frightfiction Chapter 227 Village Life (1)
Chapter 227 Village Life (1)
Xia Qingyue looked at them and said sincerely:
"You built our house, prepared for our wedding, and took care of everything. You treated us like family members. We should do the same. We are one family and don't have different opinions, okay?"
Han Zhibai nodded in agreement with a sincere look on his face.
Chen Dawei and the three young men of the Li family were undecided and looked at Li Benfu in unison.
After thinking for a while, Li Benfu looked at Xia Qingyue lovingly with red eyes. Two or three layers of wrinkles gradually appeared on the cheekbones on his dark face. He showed a simple smile, "Okay!"
"There is an open space next to the chicken, duck and rabbit farm in the backyard. We have extra mud bricks from building a house, so we can build a smaller pigpen."
The Li family hasn't raised pigs for several years, and they are very excited about this.
Not long after I finished eating the snacks, the meal was ready. There was meat, vegetables, soup, and the staple food was brown rice.
Li Benfu said that the brown rice was bought from the town and the price was more than twice as expensive as what he bought a few months ago.
It was already noon when Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai finished their lunch. The things that were on Xiaohei's back had long been unloaded by the two brothers Li Weikang and placed under the eaves. They came out and sorted them one by one, put the fresh vegetables in the kitchen, and hung the smoked chicken, duck and fish on the stove.
She specially brought two double-flavored pots and a charcoal stove as gifts for the Li family.
The Li family members found it strange and asked curiously what a double-flavored pot was.
Han Zhibai explained to them that this was a shuangyan hotpot, what it was used for, and how it differed from ordinary pots.
After hearing this, the Li family was amazed.
Xia Qingyue suggested: "How about this, we prepare some ingredients this afternoon and make hot pot tonight. It's cold anyway, and it will warm us up."
After hearing the description of the hot pot, Li Weikang felt a little hungry and said excitedly: "Okay, we will kill a chicken and stew soup later, and then go to the river to catch some fish."
"Let's go to the river now." Li Weikan turned around and ran to his own utility room to find fish cages, and soon came out with several cages.
Han Zhibai took the two fish cages and said, "I'll go with you."
Chen Dawei said: "We haven't bought any fish yet, so we need to catch more fish!" We will need them for the wedding tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
"Let's all go. There are many people fishing by the river, but there are more people than fish. I'm afraid it won't be easy to catch the fish." Li Benfu ran into the house and took out two large backpacks.
Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai looked at each other at the same time, and they were both thinking that it would take several hours to walk down the mountain. Not only was it inconvenient to carry live fish, but they would die halfway through the journey. Otherwise, they would have to bring more live fish down the mountain.
In this way, the men in the family went to the river together with great enthusiasm. The two little ones loved to join in the fun and followed them happily.
Only Chen Yuzhen and Xia Qingyue were left in the yard.
"Qingyue, are you sleepy? Do you want to go back to your room and take a nap?"
She guessed that Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai would go down the mountain today, so she changed all the bedding into clean ones early in the morning.
"Aunt, I'm not sleepy. Come, I have something to give you." Xia Qingyue led the other party into the main room, slightly opened the collar of her cloak, and took out a few slender objects made of bamboo tubes from the cloth bag that was slung over her inner duck down clothes.
Chen Yuzhen took it in her hand and examined it. "Hey, what is this? It looks a bit like a fire stick."
"Unscrew it and rotate it like this." Xia Qingyue picked up a tube to demonstrate, and a rose-red paste slowly rose from the bamboo tube.
"This is lip balm." She rubbed some of the cream with her index finger and applied it to the back of her hand. Her fair skin was stained with a bright red and slightly shiny.
"This thing is very expensive, why did you give me so much at once?
I've heard people say before that lip balm, rouge, and powder are very expensive in the county town. The cheapest ones cost several hundred coins each, while the most expensive ones can cost more than ten or twenty taels!"
Xia Qingyue had guessed that such things would be expensive in ancient times, so she was not surprised. "We made these, not bought them."
The paste is made of dried roses and camellia flowers, ground into fine powder, and added with beeswax and an appropriate amount of camellia oil.
She also spent some time researching with Han Zhibai about the bamboo tube that holds the paste, and finally made it into one that was similar to the lipstick tube from her previous life.
"The rose is a little darker than the camellia, and this yellow one is lipstick. In winter, your mouth will be dry and chapped. Apply it at night and it will relieve the chapped lips in two days."
She opened a few and showed them to Chen Yuzhen.
Chen Yuzhen was dazzled and kept praising Xia Qingyue for her skillful hands.
Xia Qingyue smiled modestly and said that she learned it from a book.
"By the way, I also prepared some for Aunt Fang and Xiaoyu. Let's send them over later."
Chen Yuzhen said, "They are at home. Why don't we send them over now and stop by Huang's house to see how the winter clothes they made are doing?"
"Okay."
They packed up, locked the door and went to the Fang family next door.
Fang's father went fishing with the other men and was not at home. Only Fang's mother and daughter were at home.
After drinking a cup of warm brown sugar water, the steaming water vapor made Xia Qingyue's bright eyes sparkle. She took out the lipstick and lip balm that she had given to Fang's mother and daughter and taught them how to use them.
Their first reaction was the same as Chen Yuzhen's: they all thought it was too expensive.
After explaining that these things were made by herself and not bought, Xia Qingyue took a rose lip balm and began to paint along Fang Xiaoyu's lips.
Fang Xiaoyu sat upright, her hands tightly clasped on her knees, her eyes blinking continuously.
After the painting was finished, except for Fang Xiaoyu herself who couldn't see it, the other three people were filled with amazement.
Chen Yuzhen smiled and said, "It's really beautiful. Xiaoyu has fair skin. After applying it, she looks energetic and her eyebrows and eyes look more beautiful. Oh, I don't know how to say those words, but it's very good anyway."
Fang's mother also smiled as she looked at her daughter's changed look.
Xia Qingyue said sincerely: "Xiaoyu, you are so beautiful!"
Fang Xiaoyu's cheeks flushed and she ran out with her head down in shame, saying that she wanted to get a basin of water to look at it.
After sitting for a while at Fang's house, Xia Qingyue and Chen Yuzhen went to Huang's house.
Several custom-made sets of clothes, pants and shoes have been made, except for a few duck down quilts and two small children's sweaters.
Xia Qingyue picked up the finished clothes and shoes and looked over them. The stitching was fine and the style was just as she had imagined. It didn't look bulky and she felt warm after putting them on for a short while.
She was satisfied.
The Huang family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law said that the rest would be ready in another seven or eight days.
Xia Qingyue took away several sets of clothes that she had prepared so that she could wear them in the near future.
After leaving Huang's house, Chen Yuzhen took Xia Qingyue to the next door on the other side of her house, which was the small home of Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai.
"I have two sets of keys, one for you and one for me."
As she spoke, Chen Yuzhen handed over a bunch of keys and stuffed them into Xia Qingyue's hands, saying, "If you're not at the foot of the mountain, I'll open the door and go in to clean and tidy up sometimes."
Chen Yuzhen took out a key and showed it to Xia Qingyue first before she inserted it into the keyhole of the courtyard door and turned it.
The door opened and he pushed it open, and the scene in the courtyard immediately came into view.
The two of them walked in one after the other.
Xia Qingyue looked around.
The ground in the huge yard was rammed flat and firm, and several high walls made of adobe bricks and clay were built, about three meters high. They surrounded the house and yard, making it solid as a rock, giving a full sense of security.