My village can't be like this

Chapter 675 Old Man
After collecting the oil residue and loading it onto the truck, Zhang An and Chen Ze returned to the oil mill.

At this time, the four large fans in the oil press were fully turned on, and all you could hear was the wind blowing on the large pots of rapeseed oil on the ground.

Zhang An and his team brought in 1,500 kilograms of rapeseed, and in the end they squeezed out exactly 390 kilograms of oil, a pretty good yield.

"Old Chen, wait here. I'll go buy some plastic buckets on the street to carry the oil."

While waiting for the pots of oil to cool down, Zhang An prepared to go to the street to buy some buckets.

Because they only brought back three oil drums from home, which were all the oil drums that were emptied in Zhang An's house, and Chen Ze didn't have any. Even if these oil drums were filled, they could only hold about 140 to 150 kilograms at most, which was far from enough, so they had to go to the street to buy them.

"Okay, go ahead, I'll wait here."

Chen Ze also knew that there were many people in the oil press. If no one was here, if someone scooped away a portion, it would be at least five or six kilograms.

Although it is not worth much money, he has invested a lot of effort in the past few days, which cannot be measured by money. He will definitely take a close look at it, even if it is only a little bit.

Zhang An came to the street and went straight into the hardware store and bought five oil drums at once.

Two are each one hundred kilograms, and three are each fifty kilograms.

Although there is not so much oil, each oil barrel can be filled with less, which will make it more convenient to carry.

After buying the oil barrel and paying the money, Zhang An did not return directly to the oil press factory.

Because these oil drums have been stored for a long time, a lot of dust has accumulated inside and outside, so they must be cleaned.

Then Zhang An found a deserted place, brought all the buckets into the space, and prepared to clean them.

But after some effort, he found that washing with cold water seemed to be useless and could not be completely cleaned.

So he boiled some water in the space, which was indeed much more thorough in cleaning than using cold water.

There was no dishwashing liquid or other cleaning agents in the space, but that wasn't a problem.

Zhang An walked into the wooden house and took out a small earthenware jar, which contained the soapberry powder he had ground earlier.

By the time Zhang An finished cleaning all the buckets and came out, only a few minutes had passed.

On the way back to the oil press, Zhang An even went to the central street to take a look.

The fat couple is coming over today, and he wanted to buy a few pounds of beef to take home and try, besides, their family hasn’t eaten beef for a long time.

When he arrived at the central street, he found that Zheng the butcher's stall was empty.

I don’t know if he didn’t open the stall today or if business was too good this morning, but he has closed the stall now.

Zhang An couldn't help but sigh, maybe he had no destiny with today's beef, so he could only give up this idea.

When he returned to the oil mill, Chen Ze was still guarding their rapeseed oil and took the opportunity to blow the high-powered fan.

The oil cannot be bottled at the moment, so even if Zhang An comes back, he can only wait together.

At this time, it was the turn of two old men and women with gray hair and hunched bodies to press oil in the oil press.

It seems that they didn't squeeze much, only about 100 pounds, and in order to make it lighter, they packed it into four bags.

But the old man is not very tall. Even if he can lift half a bag of rapeseed, he still can't reach the cargo box of the oil press. He may need to find a stool to stand on.

Originally, when the boss saw this situation, he would definitely come over to help, but there were quite a few people pressing oil at this time of afternoon, and his family was a little overwhelmed.

So it’s hard to take care of the old man, let alone find a stool for him to stand on.

"Uncle, put it down, I'll help you."

Zhang An felt sorry for the situation and just walked over.

The age of these two elderly people is just like his second grandfather and second grandmother in the family.

Moreover, the effort he put into doing this and that now made him look just like Mr. and Mrs. Zhang in later generations.

"Thank you very much, Yazi."

When the old man saw Zhang Anzhu reaching out to help him, he immediately expressed his gratitude.

"It's not a big deal. We don't have anything else but a lot of strength. You are so old, why are you still pressing oil by yourself? You should ask your family to come."

It was not until he saw that there were only a few teeth left on the old man's gums that Zhang An felt that these two elderly people might be much older than his second grandparents.

"We are the only two people at home. The children went out to work before the New Year. We borrowed a neighbor's horse to help carry the goods here. So it's not a hard job and we can still do it."

The old man pointed to the old lady who was leading a horse at the door and said.

Only then did Zhang An understand why the old lady didn't tie him up outside and come in by herself.

Because they borrowed the horse from a neighbor, it would not be safe to tie it outside without anyone watching, so she had to keep a close eye on it.

"Then you two should be more careful. After all, you are so old and don't have any children around you."

There are a lot of left-behind elderly people like them in this mountain. Zhang An may have seen quite a few of them, so although he feels a little touched, he is not too upset.

All he could do was to lend a helping hand wherever he could.

After helping the old man pour the rapeseed, Zhang An didn't leave because their oil had not cooled down yet, so he continued to help here since he had nothing to do anyway.

By the time they help the old man squeeze the rapeseed, their oil can be canned.

The old man was a sociable person, and when he saw Zhang An and Chen Ze were filling vegetable oil, he came over to help.

"Ya Zai, you squeezed so much oil, how much rapeseed do you need?"

Seeing several large pots of rapeseed oil, the old man sighed as he spoke.

The more than 100 kilograms of rapeseed they brought today only produced a small basin of it. Zhang An's can produce at least ten times as much as they do.

"Uncle, we squeezed 1,500 kilograms of oil here. Because there are many relatives at home, we squeezed more. However, it was squeezed from rapeseed, so the oil output is not too much."

Zhang An originally wanted to persuade the old man to go and have a rest, but no matter what he said, the old man insisted on helping, so he had to give up.

Anyway, the work of filling oil is not hard, you just need to use a scoop to pour the oil into their oil barrels.

"There are quite a few rapeseeds that don't produce oil."

When the old man heard that 1,500 kilograms of rapeseed were squeezed out of it, he sighed even more.

Their family grows rapeseed all year round, but they don't produce that much, only 500 kilograms at most.

"Yazi, you have to empty it all. There are still three or four ounces left in this basin."

After finishing the loading, the old man will pick up the large basin of oil and pour out all the remaining oil in it.

Although these few ounces of oil are not a lot, if you put several basins together, it would be at least more than a pound. In the eyes of the old man, it is obviously a waste of resources.

"Master, if you don't want this basin, I'll do it."

The old man meant well, so Zhang An naturally wouldn't refuse. He quickly took the basin and poured out all the oil.

There were a total of over 390 kilograms of oil, and Zhang An specially packed out 130 kilograms. Because their family only had 500 kilograms of rapeseed, it only accounted for one-third, which was exactly 130 kilograms of oil.

Install it now and you won’t have to weigh it again when you get home.

Before leaving, Zhang An said hello to the old man and the old lady.

"This Yazi is a kind-hearted man. Just now when I couldn't pour the rapeseed in, he came to help me."

Watching Zhang An drive away, the old man said to the old lady beside him.

Although he is old, his eyes are not blind. There were so many people watching in the oil press just now, but only Zhang An went to help him.

"No wonder he can drive a car at such a young age. It's as it should be."

Although the old lady had been watching the horses outside, she could still see inside.

When I got home, it was already past two in the afternoon.

"Now that you guys are back, I'll go heat up the food."

When Wang Fang saw the two people come back, she went to the kitchen to heat up the food.

Because I knew that there was a lot of rapeseed to be squeezed today, I didn’t wait for them to come back for lunch.

"Don't heat it up, mom. It's so hot, and you probably just ate not long ago. We can just eat it right away."

Zhang An called his mother to stop him. The weather was already hot and he didn't want to heat up the dishes and eat them hot.

And because he had eaten breakfast too early and didn't eat much in the morning, Zhang An already felt his stomach fighting.

"Yes, Aunt Wang, we can just eat it directly, no need to go through so much trouble."

Although Chen Ze had breakfast late, he was still very hungry at this moment.

After hearing what the two said, Wang Fang let them do as they pleased and went back to the backyard to continue her work.

The beans at home have grown these two days, so she took the opportunity to pick some, steamed them, cut them into shreds and put them out to dry.

In this way, when there are no vegetables to eat in the fields in July and August, you can take them out, soak them and stir-fry them.

This is how it is in the countryside. Sometimes the vegetables in the fields cannot be eaten up, but sometimes, you can’t find any vegetables to eat, especially when the weather is dry and nothing grows. It is like a good cook without rice.

Therefore, many people in the village will buy some dried vegetables when there are plenty of vegetables in the fields, in case of emergency.

After Zhang An brought out the dishes, the rice in the steamer was still a little hot, so the two of them picked up their bowls and started eating with the leftovers from lunch, which tasted extremely delicious.

And because the weather was getting warmer, Wang Fang also cooked some vegetarian melon beans, which taste best when eaten cold.

In a short while, half the pot of vegetarian melon and beans was eaten up.

Half an hour later, the two finished their meal. Before they had time to clean up the dishes, the sound of a car was heard in the yard.

"Didn't you say yesterday that you would wait until the afternoon to come? Why are you here so early?"

Zhang An turned his head and looked outside, and found that it was the fat couple who came.

"Come on, it's already past two o'clock, it's already afternoon, okay."

The fat man couldn't help but rolled his eyes at Zhang An and pointed at the watch on his wrist.

"You didn't explain clearly. I thought you were coming around 4 or 5 in the afternoon."

Zhang An also said somewhat unhappily that according to their custom here, coming here in the afternoon usually means around four or five o'clock, and now it is one or two o'clock, which is still the noon time period.

"Long time no see, Fatty. Last year, when you got married, I was delayed by something and couldn't go with Zhang An and the others. I'm really sorry."

Seeing the fat couple, Chen Ze first greeted them and then apologized.

He had already gone to Hong Kong Island before Fatty got married last year, so he missed it.

"Hey, it's nothing. Everyone has things to deal with. There's still a lot of time in the future. Don't let this stop you from inviting us to your wedding."

The fat man waved his hand and said nonchalantly, and instead started joking with Chen Ze.

They all knew very well that Chen Ze's iron tree had blossomed here last year, so good things would not be long in coming.

"That's impossible. Even if one of us is missing, we can still be missing."

Chen Ze has many friends, but with them he can get along so easily in the past two years, there are only a few of them.

Wang Fang was in the backyard, and when she heard someone coming home, she came over to take a look: "Xiao Lu, you're here, and Zhang An too, you didn't even tell me you were coming, come and sit down, I'll go make you some food."

"Auntie Wang, don't bother me. We already ate on the road. We can't eat now. Let's wait until tonight."

Before the fat man opened his mouth, his wife Zhang Zilin took Wang Fang's arm and said with a smile.

"Don't lie to me, or you will be the ones starving."

Although Wang Fang had only met Zhang Zilin a few times, she liked the girl's elegance and grace, just like her own daughter-in-law.

"How could that be possible, Aunt Wang? Look at my body shape. I can't stand eating a little less, let alone being hungry."

Upon hearing this, the fat man shook his fat body and said that he would indeed not abuse himself, especially with his wife by his side.

Afterwards, Wang Fang talked to them for a few words and went back to the backyard to continue doing her own thing.

"It's still better here. Not only is it not hot, but once the breeze comes out it's so comfortable."

The fat man sat under the tree, facing the wind blowing from the river, and couldn't help but sigh.

In this kind of weather, it's at least five or six degrees hotter in the provincial capital than here.

Although it's not too hot when you're not under the sun, it's not as cool as here when there's wind blowing in the wind.

"By the way, where are my sister-in-law and Qiqi? It's Labor Day now, so they must be on holiday too."

Fatty and Zhang Zilin have been here for quite a while, but have not seen Su Ying and Xiao Siqi.

"They are on holiday, but Zhou Yang's wife is about to give birth, so he went to ask her for advice."

After Zhang An came back, he didn't see his wife and son, but Wang Fang told him about it.

"Oh? It's so fast. Looks like we should prepare a gift."

Because of Zhang An, Fatty Lu, Ding Yi and others are now familiar with Zhou Yang and others.

"I guess it will be this month. We'll know when Su Ying comes back and ask her."

Zhang An thought about it for a while and decided that according to the time Zhou Yang had mentioned before, it might not be too long.

But he didn't ask. After all, it was inappropriate for a grown man to ask his wife when she would give birth, even if there was a generation gap between them.

(End of this chapter)