Chapter 22: Doing Things Together as a Family

Early in the morning, Feng Yi woke up without much rest but felt a surge of energy throughout his body. Jiang Liyun mentioned building a house and living together with him! Living together! How did he not think of it before? He could earn more money and then build a house in the village!

With this, he and Jiang Liyun would have their own home! Running quite a distance, Feng Yi realised he had left Jiang Liyun and the others far behind. Feeling awkward, he stopped, checking the items in the cart.

He hoped nothing inside got damaged!

Fortunately, Jiang Liyun had packed everything neatly, securing the coal stove on a frame to prevent any tipping. While waiting for them, Feng Yi contemplated future plans. He must wake up early tomorrow, go to town, and buy more dumplings.

By the way, how should they build the house?

His mind was in a mess, and at that moment, Jiang Liyun and the others caught up. Feng Yi had a lot to say to Jiang Liyun, but with Jiang Lamei and Jiang Liyu present… He lowered his head, silently pulling the cart.

It took forty minutes to walk from town to Jiang’s home. When they arrived home, it was already ten o’clock. Wu Xiaochun was cooking, and seeing this, Jiang Liyun rolled up her sleeves to prepare a meal.

While both Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Lamei could cook, their dishes were often too oily and salty. Jiang Liyun preferred making it herself.

She stir-fried sweet potato shoots with lard and braised sliced bamboo shoots. As for the meat dish, she had reserved some dumpling filling in the morning, had Wu Xiaochun mix in some eggs, and steamed it on a rack.

Steamed minced meat with eggs is always delicious!

During the meal, neither Wu Xiaochun nor Jiang Lamei touched the meat and vegetables with their chopsticks. Jiang Liyun still divided the meat and vegetables as usual, and in the end, she poured the meat soup into Jiang Liyu’s rice bowl.

Jiang Liyu said, “Second sister, our family has been eating really well lately!”

During this period, Jiang Liyu felt exceptionally happy. Today, for instance, even the pickled vegetables in the morning had meat in them!

When she helped in town to make dumplings, her sister even gave her two pan-fried dumplings!

Now, the meat soup mixed with rice is truly delicious.

“In the future, our family will eat even better!” Earlier, Jiang Liyun drew big plans for Feng Yi, and now she started making plans for her family: “Mum, do you know how much money we earned today? After deducting costs, we made thirteen yuan. This is the first day, and it was a bit chaotic, so we earned less. In the future, we will earn more, and then our family can eat meat every day.”

Wu Xiaochun opened his mouth—almost every day, they already ate meat in their family.

Jiang Liyun said, “Mum, you and Dad help me make dumplings, and I’ll pay you a salary. I’ll give you one hundred yuan a month, and we can save money together. Let’s try to build the house next year.”

Wu Xiaochun said, “We’ll help you make dumplings without taking a salary.”

Just helping to make dumplings, why should their daughter give them money?

“Yes! Mum, we’ll earn more; giving you a hundred yuan a month is nothing.” Jiang Liyun smiled.

If her parents were the type not to care about their children, she would surely keep everything secret from them, not telling them how much money she earned.

But her parents cared for their children.

Also, when it came to running a stall, her and Feng Yi’s workload was a bit overwhelming. Having someone help would make things much easier. In the town’s small eateries, it’s usually a family affair. For instance, the noodle shop next door in her past life had the husband making noodles, the wife serving and assisting, the husband’s father helping with fish and eels, washing vegetables and dishes, and as for the husband’s mother, well, she was taking care of the children.

In short, when the whole family works together, they can earn more.

Wu Xiaochun used to worry a lot, fearing Jiang Liyun wouldn’t make any money.

But now, earning thirteen yuan in a day… She was filled with hope for the future.

After encouraging her family, Jiang Liyun washed her face and went to sleep.

She had slept too little last night.

Jiang Liyun went to sleep, but Feng Yi couldn’t sleep. He fetched two buckets of water from the river with a dung bucket and started watering Jiang’s vegetable field.

Seeing this, Jiang Lamei couldn’t help but comment, “If it were summer now, these vegetables would be drowned by his watering!”

When it’s extremely hot in the sun, watering at noon could kill the vegetables. Watering should be done in the morning or evening.

Fortunately, the weather has cooled down recently. At least Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Lamei had already put on long sleeves, and they would add another layer in the evening.

Of course, Feng Yi, who was outside watering, wore a short-sleeve shirt.

Wu Xiaochun remained silent, still watching Feng Yi.

Feng Yi worked really fast; what took Jiang Lamei two hours to do, Feng Yi finished in one.

Next door, in the Feng family, both Feng Lao and Zhou Qiaoxia saw Feng Yi watering Jiang’s field.

Feng Lao couldn’t help but mutter, “An ungrateful wretch!”

Zhou Qiaoxia’s expression wasn’t too good either, especially since yesterday, Feng Yi slapped Jiang Liyun in the face.

She was so upset that she even thought of getting up in the middle of the night to pull out all the vegetables in Jiang’s field.

But she ultimately realised that the vegetables in her own field were more valuable, so she didn’t dare to do that.

Zhou Qiaoxia asked Feng Lao, “How was their business this morning?”

Feng Lao was even more dissatisfied: “I saw their business seemed pretty good.”

Feng Lao had gone to the town’s morning market to sell vegetables as usual, and naturally, he saw how well Feng Yi and the others were doing.

The two fell into silence, feeling particularly uneasy. After all, Feng Yi used to work at the brick and tile factory, essentially earning money for them. But now, Feng Yi has quit!

They were reluctant to let go of the job at the factory. After much persuasion yesterday, they finally convinced Feng Er to go to the factory to replace Feng Yi.

However, Feng Er was only willing to contribute fifty yuan out of the slightly over one hundred yuan salary!

Zhou Qiaoxia said, “So what if the business is good? Feng Yi is probably just a labourer. He has been foolish since childhood. If Jiang Liyun calls, he obediently follows. All he knows is to bend his elbows outward.”

The two of them talked for a while but couldn’t change anything.

As the saying goes, if Feng Yi is unwilling, they can’t force him to work with a knife at his throat.

As for spreading rumours about Feng Yi being unfilial outside,. Living in the same village, everyone knows how they treat Feng Yi. If they go around saying he’s unfilial, they might even be ridiculed.

“That’s right, talking about finding a partner for him. When Jiang Liyun has money, she definitely won’t be interested in Feng Yi,” Feng Lao remarked.

After venting for a while, the two of them felt a bit relieved.

After finishing watering, Feng Yi knew that Jiang Liyun was sleeping. After some thought, he decided to go to Jiang Youwen’s house and catch some sleep.

When he arrived at Jiang Youwen’s house, Jiang Youwen was playing with his granddaughter on the cement-paved drying ground in front of the house.

The little girl held a piece of red brick shard in her hand, drawing circles on the cement ground and then placing various weeds inside the circles, saying it was her vegetables.

Feng Yi looked at Jiang Youwen’s house and asked, “Uncle Youwen, how do we build a house?”

Jiang Youwen didn’t understand why Feng Yi suddenly asked this, but he still gave an answer.

If you want to build a house, you need to first get approval from the village for the foundation. After the foundation is approved, you can buy bricks and tiles, and then you can start building the house.

Knowing the process, Feng Yi started asking about details, such as how to lay the foundation, which bricklayer is better, where to buy lime, and so on.

At first, Jiang Youwen was proudly telling Feng Yi about building their new house, but as Feng Yi asked more and more questions, he found it difficult to answer.

“My granddaughter needs a nap; I’ll take her to sleep,” Jiang Youwen said, picking up his granddaughter and leaving.

Feng Yi, on the other hand, started calculating how long it would take for them to save enough money to build a house. If everything goes smoothly, they could start construction by the end of next year!

Great!

During dinner, Feng Yi proposed to Jiang Liyun, “Sister Liyun, let’s buy a big iron pot so that after I finish frying one pot of pan-fried dumplings, I can immediately start another.”

“I was thinking the same! Dad, tomorrow afternoon, go to the brick and tile factory and tell my brother to find Sun Jinshan and buy two more big iron pots.”

She felt that two pots weren’t enough; three pots would be just right.

Today, after frying the dumplings, they sold them in enamelled bowls. However, if the weather gets colder, the pan-fried dumplings will quickly cool down if left like that.

So, it’s better to keep the pan-fried dumplings in the iron pot without taking them out. Covering the pot can keep it warm.

In addition to pan-fried dumplings, they could also make pan-fried buns! Pan-fried buns, also known as pan-fried steamed buns or shengjian bao, are made similarly to pan-fried dumplings, but instead of steaming the buns after wrapping, they are cooked using the pan-frying method.

In her past life, she made pan-fried buns and pan-fried dumplings together and even sold soy milk.

Making soy milk is indeed simple; just put it on the coal stove to keep warm, and when someone wants a bowl, you can serve it. However, since they are currently setting up a stall without their own storefront and have too many things to manage, dealing with soupy soy milk isn’t convenient, so they decided to skip it.

“We can also sell tea eggs. Tomorrow, I’ll go ask around to see where we can buy cheap eggs,” Jiang Liyun suggested.

As far as she knew, some people in their village not only raised White Feather chickens but also kept egg-laying hens to sell eggs.

The eggs from the chickens in the village vary in size. While they are suitable for personal consumption, they aren’t ideal for business. For tea eggs, it’s better to buy eggs of consistent size from a farm.

Of course, this isn’t urgent.

Jiang Liyun and Feng Yi were full of enthusiasm, and the same goes for Jiang Lamei and Wu Xiaochun.

That night, Jiang Liyun sent Feng Yi to buy enough meat to make over a thousand dumplings. As before, Feng Yi chopped the meat, and she kneaded the dough.

Tomorrow, they were going to make a big effort!

The next morning, Jiang Liyun still got up at four.

When she went out after getting up, she saw Jiang Lamei and Wu Xiaochun were also awake.

“Dad, Mum, I’ll roll out the dumpling wrappers, and you can stuff and fold the dumplings. No need to make breakfast; just boil some dumplings to eat.” Since they were selling dumplings, they couldn’t go without eating themselves.

However, making pan-fried dumplings was more complicated, so they decided to make boiled dumplings instead.

At five o’clock, Jiang Liyun woke up Feng Yi, and then they loaded everything onto the cart and headed to town.

They left Jiang Liyu alone at home, but breakfast was already prepared. Jiang Liyu’s school was very close, and she usually went to school by herself, so they didn’t need to worry about her.

“Mum, can you walk to the town?” On the way to town, Jiang Liyun asked Wu Xiaochun with concern.

Wu Xiaochun replied without hesitation, “I can walk.”

That’s good!

Today, when they arrived in town, it was even earlier than yesterday—not even 6 o’clock yet.

Although it was still early, the morning market was already bustling with many people. When people saw them, enquiries about how long it would take for the pan-fried dumplings to be ready started pouring in.

Feng Yi, not yet proficient, took about twenty minutes to cook a pot of pan-fried dumplings. Jiang Liyun informed customers about the waiting time, and some people immediately paid and said they would come back to pick up their dumplings later.

Remembering the customers, the family got busy.

Jiang Liyun sold dumplings, and when she had a moment, she helped roll out dumpling wrappers. Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Lamei were in charge of stuffing and folding dumplings, while Feng Yi focused on making the dumplings.

Their business was good yesterday, and today was even better.

Some were repeat customers who found the dumplings delicious yesterday and came back for more. Others heard about the delicacy but missed out yesterday, so they wanted to try it today.

Typically, one person bought six pan-fried dumplings for fifty cents, enough for a satisfying breakfast. Most customers bought this quantity. Of course, there were also those who bought more to take home for the whole family.

“These dumplings go well with porridge. I bought six yesterday, and two per person were just right. Today, I’ll buy another six.”

“My son insists on trying them after seeing others eat. I’m here to buy some.”

“I read about dumplings in a book but haven’t tried them yet. I’m buying some to taste.”

…

Many of the customers knew each other, so there were inevitably some conversations among them.

Today being Monday, students had to go to school, and some students, after seeing the pan-fried dumplings, insisted on buying them for breakfast.

Jiang Liyun was extremely busy, but her mood was excellent.

Running a stall in this life was much more comfortable than in her previous life.

Back then, she was alone, and if there was no help, she had to manage everything herself. Her ungrateful son sometimes caused trouble, making it challenging for her to focus on making money.

Now, people were waking up early, and by around 7:30 or 8:00, the number of customers started decreasing.

Schools in their area started before 7:30, and factories generally opened at 8:00.

Fortunately, they had only a few pan-fried dumplings left.

Jiang Liyun, with some free time, noticed that Feng Yi had been sweating while making dumplings. She took out the towel she brought and wiped away his sweat.

Feng Yi stiffened for a moment, and a hint of red appeared on his already dark face.

Jiang Liyun couldn’t help but laugh and continued to wipe his sweat a few more times.

Feng Yi, momentarily frozen, was urged by Jiang Liyun, “Quick, move this iron pot; the dumplings are about to burn.”

Feng Yi immediately lowered his head to tend to the pan-fried dumplings, sneakily glancing at Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Lamei.

Seeing no particular reaction from them, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued with the pan-fried dumplings.

He was accustomed to physical work, but pan-frying dumplings was different from what he used to do.

Yesterday, he was constantly turning and moving iron pots. This morning, after waking up, Feng Yi’s arms were particularly sore, but he didn’t mention it to anyone.

However, now… What’s a bit of arm soreness? He could work another full day!