Seeing her return, Lin Chacha called out to her, "Sister, the beef and offal are all cut up, but the chicken and duck haven't been touched."
"Don't touch the chicken, duck, or goose. We're making poached chicken and poached duck. The whole goose will be roasted, and the pig's stomach and the young hen will also be stewed whole. The rest can be chopped after washing." Lin Xiazhu walked over with a smile.
Lin Chacha is quite talented at cooking; she can tell what her sister wants to make just by looking at the ingredients.
"Sister, why aren't there any preserved mustard greens and pork belly? And no braised pork either?" Lin Chacha pouted, not happy. Preserved mustard greens with braised pork belly and braised pork with tofu were her favorite dishes, how could they not be there?
"Yes, I'm sure you won't feel bad about it. It's in the fridge, you can make it yourself." Lin Chacha loves to eat and is happy to cook, so Lin Xiazhu always lets her cook it herself.
“My taste is the same as Cha Cha’s; I love both of these dishes too,” Zhang Yu chuckled.
"You like to eat this, but can you cook it?" Lin Chacha glanced at him.
"I can make it, but it doesn't taste as good as yours. If you don't mind, I can make it for you," Zhang Yu admitted honestly.
Xiao An was carefully washing the pig's stomach and the baby hen at the sink. He was always like this, meticulous in everything he did, and disliked any imperfections.
"Hey, I've noticed that when Xiao An washes the ingredients, he only washes the ones Xiao Zhu likes. Xiao Zhu likes to eat stewed pork tripe with young hen, so he washes those two things, and also beef and stuff..." Zhang Yu seemed to have discovered something and started to tease.
Lin Xiazhu rubbed her ears and clicked her tongue. "Come on, I think you're asking for trouble. Since you love to cause trouble so much, I'll grant your wish. Let's go outside and have a fight. I'll beat you to a pulp."
As she spoke, she was about to come over and grab him. Although Zhang Yu was already 1.8 meters tall, fifteen-year-old Lin Xiazhu was not short either, standing at 1.66 meters. Although she was shorter, her strength was overwhelming, and she still easily defeated the former.
Wow, Zhang Yu's expression immediately changed. Although Lin Xiazhu hadn't made a move in the past few years, Zhang Yu still remembered the first time they met. Lin Xiazhu was only eight years old that year, and he and his seven brothers were all beaten by her while they were submerged in the water.
After coming to the county town to study, Lin Xiazhu appeared to be more and more refined and well-behaved, but those who knew her well knew that it was all an illusion.
Thirteen-year-old Lin Chacha can carry 200 pounds of cement upstairs at the construction site with ease. Although I have never seen the two sisters compete, Lin Chacha always says something to Zhang Yu and others who admire her.
"That's nothing. When my sister was eight years old, she could carry a wild boar weighing over 300 pounds. I'm not bragging, but now my sister can probably lift a stone weighing a thousand pounds."
Although Zhang Yu felt that Lin Chacha was exaggerating without thinking, he still believed that Lin Xiazhu could at least lift a 500-pound stone.
"Xiaozhu, don't be angry. Listen to me, I was just joking. You're not going to take it seriously, are you?" Zhang Yu dodged left and right, not wanting to be caught by Lin Xiazhu.
Lin Xiazhu didn't chase after him. She just stood there watching him jump around. When he got tired of it, she suddenly smiled, took a step forward, grabbed him with both hands, and lifted him above her head. The whole process was smooth and natural, without any pressure.
Then Lin Xiazhu lifted Zhang Yu up like a weightlifter and rushed out the back door, as if she was going to throw him out like a ball.
"Ahhh..." Zhang Yu screamed in terror.
"Xiao, Xiaozhu, what happened?" The owner of the shoe store next door had just stepped out of the back door when she saw this scene, and was so shocked that she couldn't speak coherently.
To avoid startling others, Lin Xiazhu calmly put Zhang Yu down, and when she saw him sway, she lifted him up slightly.
"Aunt Liu, it's nothing. My friend and I were just joking around, having a strength contest. This kid was laughing at girls for not being as strong as boys, so I just wanted to show him." She made up an excuse on the spot.
Aunt Liu swallowed hard, nodded stiffly, and said, "Oh, I see. You guys have fun." Then she went back inside.
"No, no, I never thought that way. Whoever says women are inferior to men, I'll fight them to the death!" Zhang Yu sobbed, her face contorted with grief.
It's so embarrassing! A grown man weighing 150 pounds being lifted by a little girl weighing less than 100 pounds—what a miserable situation!
Then, he realized that Xiao An was ignoring him too. From the time he returned to the kitchen until it was time to eat, Xiao An didn't say a word to him, and she didn't even look at him.
When they sat down at the table, Xiao An sat next to Lin Xiazhu, and Zhang Yu sat next to Xiao An. When Xiao An saw him sit over, he got up and went to sit on the other side of Lin Xiazhu.
"Xiao An, I want to sit here." Lin Chacha went to get a juice and came back, but the seat was already taken.
"Sit over there," Xiao An said, pointing to the spot where he had just been sitting.
Lin Chacha: "..." She knew that Xiao An insisted on sitting next to her sister during meals, but when did they start to have different directions?
Is there any difference between left and right? It's not like building a house requires considering feng shui, where sitting south and facing north is unsuitable, and sitting north and facing south is appropriate.
Although she really wanted to complain, Lin Chacha magnanimously kept quiet in the end.
Almost everyone had taken their seats, but Zhao Ting took two bowls and started picking up food, preparing to go outside to eat while keeping an eye on the shop.
"Close the shop. It's fine to rest for one night. We won't do business tonight," Lin Xiazhu announced.
She and Yan Xin split the clothing store's income 50/50. She rarely managed the store's affairs; Yan Xin handled most of them. However, she still had a lot of say in the business.
"I just told her to close the shop, but she insisted that business was good today and she didn't need to close it," Yan Xin said with a smile, sounding annoyed.
“Sometimes I wonder, Zhao Ting is supposed to help me with the shop, but why does she seem to listen to you more?” This was said to Lin Xiazhu.
"Aunt Zhao, what do you mean by 'yours' and 'mine'? Aren't you family? Why are you talking like two different people?" Zhang Yu looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"My mom sometimes has seizures here, so just listen to what she says, don't take it too seriously." Lin Chacha whispered to Zhang Yu, pointing to her head.
“She looks perfectly normal, not like she has a mental problem.” Zhang Yu was conflicted. Everyone thought Zhao Xiaolian was normal, but her female followers insisted that she was mentally unstable.
“She just has occasional bouts of erratic behavior, but most of the time she’s normal. If my mom were really that bad, my sister would have sent her to a mental hospital long ago.” Lin Chacha said seriously, without a hint of joking.
After Lin Xiazhu spoke, Zhao Ting went to close the shop. Clearly, Lin Xiazhu's words carried more weight, and Zhao Xiaolian was not a very reliable person in Zhao Ting's mind.
The main reason was that Yan Xin brought it on herself. When there were only the two of them in the shop and no other customers, Yan Xin would suddenly let out a wail and say things like, "I'm so unlucky, I can't go home."
One minute she says she misses her parents, the next she says she doesn't know if she's doing well, and she really wants to go home.
"Boss lady, do you want to go back to Linjia Village or back to town?" Zhao Ting asked cautiously, feeling that the boss lady had gone mad.
"Did I say anything? You misheard me. I didn't say anything. Don't make things up." Yan Xin snapped out of her daze and glared at her. Damn it, she forgot that Zhao Ting was right next to her.
Zhao Ting: "..." She was increasingly certain that the boss's wife had something wrong with her head.
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