"Forget it, you can't keep them here anyway, they're in a hurry to go back and pick mushrooms." Shan Yan took a sip of ginger tea and asked Jiang Yu to help him find the mushroom pickers.
"I'll leave tomorrow morning and take Ah Hu and the others to the old forest. I remember seeing red mushrooms and wild Ganoderma when I went there to look for rock honey before. Let's look carefully this time."
“That’s right. Red mushrooms are so expensive this year. The villagers have searched everywhere outside, so it’s probably hard to find many left.” Jiang Yu nodded and ran to the storage room next door to help him prepare things.
Hearing that Shan Yan and the others were going into the mountains again, this time to some deep, old forests, Jiang Xiaoman couldn't help but feel tempted.
"Brother Yan, I haven't had any good footage to shoot lately. Can I go hiking with you guys?"
Chapter 124
Having decided to go into the mountains with Shan Yan, Jiang Xiaoman went home overnight to prepare her gear, including two more sets of sturdy and durable clothes, as well as some homemade chili sauce and chili oil.
After autumn arrives, the temperature in the old forest drops particularly low in the mornings and evenings. Without some warm clothing, you could really freeze to death.
Down the mountain, Jiang Yu also edited the video of Jiang Xiaoman cooking fish and shrimp that night and uploaded it to his own video account.
Jiang Xiaoman had told him that, according to the rules of several platforms, he would only start earning money once he had uploaded a certain number of videos and received the required number of clicks.
Thinking about how Jiang Xiaoman could sometimes earn thousands of yuan from a single video, Jiang Yu felt a surge of excitement. He wished every day were sunny so he could go fishing on the river and film videos every day…
Xu Xu, who had just gotten off work, was surprised that the fisherman she had just followed was updating so quickly. He had just posted one video at noon, and at 8:30 p.m., after she had just gotten off work and taken four buses back to her rented room, she saw Jiang Yu's new video.
After a long day of work, Xiao Xu, a typical office worker, was exhausted. At that moment, she was most grateful that she was not yet married and had children!
I heard that many of the women in their company are stay-at-home moms. After a long day at get off work, they still have to go home and cook for their kids, bathe them, help them with their homework, and put them to sleep... It's terrifying!
Slumped onto the sofa, Xu Xu opened Jiang Yu's latest video with a smile on his face.
A few minutes later, her stomach started rumbling and growling uncontrollably.
"Aaaaaah! Why did you have to film this kind of video when I finally decided to lose weight? Jiang Xiaoyu, you're inhuman!"
Xu Xu, an unknown beauty in the slightly chubby category, buried her head in the sofa cushions with tears streaming down her face.
Jiang Xiaoyu, a simple and kind-hearted boy from the mountains, never imagined that his rural food videos posted at 8:30 pm would have an even more vicious nickname: "Midnight Newspaper".
He simply thought Jiang Xiaoman's cooking was really delicious, so he couldn't help but share it with his new fans...
The small shrimp from the local streams are not big, but they taste extremely delicious. Jiang Xiaoman washed the shrimp clean, heated oil in a wok, poured in a little rapeseed oil and a spoonful of lard, added a few scallions and ginger slices to sauté until fragrant, then added the shrimp and stir-fried until they turned bright red. Finally, he poured in three large bowls of spring water.
This soup must be made quickly. After it boils, immediately uncover the pot, crack three eggs and beat them into egg flowers, add salt and pepper to taste, then mix homemade sweet potato starch with water and slowly pour it into the pot while stirring with a large iron spoon.
At this point, you can't use high heat anymore; you have to switch to low heat and stir until the sweet potato starch becomes transparent. Sprinkle with chopped green onions, and a delicious river shrimp egg custard is ready.
There weren't many loaches and eels, so Jiang Xiaoman simply cut the eels into sections and braised them together with the loaches. While braising the loaches, she cut half a pound of tofu and put it into a small stainless steel pot with two handles. Finally, she put the braised loaches and eels in, sprinkled them with chopped green onions, and asked Shan Yan to bring a small charcoal stove to stew them. This way, they would be more flavorful when stewed slowly.
As for crayfish, it's best for kids not to eat them. Jiang Xiaoman simply cooked a spicy crayfish dish with chili peppers and added fried potato strips. In this kind of weather, it would be perfect to have a pot of warm yellow wine to go with it!
However, the snails we just caught from the ditch can't be eaten today. They need to be kept in clean water for two days to purge the mud and sand before we can eat them.
Worried that this wouldn't be enough, Jiang Xiaoman also made a bowl of braised pork with radish and a stew of sliced pork and cabbage. Although the dishes were simple, they weren't something that every family could eat every day.
Seeing the little mountain fruit diligently eating from a stainless steel bowl, netizens didn't know whether to drool or shed tears at that moment.
Worried that people might suspect that Shan Guo and Shan Hua were abducted children, Jiang Xiaoman had already briefly introduced the special family structure of Jiang Yu's family in her previous videos.
Although a small number of netizens felt that this did not comply with legal requirements, fortunately, most netizens were understanding.
Especially those from rural areas, when they think of the feudalistic ideas of patriarchal grandma and dad, they go on a rampage in the comments section, using long paragraphs to explain to netizens why the three Camellia sisters would rather recognize Shan Yan and his "sworn brothers" as their adoptive fathers than return to their original families.
“When I was little, my dad broke my arm because I ate my younger brother’s chicken leg. At that time, my cousin had no children of his own and wanted to adopt me. My dad asked for 20,000 yuan, but my cousin couldn’t come up with it… If someone had been able to help me back then, I would have wanted to live with my cousin’s family without asking for a single penny.”
"I come from Xiaoman's side of the family. I want to say that the three sisters, Camellia, are really lucky to have met families like Xiaoyu and Shanyan. My mom dragged me home from school after I graduated from junior high and used the money to buy a house for my brother as a dowry. My ex-husband was abusive because I couldn't get pregnant. Once he broke three of my ribs, and people called me a barren hen. Luckily, I couldn't have children. Later, my ex-husband's family came to my house and made a scene. Now I'm divorced, and even if I work as a nanny, I'll never go home again! Actually, my grades in junior high were pretty good. If I were as lucky as Camellia, maybe I could have gone to high school and then university?"
...
Jiang Yu was initially very happy that her newly released video had received over 10,000 comments in just one night. However, after reading the long comments in the comment section, Jiang Yu felt a tightness in her chest and a heavy feeling in her heart!
He knew, of course, that in rural areas, girls often had it harder than boys, just like the Camellia Sisters.
First, she was almost sold by her biological father, and then she was adopted by him and Shanyan. His mother was also secretly planning to make Shanguo his older brother's child bride, and asked him to find a way to keep Shancha at home to work for them and earn money... They were all women, and he didn't understand why Shancha's grandmother and his mother had such malice towards girls!
Jiang Xiaoman rushed over from the mountain early in the morning and saw Jiang Xiaoyu squatting under the eaves chopping firewood with a gloomy expression. The way he was waving the small axe made it look like he was chopping someone up.
"Who made you angry so early in the morning? Was it Brother Yan?" Jiang Xiaoman teased him.
"Just look at the video I posted last night. Those girls from rural areas in the comments section are even worse off than Shan Cha and Shan Guo. I really don't understand..."
Jiang Yu actually understood, but he couldn't figure it out.
Why is it that in rural areas, families with sons want to marry off their daughters-in-law, who will carry on the family line and manage the household, yet they cannot treat them well?
And what about girls like Camellia? Since they were raised to earn dowries for the boys in their families, don't their families feel even the slightest bit of gratitude or guilt towards them?
Can't these girls be allowed to live a slightly better life in their parents' home before they get married?
Most importantly—
"Xiaoman, tell me, are the girls of Langshan really destined to be inferior to others generation after generation? Sacrificing for their own families, only to be treated like slaves by their husbands' families!"
"If my camellia and fruit trees grow up to be married off like this, becoming unpaid maids to their husband's family for life, I'd rather they never get married!"
Jiang Yu grew angrier as she spoke, imagining how Camellia and Goose were bullied by their mother-in-law and beaten by their husbands after getting married. She couldn't help but swing the axe in her hand even harder.
It was as if they weren't chopping firewood, but rather the head of their future son-in-law!
"What you said is exactly the same as what my uncle said!" Jiang Xiaoman put down her basket with a wry smile, went over to help him pick up the chopped firewood, and carried it to the kitchen. After he got tired of chopping firewood, she went to the kitchen and made him a cup of honey water.
Seeing Jiang Yu angrily drinking his honey water, Jiang Xiaoman pointed to the water glass in his hand and said—
"Brother Xiaoyu, I don't like to make grand pronouncements, but today I want to say something from the bottom of my heart."
"Don't underestimate this cup of honey water in your hand. If we can help all the women in Langshan, whether married or unmarried, to learn beekeeping and support themselves with their own hands."
"Believe me, by then, all girls will be able to choose the life they want!"
“I don’t deny that there are still many women like Grandma Camellia in Langshan. They have been bullied their whole lives, and when they have daughters-in-law and granddaughters, they can’t help but make their daughters-in-law and granddaughters suffer the same hardships they have endured.”
"But times have changed."
"Look at Shan Cha and the others, and then look at Jiang Cancan. Their generation is different!"
"Besides, we're here, and so is my Uncle Baichuan! Just like my uncle often says, although he can't save all the children in the mountains, he saves as many as he sees, and he'll try his best to save as many as possible in his lifetime."
"Brother Xiaoyu, let me tell you, the reason I came back to the village from the city wasn't because I couldn't find a job. I just didn't want my dad to be all alone at his age, only seeing me a few times a year. But now, I feel that maybe we can do more for our hometown!"
"You mean, we're going to teach everyone how to beekeeping?" Jiang Yu frowned. "If you do beekeeping well, you can indeed make money, but building beehives, attracting bees, and controlling pests all have costs. You don't know, I've recently heard people in the village say that many of our villagers who stay in their hometowns to take care of their children only have a few hundred yuan a month from their husbands for living expenses. That's not even enough to support themselves, let alone have money to start a business."
Jiang Yu got angry when she said this.
He only realized this after he came down the mountain. He thought his life on the mountain with Shan Yan was already hard enough, but compared to these mothers who stayed behind with their children, they were living a life like gods!
It was impossible for Shanyan to give him only a few hundred yuan a month to make ends meet. In fact, he was the one who managed the money in their family. Shanyan had to hand over all the money he earned to him, and he would also ask him for pocket money when he entertained guests or went to the market.
However, the mothers left behind in the village are pitiful.
When most of them married into the family, their families received a large dowry. Some conscientious families would provide some bedding and appliances as part of the dowry, while others would send the girl away with just a few cheap new clothes.
Therefore, these women basically had no dowry or savings when they married into their husband's family.
In addition, the groom's family spent a large sum of money on the bride price, so many people felt that such a wife was bought with their money. Since she was bought, of course they should make her work hard for them.
Besides bearing children for men, these girls are also responsible for taking care of the whole family. In addition, to prevent them from secretly taking money from their husbands' families and sending it back to their parents' families, many men would rather their wives farm and raise pigs to support the whole family than give them too much money.
Jiang Xiaoman couldn't help but agree when Jiang Yu mentioned this!
"Forget about living expenses. There's something even funnier. Didn't our village primary school receive a supplementary operating subsidy? When some lazybones in the village heard about this, they didn't even want to pay for the new semester's textbooks. They got their wives and kids to plead poverty with my uncle, hoping the school would cover their textbook costs!"
Jiang Yu was dumbfounded.
"Isn't primary school free? I heard from Shancha that their sixth-grade textbook fee was only a little over a hundred yuan. If they don't even want to pay that little bit of money, then why bother going to school?"
"So, I think that when it comes to beekeeping, we can't actively go around asking people to join us. We have to find a way to make them see that we're making money and get envious. Then we'll just keep quiet and wait for them to come to us begging for help!"
“Yes! This is what they call being too eager to make a sale!” Jiang Yu wasn’t stupid; she quickly understood the benefits of Jiang Xiaoman’s idea.
If they really go door-to-door to mobilize these mothers who have no control over the finances at home, let alone whether these mothers can make decisions, even if they grit their teeth and participate, the scale will inevitably be small because they don't have money.
To be honest, adding a dozen or so beehives to each household would be a huge expense for most families, but for Jiang Xiaoman's current sales volume, it's just a drop in the bucket.
It would be better for them to remain inactive for now and pretend to be making a fortune in silence.
When rumors start circulating in the village, and people say that those who work outside can earn over 100,000 yuan a year by staying home and raising bees, Jiang Yu doesn't believe they'll be able to sit still!
Chapter 125
"Sigh! Why can't women be in charge of the household? I see many families in the village that would have fallen apart long ago if it weren't for these women holding things together!"
Jiang Yu couldn't help but complain to Jiang Xiaoman, "Five hundred yuan a month to support the whole family's food and drink, on average, that's less than one hundred yuan per person a month. If it were someone like me who spends money extravagantly, the whole family would have starved to death long ago."
"Sigh~ Take it slow, you can't get fat in one bite." Jiang Xiaoman comforted him, "Although we can't bring them with us to start a business for now, we can ask them to come and help us when things get busy here, and pay them some wages."
“I heard that Aunt Chen and the others are now doing hand embroidery with Zhang Jiahui from Shangtang Village. If they work hard, they can earn one or two thousand yuan a month.”
“Yes! We can raise bees first! When we’re too busy, we can hire people! We’ll hire women!” Jiang Yu seemed to have been stimulated by something, and he became very excited.
What Jiang Xiaoman didn't know was that after he went into the mountains with Shan Yan and the others, Jiang Xiaoyu, stimulated by the "great prospects" he described, began to help the left-behind mothers in the village in his own way.
River fish are actually quite popular in Langshan Village.
Although he can only be considered an "outsider" for the time being, his act of saving lives by adopting the three Camellia sisters with Shanyan is highly praised by the villagers, especially the mothers left behind in the countryside.
What's more, Jiang Yu and Shan Yan are two grown men!
The common view among people in the mountains is that "men are not good at taking care of children." After all, their men are like hen brooding at home; they get angry if you ask them to move, let alone help them take care of their children.
But Jiang Yu and Shan Yan not only have to take care of their child, but also three others, which makes other left-behind mothers who also need to take care of their children feel very sorry for them.
So, even though Jiang Yu and Shan Yan didn't have time to plant vegetables this year, whenever someone in the village had an abundance of fresh vegetables in their garden, they would always ask Jiang Yu to come and pick them.
Jiang Yu wouldn't eat other people's food for free. His family often went to the market, and sometimes when he bought snacks and pastries for his three children, he would share them with the children in the village.
After a while, they became familiar with each other, didn't they?
That's how it is in the countryside; once you get to know someone, things become much easier.
I don't know what Jiang Yu was thinking. He was doing well fishing, but now he has a new theme for his videos every day: carrying a vegetable basket, exchanging the fish and shrimp he catches with the left-behind mothers in the village for vegetables.
It just so happens that Jiang Xiaoman and Shan Yan went into the mountains these past few days, and the family couldn't eat that much fish and shrimp. He couldn't leave his two children behind to set up a stall in town, so he simply brought them to exchange with his sisters-in-law for vegetables.