Besides, we’ll have lunch at ho today, so we can eat this pig’s blood.
Everyone was a skilled worker, so by eleven o’clock, the at had already been divided.
Zhou Yongbing cut off a large piece of at, wanting to share it with the three of them.
"Our family still has at, you need more, we are real relatives. No need for these superficial niceties."
Zhou Yongbing nodded appreciatively, and took the at into the kitchen.
"Xiao Bing, don’t eat this at. You all keep it. We’re going to stew pig’s blood for lunch today."
Lunch consisted of two trays of cornal buns. Underneath was stewed sauerkraut, and pork blood stir-fried with scallions. It also contained chili peppers. The taste was exceptionally good.
In the afternoon, four n ground white flour, and Zhou Yongbing also purchased six hundred jin of white flour to take back for the three sisters.
As it was getting dark, Sun Yun arrived by cart, bringing two and a half bags of sweet potato starch and four bags of noodles, both wide and thin.
Zhou Yongbing hurried to give him money, including yesterday’s pig money.
In fact, Zhao Qingjie had already sent the money to his in-laws’ house in the morning.
Zhou Yongbing relaxed only when he saw there were no formalities.
They went to Zhao Qingjie’s house for dinner that night. Qi Xue i didn’t co over today; she was preparing at ho.
The two sisters-in-law had already agreed. Dinner tonight would be at the Second Brother’s house, and tomorrow lunch at the eldest’s house.
They also agreed that each family would provide ten jin of cotton, a bag of sweet potato flour, and each family would give two bags of sweet potatoes and potatoes. As for dried cabbage and dried radish, they would give whatever seed right. Each family provided twenty large winter lons for the sisters to divide.
Lastly, they would give twenty yuan, since this was the last daughter of the Zhao family to marry. All five siblings of the Zhao family were now settled.
That evening, Zhou Yongbing sat on the donkey cart, looking at the pile of goods.
"Xiao Li, isn’t this too much?"
"I also think it’s quite a lot. It’s okay, in the future, if we have anything good, we can think of them; we are real siblings."
"Alright, next ti I go out and see sothing we don’t have here, I’ll think of bringing it back for Big Brother and the others."
Zhao Yanli nodded with a smile. She preferred it this way. This would keep her close to her parents’ family.
The next day, the couple packed up their belongings at ho.
Zhao Yanli had discussed with Li Hongxiang that she would take back a tin stove and so things she needed.
Li Hongxiang had no objections, so the two of them slowly loaded the cart.
At noon, they rode Second Sister’s donkey cart to Big Brother’s house for lunch.
When they arrived to pick them up, Zhao Xiaojing had already delivered the goods. She gave the sa things as her two sisters-in-law.
They would have dinner at their house that evening, and the next day the couple would leave.
By evening, the couple had loaded everything they needed to bring back onto the cart. It was fully loaded. The next morning, after breakfast, the full Zhao family ca over to see them off.
Now, the nights were much colder, so their return journey would be quicker.
Five days later in the afternoon, they arrived ho. The couple unloaded their belongings; after all, the Zhao siblings had given them things, as had Zhao Yanping.
After unloading, Zhao Yanli stayed ho to start a fire and cook.
Zhou Yongbing drove to the Zhang Family, telling Zhao Yanping that the gifts were from the three siblings. They also gave so cotton for making quilts.
Originally, Zhao Yanli herself had kept over a hundred jin of cotton. The three families gave an additional thirty jin.
The Zhang Family also needed cotton; preparations for the children couldn’t be lacking.
When the Old Zhou couple returned that evening, seeing so much extra stuff at ho, they sighed, realizing farm life wasn’t as bad as they had imagined.
Seeing the grains and vegetables, and at, it’s hard to even buy these on short notice even if you want to.
Mr. Zhou looked at the two bags of soybeans excitedly, soaked three jin of soybeans. Tomorrow they would have soy milk and tofu.
"Mom, I also bought white flour for my three sisters. Xiao Bing isn’t back yet, so I’ll deliver it to them later."
"Hehe, they’re lucky, you bought it for them. Do we also have to deliver it? Let them co themselves to get it. Let your dad bike to call them."
Zhao Yanli laughed; her mother-in-law wanted the sisters-in-law to co over for dinner.
She wasn’t the stingy type, so she quickly cut off a piece of at.
"Mom, how about cornal buns with noodle-at stew tonight? And add so potatoes?"
"Alright. We’ll also serve them dinner," the elder said, a smile on her face despite her words.
Mr. Zhou, after soaking the soybeans, went to the three daughters’ hos.
The Zhou family sisters heard they bought white flour, and there would be noodle-at stew for dinner. So, all three families pushed their carts over.
The three sisters were also cooking in the main room.
"Xiao Li, if we had known you a few years earlier, we wouldn’t have starved those years."
"Third Sister, there wasn’t much to eat at the farm during those tis. When we ca over, if it weren’t for my little sister’s support, we siblings would have starved.
During those drought years, it was my little sister who provided us with food.
Thinking of those two years makes want to cry.
The grains we worked so hard to plant yielded nothing. Fortunately, we siblings listened to my sister and planted more sweet potatoes and potatoes. Otherwise, forget about my two brothers’ wages and tasks, even our food would’ve been a problem.
I don’t like to eat winter lons now because I got sick of them back then.
But thinking back, if it weren’t for those winter lons, we might have starved to death."
"Was the farm really that difficult?"
"Wasn’t it? Our head was quite decisive. My sister’s land was near the water pit, so even during the drought, there wasn’t a loss in yield.
Our head directly sold grain to the farm workers."
"Your head was really impressive."
"Weren’t they? There were no workers at the farm who didn’t respect them. Everyone knew selling grain like that was a mistake. But at that ti, if people had nothing to eat, they would starve."
"That’s really good. Having such a head is a blessing."
"Isn’t it?"
"Big Sister, this is the pickled vegetables I made myself, take so ho to taste."
"Xiao Li, doesn’t all of this tire you out?"
"Second Sister, I do get tired, but I’m okay, I have my siblings. Once I moved out on my own, I was so tired that I cried.
But seeing my younger sister working on her own too, what right did I have to cry?
However, if you work hard, you can earn quite a lot of money. Definitely more than your wages.
It’s just exhausting. During spring planting and fall harvest, I didn’t co ho for lunch, just took food in the morning and worked until midnight."
"It’s really not easy."
"Yes, it’s tough. Luckily, in recent years, we have fertilizers and pesticides, which increase production and save weeding work."
The three Zhou sisters had never fard, so they could only imagine what their sister-in-law described.
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