Chapter 021 First Pot of Gold — Manual Noodle Maker (1)

“Uncle Li Zheng flattered me.” Qin Mian took a look at the paddy in the field and praised, “Uncle is worthy of being a good farmer. Seeing that the ears of the paddy are full, there must be a good harvest this year.” In fact, it’s a left-handed compliment. This paddy was much worse than what he’d seen in previous life.

“Hahaha…” Li Zheng burst out laughing, knowing that Qin Mian was trying to pick up good words, but it was so simple that it made people felt at ease, “Nah, your field’s also good.”

Qin Mian made modest remarks and didn’t talk to Li Zheng anymore. The so-called catching up was not a business transaction but these words were truthful when it came to interpersonal communication. It would seem hypocritical to say too much good words.

Lei Tie ate the chopped onion meat pancakes and only when he finished did he asked: “Have you eaten?”

Qin Mian said: “No yet. I’ll go back now and deliver your lunch at noon.”

“Send it to the grain-sunning ground.” Lei Tie caught a sight of Lei Xiangren walking his way in big strides and he stuffed the basket into Qin Mian’s arms. “Go back.”

Qin Mian also saw Lei Xiangren. He took the basket and left. He didn’t like Lei Xiangren very much and if he could avoid contact with him, he would. Lei Tie was Lei Xiangren’s eldest brother, so it would have to be wronged to deal with him.

After a few steps, he turned his head and smiled sympathetically at Lei Tie.

Lei Tie was baffled, he raised his chin slightly.

Qin Mian guessed that Lei Tie was urging him to go quickly. Smiling, he quickened his pace and went home leisurely.

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Li Zheng took in the whole scene of the situation here and shook his head secretly. He ate up the chopped onion meat pancake in two-three bites and he continued to harvest paddy.

“Eldest brother, Father told me to ask you to harvest paddy.”

“My paddy is still not completely collected.”

“When you have finished harvesting this field, go there.”

“No, I still have to thresh the grain later.”

……

Qin Mian had gone far but still faintly heard Lei Xiangren’s indubitable tone and Lei Tie’s indifferent response. He laughed silently and praised Lei Tie in his heart: Good!

When he got home, he filled his stomach and washed their clothes first. Then he found that there was a bamboo pole between the two trees in front of the house. The two ends of the bamboo pole were fixed on the branch of the trees which as tall as a person and tightly bound with cloth strips.

This must be the “clothesline” made by Lei Tie.

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A smile involuntarily emerged from the corners of Qin Mian’s lips. After hanging the clothes, he went back to the house to start his “first pot of gold[1] plan”.

There were two main things that he was good at in the previous life; one was farming, the other was gourmet food. In today’s backward era, planting food in the field was toilsome and it’s impossible to make any money. He could only start with gourmet food.

Yesterday in the town, due to the rushing time, he just strolled about and discovered the first business opportunity — manual noodle maker. He had calculated that there were more than 20 noodle shops in the town and their noodles were all made in this way: first, mixed the flour well, then rolled the dough into thin sheets with a rolling pin and then cut the noodles into strips with skilled knife work. This was not only tiring, but also toilsome. He believed that if he made the manual noodle maker, it would sell.

Qin Mian found the paper left over from yesterday’s window pasting, took out a pencil from the space, and drew all the parts of the manual noodle maker, including the container for the dough, the handle and the templates with several small holes on it. The principle of manual noodle maker was also simple, mainly by extrusion, somewhat similar to air pump. Placed the dough in the fuselage, held the handle and pressed it down, the dough would be extruded from several holes at the bottom and became strips of noodles. If one wanted to eat thin noodles, just used the base template with smaller holes and for flat noodle, used the base template with larger holes. It was very convenient.

After he was done drawing and verified it, Qin Mian put away the blue print, took out the oddments of cloth he bought yesterday, found the manual sewing machine from the space and sewed several pairs of socks. Then, he did fitting and felt it was a little loose. He sewed two belts at the sock’s opening, which could be tied like leggings to prevent slipping. The socks were ugly in appearance, but better in fine stitching. Even if Lei Tie saw it, he would only think that Qin Mian was good at needlework and would not think that he had a cheat.

He washed the several pairs of socks and hung them on the bamboo pole outside.

Looking at the sun, it’s almost noon.

Qin Mian picked some vegetables directly from the space and prepared lunch. He made sautéed shredded pork with green pepper with the remaining lean meat of yesterday, chive omelet and cold eggplant salad. Lei Tie had a large appetite, so he directly filled the cooked rice in a big soup bowl. He also put half of the three dishes into the bowl, covered it with a plate and put in the basket. In the same way, he used a water jar to fill cold boiled water.

The vegetables in the space tasted delicious. Qin Mian wiped out the rest of the dishes, burped two times before he picked up the basket to deliver lunch to Lei Tie.

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The grain-sunning ground, which used to be the place where he and Lei Tie roasted corn, covered an area of about one and a half mu and was divided into eight squares of similar size. When Qin Mian arrived, the villagers wearing straw hats were in full swing busy under the big sun. Some of them were speedily spreading out the newly picked paddy crops, ready to thresh; the quick farmers were already driving the oxen to pull the stone roller to crush it, raising the whip and making loud yells from time to time; and some villagers put the threshed grains into sacks because there were others waiting to use the grain-sunning ground; below the haystack beside the grain-sunning ground, three sweaty men sat in the shade, gobbling food and talking loudly.

There were more than 20 people on the grain-sunning ground. Somehow, Qin Mian saw Lie Tie standing alone in the corner of the grain-sunning ground, bending over to spread out the paddy crops.

Note:

[1] From My First Pot of Gold, an American business handbook for Chinese immigrants written by consultant Karina Wong. Chinese came to San Francisco Gold Rush for mining gold and in the new millennium, it means Chinese start their own business to seek wealth.