Lucky Peasant Woman: Raising kids and making wealth

Chapter 33. Making winter clothes

Translated by: NekoCat

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Seeing the bright and spacious house and a yard that was full of flowers and plants. There was a huge difference between other families bare and empty yard.

"Xinlan, are you at home?"
Sister Fu knocked at the door.

"Sister-in-law, I'm at home."
A soft voice came from the room, and a beautiful woman with slim waist and pale skin came out.

The person was as soft and beautiful as her voice. She saw Gu Chunzhu's slightly surprised eyes, together with Sister Fu.

Sister Fu pointed at Gu Chunzhu and introduced them to each other "This is XiaoCheng Niang, this is Yingzi Niang. Xiaocheng Niang is here to ask you to make two sets of winter coats for her children." 
( They're calling each other by their children's name+ Niang which means mother)

"Yinzi Niang, I know I may not have a good reputation in the village but I have changed. I treat the children well now and bought cotton cloth for them.
Please make two sets of winter clothes for them otherwise they'll freeze because of the cold."

Gu Chunzhu pinched the soft spot on her heart. She was also a mother who loves her child, naturally she could not bear to see the two children of the Su family not having winter clothes.

Sister Fu also helped her say good things, she patted Luo Xinlan's hand, "she agreed to give sixteen pounds of brown rice, she's not talkative and will not sell you out."

Luo Xinlan's face got a little better, letting the two people sit inside the room.

Although the room was simple, with only a bed and a comb cabinet, it was very clean.

There was also a stretcher in front of the bed. She was embroidering something like a screen. Gu Chunzhu looked at the peony which was very vivid and beautiful.

"Is this the job from town?"
Gu Chunzhu stared curiosly not daring to reach out and touch, her hand was rough and not delicate. The embroidered surface was made of silk, she might brush and ruin it if touched.

Luo Xinlan was also worried that Gu Chunzhu would touch. It was a relief to see her just standing and looking.

 She slowly responded to her words,
"It's from the town. It's cheaper to bring it back, such a large piece would have to be embroidered for more than three months, probably only one or two silver plates, enough for me and Yingzi to have something to wear and eat."

"That's good, women have to work hard to make money to feed themselves. I myself is fishing shrimps by the river and can earn more than 20 coppers a day!" Gu Chunzhu didn't look down on Luo Xinlan's being a widow. She also said her own thing.

Listening to her words Luo Xinlan's lips slightly hooked up

The two got along, Sister Fu deliberately ridiculed herself: "Both of you have some earnings. Seems that I have to go fishing for shrimps as soon as possible."

"If Big Brother Fu can earn enough money, you can focus on taking good care of the family.” Gu Chunzhu said with her lips curled

Luo Xinlan also covered her lips and agreed with Gu Chunzhu's. Sister Fu didn't blend in and left the two of them to discuss about the winter clothes style and the like.

 The two children, Xiaocheng and An'an, also happily ran outside all day. Luo Xinlan had seen them many times and could roughly estimate their sizes.

After the talk, she set a deadline of six days, Gu Chunzhu didn't bother Luo Xinlan anymore and returned to their own home with Sister Fu.

"Mother is back, Mother is back." An An jumped and shouted in the yard, she ran to the stove room then ran back to the courtyard and held Gu Chunzhu's hand. "Alot of people brought shrimp to the house."

"Quick take your mother to see." Gu Chunzhu's eyes lit up, a way to make money.

As soon as she entered the stove room, she saw Su Wangqin twisting a wooden stick inside the tank. She happily said " Brother Wang, I entrusted the matter of winter clothes to Yinzi Niang, What are you doing?"

"This need to be soaked with Glauber salt. It will take ten days for this leather to be used as fur jacket." Su Wangqin soaked the skin with water and covered the tank .

Gu Chunzhu had no idea about niter leather, she looked down at the shrimps and asked, "who sent them to us?"

"The third one fished three bowls in the morning and sent them first. There may be another one in the afternoon. There are also ten bowls sent by Juhua Niang's brother in law. I'll give them credit first." Su Wangqin said everything, and suddenly remembered, "I don't know where she heard it from but we received 5 bowls of river shrimp from Mother"

"Mother went fishing for prawns?"
Gu Chunzhu was dissatisfied knowing that it must be Qiu's shrimp that Old Mrs. Su have sent.

"Chunzhu..." Su Wangqin rubbed his hands in embarrassment. "We collected others, we can't help but collect them too..."

"I see." Gu Chunzhu knew that what he said was reasonable, but she was still feeling unhappy so she went to deal with the pig offal she got in the morning.

This thing was smelly, it was stuffed in a basket for a day. After taking it out, An An ran to the stove room door while pinching her nose, "Smelly, mother bought smelly things!"

"Bad Girl, wait for your mother to clean it up." Gu Chunzhu pouted at her, rolled up her sleeves and started to clean it up.

This pig offals was really cost-effective, with pig hearts, pig lungs, pig intestines, pork belly, and some discarded pig skins.

Su Wang Qin knew she was angry. She didn't even call her Brother Wang, seeing her in a better mood now he said:. "Chunzu, I'll burn hot water for you, it'll be more convenient to use"

Gu Chun Zhu did not stop him , Washing pork belly and pig intestines can be troublesome. She needed hot water, some salt and even wine to wash it more cleanly.

This is a tie-in for buying pork fat, although it was alot of money at first.
Su Wangqin didn't say a word while watching.

Gu Chunzhu busied herself.

"Brother Wang, help me wash and tear off the oily fat in the large intestines." Gu Chunzhu pulled him to work and in an hour's time, he was finished.

These offal was best eaten fried but there were no scallions, ginger, garlic and peppers at home, Gu Chunzhu had to put these through the water to boil/stew.

 She took out the big bone stick that had been chopped into five small pieces and put it in a water to boil, she also cut the pig's heart into pieces and boiled them together.

"Chunzhu, you're really good at cooking." Su Wangqin praised. He was helping her burn fire for half an hour now

"It's almost for free, just a little waste on firewood." If you want to thoroughly boil the essence out of the bones, it has to be boiled for several hours.

"It's okay, I'm going to cut more firewood if its not enough!"

"Then you look after the fire, I'll go fish for shrimps. I won't need capital for my own shrimps." She said while clapping her hands, there was nothing in the kitchen for her to be busy with.

Seeing that it was still early outside, Gu Chunzhu took the fishing rod hidden behind the door and went to fish.

TL:

I made mistake at ch 28/29 what Gu chunzu bought was actually pig offal not a pile of water 😂 who tf would buy water at a meat stall? Silly me hahaha
Im also not sure if she was talking about pork fat or canola oil. I assumed it was pork fat since she cooked lard.
Here's the exact sentence. If you know
Pls help, 😭
一堆下水和五斤花油还有一根大骨棒，破篓子的重量足足有十斤了。

I woke up at 3am finished at 6 that's how confused I am 😂