Chapter 38 I'm so tired
After teaching his son and daughter-in-law a lesson.
Tong Huaqiong was in a good mood.
The good thing about having a house full of children and grandchildren is that you can scold anyone you catch, and the person being scolded has no choice but to listen obediently.
Tong Huaqiong, feeling happy, continued to work on her pastries in the kitchen.
"Mom, what kind of snacks did you make? I can smell the fragrance at the entrance of the village. Everyone in the village is discussing whose house it came from. Even the dogs are sticking their noses out to smell it."
Gu Dashu leaned against the kitchen door and peeked inside.
It smells so good, so good that he is drooling.
I really want to try one.
"Go, go, go! You can't eat any snacks now. This is your mother's weapon to make money."
Tong Huaqiong was stirring the butter in the bowl while chasing people away.
Next she'll bake big butter cookies.
Butter, a thing that didn't exist in that era, was used to bake cookies that would have shocked Mr. Huang.
When Gu Dashu heard Tong Huaqiong mention money, he felt inferior.
After all, my mother spent fifty taels of silver to prevent Gu Yaozu from being sent away.
In order to earn the fifty taels of silver, he worked hard making pastries.
If Mr. Huang is not satisfied and asks for the deposit back, he will be in big trouble.
"Okay, mom, you've worked hard. Yue'e, you please serve mom well and give me a handkerchief to wipe my sweat." Gu Dashu said.
"Tomorrow I will set up the stall with my mother."
When Tong Huaqiong heard this, she knew that Gu Dashu was about to slack off.
He didn't want to set up a stall at all; it was obvious that he wanted to go to town.
So he scolded her, "You just said you wanted to set an example for Yaozu, but now you've revealed your true colors again. Are you a white-bone demon? The wheat has already grown, and who in the village isn't working on the crops? I saw the grass in our wheat field yesterday, and it's as tall as a person. Your eldest sister-in-law, daughter-in-law and younger sister and I are making cakes at home, do you really expect us to work on the crops?"
"You can't make money, and you can't take care of the crops? Go and take care of the wheat for me. First, pull out the weeds in the field. It hasn't rained for half a month. Go and see if the two plots of land at the foot of the West Mountain need watering. If necessary, you and Gu Jingzhe should irrigate the two plots of land for me."
"If you delay this year's harvest, I won't forgive you."
Amid Tong Huaqiong's scolding, Gu Dashu carried a hoe out of the woodshed.
"My second brother and I will go together." Gu Jingzhe said.
Gu Jingzhe originally doubted Tong Huaqiong's ability to make money by selling cakes, but when he walked into the house, smelled the fragrance, and saw cakes of various shapes through the kitchen, his eyes lit up.
This pastry smells better than the one from Sushiyuan and looks better than the one from Sushiyuan.
My mother is really capable.
Gu Jingzhe suddenly thought, no wonder his father was so stupid, but a child prodigy like him was born in his family. It turned out that he looked like his mother.
It must have been laziness that overshadowed my mother’s abilities before.
Therefore, he had no doubts at all about the origin of the fifty taels of silver.
The two sons carried hoes and went to the fields.
Tong Huaqiong fell into deep thought.
These days, when she was going back and forth from town, she passed by her own wheat field, but the wheat there was not growing as well as the wheat in the field next to it.
The wheat fields next door are lush and green, and the wheat ears are full, showing a scene of a good harvest.
The wheat fields at home are a bit sparse, and the heading is not very good. There are even a few rows of wheat with yellow leaves. It's obvious that it's the result of a lazy person taking care of the wheat fields.
All this is the result of Tong Da Jiao's leadership of everyone.
Usually Gu Dahan does hard labor at the dock, and all the work in the fields falls on Chen Sufen. Chen Sufen is also busy with housework and is unable to handle it.
Of course, Gu Dashu and Liu Yue'e also work in the fields, but the couple does not work hard and often slacks off.
Due to a variety of factors, the Gu family’s crops did not grow well and the amount of grain they produced was significantly lower than the village average.
Tong Huaqiong thought that in this era, making money is important, but land cannot be ignored. After all, land resources are the foundation of human survival.
If you own land and grow crops, even if you encounter war and cannot go out to do business, you can still survive by relying on the land and crops.
Tong Huaqiong planned to wait until she had some free time to think carefully about farm matters, such as increasing production, what crops to plant to make money, and purchasing good farmland to expand land ownership.
"Mom, do you think it's okay to sift the flour like this?"
Chen Sufen handed the sifted flour to Tong Huaqiong. Tong Huaqiong weighed it in her hand and nodded with satisfaction.
It has to be said that Chen Sufen has some talent. She sifted the flour to a uniform coarseness and fineness, which was exactly what Tong Huaqiong wanted.
Perhaps her good skills can be passed on to Chen Sufen in the future, and she is only focused on finding ways to expand the scale of her business.
Liu Yue'e was sitting in front of the stove making a fire and felt very uncomfortable. She didn't know how much good skills Chen Sufen had learned from her mother-in-law in the past few days.
This skill can be exchanged for money.
Not only that, the mother-in-law also bought Chen Sufen a new set of clothes.
"Burn your fire well. You will be indispensable when I make a lot of money in the future." Tong Huaqiong took a glance at Liu Yue'e and knew that she had some small thoughts again. She just felt tired. Liu Yue'e was too narrow-minded. She would tear down the roof if she was not punished one day.
When she heard that there was silver, Liu Yue'e's eyes lit up.
"Grandma, I'm going to cut grass for the pigs."
Maner saw that the adults were busy and felt a little anxious because she couldn't help, so she obediently picked up the basket and went to collect grass for the pigs.
"Go ahead, but don't go too far." Tong Huaqiong gave a few instructions.
Maner nodded.
"Sister Maner, I'll go cut grass for the pigs with you."
Gu Yaozu wanted to please his grandmother, so he took the initiative to move closer to Maner.
Maner hesitated for a while and said, "If you don't make trouble, I'll take you there."
Gu Yaozu nodded quickly and agreed: "I won't make trouble, I'll mow the grass."
As he spoke, he took the initiative to take the basket from Maner's hand.
Tong Huaqiong watched with a smile, children are much smarter than adults think. Take Yaozu for example, he dared to bully Maner in the past because he knew that he could just bully her without any consequences. After the incident with the date cake today, he knew that Maner's position in Tong Huaqiong's heart was unshakable, so he quickly began to please her.
This is exactly the effect Tong Huaqiong wanted.
Tong Huaqiong had just beaten the butter and her hands were so tired that they felt like they were about to break.
It would be great if the butter could be whipped in the space, after all, using the power of tools would save time and energy.
It is not difficult to make butter biscuits. Just mix flour, butter and powdered sugar together to make dough, shape it and bake it.
After mixing all the ingredients, Tong Huaqiong secretly sprinkled a handful of milk powder, then began to roll up her sleeves and knead the dough.
"Mom, let me knead the dough." said Chen Sufen.
"Let the peach blossoms come, the peach blossoms are strong."
Originally, Gu Taohua thought that with her two sisters-in-law helping her, she had nothing to do. She dressed up and planned to go to the village to show off her new dress to other girls. But she was caught by Tong Huaqiong just as she passed by the kitchen door.
Gu Taohua has a lot of strength, so there is no need to wait any longer.
Tong Huaqiong gave the order and Gu Taohua dared not disobey, so she washed her hands and took the wash basin from Tong Huaqiong.
After Gu Taohua kneaded the dough, Tong Huaqiong taught Chen Sufen how to make the biscuit base.
Tong Huaqiong taught very carefully, Chen Sufen learned very seriously, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law worked together and soon made a table full of biscuit dough.
It took a cup of tea to dry the biscuits, one by one, and Chen Sufen continued to cooperate with Tong Huaqiong to put the biscuits into the large iron pan.
"Finally done." Tong Huaqiong rubbed his waist.
I've been bending over for the whole afternoon. I'm so tired!
Even though I am only forty years old now, my physical fitness is still incomparable to that of my twenty-year-old self in my previous life.
In my previous life, I was full of energy even if I stayed in the laboratory for a whole day.
"Mom, I'll watch the fire, you take a rest first." Chen Sufen said considerately.
Chen Sufen is meticulous in her work and is extremely talented in baking. Plus, the only step left in making the cookies is baking.
Tong Huaqiong felt more at ease with Chen Sufen looking after her.
"Okay, just look at me and rest assured."
Tong Huaqiong nodded, then walked out of the kitchen and sat at the door to get some fresh air.
I’m so tired!