Chapter 30

At noon the next day after receiving the invitation, Du Yuejiao invited everyone to dinner in the old granary.

In addition to inviting all the educated youth, she also called Lu Dazhou, the village party secretary Lu Caigui and several village cadres over.

She made a big fuss beforehand, and said that she wanted to thank everyone for their help during her time in the countryside. Her sincerity made the villagers who were not invited drool.

But the fact is that although she was going to marry the director of the Revolutionary Committee, she did not treat him like his fiancée at the dinner, but rather like a poor distant relative of the director.

The rice was so delicious that you could hardly see any white rice. The key point was that they didn't even bother to put sweet potatoes in. As for the dishes, don't hold out hope. They were real dishes, all vegetables. They didn't even bother to buy some offal for everyone to eat.

There were thirteen educated youths plus a few cadres, a total of twenty people. This little food was not enough for ten people. The food at the tea party was more presentable than hers.

Even though Du Yuejiao is getting married now, Zhu Xia and the others don't have a good impression of her because she seduced her sister's boyfriend. But if someone invites them to dinner, they won't eat for free, so they prepare the meal tickets in advance.

But when they looked at the table full of green food and exchanged glances silently, no one was willing to put their hands into their pockets.

Jiang Yao came here just to go through the motions and had no intention of taking advantage.

Lu Che now has more side jobs, and with the increased income he is willing to spend money on his wife. Plus he has a bicycle, so he goes to the county town every now and then to get some meat, pork offal, etc. to add to the dishes.

Before Jiang Yao went out, she had eaten a full bowl of braised pork trotters and white rice. Now that her stomach was full, she had no interest in the vegetables that had turned yellow due to lack of oil.

Everyone ate with a tasteless taste, but had to put on a smile in the face of Du Yuejiao's "enthusiastic" hospitality.

Besides Jiang Yao, Zhao Pengfei couldn't eat these "pig food" either. He put down his bowl and chopsticks and whispered to Du Yuejia, "Don't eat this. Let's go back and make egg rice."

Although his voice was low, the Du sisters, who were acting out their deep sisterly love in front of the leader tonight, were sitting next to each other, and Du Yuejiao heard every word Zhao Pengfei said.

She was filled with hatred. Not only had this man betrayed her deep love, but now that she was about to get married, he couldn't even look at her in a positive light.

She was so angry that she started bragging about her fiancé. Some people were dismissive while others were stunned.

After listening for a long time, Zhao Pengfei finally couldn't listen any more. Of course, he was also very hungry and wanted to go back to cook. He stood up and said, "I was delayed this morning and came to work late. I still have a lot of work to do. I have to go to work early this afternoon. Everyone, take your time to eat. Yuejia and I will leave first."

As he said this, he pulled Du Yuejia up and left the old granary in full view of everyone.

With Zhao Pengfei taking the lead, others also began to leave one after another, using the excuse of going back to take a nap, but in fact they wanted to go back to cook. After a tiring morning, they had to continue working in the afternoon. Regardless of what to eat, they had to be full before continuing.

Du Yuejiao hadn't finished showing off yet when the audience wanted to leave. She definitely wouldn't agree and tried to persuade them to stay several times, but they still insisted on going back.

Of course Jiang Yao would not stay either. She left with Zhu Xia and the others, and only returned to the Lu family alone when they reached the fork in the road.

Although it is early autumn now, the sun is still very strong at one or two o'clock. Even though Jiang Yao wears a hat and a long-sleeved thin shirt, she still feels hot and can't help but speed up her pace.

She had only taken a few steps when she heard footsteps approaching from behind, getting faster and closer.

She turned her head and saw that it was Du Yuejiao. She looked aggressive and it was obvious that she was not just passing by, but was looking for trouble.

As expected, Du Yuejiao walked up to her and said angrily, "Jiang Yao, you are married to a peasant, what qualifications do you have to act pretentiously in front of me? You didn't even eat a single piece of my food, and it's this second-rate guy who feeds you meat every day that makes you so crazy?"

"My Lu Che is not capable of making me eat meat every day, but I can have some meat every day. I have never lacked cheap things like eggs and pork offal. If I don't eat your food, isn't it a good way to save you some money?" Jiang Yao sneered.

"Save some money?" Du Yuejiao seemed to have heard something ridiculous. She put her hands on her hips and said, "I'm going to marry the director of the Revolutionary Committee. Do I need you to save money?"

Jiang Yao raised her lips slightly and said sarcastically, "Then let me ask you, the wife of the director of the Revolutionary Committee, you treated everyone to a meal that was not enough to eat. Does your director of the Revolutionary Committee know about this? Doesn't he feel particularly ashamed?"

"You..." Du Yuejia pointed her index finger at Jiang Yao, who glanced at her with contempt, "Why? You want to hit me? My family's peasant knows that I was invited out today by you. If I make any mistakes, who do you think he will find to settle the score? You should have heard that he is very cruel. If your face is ruined for no reason, do you think the director will still marry you?"

Du Yuejiao was afraid to do that, but she was still so angry that she gnashed her teeth, "Jiang Yao, I wonder how long you can be so arrogant? If you marry a peasant, you will stay in the countryside for the rest of your life. I'm different. I plan to be a city dweller again, and my man will arrange a job for me in the city. Anyway, in the end, I'm the winner."

"Of course you win!" Jiang Yao rarely disagreed with Du Yuejiao. She was not used to it and was speechless for a long time before she stiffened her neck and said proudly, "You will never be able to catch up with my future realm no matter what you do."

"Of course I can't catch up with your realm." Jiang Yao emphasized the word "realm", which sounded very meaningful.

Du Yuejiao felt something was wrong and asked, "You...what do you mean?"

"That's what it means." Jiang Yao chuckled. "I heard that your director is about the same age as your father, so he must be in his forties at least. Although life in the city is more comfortable than in the countryside, he is probably gray-haired, wrinkled, and his muscles are sagging. Also, he is in a high position, so he must eat well and have a big belly. I don't think you are capable of chewing such a greasy uncle."

At this point, Du Yuejiao would be stupid if she couldn't hear her sarcasm. But before she could refute, Jiang Yao continued, "I am... really superficial. Everyone says that my family is well-off and marrying Lu Che is a loss, but so what? Who made my Lu Che handsome and good-looking? I am so fascinated by him."

"You know what? I hold him in my arms when I sleep at night. It feels so good... Never mind. I can't explain it to you. After all, you are going to sleep with an old, wrinkled thing in your arms."

"Jiang Yao, you..." Du Yuejiao was so angry that her face turned red. She couldn't refute Jiang Yao and could only scold: "You are a woman, but you are so shameless."

"How am I shameless? You are so powerful. When you go to work in the afternoon, go to the women in the production team and tell them that they are shameless."

After Jiang Yaoli finished speaking, she kindly reminded him, "As a married person, I am telling you that you should be mentally prepared... At your age, it is probably difficult for your director to give you the ultimate happiness of married life. But this is not all bad, at least you are relaxed. Look at me, my Lu Che is young, and I often don't get enough sleep and I am very tired!"

Looking at Du Yuejiao's face that turned red and then white, and then white and then red again, Jiang Yao turned around and went home proudly with the attitude of a winner.

But as soon as she turned the corner, she was startled to see a big guy standing against the wall.

"You... why are you... here?" Jiang Yao looked at Lu Che's half-smiley face and suddenly felt very uneasy.

How long has this guy been squatting here? Did he listen to what she said to Du Yuejiao?

Jiang Yao didn't need to wonder for too long, because Lu Che had already given her a clear answer. He leaned close to her ear and said, "Wife, it turns out that you like the extreme pleasure I give you so much... It turns out that you usually look disgusted, but you mean one thing and say another."

His words were enough to make Jiang Yao blush, and when he deliberately blew in her ear, she suddenly felt as if her whole body was on fire. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to be burned to ashes and disappear on the spot.

This time, Jiang Yao showed off in front of Du Yuejiao, but was caught by Lu Che. It really was a loss for Jiang Yao this time.

At night, she was really tired and wanted to sleep, but someone told her to be casual and to just say it boldly if she wanted something. He did this twice before letting her go.

On the day Du Yuejiao returned to the city, many villagers and educated youth saw her off to the village entrance, whether sincerely or insincerely.

However, Jiang Yao did not go because it was market day, and she and Lu Che went out before dawn.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, Jiang Yao did not make jelly to sell this time, but she made nearly a hundred tea eggs.

Of course, these tea eggs are not all produced by his family, because Lu Che is now particularly willing to give them to his family. The eggs at home are consumed very quickly. Even if there is an egg subsidy for repairing tractors sometimes, it is still not enough.

Most of these raw eggs were obtained by Lu Che from special channels.

In addition, Jiang Yao also made a hundred red bean snow skin mooncakes. As for vegetables, in addition to the regular leafy vegetables, Lu Che also picked ten kilograms of tomatoes.

"Wife, are we still setting up the stall in front of the theater today?" Lu Che asked, driving the ox cart in front.

"No." Jiang Yao said, "Let's go to the market on the other side and set up the stall near the intersection with the machinery factory."

"The location over there is a bit remote. Will the business be not that good?" Lu Che asked.

"No." Jiang Yao said, "If we go there now, we can catch up with the peak time for the workers in the machinery factory. Didn't you say that the machinery factory doesn't provide breakfast? We can sell tea eggs and snow skin moon cakes as breakfast. Of course, if we can't sell out by then, we can go to the theater in the afternoon. By then, many people will have sold out and gone home, so there will definitely be vacancies."

"Okay, let's go to the machinery factory and set it up."

They went early, and there was no one competing for the stall near the machinery factory, so no one had any objection to them lining up today's goods.

After setting up the stall, we welcomed the first batch of customers of the day.

Today's tea eggs are all about the same size, and Jiang Yao sells them for three cents each. For a worker in a machinery factory who earns twenty or thirty yuan a month, this is considered a small amount of money, and those who don't have breakfast are willing to buy one or two fragrant tea eggs.

In addition to the machinery factory, there is also a flour factory and a bamboo factory nearby. Although the efficiency of their factory cannot make up for that of the machinery factory, they have money and are willing to spend even a penny.

The tea eggs sold out quickly, but the snow skin mooncakes, which were only priced at eight cents each, discouraged many people from buying them.

"Would you like to take a snow skin mooncake? It's filled with red beans and tastes really good." Lu Che packed two tea eggs for the man and persevered in selling snow skin mooncakes.

At first, some people refused, until a worker from a machinery factory found that the snowy mooncakes were exactly the same as the ones given out during the factory celebration last time. He asked, "Why are your snowy mooncakes so similar to the ones our factory gave out last time?"

Of course, Lu Che couldn't say that he supplied that stuff, so he just said, "I don't know what the mooncakes your factory sends out look like, but this kind of mooncake is very popular in the provincial capital recently. My wife came from the provincial capital, and this mooncake was made by her."

Jiang Yao quickly replied, "I learned how to make it from a dim sum chef at a state-owned restaurant in the provincial capital. The taste is definitely not worse than the ones your factory makes. If you like them, then take two and let the children have a taste."

"Then I want five." A worker at the machinery factory said proudly. He really wanted to buy them for his children.

"Okay, I'll pack it for you right away." Jiang Yao was busy packing, and she didn't forget to promote her own tomatoes, "Comrade, look at our tomatoes, they are also very beautiful. People in the provincial capital love to eat them now."

A worker at the machinery factory looked at the bright red fruits and thought they were beautiful, but he had never tasted them, so he was skeptical, “Does this thing called tomato really taste good?”

"It's really delicious." Jiang Yao handed the packed mooncakes to a worker in the machinery factory. The next moment, she took out the lunch box in the bamboo basket, opened it, handed it to the worker, and said, "This is tomato scrambled eggs made with tomatoes. It tastes sour and sweet and is very good. Children will definitely love it."

Jiang Yao made this tomato scrambled eggs this morning. It was her and Lu Che's lunch, and she also provided some for customers to try.

After saying that, she took out a bowl and a spoon, scooped a spoonful of scrambled eggs and tomatoes from the lunch box into the bowl, handed it to the worker, and said, "Try it."

"This... isn't good." Tomatoes and eggs are both tempting to eat, but it would be bad if I don't buy them later.

"It's okay." Jiang Yao said with a smile: "If you think it tastes good, you can consider buying some. If you don't like it, don't buy it. You bought tea eggs and mooncakes from me, so consider this tomato scrambled eggs as a gift from me to you."

Having said this, the worker didn't hesitate to take the bowl and spoon and started eating.

Suddenly, the whole mouth was filled with sour and sweet taste. The fried eggs were tender and the smooth texture was so addictive that I wanted to eat the second bite after the first one.

"Is it delicious?" Jiang Yao asked with a smile, full of confidence.

"It's delicious." The worker asked in surprise and delight: "How much is this tomato per pound?"

"One cent and two cents." Jiang Yao replied.

"What, 1.2 cents?" The worker's eyes widened in shock. The other two or three customers in front of the stall were also surprised and shouted, "1.2 cents can buy two taels of meat, and vegetables are only two or three cents a pound. You're trying to rob us with 1.2 cents!"

Jiang Yao had expected everyone's reaction. She said calmly, "Look at this box of fried tomato and eggs. I used one pound of tomatoes and three eggs, which cost 1.5 cents in total. If I used it to buy meat, it would be at most three ounces, and I would need meat coupons. Each person in the family would get a piece of meat that is thinner than paper. It would be better to have a full plate of fried tomato and eggs so that everyone can enjoy it."

After Jiang Yao said this, the tomato that cost 2 cents suddenly became not expensive.

A worker from the machinery factory tried the tomatoes and thought they were delicious, so he gritted his teeth and ordered a pound of tomatoes. Others followed suit, some bought them after trying them, and some were reluctant to spend the money.

There were no customers in front of the stall until eight o'clock in the morning.

Seeing that no one was around, Lu Che immediately asked Jiang Yao, "Wife, how come you are so amazing that you can sell tomatoes at 1.2 cents per pound?"

Jiang Yao smiled mysteriously and said, "Actually, I'm just planning to wait for Director Fang to jump!"

Lu Che: "What do you mean?"

Jiang Yao: "Tomatoes at 8 cents a pound are simply sky-high prices for Director Fang, who is used to vegetables at 2 cents or even lower. But today we sold tomatoes to workers in the machinery factory at 1.2 cents, and they spread the word. When we sold it to Director Fang at 8 cents, he not only accepted it, but also thought it was a good deal."

After listening to this, Lu Che suddenly realized something and gave Jiang Yao a thumbs up, "Wife, you are really smart."

"I'm just being clever." Jiang Yao was so modest that she didn't forget to praise her man. "You still have to grasp the overall situation. I don't think things are that thoughtful."

"Wife, how can I be as capable as you say?" Lu Che, who was praised, scratched his hair shyly and said, "Wife, as long as we are united, our lives will definitely get better and better."

Jiang Yao: "That's a must."

After the peak sales period in the morning, the workers who bought tomatoes went back to their respective factories to promote the products, and the stall welcomed another peak of traffic at noon. By the afternoon, the tomatoes and mooncakes were sold out, and there were not many vegetables and tea eggs left.

Lu Che went to the theater to take a look and found that there was already a vacant seat, so he and Jiang Yao moved their stall over there. After working hard for another two hours, they packed up and went home.

Lu Che was driving the ox cart in the front, while Jiang Yao was calculating today's earnings at the back, earning about ten yuan.

Although it’s not as good as selling jelly, it’s not as hard as selling jelly this time, so it’s pretty good.

The next night, Jiang Yao asked Lu Che to go to a nearby fish pond to see if he could catch any fish.

In fact, this fish pond was the one she jumped into on the first day she came here. The fish raised by the production team were not here. No one took care of it, and there were basically only wild fish. The fish that could be caught were very small. Occasionally, if she was lucky, she would catch a big one, but it would not exceed one pound.

Lu Che was busy in the water for nearly an hour and only caught seven or eight small fish as thick as two fingers.

"Forget it, come up." Jiang Yao squatted by the river, and when he came up, she said, "These few small fish are enough."

Lu Che: "With just these few little pieces, the soup wouldn't even be sweet."

"I'm not making soup, come up quickly. It's windy, let's go home quickly, otherwise we'll catch a cold." As she said that, she stretched out her hand to him.

He seized her hand and suddenly pulled her forward, but halfway through he pushed her back.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Yao was confused by his action.

Lu Che climbed out of the water and said, "I wanted to relive the feeling of hugging you in the water that day, but the weather is cold now and I'm afraid you'll be cold."

"..." It would have been better if he hadn't said it. Once he said it, Jiang Yao couldn't help but look at his current appearance. No one knew better than her how good the figure behind the wet clothes was, and how irresistible the touch was.

The temperature on her face gradually rose. She glared at him, said "Go back quickly", and ran away.

Lu Che looked at her angry face and thought it was so adorable. He picked up the bucket and followed her slowly.

The next day, Jiang Yao got up early because Lu Che was going to see Director Fang to sell tomatoes.

In order to let Director Fang truly experience the deliciousness of the tomato, she decided to make two dishes for him to try, one was the most common tomato scrambled eggs, and the other was tomato fish.

The fish for the tomato fish is the small fish that Lu Che caught last night. First, fry them in oil until both sides are golden brown, then take them out and set aside. Then pour the tomatoes into the pan and stir-fry. When the tomatoes are cooked and the juice is released, pour the small fish in. Cook for a few minutes and it is ready to be served.

After Jiang Yao packed the two dishes, Lu Che took them and rode his bicycle to the machinery factory.

Lu Che is very confident in Jiang Yao's cooking skills. Director Fang was very satisfied after tasting it. He said, "Yesterday I heard a few co-workers say that they bought tomatoes at the market and went home to make tomato scrambled eggs. It tasted very good. If we can have it in our canteen, everyone will be very happy. How many tomatoes can you provide?"

Lu Che said: "About 30 kilograms at a time, and we can ship out goods every four or five days."

"30 kilograms at a time, plus eggs, it's enough for a meal in the cafeteria." Director Fang said, "How much is this per kilogram?"

Lu Che said: "Eight points."

Director Fang heard that it was one third cheaper than the 1.2 cents the worker had asked for. This was not the first time he had worked with Lu Che, and he knew that he was honest, so he did not bargain and said, "Then you can send 30 kilograms tomorrow. I'll see how the workers respond. If it's good, I'll place an order later."

"Okay, I'll deliver it on time." Lu Che was already very happy inside, but he managed to suppress it on his face. He thanked the director before going home.

The next day, Lu Che got up at four in the morning to pick tomatoes. When Jiang Yao woke up, he had already delivered the tomatoes and gave her two yuan and forty cents.

"Great!" Jiang Yao put the money into the tin can and smiled with satisfaction, "Cheche, you are awesome!"

"You're great." Lu Che said, "You came up with the idea, and I just did the hard work."

"Without your connections, I wouldn't be able to sell my tomatoes." Jiang Yao said, "I'll ride my bike to the county town to buy some meat to celebrate our successful shipment."

"No need." Lu Che said, "I went to the alley and bought half a pound of meat, and then went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy two large bones and a large piece of pig liver. How about we eat meat buns and bone and pig liver porridge today?"

"Of course, no problem." Jiang Yao met Boss Lu's request and said, "You'll have something to eat when you get home from work."

After Lu Che went to work, Jiang Yao went to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients. But as soon as she picked up the pork, the fishy smell made her stomach churn, and the next moment, she couldn't help but dry heaving.

Lu Qing saw this scene as soon as she walked into the kitchen. She blurted out, "Yaoyao, are you pregnant?"

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Lu Che: Is the ultimate happiness going to be gone?