In the big house booked by Erdaohe and his party.
At this time, Liu Laozhu and the boys had already had sex. They were all men, and they didn't care about their image. They were using a hot kang to burn their waists.
Their clothes were all washed, and everyone's cloth shoes were brushed.
From time to time, a boy would take turns to get off the kang, pulling a pair of old straw sandals borrowed from the store to add firewood to the kang hole. ..
We need to keep the room and the kang warm to ensure that everyone's clothes and shoes are dry tomorrow morning.
"Why don't you come back, Third Brother Xu?"
I don't dare to open the door to sleep until I come back. If he didn't open the door, Uncle Li Zheng would bring too much money to buy goods, so he couldn't sleep well. I just hope that I can rest in Fucheng for two days, otherwise I will have to run around for more than ten consecutive days when I go back. During this trip, everyone lost at least two pounds.
Liu Laozhu was thinking: "Is he going to guard his mother outside the door again? This silly boy is wet, but he should change his clothes and guard again. Go and see if anyone has come back to the house." He is here There was a change of inner clothes, but Xu Youcang wore them short.
The grandson of the fourth uncle's family said: "Uncle, I saw that the third brother had changed his clothes before going out with his aunt, so don't worry about it."
The boys were envious.
It's good to have your mother with you. Aunt Xu brought a change of clothes and straw sandals to Brother Xu.
Even if the clothes he puts on are in tatters, it looks like they are worn for daily work, so he is much better than them.
Along the way, my aunt used a handkerchief to wipe the third brother's hair. When eating potatoes, she would use a wooden spoon to scoop some hot sauce and spread it on.
I heard that the third brother was injured when he went out to work, so my aunt spent a lot of money to get medicine for him at home, and took the pills with her when she went out.
They often hear their aunt shouting to Xu Youcang, "Don't forget to take medicine and drink plenty of water when driving."
He warned me carefully when he was in the county town, and he must have taken his son with him to sell goods when he arrived in Fucheng, which allowed the third brother to see a lot of new things.
Everyone knew that Mrs. Xu came here with goods and wanted to help Guan Langzhong sell the goods, but it was unclear exactly what she was selling and how much money she was selling. All I know is that all the jars and baskets I brought are gone, and they must have been sold.
The people in the room were talking about Xu Youcang, when Xu Youcang, who was only wearing two clothes, opened the door and walked in.
Xu Youcang held five oranges in his hands.
Except for Liu Laozhu, everyone in the house had eaten and bought oranges, knowing they were expensive.
Most of the others who have had it have never even seen it, let alone eaten it. They have never eaten it.
Even Liu Laozhu eating oranges was a coincidence.
Although he had spent money to buy it himself, he bought it twice for his old wife who was pregnant with their son at that time. A few years ago, the price of oranges was even more expensive than it is now. The old wife didn't care what delicious food she had and was only thinking about giving it to her eldest daughter and son, so he didn't eat a bite.
At this time, there was a boy who didn't know how to eat and was eating orange peels.
Xu Youcang stopped him and said that he had to collect the orange peels and that he couldn't eat them.
In fact, he has eaten skin before. It looks so beautiful and golden, and the price is so expensive. If he eats the skin with the flesh, isn't that for nothing?
He stopped when his mother said the peel couldn't be eaten.
As someone who has experienced it, Xu Youcang imparted his experience to the younger brothers: "I heard from my mother that eating the white part of the orange segment is the best for your health. Although it is a bit bitter when chewed carefully, it is better for your health than the orange segment."
His mother is someone who has seen rich people eating oranges in the county restaurant, so she can't be wrong.
The boy from the Sun family looked at the orange peel. There were more white silk stalks in the peel. Wouldn't it be more beautiful to eat?
Xu Youcang was stunned. Yes, he just remembered that his mother wanted to keep the skin. He heard that if it was dried, it could be sold to a drug store for money. To him, selling peels for money is a trap. So why do people often buy oranges and save their peels? You can afford to eat but still don’t have enough money to sell fruit peels?
But his family is poor, and he can sell it for a penny.
"Then eat, just leave the outermost part for me." After saying that, Xu Youcang took the lead in nibbling the inner peel of the orange.
Due to the inconvenience of coming to the big house, Mrs. Xu never expected that in the end, only the yellow layer of the skin of these five oranges was left, which was thin, and all the white inner skin was gone, and the boys had chewed it all up. .
When Xu Youcang handed it over, Mrs. Xu was speechless.
Speak.
"Mom, they say it's delicious. It's sour and sweet. Every bite is full of water. It's different from the bitter taste of wild fruits picked in the mountains. Let me thank you."
In fact, many wild fruits in the mountains are not astringent, but people are poor and hard-working, so they are afraid that others will not pick the fruits before they are ripe, so they pick them back and eat them without waiting.
Xu Youcang didn't learn from Li Zheng's uncle and told him the price. After hearing the price, everyone in the big room didn't know how to eat the five oranges, and everyone was timid and a little shy.
Maybe I guessed that my mother went out of her way to buy such expensive fruit for Tian Xin.
Mrs. Xu felt sad to see it. In modern times, especially during the Chinese New Year, when people eat oranges, they throw them away in handfuls, and they don't even bother to smell the fragrance in the house. In families with good conditions, fruits that are more expensive and rarer than oranges may even rot, but here they are held as treasures.
She asked the third child to wait.
She specified that the peel of an orange that had been bitten by more than a dozen people should not be kept to dry.
After thinking about it, everyone drove all the way, and everyone was very angry and dry.
Cut the orange peel into strips and scald it twice with water at 40 to 50 degrees Celsius. After scalding out the bitter taste, Mrs. Xu scooped out a spoonful of honey and some sugar from the honey she bought to make cakes. Then he borrowed a kettle from the store.
Because the store owner gave Mrs. Xu a separate share of money for borrowing the kitchen stove, he thought that Mrs. Xu was quite clever and suggested that he would only borrow it in the dead of night without delaying their work, so he quickly found a slightly larger red clay kettle.
Mrs. Xu cut the orange peel into shreds, soaked it in water, and asked Xu Youcang to deliver it to the big house.
"While the taste is clear, drink it as sugar water."
The boys in Erdaohe Village did not expect to drink orange peel sugar water after tasting orange slices worth tens of dollars per pound for the first time.
Just in time to dry their clothes, the fire was too hot and their throats were dry.
"What is Aunt Xu doing?" a boy asked.
Xu Youcang said that he bought some ingredients and borrowed the store's kitchen to make snacks for Tian Xin'er.
Everything sold in the city is expensive. Just a few pieces of date cake cost more than 40 cents. If you can do it yourself, you can take advantage of it. Even if the food isn't as good as the ones sold, it won't be too bad if the precious ingredients are there.
Xu Youcang felt sorry for his niece, and it was even more heartbreaking to be described by the eldest son of the Liu family like a pipe stopper.
He originally wanted to prepare more food and drink for his niece in Fucheng on the way back to the city. After finally coming to the big city, he had everything for sale, and he didn't want Tian Xin to go back and eat potatoes again. Moreover, the money earned during this trip was enough, and more than half of the famine was repaid. The pressure became less, and I was not afraid of luxuries. Living a life carefully does not mean treating your children poorly and saving on them.
Tian Xin is the only one in their family, and he hasn't been well fed yet. Isn't it just a busy job? The injuries he and his second brother and fourth brother suffered felt meaningless.
As for other things, like my mother mentioned that she wanted to try more other pastries in order to sell them, Xu Youcang didn't say anything.
But the Erdaohe boys also understood that it seemed that Aunt Xu's family had made some money this time. Even if they didn't make much money, I heard that the three Xu brothers went to help Wang Yuan's family in the county and made a lot of money through referrals from people they knew. This was no secret. Some gossips in the village had guessed how much they would earn when Aunt Xu happily returned the two taels of silver to Grandma Xu.
But no matter how rich they are, they won't be willing to treat them like this, no matter how rich they are.
The boys drank the orange peel water and sighed inwardly. Aunt Xu's various cares along the way made them realize more deeply what kind of elder she was, and they respected her unconsciously.
Many people are thinking in their hearts: They need to talk to their parents when they get home.
