Yu Hai picked up a load of mud, walked to the brick wall, turned his head and said with a smile: "Father, don't worry! Everything is ready! It's hanging in the well in the backyard!! Xiaocao has been preparing sweet-scented osmanthus since yesterday Duck, we can probably get it done this afternoon."
Liu Shuanzhu smacked his mouth, made a look of greed, and said: "Then we are lucky! The sweet-scented osmanthus duck is famous in Zhenxiu Restaurant, and you can't buy it in line, and it's too expensive! How many of us are farmers? Are you willing to spend more than ten taels of silver to buy a duck to eat? Thanks to Xiaocao, we can also enjoy the treatment of rich people. Xiaocao's craftsmanship is outstanding, not inferior to the chefs in Zhenxiu Restaurant!"
At this time, Xiaocao was coming over with chilled mung bean soup, and she smiled sweetly when she heard the words, and said, "Uncle Shuan Zhu, thank you for your compliment. My niece sounds at ease! But, we have to be humble, So as not to be heard by outsiders saying that we are arrogant! For your praise, tomorrow I have to show my hand, so that Uncle Shuan Zhu wants to eat another meal after this meal!"
Liu Shuanzhu smiled heartily, and said: "No, no! If you feed your appetite, I won't have an excuse to come over for dinner after your house is built. At that time, I can only eat your aunt's pig Such a meal, how painful it is!"
The daughter-in-law Shuanzhu, who came to see if she could help, immediately put on a teapot posture when she heard her man's words, pointed at Liu Shuanzhu and yelled, "Liu Shuanzhu, you say I cook like pig food? Then you Don't eat it!"
Liu Shuanzhu shrank his neck, his voice lacked confidence, he leaned up to his wife and asked in a low voice: "Daughter-in-law, why are you here?"
"Why can't I come? If I don't come, how do I know you're burying me behind my back?" Shuanzhu's wife squinted at her man, and saw that he was smiling along with him, with a good attitude of admitting his mistakes, and said, "Our father recently lost his appetite due to the heat. Not too good, I want to eat preserved eggs. Don’t Xiaocao’s family have bian eggs and preserved eggs from Zhou’s workshop? I want to buy a few back to appetize our father!”
Shuanzhu's daughter-in-law was talking about Liu Shuanzhu's biological father, who had been ill a few days ago and just recovered, but he still couldn't eat well. It's rare that he has something he wants to eat, and the family's conditions allow it now, so Shuanzhu's daughter-in-law came here with money
"Daughter-in-law, you are so kind! I, Liu Shuanzhu, am so lucky to marry you!" Shuanzhu's wife is really nice, she treats her in-laws as if they were her own parents, and Liu Shuanzhu's parents praise their daughter-in-law for their filial piety everywhere.
It was heard by Shuanzhu's daughter-in-law, but she smiled and said: "My parents left early, so I didn't do my filial piety in front of them. My mother-in-law, father-in-law and father-in-law treat me like my own daughter, if I don't treat them as my own parents, Am I still human?"
Although the ancients valued filial piety, shrews abused their parents-in-law occasionally in rural areas. There are not many daughter-in-laws who get along so well with their parents-in-law like the Liu family!
Shuanzhu's wife bought ten preserved eggs and ten changed eggs from Xiaocao at the market price. Xiaocao didn't intend to ask her for money, but Shuanzhu's daughter-in-law insisted on giving it to her life and death, and said that if she didn't take money, she wouldn't take the eggs!
Speaking of Zhou's preserved eggs, the supply is definitely in short supply. There are long queues at the shops selling preserved eggs in the town every day, and the number of purchases is limited. Although there are also workshops for making preserved eggs in Fucheng and Jingzhong, it is not enough to supply Fucheng and Jingzhong. In the entire Dongshan Village, only Xiaocao’s family has no shortage of preserved eggs. Others either don’t have time to queue up, or are reluctant to eat them—preserved eggs are much more valuable than chicken eggs and duck eggs!
Because of Yu Hai's popularity, and the fact that the two meals a day are dishes that even the money can't buy at Zhenxiu Restaurant, there is an endless stream of people who come to help. The progress of the house is naturally much faster than expected!
"There are beams on the roof, there is food in the house, and there are no beams on the roof, and the animals are not thriving." For building a house, putting up the beams is no less grand than getting married and marrying a daughter. On this day, almost all the villagers in Dongshan Village came. celebrate.
The selection of girders is a very important thing. First of all, you must choose hard and durable wood for the wood, and you must also choose those trees that are the same thickness up and down, and the trees must be straight and straight. Doesn't work at all. Ever since Yu Hai planned to build a house, he started wandering in the dense forests of the Western Mountains and selected a lot of good wood for the beams!
The person presiding over the beam-raising ceremony is the village chief with high morals. First of all, Yu Hai brought the whole family to place offerings, light incense, and pray for a safe and safe time on the beam. Congratulations such as "the prosperity of the six animals" are written on the girders, and some gossip pictures are drawn on them, hoping to bless the prosperity and safety of the whole family.
Yu Jiang led a group of big and small children, and lit a string of firecrackers, which made a lively crackling sound. With a shout of "Going up the beam", the beam-lifting began. The young and strong boys in the village lifted the beam and then pulled it up with ropes. When pulling, you must balance it, and you can't go up on one side and down on the other, otherwise it will be very unlucky.
Raising the beam is a big event, and the relatives and friends who came to congratulate all brought gifts such as steamed buns, steamed buns, and pastry. . The villagers of Dongshan Village at the scene rushed forward to grab these steamed buns. While scrambling, he kept tsk-tsk: "It's only the Yu family who is on the beam, and he is willing to use white flour steamed buns and meat stuffed buns!"
Yu Hai happily watched the bustling scene of his elders and villagers, because the more people there were, the more money would come.
The relatives of Yu's family and Liu's family were all busy greeting the guests who came to celebrate, and the woman entered the kitchen to help with cooking. The Yu family has prepared dozens of tables of flowing water seats. Those who come to congratulate today, no matter men, women, old or young, whether they have gifts or not, can sit at the tables. Originally, the purpose of going up the beam was to make it lively, to make it auspicious, and to express the yearning for a better life.
The flowing water mat of the Yu family is still talked about in Dongshan Village after many years. Even the Yu family did not expect that the chef of Zhenxiu Restaurant, Chef Wang, who was one of the best cooks in the Ming Dynasty, would come to visit him and volunteered to cook in person.
The head of the Zhou family's second room, the fifteen-year-old Zhou Zhou, not only came to congratulate him in person, but also sent two full carts of ingredients. Among them were fifty roast chickens, fifty sweet-scented osmanthus ducks, and countless preserved eggs...
Those who came to congratulate, smelling the strong fragrance floating in the air, kept swallowing their saliva. A few half-children, scratching their heads and scratching their heads anxiously, walked through the crowd like monkeys, and were kicked in the butt by their own adults, threatening to drive them home to eat leftover buns if they were dishonest, and then they calmed down.
There is no more rich and delicious flowing water banquet in Dongshan Village. In the following decades, the flowing water banquet of the Yu family has almost become a legend, which is passed down by future generations.
Do you know how much a table of food at Zhenxiu Restaurant costs? There is roast chicken and sweet-scented osmanthus duck, and a table will cost a hundred taels of silver at least! Fifty tables of running water seats, that is five thousand taels of silver! ! The folks in Dongshan Village sat on the mat, looking at the exquisite dishes one after another in a daze, feeling as if they were in a dream, and they were reluctant to move their chopsticks for a long time.
Old Yu was sitting at the main table, and next to him was the village head who was a little nervous, because Zhou Zixu, the future head of the Zhou family, was also present! There is also Yu Hai's natal family - Xiaocao's grandfather and several uncles. Yu Hai and Fang Fangzhen also sat by the side as the hosts, and they went to other tables from time to time to toast the guests, making them eat and drink well. The wine is sponsored by Fangfang Town, and it is all good wine purchased from Fucheng. The villagers of Dongshan Village feel very happy to have a sip of bad wine. Faced with a jar of good wine worth tens of taels of silver, they will get drunk before drinking. up.
The folks in Dongshan Village have never eaten such delicious rice noodles, and they can't wait to chew the bones of the roast chicken. Even fried vegetarian dishes are more delicious than meat. Sure enough, he is worthy of being a famous chef! The sumptuous table was swept away, and the scallions and ginger pieces in the dish were all picked and eaten. It's not that the dishes are not prepared enough, but that everyone is holding their stomachs and screaming. It is very difficult to have the opportunity to eat such a delicious meal for the second time in this life. If you don’t eat it with your belly open, you will regret it later! !
There are ten tables in one wave of water seats, and there are five waves in total, from noon to sunset.
After the beams were put up, the house was almost finished. For the beauty of the house, Xiaocao specially asked the craftsman to make up the cornices. The craftsmen were dug out from Prince Jing's other courtyard by Fangfang Town, but they were not in vain. Mrs. Fang gave Princess Jing a pot of 18 bachelors!
Linglong next to Mrs. Fang knows some knowledge about flowers and plants. Xiaocao took her to their secret base and transplanted many precious flowers and plants back. Mrs. Guangfang's favorite orchids are three or four species that she has only heard of or seen before, but they are hard to find!
Mrs. Fang was in a good mood, her appetite also increased, and her appetite increased gradually. While Xiaocao was happy for the godmother, she did not forget to tell her not to overdose, lest the child would be too big to have a baby! Mrs. Fang is thirty-four or five years old. In this era, she is already considered a pregnant woman and an elderly woman! If the child is too big, it is easy to have dystocia. With the level of medical care in this era, there is no such thing as caesarean section, and if you encounter dystocia, you will be close to death! Hearing what his daughter said, Fang Fangzhen became nervous again, and strictly controlled his daughter-in-law's food intake. He often watched it himself. What a heartbreak—oh! He was worried that his daughter-in-law couldn't eat, and he was also worried about his daughter-in-law's appetite!
The days passed quietly, the weather was beautiful, and there was not much rain this summer. Before the autumn harvest, the five green brick and tile houses of the Yu family were finally completed!
The high courtyard wall is built with stones, absolutely solid, not afraid of wild animals coming down from the mountain. The Yu family's old house is too close to the West Mountain. I heard from Old Yu that when he was a child, a wild beast came down the mountain. The hungry wolf jumped into his house and killed his sleeping second uncle. The family members were woken up by the screams, and when they came out with sticks, his second uncle had been bitten badly, and he died not long after. When the family was separated, Yu Hai was worried about the safety of his family! Looking at the tall and solid stone wall, unless those beasts have wings, they will never want to jump in!