latelenovela Chapter 176 Big Pot Rice
Chapter 176 Big Pot Rice
The next day, the villagers of Tuwozi Village got up before dawn.
I started preparing in the dark.
On a fishing boat, the mother stuffed the only dry food, a black flour steamed bun, into her son's hands in the dark.
"Son, you have to work hard today. Eat well and work hard for the master. Try to find a wife for your brother this year."
After a while in the dim light, the man's suppressed voice was heard: "Mom, don't worry, your son will work hard and will not let your brother get married when he is one year older."
The old lady picked up the bowl of watery soup, took a sip, and said with satisfaction: "You two brothers have both started families. Even if I die, I will have the face to see your father."
On another fishing boat, a woman took off an old piece of clothing, and in the light from the firewood pile, she carefully cut an insole and put it into the man's cloth shoes.
"Dad, you can only make do with what you have now. I'll buy you a good pair of shoes when I get paid. A working person can't live without a decent pair of shoes."
The man added a piece of wood to the fire and said, "Thank you for your hard work, and I've ruined another piece of clothing for you."
The woman's face was flushed under the light of the fire, and her complexion seemed to be a little better.
"You are doing this for this family. We are a family together. We have been through all the hard times. Things will be better in the future."
The village chief's wife rarely bothered to light the oil lamp given by Old Man Li.
"Hey! Old man, do you think this is true?"
The village chief took a sip of the porridge and said, "It must be true. Were the shells collected last time all real?"
These words seemed to be comforting himself.
The village chief has only one son, and the family has already separated, so both he and his son can go to work.
"That's different." The village chief's wife was in a state of confusion, happy for a while, then worried, "There are more than a hundred people this time."
Finally, the sun jumped out of the sea, casting a gentle crimson glow, like the warm hearts of the villagers of Tuwozi.
Li Laosan led Datou and his men to Yuge Wharf. The village chief stretched his neck and saw them from a distance, but pretended to meet them by chance.
"Old Three, here you come!"
Li Laosan greeted the village chief: "Good morning, Uncle Jiu. It's almost time, so we came to sign in early."
In just a short while, all the villagers came out, crowding together and whispering.
Li Laosan asked Jia Que to beat the gong, and when the voices died down, he shouted, "Fellow villagers! We will start work today. We will call the roll in the morning. Those whose names are called must come over and press their fingerprints. Be quick."
After pressing the fingerprints, we started working. Today's job was to remove the garbage. Everyone brought tools and wicker baskets from home and threw the garbage into the sea in the east.
From now on, the village chief will be your supervisor. We are relatives, property is property, and rules are rules. If anyone tries to cheat, don't blame us for not considering our old friendship and we will drive them away.
There is a big pot of food for lunch, and you can bring your own food.
After work, come here to collect your wages for the day."
In order to encourage everyone's enthusiasm, Li Yuer decided to do more work and pay the wages on a daily basis.
In fact, the garbage piled up on the east coast is not too dirty. Most of it is waste thrown away by merchants passing by the dock. They just need to be thrown into the sea along the easternmost cliff, and there is no pollution.
After Li Laosan finished speaking, Datou started calling out names and asking people to take fingerprints. Although it was time-consuming, it made management less likely to become chaotic.
After drawing the seal, the people hurried home to get their tools, mainly baskets. In order to transport more things, they all carried the load on their shoulders.
They started working right away, and soon the dock became bustling. Strength lies in numbers, and the garbage pile shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye. Li Laosan estimated that he would finish the work in a few days.
Li Laosan asked Jiaque'er and Shitou to go to the market to buy ingredients for the day, while he and Datou stayed behind to take charge.
Li Laosan stopped the village headman who was carrying the villagers' loads and said, "Uncle Jiu, you are the supervisor. Your most important job is to supervise and manage their work. Don't do it yourself."
The village chief smiled and said, "I am not old yet, your uncle. I can work hard and get paid more than others. What's wrong with doing some work?"
Li Laosan didn't know how to explain it to him, so Datou helped explain, "Uncle Jiu, the reason why the young master paid you so much is to ask you to supervise the work. You are like a general on the march. You don't go into battle in person, but you are responsible for the entire battlefield and for commanding them to fight. Do you think it is more important for a general to follow the soldiers and shout and kill or to command the overall situation?"
The village chief said without hesitation: "Of course it is important to command the overall situation. Without the general's command, it will be a mess."
After thinking about it, he immediately understood, put down his burden, and said, "Okay, I understand. The supervisor is to take charge of the overall situation and ensure that every worker works diligently and does not cheat or slack off. He also needs to ensure that they do the right thing."
"Hey, that's right."
So the village chief strode over to supervise the villagers.
He stared seriously at the people coming and going, with a kind of majesty on his stern face. The young boys felt uneasy when they were looked at by him, and thought that they should not be lazy.
Datou bought a lot of food, including meat, vegetables, and the main food was black flour.
Li Laosan said, "Datou stays here, Shitou and Jiaque'er, you guys go to the stall and get busy. Everyone may have to work overtime occasionally these days. Yu Bao'er said that overtime will be paid double the wages."
Shitou said naively: "No, how can I get double wages for just doing some work?"
Jia Que'er also refused, "Yes, Third Brother, there is no reason to take double wages."
Li Laosan waved his hand and said, "This is the rule set by Yu Baoer. She is the boss, so let's just follow what she says. There is no order without rules, and even brothers have to settle accounts clearly."
The few of them didn't say anything more and just worked hard.
Li Laosan cooked lunch at noon. His cooking skills are now second only to Li Dalang and he can cook most dishes.
Because the Cai family has two kitchens, the big iron pot bought by Li Yuer and his sister will not be used anymore. They can just wait until the new house is built and take it there.
At this time, he has become the guy who makes the big pot at the dock.
Li Laosan and Datou built a simple stove with stones, put a large iron pot on it and started to make a fire and cook.
They couldn't afford the best pork belly, but they could afford pig offal and internal organs, a bunch for five cents.
Li Yuer taught them how to use wood ash to process pig intestines, and the processed pig offal did not smell fishy at all.
There is a public well and a toilet next to the fish market at the pier, which can be used by the villagers of Tuwozi Village. When spring comes, the rice in the toilet is taken to the fields by villagers near the town to fertilize the fields.
The aroma of the fried pig intestines with chili peppers attracted the workers' eyes.
"What are you doing, Shuanzi? Where are you looking? Work hard!" The village chief scolded the distracted boy with his hands behind his back.
Shuanzi was not annoyed. He chuckled twice and continued walking with his load.
The village chief looked towards the big pot of rice, quickly looked away, and secretly swallowed his saliva.
What is this made of? It smells so good. It can't be meat. I heard a few days ago that the boys from Old Eleven's family set up a stall in the town. Judging from their skills, it is most likely the real thing.