"Brother Huan, there are big fish today."
Li Huan's eyes lit up when he heard this. Big fish, that meant the three people behind had big appetites and could eat a lot of food. But thinking about today's day, he basically understood it.
The autumn harvest is coming soon. Whether it is the supply and marketing cooperatives, grain stations, or vegetable markets, the good things such as rice, flour, grain, oil, pork, etc. from regular channels have almost been sold out. Therefore, the afternoon and evening are the best times to open the black market.
"Go ahead."
In half an hour, the three of them emptied the entire west room of grain, oil, rice and flour, especially pork, leaving not a single piece. Li Huan thought to himself that it was a good thing that he had kept some of it first, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to collect enough for the bride price.
A stack of money went into Li Huan's hands. Li Huan counted it, then took out 20% of the money and handed it to the skinny monkey. He also took out two bags of rice and flour and two pieces of pork from the east room, making the skinny monkey very happy as he could have a meal with Brother Huan.
"We are resting during this period, because every household will distribute grain after the autumn harvest, so we mainly collect fine grains. You can take this money and collect fine grains when you have them, and then make a big one during the Chinese New Year."
"Okay, Brother Huan, I'll be leaving first."
The skinny monkey took the money and left. Li Huan checked it carefully again, then pushed his bicycle, locked the door, and rode non-stop to Xiangyang Village.
He went back home first, and just as he pushed his bicycle into the yard, Li Le ran out happily: "Second brother, you are really going to marry Cheng Zhiqing as your wife."
"Yeah, don't you like her?"
"Brother, I quite like her. She is fair and clean and very pleasing to the eye. She is a good match for you. But I am worried that she doesn't like me or our family."
"Well, our house is indeed a bit shabby. After we marry Cheng Qiao, we will apply for the land at the back and build a new house. We will tear down this place and rebuild it."
"Second brother, do you want to split the family?"
When Li Le heard what Li Huan said, she couldn't help but get anxious. Her eldest brother hadn't married yet, and she hadn't married either. If her second brother separated from the family, what would her mother do when she got married
"It depends on Cheng Qiao. If she insists on dividing the family, then let's do it. She's right behind us anyway, so it's convenient to just give her a call."
"Second brother, you are really..."
"It's wrong to forget your mother after you get married. There's nothing I can do about it. When you find someone you like, you will also think about him. But I will definitely not treat my mother badly."
"Li Huan, why are you back? Why don't you stay with your wife in the hospital?"
Li's mother heard the voice and came out. She just heard Li Huan's last words and a satisfied smile appeared on her face. This is how it should be. Li Huan's father said the same thing at the beginning. It's a pity that the old man passed away too early, leaving her alone to miss him silently at night.
"Mom, these two bags are filled with rice and flour. You can keep half for us to eat and give the other half to Cheng Qiao as a betrothal gift. You can cook some braised pork tonight. I think Li Le is craving for meat."
"Who is craving for meat? You are the one who is craving for meat."
Li Le was untying the rope and mumbling with a red face, but he was very happy in his heart, because he would not only have rice to eat tonight, but also braised pork.
"Are you in a hurry? If not, I'll make some dumplings for you to take to the hospital for Cheng Qiao to eat."
"Don't worry, Mom. I still need to deliver this meat and snacks to the educated youth camp. They asked me to buy them. I also need to go to the Chen family to see if there is anything fishy going on."
"Go ahead and don't quarrel with others."
As soon as Li's mother finished speaking, Li Huan was already carrying two pieces of meat and a bag of snacks and walking towards the educated youth point. Walking on the country road, he saw golden crops waving in the wind everywhere, which looked quite spectacular.
"Qian Longkun, open the door."
There was a lot of chatter in the educated youth center. Li Huan could hear the voices from inside while standing outside, but when Li Huan knocked on the door, it suddenly became quiet.
Xu Laidi's face turned pale with fright. She had just said a lot of bad things about Cheng Qiao and Erliuzi, saying both openly and secretly that Erliuzi and Cheng Qiao must have planned this a long time ago, otherwise how could they have saved Cheng Qiao by such a coincidence.
Of course Han Chunmei wanted to refute, but she couldn't win the argument with Xu Laidie. Instead, Xu Laidie made some sarcastic remarks to her. It was nothing more than that Han Chunmei was wearing the clothes he took off, so he had to speak in her favor.
Han Chunmei's face turned red, and Zhang Yuefang got angry and started to retort. A few words left Xu Laidi speechless. Xiaofang rolled her eyes at Xu Laidi and went forward to comfort Han Chunmei, saying that Xu Laidi said the grapes were sour because he couldn't eat them.
Li Huan just happened to knock on the door. Jiang Guangrong shook his head and went to open the door. Women are so troublesome. But it seems that the troublemaker now is Xu Laidi. If only there was no such person in their educated youth center, the world would be peaceful.
"Second rate, no, Li Huan, you bought the meat."
Jiang Guangrong saw the two pieces of meat in Li Huan's hand at a glance, and happily reached out to take them, but Li Huan only gave him one. The money and tickets they gave were not enough to buy one piece of meat, so he had to pay more.
When Qian Longkun heard the word "meat", he also ran out, looked at the meat in Li Huan's hand, and asked with a smile how much more money he needed. Li Huan shook his head and said that Cheng Qiao had already paid for them and he didn't know how much.
Oh, it turned out that Li Huan was just a delivery man. The two exchanged a few words, took the things and separated. Han Chunmei hurriedly took the meat and announced loudly that they were going to make braised pork tonight and all the fine grains should be taken out.
The tense atmosphere at the educated youth point was suddenly extinguished by the three words "braised pork". Everyone started to move in a hurry, except Xu Laidi and Chai Jianmin.
"Captain, can I owe you the money first and pay you back after the autumn harvest?"
Chai Jianmin found Jiang Guangrong and asked quietly. Jiang Guangrong shook his head: "I can't make a decision alone. We need everyone's consent."
The result, of course, was that they disagreed. A piece of pork belly weighing less than two kilograms could only be cut into a dozen pieces. However, in addition to Chai Jianmin, there were three other male educated youth at the educated youth point: Jiang Guangrong, Qian Longkun and Zhao Xiaobao.
In addition to Xu Laidi and Cheng Qiao, there were five other female educated youth, including Han Chunmei, Zhang Yuefang, Xiaofang, Xiaoqin and a pair of sisters named Xiaoping. Although Cheng Qiao was not there, she had paid for the money and tickets, so she still had to keep her share.
By this calculation, it is already very good for each person to have two pieces of braised pork, so there is no need to add two more people to share their braised pork.
Xu Laidi and Chai Jianmin were so angry that their eyes almost rolled back, but no one in the entire educated youth site paid any attention to them. Even Zhao Xiaobao hurried to wash his face and brush his teeth, waiting for the braised pork to be eaten.
Li Huan walked into the home of the village chief Chen Weidang carrying a piece of remaining meat. When the village chief's wife Cuihua saw that he was a second-rate person, her face immediately darkened.
But when she saw the fat, white pork belly in Li Huan's hand, she wanted to give him a good look, but for a moment she over-controlled her expression and felt extremely embarrassed.
"Auntie, you didn't buy any meat today, I asked my friend to save some for me, here, take it."