situation.
Everyone was happy to see Chen Guixiang get the short end of the stick, and they all covered their mouths and chuckled.
Jiang Yuwei said with a smile:
"I apologize for the earlier embarrassing incident. Let's continue queuing to be weighed!"
Without Chen Guixiang's interference, everyone quickly handed over their wood ash to Ning Huaizhi for weighing, received their money from Jiang Yuwei, and left. They were all eager to go up the mountain to peel the bark of the paper mulberry tree.
Jiang Yuwei calculated that she had collected a total of 100 jin of wood ash that morning, but this was far from enough. She would need a lot of wood ash to make tofu and paper in the future. Fortunately, the villagers were very enthusiastic and made an agreement with Jiang Yuwei before leaving that they would collect more wood ash to sell next time.
Jiang Yuwei cleared out a place in the front yard specifically to store wood ash. After the backyard is built, she plans to have a carpenter make a dozen or so large wooden barrels, the kind used for storing grain, and place them in the backyard specifically to store wood ash.
Jiang Yuwei checked the time and realized it was time to make lunch. So she took out the vegetable and meat balls she had fried yesterday and fried them again. She also heated up the remaining soybean pulp cakes, soybean pulp puddings, and steamed buns from yesterday and served them on the table.
Jiang Yuwei thought that she still had some pork belly left from the last time she bought it, so she decided to make a spicy banana pork dish. She first stir-fried banana flowers with bananas to bring out their sweetness, then added the pork belly to render the fat, and finally added a lot of chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, chili powder, and ginger slices to stir-fry and season. This dish is very suitable as a side dish with rice, as it is spicy, fragrant, sweet, and savory.
Jiang Yuwei then stir-fried a plate of green beans, and only after all the dishes were served did she call everyone to come to the front yard to eat.
Today's progress is also fast. The backyard wall is almost finished. Jiang Yuwei has also taken some bamboo strips that she had already sharpened and densely stuck them on the top of the backyard wall. Although it doesn't look good, it is safe and effective against both animals and people.
Jiang Yuwei thought that since she had already bought the pond, she couldn't save money by building a low courtyard wall for the passageway. It had to be the same height as the backyard wall to be safer and look better. Moreover, the height of the pond had to be the same as the backyard wall, and she also had to add sharp bamboo strips on top of it.
Seeing that everyone had finished eating and gone back to work, Jiang Yuwei busied herself tidying up the front yard. She planned to soak some more beans today and make more gray tofu. She would take Ning Daya with her to sell at the market next time, and see if she could train her. If she could, she could have Ning Qiu and Ning Daya go to the market when she was busy in the future.
Jiang Yuwei was changing the water and washing soybeans when she heard the sheep in the backyard bleating pitifully. Jiang Yuwei thought something was wrong; according to the calendar, the ewe should be giving birth soon. So she hurriedly asked Ning Huaizhi to help boil a pot of water and asked Ning Wan to go to the field to pick more mulberry leaves to give the ewe some energy.
Jiang Yuwei then found a tattered quilt that she had brought from the Ning family's previous separation and carried it to the backyard. There she saw the ewe lying on the ground, her belly twitching, probably about to give birth.
Jiang Yuwei hurriedly stepped forward and spread a cotton quilt behind the ewe so that the newborn lamb would be warmer. Jiang Yuwei was extremely anxious as she looked at the ewe's pained appearance and her constantly twitching belly. She couldn't use up all her strength before even giving birth to a lamb, otherwise the lamb would die in the womb due to lack of oxygen.
With that thought in mind, Jiang Yuwei immediately reached out to help the ewe, massaging her abdomen and pushing downwards in a top-to-bottom order.
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