pastoral life

Buying a dog is a matter of saying and doing. In fact, there is nothing to buy or not to buy in the countryside. There is a litter of puppies waiting to be given away by a bitch at home. If you can’t give it away, you can just throw it away. Therefore, Mingzhu just took Xiaoxi and Xiaotan to the village for a walk to see which house had a new puppy to bring back.Although puppies are not the most important thing, it is better to raise the guard dog from an early age. The dog recognizes its owner, and when it grows up, it may take you for it. Fortunately, the local dog grows fast, I can see the yard in more than half a year.

"Mingzhu, what are you doing?"

Aunt Ma at the east entrance of the village straddled her basket and stopped to tease Xiaotan a few times.

"Sister-in-law is going to deliver syrup to Brother Ma."

"No, he forgot to bring something to quench his thirst in the scorching sun. Look, I don't need to worry about everything."

Aunt Ma chatted with Mingzhu a few words, it was nothing more than how careless her man was and how virtuous and hardworking she was on weekdays, after nagging for a long time to no avail, she pointed out a bright way for Mingzhu.

"Hey, it's the right time for you. The dogs next to Dawantian have all given birth to puppies. Now it's the right time to pick them. Let's go and see. If it's too late, someone else will pick them up. gone."

Mingzhu asked which families it was that thanked Aunt Ma for going to the other side of Dawantian. As expected, before the people arrived, the dogs of those families ran out of the yard and barked at people from a distance, scaring Xiaotan. She had to shrink into Mingzhu's arms, Xiaoxi also grabbed Mingzhu's trouser legs and hid, Mingzhu knew in her heart that this kind of untied dog was probably barking and it didn't matter much, so she comforted the two little ones. Those who still missed the earth dog ran to other people's yard to pick the dog.

"Zhengchou couldn't send it out and was going to throw it in the basket, but it happened that I had to catch up with you."

I went to several houses, both good and bad, and they were all close anyway. Mingzhu simply visited all the houses with puppies next to her, and now she was looking at the last one. The one who led them to visit was a skinny old man. Every household in the village knew each other, and Rang was also enthusiastic to help when he saw talking and laughing on weekdays. When Mingzhu said that she was here to ask for a pup, she took the initiative to take the bitch away and asked Mingzhu to choose for herself.

"Which ones are male dogs?"

"The gray one is a female, and the others are all male dogs. This one is the king of dogs. It has a bad temper. Be careful."

Mingzhu looked at it for a long time but couldn't tell the difference, she just wanted to find a housekeeper dog but she didn't have the slightest bit of knowledge to pick a dog, so she had no choice but to ask the old man for advice.

"Hey, look at this fat guy. This guy has been very energetic in grabbing milk since he was a child. No one has slipped away from him. He will definitely be a good supporter in the future!"

The old man slipped one out, Mingzhu saw that the coat color was normal, and the limbs were thicker than the other dogs, she was about to order this one, but she didn't know when that girl from Xiaotan ran to the east of the courtyard.

"Brother Mingzhu, I want this one!"

The child came over with a dirty little black dog in his arms, but Mingzhu didn't respond, but the old man hurried forward and shouted:

"Oh my little ancestor, this is not a dog but a wolf dog!"

The little black dog was snatched by the old man and thrown to the ground to drive him away. Before he left, he groaned at the little pool a couple of times to feel wronged, but at the end he bared his teeth and grunted at the old man, full of threats.

"Master, what is a wolf dog?"

"Hey, you don't know, this thing is a seed that a bitch ran into the woods to conceive. It has wolf blood on it. Can I have it! This wolf is not familiar with it, and you want it to grow up and look after the yard? It's a joke, Thank goodness it didn't go away with a baby in its mouth!"

Hearing his explanation, Zhu didn't dare to take the wolf dog. She just hugged a yellow milk dog that she had picked out and walked home. Xiaoxi led Xiaotan to follow, and the latter walked back as she walked. Look, Mingzhu followed her gaze, but found that the wolf dog was still watching from afar.

There are wolves around the village.

It was the first time for Mingzhu to have such an understanding, but seeing that the old man said it so naturally and without any fear, thinking about it this way, wolves would not enter the village, wolves are also afraid of people, unless they are really hungry Should not come to the village to look for food.

What about when you are hungry in winter?

Mingzhu didn't dare to think about it, he thought it would be better to save money to buy a house in the city, it doesn't matter if it is empty, as long as he can live there in winter to avoid the most dangerous time in the village.

**

After the puppy was brought back, Mingzhu didn't tie him down, she just used the old rotten sieve and spread rags to make a nest for him, thinking that the puppy has long teeth and loves to pick things up, so she tied a big-headed doll to it as a toy .The two little girls are very curious about having such a living creature in their house. After all, girls love pets, and this little milk dog is just at a good age for being fluffy and cute. The two little girls are extremely rare. Care and feeding are rushed.Xiaohu is more skinny, and always likes to raise his paw next to his head and bark at the puppy, so frightened that the little thing howls when he sees him from a distance.

Although the little dog is not good enough to protect the courtyard, it is still vigilant. There is a trouble in the night, but it can't hide it from its ears. Such a bright pearl is more at ease, guarding those bank notes is not as usual Frightened and frightened, after resting at night, I will be more energetic the next day, so I will have more energy to toss new food.

Cold cakes are already on the right track. Cold shrimps are also in production, so Mingzhu frees up her hands to make thorns and long beans.This time he didn't make desserts but directly made candies. He tried the candies sold in the market today. Most of them were sweet and had no other flavors. Mingzhu didn't want to make strawberry candy and apple candy, but wanted to add Another very important taste - acid.

Mingzhu still remembers a kind of candy that was very popular when she was a child, that is, there is a layer of sour icing on the outside and a sweet candy heart inside. Children always love these exciting and fun flavors, sour is easier than spicy and bitter It requires people to accept it and it will bring a kind of perverted enjoyment, so that kind of candy was very popular for a while at the beginning, until Mingzhu went to college and went back to the small shop outside the elementary school to search for it and still saw many children walking away. their old ways.

As I said earlier, Mingzhu’s cooking is more based on the thoughts of the world in her previous life, so he wants to make similar candies that have witnessed the childhood of a generation, but now he has limited resources and he doesn’t know. The recipe had to be messed with according to the taste, so I chose the two kinds of thorns and dragon beans.

Both thorny sickle and dragon bean grow on bushes, but the fruit of thorny sickle is covered with sharp thorns all over the body. The thorns on the skin are short but sharp, so you must be careful to avoid them every time you pick them.You can pick the fruit when it is green and reddish, and you can eat it directly. Use your nails to scrape off all the thorns on the skin and put it in your mouth to chew. The sweet and sour taste is very good. When scratching the thorns, I always have to pierce a few in the nail cover, which makes people very worried.What he is picking now is the thorn sickle that has been overripe and turned red and black, and even the thorns have shriveled into dark brown. The sour taste is gone, only a single sweet taste is left, which is the most suitable for squeezing sugar. is suitable.

Compared with the thorn sickle, the dragon bean is much gentler. There are no thorns on the surface and it is easy to pick. After the fruit is ripe, it is still a bunch of greens the size of a fingernail. convenient.However, this food is not very delicious, it is sour and astringent, and there is no sweetness at all, but it is very popular because it satisfies people's pursuit of sourness.

The thorn sickle has become very hard after being exposed to the sun. Mingzhu puts it in the water and washes it twice with a sieve, then grabs it and puts it in the millstone to grind it into powder, and then add water and mix it with the mashed long beans before putting it in the pot Boil inside, stir while cooking, wait until the first boiling, take out the thing and pour it into the steamed rice cloth prepared earlier in the morning to filter, the dregs are wrapped tightly with the steamed rice cloth, and the filtered yellow orange soup Put the juice in the pot and continue to cook. While cooking, Mingzhu also put the steamed rice cloth wrapped in the dregs into the pot and boiled it together until most of the water evaporated and only viscous syrup was left. Cool and set in the pre-made mold.

When Wang Mingchuan returned home from work outside, the little yellow dog smelled his scent and barked at the door before he entered the courtyard. After this period of observation, Mingzhu also believed Mrs. Jiang's words, This dog doesn't bark when it sees other acquaintances, but when it sees Wang Mingchuan, it barks vigorously, neither bites nor chases him, just barks at people.

"Xiao Huang is yelling 'Wang' at you again, maybe if you yell a few more times, you will pass the country test."

Mingzhu greeted Wang Mingchuan with a smile, and handed Wang Mingchuan a bowl of cold shrimp. The latter drank a big mouthful of the brown sugar water, because it was cold when he just took it out of the well. For people who are hot inside and out, it is the best ironing post. A bowl of it really cools the throat to the stomach, until the whole body has goose bumps, which is indescribably refreshing.

"I smell the sweetness on your body has changed again, are you thinking about new food today?"

Wang Mingchuan put down the things in his hands and hugged Mingzhu for a while, the two of them became strangely harmonious and comfortable after the breakthrough that night, Mingzhu lost the resistance at first, although she was not very proactive, she would not refuse after all Wang Mingchuan got close.

Age or something... Well, he felt that it would be hypocritical to say these things after both of them had already done this or that.

"You have a good nose, I made hard candy, and it hasn't formed yet. I have to wait until after dinner to talk about it. Go, you're so sticky, go take a shower!"

After throwing Wang Mingchuan to take a bath, Mingzhu started to make dinner. The pork grass and sweet potato mixture for the pigs had already been boiled in the pot. As usual, Wang Dahe came to scoop up the bucket and carried it to the pigsty to feed the pigs. Mingzhu looked at his little It is very distressing to do these rough jobs with a small body.This child is sensible and obedient, and never needs to be worried about, but sometimes Mingzhu even hopes that Dahe will be more self-willed, at least let herself know what to give him to make him happy.

"Dahe, don't mention it too much at once, just run around a few more times, don't spill it and burn yourself."

"Hey, I see!"

The child wandered to the pigsty with a big bucket of pig food, Mingzhu looked at his back and sighed.It would be nice if the big river and the small lake can be neutralized, one is too honest and the other is too clever, Mingzhu won't be at ease with either when she is released later.

The dinner is still very rich, because the family has a lot of activities during the day, every meal is made to be full, and now that the family is not short of money, he can do whatever he can and eat straight The mouths of the children were dripping with oil.

After dinner, I naturally had to go out for a stroll. After washing the dishes and chopsticks, the family locked the courtyard door and lined up to go outside. Mingzhu walked in the front, followed by small lakes and big rivers. A family of six children walked neatly on the ridge of the field, looking here to see if the soil was loose and there to see if the gap was not collapsed. From a distance, the family was very happy. Returning peasants always wanted to joke a bit when they saw it, Mingzhu smiled and returned, waved goodbye to both sides, staggered shoulders and walked in different directions.

The rice in the moon field is growing very well, and the green ears are already hanging. Mingzhu looked at the Sanwan field and suddenly had an idea.

"Let's fish for loach!"

As soon as the idea was approved unanimously, Mingzhu found fishing lines and hooks, and made dumplings with bran and cooked sweet potatoes. Wang Mingchuan took a few small ones to the slope to pick up wooden sticks and bamboo poles. When they met, they began to tie the fishing line and fishhook to the wooden stick and bamboo pole. Mingzhu used the fishhook to string the dumplings, but Wang Mingchuan took advantage of the free time to plan earthworms, and finally hooked the earthworms and dumplings before hooking the arm-long bamboo pole. And sticks are inserted deeply into the field.

"Okay, just pick it up tomorrow!"

After the whole family finished the work, their stomachs almost disappeared, so they washed their hands in the water from the field and walked back slowly. The insects chirping all night and the moonlight that was always deserted remained.