By Jia Xiuzhen

As soon as the child left, another boy came, holding an inch plate in his hand, bowed to Mr. Yu, and said, "The kitchen stewards said that Mr. likes this spicy taste. This is a freshly made side dish. Here's Bring it to taste, sir." Then Mr. Yu bowed and said, "I'm sorry." The boy put down the dish and bowed before leaving.

Mr. Yu took the plate and handed it to Sanxi, saying, "Baby, try it, but you can only taste a little bit, it's too spicy for you to bear." Sanxi carefully took the tip of the chopsticks and put it in his mouth, smacking it. After a while, he grew his mouth and fanned it, breathing non-stop, Mr. Yu laughed and said, "Drink some noodle soup quickly." Sanxi hurriedly took a bowl of soup and drank it dry in two or three gulps. It's still hot inside.

Seeing this, the old Yutou also took a bite out of his chopsticks and put it in his mouth, chewed, sipped his wine and said, "It's like burning a knife." Then Mr. Yu put half a dish into the noodle bowl and ate it very happily Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead in no time, and he smiled and said, "Happy, happy!" The old fisherman looked at him and said, "This food can be eaten here. , broke your intestines."

Mr. Yu wiped his sweat with a handkerchief, and said with a smile: "That's exactly what I said. If there is no oil in the stomach, how can it stand it? Just stir fry with pickled vegetables. I'm afraid there is no less oil. If it is dry and spicy, That’s really suffering on both ends.” The old fisherman became happy when he heard it, and Sanxi was just holding the noodles to relieve the hot breath in his mouth, and couldn’t understand the words.

Qiao Niangzi finished her work in the kitchen and said to Granny Chen, "Auntie, I'll go home and have a look." Granny Chen waved her hand and said, "Go, go, it's fine here, if there's anything important, I'll send someone to find you." " Qiao Niangzi then went home. As soon as she got home, she saw Xiao Er was soaking wet and was scooping up water. She hurriedly went to the stove to boil the water, and then asked him: "Why did you come back? I just told your father to let me go. Your brother is picking you up."

Xiaoer scooped water into the bucket, and said in his mouth: "Go and build another one. It's raining so hard, and I can't make a coir raincoat. The left and right things are all sold out, so I just came back." Qiao Niangzi put most of the pot of water into the pot. , and chopped ginger, put some brown sugar on it, put it in a bowl and put it on the steaming rack, then covered the pot and continued to heat up.The firewood stove was big, and the water was hot in a short while. The mother and wife were still talking, and the lady Qiao asked, "Is it sold out in such a heavy rain?" Well, my big basket of marinated eggs and miscellaneous vegetables was snatched away in a short while. I was afraid that if I didn't go tomorrow, seven or eight people would come to ask me."

It turns out that the new method used by the farmer to raise poultry and livestock doesn't know what's wrong with the chickens and ducks. They lay eggs every other day. Dabao and his two sons can get a big basket of eggs at a time, and they are reluctant to eat too hard, but this day the hot eggs can't be kept.Qiao Niangzi rolled the duck eggs in salted yellow mud to make salted duck eggs, and made preserved eggs to make preserved eggs. There is no way to make these eggs.

Xiao Er was quick-witted, he followed Yan Jun around several times, and dealt with the people in the Beijing Normal University, and found that although the people there were not as knowledgeable as those in the nearby academy, they seemed to be very loose in their hands. And eight times out of ten times we met, we complained about the poor food in the mansion.He had an idea to ask Mrs. Qiao to marinate the eggs in a basket and carry them there to sell them. Unexpectedly, they were all sold out in less than half a day.

The judge is going to ask, why is there such a huge technician mansion that you haven't even seen a marinated egg?That's not the case, the technician's house came from the government, and the cooks in the canteen here are also in the same way, so it is inevitable that there will be some deductions.Besides, this Qiao Niangzi used Zhuangshang's old broth pot to marinate, so the taste is naturally different.Xiaoer saw that this method worked, and asked Qiao Niangzi to help make a basket of mixed noodles and vegetable nests the next day. It was just that the mixed noodles were wrapped with some vegetables and pickles, but Qiao Niangzi mixed some boiled vegetables into the stuffing. Sesame oil, it's ready now, and it's sold out again.

That's it. At the beginning, she carried the basket in her hands, but now she is carrying a burden on her shoulders. Mrs. Qiao can't handle these things alone. The family has all the staff, so it's not the material to do this after all.Xiao Er went to discuss with Yan Jun and Madam Xu by himself, so that the cook could help with cooking while he paid extra money.Yan Jun has brought Xiaoer by his side for more than half a year, and loves him for his cleverness and sense of proportion. Madam Xu seems to have seen Ji Liang in the early years, and the two of them are in agreement. It wasn't for nothing, so I agreed.

In this way, Xiaoer's business started.For example, early this morning, he first followed Sun Dabao to do a round of work in the chicken coop and pigsty, then changed his clothes and went to the kitchen to pick up good things and go to the Beishi Mansion, and he would be back before lunch in a short time.Or if there is something in the village, he will follow Yan Jun to work, and then follow Sun Dabao and Daniel to prepare feed, collect eggs, turn nests for poultry and livestock, and go back in the afternoon.

This is also the benefit of having different meals at the village and at the technician's mansion.The two places are not very far apart, and it only takes more than half an hour to walk back and forth.In this way, the work in the village will not be delayed, and he can catch up with the breakfast and dinner at the technician's mansion, which is cheaper.It just so happened that the lady felt sorry for him and was so tired that she was always thinking about making him something to eat.

It is said that Xiaoer took hot water mixed with well water to shower and wash his hair, and drank the ginger soup steamed by Mrs. Qiao, only to feel that the cold air was released from the pores just now.Sun Dabao brought the rest of them back from the dining hall after eating. Seeing Xiaoer coming back, he said, "Is it raining? If the weather is not good tomorrow, I will take a day off. How can I bear it if I keep going around like this every day?" " Da Niu saw that Xiao Er's hair was still wet, thought for a while and said: "Second brother, I will take you there starting tomorrow, and I will pick things for you."

Xiaoer shook his head with a smile and said, "It doesn't matter much, so I'm tired anyway. You send me there, and it will delay half of your work every time, and the chicken coop and pigsty are also very busy." Sun Dabao nodded. "That's what happened," he said again, "You haven't eaten yet, let San'er go to the farm to make a bowl for you." Qiao Niangzi listened, and raised her voice: "I brought it back a long time ago, It's on the table." Xiaoer went over and took off the vegetable cover of the bamboo strips, and there was indeed a basket with six or seven big pancakes piled up, and a bowl of vegetables.

Qiao Niangzi came out, put the bowl in her hand on the table, and said: "Tonight I will eat noodles, and the chef baked pancakes for the extra noodles, fried green beans with pickled vegetables, and added spicy eggplant inside. Yes, it’s delicious with cakes in between.” Pointing to the bowl just brought out, “Here’s a bowl of loofah soup for you, don’t choke if it’s too dry.” Xiao Er was already hungry, so he quickly drank it After two mouthfuls of soup, I tore off a piece of pancake and ate it. After recovering, I took the pancake to eat with vegetables.

After eating two mouthfuls, she stopped and said to Mrs. Qiao: "Mother, is there still this dish on the kitchen?" Mrs. Qiao said, "Yes, this is fried. I don't like it bad. It's good for porridge in the morning. Some people like this." Erdao: "Mother, will you have time to bake some pancakes for me tomorrow? Prepare some more of this dish." Qiao Niangzi said: "Now I have a few pancakes that are more than two feet wide. If you want to bake them The small ones are troublesome, but the whole big ones will be much faster." Xiaoer thought for a while and said, "Just bake the whole big ones, sprinkle some of this dish on it, roll it up and cut it into similar pieces."

Qiao Niang thought for a while and smiled, "You're just quick-witted! That's fine, I'll tell them tomorrow morning. Now that I have benefited from you, all your aunts will praise you so much. There are some slices of stewed pork, which was cut by the sister-in-law of Huang's family." Xiaoer said with a smile: "At the beginning, I was the only one in business, and now there are five or six. Fortunately, our food tastes good, and I am not afraid to follow suit. They compare." Qiao Niangzi asked again: "The spicy eggplant in this dish is loved by those who love it, but not everyone loves it." Xiaoer nodded and said: "Then separate, and only put a small half of the spicy eggplant. Come on." Qiao Niangzi said with a smile: "Success, just follow this."

They rested at night, and now the older ones are in a few single rooms on the east side, Da Niu and Xiaoer share a room, and Xiaosan and Xiaosi must be squeezed together by them, Qiao Niangzi and Sun Dabao take them Several young ones slept in the north room.Lying down that night, Mrs. Qiao suddenly said to Sun Dabao: "I said, seeing that the children are growing up, I wonder if there must be an explanation for the money I earned." Sun Dabao said: "What? According to the saying, don’t everyone have to save money for them to marry a daughter-in-law.”

Qiao Niangzi said: "That is to say, do you know how much Xiao Er earns a day now? He is working so hard, and he still owes money for our house." Sun Dabao said: "Just a few chickens You can earn a little money by selling them." Qiao Niangzi said: "You are just a stupid head, so don't tear it apart. I mean, if the older ones earn money, we will pay half of it, and the rest will be paid. They keep it for themselves. The children are grown up, and now the village is not the same as before, maybe there is something they want to buy, and they still ask me, lest they will be embarrassed."

Sun Dabao said: "Success, half of the money will be paid, you have the final say." Qiao Niangzi continued: "Then let's tell them tomorrow night, we will pay half of the money we earned before we get married, and we will pay half of the money when we get married." Once they get home, they will pay [-]% to the family, and the rest will be decided by themselves as husband and wife." Sun Dabao said with a smile: "You are thinking too far." Qiao Niangzi said: "Where is it far? Daniu will be able to meet in the next year, and when the match is found, please ask a matchmaker, make a decision, and marry and return home in two years, this is not all a matter of sight." Sun Dabao laughed: "You say that, I have to start worrying again, I finally feel that the house is spacious, but now it seems too small."

Qiao Niangzi smiled and said: "Why are you young? The newlyweds will live with us for a while, and when they are able, they will buy land later and build their own. When a baby comes, I don't care about it, I'd better stay far away as soon as possible." Sun Dabao said with a smile: "You can talk about it now, but I will be reluctant to come to the front door." The two said so Laughing, gradually whispered, and fell asleep.

The next day was another day, Mrs. Qiao talked about it at night, and Xiaoer said: "Let's talk about it after our house money is paid off." Daniel also said: "That's right, what is the use of our money?" , It’s better to pay off the debt earlier.” Seeing that the two of them said this, Qiao Niangzi smiled and said: “Actually, the debt of our house can be paid back in front of us, but the money is not earned by ourselves. Go out and slap your face. Since you have said so, I will give you a confession, as we are doing now, the house will be paid off in another three to two months."

The younger ones only know that the family must owe a lot of money to buy this house, but they don't know how much. Qiao Niangzi is also afraid that they are not tight-lipped. Trouble, so I only say that I still owe money, not how much I owe.They all thought it would be ten or eight years old, but now that they heard this, it’s fine for the five and six, and the rest of them are like a dream.Qiao Niangzi said again: "Now you are relieved? I thought, you are grown up, and you are all up to the task. You can make up your own mind with the remaining money in your hands. I don't worry that you will spend it indiscriminately."

Xiao Er thought for a while and insisted: "Then wait for two or three months before we talk about it." Qiao Niangzi knew Xiao Er's temperament, and since she said so, she didn't twist with him anymore, nodded and said: "That's fine too. I'll tell you when it's all paid off." Xiaosan sighed and said, "It's a pity that we are still young and can't help our parents like the elder brother and the second brother."

Sun Dabao said with a smile: "What are you talking about, now who doesn't envy me for having you children, you and Xiao Si and his party follow Mr. Yu to study and read, and the party is still doing the work in the workshop, and when you are busy in the field I have to go down to the ground, is that not helpful?" Xiaoer also said: "Now you also know how important it is to be able to recognize a word, but we usually don't have that kind of luck! This time it's all right, Zhuangshang please Sir, you don’t even have to pay tuition fees, how wonderful. Brother and I have no time to spare, if we didn’t rely on you, we would just stare blankly.”

It turned out that since Mr. Yu started teaching classes in the village, Mrs. Qiao meant to let all the children go to school. Now she has a lot of money a month, which is enough to support the whole family.The younger ones are sensible early, so they are not willing to do this. They tried different methods for a few days, and came up with a method that is not popular. ——Little San and Xiao Si take turns to take Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu to school, one goes to school, the other goes to the workshop, and in the evening, they teach the rest of them the characters they learned that day by lighting the lights.

Even Qiao Niangzi and Sun Dabao followed suit.That's all for Sun Dabao, but it just so happened that the lady got the "Miscellaneous Notes on Drinking and Food" brought by Nanny Xu, and she had to learn it.Mr. Yu is also very interesting in teaching people. He picked up commonly used characters and taught them for a month, ten to twenty characters a day. It's a passage from an agricultural book, and it's more interesting than learning Chinese characters.

Although Caotian Village has improved in the past two years, after all, there are many poor farmers, and some of them can afford pens, inks, papers and inkstones.This Mr. Yu also came from bitter gourd, and he knew the kindness of the manager of the village to let the farmers know a few more words, so naturally he didn't pay attention to teaching the ability to hold pens with their wrists hanging.He figured out a way to use a sand table for practice on weekdays—a box with a square shape, filled with fine sand, and then he can write after smoothing it out; when he wants to copy text, he uses charcoal sticks to write on rough straw paper.

This kind of rough paper is cheap, but if ink drips on it, it will ooze water and form a black ball, so it can't be used for writing.However, it is okay to use charcoal sticks, on the contrary, it is rougher and easier to write.Aunt Xu told Li Wan all of his ideas, Aunt Chang and Aunt Yan laughed and sighed, even saying that the people have their own masters.Nowadays, the children three and four take home to teach their family how to read, of course they are the characters written on rough straw paper with charcoal pens.There are also good people in the village, and they let their children come to learn at first, but after seeing the situation, they finally packed up some bundles and went to Mr. Zhengjing.

Even if the matter of handing in the money has come to a conclusion, Mrs. Qiao asked Xiaoer again: "How is your business today? Does anyone want those wrapped with spicy eggplants?" Xiaoer laughed: "Just about to say This one. I put all the spicy eggplants aside, and asked someone to write me a big spicy word on the side. Who would have thought that this would be a recruiter. I want to buy one first, and I will put this I have already said how spicy it is, and he took it and ate it next to my burden.

Grinning so pitifully after eating, I never expected that the people around me would find it strange and wanted to try it all.I was afraid that they would not be used to it, so I said a few words of persuasion, but in the end, people said, "You can't kill people with spicy food, what are you afraid of!" ’, this one made a fuss, but the one with spicy eggplant was sold out long ago.I will buy it again, it’s gone, I bought it without adding spicy food, and complained that it’s not tasty enough after eating it all together, so I’m strongly reminded to make more spicy food tomorrow. " After a pause, he laughed again, "You don't know, the other two sellers of sesame seed cakes, they couldn't ask me directly, they asked the people who ate it. look for this. "

Qiao Niangzi laughed after hearing this and said, "That's great! Guanshi Peng likes to grow these fresh things the most. The spicy eggplants are long and short, and the fat ones are pointed. I planted several plots of land. As a result, the smell is so good that I can't bear it." The husband and wife are very worried. A while ago, we tried to cook it in our kitchen every day. I also thought of a few ways, whether it is made into sauce or pickled vegetables. Anyway, I like to go to the way of seasoning. Some people will definitely like it. It’s just that this doesn’t mean that the success will be achieved immediately. You’re good here, but it’s a ready-made way. These days, two rolls of pancakes are picked every day, and a large basket of spicy eggplants will be used.”

Xiaoer said: "I don't know what price Steward Peng will charge for this spicy eggplant." Mrs. Qiao said with a smile: "What price! Forgot about the tender corn? It was picked by Guanshi Peng from the field, cooked in a big pot, put in the dining hall, and eaten casually. It’s just for everyone to eat this taste. You, look for it Talk to Guanshi Peng about how those people eat spicy food, but there are many explanations."

Sure enough, the next day Xiao Er was following Yan Jun to calculate the production on the estate, Peng Qiao ran over, seeing that the two were busy, she first asked, "Are you busy?" She couldn't help laughing and said: "Just tell me what you have, we will be even more dizzy if we look at it like this." Peng Qiao smiled embarrassedly and asked: "It's nothing serious, I'll come to Xiaoer to ask. It’s true that there are food sold in Beishi’s residence, and that spicy eggplant is eaten by people, too?”

Xiaoer then talked about the sale of pancakes with pickled vegetables and spicy eggplants these days, and said: "Later, my mother thought of a way to chop up the pickled vegetables and spicy eggplants, mix them with oil and fry them well." , and then spread it into the raw dough and roll it into a thin pie-like shape. If you can bake it, it will be delicious, and it will be better sold." Peng Qiao was so happy that he couldn't see his teeth, and said: "That's all right. , This is good. My mother-in-law tasted it at the beginning, and she insisted that I planted poison. It’s good now. The mother just said to bring some to the grandma in the house. Let me ask for an accurate answer. It is really better If people can eat it, bring it to grandma to try something new."

Yan Jun coughed, and then Peng Qiao remembered that she was not allowed to talk about it with outsiders, but only said that she was the master of the house, and even she was only called a steward.It's just that the words have already been said, so I have to cough twice, talk nonsense and run away quickly.Yan Jun shook his head with a helpless smile. This brother-in-law is good at farming, and the other is straight-hearted. Fortunately, there is such a place.Xiaoer probably knew what was going on in his heart, so he didn't say anything, and just continued to calculate the monthly account of the village with Yan Jun.