green grass on the stream

The next day Qi Yanfan woke up early, humming an out-of-tune song with excitement, and rushed into the kitchen.

He took out some flour and kneaded it into a dough in the gaping big bowl, cleaned and chopped the extra wild vegetables from feeding the chickens yesterday, mixed them with yesterday's meat stuffing, added a little salt, and then used chopsticks to run along a Directions Stir into the filling.Then he divided the dough into doses and started making buns one by one.

Qi Yanfan's craftsmanship is not so advanced yet, in the spirit of having never eaten pork and never seen a pig run, he imitated the technique of making buns he had seen on TV before, and he still wrapped them decently according to the gourd painting.

After making a dozen buns, he went outside to dig some wild garlic, picked up dozens of branches, and cleaned them all.The wild garlic was chopped and put into the bone broth. After the branches were cut clean, a simple steaming rack was made, and a dozen white and fat buns were neatly stacked on the steaming rack.

The fire boiled, and the buns were steamed. Qi Yanfan couldn't wait to take a sip first, um, the dough was soft, the wild vegetables were fragrant, and the fillings were full. After one bite, hot juice dripped out, making Qi Yanfan gasp and breathe.

"What's the rush, no one is robbing you." Ji Tingyu came in with a smile.

"It's bad, it's bad for the eight sons..."

"Good good."

Ji Tingyu put the steamed stuffed buns on a plate, filled two large plates, and brought them to the table in Dajian.With a steamed bun in his mouth, Qi Yanfan filled two bowls of bone soup with salt and took it out.

"Try it quickly." Qi Yanfan stared at Ji Tingyu with expectant little eyes.

Ji Tingyu picked up the bone soup in front of him first, and saw a few green garlic leaves floating in the milky white soup, and scattered oily flakes circled on the soup surface.He lowered his head and blew gently, and took a sip from the edge of the bowl. The hot soup warmed down his throat to his stomach, and it was unusually mellow because of the small fire that had been simmering all night.

Ji Tingyu nodded: "It's delicious."

Qi Yanfan laughed so hard that he couldn't see his teeth, he pushed the buns in front of him: "Try this again, it's my first time doing it."

Hearing this, Ji Tingyu grabbed a steamed bun and took a bite. It was completely different from Qi Yanfan's embarrassment. He chewed gracefully for a while, only to feel the smell of wild vegetables lingering on his lips and teeth, and he had eaten a steamed stuffed bun before he knew it.

The two drank the soup and finished half of the steamed buns. After breakfast and cleared away the dishes, Ji Tingyu said to Qi Yanfan, "I'm planning to go down the mountain today."

"What are you going to do?" Qi Yanfan was surprised.

"We want to live here for a long time, we need to get the account down first."

Qi Yanfan scratched his head, he didn't know whether he had a household registration or not, so he asked, "Then what should I do?"

"There is a peach blossom village on a hill to the north of us. Li Zheng, who is in charge of our area, lives there. Where is the extra cotton cloth I bought last time? I will visit Li Zheng and ask him to help us settle down."

"Okay, okay." Qi Yanfan quickly took out the cotton cloth.

"Stay at home obediently, I will be back in the afternoon." Ji Tingyu said.

Qi Yanfan wrapped him a few more buns in his bag, and told him, "Be careful on the road."

"Okay, if you take it slow, you will definitely be back before the evening, don't worry."

Saying goodbye to Ji Tingyu, Qi Yanfan patted himself on the cheek, a grown man just went out to do some errands, there is nothing to worry about, there are still a lot of things waiting at home.He first cleaned the chicken pens for the chickens, transported the chicken manure to the vegetable field, took out the iron rake to dig the ground again, picked up a few thin earthworms and fed them to the chickens.

Then I found the bag of seeds I bought yesterday, and sprinkled some of them on the vegetable field, leaving some to be prepared.He took out the large sea bowl that was used as both a basin and a ladle, and poured water on the vegetable field.

After finishing the work in the field, Qi Yanfan thumped his waist and nodded in satisfaction.He took out the sack of cotton again to dry in the sun, found the fabric and needles, and planned to start ordering the quilt.

The words are divided into two ends.Ji Tingyu turned over a hill and saw Taohua Village in front of him.He tied up the firewood he picked up along the way with rattan and put it aside, and took it with him when he was going back.

I asked all the way to Lizheng's house, and explained the purpose of my visit.The gray-haired Lizheng was a cheerful person, and he said, "The mountain you live on now is called Cuiyuan Mountain. A long time ago, a landlord took over several hills there and planted bamboo and fruit trees. Look at the orchard. However, the landlord’s family fell into ruin later, and no one took care of the garden. After a long time, it became deserted. Can people live in the house?”

Ji Tingyu nodded: "It can still keep out the wind and rain."

Lao Li was slapping his thigh: "Yes, green bricks were still used when it was built."

Ji Tingyu said: "The two brothers and I fled here to avoid the war. Although the house is broken, it can also shelter from the wind and rain for a while."

"Where do you come from?" Lizheng asked.

"Li Jianye, who lives in the lower capital, and—" Ji Tingyu thought of Qi Yanfan's smile on Yan Yan, and somehow turned the word "brother" on his lips, "Cousin Qi Qiu, his family is in trouble, and he wishes to be in the peach blossoms." Settle down in the village and live a simple life.”

"Then the household registration procedures for the two of you..."

Ji Tingyu immediately put the piece of soft cotton cloth on the table: "The capital is in turmoil, and the two of us will not have time to go through the formalities, but what we said is true, and there will be no mistakes when the officials of the new dynasty verify it in the future."

Li Zheng also nodded in agreement: "In this world, we don't know that this corner of the world will be remembered by people in the year of the monkey."

Next, Lizheng asked him about his original household registration address, whether they were both men, and so on, and the problem of household registration was finally resolved.

After saying goodbye, Ji Tingyu went back along the original road, passing by the place where he put the firewood, and suddenly found a dark-skinned man guarding there.

As soon as he stepped forward, the man couldn't wait to meet him and asked, "Is this firewood yours?"

"Exactly."

"Can you sell it to me?"

Seeing Ji Tingyu looking at him puzzled, the man immediately explained: "My surname is Chen, and I collect mountain goods from all over the world. My customers are all big restaurants in the city, and every time they ask me to deliver some for them." Firewood as an extra. I wanted to spend a few dollars to hire someone to pick it up, but all the middle-aged people in the village went out to find work, and the rest of the old and young couldn’t go up the mountain. When I saw this large bundle of firewood today, I thought Try your luck here."

Ji Tingyu asked: "I wonder how much firewood Brother Chen needs?"

"Not many, just two bundles a day."

"I don't know how to hand it over to Brother Chen?"

"It's fine to put it in the house of a person surnamed Li at the entrance of the village. I'll come to pick it up once every half a month. The small ones will cost you 3 Wen a bundle, and the big ones will cost you 5 Wen. Do you take it?"

"Thank you."

Qi Yanfan looked at the crookedly stitched quilt, and the corners of his eyes twitched. Ugly is ugly, and what is invisible is pure.He gathered up the cotton and poured it into the quilt, looked up at the road up the mountain, it was past noon, and Ji Tingyu hadn't come back yet.

He thought worriedly, he wouldn't be in any danger, maybe he ran away, and he knew that he couldn't bear hardships just by looking at his son.After a while, he couldn't help wondering if he was hungry, if his mouth was dry, and if he had water to drink, like an anxious little lady waiting for her husband to come home.

Later, as if he disliked himself, he simply found something to do and didn't think about him. Although Ji Tingyu was an ancient man, it really suited his tastes, but according to the self-consciousness of the old bachelor, Qi Yanfan felt that the other party would definitely not like him, so why bother to be passionate.

He temporarily put Ji Tingyu behind him, took out the pig skin and fat that he cut off yesterday, cut them into small cubes, put a small bowl of water in the pot, and started to boil on low heat.As the moisture evaporates, the lard begins to ooze.Qi Yanfan kept frying and pressing with a spatula, and the sloppy lard was gradually released.The oil residue becomes smaller and smaller, and finally turns golden yellow and floats on the oil surface.

Qi Yanfan extinguished the fire in the stove, put the oil residue into a plate, put all the oil into a rice bowl, and put it on the window sill to cool.

Shouts came from outside the door, Qi Yanfan immediately threw down the shovel and rushed out the door, it was indeed Ji Tingyu who came back.

Qi Yanfan patted his clothes that smelled of oily smoke, pretending to be calm and said: "Is the account settled?"

"Okay," Ji Tingyu raised his hand with a bright smile in his eyes: "Look, what is this?"

"Tubon He, He..." Qi Yanfan couldn't call out its name for a while.

"Kettle."

"Wow, that's great!" Qi Yanfan was so happy that he almost jumped up and hugged Ji Tingyu.He asked excitedly, "Where did this come from?"

Ji Tingyu then collected firewood and sold it at every price, went to the old carpenter's house in the village to buy pots, and told him about buying an old kettle by the way.

"It took some time to pick up a few bundles of firewood. I originally wanted to go to the town to buy them, but I was afraid it would be too late." Ji Tingyu added.

"It's already very good, it's really great." Qi Yanfan studied over and over with the kettle, which looked like a large cylindrical teapot, "How do I use this?"

"I think they all built bricks on the ground and put pots on them to boil water."

"Okay, I'll try it now."

Qi Yanfan ran away bouncing around, and came back after a while and stuffed two warm buns into Ji Tingyu's hands: "Your share, eat quickly."

Ji Tingyu looked at his running away back and smiled.

Qi Yanfan built an earthen stove out of mud, put the pot on the fire, and used it to boil water when necessary, and it's fine to use it as a teapot at ordinary times.

Ji Tingyu explained to Qi Yanfan about using the household names of two other brothers, and Qi Yanfan knew that things were not peaceful. "My surname may cause unnecessary trouble, so I'm embarrassing Xiao Qi."

"What's the matter, it doesn't matter, then can I not call you Brother Ji in the future?"

"Just call me Tingyu."

Qi Yanfan struggled a few times and still felt hesitant to cry out. He changed the subject bluntly and said, "Why would the person who collects mountain goods pay for firewood? Could it be a lie?"

Ji Tingyu said: "He collects firewood once in half a month, and that is a big cart, and then it will be transported to the restaurant. It is impossible for the restaurant to accept such a large cart of firewood from him without giving him a penny. Maybe he can make some money. Woolen cloth."

"What, there is such a good thing?"

"Everyone in the world has their own way of survival." Ji Tingyu just smiled indifferently, and said: "There is one more thing to tell you."

"what?"

"Lizheng said that the fields in this village need to be bought with money." Ji Tingyu glanced at Qi Yanfan's normal face, and continued: "We don't have any fields now, but if we open up wasteland in the future, it will be considered our own."

Qi Yanfan said: "I don't know how to farm, and it's one thing missing to have no land."

At this moment, the water in the pot started to bubble up, and Qi Yanfan became happy again: "I want to take a bath and wash my hair!"