Translator: 549690339
She finished setting up three drying racks.
She then carried the long straight firewood she chopped today to the backyard, hammered four pieces of firewood slightly into the ground, about two inches above the surface, and then horizontally tied them with straight wooden boards. She added another circular layer after every thirty centimeters, including the top one.
As a result, a four-layer empty rectangular frame emerged, standing at a distance from the ground.
Each layer of the frame was about one meter wide and two meters long.
She originally wanted to add wooden boards to each layer, but there were none at home. They needed to be purchased, but she temporarily had no money. So, she found many two-finger thick straight firewoods in her woodpile at home, chopped them into approximately one-meter pieces, and piled them up. Fortunately, second brother had been diligent, and there was a small mountain of firewood in the front yard for the heavy workload.
Each stick was placed vertically on each layer, with the one-meter-long sticks being ten centimeters longer than the frame. After placing the sticks, she tied them to the frame with vines she had collected during the day.
With the one-meter sticks placed a few centimeters apart in a straight line on each layer, the four layers of the frame were no longer empty. However, when drying things, an additional layer must be added on top, or something must be used to hold them, as smaller items would slip through the gaps.
By the time she finished setting up the racks and returned to the kitchen to prepare the dishes, she smelled the aroma of fish.
As soon as she entered the kitchen, she saw that Xiao Qinghe had already finished frying the dishes. There was a bowl of fried mushrooms, a bowl of pan-fried fish pieces, and a bowl of snake meat soup on the stove.
She instantly felt ravenous.
Xiao Qinghe was dishing out the brown rice when he saw her, and his hand shook with fright, “Qingyue…”
She narrowed her eyes at his reaction and gave him a disdainful glance, “Why are you so afraid of me?”
“I took matters into my own hands and fried the dishes…”
His timid expression suddenly tugged at her heartstrings, “I can’t be happier that you fried the dishes. I get to enjoy a ready-made dinner. It’s great.” “I was afraid you had a different method of frying the dishes…”
“As long as there’s food, it’s fine. I am not picky,” she laughed, “I fried snake meat at noon and only left a quarter of it. The rest can only be used for soup. Besides, you’re a member of this family. You can fry dishes however you like.
Don’t be so…cautious in the future. After all, I don’t eat people.”
At her words, a faint warmth began to rise in his cold heart, “Qingyue…”
She walked over to him and pinched his pale, handsome face, “Fourth brother, you are so handsome…”
His handsome face now had a black mark from her pinch.
She looked at her own hand and realized that she had touched so much firewood, her hands were filthy.
Seeing his wife pinch his face, Qinghe was not angry but enjoyed the intimacy.
“What does handsome mean?”
“It means you look really good and attractive,” she explained.
Xiao Qinghe’s face flushed. His wife said he was handsome!
She saw the only wooden basin at home filled with fish liver and fish roe while there was a pile of fish on banana leaves on the ground, more than half of which had been processed. Fourth brother was efficient.
With no basin to wash her hands, she scooped water with a wooden ladle, drank a few sips, and then filled it up again. She walked to the yard, held the ladle in one hand, and slowly poured water while washing her other hand underneath. She did this for both hands.
After washing her hands, she returned to the kitchen.
Xiao Qinghe handed her a bowl of brown rice and chopsticks.
She took them, and without any hesitation, took a mouthful of rice, stood by the stove, and grabbed a bite of stir-fried mushrooms with her chopsticks, “Tasty.” She then took a piece of fried fish, “The flavor is not bad….”