Chapter 40 Tea Eggs

Dinner tonight is late.

At 7:30, Lin Qiu came out of the vegetable market carrying a sea bass, a handful of green vegetables and a few eggs. Passing by the seasoning stall, he bought some spices such as star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, peppercorns, and cardamom.

When they got home, Wang Xiuren had already cooked the rice, and Wang Shan was lying on the sofa playing with her rabbit doll.

Lin Qiu quickly prepared the fish, and as soon as the water in the pot boiled, he put the fish in and started steaming it. As soon as the rice is cooked, stir-fry the green vegetables.

"Wash your hands and eat!"

When the sea bass was steamed, Lin Qiu shouted to the living room, then quickly boiled the oil, poured it on the fish, and then drizzled it with light soy sauce.

Wang Xiuren helped Wang Shan wash her hands, then served the rice and brought the chopsticks to the table.

Lin Qiu put the eggs in the pot and put them on the fire to cook, then brought the fish and vegetables to the table, and the family started eating immediately.

Wang Shan must be hungry, as she stuffed rice into her mouth in big mouthfuls.

"Shanshan, eat more fish. Eating fish will make you smart!" Lin Qiu put the meat from the fish belly into Wang Shan's bowl. Sea bass basically has no small bones, so there is no need to worry about her getting choked by the bones.

Wang Shan obediently stuffed the fish into her mouth, chewing it with big mouthfuls, enjoying it very much.

Seeing that she was eating with relish, Lin Qiu felt particularly satisfied.

The three people implemented the "Clean Plate" campaign thoroughly. After dinner, Wang Xiuren took the initiative to wash the dishes.

Lin Qiu used a spoon to crack the boiled eggs. The cracks on the egg whites would allow the marinade to penetrate and the egg yolks would also be flavored.

Put the spices you bought, along with the rock sugar, red pepper, and black tea you have at home, into the pot, pour in a little salt, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce, then add clean water, put in the eggs, and cook on low heat for twenty minutes.

Then the family sat on the sofa, staring at the wallet on the coffee table.

Lin Qiu excitedly poured the money in his bag onto the coffee table, and banknotes and coins of various denominations piled on the sofa.

"Let's click and see together!" Lin Qiu took the lead in pulling out the banknotes with larger denominations.

Wang Xiuren picked up a pile of small-denomination banknotes and stacked them together according to their face values.

Wang Shan picked out the coins and put them together.

After all the money was counted, Lin Qiu and Wang Xiuren looked at each other in surprise and were speechless for a long time.

"The total is 323.64 yuan!" Lin Qiu swallowed his saliva, "After deducting the cost, we made almost 70 yuan!"

Wang Xiuren was so shocked by this number that he couldn't close his mouth. It took him a long time to speak: "More than seventy? Did we count correctly?"

Lin Qiu said nothing, and counted again, his throat a little dry and itchy, "Yes, that's a lot!"

"Then...then are we going to get rich?" Wang Xiuren stuttered, with a frightening light in his eyes.

"Where have we got to now?"

Lin Qiu forced himself to calm down. "This is only the first day. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I should be able to make more money than the garment factory!"

Wang Xiuren gradually calmed down. "This makes more money than I can earn from hammering nails in a day, and it doesn't take much effort. It's really a good way! The landlord is a kind person!"

"Yeah, otherwise how could we have such a good living!" Lin Qiu also sighed.

"I think the feng shui of Pengcheng is good for our family! First it was Brother Zhao and Sister-in-law Guixiang, then Brother Man, and now it's the landlord's family. We have met noble people along the way. We couldn't even imagine the life and business we have now a year ago!" The more Wang Xiuren thought about it, the more he felt that coming to Pengcheng was the right decision.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qiu rolled his eyes at him and said, "Who didn't want to come to Pengcheng in the first place?"

"Isn't this coming after all?"

Lin Qiu looked at Wang Xiuren's embarrassed and angry expression and was about to laugh at him when he suddenly smelled the aroma of burnt tea leaves.

"Oh, my pot of tea eggs may have burned dry!"

After saying that, he quickly ran into the kitchen, turned off the fire, lifted the lid of the pot, and a rich aroma filled the air.

Judging from the hot steam, the water in the pot was almost boiled dry.

Wang Shan, the greedy little cat, smelled the fragrance and ran in, dragging her slippers. "Mom, what delicious food did you cook? It smells so good!"

After saying this, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in ecstasy.

"Look at how greedy you are!" Lin Qiu gently tapped her daughter's nose with her index finger. "Mom is cooking tea eggs. When they are cool, you can help mom taste them and see if they are delicious."

"It must be delicious! It smells so good!" Wang Shan opened her eyes and said to Lin Qiu seriously.

"This smell is not bad to me!" Wang Xiuren stood at the kitchen door without knowing when.

"I'll serve the eggs, you two go wait outside!"

Lin Qiu sent the father and daughter out, then put two tea eggs on a plate and brought it to the coffee table.

The shells of the two tea eggs in the porcelain plate had turned light brown, with tiny cracks distributed unevenly on them. After peeling off the shell, the light brown egg white is covered with beautiful textures and looks attractive.

Take a light bite, it is elastic, delicious and chewy. The egg yolk is soft and delicious, while the egg white becomes tender and smooth after being marinated. The light tea fragrance and salty aroma blend together, adding an indescribable taste that is endlessly memorable.

"How about the tea eggs I made?" Lin Qiu asked, deliberately staring into Wang Xiuren's eyes.

"So delicious!" Wang Shan couldn't wait to express her opinion while holding a tea egg in her mouth, "The tea eggs made by my mother are the best!"

"Shanshan is right, the tea eggs made by your mother are really delicious!" Wang Xiuren lowered his eyelids to avoid Lin Qiu's gaze and followed his daughter's words.

"How about I put a pot of tea eggs in front of the newsstand and sell them every day?"

“I think so!”

"Then I have to buy a coal stove and a pot tomorrow!" Lin Qiu added, "And eggs too. I wonder if it would be cheaper if I buy more at once?"

"Leave all these things to me. I'll find time to buy everything tomorrow!" Wang Xiuren tried to lighten Lin Qiu's burden. He couldn't let everything fall on her shoulders.

"Okay, that saves me a lot of trouble!" Seeing that Wang Xiuren was willing to take the initiative to share the burden, Lin Qiu was so happy that he readily agreed.

"From now on, it will be like this. At 6:30, the postman will deliver the daily newspapers and supplementary magazines, so we will set off for the commercial street around 6 o'clock, and then I will stay until 8 o'clock to send Shanshan to the nursery and then take the bus to work." Wang Xiuren recalled the scene this morning and thought about planning his future time.

"In the afternoon, I will try to get off work early to pick up Shanshan. Then I will decide whether to come here or go directly to the market to buy vegetables and cook."

There was nothing wrong with Wang Xiuren's plan. Lin Qiu had no objection and agreed directly. After thinking for a while, he added, "This way, you will have to work harder!"

"What's the big deal?" Wang Xiuren waved his hand and said, "We're all family, why are we being so polite?"

Yes, we are all family!

All for this family!