After the separation, I took my whole family to eat delicious food and drink spicy

The next morning, Li Xiaoxiao and Li Fang rode Aunt Chen's oxcart back to town. Mrs. Bai, along with her two children, continued up the mountain with Aunt Chen and her family to pick bamboo shoots. Everyone wanted to harvest as many as possible before the season was over.

Li Fang drove the ox cart for about half an hour before arriving at Xiang Man Lou's entrance. Li Xiaoxiao couldn't help but take a look. It was indeed the town's largest restaurant; it was rumored to be owned by someone from Beijing. Xiang Man Lou was three stories tall and imposing. It wasn't even noon yet, but customers were already trickling in and out. Li Tiezhu had also told her that Xiang Man Lou also served breakfast.

Because they needed a large quantity this time, Shopkeeper Zhao waited for them at the door. When he saw Li Xiaoxiao and the others arrive, he hurried over to greet them. "Little girl, you're finally here! I've been waiting for you for ages."

"I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting. We'll bring the dried bamboo shoots down right away." Li Xiaoxiao and Li Tiezhu moved the dried bamboo shoots to the back kitchen to weigh them. The total weight was 81 kilograms, and Manager Zhao paid for it readily.

"Little girl, your dried bamboo shoots are indeed of good quality. If the customers like them, I will come to you again in the future."

Li Xiaoxiao was overjoyed when she heard this. "Thank you, Manager Zhao. If you need anything, you can come find us in Lijia Village. My name is Li Xiaoxiao, and this is my neighbor, Li Tiezhu."

Shopkeeper Zhao quickly agreed. The two said goodbye to Shopkeeper Zhao and drove the ox cart home. Along the way, Li Xiaoxiao and Li Tiezhu were very excited.

After returning home, Li Xiaoxiao gave Li Tiezhu 600 coins. Li Tiezhu wanted to give some back to Li Xiaoxiao as a thank you, but Li Xiaoxiao refused. "Brother Tiezhu, Aunt Chen has helped us a lot. We don't have the habit of saying thank you or not. If we have to thank her, then I have to thank her too."

Seeing Li Xiaoxiao like this, Li Tiezhu had no choice but to give up. "Xiaoxiao, if you have any problems in the future, just come to your brother Tiezhu. Brother Tiezhu will definitely help you."

Li Xiaoxiao quickly agreed, and Li Tiezhu drove the ox cart back to the village chief's house.

Besides, the atmosphere in the Li family’s old house is also quite tense. When Li Xiaoxiao’s family came back in a horse-drawn carriage yesterday, half of the village saw them. They all said that Li Xiaoxiao’s family has become so prosperous that they even have a horse-drawn carriage. Most of the rural people are simple and honest, and they have no other thoughts except envy. But there are some exceptions, such as those in the old house. Seeing that Li Xiaoxiao’s family is getting better and better, they feel uncomfortable in every way. Look, Su saw that her two daughters-in-law didn’t cook on time. Now Su had to eat with the eldest wife, and it would be the second wife’s turn next month. She started cursing at the door again, “What a spendthrift woman, you didn’t cook on time, do you want to starve me to death?” Su didn’t dare to openly cause trouble for Li Xiaoxiao’s family anymore, so she took out her anger on Li Fang and Li Lin.

When the two saw their mother scolding again, Li Fang quickly ran to the kitchen to cook, while Li Lin ignored Su and hid in her room to cool off no matter how harshly she scolded.

Now that the two families have separated, for the sake of convenience, the previous kitchen has been divided into two, and it has been agreed that which side belongs to which family and no one is allowed to cross the boundary.

Here, Li Xiaoxiao also started to prepare lunch. Yesterday, Bai specially bought some refined rice from the town. Li Xiaoxiao specially marinated the meat with salt and hung it outside to ventilate. It was still fresh the next day. Li Xiaoxiao steamed a pot of white rice and cut the meat into pieces and steamed them together. Just as she was about to cut some wild vegetables to stir-fry, she heard the laughter of Bai and others at the door. Li Xiaoxiao hurried out and took the small baskets from Li Fang and Li Linlin and put them in the yard. Bai also put the large basket of bamboo shoots she was carrying on the ground. Li Xiaoxiao hurried to the kitchen to pour out a bowl of boiled water. "Mom, have a drink of water. We have a good harvest today. Are there still many bamboo shoots on the mountain?"

Bai took the water and gave it to Li Linlin and Li Fang first before drinking it herself.

"There are still a lot of bamboo shoots on the mountain. No one else in the village knows how to deal with them. Only us, Aunt Chen, and the people in the old house will go to pick them. I guess we can pick a lot of them back." Li Fang replied.

"Then mother, let's pick bamboo shoots first these few days. I see that some people in the village have already started harvesting rice. We still have two acres of rice to harvest, and after that we have to plant some other crops."

"Well, since we're close to the north, it's quite cold in the winter and snow is possible, so we only grow rice for one season. August is almost here, and Mom went to the fields yesterday. The rice at home is ripe and can be harvested at any time. After the rice is harvested, we can plant some sweet potatoes and corn."

"Mom, why don't we take a day tomorrow to collect the rice first? The more ripe the rice is, the more it will fall."

"Okay, then we'll harvest the rice tomorrow."

After the two finished talking, Li Xiaoxiao went to the kitchen to prepare some wild vegetables and they ate. During the meal, Li Xiaoxiao gave the one tael of silver he earned from selling dried bamboo shoots to Bai for safekeeping. Together with the two taels he had earned before, he now had more than three taels of silver in his hand.

In the afternoon, Li Xiaoxiao and Bai Shi washed and dried the jars, then prepared and soaked the bamboo shoots. They counted and found they had soaked thirteen jars. They moved all the jars to a cool place in the kitchen and left them there for a week.

After doing all this, it was getting dark. Thinking about having to get up early to harvest the rice tomorrow, the family went to bed early after dinner.