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Chapter 123: Lunch
“I was thinking about shipping it home tomorrow! “Lian Fang Zhou smiled. The five of them worked together to unload the firewood from the cart and stack it in a corner of the yard.
“By the way, is it possible to finish cleaning the ground today?” Lian Fang Zhou couldn’t help asking.
Ah Jian thought for a while and said: “I do not think it is possible. At most, we will get another five or six cart loads! Tomorrow, the workers can continue to clean while some of them work on plowing.”
Lian Fang Zhou nodded with a “hmm”.
Lian Ze simply said, “Sister, should the cattle we hired arrive tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Lian Fang Zhou said with a smile: “With twelve cattle, do you think that the land can be cultivated in three or four days?”
Lian Fang Zhou turned to look at Ah Jian.
Ah Jian thought for a while, nodded and smiled: “Three days should be enough! However, it may take two or three days to trim the plowed ground.”
After all, cattle can only plow the ground. The soil in the plowed field is large and thick and they would need to use a hoe to break up the large clumps to make it evenly balanced. Only then could they grow crops.
Because they were reclaiming a wasteland, the ground needed to be leveled immediately after plowing and all the grass and roots cleared away. Otherwise, the roots would take hold again and grasp the soil firmly.
“That is what I expected.” Lian Fang Zhou nodded with a smile, wondering whether to hire more people.
While she was still thinking, Ah Jian said: “When the land at San Chakou gets down, I’m afraid we will have to hire a few more people.”
“I was thinking about this!” Lian Fang Zhou said, and smiled at Ah Jian.
“Sister, let’s go to the field to help too, okay? Brother said that we have to load the cart again!” Lian Che and Lian Fang Qing asked.
Lian Fang Zhou saw that the stump and roots in the cart had been unloaded. Seeing that Lian Che and Lian Fang Qing were eager to try, she looked at Ah Jian.
The two little guys were extremely focused and immediately looked at Ah Jian with eager eyes and begged.
Ah Jian was always very agreeable, so he smiled and said, “Then go! Don’t be naughty on the ground!”
Lian Che and Lian Fang Qing cheered and agreed, and the two of them climbed into the donkey cart happily.
“We should go now!” Ah Jian nodded to Lian Fang Zhou.
Lian Fang Zhou smiled and let out an “um”, went to help open the courtyard door and watched them go.
Ah Jian and the others ran back and forth twice more before finishing the work. The corner of the yard was already piled up like a hill.
According to Ah Jian’s estimation, she was afraid that by the end of it, there would be as many as two or three hills and according to Third Aunt, the firewood would last almost a year.
But wasn’t a problem to stack them all in the yard.
Fortunately, there was also a large, flat piece of land next to their yard. With Lian Fang Zhou’s permission, they would stack the rest of the wood there.
After breakfast the next day, Ah Jian, Lian Fang Zhou, and Lian Ze went to the field.
Today, the cattlemen and the workers with rakes also came. They were gathering together and talking. When they saw them, they smiled and called “the boss”, asking how to do this job?
Lian Fang Zhou and Ah Jian made arrangements.
Disperse the cattle and let the cattle plow the flat ground. A piece of land has to be plowed back and forth twice. As for the places where the cattle can’t plow, let the workers from earlier dig with a hoe.
Five people were left to continue the cleanup work from yesterday while the remaining workers and the cattlemen were divided into several groups as usual, starting from different directions.
The lunch and wages provided by the Lian family was very generous and timely and the workers were very motivated. After the assignment was completed, they smiled obediently and took the initiative to get to work.
Ah Jian, Lian Ze, and Lian Fang Zhou went to oversee them for a while. Then Ah Jian and Lian Ze continued to haul the cleaned wood to the house while Lian Fang Zhou went home.
Twelve more people were eating today, and she had to go back to help Third Aunt.
When she returned home, Third Aunt had already mixed the noodles. When she woke up, she steamed the buns and made the pancakes. Lian Fang Qing was washing the vegetables, while Lian Che was helping to burn the fire.
Today, both the steamed buns and pancakes had increased by nearly half, which was not a small task.
Seeing Lian Fang Zhou’s return, Third Aunt immediately said, “Fang Zhou, there is no big bone soup today, but there is still a little bit of pork belly! How about serving cabbage soup at noon today? Set aside some coriander. It’s actually pretty good and It’s better to have a sip of hot soup in such cold weather!”
Lian Fang Zhou smiled and said, “Didn’t I buy two chickens yesterday? Just kill them! Don’t we still have a lot of dried mushrooms? Use dried mushrooms to stew a pot of thick chicken soup, wait for the afternoon I will go to the city again and buy some big bones and meat back!”
“What?” Third Aunt stopped her pancake spatula in surprise and asked in disbelief: “You said you want to kill chickens?”
“Yeah!” Lian Fang Zhou smiled: “Chop some more chicken, mince and fry the pork belly! It’s just right, let’s have a good meal tonight! I’ve been exhausted these two days!”
Third Aunt couldn’t help but give a small, distressed ‘oh’.
“You are really something! Look at your prodigal behavior! Those two roosters are so big! Didn’t I say, why are you buying a rooster so that you waste food and can’t lay eggs? It turned out to be killed and eaten!”
Lian Fang Zhou smiled and said: “If you are old, its not good to let your heart feel bad! I promise it is worth it! The work done these past two days was very good and we can save a lot of good feelings!”
Third Aunt’s mouth twitched disapprovingly, she didn’t think it was worth it.
However, she sighed softly: “Since you have said so, what else can I say! Then kill it, boil a pot of hot water, do it quickly!”
Lian Fang Zhou was amused by the distressed look of Third Aunt, so she burned the fire and filled the pot with water. Asking Lian Che to help distracted and take care of her, she took the basket to fill the dried mushrooms.
After the hot water was boiled, the dried mushrooms were poured into a tub and soaked.
Lian Fang Qing came over to help, smiled and said, “Sister, I can pull the feathers from the cock’s tail to make a shuttlecock?”
What was wrong with that? Lian Fang Zhou agreed with a smile, patting her hair. Lian Fang Qing cheered very happily.
Children in the country didn’t have much to entertain themselves. A wooden knife, a small slingshot, a piccolo made of fine bamboo, a top made of wood, a shuttlecock made of chicken feathers, etc. were all good things.
However, it was rare to kill chickens twice a year. It was not easy to get the bright long feathers in a rooster’s tail. There were some naughty children who caught the big cock and plucked the beautiful long tail feathers. But of course, they could not get away with it.
Obviously Lian Fang Qing and Lian Che would not do such a thing.