Early the next morning, Lu Zhong drove to the city and returned at noon.

Lu Xiaoyi heard the sound of the courtyard door, and hurriedly went to open the door, and Xiao Ding and Xiao Geng followed.

Yulan had just made lunch, and when she heard the sound, she came out of the stove room happily, wiped her hands on her apron, and stepped forward to help carry the basket, Lu Zhong waved her hand and said, "Don't worry about it, I can do it alone." ”

A basket of meat and a basket of meat go into the water and move to the backyard to put it down.

Yulan hurriedly scooped hot water from the pot for Lu Zhong to wash his hands and face, and called Xiao Yi Xiaoding to help serve the food, Xiao Geng is small, and is mainly responsible for holding chopsticks.

Lu Zhong's cheeks were red, he went to the front yard to change into clean clothes before going to the canteen to eat, sat down in the old position, looked at the spiky bowl of white rice, and said happily: "Heh! White rice, I haven't eaten it in a long time. Looking at his wife and children again, there was less rice and more sweet potatoes in the bowl, so he hurriedly pushed the white rice to Yulan, "Give the children a point, and give me a whole sweet potato to eat, you know that I love to eat that thing." ”

Yulan glanced at him, pushed the white rice back in front of Lu Zhong, and said, "You have to eat it if you love it or not, and you have so many words to eat a bowl of white rice." ”

Xiao Ding gave Lu Zhong vegetables and said obediently: "Dad, you can eat, our family is the hardest for you." ”

"Hurry up and eat, do you have to make a statement to the children?" Magnolia also urged.

Lu Zhong smiled, took the bowl and ate it, and after eating and cleaning up, Lu Zhong took out the money bag and talked to Yulan about selling meat, "Our pigs are fat, and the fat is thick, and they sell quickly." ”

Lu Zhong pushed the money bag in front of Yulan, and Yulan beckoned the children to come and count, Lu Xiaoyi was the most active, and gave himself a lot of points, Xiao Ding gave him a little less, and Xiao Geng the least.

Lu Zhong watched the children chattering and counting the money, and his heart was very satisfied, "This is all your credit." ”

Yulan was a little proud, "I've been raising it for a year, so it's strange if it's not fat!" I estimate that it is more than 200 pounds! ”

Lu Zhong stared at Yulan and said with a smile: "The gross weight is two hundred and twenty-five catties, and after slaughtering the meat, it will be more than one hundred and eighty catties, leaving thirty catties of meat and the whole set of sewer, and all the others are sold out, and I have collected two and two hundred and fifty wen." ”

Yulan was very happy when she heard that she had more than two taels of income, glanced at the child who counted the money, and said with a smile: "With so much money, can they count it?" ”

was underestimated, Lu Xiaoyi was unconvinced: "Hmph! I can count the amount of money! Look, a hundred articles in a string, it's much easier that way. ”

Xiao Geng was interrupted and forgot to count the number, and pouted angrily and complained, "Don't disturb me!" I forgot again. ”

Yulan saw that he couldn't count dozens of copper coins repeatedly, so anxious that she scratched her ears and cheeks, sneered, counted them by the children, and talked to Lu Zhong about the New Year's ceremony.

Lu Zhong said: "You arrange it." ”

Yulan pursed her lips and smiled, and said slowly: "It's still on par with previous years!" The old people on both sides are the same, ten catties of meat and a jar of wine, plus two boxes of five catties of tea with sugar, and you look at the dim sum to buy some soft ones, and the basket goes into the water to catch up with Ming'er to clean up a table of wine and food, and invites the second brother and sister-in-law to come over for a meal. ”

Lu Zhong nodded, "Our family's income is good this year, I wanted to prepare more New Year's gifts for the old man and buy you a few new clothes, but I thought that I would buy calves and piglets in the spring, so I had to wait for you to make up for it next year." ”

Yulan said: "There are many places to use money at home, don't make a few small dollars to buy food and clothing, let some people in the village look at it, and think how much money we have earned?" If there are many red-eyed people, the words that come out will not be good, and maybe there will be a few more cars to grab guests from you. ”

Lu Xiaoyi strung up the hundred articles in his hand and interjected: "Mother, the mouth grows on other people's faces, and others can say whatever they like, besides, who can tell what will happen next year?" Maybe our dad still can't look down on the business of carrying passengers, so he will change to other money-making businesses! Lu Xiaoyi said that the other money-making businesses refer to the dry food business that she had in mind, but the alkaline soil has not yet arrived, and it is too early to say it, and the last time she mentioned the dry food business, it seems that Lu Zhong Yulan is not very interested, and she must wait until the naan pit technology is fully mature before she can put the dry food business on the agenda again.

Yulan glanced at Lu Xiaoyi, "The passenger business is doing well, what to change?" ”

Lu Xiaoyi shrugged his shoulders and continued to count the money, and soon, Xiao Yi and Xiao Ding had counted, and Xiao Geng was still fighting against those dozens of texts.

The more anxious Xiao Geng became, the more he couldn't count them, and pushed the small pile of copper coins in his hand in front of Lu Xiaoyi, and pouted: "Sister, you help me count, I can't get along with this money." ”

Lu Xiaoyi folded his sleeves and pretended to be vicious: "What? How dare you get along with this money! It's not boring anymore, get out of the way and see how the eldest sister cleans it up! After speaking, he winked at Xiao Geng, opened his fingers together, flattened the copper coin, and counted them quickly.

Two runs and two hundred and fifty texts, one son is not bad.

Yulan happily put away the money, took out a few hundred pieces of loose money for Lu Zhong, and asked him to go to the city in the afternoon to buy New Year's gifts.

After Lu Zhong left, Yulan carried the wooden bucket to the well to clean up the pigs, Lu Xiaoyi and Xiao Ding had to go with them to help, Yulan only took Xiao Yi and let Xiao Ding take care of Xiao Geng at home.

In the cold winter, the water accumulated into ice, but the well water was very mild, and there was no biting chill in the imagination, and Magnolia lifted the water a little farther away from the wellhead, so as not to dirty the well water and be said.

Lu Xiaoyi touched the slippery pork belly and pig intestines, smelled the fishy smell of the water, and felt a little nervous, she tried her best to restrain herself from wanting to regurgitate. Being in a farmhouse, feeding pigs and chickens and doing housework, cutting wheat and planting seedlings to do farm work, can't raise a delicate tender meat, and can't create an otherworldly and beautiful temperament, not to mention a unique and admirable face, she is an ordinary person, ordinary in her previous life, even more so in this life, with calluses in the palms of her hands, frozen bags on the backs of her hands, wrinkles on her face, and frozen bags on her toes.

At this time, a woman washing pickles came over, and Yulan greeted from afar: "Sister-in-law Feng, wash vegetables!" ”

Lu Xiaoyi also shouted Aunt Feng.

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family responded enthusiastically, put the pickles on the stone slab on the side, carried a bucket of water and put it down next to Yulan, saw the pig intestines in Yulan's hand, and said loudly: "Ouch, your pigs have been slaughtered?" ”

"Well, if you eat it again, it's like that, so you just slaughter it and save food."

"Not to mention, I also found out that this pig will not grow fat when it reaches the wax moon, and it will not grow fat if it is fed again, but it is just a waste of food."

Yulan smiled: "I raise pigs that are dragged and consumed, it can't die of hunger and can't get fat, how can there be a sister-in-law who can do it, three pigs a year are fat and strong." ”

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family is a well-known pig expert, and she can earn back a few taels of silver from the pig every year, listening to Yulan praise her, her face suddenly smiled, and she said modestly: "The sister of the Lu family is really good at talking, how can I be as capable as you say, not all the children in the family have more helpers, and one person will help the pigs." ”

"My sister-in-law is not only capable, but she is also capable of raising children."

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family was even happier, "Outsiders see that they are capable, in fact, they are the mountain monkeys that grow in the wilderness, chasing dogs and cats all day long, climbing over walls and trees, and I have a headache to death, how can I compare with your family, Xiao Yi is smart and capable, Xiao Ding is well-behaved and sensible, Xiao Geng is like a lucky doll and is particularly painful!" ”

It was Yulan's turn to be humble and said a few words of humility.

Lu Xiaoyi has become accustomed to the regular way of talking to daughters-in-law in the village, first praising each other's ability, and then extending it to each other's children, waiting until they are finished touting each other, and then getting to the point: gossip!

Sure enough, after asking the price of pork, the daughter-in-law of the Feng family glanced at Lu Xiaoyi, who was squatting next to her and carefully cleaning the pork belly, leaned into Yulan's ear and whispered, "Eh, have you heard of it?" ”

Yulan was at a loss, "Have you heard anything?" ”

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family glanced at Lu Xiaoyi again, and said in a voice that she thought was very low: "The Chen family's life with Yang Tu's brother has been lived. ”

Lu Xiaoyi heard it clearly, but pretended not to hear it, and rubbed his head hard.

"I haven't heard of it." Yulan usually doesn't like to inquire about the rights and wrongs of other people's homes, even if she hears someone tell her, she doesn't like to participate, at most she talks to Lu Zhong in private.

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family continued: "I also listened to what the second sister-in-law Yang said, and the custody can't be wrong!" The son of the Chen family, who was widowed at a young age, tossed indiscriminately for two years, and his reputation was also ruined, and now he is living with the boss of the Yang family, she has found the right person, Boss Yang has the physical strength and body to work and make money, except for being older and old-fashioned, what else is not better than the Zhang family! There are other cats and dogs that steal fish, and they can't be compared! ”

Yulan smiled and said: "Everyone has their own life, it should be her fate, and she can't go around other people's homes." ”

"In my opinion, Chen Sijia must have understood it, what is the use of a man relying on two mouths, talking nonsense, he has no other fart skills, it is useless after a long time, it is better to find a real person to live."

Yulan nodded, "What my sister-in-law said is that you have to find an honest person to live." ”

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family said: "As the saying goes, 'I'd rather look for the old than the young', and the older ones know how to be considerate, and the life is comfortable." After speaking, he sighed: "Hey! I just don't know her water-based Yang Hua's temperament, can the boss of the Yang family clean it up? ”

Yulan said: "Everyone has their own bitterness, who is not bitter water to swallow by themselves, sweet to outsiders!" After speaking, he put the cleaned pig intestines in his hand into the basket and asked Xiao Yi, "Have you washed it?" ”

Lu Xiaoyi knew that her mother was unwilling to talk to the Feng family's daughter-in-law, so she hurriedly said: "Wash it, mother, my feet are frozen to death, let's go back quickly!" ”

Yulan smiled and said to the Feng family's daughter-in-law, "Has my sister-in-law finished washing?" Why don't I wash it for you? ”

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family had a ball of pickled vegetables, which had already been washed, and said with a smile: "No, no, I have also washed it, and the child's feet are frozen and go back quickly, I will carry a bucket of water and then leave." ”

Yulan packed up the pig, said goodbye to the Feng family's daughter-in-law, and took Xiaoyi home.

Along the way, Yulan was educating Xiaoyi: "There are many people in the village, maybe if you say something today, it will change tomorrow, and someone will come to the door to scold you the day after tomorrow." You have to remember: when talking in front of people, you should have more flowers and fewer thorns. ”

"A variety of flowers and less thorns?" Lu Xiaoyi wondered.

Magnolia explained: "How beautiful it is to plant flowers, it makes everyone's hearts happy, and it makes everyone unhappy." ”

He also said: "How other people's families live is someone else's business, let's listen to it and don't care, but don't talk too much." Usually get along with neighbors, talk more about the good of others, and less about the bad of others, not to blindly please others, but to maintain harmony in face. ”

Lu Xiaoyi nodded, looking thoughtful.

When Yulan saw that she was willing to learn, she was happy, and she walked much briskly.

In the evening, Lu Zhong bought the New Year's gift back and showed it to Yulan in the same way, and was praised by her, Lu Zhong smiled very happily.

Magnolia pointed to the meat basket and asked, "How do you divide the hind legs from the five flowers?" ”

Lu Zhong slipped out the five flowers, looked at them repeatedly, and said, "Cut ten catties of pork belly for your father and mother, they like to eat fat when they are old." ”

Yulan handed over the kitchen knife, "You cut it, and when you finish cutting, you will send it to your father and mother, and by the way, ask them to come over for lunch tomorrow." ”

When they went to the West Courtyard to give New Year's gifts, the three Xiaoyi sisters and brothers shouted that they wanted to follow.

Lu Zhong distributed the New Year's gift to them, Lu Xiaoyi carried five catties of sugar, Xiao Ding carried two boxes of snacks, Xiao Geng held two boxes of tea, Lu Zhong held the wine jar in his right hand and meat in his left hand, and happily took the children to the West Courtyard.

Mrs. Lu opened the door with a smile, and only saw Xiao Geng in her eyes, picked up her grandson and walked straight to the hall.

Lu Zhong put down the New Year's gift, and Lu Shouzeng excused himself: "Why do you send so much, you are also a family and a well-known person, you can't live such a luxurious life, take back the meat and sugar, just leave me some tea and snacks." ”

Lu Zhong smiled: "Dad, this is what we should honor you, don't shirk." ”

Lu Xiaoyi and Xiaoding also helped to persuade, Lu Shouzeng accepted it with a smile, and after asking about the price of meat and pigs, he chatted with Lu Zhong about a few other things.

Lu Zhong saw that it was already dark, and after saying that he would invite him to dinner tomorrow, he took his children back to the East Courtyard.

After dinner, I washed up the kang in the morning, and there was nothing to say all night.