Chapter 662: The '50s Motherhood System (19)

Over there, whether it was because the words Tian Qisao said had an effect, no one had come to play matchmaker for her recently, which made Xie Yang heave a sigh of relief.

Although she had made up her mind not to go on blind dates, having to refuse every single time was exhausting, not just for her mouth but for her heart as well.

If only everyone wouldn't be so enthusiastic anymore.

"Sister Yangyang! I've brought you firewood!"

As soon as school let out, Liuqiang would go to the foot of the mountain to gather firewood, and the first bundle was always delivered to Xie Yang's house first.

After carrying the firewood to the woodshed and unloading it, Liuqiang said to Xie Yang with unconcealable excitement: "Sister Yangyang, the Film Projection Team is coming to our township to show a movie! The screening time has already been posted at the entrance of the assembly hall. It's the evening after tomorrow. Are you going to watch it? If you are, I'll help you bring a bench."

"Film Projection Team?"

"Yeah, they're even coming from the Provincial Capital! They came once last year, too, and it was also shown on the Threshing Floor in front of the assembly hall. Didn't you go watch it? Last year they showed 'The White-Haired Girl', it was so good! I don't know what they're showing this year..."

Xie Yang hadn't expected that there would be movies coming to the countryside in this era. Although they were black-and-white films and involved many people crowding in front of a single screen, this atmosphere was a rare experience.

She immediately replied: "Okay! I'll go watch it then. Thank you for letting me know."

Liuqiang scratched his head and gave a silly smile: "What's there to thank me for? Even if I didn't say anything, my grandfather would still beat the copper gong to notify everyone."

A broken copper gong hung on the large locust tree at the entrance of the village. Whenever there was an important matter in the village that needed to be announced, the Zhishu would strike the gong. Upon hearing the sound of the gong, every household would send a representative to gather under the large locust tree for a meeting.

For a good thing like showing a movie, they certainly wouldn't hide it and not tell everyone.

After all, this was an extremely rare form of entertainment in an era without electricity.

"Then I'm heading back, Sister Yangyang. Remember not to forget to go watch the movie the evening after tomorrow. I'll help you bring a bench. My family is going with a lot of people, so my dad will push a handcart to carry the benches, so you won't have to carry yours."

Xie Yang smiled and agreed: "Alright! Then I'll trouble you to help me bring a bench. I'll prepare the snacks."

"Snacks?" Liuqiang was a bit confused.

"The snacks to eat while watching the movie. Besides melon seeds and peanuts, what else do you like to eat? Popcorn or dried plum? How about I bring both?"

It was a pity the season wasn't right; if it were after the autumn harvest, she could even bring a few stalks of sugarcane.

The Smart Vegetable Garden had recently unlocked sugarcane and sugar beets, both of which were good raw materials for making sugar.

Compared to sugar beets, which could only be used to make sugar, sugarcane was also a widely popular fruit.

She forgot which plane it was, but every household would plant a few stalks of sugarcane in front of their doors or behind their houses, and if an outdoor movie was being shown, there would be sugarcane vendors everywhere around the venue.

Although she couldn't explain why eating sugarcane while watching movies was popular.

However, sugarcane wasn't in season, but apricots were just right.

Following the grapes and jujube trees, the Orchard had leveled up to Level 3, unlocking apricots and pomegranates.

She had planted them in the empty space to the east of the main house, and by the day after tomorrow, it would be exactly half a month. When the time came, she would bring some apricots over, and if asked, she would just say she found them in the mountains.

There were indeed quite a few wild apricot trees growing on the Jieshan of Shili Village, but they were often pecked at by birds before they could ripen, leaving few opportunities for the villagers to pick them.

But "few" didn't mean "none," and if one was lucky, one could still pick a few.

When Liuqiang left Xie Yang's house, his steps felt like he was floating.

Which child in the village was as happy as he was! Watching a movie and having snacks to eat! And it was dried plum and popcorn, things you only got to eat during the New Year! Hehe!

At the thought of the sour dried plums and the sweet, crispy popcorn, the ten-year-old boy almost drooled.

He shyly wiped the corner of his mouth and went back to the foot of the mountain to continue gathering firewood with a silly grin.

Xie Yang wasn't idle either; she started making the popcorn to take to the outdoor movie the day after tomorrow at home.

If only the Processing Workshop were open; she could just put the corn kernels in, and popcorn would come out. Now she had to make it manually!

Fortunately, she had all the ingredients at home: sun-dried corn kernels, white sugar, vegetable oil, and honey.

She popped a few pots of caramel-honey flavored popcorn with a crackling sound; this was to take to the movie the day after tomorrow.

Then she took out a small piece of butter and broke off a small piece of brick-like Brown Sugar, popping a pot of brown sugar butter popcorn; she kept this for herself to eat slowly.

The dried plums were bought at the market for the first time after the New Year, eight cents a bag, with about thirty pieces inside. The taste was both salty and sour. During the spring plowing days, she would keep one in her mouth when she felt sleepy at noon; it was more effective at relieving sleepiness than coffee or tea.

Later, when the Orchard unlocked plum trees and the Processing Workshop opened, she would first process the sugarcane or sugar beets into white sugar, then try to see if she could process green plums and white sugar into dried plum candy; that would be much better than dried plums.

In the blink of an eye, the day for the movie to come to the countryside arrived.

Xie Yang carried a small basket on her back, filled with water and snacks, and followed the Zhishu's family to the township to watch the movie.

This service of bringing movies to the countryside had been running for two years. There were ten projection teams in the province, taking turns showing movies to the villages and towns below, but there were just too many villages and towns. For remote mountainous areas, it was already quite good to be scheduled once a year.

Therefore, the day the movie was shown was even livelier than the New Year.

Almost everyone in the township gathered on the Threshing Floor in front of the assembly hall.

Those who arrived early could still find a spot in the front to place a bench and sit down to watch, while those who arrived late could only stand in the back. There was no room left for them to put down benches, and even if there were, they would be blocked by the people in front once they sat down.

To what extent were there people? Even the corners on both sides of the screen were packed with people.

Xie Yang's group arrived relatively early. The township primary school let out at three o'clock today, and as soon as school ended, Liuqiang rushed home to urge everyone to leave. They even ate their steamed wild vegetable buns on the way there for dinner.

Having arrived early, no one seemed impatient just sitting on the benches waiting for the movie to start. On the contrary, everyone was chatting enthusiastically, tasting each other's peanuts, melon seeds, wild fruits, and candy.

Xie Yang gave Liuqiang two oil-paper bags; the fluffy paper bag held the sweet and crispy popcorn, and the flatter one contained the apricots and dried plums.

"Thank you, Sister Yangyang!"

After thanking her, Liuqiang excitedly clutched the paper bags and went to find his little friends to show off.

There was still more than an hour before the movie started. How could the boys sit still? They were all climbing up and down the straw stacks in the corner of the Threshing Floor playing.

"This kid!" The Zhishu Xifu scolded him with a smile, then stuffed a few loquats into Xie Yang's arms, "You must be thirsty after walking all this way, right? Moisten your throat. They're grown in our own yard; the taste is okay, it's just that they don't look very good."

"Thank you, Auntie."

Xie Yang gave her a bag of popcorn and a few apricots in return, telling her to take them to share with her daughter-in-law at home.

At this moment, those sitting and occupying seats were either women or children, and the sound of chatter rose one after another.

Xie Yang peeled a loquat and ate it while hoping for when the Smart Orchard would unlock loquat saplings, while listening to the womenfolk occupying the seats gossiping.

"Have you heard about that thing? It caused a sensation across the whole country!"

"Oh, you mean that thing? I just heard about it too, it's really so suspicious."

"???"

Xie Yang pricked up her ears, listening to them chat.