There are also stir-fried sweet potato vines with chili peppers, pumpkin vines with minced garlic, deep-fried pumpkin blossoms, stir-fried black pork slices with pickled chili peppers... This isn't Langshan local cuisine at all; it's clearly their stomach's creation!
After eating such delicious local food, will they still be able to eat when they go back home? *sobs* o(╥﹏╥)o
Chapter 220
Everyone was very satisfied with the meal, and they became even more eager to learn about the origins of the ingredients.
After finishing her meal, Jiang Xiaoman went across the street to pack a few more servings of glutinous rice balls. After picking them up at the high-speed rail station, she heard that they had eaten boxed meals in the high-speed rail dining car and quietly handed them the rice balls.
After all, everyone in China knows that the boxed meals on trains are always surprisingly generous in portion size.
Especially the food. Once, when Jiang Xiaoman was on the train home, a girl next to her ordered a boxed lunch. She opened it and counted the ingredients: three slices of pork, seven slices of green pepper, a clump of boiled cabbage, and a little bit of pickled vegetables...
To put it simply, the young lady was so envious when she saw the rice balls he made that she almost cried.
Jiang Xiaoman herself never orders food on the train; it's expensive and she doesn't get full.
In the past, every time he went home from school, he would go to the school cafeteria in advance and spend two yuan to buy two alkaline rice dumplings. After opening them, he would spread them out into two pieces, put in the stir-fried green peppers and pork or spicy chicken that he bought from the cafeteria in the middle, cut half of the leftover fried dough sticks from breakfast, fry them, wrap them in the dough sticks with peanuts, and roll them up to make a super big rice ball with an impressive amount of food!
Such a large rice ball would cost at least ten yuan outside, but in the school cafeteria, it only costs five yuan. You can eat one on the way home and won't be hungry.
Several latecomers, holding rice balls, thanked them gratefully and began to wolf down their food.
After finishing their meal, they picked up their phones and saw that the fans who had arrived earlier were already posting pictures of the "authentic Langshan local dishes" they had just eaten in the group chat...
When the car arrived in the village, Jiang Xiaoman took the people directly to the guest room above the express delivery station.
Several guests saw the guest room reception upstairs and instinctively wanted to go over and queue up to scan the QR code to pay—they had been eyeing Xiaoman's rooms for a long time, but they had always been difficult to book, and not everyone had time off all the time. They had finally come all this way, and they didn't expect there to be vacant rooms! That was great!
"No need to pay, my uncle is treating this time, everyone can stay wherever you like!" Jiang Xiaoman smiled smugly.
For Uncle Baichuan, the reincarnation of Scrooge, to reluctantly book a room is practically a miracle!
"How can we let Principal Jiang treat us?"
"Yes, yes, let us pay. Principal Jiang has a tough job. His own salary isn't much, and he often has to subsidize the school's expenses."
It's clear these are Jiang Baichuan's die-hard fans; they even know his spending habits inside and out.
Before Jiang Xiaoman could react, someone forced her to scan a QR code to pay, and she immediately heard a series of notifications on her phone saying "Alipay received *** yuan".
Alright! Let's leave it at that for now. After the school relocation ceremony, these guests shouldn't leave right away. I'll talk to Uncle Baichuan then and ask him to take out this money and buy some local specialties for them to take back with them.
Jiang Xiaoman felt that he and Uncle Baichuan had gotten a good deal, and the guests felt that they had gotten an incredible deal.
The reason is simple: the guest rooms upstairs in Jiang Xiaoman's house look ordinary from the outside, but once you go inside, they are absolutely amazing!
Before, when I saw it in the video, I only thought that the room was decorated more simply than the average farmhouse. But when I checked in, I found that there was no odor in the room at all. There was only the natural fragrance of bamboo and wood furniture. Even the toiletries provided in the room were the new green tea series shampoo, shower gel, and facial cleanser from Shuangwan Town. The soap for washing hands was made of bamboo charcoal, and even the toothbrush and toothbrush cup were made of bamboo and wood.
Xu Yan is a self-media blogger. This time she came with her boyfriend, Zhou Zheng, who is the head of a charity organization. It was quite a coincidence that the two met while raising funds for Langshan Primary School. After meeting in person, they found that they were very compatible in terms of values and interests, and soon they got together.
Jiang Baichuan invited the two of them this time, not only because Xu Yan helped build a music classroom for the school during the renovation of the new school building, and Zhou Zheng helped the school get a van to facilitate their daily procurement of supplies, but also because the two of them had been quietly supporting the school since they registered their Langshan Elementary School account.
Jiang Baichuan is extremely stingy with himself, but he is very generous with money when it comes to people who have helped him. Hearing that the two of them are now a couple, he simply invited them both.
Young couples naturally share a room.
However, once inside, Xu Yan abandoned her boyfriend and started snapping photos. After taking pictures, she switched to her phone to shoot videos, eager to capture every detail of the room. She was as diligent as a photographer that Jiang Xiaoman had hired...
Even the well-traveled Zhou Zheng couldn't help but follow his girlfriend around and exclaim: This is much better than the mountain house guesthouse we stayed in before, which cost more than 5,000 yuan a night, right?
"Don't mention that place, I blocked it a long time ago! If the owner hadn't begged me, I wouldn't have bothered to remove that bad review!" Xu Yan muttered to herself as she took photos, bringing up old grievances.
They both come from well-off families and are not short of money. They are also good at making money, so they can't help but try out any interesting or fun things they hear about.
Last year, they happened to be browsing short videos and saw a group of young people who had transformed a nearly deserted village in a certain city into a secluded high-end homestay. The videos looked incredibly sophisticated, and the main selling point was "an undisturbed secluded experience." In reality, it meant that you wouldn't see any staff and had to do everything yourself!
When they arrived that day, after getting the room key, the two of them wandered around the village for half an hour before finally finding their room.
I was finally able to check in, but I was so angry when I walked in!
Whether it was intentionally creating a gimmick or to save money, this house still uses those old-fashioned padlocks, and the door locks were rusty. It took me a long time to open them!
Once inside, it wasn't like the atmosphere in the video; instead, it felt rather eerie. The room smelled musty, and the tables and chairs were old-fashioned furniture that had been refurbished. It looked great in the video, but when they sat down and smelled the pungent tung oil odor, they immediately felt uncomfortable.
What's even more infuriating is the mealtime. Logically speaking, with over five thousand yuan a day, if the accommodation is terrible, at least the food should be decent, right?
No!
This upscale guesthouse, which focuses on "Zen meditation and seclusion," served them breakfast consisting of four vegetable-filled buns, each about the size of a child's fist, two bowls of white porridge, two boiled eggs, half an ear of corn, and a few small boiled sweet potatoes about the size of a thumb...
The owner later argued that the guests staying at their place were all reclusive sages who didn't care much for food, and that the meals were simple and light, mainly to take care of the guests' living experience...
Xu Yan and Zhou Zheng were furious at the time, so the boss was implying that they were just vulgar people who only knew how to eat and drink.
Compared to Jiang Xiaoman's guest room, which was listed at less than 400 yuan, Xu Yan and Zhou Zheng almost wanted to give it a five-star review on the spot!
This is such a conscientious boss!
Look, not only are the guest rooms spotless, but the toiletries are also locally made brand-name products, and even the snack cart in the room is overflowing with treats—
The bamboo and wood food cart has three levels. On the upper level are two bottles of locally produced Zhuquan purified water and two small bamboo baskets. One basket contains bright orange loquats, and the other contains freshly picked bayberries.
The middle layer is filled with boxed instant food products, such as snail rice noodles, instant noodles, self-heating wontons, and so on.
The next layer consists of two rows of four bamboo tubes. After opening the lid, you'll find peanuts, melon seeds, pistachios, hazelnuts, and more. There are even two small bamboo woven jars hanging nearby, containing disposable gloves and wet wipes for eating fruit!
"This, 380 a night, Xiaoman, you won't lose money, will you?" The young couple squatted in front of the fully stocked food cart, and couldn't help but worry about Jiang Xiaoman's wallet.
The guest rooms are already so nice, and they even include three meals a day for the two of them. How much money can they possibly make?
Given these conditions, let alone 380 a night, even doubling the price would be worthwhile, right?
"I don't think Xiaoman will raise prices. Oh well, I'll just support Xiaoman's business later. Doesn't he have an online store? I'll buy some local specialties later!"
...
While the guests were busy exploring Jiang Xiaoman's guest rooms, Jiang Xiaoman herself had already taken a vegetable basket and was personally preparing the ingredients for the evening.
Lang Ying is currently busy with the establishment of the new cooperative, so Jiang Xiaoman can't ask anyone else to help him with chores anymore. Therefore, he found a woman named Ji Hong from the village to help with cooking. However, Sister Ji Hong is timid and doesn't dare to steal, no, pick vegetables from Principal Jiang's vegetable garden. Ahem~ Jiang Xiaoman has no choice but to go by himself.
He used to have a small vegetable garden behind his courier station, but this year the upstairs guest rooms have been doing so well that there have been almost no customers. With just that small vegetable garden, how could it be enough to feed everyone?
What do you do when you run out of food at home?
Jiang Xiaoman usually buys extra vegetables on her way to town, but sometimes she forgets to buy them. For example, today she forgot to buy peanuts and potatoes, so she had to go to a familiar house in the village to get some.
Jiang Baichuan is usually the biggest victim in the village.
Why? Because his vegetable garden is the largest, and he's often not around.
Who would have thought that something strange would happen today? While Jiang Xiaoman was diligently picking edamame in the vegetable garden behind the school, Jiang Baichuan actually came over!
Tomorrow, Jiang Baichuan will be moving from the rented courtyard to the new school building. For some reason, he suddenly wanted to come and see the new school he had been thinking about for half his life.
Even though he had run back and forth to this construction site countless times, he personally supervised the moving of every table and chair inside.
The nameplate at the main entrance has been hung up, but it's still covered with red silk. It won't be unveiled until the ceremony is held tomorrow.
To the right of the main gate is the guard post. The school didn't have a security guard position before, but now, due to public attention, the authorities have allocated funds for security. Jiang Baichuan has already discussed it with a retired veteran from the village; once the school moves here, he'll have him work here. The guard post has two rooms, the inner one can be used as a bedroom, and the outer one is the duty room. After all, some female teachers stay at the school at night, so having a reliable security guard at the gate is always safer.
Once inside, there is a spacious playground with a flagpole in the center. The area where pigs used to be raised has been leveled and enclosed to create a circular synthetic running track, which can also be used as a football field and basketball court.
Originally, some flowers and plants were supposed to be planted inside the school wall, but Jiang Baichuan didn't have the money! Moreover, he didn't want to spend school funds on such flashy but impractical things, so now, on both sides of the school wall, at his insistence, two large vegetable gardens have been built using leftover bricks and cement from building.
Jiang Baichuan has already divided these vegetable plots according to the classes; from now on, these will be each class's "responsibility plot." Coincidentally, the school has been required to offer labor classes in the past two years, and Jiang Baichuan plans to start next semester by selecting some simple and easy-to-manage vegetables and assigning each class a plot. This way, they can complete their labor class assignments and beautify the campus at the same time.
The key benefit is that it saved a huge amount of money on maintaining the greenery!
After passing through the football field, you'll see a beautiful three-story teaching building ahead.
Thanks to Jiang Baichuan's insistence, the school was able to retain the sixth grade. Previously, there was no other way because there wasn't enough space, so the sixth graders had to go to the town to study.
However, according to feedback from the students who went out, after suddenly changing to a new environment, they were not familiar with their classmates and teachers, and were even more unfamiliar with the new teachers' teaching methods. Their grades also fell behind. Jiang Baichuan was extremely anxious and realized that this approach was unreliable. Finally, under his persuasion, the other three teachers in the school also agreed to each teach a few more classes per week. He, as the principal, also added a few more classes and made several appeals to the county. Finally, the sixth grade was able to be retained.
Fortunately, the house was built in three stories, and there was only one sixth-grade class, so it was perfectly adequate.
The four classrooms on the first floor are assigned to grades one through four. Grades five and six are in two classrooms on the left side of the second floor. On the right side are the library, the computer lab, and the music room, in that order.
On the left side of the third floor are the principal's office and teachers' offices, as well as a small conference room. On the right side, there are four bedrooms, one for each of the four teachers. Although the rooms are not big, they are enough for one person to live in.
The only problem was that the toilet and shower area couldn't be made separate, so the public toilet at the top of the stairs on the third floor was extended outward by more than three meters. A shower room was built inside, and a sink and toilet were built outside, which everyone shares.
Even so, the conditions are still much better than before!
Besides the main building, there is a two-story building next to it—which was later built with donations from an anonymous philanthropist. The first floor has a brand-new large kitchen and school cafeteria, and the second floor has four large dormitories. In the future, when it is windy or rainy, the children will have a bed to sleep on and will no longer have to sleep on desks in the classroom.
Going out the back door of the cafeteria, you'll find the school's large vegetable garden, which Jiang Baichuan and his team had originally cultivated.
This season, many vegetables in the garden are ready to eat. Once we move here, we won't have to spend money on the vegetables that the cafeteria usually uses.
The kids love braised chicken with edamame, so Jiang Baichuan planted a lot of high-yield soybeans this year, and it's the perfect time to eat them... Hmm?
Why does it look like there's someone in the edamame field?
Who's stealing his edamame?!
Chapter 221
Jiang Xiaoman was bending down to pick edamame when she suddenly heard an angry shout beside her:
"Jiang! Xiao! Man! You've stolen my vegetables again?!"
Oh no! What if the victim catches me red-handed?
In a flash, Jiang Xiaoman suddenly had a brilliant idea—
"Uncle! How dare you say that! Have you forgotten something?"
Jiang Baichuan was taken aback by his question.
What could he possibly forget?
"I knew you'd forgotten!" Jiang Xiaoman feigned indignation, slamming her shopping basket down. "You made me go to the high-speed rail station to pick up people for you! Now the guests are all here, waiting for dinner. Where are the vegetables? Where is the rice?"
"When I got home, everything was cold and deserted. So you didn't prepare anything and just came here to freeload off your nephew?"
"You have the nerve to accuse me of stealing your vegetables?"
"You invited these guests yourself, but you don't entertain them. I've spent money and effort, and now I'm being branded a thief. It's really hurtful!"