Return to the small mountain village in 1986

"Duomei, I'm going to go to the old village to visit my parents and grandma." Gao Mingcheng stood up and said to Duomei in the main room.

Xuanyuemei took Xiaoxuxu and Xiaoshitou to play cat's tangle. With just a piece of rope, they could make many different kinds of cat's tangle. It was the simplest toy for the children in the village.

Although Xiao Xuxu and Xiao Shitou are boys, they are also interested in catapult and will learn to play, but their interest is not great, unlike girls who can play together for a long time and master all kinds of tricks.

Hearing Gao Mingcheng say that he wanted to go to the old village, Xuanyuemei immediately stood up and said, "I'll go with you! But it's not good to go empty-handed. But the meat we brought back today has been cooked..."

Manyumei was thinking about what to bring over, and then she thought of Yuzu.

Just as he was about to say it, Gao Mingcheng said, "We have wind-dried meat at home. Last time I got a wild boar, I marinated it and hung it at home to dry. Then I asked Duofu to help me put it away. Now it's dry. I just need to take a piece of meat with me."

Gao Mingcheng asked Xuanyuemei to wait here for a while, and he strode towards home and took out a piece of wind-blown meat from a large pottery jar in the utility room.

After the wild boar meat is dried, it is wrapped in a plastic bag and placed in a ceramic pot to prevent it from being eaten by wild animals such as rats.

Otherwise, if it is hung under the eaves for a long time, not only mice will eat it, but birds and wild cats will also come to eat it, and then there will be nothing left. Even if you are lucky enough not to be eaten by wild beasts, once it is hung for a long time, the meat will become very dry and it will be difficult to cut it.

In addition, if there are continuous rainy days and the air is humid, the meat will be at risk of becoming moldy and rotten due to wind.

A piece of wind-blown meat weighs about two pounds. There is a hole on the top, and straw is twisted into a rope and tied on it. People can just hold the rope without worrying about getting their hands dirty.

Gao Mingcheng got into the car holding a piece of meat and prepared to drive over. Soon, the car stopped on the side of the road near Manyu's house.

Hearing the sound of a car moving, Xuanyuemei walked towards the car. Xuanyueyu's home was on a small hill, so she had to go downhill before she could reach the roadside.

Xuanyu saw that Gao Mingcheng came by car, so he decided to go to the old village and talk to people.

So she carried her still sleeping little daughter and took Little Stone with her and got into the car.

With just a step on the accelerator, the car quickly arrived at the old village and stopped at the pond at the entrance of the village.

"Get out of the car!" Gao Mingcheng called out, got out first, then opened the back door and carried little Xuxu out of the car first.

Many beauties got off the car right after him.

At this time, her lower belly was slightly bulging, but because the weather was cold and she was wearing thick clothes, if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't notice that she was pregnant.

So they used to have a popular saying here - when a man has talent, it's like when a woman is pregnant, it takes a long time before the signs can be seen!
It is now two o'clock in the afternoon. Although there is less work in the fields, some people still go to work. Compared with the spring, summer and autumn when there are more vegetables, the price of vegetables in winter is slightly higher.

Especially during the period before the Chinese New Year, if you take the vegetables to the county to sell, they sell very well!

Therefore, there are many people in the village who grow and sell vegetables in winter. Those pieces of land are carefully plowed and tended by the hardworking villagers.

"Ming Cheng, you're back!"

"Oh, yes, uncle, are you going to apply fertilizer?" Gao Mingcheng asked casually when he saw an elder from the same village carrying a load of fermented farm manure.

"Well, go and fertilize the coriander. In half a month, you can sell it!" When talking about selling vegetables, the elders from the same village were all smiling.

Isn’t the purpose of working so hard growing vegetables just to earn a few cents or dollars?

With this income, I can buy cloth to make clothes for my family, buy oil and salt, pay for my children's tuition, etc.

"Uncle, have a cigarette! You go ahead and do your thing, I'm going to go to my parents' house to talk." Gao Mingcheng took out the cigarette box from his pocket and handed his uncle a cigarette.

Gao Mingcheng himself does not smoke, but he buys good cigarettes. They taste better than the low-quality ones smoked by the villagers, and they also give him face.

The old man took it with a smile, then put it to his ear.

Pinning the cigarette to your ear keeps it quite stable, and it won't fall off easily even if you keep your head down to work.

Since entering the village, Gao Mingcheng has met some people from the same village one after another. These people are inevitably related to him, so Gao Mingcheng continued to distribute cigarettes. When one pack of cigarettes was finished, he would open another pack to distribute.

When he arrived at his parents' house, Gao Mingcheng smelled the odor of steaming wine before he even entered the door.

In the corner of the wall, there was a large stove, which was specially used for steaming wine for Gao Yuanjian.

Winter is the busiest time for Gao Yuanjian. Someone always asks him to steam wine every now and then. Gao Yuanjian has two ways to steam wine. One is to steam it at home and then sell the finished wine. The other is to steam it at other people's homes and get paid. He can earn five yuan for steaming a pot of wine.

But steaming wine is not just about sitting in front of the stove and making fire. One has to be responsible for a series of tasks, such as weighing the rice, how much weight of rice, how much koji is needed, how long the rice mixed with the koji needs to be fermented before it can be steamed, etc. All of these need Gao Yuanjian to do there.

These are Gao Yuanjian's unique secret methods. Even if they are passed on to his eldest son Gao Mingpeng, it will be difficult for Gao Mingpeng to get the right size if he does not have enough operating experience.

When steaming wine, a pot with cold water in it should be placed on top of the wine utensils to cool it down.

When the wine turns into steam and goes up, it gets cold and becomes wine, then flows out through the pipe and is caught by the wine jug.

But because the stove below is always burning, the cold water in the pot above will slowly become hot. At this time, you need to scoop out the hot water and continue to put cold water in, otherwise no wine will be produced.

Every time at this time, Luo Xiaohua would not go out, because she would take the opportunity to wash clothes or take a bath!
In later generations, many people are accustomed to taking a bath before going to bed at night, but now, especially in winter, most people choose to take a bath at noon.

The temperature is higher at noon, so it is less likely to catch a cold when taking a bath, and it is also convenient to boil water.

But today Luo Xiaohua was not going to bathe himself, but was going to give a bath to Grandma Gao.

Grandma Gao hasn't taken a bath since winter began. Yesterday she had a stomachache and accidentally stained her pants. Only then did Luo Xiaohua realize that her mother-in-law smelled very bad.

So, taking advantage of the fact that Gao Yuanjian was going to steam wine today and had plenty of hot water available, he prepared to give Grandma Gao a good bath.

When Gao Mingcheng and Xuanyuemei went over, Grandma Gao had already taken a bath and was sitting under the eaves wearing a thick cotton jacket and combing her hair.

In order to make it easier to manage, her hair was cut short, less than ear length. But after cutting it short, it was really easy to manage, easy to wash and easy to dry.

"Mom, Dad, Grandma." Gao Mingcheng shouted as soon as he entered.

Xuanyuemei and Xiaoxuxu also called people, and even Xuanyueyu said hello. Then they found a place to sit. They happened to sit next to Grandma Gao, and started chatting with her.

Luo Xiaohua squatted in front of a wooden basin, in which were placed the clothes that Grandma Gao had taken off after taking a bath. She poured a lot of detergent into the basin, rubbed them with her hands for a while, and then washed off the foam on her hands with hot water, preparing to soak them first.

Seeing Gao Mingcheng and his wife coming, Luo Xiaohua couldn't help but say: "The two brothers of your uncle Fanmao's family, they made a lot of money in the big city!"

"I called Fanmao a few days ago and he said that after the Chinese New Year, he would ask his parents to go to a big city to work together! I heard that he can earn 200 yuan a month!"

Luo Xiaohua raised two fingers with a sour tone.

Gao Fanmao and Gao Yuanjian are cousins, and their families are also next-door neighbors. They often interact with each other, especially after Gao Yuanjian's family got a TV. Whenever Gao Fanmao and his wife are free, they will bring their bowls of rice to watch TV, eating and chatting at the same time.

The news that Gao Fanmao's son earns 200 yuan a month should have spread throughout the village.

But Gao Mingcheng was not surprised by this. In his previous life, Gao Fanmao's family moved to another place to live, but they did not leave until 95. This year, due to some changes he brought about, his two cousins ​​went out to work a few years earlier, and also called Gao Fanmao and his wife out a few years earlier.

But a salary of two hundred yuan is really not worth envying. Although this salary is much higher than the salary in their local county, the two cousins ​​are engaged in fur processing, which is very tiring work and has a strong smell. It is not something that most people can endure.

In recent years, leather jackets are very popular. In an era when the general salary is just over 100 yuan, a leather jacket can sell for thousands of yuan!
Even so, many people are still keen on buying leather jackets!

Especially those young people in big cities who buy motorcycles and put on leather jackets, they are simply the coolest guys on the street!

"Your uncle and aunt are so lucky that they can live in the city. Wow, they really raised two good sons!" Luo Xiaohua's words seemed to be giving Gao Mingcheng some advice.

Gao Mingcheng didn't fall for it. He pretended not to understand. In his previous life, he had been very good to his parents. He even bought them an apartment in the county and took them to live in the city for a while.

At first, he was very happy, but later he said he couldn't get used to living there, and finally he moved back to the village.

This situation is not just the case with his parents, many people of the older generation are similar.

Having lived in the vast rural area all their lives, they have become accustomed to the beautiful mountains and rivers, to working in the fields, and to collecting firewood in the mountains to pass the time.

But once they arrived in the city, they found it difficult to adapt to city life, especially when they found that there was nothing to pass the time!
In this life, Gao Mingcheng naturally had no intention of bringing his parents to live in the county town, let alone letting them live in his own home, so he changed the subject and said, "That's good. By the way, Uncle Fanmao's family is gone, so what about their land..."

Gao Yuanjian said, "I have made an agreement with Fanmao that I will farm their land and I will pay him the public tax. I will also give him 10% of the rice each year, which can be converted into money. As for his land, I gave it to another relative to farm."

Gao Yuanjian needed a lot of rice to make wine, so he chose to plant in Gao Fanmao's field. As for the vegetable field, he definitely didn't have the energy to do so.

Nowadays, city dwellers and rural people are clearly separated. Rural people can go to the city to work, but you still have to pay tax on the land under your name!
Therefore, instead of leaving the land vacant, it must be rented out to others for cultivation.

Not only can it save the trouble of paying public grain, but it can also maintain the condition of the fields. Otherwise, if the fields are left fallow for a long time, they will become deteriorating.

Gao Mingcheng asked, "With four extra acres of land, can you farm all of it?"

Gao Yuanjian had already made plans for this, and he made the calculations for Gao Mingcheng: "With your tractor, plowing the fields will save a lot of time and effort. When transplanting and harvesting, if you can't handle it yourself, just ask two people to help."

Gao Mingcheng nodded and said, "It's good that you know how to ask for help."

Since the land was distributed to each household, although everyone in the village has land, some families have few people and little land, and no other source of income, so they are naturally poorer. At this time, they will choose to help others farm, even if there is no wages, as long as they are provided with two meals a day.

Like the family of the fool in the village, their family is in a very difficult situation, so whenever they finish their own work, they will automatically go to help the families with more fields.

There was no mention of wages. The host knew the situation and provided two meals. The kind-hearted people would even give one or two pieces of meat.

After talking to his parents for a few words, Gao Mingcheng walked under the eaves, ready to talk to his grandmother.

Seeing him leave, Luo Xiaohua rolled his eyes at him unhappily and curled his lips at Gao Yuanjian who was making a fire.

Gao Yuanjian was impatient to see her like this and said, "What's so good about the city? Why didn't you go to the city to take care of the third daughter-in-law when she was in confinement?"

Luo Xiaohua rolled his eyes in anger when he heard this.

Did she not want to go to the city to take care of Wang Xiuxiu during her confinement? It was because she didn't have time!

She has to take care of her eldest brother's family, her mother-in-law, cook three meals a day, and work in the fields!

Are you going to bet on her words now?
Luo Xiaohua was dissatisfied and the noise she made while washing clothes became much louder. A lot of water splashed out of the basin, which just happened to splash onto Luo Xiaohua's pants. After wetting his pants, they felt icy cold.

Luo Xiaohua became even angrier, throwing the clothes in the basin and angrily saying, "Other people gave birth to good sons, but I gave birth to a debt collector!"

Luo Xiaohua felt sour when she thought of her sister-in-law's boastful expression. In fact, she also knew that her second son and youngest son earned no less than Gao Fanmao's son!

But what can I say? As soon as the son makes money, he asks mom and dad to move to the big city with him!
This made Luo Xiaohua very envious.

Gao Mingcheng was not going to pay attention to Luo Xiaohua's little thoughts, and even his bedmate Gao Yuanjian was not going to pay attention to them.

Gao Yuanjian's mind was on steaming wine.

There is a science to making fire, and there are also rules for how big the fire should be.

Gao Yuanjian once envied Gao Fanmao for being able to live in a big city, but he still preferred to stay in the village, because he was different from others, he had the skill of steaming wine!
With this, you can earn more than one or two thousand a year!
Adding the money he earned from farming and raising pigs, as well as the money his children gave him during festivals, Gao Yuanjian felt that his life was no worse than others.

But women like to compare themselves with others, and they especially compare their own shortcomings with others' strengths! (End of this chapter)