stonecrandall Chapter 205 Cleaning and Cutting Window Paper-cuts
Chapter 205 Cleaning and Cutting Window Paper-cuts
Hearing the sound of someone coming back from afar, Gu Qinghuan opened the door, carried the cloth into the main room, and asked Chen Ershu to take a good look at it.
By the way, let Zhong Luo Ning pour him a cup of hot water. The thin jacket this kid is wearing is definitely not warm enough, and he must be frozen after walking all the way.
He looked at the camel-colored woolen material on the table with surprise, as if he had seen his lover. He wanted to go up and touch it, but was afraid of damaging it, so he was very cautious.
Gu Qinghuan walked over and spread out the material for him to inspect.
"Look carefully and check that the material is intact. Take it back and ask her to find a better craftsman to make it."
Chen Ershu nodded like a garlic.
"By the way, this is the material for the Zhongshan suit I ordered for you. Considering your height, you should have more than enough material.
I wish you a happy wedding in advance, a long-lasting marriage, and a son soon." Gu Qinghuan said as she rolled up the material.
"Thank you, thank you. I, I know that my sheep may not be enough to exchange for all these good materials of yours. Wait, wait until spring comes and I will have time to go up to the mountain and hunt some game and send it to you." Chen Ershu said stutteringly.
For some reason, although he was not a stutterer, he felt a little overwhelmed when facing Gu Qinghuan, especially since she was so nice to him and gave him so many good things.
In fact, he knew that his sheep could not be exchanged for so much material, and he was just waiting with a glimmer of hope.
Gu Qinghuan waved his hand: "No need, hunting in the mountains is not easy, you can keep it for yourself to exchange for money."
Chen Ershu pursed his lips and said nothing more.
She wrapped him up with three layers of fabric inside and outside and put it in his backpack.
The goat had been unloaded and Xu Huaian was dissecting it in the yard. The whole family gathered around to watch the fun.
After seeing Chen Ershu off, Gu Qinghuan also came over.
Xu Huaian roughly divided the sheep into several parts, including the head and tail, front legs, abdomen and back, hind legs, and some other parts.
The head and tail parts mainly include the head and tail. These two places have less meat and more skin, and can be used for sauce, braising, boiling, etc.
The front leg parts mainly include the front leg, neck meat and front tendon meat. The meat of these parts is tough, crispy and has tendons, suitable for braising, boiling, sauce, roasting, stewing and braising.
The abdominal and back parts mainly include the spine, ribs, chest, and waist. The meat here is tender, lean, and has no tendons. It can be shabu-shabu, grilled, stir-fried, or pan-fried.
The hind leg part mainly includes the hind leg and hind tendon meat. The meat here is abundant and tender, the meat is coarse and loose, with more fat and less lean, and there are slightly thin tendons on the edges. It is suitable for roasting, frying, stir-frying, etc.
There are also sheep's internal organs, such as sheep liver and sheep tripe, which are also good things.
After roughly breaking down the different parts, Gu Qinghuan wrote them down with paper and pen and pasted them on.
This way you won’t take the wrong one when using it.
It was already twelve o'clock when we finished cleaning up. It was too late to cook the mutton at noon, so we had to leave it until the evening.
Gu Qinghuan and Zhong Luoning cooked a pot of dumplings together. They were delicious and the children ate ten each.
Gu Lanting and Xu Huaian ate twenty of them.
Zhong Luo Ning, Gu Qing Huan and Ming Ru Xue were full after eating thirteen or fourteen pieces.
Ji Linhai went home a long time ago and didn't eat here.
After dinner, Gu Qinghuan asked Xu Huaian to send some mutton to the Ji family.
I specially selected tender ribs to stir-fry for the elderly.
He also instructed Gu Lanting to run to the cowshed next door to deliver some mutton to Zhong Zijun and the others, and told them to come over on New Year's Eve to have the New Year's Eve dinner together.
Today is the twenty-ninth, and tomorrow will be the thirtyth.
The food, drinks and daily necessities are almost ready.
In the afternoon, Gu Qinghuan took the whole family to clean the house.
It’s actually nothing, just a simple cleanup, using a broom to clear away the spider webs everywhere in the house and put them away.
There's nothing else to do at home.
The children were very enthusiastic about working because Gu Qinghuan promised them that he would teach them how to cut paper-cuts after they finished the work.
In rural areas, adults in the family are afraid of wasting red paper, so this kind of work is done by adults and children are not allowed to do it.
But children are curious at that age, and they are very enthusiastic about this kind of small handicraft.
The three little guys are responsible for the cleaning of the entire yard.
After cleaning up, Gu Qinghuan took out red paper and taught them how to cut paper-cuts. She even borrowed a few pairs of scissors to teach them.
Zhong Luoning and Ming Ruxue both came over to take a look curiously.
To be honest, they haven't had this kind of experience yet, after all, they are all born into wealthy families.
Gu Qinghuan was a pure Northeastern country girl in her previous life. She lived with her grandparents when she was little. Every time the family celebrated the New Year, her grandparents would cut a lot of paper-cuts and sell them at the market to exchange money for meat.
So cutting paper-cuts is a skill engraved in her DNA and she can do it with her eyes closed.
There are many kinds of patterns for New Year's window paper-cuts, including flowers, birds, insects, fish, fruits, birds, folk stories, historical figures and theatrical masks.
During the Chinese New Year, paper-cuts of festive and auspicious themes are mainly used.
For example, spring flowers blooming, safety locks, fish leaping over the dragon gate, blessing window grilles, galloping horses, family reunions, surplus every year, and bumper harvests, etc.
Gu Qinghuan didn't even need to draw on paper in advance. She could just fold the paper in half and with a few snips, a beautiful window paper-cut with the word "Fu" on it would appear.
People who saw it were amazed.
"Mom, how did you do that? Teach us!" Beibei anxiously pulled her hand away.
Ming Ruxue was also excited and took the scissors to start. Seeing that Gu Qinghuan finished it with just a few snips, she felt that it should not be difficult.
"Don't worry, you can't create such a large work when you first start learning. I will teach you some simple ones, starting with flowers.
Let's take a smaller piece of paper, fold the red paper in half, and draw the shape of a flower on the back. Note that you should only draw half of the flower shape, and then cut it out with scissors.
Look, a three-petal flower is now formed. You can draw any simpler flower you like."
"Wow! That seems easy enough! Let's get started."
Several children including Ming Ruxue and Zhong Luoning started to learn it seriously, and even Youran picked up a pen and started drawing on paper.
Gu Qinghuan guided them while cutting large paper-cuts.
At the beginning, the things they cut out were all weird, or they were missing arms and legs, or there were problems with the shapes. But soon everyone found the key points, and their cutting skills became better and better.
In the end, Ming Ruxue and Zhong Luoning were able to cut out lanterns, fish, and complex flower shapes, but they were not as good as Gu Qinghuan's work with a whole composition, but it was good enough.
The three small ones can only cut out simple shapes like five-pointed stars and small flowers, which are also great.
When they were almost done cutting the red paper, Gu Qinghuan threw the red paper to them to play with, and went to cook with Zhong Luoning.
Xu Huaian chatted with Ji Linhai at Ji's house for the whole afternoon. I don't know what they talked about, but he was very happy when he came back with a smile on his face.
As for Gu Lanting, after delivering the mutton, he helped Zhong Zijun with the afternoon work in the cowshed before coming back.
Although the New Year is approaching, the animals in the cowshed still need to be taken care of, including cleaning the cowshed, shoveling manure, and collecting hay. There is a lot to do and I am busy all day.
Zhong Zijun didn't want him to do these. As a mother, her child came with great difficulty, and she didn't want him to work. But he insisted on doing it, so she just let him do it.
Gu Lanting wanted to experience the daily life of his grandparents and mother. Knowing that they had so many dirty and tiring jobs to do every day, he felt extremely uncomfortable and bitter.
I have long known that life in the countryside is hard and difficult, and after experiencing it, I understand how difficult it is.
You have to know that these three people were all high-level intellectuals before, doing mental work such as teaching and educating people. Suddenly they were transferred here and had to undertake so much dirty, tiring and heavy work every day. I really don't know how they could bear it.
Gu Lanting was crying hard while working, and the sound of tears blurred his vision.
Gu Lanting did not stop to rest until he had cleaned up all the manure in the cowshed, carried it to a fixed place to vomit out the manure, and fed the cows with grass.
He said to Zhong Zijun, "Mom, before I left, I was given the work in the cowshed to do every day! Don't worry about it anymore."
Zhong Zijun looked at her son with heartache. The job of shoveling cow dung was dirty and smelly. His clothes and pants were all covered with dung spots. It was a good child, but his whole body smelled of dung. It was so dirty.
"Lanting, your grandfather and I can finish these chores in a moment. It's not a big deal. Don't get involved. Look, good clothes have to be washed after they get dirty." She tried to persuade him.
"Lanting, your thoughts are understood by the public. Your mother is right. Don't worry about it. We are used to it." Zhong Weiqian also advised.
Gu Lanting is usually very obedient, but this time, he shook his head stubbornly.
"No, I always listen to you, but you have to listen to me this time. Before I leave, let me do my best!"
The three of them looked at Gu Lanting's red eyes and tacitly agreed with his words.
Zhong Zijun was touched and very grateful.
Although she was absent from her son's life for many years, he grew up to be a kind, sensible, filial and capable child.
He did not have his father's bad habits.
All this is thanks to Huanhuan. In her absence over the past few years, Gu Qinghuan played the role of a mother and took good care of and educated her younger brother.
After Gu Yunchuan was executed, Zhong Zijun's resentment disappeared completely, leaving only gratitude, and she tried hard to make her life better.
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In the evening, Gu Qinghuan prepared a whole lamb feast.
Cumin lamb, grilled lamb chops, carrot and lamb soup, braised lamb trotters, stir-fried lamb tripe, pickled pepper lamb liver, and several vegetarian dishes.
The family started to fatten up for the New Year in advance.
Of course she couldn't cook so many dishes by herself, so Zhong Luoning, Ming Ruxue and several children all helped, doing what they could to the best of their ability.
After Xu Huaian and Gu Lanting came back and were about to start dinner, Xu Mingshan and Xu Huaizhi suddenly came.
After Gu Qinghuan came back, he hasn't seen anyone from the Xu family, let alone said hello to them. The main reason was that he felt it was unnecessary since they didn't care about their family's life or death anyway.
Xu Mingshan heard from other people in the village that his second son had returned and said that his illness had been cured, so he brought his eldest son here to question him.