In the bathhouse.

Dozens of the newly arrived Luzhou merchants were already lying on the massage kang and the rubbing kang, dead or alive, and fell asleep.

It's not like he's here to take a bath, it's like he's here to sleep, and he has to sleep in the bathhouse tonight, and whoever shouts won't move the place.

When we met, I said that I couldn't bear it after wandering for so long.

I'm about to freeze to death, but I'm going to be alive.

Then don't carry it.

Although we have a new shop in Erdaohe, there is no room for it here. Let you go into the village to live in each family, and your frozen heads are shaking like rattles, and you can't be sent into the village with a cotton quilt for free ox carts, not to say that you can't afford to toss.

But we will give you our place to live.

Tonight, we just don't sleep!

Squeeze it again, let the few families who build the kang on the ground be separated by boards, as long as you don't fall into the pot, how can you squeeze out your new team of 120 people.

At this time, the masters of the bathhouse, with an average age of fifty, were sitting at the feet of the merchants, and they were massaging the feet and legs of the guests with their eyes closed.

In the second half of the night, the teachers were busy, and some people hadn't eaten yet.

When the village opened a shop, it was agreed in advance that they would pay more wages, regardless of the meals of the hired workers. Only every day, I use a plow or an ox cart to help everyone bring back the meals cooked by each family on time. Cover the meals with a torn quilt to keep warm, and the rice bowls of each family are marked.

Right now, the village is full of half-grown children cooking and doing laundry.

For each family has a work at hand even if there are women who are strong enough to stay in the village.

Either wash the clothes for the new shop, collect firewood and sell firewood. This is the work of villagers who are not in good health.

Or in the village for the Xu family deep processing, wrapped frozen dumplings, sticky bean buns, knock jade ring noodles, make fish floss, fish meatballs, this time there are more pork floss, pork balls and sausages, noodles, noodles and so on.

In addition, on the other side of the village, Xu Tianxin also has two groups under him, forty people composed of big girls and old men.

Then Lao Wanjia made fresh tofu, frozen tofu, tofu skin, dried tofu, and hired five too.

Therefore, this is just the beginning, and the families are busy eating and coping.

However, it is better to have a mouth to deal with food than to work hungry.

It's like the masters who haven't eaten, while pressing the feet of the guests, they turn their heads with some nostalgia to look at the rice bowl that belongs to them in the corner.

They also don't have proper insulated rice buckets.

There are many people who use garlic jars at home to make garlic bowls, with a wooden lid on top of the garlic jar and then wrap it tightly with a rope to prevent the food from spilling.

The garlic jar is hewn from stone, and the stone can conduct heat, so I want to put it in the bathhouse room, and I am too busy to take care of eating and keep it warm.

But keep it warm again, like tonight, there are many masters who send a big porridge at home, and adding a chopstick pickle to the porridge is a meal, presumably the big porridge has become a stone.

"You go eat, I've pulled out the fire pot here, I'll take over your and press your feet, don't be hungry." The master who had taken time to eat dinner wanted to reach out and said in a very small voice.

Those who didn't eat shook their heads and refused.

The guests at hand did not sleep soundly, and there were cans on both sides of their knees, which was easy to notice when they changed hands.

Forget it, he looked at the water drop clock, and it would be time in another grid, so he didn't need to continue to give a massage, so let's talk about it then.

In the second half of the night, the bathing masters thought to themselves: part-time work is really healing.

Previously behind the ear.

Now I am afraid of disturbing the rest of the guests, so I can hear them whispering to each other.

Poor memory before. Now I'm afraid to press more for guests, and one person is busy and can remember who is to which grid.

In short, I used to say every day that I was too old to sleep less, and I lost my hair, my memory was poor, my personality was more homely, and I would lie down when it was dark after eating. At home, I still say the same, and I often scold the juniors, and don't care about me.

Now, after working all night, I am so sleepy that I don't have to shout and sleep less, I want to sleep, my memory is better, and it doesn't hurt anywhere. As soon as the guests arrived, they were able to get up, but they didn't expect to be very powerful. And there are several bosses on the head, and now anyone can take care of them. I didn't dare to talk back to the guests and say, Hugh has to take care of me.

To be honest, the smiles of ten years together are not as much as they are for today's guests.

Don't say anything, in the early hours of the morning, while the guests are sleeping and snoring, they have to brush out the bathing pool, and clean the excess clogs that have been replaced, so as not to affect the next day to take a bath and make money.

In fact, not only the bathing masters are very hard, but the twelve and a half children who burn the boiler below are still burning the fire in the pine tower with their arms flicked.

The mules in the backyard were also busy for a while.

And the women who sewed indigo grass in the shoes of the new wave of guests did not sleep.

Moreover, there was no place for them to stay here, and even the kang in the Bai family's house was crowded with ten merchants sleeping.

In the early hours of the morning, Liu Laozhu drove the dog to climb the plow and deliver the collected indigo shoes to all the families in the village.

The shoe-making women opened the door, took the shoes, lit the fish oil lamps, yawned and began to sew them.

Liu Laozhu was so sleepy that he couldn't remember whose house he was in, and he was napping against the wall of fire.

However, he pretended to have something in his heart, Liu Laozhu didn't need to be called by others, he woke up almost as soon as he was excited and began to collect shoes, and when he received the last one, he looked up and saw his daughter-in-law Pepper appearing with a torch, feeding the dogs with intestines.

Liu Laozhu: "......"

It was a sausage bought at the Xu family and left for Jing Dong. People haven't eaten the upper intestines yet, feed the dogs? It's not okay to feed a total of two. Because she only makes a few bucks by making shoes, this girl seems to be in arrears.

But he couldn't say a word to his daughter-in-law.

Because in the early morning, Pepper came with a turban with frost on his eyebrows, and he came to give him a cotton coat: "Wear another layer, his father, so as not to rush to the plow and run cold in the wind." ”

As he spoke, he pulled a hot water bladder out of his shirt and stuffed it into his arms.

He said: "Come back to the shop, don't have any guests who get up to pee at night and have no shoes to wear." ”

Liu Laozhu nodded again and again.

Now he is very glad that thanks to the sales pitch, fortunately there is no bald mouth saying that he can do laundry. Otherwise, in the middle of the night, the women in the village would have to get up to wash the laundry, it doesn't matter if they wash it, it's too late, and the cotton clothes will not be dried if they are thrown into the fire and roasted.

On the way back, the dogs ran very fast.

Liu Laozhu sat on the plow with a torch and said to himself with a smile:

"Yes, you have worked hard, just eat. It turns out that you dog boys ate the intestines fed by Tian Xinya, so you have to communicate with her intestines. This loser girl seems to be the granddaughter of my family, with pepper and big claws. I kind of know your secrets. I tell you, eat my intestines this time, and listen to me in the future. ”

At the same time, the Xu family, as the main entertaining guests, will only be busier and unable to sleep.

Because of the newly arrived Lu merchants, there was no place to store the goods, so they could only be unloaded into the restaurant where the VIPs were entertained.

There is no kang in this room, and it is full of dining tables.

The other party was not at ease, saying that it would be possible to exist here?

Xu Laosi said with a bitter face, what are we doing stealing your pen and inkstone? I can't write, I can't draw it with charcoal, and I was taught to read by my niece at home, and it's too late to hide. You can rest assured, so, charge less money, one or two silver dollars in stock.

Deal.

Guests: Mostly makes sense.

Then there was no place to live, and there were more than twenty guests lying down in this room for eating and sitting.

However, if the fish is not stewed in each pot, it will be cold when lying down.

There was no trick, Xu Youyin could only carry two baskets of wood into the house and stumble here, adding some firewood to each pot from time to time, and he couldn't dry the pot.

Mrs. Xu took a breath of cold air outside, and her hands were in her sleeves warmer.

It was still dark outside, and I thought that everyone was working too hard, so I simply asked the fourth child to use those pots to cook dumplings and noodles for everyone.

I didn't sleep, and I was hungry easily, so I worked overtime tonight and ate all the hot soup noodles. Anyway, the cooking noodles are quiet and tasteless, and it will not affect the rest of the guests.

Alas, the conditions here were much worse than in modern times.

If it is modern, it stands to reason that there are six tables at night, and each family has a box lunch casserole cake or something, it is impossible to make it just right, there will definitely be leftovers.

But she deliberately looked at the table full of dishes, and ate all the food, and there was no vegetable soup left. Otherwise, can you get some folding baskets for everyone, and add a salty taste to the noodles?

I can only use the marinade and meat sauce that I have stored at home.

So the bathing masters, in the second half of the night, they received a love lunch box from the Xu family.

Everyone stood or squatted in front of the bathhouse closet in groups of three or five, carefully sipping meat sauce noodles.

Those who feed the mules in the backyard also sit in the leeward grass shed around the fire, and each person has a bowl of steamed noodles with braised seeds and chili oil.

The firelight reflected everyone's faces.

It turned out that the 25 Wen bowl of baked noodles, except for the lack of meat slices, fish balls, bean sprouts, coriander and green onions, and vinegar, is not a bone soup base, it is this taste.

Just look at the guests to eat, they still taste it for the first time, it is really fragrant.

The trembling old Zhai Tou also received the noodles. It was specially sent by his eldest daughter-in-law, who worked here to help the Xu family cook.

"Dad, you're so old, and your legs and feet aren't good, so you shouldn't stay up all night here like us."

"I didn't, I didn't want to stay up late, I didn't, I didn't catch the bus back to the village."

Hurriedly shouted and waited, and stumbled.

Lao Zhai Tou thought to himself: I never expected that after a while, the ox cart pulled a large group of people back, and new guests came. Let's toss around, it's not as good as him.

Lao Zhai Tou hurriedly finished eating the noodles, and insisted on draping the outside of the indigo outside to the son who fed the mule.

He didn't plan to continue to guard the latrine in the middle of the night, no one urinated, so he took a nap in a warm place for himself.

Where, in the kang house where the Xu family entertained and ate cheap meals.

Lao Zhai sat in front of the cauldron, sometimes napping, sometimes opening his eyes to add some firewood to the kang. Looking at the guests sleeping near the pot, he used a wooden board to block it, and pushed it with his hand to make the guest turn over, he was afraid that the guest would fall into the pot and hit his brain.

is still the same sentence, it is not easy for the people in the village to make some money, and how to fix the lawsuit for whoever is broken.

In the other room, Liu Laozhu, like Lao Zhaitou, was also guarding in the same sleeping position. Including the kang built behind the old Wang's family, Wang Yusheng's family also has several heads leaning on chairs and sitting in front of the pot to sleep.

Wang Yusheng was more than three o'clock in the morning, and he had to wait with his father and daughter-in-law to get up and continue to cook a boxed lunch.

But no matter what, it's better than Mrs. Xu.

Mrs. Xu took her second son and daughter-in-law, as well as a table full of daughter-in-law Xiaoyun and Lao Zhaitou's daughter-in-law, plus a village mother-in-law vegetable bun, they were busy cooking dumplings and wonton noodles for the new guests, all of them went to sleep after no one ordered a mouthful. After finishing the work, I will wash the dishes, and then add food to the people in the village, press the dumplings, and stock a lot, and prepare tomorrow morning's rice and noodles.

After two o'clock in the morning, what are you sleeping?

The two groups of guests have to leave at half past six in the morning and around seven o'clock at the latest.

Besides, at about seven o'clock in the morning, the Xu family also had to receive butchers and be busy unloading meat. Sausages are processed in the village, and restaurants have also opened, and people have basically ordered one pig a day, and sometimes fishmongers also come.

Simply, Mrs. Xu said, let's work harder, don't sleep. Tomorrow, send the two groups of guests away and make up for sleep.

Therefore, the two groups of merchants woke up early in the morning without waking up the service, and they were woken up by the incense.

"Who? What are you stewing? ”

Someone asked, is the meal about to be ready?

Breakfast is indeed almost ready, and today the Xu family also added fried dough tofu brain for the guests to choose.

But the fragrance is not the aroma of rice, but Mrs. Xu is marinating meat.

She boiled the marinade with star anise, bay leaves, angelica, grass fruit seeds, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and red gardenia, fried to sugar color, and added soybean paste, a series of trembling fragrant and soft meat in the marinated elbow.

The shopkeeper Zhang met the leader of the Shanglu merchant team this morning, and the two of them were going to go to the Bai family and Liu Laozhu to see the mountain goods, if necessary, if the goods are good, they will buy them when they go back.

As a result, I was attracted by the smell of fragrance, and stopped in the stove room and didn't leave.

Especially the shopkeeper in Luzhou who dealt with eating all the way, he couldn't stand it anymore, and asked Mrs. Xu: "Do you sell it?" ”

Mrs. Xu greeted with a smile and said, "Sell, but don't worry." Let's go see the souvenirs first, at least have a bottom on the price. Even if you go to the town, you can compare it with our two rivers. And just when you're done freshening up in your bathhouse, someone will sell it while you're having breakfast. Two clicks without delay. ”

Sure enough, when the shopkeeper was eating fried dough and tofu brain, someone came in and sold it.

I heard that in the houses where each family eats, there are villagers who sell carts or baskets.

At this time, after the table full of steamed buns and food buns was finished, he hurriedly put down the stall at hand.

One of them carried a basket with samples in it, and the two of them walked on the kang with socks on the ground from the position where the fire was lit underground, and shuttled around the long tables.

"Stir-fried chestnut pastry with melon seeds, grilled fish fillet, instant noodles, sausages, peanuts, rice."

"There are also white wine braised pork and frozen pears, pig hands, pig face, pig mouth, guest officials, borrow a light to take the leg belching."

also greeted: "When you arrive in the town, your big boss shopkeepers will go to the mutual market division, busy with business, and see the big officials, how can they take care of you, at least they can't be prepared to stay for two or three days." So everyone, it doesn't matter if you live in a big car shop or a guest house, the goods are gone, what are you doing in the house? You bring some snacks, where you have to eat, buy some fruits, and order our Xu's loose basket of home-brewed on the hour, just eat and drink. ”

Someone on the side of the vegetable bun asked what kind of fruit the frozen pear was, and the vegetable bun smiled and glanced at the direction of the shopkeeper Zhang: "Your big shopkeeper ate it last night, don't believe it, ask him, is the frozen pear cool and thirst-quenching baby, bite two big tooth marks, whoever eats it has strength." Yes, it's frozen, and you have to eat it slowly and semi-hard, and you want to eat it while sitting on a hot kang. ”

A table full of answers in another room: "The pastries include poria cakes, baked dried sweet potatoes, and hawthorn cakes...... Pick and pull casually, no matter how you pick and pull, you are not in a hurry. ”

Lao Zhai Tou also brought a basket, and he was standing in front of a bunch of guests eating casserole oil cakes in the old Wanjia house, pulling a cart to sell.

This is an unexpected surprise, and the always master said that he sold it for a commission, but he didn't expect to pick up a good job.

"Move your feet, there are chickens and chicken feet, and braised duck necks, pigs, pig ears, and pig's head meat."

Someone asked if liquor is packed in bamboo tubes?

"Yes, Xu's wine is good, it can make you drunk and dream......"

The guests laughed and encouraged them while eating breakfast, "Don't worry. ”

"Drunk and dreaming of death, drunk like mud."

That's not a boast, it's a big brother Wan. After a while, the master always knows to beat you.

Lao Zhai's old face turned red: "No, it's not right." "It's not good to be out of school. This is who said what was in his heart, and he remembered it: "It's a brother, a brotherly relationship, and the wine is divided equally...... Don't laugh, I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. ”

Guests: "Good! Don't be nervous, just buy it from you, rush out of the thatched house, and I'll see you. I have seen you the most. ”

When Lao Zhai Tou collected the money, he stumbled and said: I didn't get along with you enough, come back again.

Before the return trip, change a few things to eat on the road, and then sell them.

Big beauties, there are monthly tickets, vote for Erdaohe, a group of migrant workers who haven't slept all night, you see that they are in good spirits for a new day.