Chapter 4

Jiang Yao remembered that when her grandmother was still alive, her grandfather was often pulled on the ear for secretly eating lard residue with rice. She had never understood what was so delicious about this greasy lard residue, but now she finally understood.

When eating, she poured a small spoonful of lard into the sweet potato porridge, and the taste was absolutely amazing. Of course, only those who have been completely hungry can understand this feeling.

Everyone looked at the lard residue in her bowl with envy, but today, thanks to her, everyone got a small piece of pig skin, which made them very satisfied.

Du Yuejiao also ate the pig skin, but she wanted to eat the lard more.

Everyone was eating happily when suddenly there was a bang of a door opening outside.

When Jiang Yao heard the voice, she looked up and saw Zhao Pengfei and Du Yuejia striding inside one after the other. His face looked very solemn.

"Where have you been?" Zhao Pengfei walked up to Jiang Yao, stretched out his hand and pulled her up.

Being pulled unexpectedly, some of the sweet potato porridge in Jiang Yao's bowl spilled out and spilled on her wrist. The freshly cooked sweet potato porridge was still steaming, and the skin that was splashed suddenly felt burning.

"You are sick!" Jiang Yao said angrily.

She took the bowl with her other hand, put it on the table next to her, and then shook off Zhao Pengfei's hand.

Her tone was full of disgust and her expression was full of unhappiness.

This kind of Jiang Yao is very unfamiliar to Zhao Pengfei. No matter how cold and arrogant she is to others, she is always sweet and well-behaved in front of him. Occasionally, she will show off her temper but it is just playful and cute.

"You disappeared early in the morning, causing everyone to look for you everywhere, and you still have a temper?" Zhao Pengfei said with a sullen face.

"I didn't ask you to look for me." Jiang Yao sneered, "Zhu Xia and the others care about me and are willing to run around for me. I am very grateful to them. As for you, if you don't want to go, don't go. Why are you throwing a tantrum at me here?"

"..." Zhao Pengfei felt like he was about to explode with anger, but every word Jiang Yao said made sense, and he had no way to refute her and could only hold it in.

"Okay, everyone stop arguing. Jiang Yao is fine now, which is more important than anything else." Zhu Xia is the head of the educated youth center and is considered the head of this big family. At this time, she must stand up and smooth things over.

Zhao Pengfei had a dark face and cursed Jiang Yao, "You have no conscience," before leaving. Du Yuejia hurriedly followed him.

After they left, Jiang Yao started eating with relish again.

Du Yuejiao hid in the corner silently, secretly observing Jiang Yao's every word and action.

Jiang Yao's attitude towards Zhao Pengfei was extremely bad, and it didn't seem like she was pretending. What happened to make a person change completely overnight? Could it be that she was rejected by Zhao Pengfei last night and was completely disappointed in him, turning from love to hate?

Du Yuejiao was really regretting it now. She had planned to get up after sleeping for an hour last night, but she was too tired and woke up at dawn. When she saw that Jiang Yao hadn't come back yet, she concluded that she must be in Zhao Pengfei's room, so she deliberately yelled that she hadn't come back all night, and said that Zhao Pengfei was her good friend and she had to notify him first.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived at Zhao Pengfei's home, they did not catch the adulterer in bed, only Zhao Pengfei who was soundly sleeping.

She must have a good talk with Jiang Yao and get things clear.

Jiang Yao also saw that Du Yuejiao wanted to talk to her alone, and this talk was inevitable, but she just wouldn't let her do it. She stayed with Zhu Xia for the whole day, asking her how to learn to write.

As a role model in learning, Zhu Xia was of course happy to discuss with her, and she also called two other female educated youth, Zhou Qiong and Wen Qian, to study together. She also wanted to ask Du Yuejiao to join, but she also saw that Jiang Yao didn't like Du Yuejiao today, so she didn't call her to avoid upsetting her.

The next day, everyone started working again.

Although the rush to harvest was very hard some time ago, the centimeters earned were also high. The next two months or so were the slack season for the production team. Not only was it tiring to work, but there was often not enough work to go around, and we had to take turns to work.

For the next two days, Jiang Yao was assigned to take care of the sugarcane fields, working from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., six and a half hours a day. Compared with her previous working hours of 996 and occasionally working all night, this was much more humane.

However, if she could choose, she would still choose 996. Her life in the summer depends on air conditioning. Without air conditioning, she would almost die after working for two days.

On the third day, it was finally her turn to take a day off, and that day happened to be market day in the county town.

Most of the people living in the county town are workers who eat commercial grain. They have no farmland and no self-sufficient agricultural products. Although the collective economy is now advocated, the vegetables and fruits grown by farmers in their private plots, as well as a small amount of poultry and eggs at home, are allowed to be exchanged for money on market days.

Jiang Yao planned to go out for a walk and get an on-site survey of the general environment of this era. It would be even better if she could buy something to improve the food.

She was so hungry that she didn't have enough to eat every day. When she thought about the food she had wasted in the past, she felt that it was a heinous sin.

After seven o'clock, she was the only one left at the educated youth point.

Finally having some private space, she immediately took out her small iron box to see how much wealth she had now.

After counting everything, she was still quite wealthy. Jiang Zhen gave her all the money her parents left behind, and her brother was single and unmarried, so he sent her 30 yuan and various coupons every month after he got his salary.

Although the original owner's quality of life was much better than that of other educated youth, she was not a particularly extravagant person. However, she had spent a lot of money and tickets on being a lickspittle for Zhao Pengfei before. Now her small treasury had a balance of 418.31 yuan and some tickets.

She took ten dollars, stuffed most of the tickets into her cross-body bag, hid the iron box, and only went out after everything was ready.

Pingshan Commune is right next to the county seat, and Qingyuan Production Team is right at the edge. It takes less than an hour to walk from the village to the county market.

She went out late, so the chances of being able to buy pork were low, but she still went to the supply and marketing cooperative to try her luck. If she could buy it, she would return a piece of pork to Lu Che, and if she couldn't, she would return him the equivalent of meat tickets and money.

Speaking of which, Lu Che is really quite righteous. He was born in a poor family and his life must have been difficult. After he bought her meat, he never asked her to pay it back. He is kind and righteous, but she must not be unrighteous.

When she arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, the meat was gone and only some offal was left. She thought the pig intestines looked good, so she bought them.

Sour cabbage and pork intestines is one of her grandfather’s favorite dishes, and she also learned to make this dish from her grandmother.

When her grandmother's health deteriorated, she was called back to learn how to cook whenever she had time. In her grandmother's words, "If you don't learn how to cook my specialty, who will cook for your grandfather when I'm gone? What if he's hungry?"

The fairy-tale love of her grandparents is what she longs for most in her life, so she never compromises, even when she became a "leftover fighter" at the age of 30, she never gave in.

Now that I’m back to the 1970s and there’s no takeout to order, I’m so glad I learned how to cook.

After buying the pig intestines, Jiang Yao bought some seasonings. When she was about to buy sauerkraut, the salesperson said, "We don't have any here. Go to the market and have a look. Many farmers are selling their own pickled sauerkraut today."

"OK, thanks."

The market is not far from the supply and marketing cooperative, just a five-minute walk away.

There were many farmers out at the market today, and the market was very lively. As Jiang Yao walked along, people kept shouting at her.

She looked around and inadvertently caught a glimpse of an acquaintance squatting in the corner.

"Lu Che, what a coincidence!" Jiang Yao walked over and smiled warmly.

Lu Che looked up, his face expressionless, he just said calmly: "Go quickly, it will be bad for you if others see you."

Jiang Yao knew that he felt inferior because of his background. Just as she was about to speak, a woman suddenly walked up to the stall and asked, "How much are these eggs?"

"The big ones are 1.5 cents each, and the small ones are 1 cent each." Lu Che was still squatting, his tone flat.

"It's too expensive. The big one is one cent, and the small one is eight cents. I'll take them all." The woman bargained with him. When Lu Che heard it, he just said, "No, this is the price."

“……”Brother, your service attitude really needs some training from Huazai.

Jiang Yao complained in her heart, but when she saw the woman was about to leave, she immediately pulled her back and said enthusiastically, "Aunt, you have a good eye. You know that the eggs laid by the chickens we raise in the countryside are particularly good."

The woman felt relieved after being praised, so she stopped and asked, "Are your eggs really that good?"

"Of course, our rural area is large, and the chickens are free to roam, so the eggs they lay are especially delicious." Jiang Yao continued to promote the idea seriously, "We set up a stall every time we go to market, so of course we hope to have repeat customers. I can guarantee that if you eat our eggs, you will definitely come to us next time. I see that you bought so much at one time, maybe someone in your family needs to replenish their body during the confinement period, so they must eat good food."

"You're right." The woman said with a smile, "My wife gave birth to a big fat boy two days ago, weighing nearly seven pounds!"

"Wow, you gave birth to a fat boy, you are so lucky, auntie." Jiang Yao couldn't stop flattering, and said: "But your wife is the most blessed. With such a good mother-in-law like you, she can buy eggs at a high price and good quality. It's very face-saving to tell others about it."

Jiang Yao's last boast really touched the woman's heart. She waved her hand and took away all of Lu Che's eggs, and also took away several pounds of vegetables.

"Auntie, thank you for your help!" Jiang Yao packed the things and handed them to the woman carefully.

The woman took it with a smile and said to Lu Che who was still in the background: "How can you make money without saying anything? Fortunately, you have a clever wife."

Lu Che & Jiang Yao: "..."

Without waiting for their explanation, the woman lowered her voice and said, "I see you are newly married and have not had a child yet. I have a secret recipe for giving birth to a boy. It is guaranteed to give birth to a boy. If you want it, I will bring it out to you next time I go to the market."