Little Life on An American Ranch

For us Chinese, the activity of making dumplings can be said to be an activity for the whole people to participate in. There is no Chinese in the entire ranch who can’t do it. They know how to pack, but they can't stop their high enthusiasm for participation.

As the chef, Zhao Changshan quickly began to distribute the tasks: "Go and take the noodle bag on the car, remember to take the high-gluten noodles, if you take the wrong one, I will beat you!...".

"Chef? What am I doing?" Jian Heng asked Zhao Changshan, pointing at himself.

"Don't worry, I can't escape you, you should rest first," Zhao Changshan said.

Hearing what he said, Jian Heng thought that he was the boss, Zhao Changshan, who was not good at assigning tasks, so he opened his mouth and said, "This is not good, I can't let everyone work and wander around with my arms around."

Zhao Changshan smiled and said: "Don't worry, I can't spare you, I let you rest because I have a big job to entrust to you, waiting for me to chop the beef stuffing, and you are responsible for making the stuffing into a meat paste."

After finishing speaking, Zhao Changshan said to Xiao Zhao who was going to pick up the meat from the car at the door: "Bring the stick for beating meat to the boss to have a look and play with it!"

Jian Heng was very curious. In the past, the meat for dumplings was always chopped, so he couldn't use it for beating, so he followed Xiao Zhao out with his eyes open. He stood under the porch and waited for Xiao Zhao to come over. He took the stuffing stick and couldn't help it. He said to himself, "Is this like a small baseball bat?"

Not to mention, this stick looks very strong, it is completely made of solid wood, and the pattern on the stick is also quite pleasing, light like a wisp of cloud smoke, the pattern is very beautiful but it does not affect the stick The weight is heavy in your hand, and you can tell it's a good material at a glance.

"My uncle made it out of a baseball bat. He said it was easy to use. Here, here's another one. It's a pair." Xiao Zhao pushed the flour on his shoulders and then freed his hands. He handed over another stick for beating meat to Jian Heng.

After taking the stick for pounding meat, Jian Heng found that Zhao Changshan brought a lot of things in the back of the pickup truck. There are more than a dozen large and small stainless steel basins, ranging from arm-length ones to normal washbasins. There are all kinds of big and small, and there are all kinds of drained blues and the like. I don’t know how to get them on the plane or buy them in the city.

After looking at Zhao Changshan's equipment in the car, Jian Heng held a stick in each hand and began to dance on the porch shelf. When he got excited, he even yelled a few words like Bruce Lee.

"Rang Rang, if you want to play, go outside and leave us the shelf." Zhao Changshan came out with a table at this moment, pushed Jian Heng away and put the table under the shelf.

Jian Heng turned his head and saw a small half of the noodles in the basin on the table. You must know that this basin is not a small basin, it is as big as two ordinary washbasins.

"You guys have so many faces?" Jian Heng asked in surprise.

"There is still one meal tonight, even if we can't eat at night, we can still make potstickers tomorrow morning when the helper you said comes. The old beauty recognizes that this thing is fried and fried. Let's make it tomorrow." It will definitely make you look better!" Zhao Changshan said.

Hearing that Zhao Changshan had already prepared the meal for tomorrow morning, Jian Heng said, "That will work!"

In line with the good habit of not blowing up hair if he eats, Jian Heng doesn't mind eating pasta for several meals in a row.

Just like that, Jian Heng was playing with two sticks in front of the house, and the people under the porch began to come alive. Zhao Changshan's two helpers made noodles together, and Zhang Jialiang broke off the cabbage leaves, and then took charge of washing the cabbage. As for Zhao Changshan, he took a large pot and placed a chopping board, and sat on the two small steps in front of the porch to chop meat. At the beginning, he used a knife, and at the end, he used two kitchen knives.

"Brother Zhao, you can chop meat faster than I can chop cabbage?" Zhang Jialiang, who got the chopped vegetables, looked at the meat in Zhao Changshan's basin, which had turned into pieces the size of watermelon seeds.

And the cabbage on his side only took four or five knives, so he opened his mouth and said.

Zhao Changshan smiled and said, "If I can't compare to you, then culinary school and more than ten years of cooking career are not for nothing?"

"That's right!" Zhang Jialiang heard, "It's really the truth!"

Saying that, Zhao Changshan stood up, looked at the two sisters, Damai and Wheat, who were coming out of the door: "Okay, let's put it there, and I'll take care of the rest."

After gesturing to the two sisters to put the baskets in their hands on the table, they turned to Jian Heng and pointed at the stuffing he had just chopped out, saying: "It's your turn to go to battle, give it to me to grind it into a meat paste, remember to be meat Break the fibers for me!"

Jian Heng immediately said: "It's not easy!"

After speaking, he walked to the basin and rolled up his sleeves, ready to start work.

"Hey! Hey! What are you doing?"

"Start work!" Jian Heng replied in surprise.

Zhao Changshan said: "That's how it started? Don't you want to wash the stick?"

Jian Heng remembered this after hearing his reminder, and immediately got into the house to wash the sticks.

While waiting for Jian Heng to come out, he found that there was one more person standing outside, and it was none other than his neighbor O'Brien.

"John, it's rare to see you here, what's the matter?" Jian Heng asked.

It's not that it's rare, but it's never seen before. Jian Heng and the O'Brien family have been neighbors for several years when they were on the ranch, and they haven't seen them come once.

O'Brien is the one that the old ranchers around him hate, but because Jian Heng is not a stubborn old rancher, he has a good sense of this family. He can't say he hates it, but he can't say he likes it either.

Just curious about John O'Brien's unexpected visit.

"Henry, I'm here to ask, are you interested in selling Silent Lake?" O'Brien explained his intention directly without being polite.

Hearing that he was going to buy his own lake, Jian Heng asked curiously first: "Who said I want to sell the lake?"

"No one said, I just heard that you are in a bit of financial difficulty. If you want to sell, I agree to pay one million dollars!" O'Brien put out the price again.

"Sorry, I'm not interested in selling it, even if I sell it, I'm afraid it will be more than this price!"

When Jian Heng heard this, he realized that O'Brien was going to run to him to pick up the leak, and his face immediately fell down, and his whole body became like a hedgehog with its hair blown.

Let's put it this way, can Silent Lake Ranch still be called Silent Lake Ranch without Silent Lake? Let’s not mention the name, just the size of the lake and its location in the entire ranch. Selling this lake will almost cut off one-sixth of the pasture land of the ranch. Where can it be bought for a million dollars?

The value of Silent Lake to the ranch is not the area, but the water source.

The Bank took a fancy to this ranch mainly because of Silent Lake. Originally, it planned to use Silent Lake as a node to divide the ranch into several blocks, so that several blocks are near the lake, with mountains, lakes, and pastures. In winter, skiing is also possible. Rich people like this kind of vacation ranch the most.

"It's okay to have more!" O'Brien slapped his hands up, meaning that he would add another five hundred thousand.

Jian Heng looked at him and twitched his lips and smiled: "I finally understand why everyone doesn't like you!"

The irony in this statement is strong. Although the old ranchers are stubborn and old-fashioned, they are generally upright and simple. They seldom do things because their neighbors are in trouble and they come directly to their neighbors' property.

For the group of old ranchers like today, eight out of ten will definitely give Jian Heng a market price, instead of buying Silent Lake for more than one million dollars like O'Brien.

"I just want the lake!" said O'Brien.

"You only want the lake, and the lake will be sold to you. When you come here, you will fly over my ranch?!" Jian Heng was not polite at all, and went back directly.

As a rancher, Jian Heng entered the role very quickly, and immediately turned himself into a prickly ball if he didn't speculate. Because Jian Heng understands that in such a tough country ranch, it is not enough for you to be polite, you have to be tough enough, in English it means to be a-tough-guy!

Only those who are tough, who are brave enough to protect their own interests, and who put their own interests first, can win the respect of ranchers and integrate into the circle of ranchers.

"If you don't sell it, forget it!" O'Brien shrugged his shoulders.

When O'Brien came here, he wanted to bully Jian Heng when he was young. What's more, he heard that Jian Heng was in financial difficulties. In his eyes, a young man who was in debt was like a fat sheep, and he was still an Asian descendants of fat sheep. O'Brien doesn't know Jian Heng very well. He used to look down on him, but now he despises him. However, O'Brien knows that generally speaking, first-generation Asian immigrants are a bit weak in character, and they spend more or less money to relieve disasters. , That's why I came to the door.

If old Anders was here, he wouldn't even think about it, let alone come to the door and say that if he wanted to do it, maybe old Anders would use a gun to drive people away.

Turning his head, O'Brien thought to himself: Asian fat sheep generally prefer to suffer a small loss rather than cause trouble. Why is this different?

"Ge-out-my-! (Get out of my place) Never-come-back! (Don't come back!)" Jian Heng threw a heavy sentence at O'Brien's back.

Waiting to see O'Brien get into the car and leave without a shadow, Jian Heng turned his head only to find that a group of people were all looking at him.

"What's the matter?" Jian Heng touched his face.

"Suddenly I feel like you have changed," Zhao Changshan said.

"This is not New York, here is the way of life here, okay, let's all work." Jian Heng seemed to change his face, and his expression instantly returned to the original smiling look.