Li Xiaolan likes to look in the mirror since she was a child. After getting up in the morning, she always puts the mirror screen on the stone platform under the lychee tree in the yard, puts a peachwood comb and a small bottle of tea oil next to the mirror, and sits on the screen. While combing the hair slowly with a mahogany comb, put a few drops of tea oil in the palm of the hand, gently heat the oil with the palm of the hand, spread it evenly, rub it on the head and then comb it; while looking in the mirror His face was thinking stupidly. The flower branches on the mirror made her face even more beautiful.
One time, after she had combed her hair, she was looking at her face in the mirror and thinking foolishly. At this time, she didn't expect her big rooster to come over. She looked around and suddenly found that there was a rooster just like it in the mirror. Got the exact same cock. It tried to peck with its beak, and the rooster in the mirror also stretched out its beak.
The rooster became furious, raised the five-colored brocade feathers on its neck, flew up and struck it with one of its legs. There was only a "clang" sound, and the mirror screen fell to the ground and shattered.
After that, Li Xiaolan could only face the small round mirror to comb her hair, and the small round mirror could only reflect her face. Unfortunately, it could not capture all of her hair.
Li Xiaolan sat on the lawn blankly, thinking about the scene where the mirror screen at home was broken by a rooster...
In her ears, she suddenly heard Shui Lian calling loudly: "Xiao Lan, look, those people are going to make bombs to fry the fish!"
Li Xiaolan followed the direction Shui Lian pointed and saw three people, all wearing underpants and shirtless on the shallows, preparing to light explosive lines...
He also saw Hui Neng taking two steps towards the deep water impatiently, wanting to be ready to dive into the water first.
At this time, Li Zhiwen's cry came: "Brother Aneng, are you desperate? I will blow you up later!"
Huineng took a few steps back as if in fear, and then heard a loud "bang" sound, and water splashed several meters high in the river on the spot. Before the water splashed down, everyone jumped into the water like arrows and swam quickly into the river. Paparazzi and Ding Yiguang also plunged into the deep water of the river bend to pick up fish.
In addition to being good at diving, picking fish from the river also requires luck.
Huineng dived into the water and searched for a circle. For the first time, he picked up a big fish weighing several kilograms. Then he dived and swam several times to the shore. Li Xiaolan and Shui Lian piled the fish they picked up in one place. It was estimated that there were ten fish. A few kilograms.
Huineng was lucky this time and picked up the most fish. Li Zhiwen also picked up eight or nine kilograms, Ding Yiguang only picked up two or three kilograms, and the paparazzi only picked up one small fish.
They went ashore, pinched one or two canes, and threaded the fish they picked up into strings.
The paparazzi looked at Li Zhiwen and Huineng carrying so much fish in their hands and made up their mind: "Let's take all the fish to the oil factory and fry them, okay?"
While Huineng was hesitating, Li Zhiwen said first, "Brother Aneng, don't believe him. Last time he picked up the most fish alone. I asked him to take the fish to the oil factory to fry, but he refused."
"Zhi Wenzai, didn't you eat the most when you went to the oil factory to fry fish?"
Li Zhiwen thought that if he took so many fish home, the whole family would have a delicious meal. He was reluctant but embarrassed to refuse, so he asked Ding Yiguang for his opinion: "What do you think we should do?"
Ding Yiguang encouraged, "The fried fish is so delicious, so fragrant!" Of course he was on the paparazzi's side, and he didn't pick up much fish today.
The paparazzi also burped immediately because he lacked oil and water in his stomach and couldn't resist the temptation and excitement of the smell of fried fish. Acid water rose up in his throat and he felt heartburn, hot and uncomfortable.
Although Huineng could see that the paparazzi was being cunning and greedy to take advantage, he thought about the life in that family in those days. Every meal consisted of a few sweet potatoes and a little rice. When cooking, they only used a small amount of oil and lightly spread it on the bottom of the pot. After a while, I couldn't bear to use oil, and almost always used dry pots for cooking. If there was no smell of oil in the intestines, it seemed that they had been rusted for a long time.
The paparazzi couldn't resist the temptation, wiped the yellow snot hanging on the tip of his nose and the saliva on his mouth, and said hesitantly: "Brother Aneng, what do you think?"
Huineng had no choice but to say: "Let's drive the cows back first, and invite A Lianmei and A Lanmei to go with us."
"Okay!" Paparazzi and Ding Yiguang snickered secretly.
"Okay!" Paparazzi and Ding Yiguang snickered secretly.
After they drove the cattle back to the village and tied them up in the cattle pen, they slipped outside the oil mill gate and saw the paparazzi uncle wearing a pair of underpants, straddling two long skinny legs, with his head hanging down and his face buried in the press trough. Use a wooden shovel to crush the peanut cake crumbs.
The old man's buttocks were facing the door of the oil shop, cocked very high.
Several children stood outside the door and shouted in unison: "Uncle Shi, the fish is here, fry the fish for us!"
"You guys are here to use the fried fish from the oil shop again." Shi Bo continued working without raising his head. He saw several children holding fish skewers from his crotch, and saw two girls, and he hurriedly cursed: "Fucking hell, you all go out and collect firewood first."
The oil mill was built in a secluded ravine on the mountain behind the village. It was the ancestral property of Shi Bo's family. There were three large stone houses in total close to the mountains and rivers. There is a wooden press in the middle room, which is the main facility of the oil mill.
The wooden press is made of two hard longan tree trunks with a diameter of more than three feet. After hollowing out the core of the tree, the two trunks are put together face to face. The pressing body uses eight large cylinders as supports, and eight beams are used to fix the pressing body from top to bottom, thus making this traditional oil pressing tool.
There is a tall support in the middle of the front house. A thick bamboo rope hangs from the upper end of the support. A large wooden gong hangs from the lower end of the rope, which is specially used to press oil. There is a waterwheel in a room on the right side of the oil mill. The rotation of the waterwheel drives the millstones and stone grinding wheels in the house to work continuously. It is mainly used to grind and crush raw materials such as peanut seeds. There is a large stone kang platform in the room on the left, which is usually used to roast peanut seeds.
There are also two earthen stoves, one for frying dried peanut seeds and powders of various oils, and the other for steaming the powder of peanut hoop cakes.
Two strong men cooperate with each other to press the oil. First, they put the wrapped hoop cakes into the belly of the wooden press, then use a thick round green bamboo board to top all the hoop cakes, and use two layers of green buns of different thicknesses on the outside. The wooden beams are placed on the round wooden board, and all the hoop cakes in the wooden press are pressed tightly against each other. Then, insert a pointed cane more than one foot long into each of the two rows of wooden canons, and use an oil hammer to knock lightly on the iron hoops of the two pointed canons in front of the wood press alternately.
The pointed rods are slowly squeezed into the two layers of wooden rods under force, and the rows of hoop cakes in the press are gradually squeezed tightly.
In this way, after the hoop cake is squeezed by external force, the oil will slowly flow out from the squeezed navel - more and more, flowing into the wooden basin on the ground.
The oil press lightly tapped the oil hammer with the oil hammer, then pulled out the two stuck-pointed wooden poles, added the prepared wooden poles and filled the empty space. The two of them hugged the big oil hammer again and hit the sharp poles hard. head. After repeating this for several rounds, the strong man started shouting. First, one person pushed the big wooden stick, which was two feet long and weighed more than a hundred kilograms, forward into the sky. Let the oil hammer go back, and then be caught by another oil press. The two of them aimed the oil hammer at the pointed head at the same time, and hit it smoothly.
Of course, the harder the oil hammer hits, the faster and more oil will flow. It usually takes a long time to hit the dough until the oil in the hoop cake is squeezed out, and then all the processes are completed.
There are iron hoops installed on the heads of both the Youchao and the Jianfang. If the two collide with each other for a long time, the iron hoops will heat up and sparks will easily appear. The violent impact at this time can shake the entire oil shop as if it is shaking, and the sound can be heard far away.
In front of him, Uncle Shi was getting old. His legs were suffering from severe rheumatism because he used to punt boats and often went down the river in the cold winter months. For this reason, he could not do the heavy work of pressing oil, and could only be responsible for the chores of crushing various raw materials, drying out the moisture in flour, and repairing various components of the oil mill.
Although he is old, this oil shop really cannot produce oil without him as an old man.
Not to mention that you need to control the heat when frying peanut seeds and hoop noodles, because if you fry too little or too much, the amount of oil and the color of the oil will be affected. In terms of work, he is an all-rounder. He can do any craft work such as carpentry, rock masonry, and blacksmithing.
Usually, if the wheels on the water mill or the parts on the wood press are damaged, you need to hire a carpenter to repair it;
If the stone teeth on the top and bottom of the millstone are ground flat, or the grinding groove is broken by the stone grinding wheel, you need to hire a rock mason to replace it;
If the iron hoop at the front of the oil pan and pointed pole is damaged, or the steel ring outside the hoop cake is more likely to break when pressing oil, you need to hire a blacksmith to deal with it, etc. Accidents such as these can happen at any time, and this cannot be solved without Shi Bo, an old oilman.
The oil mill started working in early summer, pressing peanut oil, rapeseed oil, tung oil, tung oil and tallow seed oil...
At that time, especially tallow seeds, all were shipped from local product companies in the city. They were public goods for processing. The village usually had to transport ten or twenty wooden boats along the river every year. When the goods arrived at the dock, the sacks containing tallow seeds and the iron barrels prepared to hold tallow oil were placed inside and outside the oil mill, piled up like several hills.
When the paparazzi was five or six years old, he liked to climb and play on the sacks in the oil mill, and he was very familiar with the situation in the oil mill.
Oil pressing is a hot, dirty and tiring hard work. It usually takes more than half a year from early summer to late autumn to complete the process.
When working, the oil presses only wear a pair of underpants. Women know that the oil presses have such uncivilized habits, so naturally they cannot easily run into the factory.
At that time, Huineng didn't know that the oilmen had such uncivilized habits. Out of good intentions, he suggested calling Shuilian and Li Xiaolan to fry the fish. As soon as they arrived at the oil shop, they saw an embarrassing scene.
And the paparazzi knew it clearly but didn't say anything. No wonder he was snickering at that time.
There is some land around the oil mill, which is the private land of Shi Bo's family, and is used to grow vegetables.
When Shi Bo swept the floor, he often swept the dust and scattered dirt into the shovel and poured it into the ground to use as fertilizer. Therefore, his melons and vegetables grew particularly lush.
In summer and autumn, vines of pumpkins, winter melons, bitter gourds, loofahs and lentils climb on ridges, stone walls and eaves, creating a hedge or green wall around the oil mill, and flowers of various colors bloom. It is everywhere, and fruits are hanging everywhere, making it difficult to tell whether this is a vegetable garden or a flower garden.
Tender pumpkins and winter melons can be cut into slices on the river beach, and cowpeas can be blanched in boiling water using the steaming hoop rice cooker in the oil mill, then picked up and thrown on the pebbles by the river to dry. .
In the afternoon of that day or the next day, Uncle Shi's wife Li Caixia would walk to the river beach with the basket on her back, take it home and store it away.
Or they can be made into various canned dishes and kept until winter so that they can be eaten at home or sold in the market for money.
The old pumpkin was picked back and stored on the house array, and he would use it to satisfy his hunger during the lean years.
Paparazzi, Ding Yiguang and others often come to the river. In autumn, pumpkins grow as big as bamboo hats. When they return home, they are willing to carry a big pumpkin for Shi Bo and send it back.
When carrying a pumpkin and swimming across the river, the paparazzi like to ride the pumpkin on their crotch and use it as a ball to swim across the river.
Paparazzi's grandfather Shi Nanshan and Shi Bo are cousins. Paparazzi's father Shi Xiongwei and mother Wang Cailing have a large group of children, and Paparazzi ranks ninth.
One year, the Paparazzi family had a large population and life was difficult to endure. It was only thanks to Uncle Shi who gave the Paparazzi family two picks of old pumpkins to eat that the Paparazzi family survived the famine years.
…
At that time, after Shibo drove the villagers away to collect firewood, he stopped what he was doing, put on his shirt and trousers, went out, took the fish that the children had picked up from the river, took them to the ditch behind the house, and cut them open. , remove the feces and then wash it.
He cut open the fish and washed the pot, and several children had already collected firewood from the river.
Shi Bo set up the pot and poured half a pot of peanut oil into it. When the oil was cooked, he put all the fish into the pot, and then let the children watch and fry slowly while he continued to work.
The pot squeaked, and the strong aroma of fish oil filled the stove. The children stood by the pot and kept smacking their lips. They were so greedy that they almost dropped saliva and snot into the pot.
Afterwards, when the paparazzi saw that the fish in the pot was almost ready to fry, he deliberately tried to push the four people away and said, "Maybe there is not enough firewood. You have to go pick up more firewood."
They were no more cunning than the paparazzi, so they went back to the river to collect firewood and found that the paparazzi had stolen a big fish from the pot.
When Li Zhiwen saw the paparazzi eating fish, he felt he was at a disadvantage and cursed: "Damn paparazzi, you want to die if you eat alone!"
"I'll try it first to see if it tastes good enough." the paparazzi argued.
Li Zhiwen hurriedly reached out and prepared to catch the biggest fish Huineng picked up.
"Keep that one for Uncle Shi." Huineng stopped him and said.
"Uncle, come and eat fried fish." After the paparazzi shouted to Uncle Shi, he went outside the house to pick a few pumpkin leaves, washed them in the ditch, wrapped the fish with the leaves, put it aside and squatted down to eat.
The four people picked up a lot of fish together this time, but life was difficult at that time and there was a lack of oil and water in the dishes. Their stomachs often growled with hunger. Even if a person usually eats two or three kilograms of fish in one meal, it probably doesn't feel like it. Very filling. When there was only half the pot left, Paparazzi and Ding Yiguang were worried that they would not be full, so they started to fight over each other.
Li Zhiwen thought that the paparazzi had eaten a slightly larger fish alone and was not satisfied with the paparazzi. He saw the paparazzi eating recklessly. He ate so much that he was reluctant to spit out the fish bones and bones. He just kept picking up the fish and stuffing it into his mouth. inside.
He felt that he was at a disadvantage, so he simply blew a handful of yellow snot and threw it into the pot, in order to make the paparazzi useless.
If Li Zhiwen does this, it will make everyone unable to eat.
When he saw that the paparazzi was still eating enthusiastically, he called the paparazzi the reincarnation of a starving ghost.
But the paparazzi just giggled and seemed unconcerned.
He continued to stay by the pot and devoured it, and after a while he poured the rest of the fish and the oil soup into his stomach.
Then he walked to the lawn outside the oil shop, with yellow snot still hanging on his nose and stinky burping in his mouth. He patted the swollen frog belly and said with a satisfied look: "It feels so good to eat! I'll go back when I get home." You don’t even need to eat dinner!”
