You are unlucky and I am tough

Cheng Shuang saw Cheng Xiaomei looking at her, but she pretended not to see anything and just walked away. No one in that family was a good person, and she didn't want to pay attention to anyone.

Cheng Xiaomei is not a pushover either. After marrying into the Feng family, Feng Tiegen can only wish for good fortune.

Cheng Shuang got busy as soon as she got home. She had been treating villagers for more than a month and hadn't cooked for a long time. Tonight she was cooking for the first time in a long time and the whole family was looking forward to it.

The goose meat took more than half an hour to stew. Dinner was served late, and after dark, several oil lamps were lit in the main room, illuminating the room. On the table was a plate of stir-fried vegetables and three large porcelain bowls of stewed goose meat, chicken soup, and a large bowl of noodles.

The noodles are eaten according to the new method taught by Cheng Shuang. They are boiled in boiling water, picked up, and then put into a bowl when eating, and mixed with chicken soup or stewed goose soup.

A large bowl of noodles was eaten up, the chicken soup was all drunk, and half of the goose meat and side dishes were left in the pot.

Cheng Pan and his friends were eating the green beans in the side dish for the first time, and they didn’t have enough to eat in the end, so they said they would pick some more and add them to the stew tomorrow.

After dinner, the three younger siblings were responsible for cleaning the kitchen and washing the dishes. Cheng Shuang was so full that she went to the yard to digest the food. Because she was hot, she fanned herself with a book.

Wei Qinglang went to the bathroom and took a cold shower. Afterwards, he felt refreshed all over. He sat down in the yard and asked Cheng Shuang, "Should we harvest the mustard greens in our fields?"

"Yes, it's time to collect." Cheng Shuang glanced towards the kitchen and lowered her voice. "I've seen jars of pickled cabbage in the mall before. A jar holding 400 kilograms costs over 500 yuan, which is half an ounce of silver. It's more expensive than outside. You should go to town tomorrow and buy some. Then we can start making pickled cabbage."

Wei Qinglang nodded, "How many do you want to buy?"

"The big vat at the village chief's house is about this tall and this big, and it holds more than 400 kilograms. You can buy five of similar size. I estimate that we can harvest 2,000 kilograms from our five mu of land, and pickle them all.

I'll buy some salt and keep it for you. Bring it back tomorrow when you get back from town."

This is also the reason why Cheng Shuang went with Cheng Zhengyi to sell sauerkraut. Her family also had five mu of land to make sauerkraut. How could the whole family possibly eat it all? Of course they had to sell it for money. She also had a lot of vegetables in the land, and she was planning to sell some of them.

Wei Qinglang looked at her and asked, "Aren't you going to town with me?"

"Why should I go?" Cheng Shuang was puzzled. She didn't plan to go out recently.

Wei Qinglang shook his head. "If you don't want to go, forget it. I'm just asking casually."

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The scorching heat continues, scorching the earth mercilessly every day. The soil is dried and cracked, and the rice in the fields has gradually turned golden and bent under its weight.

Every household in the village has begun to prepare for the autumn harvest, repairing farm tools, drying sacks, and the threshing ground has been cleared.

The days passed one by one, and in the blink of an eye it was the end of July.

At dawn in the morning, Chengjia Village was enveloped by a heat wave. Cheng Shuang took her two younger sisters to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables, including bitter melon, eggplant, celery, beans, tomatoes, etc., picking a little of each.

I'm going to take it to the county town today and sell it in a restaurant along with sauerkraut.

Early in the morning, people from the village came to buy vegetables again. Cheng Yong's wife was holding a basket of vegetables with a smile on her face. She said that her family members were coming over today and she wanted to give them something fresh to eat.

I asked for two bitter gourds, three eggplants, three large tomatoes and a bunch of Chinese cabbage. This is the second round of planting of Chinese cabbage, and it is growing very well.

Ever since the villagers learned that the Wei family’s vegetable garden grew many vegetables that they had never seen before, people would come from time to time to buy and try them. Since they were all from the same village, the money they paid was symbolic.

Cheng Yong's wife picked the vegetables she wanted herself. Cheng Shuang charged her fifteen cents for all of them, which was enough to make a table of dishes, much cheaper than buying a pound of meat.

"Sister-in-law, is this enough?" Wei Xinyi asked while grabbing a handful of long beans.

Cheng Shuang nodded, "That's enough."

Cheng Pan also picked half eggplants and half tomatoes in her basket. Cheng Shuang told her not to pick them anymore and put them in the bamboo basket on the donkey cart outside.

The donkey cart had been harnessed at the door of the bamboo house, and on it was a bamboo basket filled with a few cabbages and bitter melons, as well as a small jar filled with prepared sauerkraut.

Seeing that everything was almost ready, Cheng Shuang returned to the yard. Under the wall on the left side of the entrance, there were chili peppers planted along the wall. Green peppers had already grown. She picked a dozen of them, wrapped them in a handkerchief and stuffed them into a bamboo basket.

Wei Qinglang and Wei Nanxing also came back after picking watermelons. There were three watermelons in the bamboo basket they brought back, each weighing about ten pounds.

The seeds Cheng Shuang bought were early-maturing varieties, and they were ready for picking at the end of the month.

The bamboo basket was placed on the donkey cart. Wei Qinglang took out a watermelon and took it to the yard to wash it with well water. Wei Xinyi looked at the round green thing curiously and began to swallow her saliva unconsciously.

Cheng Shuang took out a kitchen knife and gave it to Wei Qinglang to open the watermelon. The green surface turned out to be red inside when cut open, which amazed the brothers and sisters who saw it.

Wei Qinglang skillfully cut half of the watermelon into small pieces, and prepared to take the remaining half to the headman's house for them to taste.

The three younger siblings each picked up a piece of watermelon, carefully opened their mouths and took a bite, then all showed expressions of surprise on their faces.

The juice overflowed in their mouths, cool, sweet, and crisp, something they had never tasted before.

Wei Qinglang also gave a piece to Cheng Shuang. She took it and took a bite, and her eyes lit up. She didn’t know if it was because of the climate and soil, but the sweetness of the watermelon exceeded her expectations and tasted simply amazing.

They quickly finished eating the cut halves. Cheng Shuang saw that her brothers and sisters seemed not to have eaten enough, so she said, "If you want to eat more, Nanxing will pick another one later and soak it in well water. You can eat it in the afternoon. Don't eat too much at once, or you may get a stomachache."

In order to set off before the sun rose, Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang did not delay any longer and went to the village head's house to call Cheng Zhengyi and his wife to set off.

There was also a donkey cart parked in front of the village head's house, loaded with braised food and a small jar of pickled cabbage.

Wei Qinglang got out of the car and brought in half a watermelon. He helped cut it and let the family share it before coming out.

"It's so sweet. I feel like the weather has cooled down after taking a bite."

Cheng Zhengyi and his wife hurried out, each took a piece of watermelon, and ate it in the car with praise.

Two donkey carts were leaving the village and passing by the bridge. They saw a group of old men and women gathered together discussing the autumn harvest and calculating how much they could get for their grain.

Cheng Zhengyi and his wife also wanted to harvest the autumn harvest. Turning back, he said to the two of them, "By the way, Qinglang, I was planning to tell the restaurant today that we'll be shutting down for a few days. We'll be harvesting in a few days, so I'm afraid we won't have time to deliver goods or set up shop. We want to wait until the harvest is over before we can resume delivering goods."

Autumn harvest is the most important thing for the common people, as it concerns a family's food supply for a year. Both of them understand this, but they are afraid that the restaurant will be dissatisfied if it runs out of stock for several days.

Cheng Shuang thought for a moment after hearing this and asked, "If you only make braised food, do you have time to do that? Just make food for the restaurant."

Yang said, "That's fine. We have a stove at home for making braised meat. It won't take long for us to help make it in the evening."

Wei Qinglang sped up to catch up, and when the two donkey carts were parallel, he said, "Second Uncle, we don't have any farmland at home, so let's ask Nanxing to help you deliver the goods during the autumn harvest. He doesn't have anything to do at home, so he can go and do some deliveries to build up his courage."

Cheng Zhengyi nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, "Okay, then I'll trouble Nanxing. We're actually worried that the restaurant will be dissatisfied after being out of stock for so many days."