activa-t Chapter 129: Bamboo
Chapter 129: Bamboo
After the kiln was opened in the afternoon, Gu Qingqing first used an old bucket at home to fill it with lime blocks and carried it up the mountain with Gu Zhuangzhuang.
It was not that she felt particularly sorry for Gu Zhuangzhuang, but the lime that had just come out of the kiln was still very hot and there was no way she could carry it in a bamboo basket.
Erhua saw her mother taking her uncle and Li Xin up the mountain, and she wanted to follow them.
Gu Qingqing simply asked Li Xin to carry Sanhua, and the five of them went up the mountain.
The reason why she brought Sanhua with her was because Sanhua had not had her milk yet at noon.
When they got there, Gu Qingqing directed Gu Zhuangzhuang to cut the bamboo poles into about three feet long. Then she began to scrape the bamboo bark, and said to Li Xin beside her, "Just scrape it like this. It doesn't need to be very clean, just about right."
Li Xin thought it was very difficult at first, but when he saw it was just like this, he immediately said eagerly, "I know how to do it. I'll do it."
Gu Qingqing handed him the machete in her hand and said, "You only need to scrape out half of the bamboo here. You don't need to scrape the other half."
"Okay, I understand." Li Xin replied.
As for herself, she chose an open space and broke up as many lumps of lime as possible.
On the way, he even avoided people and fed Sanhua a mouthful of milk.
After some time, Gu Zhuangzhuang came running over and said, "Sister, Zhuzi is fine."
Then Gu Qingqing asked him to split all the bamboos into strips three fingers wide.
After Gu Zhuangzhuang and Li Xin were almost done with their work, it was her turn to take over.
There are only two pits in total, one pit is used to place bamboo with skin, and the other pit is used to place bamboo without skin.
In fact, the skin of bamboo with skin also needs to be removed after fermentation, but the order is different.
The reason why she made two different ones was that she needed to see which one was easier and which one would have better effect when finally made into paper.
Gu Qingqing put the bamboo strips into the pit that had been dug in advance and sprinkled a layer of lime on each layer of bamboo strips.
After all the bamboo strips are arranged, sprinkle a layer of lime powder on them, place stones on top, and then add water to cover the bamboo strips.
This is the first step in making paper: fermenting bamboo!
Gu Zhuangzhuang and Li Xin are not talkative people, so they will do whatever Gu Qingqing asks them to do, and if there is nothing to do, they will just watch quietly from the side.
After everything was done, Gu Qingqing saw that the sun was setting, so she hurriedly asked everyone to go back. Gu Zhuangzhuang still had to go back to Shuangxi Village, and if it was any later they would have to walk at night.
She didn't have any snacks these days, so she took out thirty coins and two pieces of tofu and gave them to Gu Zhuangzhuang. "When you go back, give the money to mom secretly. Don't let dad and grandma know. Also, let Xiaocao eat more of this tofu. She's pregnant. Don't try to stuff everything into your stomach."
Gu Qingqing instructed him.
Gu Zhuangzhuang nodded.
"Okay, let's go back quickly. It will be dark if we don't go back soon."
Gu Zhuangzhuang hesitated and asked, "Sister, can I come tomorrow?"
"You can't come tomorrow. You can help your mother with work at home. You can come the day after tomorrow." Gu Qingqing thought for a while and said to him.
She was not worried about the food at home. There were so many people working in her family, and one more person would not make much difference. She was mainly worried about her mother.
Xiaocao was pregnant, and there were two people lying on the kang, leaving Gu Jia alone at home, so how could she not need help?
After hearing this, Gu Zhuangzhuang said "Oh" and walked away with the bamboo basket on his back.
When Gu Qingqing finally had some free time, Luo Meihua and Dahua, who had returned from town a long time ago, had already scrubbed all the offal they brought back today and were now washing it.
"Thank you for your hard work, Meihua." Gu Qingqing walked over and said.
"Sister-in-law, if you keep talking about hard work, I'll be ashamed."
"Okay, hard work is worthless if you talk too much about it, so let's not talk about it later. By the way, Meihua, you will only have a jar of pig intestines tomorrow, and I will give the rest to Wu Fang and the others. There is also a little less tofu. If you can meet an old man selling tofu when you go to town tomorrow, buy more tofu. There are people working at home every day, so I can keep some for circulation. You take care of things here first, I'll go and light the pot, as we haven't found today's meal yet." Gu Qingqing was about to get up, but was hurriedly stopped by Luo Meihua.
"Anything else?" Gu Qingqing asked.
After hearing this, Luo Meihua smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, I was just about to tell you, didn't you say last time that you could help customers make braised food? That boss Jiang sent half a bag of peanuts today and asked if we could braise them. I remember you said you could, so I brought it back first, but I also agreed with Boss Jiang that if I couldn't, I would bring it back to him tomorrow. In addition, the owner of the pork stall asked me to bring back two pig ears today, asking us to help make them. There is also a regular customer who said that he saw us braise a duck for someone last time, so he also sent a duck today."
When Gu Qingqing heard there were ducks again, she subconsciously asked, "Can we pluck the ducks?"
"Alive." Luo Meihua said happily. A live duck is better. If it is dead, she dare not take it back. What if it is not fresh and she gets sick?
Gu Qingqing had no idea what Luo Meihua was thinking. She only felt that duck feathers were flying in front of her eyes.
Luo Meihua had no idea how hard it was for her to pluck the hair. She smiled and said to her, "You haven't been to town these few days. There are now two more stalls over there, both selling food. One sells oil fruit, and the other sells mutton soup."
"Selling mutton? Will it affect the business of Zheng's stall?" Gu Qingqing asked curiously.
Luo Meihua thought for a moment and said, "There should be some, but even so, Zheng's stall is still doing very good business, especially when we arrived, there was a queue there. Oh, by the way, there is one more thing I want to tell my sister-in-law, that is, Zheng's sister-in-law asked if we can sell her half-jar of pig intestines every day, and she wants extra soup to use as toppings. I didn't dare to agree to this, and said I would get back to her tomorrow."
Gu Qingqing raised the corner of her mouth, "Others can't do it, but she can definitely do it. You can reply to her tomorrow, but her share can only be given to her the day after tomorrow. You won't have much to bring to town tomorrow. If you give her half a jar, we won't have anything to sell."
"Okay, I'll talk to her tomorrow."
After Gu Qingqing looked at the peanuts, pig ears and ducks, she saw Wen Wuyan coming back and ordered him to kill the ducks. Then she looked at Li Xin who followed in and smiled, "Da Xin, your uncle will kill the ducks later. Can you help pluck the feathers?"
Li Xin had no idea what fluff was, but when he heard there was work to do, he nodded in confusion.
In order to be more efficient, or to find him a master, Gu Qingqing said to Dahua, "Dahua, you teach him later."
"Okay, mother."
She hurried back to cook.
We had steamed buns at home, so I cooked some brown rice and corn porridge in the evening, fried three small heads of cabbage, and stir-fried the last bit of soybean paste left at home. I also cracked two eggs into the porridge while cooking.
He then took out a few cucumbers from the pickle jar, cut them into sections, and placed them on the small table.
If it were just their family of five, they naturally couldn't eat so much. But the old man and Li Xin would also be eating with them, so they couldn't be too shabby.