Chapter 22 Holiday

Since coming to Pengcheng for so long, Lin Qiu has been renting a house, running around between the nursery, the garment factory and the vegetable market, and is very busy. The last two holidays I had to stay in my rented house due to weather reasons. This time the weather is good, I want to take a good walk around the area.

After dinner, Zhang Guixiang arrived as promised.

She told Lin Qiu excitedly that a colleague she chatted with today introduced her to a street where clothes were extremely cheap.

Lin Qiu was also excited when he heard it, and they took Wang Shan and walked towards that street.

I saw someone selling bowl-shaped cakes on the road. The small bowls were filled with white, green and brown cakes, dotted with red beans, which looked very tempting.

Lin Qiu bought three and shared one with each of them. The bowl cake is soft and sticky, with red bean paste and very sweet.

Wang Shan was holding a bowl of cake and eating with a smile on her face.

"It's delicious, but it's too small. I finished it in two bites." Zhang Guixiang was still not satisfied.

Lin Qiu also felt that he had not tasted enough, but thinking that there must be other delicious food on the street ahead, he decisively chose to leave.

After walking around for a while and asking for directions, Lin Qiu and Zhang Guixiang finally found the street their colleague mentioned.

As soon as I arrived at the intersection, I could feel the bustling crowd.

The streets were lined with stalls, each of which was crowded with people. The vendors' cries and customers' bargaining could be heard one after another.

Lin Qiu subconsciously hugged Wang Shan tightly, and Zhang Guixiang also protected the mother and daughter. The three of them walked inside cautiously.

The clothes on this street are really cheap and come in a wide variety of styles and designs.

After a round of shopping, Zhang Guixiang saw a gray suit jacket she liked and started bargaining with the boss. After several rounds of negotiations, she finally got it at a very low price, which made her smile with joy.

Lin Qiu also bought a light blue dress, which was also very cheap.

When he arrived at the children's clothing area, Lin Qiu was dazzled by the dazzling array of children's clothing. She took a few pieces of clothing, felt the materials, and selected two for Wang Shan. After some price negotiations, Wang Shan got a baby doll collar dress and a round-neck cotton short-sleeved top with plaid overalls.

Beautiful clothes can always make women satisfied, and even Wang Shan, a little woman like her, is no exception. Her chubby face is filled with joy.

When I walked to the end of the street, I found that the flow of people had dropped sharply, and the stalls were deserted. Even the vendors were lying in rocking chairs, rocking around boredly.

It turned out to be selling men's clothing.

Zhang Guixiang pulled Lin Qiu towards the stall with great interest and picked up different styles of floral shirts to show them one by one.

Thinking about his performance over the past few months, Lin Qiu decided to reward him and started choosing as well.

Finally, Zhang Guixiang picked out a fashionable floral shirt for Brother Zhao, and Lin Qiu bought an ordinary T-shirt and a plain polo shirt.

This time, there was no need to even discuss the price. The boss directly gave an extremely low price, so low that both of them suspected that they had heard it wrong.

"Sister Lin, do you think he stole these clothes?"

Walking out of the street, Zhang Guixiang, holding their spoils, approached Lin Qiu and whispered, "Yours is one dollar a piece, and mine is two dollars a piece. Isn't he losing money by selling it so cheaply?"

"Who knows!" Lin Qiu also felt that the price was ridiculously low.

On the way back, Zhang Guixiang treated Lin Qiu and her daughter to water chestnut cake. The water chestnut cake had a sweet taste and melted in the mouth, but Zhang Guixiang and Lin Qiu both thought that the bowl-shaped cake tasted better. As for Wang Shan, she thought everything was delicious.

The three of them strolled around until it was time to prepare dinner.

This time, Lin Qiu insisted on inviting Zhang Guixiang and Zhao Dalong to dinner, and he had a very good reason.

"Brother Zhao and sister-in-law, you have been helping us since you came to Pengcheng. Both Wang Xiuren's work and my work cannot be separated from your help. You always declined when I invited you to dinner before, and you declined again this time. We are embarrassed to trouble you again in the future!"

Lin Qiu's barrage of comments left Zhang Guixiang unable to resist and she had no choice but to agree. She sighed to herself: I never knew that Sister Lin is such a good speaker!

After putting the things back into the rental house and settling Wang Shan down, Lin Qiu went straight to the vegetable market.

I bought a pound of pork belly at the pork stall, weighed three ribs, and asked the boss to chop them into pieces. I bought a sea bass at the seafood stall and asked the owner to prepare it for me. While waiting, I saw some fresh shrimps on the side, so I weighed another two kilograms.

There were people queuing up at the cooked food stall every day. When it was her turn, she ordered half a hand-shredded chicken, which the boss shredded quickly, added peanuts and mixed with sauce.

After thinking about it, I decided to add some soup, so I ran to the vegetable stall and bought a loofah, and added onions, ginger, garlic, and chili peppers, especially the chili peppers. People in Hunan province feel like they have lost their soul when cooking without chili peppers.

Passing by a fruit stall, I saw the beautiful yellow mangoes and picked out a few big ones to take home.

As soon as I got home, I started preparing dinner without stopping.

Hand-shredded chicken is the easiest, just pour it directly into the plate.

Zhang Guixiang went home and put her things away and came over to help.

The kitchen was too small for two people to work in it, so Lin Qiu gave her the onions, ginger, garlic and chilies and asked her to help remove the heads, tails and stems. Wang Shan also brought a small stool over to help peel the garlic.

Lin Qiu washed the rice and put the rice cooker on the gas stove to cook. At the same time, he sliced ​​the pork belly and put it on a plate for later use. Rinse the sea bass again, make a few cuts on the fish, sprinkle some salt on it and spread it evenly, then set it aside to marinate. Peel the loofah, slice it and put it in a bowl and soak it in water to prevent oxidation and blackening.

After Zhang Guiying had prepared the onions, ginger, garlic and peppers and brought them in, Lin Qiu rinsed them clean, picked up a knife, and started slicing them instead of shredding them, and stuffed the ginger and onion slices into the fish's belly.

When the rice is cooked, place the wok on the gas stove. Put the pot into cold water, add onion, ginger slices and cooking wine, and blanch the ribs. After blanching, put the ribs into the pressure cooker, add water, and stew over high heat. While the spare ribs were stewing, Lin Qiu skillfully removed the shrimp heads and pulled out the shrimp threads.

After the pressure cooker starts to steam, put it aside to cool down and start cooking dinner.

Put oil in a cold pan, bring to a boil, pour in the pork belly and stir-fry until the meat changes color, then serve. Pour in green peppers, add salt, and stir-fry until cooked. Then add the meat that was previously served and stir-fry evenly. Drizzle some soy sauce from the side of the pot, and a classic dish of stir-fried pork with peppers is ready.

Wash the pot, dry it, pour in oil, add onion, ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Then pour the ribs and soup in the pressure cooker into the pot. Cook over high heat until the sauce is reduced. Add green and red peppers when it is almost time to serve, then add soy sauce to color it. The braised ribs are ready.

If seafood is taken out of the pot too early, it will easily get cold and become fishy, ​​so Lin Qiu decided to make loofah and egg soup first. Heat oil in a pan, add the loofah and stir-fry until it becomes soft and releases water, add boiling water, simmer for three minutes, then open the lid and pour in the egg liquid. The sweet and refreshing loofah soup is ready.

As soon as Wang Xiuren entered the house, Lin Qiu instructed him to invite Brother Zhao. He ran out happily, and when he came back, in addition to bringing Brother Zhao, he also brought back two bottles of beer.

While he was hiring people, Lin Qiu prepared the blanched shrimps and a dipping sauce, and was now steaming the fish.

After Wang Xiuren came back, he placed the table in the middle of the room, put three chairs in place, and moved two small stools he had made from the door.

When Lin Qiu poured hot oil on the fish and drizzled it with light soy sauce, a sumptuous dinner was ready.

Faced with such a sumptuous dinner, Zhao Dalong and his wife started eating right away.

"Sister Lin, I didn't expect your cooking skills are so good! Compared to you, what I cook is like pig food!" Zhang Guixiang picked up a piece of pork ribs, took a light bite, and the meat and bones separated.

Lin Qiu said modestly: "How can you be so exaggerated, sister-in-law! I hope you don't mind it!"

Zhao Dalong ate a piece of stir-fried pork with green pepper and took a sip of beer. "This pepper is really tasty!"

"Eat more vegetables and less rice!" Wang Xiuren said, "Come on, Brother Zhao, let's have a toast to thank you and your sister-in-law for taking care of my husband and me!"

The two cups clinked lightly together.

Zhao Dalong took a big sip, picked up the peanuts from the hand-torn chicken and chewed them slowly, "Little sister Wang Lin, why are you guys being so polite? We are all from the same hometown, and it is only natural for us to help each other when we are away from home!"

"Brother Zhao, if it weren't for you, my cousin and I would have been like two headless flies, running around everywhere, and we wouldn't have the good life we ​​have now!" Wang Xiuren poured himself another glass, "Without saying anything more, I accept you as my big brother!"

"Okay! I also accept you as my brother!" Zhao Dalong readily agreed, "Come on, let's have another one!"

Zhao Dalong and Wang Xiuren were drinking and talking about interesting things on the construction site. Lin Qiu was eating with Zhang Guixiang and gossiping. He took care of Wang Shan from time to time. Wang Shan was enjoying the pork ribs and shrimps. Occasionally, she was fed some fish. The whole table of people ate until the moon was above the willows and Wang Shan fell asleep.

Migration in life is full of the flavor of life. How lucky it is to meet fellow villagers who are compatible with you even though you are far away from home! From now on, we can share joy, understand each other's cold and warmth, share the vastness of the world, and spend the long days and months together.