When Song Qiu arrived at Zhuangzi, almost all the villagers who brought chili peppers for sale had arrived and were busy.
She thought that Li Yang was impatient, and if he couldn't go back, the whole family would rush back to the village, so she didn't delay, helped settle the accounts, collected the peppers, and watched everyone get busy.
After finishing the chopped chili peppers that I had been busy with all morning, and having lunch, I didn’t care that the sun was still getting brighter, so I took a carriage back to Songshan Village.
When we passed the inn, the meal was not over yet. There were two tables of guests eating inside the inn, and the tea tent outside was full of people. The guests were resting, eating and drinking.
There were so many people and it was not too busy. Mainly because Tao Dongcheng took the time to help, Mian Mian and Fangzi were also working in the tea shed.
After working for a few days, I am familiar with all the tasks. Mixing the jelly and scooping the cold shrimps are no longer a problem.
Song Qiu saw that Yuan Erping was also here to help, and couldn't help but be surprised, "Cousin Erping, why are you here to work?"
After breaking off the corn sticks, why don't you busy threshing and drying it?
Brothers Yuan Cheng, Yuan Hua, and sisters-in-law are all working. Yuan Shuanzi and Daping Erping are the main laborers for harvesting corn at home. They don’t grow much corn, just three acres of land, and they are busy enough to cover the remaining seven acres.
They are all paddy fields. When the time comes to harvest the millet, the Yuan Cheng brothers will definitely ask for leave to go back and harvest it.
When Yuan Erping met Song Qiuwen, he felt a little embarrassed about what he wanted to say. He opened his mouth, but couldn't tell what was going on.
Mrs. Chen wiped her hands on her apron, grinned, and said to Song Qiu: "I was thinking about asking Zhuangzi and Aqiu for a leave later, but just in time, you're back now! Then we don't have to kidnap Zhuangzi.
I went and told you here."
"Aqiu, I'm asking for an early leave today and I'll be off work right now. Do you think that's okay? Just me, your second cousin will continue working and won't leave!"
When Song Qiu heard this, he hurriedly asked: "What's wrong? What happened at home?"
At noon, Yuan Erping suddenly came over, and Mrs. Chen said that she wanted to take leave. She couldn't do it without thinking about it.
Ms. Chen narrowed her eyes with a smile and said to Song Qiu, "Here, it's about your cousin Erping!"
"My natal nephew's wife told Erping about a good girl from Maojia Village behind my natal Xiban Village. This girl is a capable person. Many people came to tell her about it. Erping's cousin-in-law also went to visit.
It's been a while, but we've gotten a little intimate, and now we're relieved and willing to look at each other as equals!"
She was also embarrassed as she said this, "I was so impatient that something might happen if I delayed the whole night. No, Erping came over and reported to me that his cousin-in-law had replied, so I couldn't help but think about it.
Go and have a look at Maojia Village!"
Yuan Erping turned sixteen last month, so she can be called a daughter-in-law. Now it looks like it will be his turn when Yuan Daping gets married in the autumn, which is just right.
Yuan Hua and Chen had such a son, so naturally they cared about him in every possible way.
The marriage of children has always been a big deal. Song Qiu understood Chen's urgency and immediately waved his hand and said: "Okay, second cousin, you can get off work now. There is cotton in the tea shed and they can help. It will be no problem for the whole afternoon.
.”
Mrs. Chen was originally prepared to leave as soon as she was busy for a while. After receiving Song Qiu's advice, she went back to quietly negotiate with Yuan Hua about the order of the guests, asking him to watch the payment and not to take the wrong one, and then took off her apron.
, ready to go.
Of course, I also took two steamed buns to fill my stomach. The inn is not finished yet, and everyone hasn’t reached lunch time yet.
Yuan Erping came here after lunch, so she only took two steamed buns to eat by herself.
Song Qiu watched and asked Mian Mian to cut a piece of ice watermelon for Yuan Erping to eat.
"Second cousin, where are you going?" Xisaka Village is not close, and it's too late now.
Mrs. Chen replied: "I'll go with Erping. If we don't delay, we should walk quickly. We'll be there in more than an hour. If we can't come back at night, we'll stay at my parents' house. We may have to take the morning off tomorrow."
, I’ll tell you first, Aqiu.”
Song Qiu has never been to Xiban Village. Xiban Village is a big village, and it is adjacent to several villages. It would be a good time to collect red peppers. After thinking about it, he said: "Cousin, please wait for a while and go by carriage.
,hurry up."
After that, he asked Du Chuanfu to drive the carriage back to the village to see if Li Yang and the others had returned. If they hadn't returned by now, they probably wouldn't have returned today. Even if they did, it would probably be in the evening. They should hurry up. In the evening
Came back too.
Du Chuanfu, go and come back quickly. As expected, Li Yang and his family didn't come back.
At that moment, Song Qiu asked Du Chuanfu to drive the mule cart from the inn. She drove the carriage and took Chen and Yuan Erping straight to Xiban Village.
When passing by Yanghuai Village, he also turned in and picked up the snacks that Chen had prepared for this purpose, and asked Tao Zheng to buy them from the snack shop when he went to town.
Xiban Village is still about twenty miles away from Yanghuai Village. It takes more than half an hour to drive from Songshan Inn to the village without stopping.
By the time we arrived at Xiban Village, it was already the end of time.
We first went to Mrs. Chen's parents' house. Mrs. Chen's eldest niece-in-law, Ms. Zheng, had just arrived home and had just had lunch. She saw that her aunt had come so quickly after receiving the letter, but she didn't react.
He immediately laughed and said, "If I had known you would come right away, I should have stayed for a while and waited for you."
Yuan Erping's grandmother said: "Your aunt has always been impatient. Come on, stop rubbing Baogu and take your aunt and the others to Mao's Village!"
After finishing speaking, he reacted, "Oh, I'm in a hurry. I've been driving all the way. I'm not tired but also thirsty. It's such a hot day. I'll drink a bowl of sugar water to moisten my throat before leaving."
Speaking of being impatient, isn't it just genetic?
Mrs. Chen was also funny. After her sister-in-law went to make some sugar water, she walked up to Father Chen and talked about Song Qiu's harvest of red peppers.
Mrs. Chen had mentioned this when she returned to her parents' home for New Year's greetings in the first month of the year. They also planted two rows of peppers this year. They were busy grinding the buds at the moment, so they didn't have time to pick them and send them to Songshan Village.
"Aqiu has driven the car. Dad, you go pick it first. When you come back later, we will weigh it and take it away, so that you don't have to make a trip to send it off."
"As well as other people in the village, please ask me to go for a walk and shout out to let everyone know about this."
When Father Chen heard about this, he didn't care about rubbing the corn anymore, and quickly asked his two sons and grandson to pick the peppers. It was better to take them away together than to send them all the way.
I was busy and asked my eldest son to inform every family in the village.
Mrs. Chen didn't delay. After drinking the sugar water, she was about to go to Mao's Village. She didn't forget to ask Song Qiu if he would stay at Chen's house to collect peppers or if he would go with him.
It was the first time that Song Qiu came back to this place. He came here to check it out, and now everyone had to pick it up after getting the news, so he had to wait for a while here.
So she left Du Chuanfu waiting here while she followed him to Mao's village.
The Mao Family Village is not far away, and cannot be accessed by carriages. It only takes less than two-quarters of an hour to walk. It faces away from Xiban Village and faces the mountains. Everyone in the village has the surname Mao and shares the same ancestry.
There are only about twenty households in the village, which is really not enough compared to a large village like Xiban Village.
The entire village relies on hunting for a living. The area around the village is overgrown with weeds, making the land unsuitable for farming. They can only barely grow some corn every year, and the yield is not very high.
Therefore, the family's main source of livelihood depends on the men going up to the mountains to hunt.