farmhouse ditty

Chapter 124 New Year Matters ([-])

Mrs. Liu woke up early today, busy with putting the rice into the pot first, putting it on the fire to boil, and then busy tidying up the house. When the time was almost up, she called Ji Laoliu and the children to get up .

The four girls heard the call, got up in a hurry, tidied the bed, put on their clothes and went to the yard to wash their mouths and face, Heiwazi rubbed his sleepy eyes, muttered a few dissatisfied words, and came out slowly .

Ji Lao Liu was the same as Hei Wazi, both of them couldn't open their eyes and forced themselves to get up. He yawned while wrapping his clothes, took the warm water handed over by the second girl, rinsed his mouth and washed his face, then nestled on the chair and waited. Get tired.

Mrs. Liu was busy working in the courtyard in a hurry, muttering, Ji Lao Liu greeted a few children to his side, so as not to hinder Mrs. Liu's way.

They know that when it comes to the holidays, Mrs. Liu is the one who is most anxious to get angry in this family, or in the whole village, and twelve hours a day is not enough for her to use up that kind of busy work. .

The eldest girl watched her mother busy in the yard, so she called her sisters to put some porridge in the stove.

Mrs. Liu took out the bucket, wooden basin, chopping board and kitchen knife, looked at Ji Laoliu and the others and began to distribute work.

"Father, go fetch water in a while, and then pick up some firewood when you're done, and use it later to boil water and wash your body. Remember to get more, we need to use it for the whole family... Go and get the water at the foot of the courtyard. Clean the tank so that your father can fill up the water... Sanya, Siya and Heiwazi, you go and sweep the floor of our house..."

The four girls responded immediately, and Heiwazi couldn't stop talking, "Oh my mother, we just turned the house upside down yesterday, why do we have to work today?"

Mrs. Liu put half a bag of flour in the wooden basin, looked at Heiwazi and said, "You kid still ate yesterday, so don't eat today. Didn't you listen to what your father said, you non-worker?" No food!"

Ji Laoliu picked up the bowl and took a sip of porridge, and said to Mrs. Liu, "Hey, his mother, what time is it now? What are you in such a hurry, our family can finish this job."

Mrs. Liu saw that there was not enough flour, so she took it back into the stove and replaced it with a bigger bag, "When? It's already past noon, what time are you talking about? I've already knocked with a gong."

Ji Laoliu touched his chin helplessly, and didn't say anything more wisely. At this moment, it's better not to provoke the baby and his mother.

Mrs. Liu put the chopping board and the kitchen knife in the wooden basin, took them up together with the noodle bag, and said before going out, "Big ya, I'll finish my work in a while, call Erya and the others to come to Xiuniang's sister-in-law's room." , we still have to make dumplings... Tell Hei Wazi to eat quickly!"

Da Ya responded obediently, put the porridge in front of Hei Wazi, and swayed along with Hei Wazi who was asleep on the table.

When Mrs. Liu came out of the yard, she heard Hei Wazi muttering dissatisfiedly, "Hey, what are you doing, isn't it just to have a new year and not let people sleep."

She was going to go back and say something about Hei Wazi, but after thinking about it, she went to Xiu Niang's side. At this moment, Chu Ge had just come out with a load, presumably he was going to fetch water.

Mrs. Liu yelled at Chu Ge not to close the door, and walked a few steps forward. After hearing the sound, Xiu Niang came out and helped Mrs. Liu take the flour bag from the wooden basin, which was heavier.

"Hey, Sixth Sister-in-Law, I have rice and noodles at home, you just need to come over here, why do you bring more of these?"

Mrs. Liu held a wooden basin with a smile, and looked behind her, "Hey, what's the matter, you've already wrapped up the meat stuffing, so I can't just come here empty-handed."

Xiuniang and Liu chatted a few words with a smile, and let the way go, "Hey, Sixth Sister-in-Law, let's stop talking outside, come in first."

Mrs. Liu responded with a loud voice, and walked to the yard of Xiuniang's house. She looked up, and suddenly felt very strange. There was only such a small yard in Chuge's house. There are chickens raised by the fence, and the guys are lined up, but she feels that it is a lot more spacious.

She thought about it and asked Xiuniang, who put the noodle bag on the table that had been set up earlier, and smiled, "Sister-in-law Liu, my parents-in-law and the others just moved away last month, and the miscellaneous things that were piled up in the yard are gone. , isn't it spacious?"

Mrs. Liu said "Oops" when she heard this, how could she have forgotten this, Chu Ge's parents moved out earlier, and it was something that was brought by her family's ox cart.

She put the wooden basin on the table, "Hey girl, look at my brain, I've been busy for the past two days, and I can't remember things... Hey, but, your sister-in-law... Tsk tsk tsk, that's It's not good, if I didn't look at your face that day, I wouldn't ask Lao Liu to pull the cart."

Mrs. Liu couldn't help complaining about Mrs. Wen, especially that day when Ji Lao Liu pulled the ox cart to the door of Xiuniang's house, Father Chu and Mr. Chu Fu kept thanking him, but Mrs. Wen sat In the car, it was still a matter of course, as if she and the sixth child were long-term workers hired by her.

Xiu Niang said, "Hey, she (Wen's) is like this, she doesn't say hello to people she doesn't know well."

Liu's mouth was flattened, and she nodded to Xiu Niang with a "Yo Yo Yo", which means, who are you fooling.

Xiu Niang just smiled, turned around and went to the stove, thinking about burning some warm water on the fire rack, and kneading the dough in a while.

Mrs. Liu took out the chopping board and kitchen knife from the wooden basin. She was going to chop vegetables in a while. She looked at the table, was taken aback for a moment, and said to Xiu Niang, "Oh, my sister, what are you doing?" ……this is……"

Xiu Niang glanced at Mrs. Liu, walked over strangely, and saw her pointing at the pot of diced meat, "What's wrong, Mrs. Liu, are these not enough?"

"Sister, you got a few catties of meat, it looks like five or six catties, oh my mother, that old knife woman laughed so hard today."

Mrs. Liu complained a little, that the old knife woman usually bought the meat at an expensive price of three or four pennies, but now if it waits until the Chinese New Year, the price of the ten-year-old knife meat will not skyrocket.

Xiu Niang pursed her lips, "Oh my sister-in-law, seeing your surprise, I thought something was wrong with this meat."

Mrs. Liu looked at it and shook her head, and said in her mouth, "That old knife woman laughed stupidly... she laughed stupidly..."

Xiu Niang smiled at Mrs. Liu, washed her hands in a small basin on the side, then put the cabbage drained from the basket on the chopping board, and chopped it to prepare meat stuffing.

Mrs. Liu looked at Xiuniang for a while, and said bluntly, "Hey, my sister, even if you really want to buy the small forest in the old woman's house, you shouldn't use this method to curry favor with her." Ah, what a waste of money."

Xiu Niang secretly sighed, she glanced at Mrs. Liu, and muttered in her heart, hey, why does this Sixth Sister-in-law not understand, she went to Sister-in-law Dao's to buy 'high-priced meat' during Chinese New Year, just to please her Love, but I also want her to help me beat the side drum at Shi Laodao, so that Shi Laodao can buy the forest land in the back mountain. Of course, the buyer must be herself.

Earlier, she had asked Mrs. Liu to help Shi Laodao to see if his family wanted to buy or sell forest land.

When Shi Laodao heard this, he shook his head in thought and said that it was the forest land left by his ancestors. Although it was useless, he still said that he didn't want to sell it.

At that time, Mrs. Liu told her when she came back, but Mrs. Liu also said that she didn't realize that Shi Laodao was telling the truth. If he didn't want to sell it, he wouldn't have asked someone to secretly bring the news of the forest land sale to him last year. When I arrived in the town, I wanted to find a rich buyer in the town and ask for a higher price.

As for why Shi Laodao changed his mind now, Xiuniang estimated that Shi Laodao probably heard that someone wanted to buy and sell forest land, so he wanted to go around in circles again, so that he could delay it for a while and see if there was any more. People come to him to ask for land, and then he can push the price higher.

That's why when she thought of this, she thought about the card of Sister-in-law Dao, asking her to blow the pillow wind more, brainwashing Shi Laodao, and telling him not to shout to the outside world, she is still keeping the matter of buying and selling forest land a secret Yes, she, Mrs. Liu and Mrs. Dao are the only ones in the village who know about it.

Mrs. Liu looked at Xiuniang and didn't respond. She thought Xiuniang didn't listen, so she said it again after thinking about it.

Xiuniang knew that Liu's heart was for her, everyone came from poverty, and it was not easy to earn money, so she didn't want to waste money by herself.

She smiled and said, "Sister-in-law Liu, I know what you mean, but when I went to buy meat for Sister-in-law Dao, it wasn't because I was in a panic because I had too much money, but because I wanted to fill my mouth with food."

Mrs. Liu frowned, "You woman, although we are not as good as the towns now, we have land and fields. When have we ever been hungry? When you raise your hand, you get a bag of corn, and when you lower your head, you get potato heads... ...cough cough..."

"Well, as long as you don't get caught when you pass by other people's land." Mrs. Liu looked around, and whispered the last sentence next to Xiu Niang.

Xiu Niang smiled when she heard this, and her subordinates were busy, but after thinking about it, she still said a few words, otherwise she, the sixth sister-in-law, would have been talking about it all morning.

"Sister-in-law Liu, it's the end of our year, so why don't we have a good meal? If the meat dumplings are full of vegetables in one bite, how can we eat comfortably? Let's go, I did the math earlier, Your house, my house, and my father-in-law’s house together have more than a dozen people, can’t there be more meat stuffing?”

Mrs. Liu made sense, but in fact, she was very optimistic about Xiu Niang's energy. Sometimes the money was spent as it should be spent, anyway, it was all eaten into her own stomach, so it was nothing to lose.

But she would think so, after all she would not do this, if she wanted to ask why, it would be because she couldn't part with the money.

She pursed her lips, "Then this is too much, it must be expensive."

Xiu Niang shook her head, "Not much, just one or two catties of meat."

Mrs. Liu took a deep breath when she heard this, but Xiu Niang didn't respond. Anyway, she didn't pay for the meat money by herself. What happened to her last month? Money is it.

Mrs. Liu looked at Xiuniang's pitiful cabbage, "Oh, you're still thinking about chopping vegetables and meat stuffing!"

Xiu Niang smiled, "Yeah, or the meat in the dumpling would be so boring, wouldn't it?"

Mrs. Liu glanced at Xiuniang, and shook her head depressedly. The water in the pot started to steam, she said something, and walked into the stove...

(End of this chapter)