338 Mugwort
Everyone saw the silver and shrugged. They were still wondering how much Jiang Yue and Xue Yan’s family had. They all thought that Lin Xicui’s family was now the richest in the surrounding villages, and no matter how rich Jiang Yue and Xue Yan were, they wouldn’t have as much as the Lin family! If they did, they would have been boasting about it as well!
Naturally, no one in Jiang Yue’s and Xue Yan’s family would st*pidly argue about this.
There were also people who laughed at Xue Sanfu in private, saying that his betrothed had become someone else’s concubine. However, because they all knew Xue Sanfu’s temper, they only did so in private, and no one dared to say it in front of him.
…
The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and there were mosquitoes all around. One day, Xue Wufu woke up and complained that he had been bitten by a mosquito while he was sleeping. He even rolled up his sleeve to show Jiang Yue and the others the red bump on his arm.
When Xue Erfu saw this, he immediately hit his arm and laughed, “There’s dried mugwort at home. You forgot to light it up. You deserve to be bitten.”
Jiang Yue knew that there was a mosquito repellent in this world, but it required money to buy. Most farmers were reluctant to buy it, and they would use mugwort to repel mosquitoes, but the effect was slightly worse than the mosquito repellent.
Every year, when the mugwort was in its prime, every farmer would pick the mugwort leaves and roll them into strips, then dry them in the shade. When they needed to repel mosquitoes, they would take them out and light them up. Previously, when they had nothing to do, Li Hehua, Yu Hongyan, and Liu Guixia had already picked mugwort leaves.
“You should be able to sleep on the mats now. It was quite hot last night.” Xue Sifu said.
“You can.” Liu Guixia said with a smile. “But Jiang Yue and Xue Yan are still young and it’s not that hot yet. Don’t let them sleep on bamboo mats yet, let them sleep on the grass mats first. When the weather gets hotter, we’ll change the bamboo mats for them.”
“I’ll make sure to wash them all.” Li Hehua said with a smile. “Everyone can lay on it tonight.”
“We don’t have that many bamboo mats at home. Last year, we slept on straw mats. Fortunately, we don’t have to save on them anymore. Sifu, when you come back from town in the afternoon, remember to buy more bamboo mats.”
“I know, Mother. I will.” Xue Sifu agreed with a smile.
Liu Guixia turned around and said to Li Hehua, “Wash the mosquito net when you wash the mat. It’s going to be a hot day today. If it’s dried, we can hang it up tonight. It’s better not to use mugwort when you sleep. Otherwise, you’ll wake up in a daze.”
Everyone agreed and nodded along.
Liu Guixia smiled again. “There are patches on the mosquito net, but let’s just leave it as it is this year. It doesn’t matter if it’s ugly. When we move into our new house, we’ll get a new one.”
After breakfast, Li Hehua went to the river to wash the grass mat and mosquito net, while Xue Sifu brought Jiang Yue and Xue Yan to the town to sell rice noodles.
The weather was heating up, and fewer and fewer people were eating the rice noodles with the hot soup. Those who came to eat basically ordered cold rice noodles or fried rice noodles.
Stir-fried rice noodles cooled down more easily than rice noodles in hot soup.
Today, Jiang Yue and Xue Yan didn’t have to shout anymore. There were already many people who came to eat rice noodles without promotion.
Jiang Yue held the bowl of cold rice noodles with both of her small hands and helped another customer to bring it to the table. When she returned to Sifu’s side, she heard him exclaim, “In a few days, the weather will be even hotter. Perhaps no one will order fried rice noodles by then. We don’t have to prepare the soup anymore. Fortunately, we still have cold rice noodles and fried rice noodles to sell.”