dognovel Chapter 16 A Cellar Full of Vegetables
Chapter 16 A Cellar Full of Vegetables
"Really...? You've even gotten involved with state-run restaurants?"
Sister-in-law Zhao Lijuan stared wide-eyed, somewhat incredulous. After a moment's thought, she added:
"That state-run restaurant is a legitimate establishment, how could it have fallen so low as to buy ingredients from the black market? Xiangyang, you haven't run into any scammers, have you?"
"Yeah, Xiangyang, could that person be a scammer?"
His wife, Liu Xiulan, looked somewhat worried.
Wang Guiying echoed this sentiment, fearing that something might happen to her two precious sons.
"Yes, Xiangyang and Xiangdong, you two brothers have to be careful. It's against the rules for us to go to town to sell fish now, so don't make your mother worry."
Hearing the caring words from his family, Li Xiangyang felt a warmth in his heart.
Outsiders only care about how high or how far you fly, but only your family cares about how tired you are from flying!
So, he smiled and comforted her:
"It's alright, Mom. I know what I'm doing. State-run restaurants also need ration coupons to buy things. When business is good, they run out of coupons and can't buy enough ingredients through official channels, so they naturally have to buy them on the black market."
Besides, they have no reason to cheat us. It's always cash on delivery. If anything seems amiss, they just run away. You can rest assured!
"Hehe, Mom, don't worry! Xiangyang isn't like me, he's not that easy to fool."
Li Xiangdong poked his head out of the cellar, chuckled, and joked along.
No one knew better than him just how admirable Li Xiangyang's antics these past two days were.
With a simple plan, he taught Donkey Egg a lesson, a troublemaker that even the commune cadres found troublesome.
He won over Chen Guodong, the commune secretary, with a small fish and got him to speak on his behalf.
Furthermore, a pack of cigarettes was enough to win over the sales clerk at the supply and marketing cooperative, allowing him to buy 300 jin of cabbage without any food coupons.
He thought he couldn't have done these things so well, he never even imagined it.
After thinking about it, everyone agreed. Although Li Xiangyang usually acted like a scoundrel, he was actually quite shrewd.
Back when everyone was earning work points, he would pretend to be sick and not go to work every few days. The production team knew he was faking it, but they couldn't find anything wrong with it.
This shows how meticulous he is; he just didn't use his mind for the right things.
Otherwise, why would later generations say that ambitious scoundrels are more likely to succeed than honest men?
Honest person:
They are not good with words but soft-hearted, are dutiful and restrained, and are often bound by so-called high moral standards, which often makes them hesitant and timid in their actions.
Scumbag:
They are sweet-talking but ruthless, adept at handling situations, emotionally aware, and lacking in self-discipline, yet they are also daring and adventurous in their endeavors.
Of course, those who ultimately achieve success in their careers and have happy families are those who can separate their career pursuits from their personal lives.
Having figured this out, everyone felt relieved and began helping to store the cabbages in the cellar.
Wang Guiying took a wicker basket, and Liu Xiulan stacked the cabbages into the basket and handed it to her sister-in-law.
The eldest sister-in-law took a basket of cabbages, grabbed a hemp rope with an iron hook, hooked the handle of the basket with the iron hook, and carried it into the vegetable cellar.
At this moment, the eldest brother, Li Xiangdong, had already gone down to the deepest part of the vegetable cellar with a kerosene lamp, and Li Xiangyang followed behind and climbed down as well.
As soon as I got halfway down, a damp, earthy smell mixed with the sweetness of vegetables hit me. It wasn't pungent, just a very "heavy" smell.
The cellar wasn't well lit; you needed to bring a kerosene lamp down to see clearly, but it was extremely warm.
Compared to the sub-zero temperatures of over -30 degrees Celsius on the ground, the vegetable cellar is practically a giant greenhouse.
His family's cellar is a pit three meters deep and more than two meters in diameter, divided into four layers from top to bottom by wooden planks.
On the bottom layer of the ground, potatoes harvested in the fall were piled up densely, the second layer was stacked with red and white radishes, and the two layers above were all stacked with Chinese cabbage.
It's full and neat, which makes me feel at ease.
This just proves the old saying: "With grain in hand, one has nothing to fear."
The large jars for pickling vegetables at home are also stored in the cellar, probably because the temperature and humidity are more suitable there.
Li Xiangyang remembered that in his previous life, the pickled vegetables his mother made in the cellar tasted much better than those made in the kitchen vat.
The vegetables in this cellar were the source of vegetables for their entire family throughout the winter.
Back then, there were no refrigerators or freezers in Inner Mongolia. People stored vegetables for the winter in cellars in their own yards.
Vegetable cellars are usually small pits 3 to 5 meters deep, with an opening at the top about 60 centimeters in diameter, just big enough for one person to go up and down.
It is warm in winter and cool in summer.
Although the stockpiled items consisted of only a few simple everyday vegetables such as potatoes, radishes, and cabbages, it has already greatly improved the living standards of the people of Inner Mongolia.
People no longer have to rely solely on soybean paste and pickled vegetable jars to get through the winter.
After stacking all the cabbages into the cellar, the two brothers went back to their house.
In the middle room, on the kang (heated brick bed).
Xiao Chunsheng sat quietly next to his grandfather Li Zhenshan, holding a piece of fruit candy in his hand, occasionally putting it in his mouth to suck on it, and then quickly taking it out again.
I was afraid that if I slurped too much, I would slurp up all the fruit candy.
His sister-in-law gave him a strict order: he was only allowed to eat one a day!
Upon seeing the Li brothers, Li Xiangyang and Li Xiangdong, enter, Li Zhenshan was somewhat excited. He couldn't wait for them to tell him the whole story about the state-run restaurant.
He had previously harbored a glimmer of hope, thinking that if he couldn't earn enough to cover the ranch rent, he could borrow some money from Li Zhenhai.
But after last night,
When Xu Zhenhai brought commune cadres to arrest Li Xiangyang without even giving them a heads-up, Li Xiangyang finally saw through his younger brother, realizing that his brother had never wanted anything good for their family.
They only care about profit.
As the saying goes, "Mountains crumble and people run away," so if their family wants to turn their lives around, they will ultimately have to rely on themselves.
Before the father and his two sons had finished chatting, Liu Xiulan had already brought out two large bowls of steaming crucian carp soup and several corn cakes.
He said softly:
"Uncle, Xiangyang, you've been out since early this morning, you must be hungry, right? This is a crucian carp and tofu soup I cooked this morning, have some while it's hot."
"Oh, right, you guys should drink something hot to warm yourselves up. You can talk to this old man about the state-run restaurant after you finish eating."
Li Zhenshan was delighted to see his daughter-in-law bringing up the food.
Li Xiangyang was already hungry when he came back in the morning, and his eyes lit up when he saw a big bowl of steaming hot tofu and crucian carp soup.
Ignoring the fact that it was too hot to drink, I slurped up a big mouthful and immediately felt a warm current rush from my throat into my stomach, which warmed my heart as well.
Parents are healthy, brothers are harmonious, wife and daughters respect each other, there is meat in the kitchen, vegetables in the cellar, and wood in the kang (heated brick bed).
This must be the happiness that the people of Inner Mongolia feel!
Li Xiangyang secretly made up his mind to live a second life, for both himself and his family.
He must live a life worthy of being called a man.
After the two brothers finished drinking the crucian carp soup, they lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) to rest for half an hour. Once they felt warmer, they pulled the sled back to Zhaheer Lake.
As Li Xiangyang walked, he made plans in his mind.
Because they've connected with the state-run restaurant, they'll be able to increase their daily fish catch by at least a third.
That means 120 jin (60 catties) is needed to sell it.
If we calculate based on about 16 cents per pound, we can earn an extra 5 yuan per day.
This was equivalent to ten days' wages for an ordinary farmer at that time.
"Great, great, just thinking about it is exciting."