When Jiang Xiaoman finished writing and looked up, several soft-hearted aunties were already wiping away tears.
"That's outrageous! Why can't girls go to school in the county town?"
"Xiaoman, you must take a close look when you get back! If there really is a girl with a talent for studying, and her family can't afford to support her, we'll find a way!"
"That's right! I can also help a few people one-on-one. Xiaoman, go back and help me see if there are any suitable ones. I'll pay for them to go to school in the county town!"
Jiang Xiaoman knew these aunties and older sisters were all nouveau riche. The library's monthly salary of less than five thousand was just a way for them to pass the time and earn enough for a bubble tea. The vice principal's wife's family was said to be involved in real estate development. Another one who offered to help several impoverished female students had a husband who was just an ordinary university professor, but her daughter was quite successful. She had seized the opportunity of short video e-commerce and had already invested in several companies. She made money from both real businesses and the trend...
After wasting most of the day in the library and casually taking on dozens of orders for local honey, I returned to my dorm. My fourth roommate, still bewitched by love, was already back, wailing over an empty jar of mushroom sauce: "You heartless bunch! I even brought you Australian lobsters! You didn't even leave me a jar of sauce! Are you even human?"
The fourth brother, Qi Ning, was also a glutton. His family had some money, but it couldn't compare to his girlfriend's family. His girlfriend was the heiress of a well-known restaurant chain in the province. The young couple met while queuing to buy stinky tofu. They hit it off immediately and fell in love at first sight. From then on, every weekend and holiday, they were either eating or on their way to eat...
Jiang Xiaoman knew he would do this, and sighed inwardly. Taking advantage of the absence of her two roommates, she secretly took three smaller glass bottles from her suitcase—
"Hide it well, neither of them has any. This is for your sister-in-law, it contains local honey, mushroom sauce, and pickled chili peppers that I made myself. You are not allowed to keep any for yourself!"
"My dear!!!" Qi Ning hugged him tightly, then turned and hid the things in his backpack. He and his girlfriend were currently in the throes of a passionate romance; as Lao San put it, "they were so in love they'd share a pit to eat shit together." The description was disgusting, but it was quite apt.
That evening, Luo Jingyi, the eldest, booked a small private room in the school cafeteria, and his dorm had a small farewell dinner in advance. During the meal, all four of them drank some beer, and behind closed doors, even the usually reserved and deep-spoken dorm leader, Luo Jingyi, couldn't help but get teary-eyed.
Their dorm is truly one of the few in the class that can still stay together in their senior year. Apart from a very few who were transferred in, most of the students majoring in international trade come from families that are engaged in foreign trade, or have connections that allow them to get a job right after graduation. So, by their senior year, those who want to work have already started their internships early. The rest are either preparing for graduate school or planning to try their luck with campus recruitment if they don't have any other special skills.
In short, it's already difficult for everyone to get together. The reason their dorm was able to gather together this time was because they heard that Jiang Xiaoman was coming back, so they made a special effort to get together. After Jiang Xiaoman goes back, the remaining three will also be going home to live.
Jiang Xiaoman left early the next morning. His dormitory head, Luo Jingyi, personally drove him home, while the other two helped him carry his luggage. Sitting on the green train home, Jiang Xiaoman watched the station gradually recede into the distance, and for a moment, he felt as if he had returned to the beginning of his freshman year. Back then, to save money, he had come to school alone. And now, he would also return alone to the hometown that had nurtured him for more than 20 years.
He set off early and returned to the county town before noon. After checking the time, Jiang Xiaoman immediately hailed a tricycle, paying an extra ten yuan to have the driver help him carry his luggage to the bus back to the township. He also asked the bus driver to watch the luggage for him. Before the bus departed, he quickly bought two bags of wheat pancakes.
Strictly speaking, this wheat pancake isn't a local specialty. A few years ago, the country's poverty alleviation efforts were quite significant, and large-scale road construction began in this remote and impoverished area. Many workers from other places came, bringing with them their hometown's culinary habits. This wheat pancake is said to have been brought in by these workers, and unexpectedly, it suited the locals' tastes perfectly.
I heard that the road worker who started making wheat pancakes no longer works on construction sites. He and his wife opened three branches in the county town, and business is booming. They even brought their whole family over.
Jiang Xiaoman went to the station area and bought some wheat pancakes. She also bought ten ready-made egg burgers, as her dad loves them. After buying the food, she returned to the car, only to find that her original seat had been taken. The driver turned around, waved to her, and pointed to the empty passenger seat.
Jiang Xiaoman darted over, opened the plastic bag she was carrying, and handed two egg hamburgers to the driver.
After changing buses twice, it was already evening when he got back to the village. He called his dad and sat in the convenience store for almost an hour before his dad finally came to rescue him.
Jiang Youliang brought two carrying poles and a basket. He first fixed two woven bags to the sides of the carrying poles, then put Jiang Xiaoman's backpack and other things in the basket. The remaining two smaller woven bags could only be carried by his son.
Fortunately, Jiang Xiaoman was not spoiled. He picked up the carrying pole and the father and son went to the school first.
It rained here today, and the mountain roads were difficult to travel. Jiang Baichuan called the parents of students who lived far away and asked the students to stay at school tonight. When Jiang Xiaoman and the others arrived at the school, the students had already finished dinner and were obediently studying in the classroom.
"You haven't eaten yet, have you? Wait a minute, I'll make you some noodles." Jiang Baichuan had already mastered the skill of cooking with one hand, and making noodles was a piece of cake for him. He immediately stood up to cook.
"Don't bother, I've already cooked rice at home, and the vegetables are steaming in the pot. Xiaoman insisted on bringing you the things first, otherwise we would have gone back long ago." Jiang Youliang waved his hand, put down the carrying pole, and Jiang Xiaoman, without saying a word, untied the woven bag and started frantically distributing the goods—
“Uncle Baichuan, these are notebooks and pens left over from an event I did in my university library last year. Look, they're still unopened and usable. You can take them and distribute them so the kids won't have to ask their parents for money to buy paper and pens.”
"These chalk and draft paper were obtained from the school's logistics department. The outer ones are damp and can be thrown away, but the inner ones are still usable."
"These are old clothes I got from the boys' and girls' dorms in our class. They were going to be thrown away anyway, but I brought them all back. Could you sort them out and give them some to wear when you go home to do chores?"
As Jiang Xiaoman took things out, he explained to Jiang Baichuan where they came from. He then mentioned that the librarian at the school library had promised to help him collect some old clothes, shoes, and socks, which he could pick up next time he returned to school to get his graduation certificate.
Jiang Baichuan remained silent for a long time before forcefully patting his nephew on the shoulder.
To city dwellers, these might be considered trash that must be decluttered every year, but only they know that for some families in the mountains, these things can truly bring them joy for half a year.
It's true that compulsory education is now free of tuition fees, but Jiang Baichuan knows that many families in the mountains sometimes have to save even a few hundred yuan a month for living expenses. With these things, many families can save the money they would have spent on paper and pens and buy a few kilograms of meat for their children.
After cleaning up all of these, four woven bags were full, but in the end, only one small bag remained. It contained Jiang Xiaoman's usual clothes and some "books" that he couldn't bear to throw away—books he bought from the graduate flea market for 2 yuan each. He had borrowed these books from the library before, but they were too expensive, and the stingy guy couldn't bear to buy them. Every year, he would go to the graduate flea market to try and find some bargains. During his four years of college, the entire shelf of books in his home was bought by him for a few yuan each at street stalls.
After the "spoils were divided," before Jiang Baichuan could stop them, the father and son picked up their belongings and headed home. The mountain road was more difficult to walk at night than during the day. Fortunately, they had unloaded most of the goods at the school. Jiang Youliang packed the remaining luggage into two woven bags and carried them on a shoulder pole. Jiang Xiaoman carried a basket on his back and walked behind, using a flashlight to light the way for his father.
Little did he know that the "scrap" he carried back from school in large bags would bring a tremendous surprise to all the teachers and children that night...
Who would have thought that the temperature would suddenly drop again in Langshan after the May Day holiday?
Jiang Baichuan was woken up by the cold in the middle of the night.
Whenever the weather was bad and the students stayed at school, he dared not sleep soundly at night. That night, feeling a sudden chill on his body, Jiang Baichuan sat up abruptly.
The thin summer blanket slipped off his body, and the sudden drop in temperature instantly woke him up.
"Oh no! It's getting colder!" Jiang Baichuan tumbled off the bed, opened the door, and sure enough, a strong wind had picked up outside. It was over 20 degrees Celsius during the day, but now it was probably only a few degrees.
The cold rain and wind soaked the corridor. Jiang Baichuan fumbled in the dark to turn on the corridor light, ran to the second floor, knocked on the door of the boys' dormitory, and woke everyone up to put on more clothes. He then asked the younger boys to run to the girls' dormitory to wake everyone up.
He was, after all, an adult male, and there were several older girls in the girls' dormitory, so it wasn't convenient for him to go in.
Seeing that everyone had gotten up, Jiang Baichuan quickly gathered them into one room, like herding piglets.
"Those who brought clothes, hurry up and put them on. Those who didn't bring any, wrap yourselves in blankets! Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yue, you two come with me to the kitchen to light the fire pit."
The mountain climate is unpredictable. Often, the daytime is sunny and bright, while the nighttime is icy, rainy, or snowy, especially between spring and summer. It is said that it snowed in the mountains during the Dragon Boat Festival in the past. This is why Jiang Baichuan makes students who live far away stay at school when the weather changes. He is mainly worried that if they encounter such extreme weather on their way to and from school, something might happen to these young children.
Braving the cold wind, Jiang Baichuan ran to the kitchen and had just lit the stove when he suddenly saw two woven bags in the corner of the kitchen. He was overjoyed and ran over to open the bags. Inside were the old clothes that Jiang Xiaoman had "begged" back from school!
These old clothes must have been discarded by the school's teachers' families when the season changed. They were all autumn and winter clothes. Although some were too big and some were too small, who cares about the size at this time, as long as they keep you warm!
The school was short of funds and couldn't afford to buy charcoal, so they had to burn wood on the spot every time they lit a fire pit. After throwing away two large pieces of firewood to let the fire burn slowly, Jiang Baichuan quickly pulled out two thin cotton-padded jackets from the woven bag and told Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yue to put them on to keep warm.
"You two stay here and watch the stove. I'll go upstairs and distribute the clothes." Jiang Baichuan, his earlier panic gone, dragged the two large woven bags upstairs. Looking at the students huddled together, wrapped in quilts and shivering, his eyes welled up with tears. He then dumped the two full bags of old clothes onto the bamboo mat on the floor.
"Classmates, we have clothes to wear now!"
"Wow! Did Brother Xiaoman give this to us?"
"It definitely is! I saw Xiaoman come over to deliver something during evening self-study, I was peering through the window!"
"Yes! We really owe a lot to your brother Xiaoman this time." Jiang Baichuan smiled and knelt on the ground, selecting clothes of appropriate size according to the students' heights, trying his best to make them fit well.
It's unclear how long this temperature drop will last. Even if parents come to deliver clothes tomorrow, it won't be until noon at the earliest. Until then, the children will have to rely on these old clothes to get through tomorrow morning's temperature drop and heavy rain.
Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yue quickly lit two braziers and brought them into the room. With the braziers, the classroom, which had been as cold as an icebox, gradually warmed up.
Waking up in the middle of the night from the cold, the children didn't feel sad or melancholy; instead, they were too excited to fall back asleep.
Normally we're either in class or doing homework, it's rare to see so many students gathered together, and the principal is even leading the way in playing with fire (?), isn't this more fun than studying?
Seeing that the children were all awake, Jiang Baichuan didn't go back to his room. Instead, he took out all the pens and notebooks that Jiang Xiaoman had brought back and assigned them tasks. He told them to distribute the pens and notebooks equally among the students in the school, one for each student, and to distribute them the next day.
"Wow! Headmaster, this notebook is so pretty!" A little girl picked up the nearest notebook with an embossed, antique-style cover and hugged it with a dreamy look on her face. "I've never seen such a pretty notebook before!"
"Tch~ How old are you? You're so big?" A slightly older boy next to him quickly grabbed a notebook with an anime cover. "I want this! This one's nice!"
"Distribute them first! Everyone should get roughly the same number of notebooks and pens." Jiang Baichuan interrupted the children's scramble with a dark expression. "After that, we'll decide who goes first based on last month's monthly exam scores!"
The little boy looked as if he had lost his parents, and glanced at Jiang Baichuan with a resentful expression, while the little girl who had just picked up the notebook smiled so hard her eyes were narrowed.
There was no way around it; she always ranked first in the class, even though there were only seven students in the class. Without a doubt, she, who consistently topped the list, would be the first choice!
Outside, the cold wind howled, but inside, laughter and cheerful voices filled the air. The children wore the old clothes that Jiang Xiaoman had brought back for them over their thin spring clothes. Far from being cold, they were sweating because a brazier was lit inside.
These old clothes, discarded because of their outdated styles, are not old at all in their eyes. Some of them were even worn once after the tags were removed and they were never even washed. There was even a lucky guy who found two hundred yuan in the inner pocket of a cotton coat!
Jiang Baichuan quickly put the money away, both amused and exasperated. He then took a separate picture of the garment and told Jiang Xiaoman about it, reminding him not to forget to find the owner of the garment when he returned to school and return the money...
When Jiang Xiaoman saw Jiang Baichuan's WeChat message, she had just rummaged through her belongings at home to find the winter bedding and changed it for her father and herself. They were used to the extreme weather that often occurred when the seasons changed in the mountains, but it was indeed hard to fall back asleep after being woken up by the cold. Seeing Jiang Baichuan's message, Jiang Xiaoman smiled and wondered if the two hundred yuan was some male teacher's secret stash of money.
If that's the case, then we absolutely have to return it. After all, the salaries of young teachers at their school aren't high, and saving two hundred yuan isn't easy for them.
When I woke up the next day, the heavy rain in the mountains had stopped, but a thick fog had rolled in, making it almost impossible to see anything. The Swiss chard by the door was also drooping from the cold, and there was even frost on its dark green leaves, which showed how terrible the temperature drop was last night.
Swiss chard that has been hit by frost will basically not grow again. Jiang Youliang thought to himself that this was bad luck. He quickly grabbed a bamboo basket and cut off all the Swiss chard leaves that had been hit by frost. He picked out some tender leaves to keep as vegetables, and the rest could only be chopped up to feed the pigs.
Jiang Xiaoman wasn't idle either. Seeing his father cutting off the frostbitten leaves, he quickly gathered a lot of dry grass from the side and covered the roots of the Swiss chard. This stuff is quite hardy; as long as the roots aren't frozen to death, it will continue to sprout and grow leaves as soon as the weather warms up. Plant a batch in the spring, and you can eat it until winter!
With such thick fog, nothing could be done in the morning, but the pigs at home couldn't be missed a single meal. After breakfast, Jiang Xiaoman stopped her father and went to the field to cut pig feed, carrying a basket and sickle on her back.
Halfway there, he ran back to get his tripod, intending to perform a "Deep Mountain Mist Cutting Pig Feed" act for his more than 10,000 new fans.
Fans: "..."
Thank you so much! Cutting pig feed in the deep mountains amidst the mist, is this the legendary romantic realism?
Chapter 23
Jiang Xiaoman had never thought of making money by shooting videos before. However, after being brainwashed by Jiang Xia, the leader of his fan club, he felt that this was a path worth trying. After all, he usually made videos to maintain and update his account anyway; it would just mean having a few more platforms to publish on.
However, he had little experience in photography. His current skill was simply to take a few shots, move the tripod to a different angle, and continue shooting. It was completely devoid of any technical skill. To make matters worse, the fog in the mountains was too thick, and Jiang Xiaoman's phone camera was incredibly low resolution. The result was just a blurry human figure appearing and disappearing in the fog, holding a sickle. The lower half of the figure was almost invisible, hidden in the corn stalks. It was absolutely terrifying!
Actually, it was just because the pig feed in the Jiang family's cornfield was growing too tall.
There used to be several families living on this hillside, but some of them bought land at the foot of the mountain, built new houses, and moved away. After some of the elderly passed away, their descendants never returned. As a result, several plots of land near Jiang Xiaoman's house were abandoned by their original owners. As you can tell from his name, Jiang Youliang is someone who can't stand seeing people waste farmland. As soon as he sees someone abandoning land, he quickly picks it up and cultivates it himself.
So now, on the hill where the Jiang family lives, there are corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, sesame seeds and the like planted by his father everywhere. He doesn't even leave the corner plots untouched, planting a lot of pumpkins, winter melons, gourds and the like. He planted so many that he couldn't manage them all, and the fields were overgrown with weeds.
However, it unexpectedly made it easier for his family to gather pig feed.
Jiang Youliang was ambitious. Seeing his son return, he planned to buy two more piglets in a while. Anyway, raising pigs didn't cost him much. He planned to keep one for himself to slaughter and eat after the New Year, and sell the other three. If the market was good, he could make a few thousand yuan.
Today, Jiang Xiaoman came to a plot of land planted with corn. The grass in the field hadn't been cut yet, making it particularly difficult to cut, especially since it had rained last night. After one trip, he was soaked to the bone, down to the last strand of hair.
I cut three large woven bags full of pig feed and transported them home in two trips. Pig feed that has been moistened with dew cannot be fed directly to the pigs, as it is said that pigs are prone to diarrhea if they eat it. So I had to pour it out first, spread it out on the ground to dry the dew, and then chop it up to feed the pigs.
"Dad, I'm going to take a shower. Leave the lunch untouched, I'll cook it after I shower," Jiang Xiaoman called out to her father before running to the bathroom to take a shower.
Jiang Youliang was sorting through the potatoes he had dug up yesterday. He picked out the ones that were in good shape and undamaged, planning to carry them down the mountain to the market to sell them later. He kept the second-best ones for his family to eat, and threw the broken or worm-eaten ones into a large basin. He would wash them, cook them, and feed them to the pigs later, so that nothing would be wasted.
"Dad, pick out a small one. I'll make you some salt and pepper potatoes for lunch." Jiang Xiaoman came out after taking a bath and saw her father sorting potatoes, so she quickly brought him a small basin.
"You're such a glutton!" Jiang Youliang said with a laugh, rummaging through a large pile of potatoes and picking out half a basin of potatoes the size of ping-pong balls for him.
"Let's roast a few more. It's been a long time since I've had roasted potatoes." Jiang Xiaoman took out a few more fist-sized potatoes.
I didn't have time to cook the fish I brought back yesterday, so I'll cook it for lunch today. Jiang Xiaoman first took the fish out to thaw. She originally wanted to make braised fish with tofu, but then she remembered that she didn't have a market today and there was no tofu at home, so she had to run upstairs to get a handful of sweet potato vermicelli.
"Dad, we've got nothing to do this afternoon, so let's make a pot of tofu, okay? We can cut it into pieces and freeze it. We can just take it out whenever we want to eat it. It's convenient and saves money." Jiang Xiaoman shouted, directing her dad to soak some soybeans.
Living in the mountains, it's inconvenient to go down to the market, so most mountain dwellers have almost everything they need. His family also grows soybeans, has gypsum for making tofu, and even yeast for making rice wine. Before, his father lived alone at home and would just make do with whatever food he could find, unlike Jiang Xiaoman. I don't know if this child took after her parents, but she's particularly good at making all kinds of food.
There was only one big pot at home, so it wouldn't be convenient to cook rice after stewing fish. However, Jiang Xiaoman hadn't planned to cook rice anyway. He scooped out two bowls of wheat flour, cracked two eggs into it, and stirred it into a batter. He started stewing the fish first. When the fish was half-cooked and the broth had reduced a bit, he lifted the lid and spread the batter evenly over the fish. This way, by the time the fish was cooked, the flatbread on top would also be cooked.
He learned this recipe from a food blogger. It looks delicious, but it's his first time trying it. He hopes his dad won't beat him.
However, Jiang Xiaoman probably really has a talent for cooking, because the final product was actually really delicious! Especially the part of the batter that clung to the side of the wok, which was crispy on the bottom and absolutely amazing when dipped in the fish soup!
The sweet potato vermicelli is homemade, made with high-quality ingredients, and it's a perfect match for stewed fish.
Besides stewing fish, Jiang Xiaoman also stir-fried some salt and pepper baby potatoes. First, she boiled the baby potatoes until cooked, then rinsed them in cold water to peel them, drained them, heated oil in a pan, and fried the baby potatoes until golden brown. Then she added store-bought salt and pepper powder and her own chili powder, stir-fried it briefly, sprinkled on some chopped green onions, and it was ready to serve. The resulting salt and pepper baby potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside—absolutely delicious!