When Qi Shufang saw He Jiuya again, it was at the foot of Beishan.

At this time, it has come out of the first month, the grass grows and the warbler flies, many women come out to collect firewood, dig wild vegetables, the mountains are full of people, the family has enough food to dig wild vegetables as vegetables, and the family food is not enough to dig wild vegetables to feed their stomachs.

Qi Shufang certainly belongs to the former.

In the early spring, every household did not have fresh vegetables, and after eating cabbage radish and all kinds of dried vegetables for a month, she was almost exhausted, she wanted to eat a little fresh and delicious fresh vegetables, so when Zhang Cuihua came to ask her to dig wild vegetables, she immediately agreed, mainly digging wild camellia, mother-in-law, amaranth, stir-fried, cold dressing, boiling soup, and making dumplings.

Qi Shufang prefers to eat dumplings stuffed with wild camelina, always picking up tender wild camelina vegetables, and is looking for wild vegetables along the ridge embankment, and when she looked up, she saw He Jiuya carrying a large bundle of firewood coming down from the North Mountain.

A huge bundle of firewood was heavily pressed on He Jiuya's back, and the whole person bent down, looking extremely pitiful.

Compared with the tall and dense forests and continuous West Mountain, the North Mountain is only a few dozen meters high, at most fifty or sixty meters, and the slopes are planted with crops, no forest is seen, and the members of Shannan Mountain and Shandong collect firewood to this mountain.

Of course, most of the firewood collected in the West Mountain is tree branches, and most of the firewood collected in the North Mountain is shrubs, which are dug up by the roots and burned well after drying.

Qi Shufang was very sympathetic to He Jiuya's fate, but she didn't know what to do to help He Jiuya instead of causing her trouble. She knew that it was not her fault that He Jiuya was replaced, but if she hadn't knitted a sweater by herself a few days ago, which attracted He Jiuya's words, He Jiuya would not have been beaten and scolded by Aunt He Qiya.

"Jiuya, you came out to collect firewood by yourself, so far?" Seeing that He Jiuya was caused by the inertia of going down the mountain, he stumbled under his feet and almost fell, Qi Shufang quickly got up and rushed over and helped her.

"Yes, third sister-in-law, the firewood at home is not enough to burn, my mother-in-law digs wild vegetables, and asks me to come out to collect firewood, and I like to pick up dung. ”

Xigui is He Jiuya's current husband, his big name is Zhou Fugui, and most people call him lame.

He Jiuya tightened the chai He who was tied with hemp rope, wiped the sweat from the corners of her forehead with her cuffs, and grinned at Qi Shufang, her face was yellow and thin, it was difficult to describe her spirit, it seemed to be the same as in her mother's house, and it seemed to be a little different, the only thing she didn't have was resentment, she didn't seem to have resentment against her parents, and it seemed that in her mind, changing relatives was a matter of course.

Qi Shufang sighed and said, "You must be tired and panicked after picking up so much firewood, stop and rest." ”

He Jiuya shook her head and refused, "I won't stop, I have to go home, spread out the firewood and dry it, and I have to go to the production team to grind cornmeal." My old woman said, when I grind the noodles, she will make me a nest head mixed with amaranth at noon, so that I can eat enough. I'm only able to eat cornmeal during the New Year. After saying that, he went in high spirits, but he didn't feel any tiredness.

Qi Shufang looked at her back, not knowing what to say.

Returning to the place where she was digging wild vegetables, Zhang Cuihua came over, "Shufang, what do you say to Jiuya? Although Jiuya said that he was a cripple, his life is much better than in his mother's house." ”

"She's having a bad time at her mother's house?" it is almost conceivable that she would not have been so excited because of Wowotou.

"What's good? His family has a large population and few laborers, so when doesn't he eat chaff vegetables? When he doesn't work, he eats wild vegetable soup twice a day, and it's so rare that you can see people. The food his family eats is sweet potato noodles, not a grain of rice can be eaten, let alone noodles, for their family, cornmeal is a luxury, every year to send some rice and wheat, his family immediately replaced with dried sweet potatoes. ”

Qi Shufang thought about it for a while, yes, one pound of wheat can be exchanged for four pounds of dried sweet potatoes, and one pound of rice can also be exchanged for three pounds, for people who can't eat enough all year round, wheat and rice are far less important than dried sweet potatoes, the latter is sufficient.

Speaking of cornmeal, when Qi Shufang returned home and wanted to cook, she found that her family's flour had also been consumed.

Not only did the flour run out, but even the staple foods prepared by the original body a year ago, such as pancakes, rolls, and wowotou, were also eaten by her.

Qi Shufang thought carefully about what the original body did, picked up the empty cloth bag and filled a small bag of wheat, a small bag of corn, and a small bag of dried sweet potatoes.

In rural areas, flour grinding is all done manually, and livestock are produced by the brigade, and they are not lent to private individuals unless it is a major event.

The wheat straw, corn stalks and straw left over from the harvest of crops in two seasons a year are all fodder for public livestock, which are dried and crushed with guillotines and then piled up into stacks and covered with straw mats, and are not allowed to be used by private individuals. They are relatively poor here, and the food is enough for everyone to make a living, so they can't allocate feed grain to feed the livestock at all, so the straw and straw are the main feed for the livestock.

This is also the reason why every household collects firewood by themselves, and they can't cook without collecting firewood.

Qi Shufang pushed the stone mill around, while thinking that there seemed to be little firewood left in her house, and she boiled hot water when she handled the game, and then it took a lot of firewood to stew the game, and she had to go into the mountains to collect firewood tomorrow.

The north mountain is full of shrubs, planing and digging, too tired, it is better to go to the west mountain, cut thatch, pick up branches, and cut shrubs.

The stone mill turned around again and again, Qi Shufang grinded the wheat first, and with her movements, the black rough noodles flowed out. The electric mill in the city can separate the bran, and the flour will appear very white, but the stone mill does not have this function. Moreover, wheat bran is also grain, and the majority of members are reluctant to separate it, and they are all ground together with the bran, so that a pound of wheat can grind nine taels of flour, and if you go to the bran, you can only get seven or eight taels of flour, which is not cost-effective.

After grinding wheat and corn, and finally grinding dried sweet potatoes, even if you can't clean the stone grind carefully, you won't feel too distressed to give it to the next person who comes to grind noodles.

Qi Shufang has a lot of strength, and she looks very relaxed when pushing the stone mill, and the flour she grinds out is relatively fine.

Wang Chunling came out to pour water and saw it, and exclaimed: "Shufang, the flour you grind is really fine, the same as sand." Unlike me, where is the cornmeal that is grinded, it is clearly corn ballast, and your eldest brother said that it is a clean throat. ”

Qi Shufang couldn't help but smile.

Grinding noodles is really not a light job, even if Qi Shufang was born with divine power, she also felt very tired, and she didn't know how others could bear this kind of labor intensity, so when she got home, she didn't have the heart to make bread dumplings, so she directly cut a little washed amaranth, mixed it with cornmeal, a little black flour, and a little salt, and steamed half a pot of wowotou, each as big as a fist.

The golden nest head is dotted with green amaranth leaves with a little purple meaning, which looks very beautiful.

Qi Shufang ate two pickles in a row, and was about to take the third one when she heard a shouting outside, "Shufang, Shufang, you dead girl, you know that I am coming, but you don't go out to greet me." ”

As soon as she heard this voice, Qi Shufang jumped up, ran quickly to the bedroom, threw all the dried game on the shelf into the box and locked it, and reproduced the scene before Shen Yaowu came to borrow clothes.

didn't have time to think deeply, Qi Shufang locked the lard jars and salt jars in the drawers of the chest of drawers into the closet, and didn't rest assured until there were no valuables outside except for bicycles, because it was not a human being, it was a locust from her mother's house!