I run a clinic in the United States

Chapter 250: Cooking tea around the stove and setting off cannons in neighboring provinces

Zhou Qiao's house is located on a low hillside, with a lush and endless sea of ​​bamboo behind it.

In the twelfth lunar month of winter, all the trees are withered, but this sea of ​​bamboo is full of green.There are layers upon layers, and when the north wind blows, the blue waves ripple.The classic martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was filmed here.

It would be better to eat without meat than live without bamboo. Zhou Qiao's family also has several acres of bamboo forest.When I woke up in the morning, my mother Zeng Xiuye ​​had already returned from the bamboo forest, carrying a large basket of winter bamboo shoots on her back, and an old duck in her hand. She said she bought it at Lao Li's house in the village, and it cost 300 yuan each, because it was from the same village. , or the preferential price given.

"Today I will make a pot of winter bamboo shoots and old duck stew for my two little darlings. Quick, translate!" Zeng Xiuye ​​said to Zhou Qiao quickly when she saw the twin girls coming out.

Zhou Qiao: "..." Well, if you have an adopted daughter, your biological son will not be as good.

Although she was adopted by her aunt, she should be called niece in terms of relationship. But now that her aunt has passed away, Zeng Xiuye ​​has spoken. Her daughter is our biological daughter. We don’t want to call her aunt. It seems too raw, so just call her her. "Mom and Dad" come affectionately.

As everyone knows, when the twin girls came back and called "Mom and Dad" after Zhou Qiao, they were referring to themselves as their daughter-in-law, not their "blood daughter."

Even though we may have misunderstood, we have reached the same goal by different paths, and now we are called "Mom and Dad".

Zhou Qiao translated what his mother said. Elena and Ava were so happy that they followed their mother to see her kill ducks, bleed them, and pluck their hair.

Elena and Ava were nurses by background, and they were adopted orphans when they were young. They were not pretentious and shameless rich ladies. They rolled up their sleeves and helped their mother with the work, and they were very efficient.

In the backyard of Zhou Qiao's house, there are three small tile-roofed houses, one is the kitchen, one is the utility room, and the third one is on the outside, with only a roof and two walls, which is equivalent to a half-open shed.

Inside the shed was the place where Grandma Zhou Qiao used to grow flowers and plants. Later, her grandma passed away. It was her mother, Zeng Xiuye, who took care of this flower shed. There were some old succulent piles in it, which were more than ten years old.

Someone once paid a high price to buy it, but my mother didn't even sell it.

Then there were some orchids that were dug from the mountains and later raised to death.Now that there is a policy, you may break the law and be sentenced, so you don’t dare to dig casually anymore.

In another corner of the yard, there is a three-meter-high golden osmanthus tree with luxuriant branches and leaves. Every August and September of the lunar calendar, the tree is full of sweet-scented osmanthus flowers. The flowers can be picked and dried to make osmanthus wine, osmanthus duck, and osmanthus. Lotus root and osmanthus cake.

Zhou Qiao rummaged in the utility room for a long time. Finally, he found two small red clay stoves. He took them outside, rinsed them with water, and put them in the sun to dry.

"Qiao, what are these two things for?" Ava saw them, so she jumped over and asked.

Zhou Qiao said: "Let's make tea around the stove!"

"Cooking tea by the stove?" Ava tilted her head, puzzled.

Zhou Qiao laughed: "It's just two small stoves with charcoal inside and earthen teapots on top. You can make various fruit teas and scented teas. I looked at the weather forecast and it's likely to snow heavily tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. We'll be here then In the flower shed, I can make tea, eat snacks, warm up by the fire, and enjoy the snow scenery. I don’t know how comfortable it is.”

"Wow~, it's snowing, that's really exciting! I can't wait!" Ava clapped her hands and shouted.So he ran over to share the good news with Elena.

San Francisco is surrounded by the sea on three sides, has warm winters and cool summers, and almost never snows.

Although Zhuhai County is located in the south of the Yangtze River, it snows more than San Francisco. It snows almost every year, and sometimes there is heavy snow that can cover your ankles.Of course, this kind of "heavy snow" is not comparable to that in the north, but it is quite rare in Jiangnan.

Whenever heavy snow is forecast, the people of Zhuhai are very excited.

Zhou Qiao thought that he had to prepare some bamboo charcoal in advance. If he burned it directly with wood, the smoke would be bigger.Although there was ready-made bamboo charcoal for sale in the town, it was not that he couldn't afford it, but he just felt that it would be very interesting to make a few frames of bamboo charcoal by himself.

Anyway, I am idle at home. There is not much else in the house, but there are plenty of bamboos.

Just do it, Zhou Qiao went to get a hatchet. His old father Zhou Xiaode saw him and asked him what he was doing.

Zhou Qiao said: "Go and chop some bamboo to make bamboo charcoal!"

"What a great idea!" As soon as he said this, the old father also became interested and immediately took action with Zhou Qiao.

The two of them were very interested. They went to the back mountain to select thick moso bamboos that were more than three years old. They chopped five or six bamboos, cut off the branches and leaves, moved the main trunk back, sawed it into small sections about half a foot long in the open area in front of the door, and then used an axe. From top to bottom, split into small strips about three fingers wide.

Elena and Ava stopped watching the duck plucking and came over to record a video for Zhou Qiao and Zhou Xiaode. After all, making bamboo charcoal was still interesting.

Put all the small bamboo segments into a large iron paint bucket, put a thick layer of bamboo leaves on it, press it tightly, and then use yellow mud and water to make a wet mud ball and seal it.

Put the iron bucket on bricks and burn it fiercely. There will be thick smoke coming out of the bucket through the mud.

When there was no more smoke coming out, the firing was completed, and Zhou Xiaode smeared a layer of mud on the mouth of the iron bucket to seal the previously cracked hole.

"Is that all?" Elena couldn't help but asked curiously when she saw Zhou Qiao and her father finishing their work.

"No, it needs to be sealed for more than ten hours and then opened again tomorrow." Zhou Qiao said.

Zhou Qiao's father heard that Zhou Qiao was going to make tea around the stove and have a barbecue, so he made some bamboo sticks, sharpened them one by one, the same length and thickness, and made them quite neatly.

As for the barbecue stove, there are also several large open clay flower pots in the garden shed, which were used to grow orchids, but later the orchids died and have been left empty.

Take out one randomly from inside. There is already a hole in the bottom of the basin. Put it on a small stainless steel steaming rack that comes with the rice cooker. Put bamboo charcoal on it. After lighting it, put on a large circular stainless steel grid steaming rack for a simple barbecue. The furnace is done.

After grilling, the steamer rack can be cleaned and recycled.

In fact, you can make tea directly on it, but the area of ​​the clay flower pot is limited, with a diameter of only more than 40 centimeters, so it is more convenient to use two other small red clay stoves to make tea.

Speaking of which, Zhou Qiao's father is also hard-working and versatile. In addition to making bamboo charcoal, he can also make some bamboo beds, bamboo chairs, bamboo baskets, and bamboo baskets.Many furniture in the home are made of bamboo.

Relying on mountains to eat mountains, relying on water to eat water.

In fact, Zhou Qiao's family is located in the south of the Yangtze River, and the economy is relatively developed. If it hadn't been for spending too much money to send him to college, and his sister-in-law borrowed a large sum of money and never paid it back, my grandfather might have been angry with her in his later years. He spent a lot of money on illness and medical expenses, so his family would not be so poor.

In the village, they are equivalent to the bottom poor households.

But now, with no tuition expenses, Zhou Qiao has made a small fortune again, and the family can finally live a normal and well-off life.

Speaking of my sister-in-law, she was also an unkind person. When she was young, she married a street kid, which made her grandparents angry to death. Later, she gave birth to a child. As a result, the street kid got into a drunken fight, maimed someone, and was sentenced to more than ten years in prison. , the two divorced.

It is not easy for my sister-in-law to raise a child alone. Now, she is quite old and still rents a house in the county.Then my son was not good enough. He didn't even graduate from high school, so he went to work in the society.

It's not that my sister-in-law doesn't want to pay back the money, it's that she simply doesn't have the money to pay back.Zhou Qiao's father felt sorry for this girl, so he couldn't push her.When it comes to economic conditions, Zhou Qiao's relatives on her mother's side are better off.Several uncles all work in the county, and one aunt's husband is in the system.

Zhou Qiao has a cousin named Jiang Yunyun. She has always had a good relationship with Zhou Qiao. Her father is a minor official in the system.It's just that this uncle has always looked down on Zhou Qiao's family, but this does not hinder the relationship between Zhou Qiao and his cousin.

After all, the uncle is an outsider, and Jiang Yunyun's mother and Zhou Qiao's mother are biological sisters. When they were young, Zhou Qiao and her cousin slept in the same bed.

Jiang Yunyun is a junior this year and is studying at an ordinary undergraduate college in the provincial capital. However, because of her good family conditions, she took the driver's license test after graduating from high school and bought a car. She drives back and forth by herself on weekends, winter and summer vacations.

No, I heard that my cousin was back from the United States. After lunch, Jiang Yunyun drove over to find her cousin.

Zhou Qiao bought new year's goods before, but he sent this cousin several sets of valuable cosmetics and a luxury bag.

"Wow, these two beautiful ladies!" Jiang Yunyun couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise when she saw Elena and Ava.She had heard of these twins before, but she had never seen them in person.

Jiang Yunyun's appearance is about [-] or [-], with a high ponytail, a smooth forehead, youthful beauty, she can be considered a beauty, but compared with Elena and Ava, she pales in comparison.

"Yunyun, you're here just in time, you can act as our driver these days!" Zhou Qiao said unceremoniously.

"No problem!" The cousin snapped her fingers.

I had received so many gifts from Zhou Qiao before. Besides, if we went out together, who would be the driver if she wasn't? Who let her have a car?
"Cousin, where should we go to play in the afternoon?" Jiang Yunyun asked.

Zhou Qiao looked at the twin girls: "What do you think?"

Jiang Yunyun: "..." My cousin has a new cousin, so he doesn't care about my old cousin?To actually ask someone else, huh, bad guy!
Elena said: "You decide!"

Ava shrugged, meaning the same thing as her sister.After all, they are not familiar with the place, so they have no idea.

Zhou Qiao pondered for a moment and then said, "I'll take you to the nearest scenic spot, a very popular place. Then we'll drive to Hui Province to set off fireworks."

Jiang Yunyun's English is not very good, so after Zhou Qiao said it once in English, he said it again in Chinese.

The three girls immediately cheered. After all, setting off fireworks during the New Year is a very happy thing.

But in Zhou Qiao's hometown, fireworks and firecrackers are prohibited throughout the county, even in the countryside.And because it’s prohibited, no one can sell it in the store.Fortunately, they are not far from neighboring provinces. They drove more than 30 kilometers to Hui Province.

Fireworks and firecrackers are not allowed in Huizhou, you can set them off at will!

During the Spring Festival, don’t organize too many people to set off fireworks across provinces.

"Cousin, the most popular scenic spot you mentioned isn't Yucun, right?" Jiang Yunyun asked as she was leaving.

"Yes! You are so smart, you have guessed all this!"

Jiang Yunyun stuck out her tongue and knew you were talking about Yu Cun.

Zhou Qiao's home is about ten kilometers away from the county seat, but less than five kilometers away from Yucun. It only takes about ten minutes to drive there.

Jiang Yunyun didn't go to that place too much, and she also wrote many essays.She didn't really want to go, but Zhou Qiao wanted to take the twin girls there, so she couldn't help it.

The twin girls are the guests and the protagonists!

"Qiao, where is Yucun?" Elena asked.

Everyone in Zhuhai County knew Yucun, but the twin girls didn't, so Zhou Qiao gave them a brief introduction.

“That is the birthplace of the Two Mountains concept. In our Zhuhai County, or in China as a whole, there is a famous saying: clear waters and green mountains are mountains of gold and silver! This means that environmental protection is very important.

Only by protecting the natural environment can long-term and sustainable economic development be achieved.In other words, if we destroy the "lucid waters and green mountains", it is equivalent to destroying the "gold and silver mountains".

“More than ten years ago, Mr. Dada, who was the chief shopkeeper of Zhejiang Province, came to Yucun for investigation and proposed this theory. As a result, Yucun became famous and became a popular spot for internet celebrities. Many people in the system also came to visit and learn. .”

"Because of the origin of the concept of the two mountains, the president often came to Zhuhai County for inspections."

Jiang Yunyun's father is an official within the Zhuhai County system, at the deputy department level, and often takes people to that place.

Before Zhou Qiao had finished the introduction, the destination had arrived.Jiang Yunyun is an experienced driver and drives very fast.

The first thing that catches the eye is the tall stone carving "Lucid waters and green mountains are mountains of gold and silver" standing in the water.

There are small bridges, flowing water, and red stone carvings. Even in winter, the place is full of flowers and crowded with tourists.

Apart from the two-mountain concept, it actually doesn’t have much to see. It’s just a typical small village in the south of the Yangtze River.

Stone bridges, clear rivers, and colorful country roads line both sides. Many fruit sculptures are placed on the lawn, including pumpkins, watermelons, strawberries, bananas, etc. as tall as a person. Many tourists lie on the fruits to take pictures.

In addition, the village also has a thousand-year-old temple built in the Houliang period of the Five Dynasties. There is a thousand-year-old tree known as the "Jiangnan Ginkgo King", but it arrived a little late and all its leaves have fallen out.If you come in autumn, the trees will be golden.

In addition, there are ancient industrial mining sites and cave landscapes, but some of them are not yet open to the public.

After playing for about half an hour and taking many beautiful photos, Zhou Qiao and the four of them drove to a neighboring province.

Zhou Qiao called home and said he wouldn't go back for dinner. When they passed through the county town, they stopped to buy a KFC bucket, and then bought four cups of milk tea at an internet celebrity store.

In just over 40 minutes, we arrived at a small town in Hui Province and found a New Year shopping street with many fireworks shops.

This kind of New Year's shopping street is usually bustling in the morning, but now it is a little empty in the afternoon. Zhou Qiao and the others hurriedly get down to business before it gets dark and buy suitable fireworks when they see them.

"Cousin, how much is the budget?" Jiang Yunyun asked.

Zhou Qiao said boldly: "Fill your trunk!"

(End of this chapter)