1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 206: Good Luck
At noon, Chen Xiangbei appeared again at Juzipo to invite everyone to have lunch.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and went to the place where the Liang family was renting now.

Several tables were already set up in the open space in front of the house. In addition to using all the tables at home, he also borrowed tables and stools from neighbors.

The dishes were already on the table, wafting with heat and aroma. It wasn't a particularly sumptuous meal, but each table had seven or eight dishes, including meat, fish, and shrimp.

In addition, Chen Xiangbei and Liang's mother's cooking skills are quite good, so the villagers didn't forget to praise them while eating.

After lunch, everyone sat for a while and chatted about family matters. During this time, Liang Ziqiang distributed cigarettes to everyone.

Later, when he went to town to buy food, he bought several new packs of cigarettes, otherwise there would not be enough to go around.

After a short rest, everyone returned to Juzipo and continued to work. In the evening, Lin Xingchang and Liu Gong said it was time to call it a day, and everyone stopped working.

Liang Ziqiang paid the first day's wages on the same day. But Lin Xingchang also told everyone that starting from tomorrow, wages would be paid every three days. It would be a bit troublesome to pay every day.

Because the number of people might change every day, Liang Ziqiang and Lin Xingchang each had a small notebook in which they recorded the names of the people who came to work every day from the first day of construction.

After that, every three days, the two books would be put together to compare the numbers of people, and then settle the bill and pay the money.

Among them, several people, like the father-in-law, the elder brother-in-law, Li Liang, Deng Zhaocai, Lin's father, Zhu Tianpeng, and Liang's father's old friends, were determined not to take the money and said they were just there to help.

Liang Ziqiang tried to persuade them for a while, but finally gave up and just gave each of them a pack of cigarettes.

The hard work of building a house is different from the hard work of going out to sea to fish. This is more trivial. In addition to working and running errands, you also have to take care of this and that.

When he lay down on the bed at night and touched the pillow, he wanted to sleep. But he was more worried about Chen Xiangbei. Although she was not pregnant yet, she still needed to be very careful in the first three months and not overwork.

"Starting tomorrow, I will ask everyone to come home for lunch in advance, so you don't have to run to Juzipo every day at noon, okay?" Liang Ziqiang gently touched his wife's belly and told her.

"I'm fine now. My stomach and waist don't feel tired when I walk!" Chen Xiangbei felt that walking this distance didn't seem to be a big problem.

"When you feel your waist is tired, that will be a different matter!" Liang Ziqiang's tone became more serious.

If Chen Xiangbei's first child had any mishaps due to the busy work of building the house, it would be more trouble than gain. If that were the case, it would be better to postpone building the house and wait until the baby was born.

"Is it as serious as you say?" Chen Xiangbei listened to his tone and became serious. "Listen to you, I will try not to run around as much as possible. Anyway, I am busy cooking at home and don't have that much time to run around!"

"Can you and your mother handle the cooking? It's for so many people."

"I'm a bit busy right now. It will be over soon. My dad told me today that after the three of them help out for a few days and have other things to do at home, my mom will come over and help me cook..."

"Like this? Mom will have to work hard!"

Now that her mother-in-law is coming to help, Chen Xiangbei will probably be able to relax a lot.

……

Time flies. Except for three days of rainy days, we continued to build the house.

In a blink of an eye, it was the day to install the main gate. As usual, Lin Quansheng chose the auspicious date based on the birth dates of Liang Ziqiang and his wife.

On this day, the door foot stones were first laid and leveled. Teacher Lu had been invited to build the door frame in advance, and wedding invitations and couplets were written with a brush and pasted on it.

The red wedding invitations read "A hundred blessings are welcomed at the door" and "A thousand fortunes are welcomed at the house".

The couplet reads: "Building a house is auspicious; installing a door is a happy time."

When the chosen auspicious time arrived, several people lifted the gate up. At the same time, firecrackers blasted, and everyone held up the gate while shouting, "Go up, go up!" amid the sound of firecrackers.

Liu Gong shouted in a singing voice:
"Gold comes in during the day and silver comes in at night, and your descendants will be virtuous and wise for generations. If the gate is erected high, your descendants will be rich for generations. If the gate is erected wide, the house will be filled with countless treasures. When you go out, wealth will come from all directions, and when you come in, you will be blessed day and night."

After singing, Liang Ziqiang took out a red envelope and gave it to Liu Gong to show that the gate was well installed and satisfactory. Zhu Tianpeng was a very honest man. He worked here for seven full days and refused to take a penny. Then he went back to work at the brick kiln.

Soon, Mr. Zhang, the owner of the brick kiln, came again in person, and this time he delivered all the remaining 20,000 bricks and collected the remaining 600 yuan.

The total amount of red bricks was 1,200 yuan, and the payment was officially settled.

That night, a strong wind blew again. The north wind howled loudly, and the tired couple woke up with the howling.

Chen Xiangbei said worriedly, "It's so windy, I'm afraid it will rain tomorrow. It looks like we'll have to stop working on the house for another day."

"There's nothing we can do if it rains. But this year it's okay. There isn't as much rain as in previous winters. Anyway, the house will be built before the New Year, so there shouldn't be any big problems!" Liang Ziqiang comforted after listening to the wind.

Unexpectedly, it did not rain the next morning. The strong wind stopped at night and the sun came out. It was a good day for building the house.

Liang Ziqiang went to the town early in the morning as usual and bought a batch of seasonal vegetables. Because he went early, he also bought a few pounds of meat.

At noon, as usual, each table was served seven or eight dishes to entertain all the working villagers.

While the villagers praised the taste, some of them began to feel that there was something missing - it was obvious that all the fish and shrimp on the table were dried goods.

Dried hairtail fish is from Liang Ziqiang’s last hairtail fish season, when he had a bumper harvest. He specially kept a lot of it at home in advance, and Chen Xiangbei dried it to make dried hairtail fish.
Hair shrimp, also known as dried shrimp skin;

Others like dried dragon head fish and dried green fish are all salted fish and dried fish.

Even the sea lettuce and kelp were harvested last time and dried into dried seaweed, which are now soaked in water when preparing meals.

There is no way out in this season. Not to mention that you can't catch fish in the shallow sea, even if you want to buy it in the town, it is also difficult to buy live fresh fish. Most of them are dried goods.

But the helpers didn't care about that. A group of fishermen, helping their employer build houses, hadn't had a fresh seafood meal for such a long time, so they were bound to complain.

Chen Xiangbei also heard it. When Liang Ziqiang went into the inner room, she quietly followed him, closed the door, and complained in a worried tone:
"I also want to cook one or two dishes with fresh seafood, but where can I get seafood this month? I haven't saved any money on buying groceries and cooking recently!"

"It's okay. There will always be people talking. Just pretend you didn't hear what they say. At least most people are satisfied with the food!" Liang Ziqiang saw that she was so worried that her beautiful eyebrows were knotted. He raised his hand to smooth the hair on her cheek and comforted her with a smile.

Then I suddenly thought, it’s not completely impossible to get fresh seafood, right?

"There was a strong wind last night," he speculated. "There should be a lot of clams that hid in the mud and sand for the winter that were blown out by the wind and waves, and some shrimps will also be turned out. Now that the wind has stopped, maybe I can get some back to enrich the food!"

"Are you planning to go fishing in the middle of the day?"

"The few clams we pick up at the beach may not be enough for two or three people. Have you forgotten that I can use a stilt fishing net? I'll go fish in the shallow water for a whole afternoon. If you're lucky, the clams you catch may be enough for you to make clam soup for two or three days. Clams and flower clam soup are both very delicious, but these are the only fresh things you can eat this month!" he calculated.

"Stop joking! What season is it? You're going to push the fishing net? The sea water is so cold that it freezes your bones!" Chen Xiangbei grabbed him and stopped him from going.

"Look, it's not what you think. Pushing the slingshot in winter and in summer are two completely different ways. I have to wear rain boots and not go too deep. The water should just reach the soles of my feet. Do you think it's the same as usual, letting the water soak up to my waist? Wouldn't I freeze to death? I'm not that stupid!" he explained.

"Can you really catch clams at such a shallow depth?"

"There aren't many places with deep water. There must be some. The wind last night wasn't in vain!"

"Then be careful. Come back if you don't find anything. Don't go too deep!"

Hearing him say this, she felt relieved. Anyway, she already knew his technique of pushing the foot net, so there was nothing to worry about.

The villagers were still chatting and taking a short rest after dinner. At this time, Liang Ziqiang had already found his pair of long rain boots and put them on.

Then he dug out the fishing net from the house and headed for the beach...

Burst



(End of this chapter)