A pleasant life in a courtyard

Chapter 42 Shake the briquettes
Goo-dong~ Goo-dong~ Goo-dong~
"Hah~"

Little Brother Li drank a bowl of mutton bone soup in several gulps and let out a sigh of relief.

Feeling that he had not had enough, he jumped off the stool and went to the soup pot, and took the initiative to add another bowl for himself.

Returning to his seat with the bowl in hand, he picked up the white pepper on the table, scooped a spoonful of it and put it into the bowl.

The eldest girl watching on the side had her facial features wrinkled.

How spicy is this? Did this guy forget that he was injured?

Swish, slurp, let the seasoning blend with the soup, slurp, slurp ~ another gulp.

He grinned and praised Li Xiang: "Brother, the pepper you brought back is really spicy, and even the mutton bone soup is a lot fresher."

Little Brother Li's appearance made Li Xiang want to open his head and see what structure was inside.

Is there any child like him who, after being severely beaten, can act as if nothing happened so quickly, eating and drinking when he should, and the food tastes better than usual.

Seeing that his eldest brother ignored him, he turned to Mother Li and said:

“Mom, I’m going to school tomorrow, can you reward me with a toffee?”

The handful of toffee that Li Xiang brought back was so quickly on his mind again.

Mother Li glanced at him and took a deep breath. She didn't know what was going on, but she felt the urge to hit him again.

Before she could take action, the eldest sister had already slapped him on the back of the head.

He scolded him: "Are you stupid? Can't you just stop for two days?"

Li Xiaodi said aggrievedly: "Isn't it okay if I eat secretly at home? I won't go out and talk nonsense."

Li Xiang and his eldest sister were both speechless. The little bit of unbearability and sympathy they had for Little Brother Li just now were gone.

"Whenever there is something in the house, you want to eat it in your stomach. Just give up this time. You won't touch it until the Chinese New Year. If you dare to eat it secretly if I catch you, I will stop you with the cane." Mother Li Suppressing the anger in his heart, he threatened calmly on his face.

There is one thing about Little Brother Li that Mother Li is more at ease with, that is, she will never reach out to take something that you have not promised to give.

So the last two sentences are just casual remarks.

Li Xiaodi counted on his fingers how long it was until the Chinese New Year, and then wailed: "Ah, the Chinese New Year is still going to come, and it will take more than two months."

Seeing Li Xiaodi's disgusting look, Li Xiang gave his mother some advice:
"Mom, let's find something to do for him, otherwise it will be too annoying to watch."

"Okay, I'm also annoyed. What do you think we can do for him?" Mother Li agreed with her eldest son's suggestion.

"Is it okay to wash the clothes?" The eldest sister also enthusiastically gave her advice.

The three people didn't take Little Brother Li seriously at all, and started discussing how to deal with him directly in front of him.

Everyone discussed several plans, but all were rejected. Either they felt that the work was too light, or that Li could not handle it well.

Let's just talk about washing clothes. It's getting cold now. If he just puts it in the water and fools you a few times, the clothes won't be clean at all. In the end, they will have to rework them.

Finally, Li Xiang finalized the job for him.

"Let's do this. Next time we buy briquettes, our family won't buy them in whole pieces from the coal station. Let my little brother shake them by hand."

Before the 60s, many people shook coal by hand, either at home or by hiring someone to shake it.

At that time, most of the briquet shakers in BJ came from Dingxing, Hebei Province. They were willing to endure hardships and were not afraid of getting dirty.

Carrying a coal-shaking tool on their backs, they walked along the streets and hawked: "Shake coal briquettes."

It was not until the early 60s that coal stations in various places began to use machines to press briquettes, and these people began to disappear in various streets and alleys.

Instead, workers at the coal station rode on tricycles through the alleys to deliver coal to everyone.

Nowadays, only a very small number of poor families are willing to spend time and effort to make this hand-cranked coal in order to save a little money.Anyone with a better family would rather go to the coal station to buy whole coal.

Since the Li family became financially prosperous this year, they have never made hand-cranked coal again.

Now, in order to take care of Little Brother Li, the Li family decided to do this time-consuming and laborious task again.

The next day, Li's mother took advantage of her lunch break to go to the coal station, find acquaintances and ask them to deliver coal powder to her home.

This request made acquaintances a little surprised. They had already begun to use coal-packing, so why did they go back again?

Mother Li smiled and did not hide anything from her. When she mentioned the matter of punishing Little Brother Li, the acquaintance nodded in agreement.

The acquaintance smiled and said that next time her boy disobeys, he will do the same thing.

Later, Mother Li worked hard to find the only remaining loess seller in this area and ordered a lot of loess.

Once these two things are in place, Little Brother Li's hard days will come.

When the family did this work in the past, Li's mother and Li Xiang were basically the main force, with the eldest sister assisting, and there was no need for Li's brother to do anything.

Although he knew roughly what to do when shaking briquettes, he had never mastered it.

Now when Little Brother Li comes back from school, his mother asks him not to do his homework for the time being.

While it's still daylight, pass the coal powder through a sieve to sift out the cinders and coal lumps inside.

Every day, you can't wash up and eat until it's dark and can't see, and then you can go to bed after finishing your homework.

I worked like this for several days before sifting all the coal powder.

Then we start to mix loess. There must be 20.00% loess in one briquette. These proportions are all particular. If more, the briquettes will burn faster, if less, they will not burn through.

If the soot and loess are to be blended well, they must be stirred vigorously before and after the water is poured in. After they are completely blended, they must be spread flat on the ground, about an inch thick.

Little Brother Li, who is only eight years old, is almost exhausted just by doing this.

But how could the other people let him go so easily.

After giving him a rest for an hour, he was forced to continue.

Put a large flower pot under the large round sieve as a fulcrum, and then put the dried sticky coal into the sieve.

Little Brother Li spread his arms and shook his whole body desperately, and soon the coal in the sieve began to rotate.

After a while, the coal soil inside turned into uniformly sized briquettes like Yuanxiao.

Li Xiaodi panted and poured the briquettes on the ground. Judging from the weight, the weight was about twenty kilograms.

If it were operated by an adult, the serving size would be about [-] kilograms.

This was repeated countless times, when Li Xiaodi moved the last piece of dry coal to the place where the coal pile was piled.

His arms, hands, legs and feet had been shaken into chaff.

Li Xiang, his mother and eldest sister sat at the door and watched him finish the whole process. During this period, the three of them had no intention of helping each other.

Little Brother Li has become a little black man. He lies on the ground without caring whether it is dirty or not.

But according to the elder sister, the ground might be cleaner than him.

Little Brother Li was so tired that his eyes were dull, he was looking straight at the sky and mumbling to himself.

"I will definitely behave well from now on."

(End of this chapter)