allonlinenovel Chapter 177 Looking for a chicken? 89 were stolen
Chapter 177 Looking for a chicken? 89 were stolen
On the second day, Yao Qingnian first took the sour jujube cake that she had made yesterday to the yard to dry in the sun.
Then prepare to make tofu. After soaking the soybeans overnight, they will obviously expand. The originally hard beans will become softer. With a gentle pinch of the hands, the bean curd and the bean skin will separate.
After breakfast, she cleaned the millstone inside and out and prepared to grind the beans.
Grindstone is also called stone mill. It is an important tool for grain processing in ancient times. It can grind harvested grains such as wheat, corn, rice, etc. into powder or grains, so as to make various pasta and porridge, enriching people's diet and improving the utilization rate and taste of grain.
"Qingnian, have you seen our rooster? It's the one with the most beautiful feathers."
"Wasn't it pecking at insects at the gate of the yard yesterday?" Yao Qingnian saw it in the yard outside the yard when he went out to pick sour dates yesterday.
"Yes, I see the chickens are locked up in the chicken coop every day, so I thought about letting them out to exercise, walk, and eat some grass. I didn't count them when I came back last night, and when I went to feed the chickens this morning, one was missing. It's strange, it's right in front of my house, and I saw it, how could it run away?"
"Mom, don't worry. I'll go check near the lawn at the door. Maybe he's in the bushes and didn't follow me back."
Yao Qingnian put down her work first and went out with Liu Shuyue to look for chickens. These chickens were a bunch of chicks that she had asked Liu Shuyue to bring back when she saw the chicken coop was empty. Now the hens can lay eggs.
“Coo-coo-coo-coo…coo-coo-coo…”
"Yao Qingnian, what are you doing?" Widow Wang passed by and saw Yao Qingnian seemed to be looking for something, so she came over.
"Widow Wang, one of my chickens is missing. Let me go look for it." Yao Qingnian continued to shout.
"Call me Wang Xiu'e!" Widow Wang hated being called that.
"Okay, okay, Wang Xiu'e, is that okay?" Everyone called her Widow Wang, so she just followed suit.
"That's more like it. When did you lose your chicken?"
"Yesterday, we let them out for a walk and eat on this piece of grass. My mother was watching them!" Yao Qingnian was busy looking for chickens and didn't want to say much to Widow Wang.
"Then I advise you not to look for it!" It's not the first or second time that villagers nearby have lost their chickens. How can they still find them? It must be that Yao Qingnian has only lived here for a short time and doesn't know the situation here, otherwise he wouldn't dare to let the chickens out.
After hearing what she said, Yao Qingnian stopped and asked, "What do you mean? Do you know something?"
Widow Wang looked around and made sure no one was looking in her direction before she lowered her voice and said, "Have you seen Li Ping's house? It's the one next door to the scholar's."
"What happened to his family?"
Widow Wang briefly recounted the incident.
"In the past, a villager in this area lost a chicken. He thought the chicken ran away because the gate was not closed. But how can you find the chicken that ran away?
As luck would have it, the next day Li Ping's family bought two chickens, saying that they wanted to nourish her daughter-in-law. However, the villager recognized their own chickens at a glance. As a result, Li Ping's family insisted that all chickens in the world look the same, so how could they be sure it was hers.
She also said that she lost one and bought two. Everyone thought that they might have just bought the chickens. Her daughter-in-law was pregnant and the chickens were precious, so it was normal to buy two chickens. The villagers couldn't argue with her and had no evidence. In the end, they had no choice but to admit that they were unlucky.
That’s not all! Once, Shi Yongshan’s rooster disappeared, and he went out to look for it. Outside Li Ping’s courtyard, he could smell the aroma of chicken from a distance. He insisted that everyone must have smelled it wrong, and that they were cooking duck meat. But how could they eat meat every other day, given their poor family? In the end, because there was no evidence, the matter was left unresolved.
Later, the nearby villagers would lose their chickens and ducks every once in a while, and no one dared to let the chickens out. I guess your chickens were most likely stolen by Li Ping’s family.”
Hearing what Widow Wang said, Yao Qingnian also became suspicious, but without any evidence, he couldn't believe her words completely: "Okay, I understand."
Yao Qingnian called Liu Shuyue and asked, "Mom, were you watching the chickens yesterday?"
"I can see outside through the open courtyard door. I look outside from time to time. It won't be stolen in the blink of an eye, right?"
"It's hard to say. Okay, Mom, don't look for the chicken. You won't find it. Keep the chicken in the yard these days. Don't let it out again."
Li Ping's family has a criminal record, and they probably took the chicken away when Liu Shuyue wasn't paying attention. Yao Qingnian is not someone who is willing to suffer a loss, so she plans to find an opportunity to go to Li Ping's house to find out the truth.
"How can I find it? I worked so hard to raise it for so long, and now it's lost just like that."
"Mom, let me tell you..." Yao Qingnian told Liu Shuyue what Widow Wang had said to her.
Liu Shuyue was immediately furious and started to curse: "You black-hearted bastards, you even stole other people's chickens to eat, aren't you afraid of having your stomach rotten after eating them? You do what you do, but God is watching you. A single thunderbolt can't kill you!"
After a while, a harsh voice came from Li Ping's house: "Old woman, what are you yelling about? You woke up my grandson. Who is so cruel? I think you should be struck to death by lightning."
When Yao Qingnian heard this, wasn't this a blatant admission that they were the ones who stole the chicken?
Liu Shuyue's anger was immediately ignited: "You're desperate and you're going to do something like that. Did I mention your name? You didn't steal it, so why are you yelling? You're a bunch of rubbish."
"If you, an old witch, hadn't woken up my grandson, I wouldn't have bothered to deal with you. Your family is a bunch of rubbish. Your husband is a cripple, and your daughter-in-law is a vicious woman. There's not a single good person in your family!"
The two of them cursed at each other across the wall, swearing all kinds of dirty words. Unexpectedly, Liu Shuyue's fighting ability was just as good. She was about to open the door and start a fight. Yao Qingnian's ears were buzzing from the noise.
There was a few more curses coming from the other side.
Liu Shuyue wanted to continue, but was stopped by Yao Qingnian: "Mom, what's the point of arguing with them? Calm down and don't let it affect your mood. I have a way to deal with them, just wait and see!"
"We haven't had an argument like this in a long time. I'm a little tired." After hearing her say this, Liu Shuyue stopped arguing with them.
"Haha, mother, you are still as skilled as ever. Your daughter-in-law is ashamed of herself."
"You little girl! You even want to tease your mother, right?"
"No, no, I haven't seen your tough side for a long time. I admire you."
Liu Shuyue's originally depressed mood immediately improved, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law started grinding beans while chatting and laughing.
"Mom, let me grind the grindstone. You put a spoonful of beans in the hole while I grind it. Remember to use half water and half beans, otherwise it won't grind."
Yao Qingnian placed a wooden barrel under the stone mill to hold the ground soy milk, and then started to work.
At the beginning, Liu Shuyue was worried that she would hit her hands, so Yao Qingnian would stop after grinding one circle and wait for her to put the beans in before continuing. As the millstone turned, the ground soy milk overflowed from the millstone and flowed into the wooden barrel.
Liu Shuyue also began to adapt slowly, and the two of them cooperated more and more tacitly.
Grinding things with this grinding stone requires a lot of physical strength. You have to push it in circles, and the force must be controlled evenly, otherwise the ground beans will easily become crumbs.