Chapter 213 Matchmaker
Zhang An arrived at the purple bamboo forest, waiting for him to find his father and his party.
I saw my father and Uncle Jianzhong tying up the chopped bamboos one after another.
Although this place is called Purple Bamboo Forest, the most bamboos are not Purple Bamboo.
On the contrary, most of the bamboos seen here are Phyllostachys pubescens and Ci bamboo.
Although there are purple bamboos, there are not as many as the first two.
These bamboos should have been brought back from outside by the elders in the past and transplanted here.
After all, the craft of bamboo weaving cannot be satisfied by just one kind of bamboo.
Weaving different things requires using different bamboos, and each type of bamboo has different characteristics.
"Dad, second grandpa, uncle, is it enough to just cut this few?"
Zhang An looked at the bamboos tied up with ropes on the ground and thought they had finished their work.
“It’s almost done, just chop a few more bamboos. When did you come back?”
“Not long after I came back, my mother said you guys were cutting bamboo here, so I came over to help. Hand me the handle.”
Hearing that he hadn’t cut enough yet, Zhang An picked up the hatchet and found bamboo in the bamboo forest to chop it.
When people in the village come to chop bamboo, they always pick one from the east and one from the west, trying to get as big as possible.
If you just focus on one area, you will cut it down sooner or later.
Zhang An had just finished cutting a thick and straight bamboo and was pulling it over to where his father and the others had tied the bamboo.
I heard a wah-wah-wah sound coming from not far away, but it was very quiet.
Then Zhang An saw Xiaohu running towards him with a big guy in his mouth, shaking his head.
“Oh, Xiaohu actually caught a bamboo slip. This thing is not easy to catch.”
Looking at the thing that Xiaohu picked up, Mr. Zhang knew what it was at a glance.
Although Zhang An doesn’t eat much of this thing, it’s not unfamiliar to him either. The locals call it Zhuliuzi.
Because this guy’s head looks like a mouse, and because it doesn’t like eating bamboo, many people call it a bamboo rat.
Although the name contains the word "rat", this thing is bigger than many cats.
The one held by the little tiger in front of me looked about a foot long and probably weighed two or three pounds.
In the early years, when there was little meat in our lives, we all thought about it.
After all, the little guy has a round head, a round head, and a round belly. You can tell at a glance that he has a lot of meat.
Maybe none of the rabbits caught outside will have as much meat as it does.
But this thing deserves to have the word "rat" in its name, and it is really very courageous.
As soon as it spots someone or another predator, it will immediately run away on four legs.
Despite its fat appearance, it can't escape very fast.
So it’s not that easy to catch this bamboo slipper.
That’s why Mr. Zhang was surprised just now when he saw Xiaohu holding such a big bamboo stick.
Generally, if you don’t catch it with a trap, you will have to dig the hole to catch it after it runs back into the hole.
The little tiger can catch it, which is already very powerful.
The bamboo rat in front of me was being held in the tiger's mouth and tossed around from time to time because it kept yelling "Wow!"
Maybe he was a little dizzy after being thrown away. This guy forgot that he was caught by a dog and now he looked very angry.
He bared his two thick big fangs towards Zhang An and the others, and kept making a "whoosh" sound in his mouth.
This is it threatening Zhang An and the others with its most ferocious appearance.
But in Zhang An’s eyes, he thought the little guy’s fierce breasts were quite cute.
Because of how cute the breasts were, Zhang An couldn't bear to eat them.
And Zhang An was quite happy today, so he planned to let this little guy go.
"This is a good thing. It would be a pity to let it go. If Xiao An doesn't give it to me, you can come over and fight to an even score tonight."
But Zhang Jianzhong next to him is different. He looked at the bamboo rat with great greed.
He is a cook. In his eyes, this thing is just the same ingredient on the chopping board, and he will not have other ideas.
Seeing that Zhang An was planning to let go, he quickly spoke to Zhang An.
"What's here, uncle can take it if he likes. There's no need to fight."
Zhang An said with a smile, and then took the bamboo rat from the tiger's mouth He grabbed it and handed it to Zhang Jianzhong next to him.
"Hey, you guys are coming over tonight. I believe in your uncle's craftsmanship. This thing is really delicious."
After tying up all the cut bamboos, everyone was ready to go back down the mountain. .
Taken together, this bundle of bamboo doesn't weigh much.
It’s just that the bamboo grows quite long, and it’s not convenient at all to carry it around.
So it will be easier if two people carry it together.
"Master, when will you start making a cooling bed? I'll come over and learn."
When he got to the yard, he laid the long bundle of bamboo poles horizontally on the ground, and Zhang An looked towards his second The uncle asked.
Originally Zhang An had no idea, but after seeing his second master making a cooling bed, he also thought about getting one.
At this time, a summer bed is placed under the tree in the yard. It is much more comfortable to lie down during the day than the wooden rattan recliner.
“I’ll start working on it in the evening. I’ll lay out the bed frame first, and we’ll weave the bamboo mat tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll come up here and learn with my second grandfather.”< br>
Back home, the silkworm racks washed in the afternoon have been dried in the sun.
Wang Fang checked it over to make sure nothing was left on it before preparing to move it into the house.
As the sun sets at night, the temperature drops and becomes very cool.
Before cooking, Wang Fang spread the silkworm seeds on the silkworm plaque to prepare them for hatching.
After doing this, Wang Fang went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Because silkworms are also afraid of oil stains, so do it after cooking.
Maybe your hands are not washed too well, which will affect them.
After dinner, Zhang An sat with his parents. Wang Fang and Zhang Jianguo began to ask Zhang An about what happened last night.
After all, Zhang An only mentioned a few words on the phone yesterday.
There are many things here that I couldn’t explain clearly on the phone.
So Zhang An didn’t say on the phone that he would talk to his parents in detail when he got back.
It wasn't until they heard Zhang An explain what happened last night that they began to think about it.
Although others do not impose any conditions on themselves, they cannot just deal with it.
But their attitude is just like that, and the rest depends on what they do.
But now there is a problem that needs to be solved in front of Zhang An's family.
If you want to come to your home to propose marriage, you have to find a matchmaker to go to your home to lobby.
And finding a matchmaker also has another role, which is to help both parties ask their birth dates.
Although Zhang An and Su Ying's situation does not require any matchmaker, they can find out by themselves just by asking.
But in Wang Fang's eyes, rules are rules, and no process can be omitted.
Otherwise, in the eyes of others, it means that I don’t care about my future daughter-in-law.
But if you are looking for a matchmaker, you can’t find a suitable candidate for a while.
After all, the person who played the biggest role in the matter between Su Ying and Zhang An was probably Su Ying's mother, Wu Qiuping.
You can’t hire someone to be a matchmaker and mother-in-law at the same time.
"Dad, Mom, why don't you let Chen Ze be the matchmaker." After thinking about it, Zhang An thought of Chen Ze.
After all, it was Chen Ze who introduced Su Ying to him.
After saying this, Zhang An decided to let Chen Ze play this important role.
"Xiao Chen, it seems okay. Without him, Xiaoying would not come to our house."
After Zhang An called Chen Ze's name, Wang Fang thought about it It took a moment to feel feasible.
Anyway, this matchmaker is just for show, and does not need to have a eloquent mouth like other matchmakers.
After making the decision, Zhang An called Chen Ze on the phone.
"Hey, Old Chen"
"Zhang An, I think you are too unreasonable. It's too much for you to hide such a big thing from Xiaoying from your brother."
Before Zhang An finished speaking, Chen Ze started firing like a machine gun.
It's not that Chen Ze had any thoughts about Su Ying. Because of the relationship between his sister-in-law and Chen Ning, he always regarded Su Ying as his sister.
But he felt a little angry that Zhang An kept hiding this matter from them.
If Chen Ning hadn't bumped into the two of them today, he might not have known about it.
From the moment I answered the phone, I kept scolding Zhang An for not doing things right.
"Okay, okay, if you don't take a drink of water first, I'm afraid your throat will burn out later."
Listening to this guy complaining on the phone, Zhang An felt that this guy actually She has the physique of an aunt.
When he first met Chen Ze, he thought this guy was an aloof rich man.
Now that I've gotten acquainted with him, I've discovered that this guy is a funny guy.
“I didn’t want to hide it from you, but you didn’t ask me all the time.”
Zhang An can’t be blamed for this. Ever since he and Su Ying were together, Chen Ze rarely comes here either.
Zhang An and Su Ying have never met Chen Ze and others together.
Zhang An himself would definitely not publicize this kind of thing, so he delayed it until now.
We are not in the Internet age right now, so if anything happens, you have to send a friend a message to let them know.
Hearing Zhang An explain this to himself, Chen Ze was a little angry.
But he had already finished what he wanted to say, and he did not continue at this moment.
"Hey, you guy, tell me how you and Xiaoying started."
At this moment, Chen Ze started to gossip.
He just couldn't figure it out, these two people had never shown any signs.
Before the Chinese New Year last year, when he took Su Ying to Zhang An's house, the two of them looked like they had nothing.
Why has it become like this now?
“How can you be such a bitch? We already know each other, what else can we do?”
However, under Chen Ze’s constant chatter, Zhang An roughly I said a few words to him.
"By the way, Lao Chen, I'm here to ask you for a favor this time."
"Whatever it is, tell me, I can solve it for you."
Just now, Chen Ze, who had disliked Zhang An for this and that, stopped making jokes when he heard Zhang An ask him for help.
Normally it doesn’t matter when everyone is joking, but this was the first time that Zhang An came to him for something.
So I stopped joking with Zhang An and became serious.
"Then let me thank you first. That's it. I plan to ask you to be the matchmaker between me and Su Ying."
Seeing Chen Ze coming to his door, Zhang An was not polite at all.
"What? Matchmaker? Are you two planning to get married now?"
This immediately confused Chen Zeqian, thinking that he heard wrongly.
He just recovered from the shock when he learned that Zhang An and Su Ying were friends.
But now Zhang An told him that he was going to marry Su Ying and he had to ask him to be a matchmaker.
"I'm not one of those old ladies, and I don't know how to do this job. Zhang An, I'm afraid you've got the wrong person."
Chen Ze was speechless. He is a grown man. , Zhang An actually asked himself to be a matchmaker.
“Oh, I just need you to play this role, I don’t need you to do anything.”
Zhang An explained the current situation of the two of them to Chen Ze, and finally couldn’t bear it anymore An insisted, but Chen Ze could only nod in agreement.
On the one hand, she is her best friend, and on the other hand, she is her sister.
Zhang An has said this, and if he disagrees with it, it will be unreasonable.
"Okay, I don't understand anything anyway. You have to tell me what you need to do, otherwise it's your fault if something goes wrong."
In Chen Ze's heart, he doesn't understand anything anyway. If you know this, you can do whatever Zhang An asks you to do.
"That's hard work. I'll give you a big red envelope later."
"Tch, I still need you to give me a red envelope?"
"That's not it. If you don’t want it, then you don’t want it. This is a red envelope for the matchmaker. It’s okay if you don’t want it.”
After solving the problem with the matchmaker, Zhang An called Su Ying.
When Su Ying's parents heard that Zhang An had found Chen Ze as a matchmaker, they didn't react for a moment, and they laughed in the end.
After all, this was the first time they heard about finding a man to be a matchmaker.
Then they made an appointment and asked Chen Ze to come to ask for Su Ying's birthday and horoscope.
The only thing left is to find someone to calculate the dates, combine the horoscopes, and finally go to Su Ying's home to send out the horoscopes for an engagement.
After this matter was resolved, Zhang An went out and headed towards Mr. Zhang’s home.
In the afternoon, Zhang An agreed to go see his second grandfather making bamboo beds. If he didn't go, he would be afraid that the old man would keep waiting for him.
When Zhang An came to the door, the master had already sawed the phoebe into several pieces.
Some of the bamboo poles were partially cut open, and a small fire was burning in the yard.
Seeing Zhang An coming, Mr. Zhang called Zhang An to his side and took the planed bamboo poles and put them on the fire to roast.
While setting fire to roast the bamboo, Mr. Zhang told Zhang An the reason for doing so.
This technique of roasting bamboo with fire has a nice name, "Yu".
People who specialize in this business are called Yujiang.
However, Zhang An and the others do not have specialized craftsmen here. Most of them are bamboo craftsmen who do some such work incidentally.
Bamboo is a very magical thing. After being roasted with fire, it can be re-bent and shaped into the shape people want.
However, the best time to grill bamboo is when it is just cut. It is best not to leave it for too long.
Because at this time, there is still a lot of moisture in the bamboo, so it will be easier to shape.
If you wait too long, the effect of bending the bamboo will not be ideal.
Not only large bamboos, but also some small bamboo poles do not need to be planed. They can be bent and shaped directly by roasting them with fire.
There are also some smaller wooden sticks that can be used in this way, such as the dung baskets used by most people in the village. They are baked with wooden sticks and then bent and fixed to serve as the sides of the basket.
Secretary Zhang has been working as a bamboo craftsman for decades and has become very skilled in his craftsmanship.
Even this time for Zhang An to see clearly, he did it more slowly.
But in the end, it didn’t take much time to make the frame of the bamboo bed.
Finally, Mr. Zhang tied several bamboo poles bent at 90 degrees with ropes and tightened them.
This is to allow the bamboo to be better shaped. When the rope is released tomorrow, the bent area will no longer rebound, making the bamboo bed more stable.
(End of this chapter)