Return to the small mountain village in 1986

In the kitchen, the aroma of delicious food filled the air. Gao Mingcheng and Xuanyuemei were chatting idly about their plans for the future.

In the room, Xuanyu was bending over to change her little daughter's diaper, then picking her up to feed her. Xiao Shitou and Xiao Xuxu were both here. They looked at their sister curiously, and Xiao Xuxu would reach out and gently poke her little sister's hand from time to time.

Every time this happened, Little Stone would say loudly: "This is my sister!"

He stopped Xiao Xuxu, then walked forward and held the little girl's hand, and there was a particularly proud look in his eyes when he looked at Xiao Xuxu.

Xiao Xuxu curled his lips and immediately said, "I will have a sister in the future!"

Xu Xuanyu was watching the two children playing with a smile, and suddenly said, "Xiao Xuxu, you should ask your mother to give you a brother. A brother is more fun! From now on, you have to shout "brother" to your mother's belly every day!"

Little Xuxu didn't understand. He opened his big, ignorant eyes. He glanced at his sister who was drinking milk and thought his sister was very pretty. Of course, sister Yuanyuan was also very pretty!
So Xiao Xuxu thinks it would be good to have a younger sister.

"I just want a younger sister!" Xiao Xuxu did not listen to Xuanyu's words, which made Xuanyu a little dissatisfied. The corners of her mouth drooped and the smile on her face disappeared.

"You kid...what do you know? It would be better if you had a younger brother!" Xuanyu wanted to teach Xiao Xuxu a lesson, but after all, he was not her own child, and Gao Mingcheng was still here, so she could only mutter in a low voice with dissatisfaction in her heart.

Xuanyu really wants two sons, and she also hopes that her sisters can all give birth to sons!

The eldest sister Duo Xinjin gave birth to three sons and expressed regret for not having a daughter. However, Duo Xinyu was very happy about this because when people in the village scolded her family for being extinct, she could use this to fight back.

Unfortunately, she did not give birth to two sons, but only one son and one daughter.

Xiao Xuxu naturally didn't understand Yu's little thoughts, but he was very sensitive to other people's emotional changes. When he noticed something was wrong, although he couldn't tell what was going on, he ran away alertly.

After hearing his parents talking, Xiao Xuxu walked towards the kitchen. However, before he entered the kitchen, he was tripped by a group of dogs. Xiao Xuxu immediately touched the dogs and tried to grab the dogs' front legs to make them stand up.

Fortunately, several dogs in the house all knew Xiao Xuxu, their little master. Some of them let him touch them obediently, while others ran away but did not go far away. They just watched from the side. When Xiao Xuxu tried to chase them, they continued to run, and the one person and five dogs played hide-and-seek.

After hearing the noise, Gao Mingcheng walked out of the kitchen and looked at his son playing with the dog. He then regretted forgetting to bring the camera back.

It’s better in the future. As long as you carry a mobile phone with you, you can take pictures of interesting scenes at any time.

Gao Mingcheng watched Xiao Xuxu playing with the dog for a while before he said, "Xuxu, come here and wash your hands and eat some meat bones!"

Gao Mingcheng took Xiao Xuxu to wash his hands, and then thought of Xiao Shitou, so he called out from the window of the room: "Xiao Shitou, come out and eat meat!"

When he heard about eating meat, Xiao Shitou became very enthusiastic. He ran out immediately and followed Xiao Xuxu to wash his hands happily.

In front of the stove, Xuanmei had already used a large bowl to scoop out a number of chewy bones and set them to cool.

By the time Xiao Xuxu and Xiao Shitou washed their hands, their bones were almost cold.

"Take whatever piece you want to eat! After you finish eating the meat, throw the bones to the dog!" Xuanyuemei said, and then handed Xiaoxuxu a piece of flat bone.

The flat bone is located in the pig's front leg. The meat on it is relatively tender and not easy to get stuck in the teeth. Even if the butcher shaves the meat very cleanly, the bones will be gone after a few bites.

There is not much meat on the marrow bone, but there are many tendons. Children with weak teeth find it difficult to chew it, but it is just right for adults to eat, and they can also suck out the bone marrow inside.

In addition to these two types, there are also some ribs with relatively more meat on them.

The two children ate hard, and after gnawing the meat off the bones, they threw the bones to the dogs. They didn't throw them randomly, but had a purpose, such as wanting to give this bone to the black tiger and that bone to the elf.

But as soon as the bone was thrown on the ground, the dogs in the house rushed over and grabbed the food according to their own abilities.

Seeing this, Xiao Xuxu became a little anxious. He took the half-eaten meat bone in his hand and fed it directly into Xiao Hei's mouth.

Xiao Hei is the smallest among the dogs. I didn’t expect that Xiao Xuxu would be willing to help the weak. Gao Mingcheng leaned against the wall with his arms folded, watching with a smile.

When the two children had almost finished eating the meat and bones, many beautiful sounds were heard in the kitchen.

"time to eat!"

Gao Mingcheng immediately walked in and helped serve the dishes. He also looked at the time and it was not yet twelve o'clock.

If a lot of jade were used to cook this meal, it would not be available before 2pm.

Xuanyiu has always been slow at cooking, so their family didn't have breakfast until nine in the morning. But the breakfast was simple, just a bowl of porridge and spicy radish strips. By now, their stomachs were growling with hunger.

Especially since many babies are still breastfeeding, they will naturally get hungry faster.

Xuanyuemei made a big bowl of bone soup for Xuanyueyu. There was a layer of oil floating on the broth, which looked delicious.

Xuanyu lowered her head and drank the bone soup. She felt that this bowl of bone soup was full of ingredients!

Of course, this pot of bone soup contains a lot of bones, including leg bones, flat bones and ribs, and several pounds of pork belly are also stewed together!

Therefore, the oil content of the soup is quite high.

Fortunately, some winter melon was added in afterwards, which helped to relieve the greasiness a little.

However, Xiu Xiuyu was not afraid of getting sick of it, and she gulped down the whole bowl of soup in one gulp. As soon as she finished the soup, she felt a warm current flowing down her throat into her body, making her body warm up instantly.

In addition to the winter melon bone soup, there was also a large plate of braised pork and a plate of lettuce on the table.

The lettuce is stir-fried with just a little garlic and salt for seasoning, giving it a very refreshing taste.

Everyone sat down around the table. The table and chairs were quite old, with many dents and holes on them. There was even a hole on one of the corners of the table.

But everyone's attention was not on the table, but on the food.

Because there were a lot of bones and braised pork on the table, Zhang Chengyuan didn't hesitate and ate the dishes in big mouthfuls.

The man sat at the table and the dog squatted under it. When the man threw the bone away, the dog immediately came forward to eat it. The bone had been stewed for more than an hour. Although it was not melt-in-the-mouth, it could still be easily crushed by the dog's bite force. Gao Mingcheng watched several dogs chewing on the bones, so he had a bad idea. He picked up a piece of the fattest braised pork and suddenly threw it into the pack of dogs. He wanted to know which dog would react the fastest. When faced with a large piece of braised pork, would these dogs quickly swallow the bones in their mouths or spit them out?

When the braised pork fell to the ground in a parabola, the black tiger's eyes flashed, and it quickly spat out the bone in its mouth, leaped forward, opened its mouth and swallowed the braised pork!

This reaction speed is amazing!
By the time the other dogs reacted, only a small oil stain was left on the ground!

The elf was unwilling to be left behind, so it came straight to Gao Mingcheng, looked up at Gao Mingcheng, made a whining sound, and wagged its tail.

Many American braised pork dishes are not sweet, and some dried chilies are added for seasoning, but not much. For the locals, it is only slightly spicy, and for the local dogs, it is also acceptable.

When Gao Mingcheng saw Jingling acting coquettishly towards him, he couldn't help but soften his heart and picked up a piece of braised pork for Jingling to eat.

Now Dahuang couldn't sit still anymore, and immediately came over with Dahei and Xiaohei. Dahuang rubbed Gao Mingcheng's leg with his head impatiently, fearing that he would refuse to give it.

Dahei and Xiaohei also looked at Gao Mingcheng eagerly, and the expressions of the two brothers were quite synchronized.

Gao Mingcheng couldn't help but laugh. Sure enough, the ancients were not deceiving me!
What is worrying is not the scarcity but the inequality!
Forget it, Gao Mingcheng had no choice but to continue picking up the braised pork. He was not partial. He gave each dog a bite of braised pork, and there would be no more left!

Even so, five pieces of braised pork were fed out, which weighed half a pound in total!

This scene made Xuanyue feel heartbroken, but the meat was bought by Gao Mingcheng and the dishes were cooked by Xuanyuemei, so she really had no room to say anything.

The distressed Xiuyu could only turn her grief and anger into appetite and quickly picked up a few pieces of braised pork to eat!
After lunch, Xuanyu's belly was round and swollen. She could not move, so she walked slowly to the bamboo chair and sat there. At least there was a backrest and she could feel more relaxed.

Zhang Chengyuan was also very full. He took the initiative to clean up the dishes, put the remaining braised pork into the cupboard, and then wiped the table with a rag.

After dinner, the dogs did not stay in the main room, but ran under the eaves, sat on the ground, and basked in the winter sun.

The weather today is really nice. When Gao Mingcheng was in Xiaofushan, he saw several pear trees in bloom!

This kind of weather is similar to spring, so it will occasionally cause the pear trees to bloom profusely, but the flowers are not numerous and will fall off when the weather gets colder.

Gao Mingcheng and Zhang Chengyuan were chatting about some things in the village, whether there was anything big happening in the old village, how the various vegetables in the fields were growing, etc.

Many beautiful sisters were not idle either. They gathered together and talked about parenting experiences. While they were talking, they heard the crying of a baby, so two sisters moved to the room.

As for Xiao Xuxu and Xiao Shitou, the two cousins ​​no longer had their previous conflicts and are playing together again.

Zhang Chengyuan answered every question. After talking about the vegetables in the fields, he talked about the lambs that were harvested this year.

After the production of many jades, Zhang Chengyuan had a lot of things to do, so he gave the job of herding sheep to Chen Duoxi. However, whenever Zhang Chengyuan had free time, he would also pay attention to the situation of the flock, especially the lambs.

"The lamb is growing well and shows no signs of illness. After a few more years, it will be able to give birth to more lambs!" Zhang Chengyuan's tone was quite excited. When he talked about giving birth to lambs, he was so proud as if he had given birth to many children.

Gao Mingcheng also had high hopes for his lambs, but all he was thinking about was steamed lamb!

Ahem, he'd better not say it out loud!
After the two brothers-in-law had been talking for half an hour, Gao Mingcheng suddenly saw Chen Duoxi riding an old bicycle passing by Zhang Chengyuan's house.

"Duoxi, where are you going?" Gao Mingcheng called out and walked towards the yard.

Chen Duoxi got off the bicycle, smiled and greeted Gao Mingcheng, and then said: "I came back to get food! The road is far away, and it's not convenient to go back and forth to eat, so I'm responsible for riding back to bring food to everyone!"

There were already two meals in the iron basket in front of the bicycle. One meal was in a large bowl covered with a plate, and the other was in a lunch box. The lunch box was an aluminum lunch box from a long time ago and looked a bit old.

These two meals were prepared by the families of the other two villagers who were building the road. As for the Chen family’s meal, Chen Duoxi had not yet gone home to get it!

When Gao Mingcheng learned that Chen Duoxi had not eaten yet, he hurriedly called him to go back and eat. Chen Duoxi responded, got on his bicycle again, and after a few pedals, he arrived at his home.

Aunt Liu had prepared the meal long ago. She prepared two aluminum lunch boxes filled with food for Chen Dasong and Chen Duofu, father and son.

As for Chen Duoxi, since he had returned, he naturally ate at home before leaving.

Most people nowadays eat very quickly, not slowly. It only takes Chen Duoxi a few minutes from the time he serves the meal to the time he finishes eating. After eating, he just wipes his mouth, drinks a few sips of water, and then leaves.

Before leaving, Aunt Liu handed him another can.

But the can is filled with water, which is for Chen Dasong and others to drink.

People need to drink less water in winter, but they will sweat while working and naturally feel thirsty.

After putting the things away, Chen Duoxi pushed the bicycle forward and rode on it. When passing by Zhang Chengyuan's house, she did not forget to greet Gao Mingcheng cheerfully.

Seeing Chen Duoxi riding a bicycle to Xiaofushan to deliver meals to everyone, Gao Mingcheng also thought that this was a good idea.

It is indeed a distance from here to the place where navel oranges are grown. It was overgrown with weeds before, but now the road is being repaired. When the road is completed, I can ride a bicycle there when I go to maintain the fruit trees, which can save a lot of time and energy.

Gao Mingcheng looked back at Zhang Chengyuan's house again. Compared with the newly built house of Chen Dasong, this small shabby house looked even more dilapidated, and there were no decent furniture or appliances in the house.

For the sake of his brother-in-law and employees, Gao Mingcheng felt that he should look for second-hand bicycles on the market after he returned. If he found a suitable one, he could buy it and give it to Zhang Chengyuan. This way, it would be more convenient for Zhang Chengyuan to go to the old village or to Xiaofushan to work.

If you run out of salt or sugar at home, it is convenient to ride a bike to the cooperative in Junling to buy them.

Although he thought so, Gao Mingcheng did not tell Zhang Chengyuan in advance, but waited until he bought it.

Zhang Chengyuan didn't know that he was about to own a second-hand bicycle. At this time, he was carrying a bucket and preparing to go to the pond to wash diapers.

The water is cold in winter and there are no elders to help at home, so Xuanyu is responsible for taking care of the children, and Zhang Chengyuan is responsible for washing diapers and clothes for the children.

In Gaojia Village, few men do this kind of work, so Zhang Chengyuan is often ridiculed even though he is a considerate man. (End of this chapter)