There are flowers and wine, hoeing and farming

Chapter 37

After dinner at night, Qiaoqiao boiled a large pot of water to take a bath while the firewood was still on.

Ning went to the house to make small clothes for the unborn child, and Jasmine also returned to the house. In the huge yard, Qiaoqiao was the only one walking around, and it seemed even more empty and silent.

There is nothing to do at night, and it costs money to light the lamps, so many people go to bed early. Qiaoqiao stands in the yard waiting for the water to heat up. There is no movement outside, except for the occasional sound of birds in the distance. After standing for a while, she squatted down on the ground and took a branch to draw on the ground in the moonlight.

"Qiaoqiao, what are you doing there?" Jasmine pushed open the door, walked out carefully with her hands on her waist.

"Sister-in-law, aren't you going to sleep? Why are you out again? Are you going to show respect?" Qiaoqiao saw her heart trembling, and hurried forward to support her.

"No, I just watched you squatting on the ground, worried what's wrong with you? The girl you met during the day, after you said a few words to her, she began to look unhappy. "

Qiaoqiao felt warm in her heart, feeling that her sister-in-law was really caring, even seeing her little emotional changes, she shook her head and smiled at her sister-in-law: "I'm fine, Sister-in-law, go back to sleep quickly, or you will be in a hurry when your mother comes out."

"Okay, I'll go, don't tell mother."

"Well, do you want me to accompany you today?"

"no need."

Qiaoqiao returned to the kitchen, the water was already steaming thickly, she pushed the lid of the pot aside, scooped the hot water into the wooden bucket with a ladle, and then poured it directly into the big wooden bucket in her room. basin.

She still can't afford that kind of big wooden barrel to take a bath, firstly, the wooden barrel itself is very expensive, but, how much firewood will be wasted to burn the water in a big wooden barrel, Qiaoqiao has always been saving money. They all use slightly larger wooden basins for bathing.

After tidying up the kitchen, she first knocked on the door of the main house, told Ning Shi who was still sewing small clothes, asking her to rest early so as not to hurt her eyes, and then went to her own room to close the door Tethered to start the bath.

After taking off her clean clothes, Qiaoqiao squatted down. Because she was still young, she could basically soak her whole body in it. She enjoyed herself in the hot water with her eyes closed, humming softly.

After soaking for a while and feeling warm all over, she picked up the bath beans and put them in the loofah slices, rubbed them a few times, and began to rub them on her body.Rubbing and rubbing, the loofah scratched the copper coin on the neck.Qiaoqiao froze for a moment, thinking of the Chunli she saw today.

When she first saw Chunli, she immediately remembered that she rescued Chunli's sister with Zheng Cang that year, and then a series of things happened. She sighed, threw the loofah aside, and soaked it again. in the water.

Five years ago, after she came back from her aunt's house, her brother told him that Zheng Cang had come to look for her once, and when he heard that she had gone out, he asked him to tell her that he was leaving, and it might take many years before he came back. On the second day, he gave Cheng Zhigao a letter to Qiaoqiao.

The content of the letter was also very concise, with the same style of speaking as him, mainly about two things, one was to tell her that his grandfather had passed away, and the other was to tell her that he was going to join the army.

The concept of joining the army is different from the modern situation where you graduate from junior high school and go to serve as a two-year conscript. In this era, if you join the army, if a war does not break out, you can still make a living. If a war breaks out, you are very likely to be dispatched Some died on the battlefield at the front line, maybe they were promoted because of their good performance, but in that kind of place where they go to die one after another, how many times they show how brave and not afraid of death can they be favored by their superiors, How about being promoted to a petty official?
Qiaoqiao was angry and anxious, ran to his house and waited for a long time, until it was dark, and the family came to find her, and when Cheng Daman picked her up from the ground in front of the gate, she burst into tears, For this friend who may never meet again in this life, I cried a lot.

Touching the copper coins in her neck, the hard corners of the corners have been smoothed by the friction between her skin and clothes all these years. Even the rope that was tied to the copper coins when Zheng Cang gave her has long been removed. Replaced several.

For five years, Qiaoqiao has been looking forward to someone knocking on her door every time, and then a letter will be delivered, which says that Cheng Qiaoqiao has personally signed it, and it is full of good news. Riding a general or something like that.But every time it was after the New Year's Eve, she was disappointed. Year after year, there was always no news.

However, what makes Qiaoqiao happy is that in the past five years, there has been no news of a war, and Zheng Cang has not sent any information back, isn't it also good news?This at least shows that Zheng Cang may still be living safely somewhere.

She didn't get up until the skin all over her body was soft and collapsed, she quickly went out to pour water, swept away the water stains in the room, patted some flower water, lay down on the bed, and had a good sleep without thinking about anything .

After waking up the next day, it was another sunny day. Qiaoqiao then repeated the sequence of yesterday, washing, fetching water, cooking, moving flowerpots, and feeding the chickens.

It seems simple, boring, and uninteresting, but only when you are in it and look at it with a normal heart, can you know how happy these things are.

After tidying up all these, the three mothers gathered together in the main room and sat down to make clothes for the children. Ning was in charge of the main work, Qiaoqiao was the second, and Jasmine was only in charge of watching from the side because of her clumsy body. The three of them just sat like this In the house, chatting and doing work.

Qiaoqiao's craftsmanship today is much better than when she was a child, but it is still much worse than that of the Ning family who has been working for decades. In addition, this is the birth of Ning's first grandchild, so she naturally attaches great importance to it. , not only went to the store outside to choose the best close-fitting fabrics, but also cut and sewed them carefully, wishing to make the best for my little grandson.Therefore, she was not happy with many other housework for the time being, so Qiaoqiao took care of them.

The three of them were talking, and Ning mentioned the news that the third son of Brother Cheng Daman's family was going to get married in a few days.

Qiaoqiao couldn't help being a little stunned. In her memory, the child seemed to be only 13 years old. After she asked in surprise, she got Ning's affirmative answer.

"It's not too early. Some are eleven or twelve years old. Generally speaking, fourteen or fifteen years old is the most suitable." Ning lowered her head to embroider the pattern on the little bellyband.

Qiaoqiao sighed, she was still a child, and she was going to get married again.

"Mom, we're back."

The door was knocked back and forth by a burst of violent knocking, and there was a bang bang bang bang sound. The three people sitting in the room froze for a moment, but Jasmine was the first to react. She looked at Ning shi happily, and whispered : "It's Zhiyuan's voice."

Qiaoqiao ran out and opened the door.

Outside the door, the three of them stood smiling and looked in. They hadn't seen each other for a few months, and they all looked a little dark and thin, but luckily they were all in good spirits.

"Father, elder brother, younger brother." Qiaoqiao threw herself directly beside her, and took the not too heavy burden from his hand: "Father, come into the house, we are talking with mother and sister-in-law. You go in and sit down, I'll get you some water."

Qiaoqiao hurriedly ran to the kitchen and poured the still warm water in the cauldron into a porcelain bowl and brought it over.The room, which was still a bit empty at first, was filled up all of a sudden, and it felt more comforting. Qiaoqiao first poured a small glass of water and handed it to Cheng Daman. He gulped it down, wiped his mouth, and patted Qiaoqiao's head. , praised: "It's still my daughter who loves others."

Cheng Zhiyuan deliberately coughed vigorously a few times, in exchange for the laughter of the whole family.

Cheng Daman sat there talking about the past few months.The three fathers and sons went into battle together, and their skills were very good, and they worked very seriously, so they finished this job nearly half a month ahead of schedule, and rushed home.

One was because Jasmine was pregnant, and the other was because Cheng Daman felt that the third son of his elder brother's family should also get married and must come back.Along the way, hurrying on the road, I haven't rested for a long time.

After talking for a while, Qiaoqiao found that her sister-in-law had been looking at her brother, but she quickly looked away, and then looked back after a while, with the idea of ​​wanting to get closer but afraid of being discovered.Qiaoqiao is a little funny, my sister-in-law is so simple, but that stupid brother is too slow, now I'm home, my wife has been neglected for a few months, now I will take her back to the house quickly, the two of them talk about being close In other words, why are you still here to join in the fun? Qiaoqiao couldn't see it, so she walked directly to her sister-in-law, and raised her voice slightly: "Sister-in-law, what's the matter, you don't feel well?"

Jasmine looked up, and just about to shake her head, she realized that Qiaoqiao was winking at her. She immediately understood what Qiaoqiao meant, and she stopped talking, and her face gradually turned red.

Everyone in the room also heard her voice, and rushed over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Jasmine blushed even more: "It's okay, it's okay, I just want to go back to the house and rest for a while."

Ning began to show off now, pointing to his son's head and said: "I have never seen such a brat like you, I really don't know how to be considerate, look, you have been away for several months, and you don't know how to go to Jasmine's side when you come back." Ask how your body is? That belly is your child!"

Cheng Zhigao probably wanted to get close to him but he didn't have the guts, he just smiled naively, his slightly dark face couldn't tell whether it was red or not, he just walked to Jasmine's side and extended his hand to the daughter-in-law whom he hadn't seen in the past few months , held her arm, and lifted her up carefully: "Go, let me help you to rest for a while."

"En." Jasmine lowered her head and responded lightly.

After the two walked out, Cheng Zhiyuan also returned to the room tired, saying that he wanted to sleep for a while.

Cheng Daman said: "Which date is the third boy of my brother's family? Are you sure?"

"Well, to be sure, I just asked a few days ago, the ninth day of next month."

"Well, have you prepared any gift money?"

"I've already prepared it. It's up to you to say."

Qiaoqiao sat on the small bench, seemingly doing the work in hand seriously, but in fact, her ears had already been pricked up.

"This is some of the money I earned this time. Zhigao, I asked him to stay, but this kid didn't agree, so I took half of it. It's all for you. After a while, you go to the town to fight for a long life." Lock."

"There are so many?" Ning looked at the silver in his hand in surprise.

"Well, that family also has some money. Seeing that we are very satisfied with the work we do, we rewarded them more. These rewards are more than the wages." Cheng Daman said happily.

"Well, this time the eldest brother's three boys are getting married, we will also pay more gift money. The elder brother has not lived very spaciously these years. The marriage of these three children and the dowry of a daughter almost emptied the family. "Ning sighed.

"Yeah, look at how smart my husband is. We will have three children, all of whom are smart and capable. In the future, none of them will have a bad life." Cheng Daman said proudly.

Ning Shi gave him a funny look, Cheng Daman was taken aback, and his heart started to itch. He looked at his daughter, rubbed his hands, and walked over to Ning Shi to wink.After Ning understood what he meant, she gave him a hard look, but didn't speak, and counted the scattered copper coins with her head down.

Qiaoqiao is a small person, she stood up after a while, rubbed her eyes and said: "Mom, I got up early today, I will be a little sleepy again, go to sleep and go back to sleep."

Before she opened her door, Qiaoqiao heard her father ouch, as if she was twisted by her mother's skillful hand, she burst out laughing and entered the door.

(End of this chapter)