That evening, Li Xiyue cooked the fish that Chen Meifang had brought. Chu Xun had brought a live duck, and Li Xiyue decided to keep it for two days before putting it in a cage in the backyard.

Braised fish, eggplant with minced meat, and a lotus root and pork bone soup.

Li Xiyue asked in confusion, "Don't you need proof to buy bones?"

In those days, pork bones were quite hard to buy. If a patient had a broken or fractured bone, the doctor would issue a certificate stating that they needed bones to supplement their nutrition before they could buy them.

There were two women with broken bones at the educated youth settlement, but they didn't have money to buy bones. Li Xiyue was planning to use their certificates to buy bones in town to make soup, but she was too busy lately and didn't have time.

Just as I was about to eat, Chu Xun brought bones.

"I had someone buy it for me, so I don't need any proof," Chu Xun replied while serving her soup.

Li Xiyue sighed inwardly, thinking how good it was to have privileges. She took the soup, drank a sip, and found it incredibly delicious.

"What does it smell like?" Zhu Jianhua sniffed and seemed to smell meat.

Zhou Yunze also smelled it, "It's the aroma of fish and bone broth."

“It came from next door,” Wang Jiaxing said.

Li Xiyue used to eat meat every day. When they were with her, they could eat meat every day too. But now that she has moved away, they eat meat less often.

However, he and Huang Xinrui roasted some cured meat themselves, so they could still eat it if they wanted, it's just that these few pieces weren't available.

Looking at the food on the table, which wasn't a speck of oil, Zhu Jianhua lost his appetite even more. "When are we going to eat meat?"

The three catties of wild boar meat we were allocated last time were eaten up in seven or eight days, and we haven't eaten meat for almost ten days. Our stomachs are really dry, and we don't have the strength to work.

"Where did the meat come from?" Huang Xinrui asked.

Zhu Jianhua pointed to the cured meat hanging on the stove, "Isn't that there?"

"That belongs to me and Wang Zhiqing, not to you. What are you thinking?" Huang Xinrui rolled her eyes at him.

Wang Jiaxing also said, "If you want to eat, you can bring something or money to exchange for it."

"Where would we get the money?" Zhu Jianhua said irritably.

If they had money and possessions, would they come to this godforsaken place?

"Shut up if you don't have money." Huang Xinrui wasn't going to put up with him at all. "You can't just eat and drink for free, can you?"

Zhu Jianhua was about to speak when Zhou Yunze stopped him, saying, "Wang and Huang are right, there's no such thing as eating for nothing."

Xu Shanshan nodded in agreement.

Li Muqing also wanted to eat meat, but she didn't have much money on her and was reluctant to spend it. No matter how much she wanted to eat it, she could only endure it and remained silent.

Her face had been treated with medicine and the swelling had gone down a bit, but the wound was still red.

Huang Xinrui didn't say anything more. Zhou Yunze and Xu Shanshan were nice people, unlike those three, who were poor, incompetent, and troublesome.

"I want to eat meat! I want to eat meat!" Just as things calmed down, Zhou Yutong's noisy voice came from inside the house again.

Zhou Yunze had just taken a couple of bites of rice when he put down his bowl and went inside to comfort his younger sister.

"I don't care, why can Li Xiyue eat meat every meal, but I can't? What's wrong with me compared to her?" Zhou Yutong was going crazy; she couldn't take this miserable life anymore.

Huang Xinrui laughed in anger, "Yueyue knows medicine and can earn money to support herself. What can you do? You just lie around in the house pretending to be sick all day and still want to eat meat. You're dreaming!"

"You surnamed Huang, I'm going to beat you to death!" Zhou Yutong rushed out like a madwoman, but was pulled back by Zhou Yunze.

After a commotion inside, Zhou Yunze came out with his face swollen, clearly having been beaten by Zhou Yutong.

Wang Jiaxing fetched a bucket of water from the well, soaked a cloth in it, and applied it to Zhou Zhiqing's face. He sighed and said, "Zhou Zhiqing, look at you. I think my life is pretty good."

How did he feel that his life was so hard before? He was alone here, and although he was having a tough time, at least he didn't have such a troublesome younger sister.

If he were like Zhou Yunze, he would definitely go crazy.

Zhou Yunze's eyes reddened, and after a long pause, he said, "She wasn't like this before..."