Chapter 88

The next day,  Xu Ran’s family had just finished breakfast. Before Tangtang and Guoguo could run out, Foreman Li led the big group of people kitted out with bags to Xu Ran’s home at the end of the village.

As soon as Xu Ran saw Foreman Li, he hurriedly led them in.

With so many people here, it was difficult to serve them with water, and there were not so many bowls at home. And Xu Ran was even ashamed to ask Foreman Li and his men for the bowls. Thinking that there were still remaining sunflower seeds at home after the New Year, Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to distribute all of them to the people.

Everyone else was sitting in the yard eating the sunflower seeds, while Xu Ran and Foreman Li were discussing where they should live and where it was more convenient to cook the meal.

At last they chose the place next to Xu Ran’s home because it would be more convenient for them to borrow something from his home by the time they started the construction. Xu Ran also didn’t mind these. After all, all of them were working for his family.

Among the twenty-five people, there were five Ge’ers who were usually in charge of cooking and working as assistants. But Xu Ran didn’t understand these things. So he left the people to Liu Tong and asked him to deal with them.

Xu Ran led Foreman Li’s group to pitch their tents beside his home.

It was unknown who had seen the outsiders arriving at the village who were a group of people coming along to build a house and therefore the whole village soon knew it.

Almost everyone in the village ran over and most of them were jealous of Xu Ran. He had just bought a wasteland, and now he was going to build a house by hiring people in the town, which certainly would cost a lot of silver.

There were also some people who complained that Xu Ran was looking for outsiders instead of them to build the house. Xu Ran didn’t even want to respond. ‘Why should I look for you? Do I know you f**king well?’

The man was originally just complaining that he didn’t plan to do anything. However, seeing Xu Ran didn’t respond to his complaint, he became angry, saying that he was going to ask the village head to do himself justice.

Xu Ran also dismissed his words. These people just had too much time on their hands and liked to stir up trouble whether they were free or not.

Because Foreman Li and his men were well equipped for construction, they just needed to chop down some trees in the mountain and bring them back.

So Xu Ran led them to the mountain, and those Ge’ers also followed him, saying that they wanted to see where they could find the firewood. After all, there were so many people who had to eat three meals every day that the demand for firewood must be huge.

Liu Tong stayed at home and looked after the children and bags.

As the saying goes, ‘Two heads are better than one’, they started felling in the morning and they had chopped down enough trees for not only themselves but also Xu Ran by noon.

The wood they needed to build the hut could be directly used. But the one used for building the house for Xu Ran’s family had to be artificially processed. The group of people ran back and forth for several times before moving all the logs back.

In the past, the end of the village was the quietest place, but after Xu Ran’s family settled here, it started bustling with more people passing day.

After returning home, some of them began to build the hut. Others started cooking the meal, which showed the clear division of labor without influences on each other.

Xu Ran originally wanted to ask Xu An and the others for help, but all of them were busy hoeing in the fields to grow crops that they couldn’t help him. He naturally wouldn’t complain to them as the crop was the foundation of agriculture.

Then Xu Ran thought that his family could also start to plant corn and vegetables in a few days.

The wheat planted last year just grew a little that other families’ were much taller, and it was estimated that there would be no good harvest this year.

The turnips planted under the field didn’t grow well either, let alone the potatoes. they were planted in the wrong season that they couldn’t draw enough nutrients. Xu Ran dug one of them to see its size. And Xu Ran felt that there was nothing left after peeling it. He had really miscalculated when when the crops should be planted

It seemed that it was very necessary to plant crops at right time of year.

After a wander around the field, Xu Ran didn’t think the situation of the turnips meant they could grow better. So Xu Ran went to bring Liu Tong over here and pointed at the turnip field. “Tongtong, let’s just pull these turnips out!”

Liu Tong looked at Xu Ran in confusion. “Ran, why did you pull them out? Just wait a while and they can grow better.”

Xu Ran shook his head, “They probably couldn’t, and we must spare the field for planting corn and vegetables. Just treat planting turnips as increasing soil fertility. Now  that there’s no food to eat, the tender turnip leaves could be cooked to make sauerkraut and the turnips could be pickled after they have been pulled out.”

Liu Tong thought he was right. Other families may have spared the fields for planting rice. And Xu Ran’s family couldn’t be later anymore to plant crops this year, or how much the time would be wasted.

They discussed with each other and immediately decided to start pulling out the turnips.

Today’s food was all brought by Foreman Li and his men. Xu Ran looked at it and saw that there was not much food which was not good either. And the meat was even less, which was just a small piece that could only be used as lard.

There was also no meat at Xu Ran’s home, while there was still some lard. But they had to eat this kind of food on the first day, which made Xu Ran somewhat disapprove of it.

After pulling out the turnips they needed for fixing lunch, Xu Ran decided to talk to Foreman Li. The meat must be bought. If hog’s other parts were expensive, it would be enough to buy only hog’s guts and thigh bones, which were cheap and edible.

Foreman Li was a little unhappy when he heard Xu Ran saying that they would have the hog’s guts. They had eaten them and thought they were barely edible. They would rather eat less meat than eat hog’s guts

Seeing Foreman Li’s expression, Xu Ran knew that he had misunderstood. Xu Ran explained, “Hog’s guts are really edible and the taste is also good. Tomorrow, I will make a checklist to you. Just buy them back according to my requests and I’m sure that you will be satisfied.”

Foreman Li opened his mouth and was about to say something but seeing that Xu Ran explained with great certainty, he didn’t say anything at last.

‘Since Xu Ran put it this way, I should believe him.’ Foreman Li told to himself in mind.

The two of them kept talking. After a while, Liu Tong came over and called them for lunch. Guoguo and Tangtang were also back, covered in ash, who were caught by Liu Tong to wash their hands and faces.

The first day was just enough for these people to arrange the place for them to live, and then they went to the mountain to collect some firewood. The vat that Xu Ran’s family had bought for retaining water was also taken out. There were so many people that the water of a vat was not enough to last them for one day.

Liu Tong took a few Ge’ers to the river of the village and told them where they could wash clothes.

There was small fish in the river, which could also be caught and cooked to make fish soup.

Then they walked around the village to know the roads. When he met acquaintances, Liu Tong also greeted and introduced them to these Ge’ers.

On the night, because there were so many people joining in, it hummed with life at Xu Ran’s home for an instant. After all, Xu Ran’s family was also in need of making a fire at this time, and now there were so many people that it was convenient for him to gather firewood. So Xu Ran just chopped a lot of wood for the fire. And a group of people sat round the fire, eating the sunflower seeds and drinking water. Xu Ran was telling everyone stories that they had never heard before. When hearing the highlights of the stories, all of them applauded. And they didn’t go back to sleep until it was dark.

……

The next morning Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to take some Ge’ers to the town to buy vegetables and meat. And he specially told him to buy more hog livers and thigh bones.

There were pickled chilies at home, which were perfect to be stir-fried with livers. And there were also the turnips pulled out yesterday, so he could just use them to make soup with thigh bones.

Because the hut where they lived had been set up, the next day, all of the workers went to the mountain to chop trees. Because the house to be built was big, the demand for wood was also huge. They hurried to complete chopping tress and airing them after peeling so that it would be more convenient to use them to build the house.

Chopping trees was also not a small project, and it would take a long time to chop down a tree. And the branches on it needed to be removed. Then It would be hard to carry the logs back one by one. After that, they would have to be peeled. So it was estimated that they need to spend a few days completing the project.

After two hours, Liu Tong and several Ge’ers came back from the town. Besides the vegetables and meat as well as the ingredients that Xu Ran asked for, they didn’t buy anything else, so they quickly finished the purchase and returned.

Xu Ran happened to be at home, telling a few Ge’ers to clear up the things. The thigh bones had been chopped into small pieces before they bought them, so as long as he soaked them in hot water, he could cooked them to make the soup.

Xu Ran took the pickled chilies from his house with garlic, and stir-fried them together with the livers. The livers had to be cut on the slant into triangles so that the dish would look good.

Xu Ran patiently told these Ge’ers that how they should cook the dish and what they should put first and next, which could be comparable to a professional chef.

One of the Ge’ers even bantered with Liu Tong, saying that he was blessed with such a man at home who also could cook.

Xu Ran touched his nose and was ashamed to say that he had not cooked for a long time.

Anyway, there was a very popular saying in the 21st century that man who couldn’t cook wouldn’t be able to marry a wife, although he hadn’t marry a wife at that time either even though he could cook.

At noon, the stir-fried liver with pickled chili and the bone turnip soup were naturally praised by everyone.

On February 2nd of the Chinese lunar calender, which was called the Dragon Head-raising Day (The most popular custom is having a haircut this day), Xu Ran didn’t know if the festival was popular here or not. But he still cut the hair of the two children and took them to the street to spend the whole day having fun. These days, they had been running to burning something to ashes every day that they lost some weight, but they also looked more energetic.

After cutting trees for so many days, almost all the things they needed to build the house were ready. Xu Ran paid Foreman Li the wages for the past few days and let them to arrange the money themselves.

Not only did he take the two children to the town to play, but also he wanted to look for Zhuo Yun to ask about the strawberry plants. The uncultivated land had been cleared up and the holes had been dug ready just waiting for the strawberry plants to be planted, and there had also been a lot of ash behind the house. The playmates of Tangtang and Guoguo were indeed capable.

However, as soon as Xu Ran’s family reached the intersection of the town, they saw the shopkeeper in the carriage was about to leave. When Xu Ran saw it, he hurriedly stopped the shopkeeper, “Where are you going, Sir?”

As soon as the shopkeeper saw Xu Ran, he stopped the carriage and said, “My master said he is going to look for you. And now I just come across you by a happy coincidence.”

At this time, Zhuo Yun also got out of the carriage and smiled at Xu Ran. “What a coincidence.”