Xing'an Mountains 1984: Starting from climbing mountains to support the family

Chapter 213: Fishing for Sand in the River
Most parents think that it’s okay for children to fight as long as it’s not a big deal.

Chen Weidong would sometimes ask those children who came to play with Si Ni,
As an old father, he was worried that Si Ni would be bullied by others, and also worried that Si Ni would bully others. After all, Chen Weidong didn't want his daughter to become a little bad boy or a naughty child.

Fortunately, Si Ni simply liked the feeling of being the "king of children", and did not rely on her second sister to actively bully others in the village, which made Chen Weidong feel relieved.

Chen Weidong still didn't like beating his children. After all, he owed them too much in his previous life.
He can't dote on his children enough, but sometimes he has to spank them! You can't be too indulgent when educating your children.

……

The construction of Chen Weidong's new house is in full swing. Liu Xueting, his mother Wu Xiuqin, and sister-in-law Yang Xuehua are responsible for cooking. Sometimes Shitou's wife, Bingzi's wife and some old ladies in the village will come to help.

Chen Weidong is very particular. He has three meals a day, all with meat and vegetables, and he also has wine in the evening and plenty of cigarettes.

Therefore, everyone worked very actively, and no one felt comfortable being lazy without Chen Weidong urging them.

If someone like this kind of helper is lazy, it will damage his own reputation. Moreover, when you are lazy when helping others.

Later, when you ask others for help, others will also slack off for you.

Everything is mutual.

We worked until the evening, when Zheng Xiaofang came over to call everyone to eat, and everyone finished their work for the day.

After finishing their meal with laughter, the gentlemen who helped supported each other and left Chen Weidong's house.

Zheng Xiaofang, Wu Xiuqin, Liu Xueting, and a few old ladies from the village who helped put the leftovers into a bowl, and then divided them into several portions. Whoever wanted one could take it home, which was considered a reward.

There are a lot of leftovers from the three meals a day, especially the evening meal, which has a lot of meat and vegetables. Everyone is drinking and eating less vegetables, so there are a lot of leftovers.

Even the dishes for lunch included both meat and vegetables, and Chen Weidong repeatedly asked to use more oil so that the dishes would be particularly fragrant.

Even if it is leftovers, they are still good things. After taking them back and adding some vegetables, it will be enough for the family.

As for despising it, how can anyone despise it in this era?
It didn't take long to clean up.

~

After everyone left, Liu Xueting sat down on a chair in the kitchen exhausted. The little kids were very observant and came over one by one, some massaging her back, some massaging her legs, and some shouting, "Mommy, mommy's milk."

However, although the strength of the little girls had no practical effect, Liu Xueting felt sweet in her heart.

Cooking is not easy for Liu Xueting. With dozens of people and three meals a day, Liu Xueting has to get up early in the morning to cook. She cooks at home and finishes the meals before going to work. After finishing the morning work, she has to prepare lunch and steam buns.

After finishing the busy work at noon and not being able to rest for long, it is necessary to prepare the meal for the evening, which should be richer.

Therefore, at the end of the day, I am basically not idle.

"Weidong, there's not much noodles left at home! Only enough for a bowl of noodles in the morning!"

Liu Xueting sent the little girls away and said to Chen Weidong.

"Well, I'm going to the countryside tomorrow and buy a few more bags of rice and flour." Chen Weidong replied.

"Ah."

Liu Xueting nodded.

Chen Weidong walked out of the kitchen and glanced at Da Ni and Er Ni who were doing their homework seriously. The other little girls didn't dare to disturb them. After being sent away by Liu Xueting, they all played at the door.

Chen Weidong walked over and pinched the chubby little faces of Xiaowu and Xiaoliu!
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Dad."

The two little girls cried out twice, and then the four little girls followed behind Chen Weidong.
Chen Weidong walked into the main room and asked about the study problems of his eldest and second daughters. He then released the dogs from the dog pen and let them play in the yard for a while.

The next day, Chen Weidong got up early and was feeding the dog when Yang Xuehua and Zheng Xiaofang knocked on the door.

"Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, you came so early today!"

"Come over early and knead the dough. Xueting said yesterday that she wanted to make noodles. You have to come over early!" Yang Xuehua said, and walked into the kitchen and started to get busy.

"Okay, sister-in-law. Xueting was a little tired yesterday and hasn't gotten up yet. Let me help you make the stew. Whoever comes to eat it later can just scoop a spoonful of the stew."

After feeding the dog and washing his hands, Chen Weidong walked into the kitchen and said to Yang Xuehua and Zheng Xiaofang who were kneading dough.

"Brother Weidong, the meals you prepared are so good, with meat for every meal. What are you going to do with the people who are building the house behind us?" Zheng Xiaofang complained to Chen Weidong with a smile.

Ever since Zheng Xiaofang and Bingzi saw Chen Weidong building a brick house, the couple also planned to build a house. If not this year, they will build it next year.

These days, helping people is about favors. Food is provided, and everyone works according to their own conditions, as long as they can eat enough. Those who have the conditions will have better food, and those who don't will have worse food.

No one will find fault with this.

The two were responsible for kneading the dough, while Chen Weidong started to make the marinade.

Chen Weidong’s marinade is very simple. He just cuts bacon into cubes, adds diced mushrooms, and stir-fries them with yellow sauce.

After a while, Liu Xueting came out to help after she had cleaned up.
Soon, a large pot of water was boiling.

Waiting for the helper to arrive, you can order the noodles.

To help build a house, except at the beginning, when you need to find someone to help with the work, when you start working normally, you don't need to call someone again.

In the morning, the meals are prepared, and those who want to help will come to eat early in the morning, and then go to help with the work directly after eating. "Brother Weidong, I'm here! Leave any work to me!" Shitou was the first to rush to Chen Weidong's house.

"Wait a moment, you and my eldest brother go to the river to collect sand!"

Nowadays, in addition to bricks and cement, which need to be bought, if anyone wants to build a house, the sand they need is dredged from the river.

"Yeah!" Shitou nodded in response.

As he was talking, several more villagers came to his house and greeted him with a smile, "Weidong, what delicious food did you prepare this morning?"

“Noodles for breakfast this morning!”

"Xueting, it's time to cook the noodles!" Chen Weidong answered while shouting towards the kitchen.

Liu Xueting and the others had already prepared everything and were just waiting for people to arrive so they could cook the noodles.

Ordering noodles is different from other things. You can’t order them in advance. You can only wait for people to arrive.

The noodles are also very fast, and a pot can be cooked in about 70 to 80 minutes.

As the noodles were put into the pot, Liu Xueting threw the washed rapeseed into the pot and cooked them together.

This was taught to her by Chen Weidong, and she learned it from the hand-rolled noodles and flat noodles of later generations.

It’s delicious with some green head.

There were quite a few people here today, more than 20 people, including my eldest brother and my father. After dinner,

While Chen Weidong drove the donkey cart to the village to buy noodles, he also took Da Ni, Er Ni, Xiao Hua, and several children from the village who were hitchhiking to school.

Chen Weihai took Bingzi, Shitou and a dozen other people to dredge sand from the river.

There is a Taipinggou near Jiuqutun, so there is naturally no shortage of sand. If anyone needs sand, they can just go to the river beach and scoop some.

There is no need to worry about digging holes in the river beach. If you dig now, after a rain in summer, the sand, stones, and soil washed down from the mountains will fill these holes.

Chen Weidong bought several hundred kilograms of whole wheat flour in the village, some rice and millet, and went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some wire, nails... and other tools.

After wandering around the countryside, I returned to the village. It was already around twelve o'clock and the workers had finished their meals and went back to work.

Because the house Chen Weidong built is big, the main job today is to go to the river to dredge sand, so the foundation of the house has not been dug yet!

However, there were already several piles of sand near Chen Weidong's homestead, where Sanni, her sisters and some children from the village were playing with the sand.

Wu Xiuqin, Yang Xuehua, Liu Xueting... several women chatted while working.
"Weidong is back!"

"Brother Weidong hasn't eaten yet. There's some fish left from the stew we made at noon. I'll warm it up for you." Zheng Xiaofang said.

"Why are there still fish?"

"When my brother and his friends were dredging sand in the morning, they saw a lot of fish in the river, so they cast a net and caught quite a few," Liu Xueting replied.

"That's great. I was thinking of going to the lake to get some fish and bring them back to give everyone something to change." Chen Weidong said with a smile.

"No need. My brother said that depending on the situation in the afternoon, we should be able to catch a lot of fish." Liu Xueting said.

"Okay, I'll go take a look in the afternoon." Chen Weidong nodded, then moved the food into the room.

After having a simple lunch, Chen Weidong took his tools and drove the donkey cart to the river beach.

"Brother, Brother Shengli, Brother Da Kui..." Chen Weidong took out a cigarette and made way.

After chatting with everyone for a while and smoking a cigarette, Chen Weidong also joined in scooping sand.

The sand in the river is the best building material.

A few decades later, Chen Weidong heard that some people made a fortune by dredging sand. Of course, by then, not everyone could dredge sand.

However, now, for people like Chen Weidong, building their own houses and collecting sand from the river is no problem.

Speaking of which, this season is not a good time to fish for sand.

The ice and snow in the mountains melted, causing the mountain rivers to flood and the riverbeds to be submerged. Everyone had to stand in the shallows of the river in their boots and pull up the water with rakes.

There is a lot of sand in the river, and one person can fish out more than one cubic meter in an hour.

Fishing for sand is very simple, mainly because at this time, the river water is relatively cold, so everyone cannot stand in the river water for a long time. After staying in the water for a while, you have to change people.

There is a fire on the shore. After you come up, you can warm yourself by the fire for a while. When it warms up, you can change people and go down to continue fishing for sand.

Therefore, fishing for sand may seem simple, but it is actually not easy.

When fishing for sand, sometimes a stupid fish will be pulled up by the rake. At this time, it is a happy episode.

Those who were warming up the fire did not rush to change people after warming up the fire. Instead, they took the fishing net and cast it into the river.

(End of this chapter)