Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Chapter 1192 I'll Build You a Greenhouse

Mu Xueli's words immediately made everyone present burst into laughter, and Liu Guilan, barely suppressing her laughter, stepped forward and playfully hit Wang An, saying:
“You can’t kick the fifth brother anymore, he doesn’t act like an older brother at all.”

With Liu Guilan backing him up, Wang Li immediately said smugly:
"Exactly, he doesn't act like an older brother at all."

However, after Wang Li finished speaking, he noticed Wang An's fierce little eyes. The meaning in Wang An's eyes was obviously like a harsh word that classmates often said when they were in school: "Don't leave after school" or "You wait until the teacher leaves."

However, student days are student days after all. Wang An was not only not a student, but also a truly petty and vindictive person. So, upon seeing Wang An's fierce gaze, this guy was frightened by Wang Li and quickly called out to Liu Guilan:
"Auntie, Auntie, my brother and I were just playing around. His kick didn't hurt at all. Please don't hit my fourth brother anymore, hehehehe."

The courtyard of Wang An's house was brightly lit, so everyone else naturally saw Wang An's eyes. When they heard Wang Li's words of tacit pleading, everyone laughed even harder.

Laughter filled the entire courtyard in an instant.

After laughing, everyone got to work as Wang An instructed.

Wang Li went to light the charcoal fire, Mu Xue went to slice the mutton, and Huang Zhong took a small basket and went into the cellar. There were also light bulbs installed in Wang An's cellar, so there was no need to worry about lighting at all.

As for Wang An, he prepared a bunch of seasonings such as chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise, and started frying them in black bear oil. After frying the seasonings, Wang An smashed a few pieces of black bear bones and sheep bones, intending to use the marrow inside these bones to stew in a pot as a soup base.

Besides the hot pot base, the dipping sauce is actually the soul of the whole meal.

Although Wang An's family didn't have sesame paste, they could use sesame salt as a substitute and it would be just as good. When eating, they only needed to scoop some hot pot broth into the sesame salt, and that would be a perfect sesame paste. In fact, because the sesame salt was roasted, its aroma was even richer than that of sesame paste.

Leek flower sauce, chili flakes, minced garlic, chopped green onions, chopped cilantro—Wang An had prepared all the seasonings his family had.

Speaking of cilantro powder, we have to thank Comrade Liu Guilan.

In the winters of Northeast China, people used to grow a pot of water garlic sprouts in their homes. However, these garlic sprouts were not grown in soil, but in water, and were commonly known as water garlic sprouts by the locals.

The planting method involves stringing garlic cloves together with a reed, then coiling them in a dish with the roots facing down and the tips facing up. However, it's important to note that the water for the garlic sprouts needs to be changed frequently, otherwise the roots are prone to rotting, or they will develop a foul odor over time.

As for why we plant garlic sprouts indoors, one reason is to make the house look nice with some greenery, and another reason is that when guests come over, we can use scissors to cut the garlic sprouts and serve them with scrambled eggs or stir-fried garlic sprouts with cured meat.

Therefore, in those days, whether or not garlic sprouts were served when visiting someone's home in winter was a way of indicating how much the host valued you.

This year, when Liu Guilan was planting garlic sprouts, she discovered that the garlic sprouts grew incredibly fast when planted in the temperature of her new house.

So, Liu Guilan had Wang Dazhu make several large, open wooden boxes on the ground in the two uninhabited rooms on the far west side of the two houses. After filling the boxes with soil and manure, she planted vegetables in them.

We grow several kinds of vegetables, including lettuce, cilantro, persimmons, cucumbers, and cantaloupes.

However, due to the timing, only lettuce and cilantro are available to eat right now. Vegetables like cucumbers and persimmons haven't flowered yet.

The reason for thanking Comrade Liu Guilan is that the cilantro chopped by Wang An was done by her. Without Comrade Liu Guilan growing vegetables in the house, Wang An would never have been able to eat fresh cilantro; at most, he would have eaten some dried cilantro. However, Wang An received a scolding from Liu Guilan while chopping the cilantro.

Liu Guilan's original words were:
"If you want to eat cilantro, at least pick the leaves! You're just pulling the whole root down. You'll have used it up in just a few meals! You wasteful thing!"

To be honest, Wang An did a really lousy thing in this regard.

Back then, being able to eat fresh, green vegetables in the winter in Northeast China was a real luxury.

Although Liu Guilan grows a variety of vegetables, she doesn't actually grow many of each kind. The floor space in the house is only so big, so how many vegetables can she grow in boxes?

Therefore, Wang An's behavior of directly plundering the entire area is a typical example of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

After being scolded by his mother, Wang An realized he had acted without thinking. His eyes darted around, and he said to Liu Guilan with a grin:
"Mom, if you'd like to grow vegetables, I can build you a greenhouse if you have some free time these next few days. Let me tell you, that stuff is great for growing vegetables in winter, you can grow as many as you want, what do you say?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Guilan frowned and asked:

"Greenhouse? What greenhouse? What's a greenhouse for?"

In those days, because plastic sheeting was not yet widespread, plastic greenhouses were only used in small quantities in a few large cities like Harbin. Not only was Liu Guilan unaware of this, but most people were also unaware of it.

Wang An thought for a moment and said:
"I heard about this from my friend. It's basically a plastic sheet covering a shed, and then you put a stove or a fire pit inside. It's warm inside, and you can grow vegetables in it before winter."

Upon hearing this, Liu Guilan immediately understood and said:

"So this greenhouse you're talking about is like the kind of place where I grow vegetables indoors?"

Wang An nodded and said:

"Yeah, about the same, but that thing is spacious. You can make it as big as you want, and plant whatever you want before winter."

Upon hearing this, Liu Guilan's eyes lit up, and she said with a slightly excited voice:

"Then what are you still thinking about? Let's get it done! We have to get it done right away! If we have this big greenhouse, we can eat whatever vegetables we want all winter long, hahaha. Don't wait until you have time, let's get it done tomorrow, hahaha."

Seeing his mother so happy, Wang An was also very happy, so he didn't mention whether he could buy plastic sheeting.

The main problem was the severe shortage of plastic sheeting at that time, with supply and marketing cooperatives experiencing supply shortages intermittently.

Of course, if all else fails, Wang An will let Zhang Shuya and Wu Dong come up with a solution. If they can't even handle something as simple as making some plastic sheeting, then they've wasted their time.

(End of this chapter)