The third sister and brother were much luckier than the four people in the second room, Qingsong carried Qingying on his back, Gu Qingzhu took a pair of things, ran all the way home, and entered the house, the rain caught up, and the big raindrops knocked out small pits in the mud in the courtyard, splashing water.

The rain hits the window lattice, the eaves weave the rain curtain, the water gurgles under the wall, goes around the house, the three sisters and brothers are eating the warm meals on the stove in the kitchen, these days are busy picking tea, most of the time they are boiling a pot of porridge, with pickles, today the eldest sister cooked, made a meal with color and flavor, the two small ones ate with a satisfied face, and the corners of their mouths were stained with oil.

The heavy rain came and went quickly, and it turned into a light rain after a while, and it fell until the afternoon, Gu Qingsong had gone to Wen Shu, Qingying was next to Sister A, and after a while, the chick dozed off like a chicken, Gu Qingzhu hugged her to sleep, afraid that the thunder would startle her, so he took out a needle and thread, and sat on the edge of the bed to embroider a handkerchief with her.

"Qingzhu?" There was a call from outside the courtyard.

Gu Qingzhu stood up, and through the window, he saw Liang Mancang standing outside the bamboo fence in a robe.

"Brother Mancang, what's the matter?" Gu Qingzhu wore a hat and trotted up to him and asked.

"I just went into the mountain to see the trap, and saw that the water in the stream overflowed, and many fish jumped into the grass, so I picked it up. Liang Mancang said, handing her a large piece of banana leaf wrapped in something.

"You keep this for yourself, I'll go out and pick it up later." Gu Qingzhu shook his head.

"I just happened to meet it, how can there be a fish white waiting for you to pick up." Liang Mancang grinned, "Besides, this fish is too small, I can't get used to eating it, I'm afraid of getting stuck in my throat." ”

"Okay, when I'm done, I'll give you a bowl to taste, it's crispy and fragrant." When Gu Qingzhu saw him say this, he stretched out his hand to take it.

Open the banana leaves and look at them, sure enough, they are all small fish that are inches long, this kind of fish is born in the mountain spring water, and it is not big, but it is spring at this time, and it is still fat.

"Oh, what the hell is the neighbor, brother and sister, it's really good, this will be pulling and pulling, let me see what kind of good thing it is?" As they were talking, the old lady of the village, Mrs. Ma, came over with a basket on her shoulder, her eyes swirling on the banana leaves.

Gu Qingzhu covered the banana leaves, and said with a straight face: "You are old, don't talk nonsense, when will we pull and pull!" ”

This old woman doesn't know whether she is confused in her age, or she has a bad mind and is crazy, on weekdays, not only likes to take advantage of others, but also always likes to catch wind and gossip in the village, often make people quarrel with other people, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law turn against each other, if you really want to investigate it, she looks innocent and scared, and the people in the village know her character, they are far away from her, and they don't talk to her very much.

"Hehe, I'm just going to tell you, what's the matter?" Mrs. Ma snorted indifferently.

"If you say that, why don't you go with me to the village chief to judge!" Gu Qingzhu couldn't help but get angry when he saw her like this.

"Come on, come on, such a big thing still bothers the village chief, no wonder your second aunt said that you are the most tricky." Mrs. Ma turned her head and walked away angrily.

Gu Qingzhu was angry with this old lady for a while, because she was old, and it was not easy to quarrel with her.

"Forget it, don't be like this old woman." Liang Mancang had just come back, and he didn't know Mrs. Ma's nature, so he comforted Gu Qingzhu and turned around and went home.

Gu Qingzhu returned to the kitchen and slowly cleaned up the fish, Qingying woke up from a nap, saw a pot of live fish, was very happy, and volunteered to help Sister A, but most of the time she was a helper, her face was stained with fish scales on her hands, and she also hugged the little turtle and teased it with the small fish.

The pot of fish was busy until the evening before it was cleaned, and it was slightly salted with salt, Gu Qingzhu went to the inner room to scoop half a scoop of white noodles, put it in an open clay pot, poured the pickled small fish into it, and wrapped it in a thin layer of flour one by one.

"Sister, what are you doing delicious?" Gu Qingying was burning the fire in the stove and asked expectantly.

"Let's fry dried fish today, what do you want to eat?" Gu Qingzhu poured oil into the pot and asked with a smile.

"I want to eat fragrant, sweet and sour." Gu Qingying sighed and said longingly.

"Okay, sister, I'll make a sweet and sour fried fish today." Gu Qingzhu nodded.

When the oil pan is hot, a noodle fish slides into the pan, boiling out large oil flowers, wait for a while, wait for a while, when one side is yellow, then flip to the other side, and slowly move the spatula in the pan until the noodle fish is fried until golden brown.

Gu Qingzhu fried three pots in a row, enough to fill two large sea bowls, she picked some of the big ones and kept them, and the rest were divided into five plates.

Put some water in the pot, put sugar and bayberry sauce to boil, stir slowly, low heat between the stoves, let the bottom of the pot gurgle out small bubbles, Gu Qingzhu tasted a little black and red juice, sweet and sour, and boiled for a while, the juice became thicker and thicker, scooped up and dripped from the spatula, like a coherent oily silk thread.

The sweet and sour sauce is poured over the freshly fried dried fish one by one, and you can clearly hear a slight sizzling sound.

"It smells so good." Gu Qingying stretched out her little tongue and licked her lower lip.

"I washed my hands and asked my brother to come and eat together." Seeing her like this, Gu Qingzhu scratched her little nose.

"Brother, come on!" Gu Qingying washed her hands and called Qingsong like a gust of wind.

The brother and sister sat down and ate the fish, the sweet and sour taste made people want to eat it, and the fried fish bones became soft, and the mouth was full of crispy and fragrant chews.

Gu Qingzhu said to Qingsong: "There are still four plates here, you can send them to Brother Mancang, Brother Qingshan, Zhaodi and Tie Dan later." ”

"Okay, I'll go." Gu Qingsong ate the fish in two bites, packed the vegetables in a bamboo basket, covered them with oilcloth, and sent them separately.

When Qingsong arrived at Zhao Di's house, Zheng Jialu's father and daughter were preparing to have dinner, and on the table was just a pot of sour bamboo shoots and fried wild cabbage, two bowls of wild vegetable noodle soup, and a basket of nests.

Qin knew that Gu Qingzhu was the best at cooking, and some inconspicuous ingredients could be turned into delicious in her hands, so she was not surprised at all by this plate of sweet and sour fried dried fish.

Sun didn't think that Gu Qingzhu's vegetables were delicious, but he felt sorry for the noodles and oil of those fried fish, besides, instead of wasting time tossing the fish that had no meat and many spines, it was better to feed all the chickens, and at least they could change one or two eggs.

And Liang Mancang really didn't expect fish to have this way of eating, when he was young, his family was a hunter, he ate a lot of meat, and the fish and shrimp rarely touched, and then in the army, most of the gang leaders burned a pot of stewed vegetables, Hulala ate something, occasionally encountered a special task, really fell to the sake of eating game, and most of them would choose pheasants and hares to roast and eat, fish bones are meaty, and basically will not be caught.

Gu Qingzhu heated up the leftover meals at noon, and with the sweet and sour dried fish, the three sisters and brothers happily ate dinner, and the remaining big ones were simmered with some dried chili peppers and soybean sauce the next day, and it was another meal.

As soon as the Qingming Festival passed, the weather improved, the tea leaves in the tea garden have grown crazy to the old height, the two leaves and one heart of the sparrow tongue came out of an inch, the whole tea tree seems to have swelled a circle, and the periphery is full of fresh and oily young leaves with the wind.

This tea, even if it is only two acres, two or three people can't finish picking it in a day, Gu Qingzhu picks those fully unfolded tea leaves first, and makes sparrow tongue tea cakes, it is necessary to choose the kind of young leaves that are fully displayed and tightly wrapped, such tea is made like a bird's slightly open tongue, hence the name.

Gu Qingzhu is busy every day, Zhao Di occasionally comes to help her, but most of the time, she has to help the eldest girl's family, Liang Mancang still sells the tea of Gu Shifu's family, and the price in Cuiping Town is getting lower and lower.

Every three or four days, Gu Qingzhu has to carry tea cakes to the Sansheng Tea Store in Nancang County to sell, in order to hurry, Gu Qingzhu is finally willing to spend a penny to take a ride, so that she can rest in the car for a while and take a nap.

The price of Peacock Tongue Tea Cake has dropped from the original 80 Wen all the way to today, it has fallen to 50 Wen, which is the price of hard slice tea compared to last year, but now there are still three days before Gu Yu.

"Shopkeeper Han, why is the price of tea cakes so low this year?" Gu Qingzhu put the more than three hundred yuan he had just sold today in his purse and asked worriedly.

"Oh, don't talk about you, even our tea mountain, it's also very sad, this tea is not picked, it's a pity, but it can be picked, the money from the sale, in addition to the wages of the tea pickers, and then to meet the expenses on the mountain, there is not much left." Han Shouyi shook his head and sighed.

"I heard Qiusheng say last time that there is a new tea-making technique in the south...... Gu Qingzhu asked hesitantly.

"This was originally said by a tea merchant from out of town, but now there is no follow-up, and I don't know whether it is true or not." Han Shouyi stopped what he was doing, raised his eyelids slightly, glanced at Gu Qingzhu, and then said, "However, this is probably not groundless, at least the price of tea cakes has not rebounded, Uncle Qian of Changlong bought a lot of Ming Qian tea last time, and in the end he couldn't sell the capital, and he still smashed it in his hands at this time, it was a deal of tens of thousands." ”

"In this way, the price of tea before the rain may not be much better." Hearing this, Gu Qingzhu's heart became heavier and heavier.

"It's good to be able to keep the current price." When Han Shouyi said this, he didn't seem to have much confidence.

Gu Qingzhu was really a little depressed when he heard this, the tea before the rain was still like this, when it came to picking four stubble hard pieces, wouldn't he even be able to earn money for his foot power?

Gu Qingzhu bought some food in the county seat, and then turned back, thinking all the way, but there was no clue, unconsciously, she had climbed the Cockscomb Mountain, now it is spring, the days are getting longer, at this time, although it is already afternoon, but the sun is still hanging brightly overhead.

Looking at the golden-roofed yellow wall of the Temple of Mercy and Grace on the lotus blossom in the distance, Gu Qingzhu touched the red rattan bracelet, turned around his wrist a few times, thought about it again and again, and finally did not go to the entrance of Gujiaao, but pulled his legs and walked towards the Wild Wolf Valley.