My village can't be like this

Chapter 139
I saw Chen Ze driving his car towards the bridge, and finally disappeared at the opposite mountain pass.

Zhang An's family turned around and returned to the house.

"Xiao An, why is there so much money here?"

Back in the room where the stove was placed, Wang Fang found a stack of money on the stool, and counted it, and there were more than 1000 yuan.

Zhang An took a look, this is where Chen Ze was sitting just now.

This must have been left by Chen Ze, this man is real.

Just before they left, Chen Ze took out the money and handed it to Zhang An.

But Zhang An didn't accept it, and later Chen Ze was also polite and took the money back.

It turned out that this person had been settled early in the morning, and Zhang An would definitely not charge him money.

So when you go out, you have already put the money on the stool in advance.

It turned out to be waiting here for him, no wonder he was not as polite as usual just now.

"Mom, take it, it should be left by Chen Ze."

It's all like this, Zhang An didn't even think about sending it back.

Chen Ze did this just to show his attitude, and it would be boring for Zhang An to push and push.

In the evening, Wang Fang casually reheated some leftovers, and after the family of three finished dinner, Zhang Jianguo and Zhang An were going to start marinating meat.

This bacon cannot be smoked directly with fresh pork, otherwise it will rot.

It has to be marinated with bacon water, so that there will be no rot in the process of bacon.

And the formula of the bacon water is also very important. If the formula is good, the cured bacon will taste better.

Many people use salt and pepper to pickle directly, which is also possible.

It's just that if you use salt water for all of them, the bacon that is smoked in the end will be very salty.

While Zhang An and his son were marinating meat, Wang Fang was not idle either.

In the evening just now, the tofu seller in the town visited the old village.

Now that the road has been repaired, those who sell tofu and soy sauce like to go to the village.

Wang Fang bought two big slabs of old tofu from him, and was about to start making blood tofu right now.

Originally, Zhang An's family planned to push the tofu by themselves, and the beans were all soaked.

But it would be too late to push today, so Wang Fang chose to buy outside.

"Mom, why don't you chop some meat and put it in, the steamed blood tofu will taste better."

In the past, when Wang Fang made blood tofu, she just kneaded pig blood and old tofu together.

There is nothing else in it except seasoning, not even fat.

But this year is different, there is a lot of meat left in the family, so when Zhang An said, she agreed.

Find a piece of pork belly that fits inside, chop it into pieces and put it in together with the tofu.

In this way, a pot of pink blood tofu is kneaded.

The next step is to start kneading the pot of blood-red tofu dregs into small bowls of tofu balls.

Then wrap it with green vegetable leaves, and when the time comes to smoke the bacon, put it on top and smoke it together.

In the past, Zhang An's family would not make so many blood tofu, but Wang Fang thought that guests would often come to eat at home.

Many people like local home-cooked dishes like blood tofu.

And this year Zhang An's family killed more pig blood from three pigs, so Wang Fang decided to make more.

Throughout the twelfth lunar month, it was not easier than usual, and everyone made too many preparations for the New Year.

Soak beans to push tofu, soak glutinous rice to make rice cakes, and smoked bacon and sausages.

But at the same time, there are beaming smiles on everyone's faces.

When I woke up the next day, the work at home was not finished yet.

The meat of Zhang An's family has been marinated, and now they have to go up the mountain to chop firewood and come back to smoke it.

Originally, Zhang An's house had a pile of dry firewood, but these were not the best choice for bacon.

After many years, no firewood is allowed on the mountain, and there is no good firewood to smoke bacon.

So while he still had a choice, Zhang An thought about getting as much good wood as possible for smoking.

Zhang Jianguo saw that Zhang An was going to cut the thuja stalks, and he also wanted to follow with his hatchet.

But Zhang An still persuaded him to stay at home, because his mother was chopping meat at home today and was going to stuff sausages.

This year, Zhang An's family killed three pigs, and all three small intestines were kept.

Wang Fang thought to feed them all, otherwise it would be a waste.

So today I chopped a lot of meat, if Wang Fang were to chop meat and stuff sausages at home alone.

I'm afraid Zhang An will have to cook for the next few days.

Besides, it doesn't take much effort to go to the mountain to see some arborvitae.

It was a waste of manpower for two people to go up the mountain.

Time passed quickly, and the days passed day by day, and it was the New Year's Eve.

When Zhang An got up, the family of the second and third uncles had already arrived.

Because a few days ago, Zhang An and his son went to the second uncle and third uncle's house in advance to talk.

Let the two families go to Zhang An's house to celebrate the New Year together this year, so it will be more lively.

So early this morning, the second aunt and the third aunt came over early to work with Wang Fang in the kitchen.

The session of making rice cakes, which has remained unchanged for thousands of years, is an indispensable activity on New Year's Eve.

After Zhang An's protest last year, this year Zhang An's rice cakes were only half of last year's.

This year, Zhang An's family moved from the old house to the new house, and many people are far away, so there are fewer people who come to help make rice cakes.

Those who have beaten their own three families can call it a day and leave work.

Compared with previous years, there are more people working this year.

In previous years, the three of Zhang An's family had a big table for New Year's Eve dinner.

Whether it is killing chickens or geese, both father and son must do it.

This year is good, with Uncle Zhang and Uncle Zhang joining, Zhang An is liberated.

"Brother An Zi, do you want to dig mushrooms in the fields?"

Zhang An just thought that he would be happy to take some time off this year, but Huang Ming came to his house and asked him to dig twig mushrooms in the seedling field.

But Zhang An had nothing to do, so he followed Huang Ming with a hoe and a basket.

Zhang An's family hadn't grown shiitake mushrooms for a long time, but Huang Ming's family planted quite a few in the seedling field.

Although I dug some to sell before, there are still some in the field.

Zhang An and the others here, zigu mushrooms are mostly eaten fried.

It's just like fried potato wedges, but the mushrooms are slightly sweet and powdery.

When he came to the field, Huang Ming started digging with a hoe.

"Look at your posture, you have been digging a lot in the past few days, and this action is very rigid."

Zhang An looked at Huang Ming still a little bit, but he didn't do farm work before.

"That's not true. I did the most when digging the mushrooms a few days ago."

Zhang An didn't stand on the ridge of the field to watch Huang Ming dig. He found a place where there were shiitake mushrooms and started to move.

"Hey, there are Puqis in your field."

Zhang An dug two hoes, and not only dug up a few shiitake mushrooms from the field, but also dug up three or four black Puqi.

"No, our family didn't even sow any seeds."

Huang Ming ran over to look at the Bodhisattva in Zhang An's hand, and then said to Zhang An, "It is estimated that it was mixed in the shiitake mushrooms when it was planted earlier."

Zhang An would not have planted them deliberately, otherwise there would not be so many.

This stuff tastes okay, but Zhang An doesn't like it very much.

The main reason is that if you eat it, you have to peel it, which is too troublesome to eat.

It takes a while to peel a bodhisattva, but it is eaten in one bite.

The two dug for about [-] minutes, and they dug a basket.

It's about four to five catties here, which is enough for several meals, and Zhang An also dug up a lot of bodhisattvas.

Zhang An originally wanted to take it home for Little Swallow to eat.

But on second thought, why don't you try planting it in the space, in case this thing can grow very big in the space.

If it can grow really big, then it can be grown out and planted.

So Zhang An quietly put the dug out Bodhisattva into the space and tried it at night.

When they arrived at the fork in the village, Zhang An called to stop Huang Ming.

"Da Ming, you come with me, catch two fish and eat them back."

Changqing is close to a big river, so there is no shortage of fish to eat.

But Zhang An didn't intend to give Huang Ming ordinary grass carp and carp.

Forget about fine scale fish, the villagers don't like to eat it, because there are so many bark.

This time, Zhang An planned to give mandarin fish, the mandarin fish that "flies egrets in front of Xisai Mountain, peach blossoms and flowing water".

This mandarin fish was still when Chen Zhijie came to fish.

The few small mandarin fishes he caught were given to Zhang An.

Many of these people who came to Dahe to fish were familiar with Zhang An's.

Usually when they send fish to Zhang An, Zhang An usually won't accept it.

But sometimes when encountering fish species that are not in the space, Zhang An accepts them by the way.

After a long time, everyone knows that Zhang An likes some rare fish species, even small fish noodles.

So every time they caught some uncommon fish, they would bring them to Zhang An.

After all, every time I come here, I drink tea, pour water and go to the toilet at Zhang An's house.

Sometimes when I meet Zhang An’s family, I will get them a portion of what they eat, and it’s hard to justify not getting something in return.

Anyway, they are all small fish fry, and they are not worth much if they cannot be sold.

And this group of people who often come fishing are not the ones who are short of money.

Hearing Zhang An yelling to get the fish, Huang Ming was not polite, and followed Zhang An.

Everyone in the village knows that the fish raised by Zhang An's family is better than the fish in the big river.

Even the fish Zhou Yang used for cooking later was bought at Zhang An's house.

"Anzi is back, hurry up and wash your hands, I'm waiting for you to write a pair."

Seeing Zhang An come back with a hoe, Uncle Zhang shouted.

At this moment, the old pair posted by the family last year has been disposed of by several people at home.

I will post a new one before worshiping the gods later. The pairs in Zhang An's family are all written by Zhang An himself.

"Second uncle, don't be in a hurry, wait until I get two fish for Damingzi."

Putting down the basket and coming to the edge of the fish pond, Zhang An reached out and put it into the fish pond.

After a while, he caught a mandarin fish weighing more than a catty.

Huang Ming saw Zhang An catching fish like this, so he imitated Zhang An and stretched his hand into the pond.

As a result, after half a day, Mao didn't swim past his hand.

"Brother, what are you doing with this hand?"

"It's not that I don't tell you, you can't learn it, because this fish recognizes life, you understand."

Then he caught another carp weighing four to five catties, and Zhang An pulled a few straws to skewer the two fish and handed them to Huang Ming.

"Da Ming, this small fish is a good fish. If your mother can't cook it, you can ask Zhou Yang how to do it."

Zhang An still told Huang Ming that it would save them from making the fish worse.

"Yeah, I see, Brother An Zi."

After Huang Ming left, Zhang An washed his hands and found pens and inks that he hadn't used for a long time at home.

After washing the pen, Zhang An began to write pairs.

Having written couplets for many years, Zhang An had already memorized those couplets by heart, picked up a brush, and made them casually.

The other door pairs are not a big problem, mainly because the four pairs of door pairs are a bit difficult.

Because the red paper cut by the gate is the widest, the font written on it must naturally be large, otherwise it will not match.

After writing for an hour, Zhang An finally finished writing all the pairs in the family.

Zhang An's new house, old house, Uncle Zhang's house, Uncle Zhang's house.

The sieve on the ground is now filled with pairs written by Zhang An.

This is not over yet, I know that Zhang An has started to write pairs.

Some well-connected people in the village came here after smelling it.

Anyway, Zhang An is used to it, and it has always been like this in previous years.

Zhang An originally wrote it in the main room, but when he saw someone coming, he simply carried the table to the yard to write.

After writing for more than an hour, I can finally close the pen.

There are many old people in the village who can write calligraphy, but in Zhang An's generation, few can write.

Even if you can write a few words, you can understand them when you write them.

Zhang An had to be forced to write by Zhang Erye back then, otherwise it would be the same.

After Zhang An wrote the door pairs for everyone, the pairs at home were also posted.

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang An's family began to burn incense and set off firecrackers.

In this year's kitchen, not only Wang Fang is cooking alone, but also Zhang An's two aunts are helping.

Moreover, the stove in Zhang An's new house has three fires.

So all the dishes that are prepared at home are ready in no time.

The New Year's Eve dinner in Changqing Village is called New Year's Eve dinner, but it's not just eaten at night.

Usually at three o'clock in the afternoon, some people start eating.

This year, with the addition of the second uncle and the third uncle's family, it is rare for Zhang An's family to bring out the big round table at home.

In previous years, there was only a family of three, and a small table was enough.

The dishes on the table this year are not just hot dishes, Zhang An also marinated pork a few days ago.

Today, I cut a big plate and mixed it with shallots, coriander and Zheer root, which made Zhang Tie cry.

There was originally roast duck, but Zhang An messed up the first time he made it.

The roasted duck was burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.

So I have to do it a few more times before I can grasp how to make this roast duck.

"Brother, I want to eat that meat."

Today, Little Swallow was sitting next to Zhang An, and when she couldn't pick up any food, she asked Zhang An to pick it up for her.

What she asked Zhang An to pick the most today was braised pork.

"Okay, I'll clip it for you."

But Zhang An found out that she didn't actually like braised pork.

It's the pig's tongue and pig's ears that Zhang An used to marinate with pork.

These two parts are very delicious when marinated.

In the end, Zhang An simply put it in front of her.

Today there is another dish that is more delicious, which is stewed bamboo fungus with pig tail.

The tails of the three pigs killed by Zhang An's family had already been eaten.

Zhang An specially bought this from a meat stall.

Although the stewed pig tail is very fragrant, some people here can't eat it.

It's about Zhang An's younger brothers and sisters. The adults in the family will not let them eat this stuff.

In Zhang An's place, there is a saying that children cannot eat pig tails.

Otherwise, when I was studying and going to school, the exam would always rely on No.1 from the bottom.

In other words, Zhang An didn't go to school now, otherwise he wouldn't be given food either.

In the past, Zhang An had a bad temper, and Wang Fang lied to him that pig tails were poisonous so that he could not eat them.

Although there are some dishes, their children cannot eat them.

But this wine is still allowed to drink some.

The wine in Zhang An's family is all rice wine brewed by Wang Fang himself.

Whether it is an adult or a child, they all poured a small bowl.

Of course, the young Yanzi didn't give her a drink.

Not to mention Zhang An and his brothers, all the boys in the village were trained to drink alcohol since they were young.

When girls reach a certain age, they also have to learn to drink.

Therefore, everyone in Changqing's area can drink quite well.

This is mainly because in the past, when we got married in the mountains, many of them were married to people of the Miao nationality.

The custom of their Miao Village, if you want to enter the door, you have to drink.

Drinking from the door all the way to the main room, people who don't drink well will not be able to marry a wife.

A New Year's Eve dinner took more than an hour to finish.

There are a lot of dishes on the table today, everyone didn't eat much rice, they all ate a lot of vegetables.

While eating, the adults began to recall the past.

It is said that the days are better now, and there are a large table of meat and vegetables on the Chinese New Year table.

A few years ago, when the family conditions were not good, there was a little meat in the dishes on the table, which were already considered meat dishes.

At that time, let alone meat, put more lard, it tastes very delicious.

Zhang An's father, Zhang Jianguo, is still exposing Uncle Zhang's background.

It is said that when Uncle Zhang was young, he used lard to bibimbap for dinner once.

In the end, Zhang An's grandfather found out and was beaten up.

Because at that time, not only pork was expensive, but lard was also expensive.

Moreover, tickets are required to buy things, and you may not be able to buy them if you have money.

Usually everyone stir-fries with rapeseed oil mixed with lard.

If they only eat rapeseed oil, those who have been working hard will not be hungry and have no energy when working.

And that time Uncle Zhang used more lard for bibimbap than the whole family would cook for a meal, that's why he was beaten.

(End of this chapter)