The modern fortune-telling history of a small shopkeeper

There is no electricity in the village, and every household is still lighting oil lamps.

The price of kerosene is not too expensive. You can buy a large bottle from outside for a few yuan. The family can use it for several months without using it.However, there are still many people in the village who are reluctant to light oil lamps.

The oil lamps in the house were lit, and Uncle Qiao and Aunt Qiao got up early in the morning.

Last night, the husband and wife were both thinking about something, they couldn't sleep at night, and they woke up before dawn the next day.

Mrs. Qiao went out of the house with the oil lamp in the house, and came to the kitchen with her hand, took a look at the soaked beans with her hands, and asked her wife who followed her, "I don't know if these beans are soaked, should I pick them up?" .”

"You put it there and continue to soak, and when Minglang's kid comes over, let him see if it's okay." Uncle Qiao said aloud.

They hadn't made tofu before, so they didn't know what to do with it, and their nephew hadn't come over yet, so they didn't know what to do.Aunt Qiao was anxious, she kept looking in the direction of the gate, and said anxiously, "Why hasn't that child Minglang come yet?"

Should I oversleep and forget to make tofu today?

"Wait a little longer, I'll be here soon." Seeing that it was still early, Uncle Qiao was sitting outside smoking a cigarette, and he trusted his nephew quite a bit. They got up earlier today, and his nephew should come when he waited.Aunt Qiao stared at her wife still smoking, and asked, "Why are you not in a hurry at all?"

"You just like to be in a hurry." Uncle Qiao glanced at his mother-in-law, smoking a hookah slowly, so as not to be in a hurry with her.

Aunt Qiao glared at her wife, and went into the kitchen, always finding something to do so that she would not be idle.

"Big brother."

"Well, here we come."

There were sounds of walking and talking outside. It was Qiao Chunfu and Huang Yan who came to the elder brother's house with their two sons. The two brothers said hello.Seeing that there was nothing to do for the time being, Qiao Chunfu moved a small stool and sat beside the eldest brother, and the two brothers were talking.

"Sit down, I'll go and have a look inside." Qiao Chunfu's wife, Huang Yan, was restless. When she saw her sister-in-law in the kitchen, she went in to see if there was anything she could do to help.

"You're all up so early."

Everyone in the family got up, and the old man in the house woke up when he heard the sound outside, and left the house.Seeing that his father got up so early, Uncle Qiao got up quickly, asked his father to sit down, and asked, "Dad, why did you get up so early, don't sleep any longer."

"Father." Qiao Chunfu called out, and Qiao Mingjing and Qiao Mingzhong called out "Grandpa".

"I'm getting older and sleep less. When I woke up and couldn't fall asleep, I got up." The old man sat down on the stool, took the hookah pipe from his son, rubbed some tobacco leaves down, lit it, and took a puff.

The old man is an old smoker. He has smoked cigarettes for most of his life. As long as he wakes up, he will never leave his cigarettes.

The three of you are sitting here smoking hookah and talking.

Among the brothers and sisters, the fifth child, Qiao Chunfu, doesn't smoke, and just sits there talking with the old man and the big brother.None of them knew how to make this tofu, and they had to wait for their nephew to come to know how to make it.

Everyone talked about whether the tofu and fish balls will be sold well. It can be heard that for the first time to do business, everyone is both looking forward to and worrying. They are afraid that no one will buy this product. That would be a loss of money.

"Grandpa, Uncle, Uncle Fifth, I'm sorry, we're late." When Qiao Minglang arrived with his younger brothers and sisters, he saw that everyone had already arrived.

Qiao Sanmei and Qiao Xiaosi followed the elder brother, thinking that the elder brother was late because he was waiting for them.The two siblings are thinking in their hearts that they will come here earlier tomorrow, and they must not hold back the eldest brother!

Aunt Qiao was very happy to see her nephew coming, and said with a smile: "Oh, Mingming, you are here, we are still talking about whether we should grind the beans first."

"Your uncle's fishing boat should be back soon, and when they come back, they will send fish over."

All the fishermen in the village leave their boats in the middle of the night and return with their catches just before dawn.

Qiao Chungui and his wife also went out fishing with the villagers at night, and they usually came back around this time.

"Oh, okay, there's no rush for that, we can cook it when the fish comes back. Let's grind the beans first, ma'am." Qiao Minglang went to check the beans, and seeing that they were soaked, he could grind the beans first.

The tofu still needs to be pressed, and it takes a little longer. You can make fish balls after the tofu is ready.

There used to be a stone mill on the side of the old house, and it has been used here all the time. It just so happens that this stone mill will come in handy, so they don't have to go to the grain farm to grind beans, they can just grind them at home.

"We're coming, we're coming."

Seeing that the beans were being ground, Qiao Mingzhong and Qiao Mingjing told them to come.

Qiao Minglang knew that he didn't have much strength, so he was responsible for scooping knives into the stone mill. Grinding beans requires a lot of strength.Several cousins ​​took turns to grind the mill, and it didn't take long to grind the soy milk out.

After the soy milk is ground, the soy milk must be filtered out, and then the soy milk is boiled.

The work in hand was quickly picked up by the aunt and the fifth aunt. Qiao Minglang stood by and told the two aunts how to cook soy milk, how to make tofu, and what to pay attention to when making it. , the tofu made will be better.

In fact, making tofu is also simple, as long as you do it once, everyone will remember how to do it tomorrow.

Aunt Qiao and Qiao Wuniang were listening carefully, nodding their heads from time to time. If they learned how to make this tofu, they would be able to make tofu and sell it outside.

"Keep the fire low, so you don't need to put so much firewood."

"Oh, is this okay?"

"Smaller."

"Is it alright?"

"that's it."

Qiao Xiaofen and Qiao Mingcheng helped set the fire in the stove. The siblings were also sweating from the heat, and they didn't care. They wiped off their sweat and continued to look at the fire in the stove.

At this time, the two daughters-in-law of the family are up, and the two grandsons are still sleeping.Aunt Qiao asked her two daughters-in-law to cook breakfast, and said to everyone: "In the future, everyone can come to our place for breakfast, so as not to have to cook it at home. It is so early in the morning, and you have no time to start a fire."

Of the two daughters-in-law in the family, the eldest daughter-in-law is more diligent, while the second daughter-in-law is not so diligent.But since the second daughter-in-law's child is still young, she can't do without her, and Mrs. Qiao won't embarrass the second daughter-in-law too much.

Anyway, there is work at home, and everyone works together. As long as you don't deliberately get lazy, it doesn't matter how much you do or how little you do.

"It's so embarrassing. We have more than a dozen mouths here. After we finish the work, we can go back to our own home and eat." Fifth Aunt Huang Yan said embarrassedly.

"Hey, what are you talking about. We are all a family, how can we count it so clearly, it's just a matter of a meal." Aunt Qiao waved her hand and said indifferently: "We will make tofu in the future. You have to get up early in the morning, do you still have time to cook at home?"

Everyone rushed out before dawn today, so there is no time to cook.In the future, if everyone wants to come here early to make tofu, they will definitely not be able to make breakfast in time. How can they work hungry all day long.

Aunt Qiao is the elder sister-in-law, and the following aunts all married into the family after her. Aunt Qiao has always taken good care of the younger aunts.However, the relationship between their families is also good. The sisters-in-law and sisters-in-law have never quarreled or blushed for decades, otherwise they would not be doing business here together today.

"Hehe, sister-in-law, what you said is also true. From now on, we will come over to your sister-in-law for breakfast." Since sister-in-law said so, Huang Yan had no choice but to agree, thinking that she would collect the food later and let her son carry it to the uncle's house. Here are two bags.

Huang Yan glanced at her nephew and asked, "Is Xiaohui still at home?"

"The two little ones haven't woken up yet. The second sister is watching them at home. They will come over later." Qiao Minglang replied.

"Such young children are short of sleep. Let them sleep more and don't wake them up." Aunt Six and Uncle Six left at a young age, leaving behind such a group of children. Yan felt sorry for and pity these children from the bottom of her heart.

Fortunately, this nephew is sensible, and now he can lead a group of brothers and sisters to live together.Otherwise, if the parents leave, these children will not know what to do in the future.

After the soy milk is cooked, you have to wait for the soy milk to cool before continuing to make tofu.

***

At this time, the fishing boat came back, and Qiao Chungui brought some fish to the eldest brother's house.

"Chungui, you are back, how is the fish you caught today?" Uncle Qiao saw his brother come back from fishing, took the fish handed over by his brother, and asked his youngest son to weigh it out.Qiao Chungui responded with "It's fine", and left in a hurry without waiting for the money from his brother.

"Hey, wait a minute and I'll pay you the money." Uncle Qiao shouted from behind.

Qiao Chungui waved his hand and rushed to sell the fish.

Uncle Qiao didn't even take out the money, but he saw that his brother had already left the house, as if there was a tiger chasing after him.Uncle Qiao shouted from behind, "I'll keep it on the account for you, and we'll settle it together later."

"Chengcheng, remember it." Qiao Chungui walked away, leaving only his back for his brother.

"Boss, keep it in the account, and you will figure it out later." The old man said.

"Yes, father, I'll ask Mingyong to write up the accounts." Uncle Qiao asked his youngest son, Qiao Mingyong, to take out a pen and paper, and asked the younger son to write down the accounts, and then he would clear up the accounts for his brother later.

Qiao Mingyong is the youngest child in the family. The few older brothers and sisters on top of him have not read much, and he has finished a primary school.This simple accounting can still be done, so I helped my father write the accounts in the notebook, writing with one hand like a chicken chop.

"Father, remember it."

"Yeah, you take it, and give it to me later." Uncle Qiao has never read a book and can't read, so he can't read this account book even if he is given it to him, so let the youngest son hold it, and maybe he will continue to record it tomorrow.Qiao Mingyong said yes, and took the notebook and pen into the room and put them away before coming out.

The old man was sitting on a small stool by the door, holding a hookah in his hand, taking a puff from time to time.Seeing that everyone is busy, he won't be busy when he goes, so he won't make trouble.