take a wife to support the family

Chapter 81 The Water Mill by the River

Yingchun broke out in a cold sweat when she told Baihe what she said. She was not convinced, but she also felt that what the elder sister said was so reasonable, and calculated it in her heart, knowing that she had been fooled by others.

"This bunch of rotten hooves!" Or Yingchun is a firecracker, Lily said it before, once she figured it out, she would go back and look for the trouble of molesting her group of people.

Lily hurriedly held her down. Thanks to her good food for the past six months, her health has improved a lot, otherwise she would not be able to hold this girl down.

"I just said you're stupid, and you hit someone's knife again! Do you want to break up with everyone before you're willing to quit?" Lily's face was no longer pleasant, and she stabbed Yingchun's heart with a knife.

"Then what do you think I should do?" Yingchun was upset, if it wasn't for the fact that she was her eldest sister, she would have called out with someone else.

Lily was not in a hurry to answer, she poured her a glass of water first, and after seeing that she had calmed down a bit, she said slowly, "Tell me, why did you come to Liu's mansion to be this girl?"

Yingchun was startled, and said in a daze, "Isn't it just to make money, what else can it be for?"

"Then you are stronger than others, can you earn more money, or can you rest for a while?" Lily poked Yingchun's forehead with her finger. Compared with Zhu's, her strength is only a little It doesn't hurt at all.

Yingchun came back to her senses: "That's right, I only care about making money, and I don't care about them!"

The girl who was arguing with her didn't do the same thing, so she didn't have to argue with others, and secondly, that girl didn't care about sending money, so what's the point of getting angry with her?

As soon as Yingchun thought about it, she knew that she was really pushed out by others this time, but she couldn't turn around and bite the person who pushed her back, otherwise both of them would hate her, and she would never have a bright future.

I can only swallow this breath, get over this matter first, and then talk about the future.

Lily guessed that the girl should have figured it out, and said with a smile: "Now I know that Mrs. Sheng didn't hurt you, right? People talk to you nicely, but you're throwing face at others, why don't you hurry up and apologize?"

When she talked about apologizing, Yingchun couldn't hold back her face, Lily taught her: "Your face is only so big, can it be exchanged for a meal or two dollars?"

After all, Mrs. Sheng is in charge of the kitchen, and Yingchun is working under her hands. She raised her hand to welcome the spring, and Yingchun can figure it out without much persuasion from Lily. For the matter of apology, you have to go with me."

"That's natural." Her sister, she can't just let her go, if Mrs. Sheng is willing to spare Yingchun because of her face, this matter will be over.

There are so many people in Liu's mansion, how many times will there be three or five girls bickering?Mrs. Sheng didn't care about such a small matter. Seeing that Yingchun came to apologize honestly, and made tea and rubbed her shoulders diligently, she took the tea and said, "Okay, how old am I, how old are you, I can get angry with you ?”

Yingchun has been with Mrs. Sheng for many years, and the two are actually very close. Hearing this, he said: "I'm not sensible, just call me, Mrs. Sheng, it doesn't matter if you beat me or scold me, just don't ignore me."

This made it clear, Madam Sheng was satisfied, and said to Lily: "Now you can rest assured?"

"I'm going to leave it to my aunt, so why worry?" I'm much more at ease than being under the hands of her own mother!
From then on, Yingchun refrained a lot from mentioning it, and Lily went home and discussed with Song Haonian: "The flour is almost gone, it's time to grind some flour."

Their family used to buy rice and noodles to eat, but now the cellar is full of rice and wheat, millet, yellow rice, sorghum, etc. are also packed in several large boxes, so they don’t have to go outside to buy noodles, just open the warehouse to get grain, and go to the mill to grind the noodles .

The mill is next to the Baishui River, and it is more convenient to use water power to drive the mill fan than animal power.The family that runs the mill is called the Liu family of the mill, and they charge a commission according to the amount of flour they grind. For example, if they want to grind a bucket of wheat, they will give his family a liter.

The young husband and wife eat more than a big family, so they plan to grind a bucket of wheat first, and grind as they eat, so as to avoid maggots and beetles in the flour, and can often eat fresh flour.

To open a warehouse, Lily has little strength, so Song Haonian only asked her to stand by and help open the bag, and she didn't need to do anything else, whether it was using Fang Sheng to fetch the wheat or fighting the wheat out of the warehouse.

Song Haonian also said: "Your waist is not as thick as my legs, but your arms are so thin, I'm afraid that the bag will crush you!"

Lily gave him a white look: How could he be as exaggerated as he said?
The wheat that can’t be taken out can be sent to the mill. It needs to be processed at home first, and the bamboo boards are used to pass it one by one to pick out the stones and sand mixed in, and winnow the wheat husks that the windmill failed to clean. Everything was cleaned up, and there was no impurity to be seen.

Sprinkle water on the wheat, and stir while spraying water, so that all the wheat grains are evenly coated with water, and it feels damp and sticky to the touch, but it will not touch the level of a hand of water, and it is done.

The quality of the ground flour has a lot to do with the process of sprinkling water. If there is no strong man like Song Haonian, and Guang Baihe is alone, she will not be able to handle this matter even if she is exhausted.

Putting the wheat back into the sack, Song Haonian carried it on his shoulder, Lily carried another liter of dry wheat, and followed to the mill.

From far away, I heard the sound of rumbling in the mill. It was the river water pushing the mill fan. There were already two people in line in front. When Liu Mofang saw them coming, he came out covered in flour and said, "There are still two or three people ahead." Time, you go back first, and come back when the time comes."

When grinding noodles, one of your own family members is needed to help, otherwise Liu Mofang would not be able to handle it alone, but it doesn’t matter if you put the bag here now, everyone in the town knows each other, and after Liu Mofang’s eyes, no one will be there anymore. will steal food.

The young couple put down the grain bags, handed a liter of wheat to Liu Mofang, and walked home.Lily walked in a hurry, Song Haonian asked suspiciously: "What's wrong?"

Lily said: "I just remembered that I forgot one thing."

When she saw Liu Mofang, she remembered that the flour from the mill was very dusty, and it was very bad for the lungs if inhaled.She just listened to Liu Mofang talking, her voice was hoarse, not because of a throat problem, but because of a broken lung.

As soon as Lily got home, she dug out the finest cotton cloth and folded a dozen layers to make a big thick mask. She didn't know how much dust this thing could prevent, but it was better than direct breathing.

Song Haonian tried putting the mask on his face, "It's very boring." He didn't want to wear it.

It was already stuffy in the mill, but when he put on this thing, he would really be out of breath.

Lily said unhurriedly: "If you don't wear it, I'll put it on to grind your face, and you're not allowed to go in."

Now Song Haonian is in a hurry, although the milling fan is pushed by the river, it is also a laborious job to add grain to the milling fan and sweep the flour down, his wife has small arms and legs, how can she bear that?

But seeing Lily's determined expression, as if he had to wear a mask or she would go, Song Haonian had no choice but to compromise: "Okay, okay, can I wear it?"

Anyway, the things his wife emptied were more useful than the other, and if they didn't harm him, they would be more troublesome, and it would be fine to make them more comfortable in the future.

A bucket of flour can be ground in at most an hour, so he just endured it for an hour, so what's the big deal?
Seeing that Song Haonian agreed to wear a mask to grind flour, Lily breathed a sigh of relief, and said: "You are not allowed to take it off in the mill!" He also asked him many things, such as not to make fire in it, not to beat iron things and so on. ...

Song Haonian said: "If you haven't been to the mill, you don't know. The things there are all made of wood, and there will be no iron utensils." Then Lily felt relieved.

Flour is easy to explode when its concentration is high in the air. If it sees an open flame or sparks, it is really a big deal.In her previous life, she had heard of many explosions in flour mills. The level of medical treatment these days is worrying, so she is naturally more cautious.

In fact, Liu Mofang’s family has owned mills for several generations, so they are clear about many taboos. For example, their kitchen is far away from the mill. Except for iron pots in the kitchen, iron utensils are not allowed in the mill. This is the experience left by the ancestors.

In the afternoon, Liu Mofang asked his children to call Song Haonian to grind noodles, Song Haonian told Baihe, put on a mask and went out.

When we arrived at the mill, Liu Mofang looked at his strange mask and still laughed, Song Haonian said: "Don't laugh, your voice is hoarse, it's because you inhale too much flour when exhaling. You can also make a mask and wear it. "

He was kind, so Liu Mofang stopped laughing, remembering that his ancestors didn't live long for several generations. He had heart and lung problems when he was in his forties, and he coughed up blood. Maybe he didn't suck the flour out of it?
I'd rather believe this kind of thing, since it's not troublesome to make a mask, Liu Mofang turned around and asked his mother-in-law to make a mask to wear like Song Haonian, not to mention, after wearing it, coughing and hoarseness are less.

This is without further ado, when Liu Mofang and Song Haonian entered the mill, the lights could not be lit inside, and the light was rather dim.Flour danced in a ray of skylight through the small window.

Song Haonian got used to it for a while before he could see what it looked like inside. He carried his bag to the stone mill, and Liu Mofang cleaned up the wheat bran left by the previous person, and began to add wheat to the stone mill.

This mill fan is propelled by water power, but the speed needs to be controlled by people. This is what Liu Mofang does.Song Haonian has to take a small broom to sweep the grains of wheat into the mill.

A bucket of wheat is only half a bag of flour and half a bag of wheat bran, which is good for feeding pigs and chickens.

Song Haonian went home carrying the noodle bag, he became a noodle man, even his eyelashes were white, Lily was both funny and heartbroken, so he quickly found a dry towel and patted him all over his body.

I sent him to take a bath again, and changed the water two or three times before he was clean, so that no more flour would rustle from his hair.

Lily said: "I'm tired today." She especially didn't like the feeling of flour all over her body, and it was not easy to wash.

Song Haonian has a different opinion on today's experience: "I feel like I've been completely useless!"

Lily laughed, he always thought that being black and strong was majestic, if she hadn't stopped him, and deliberately went under the sun to tan himself completely black, at this time, when he talked about being white, it was obviously to make her happy.

(End of this chapter)