Chapter 143: House Deed "Third Brother, try this Eight Treasure Duck...
"Third brother, try it quickly and see if this Eight Treasure Duck tastes like what you like."
He Zhijun enthusiastically picked up a piece of duck meat for Xu Hui.
"Thank you, Sister Zhijun." Xu Hui picked up the duck meat and brought it to his mouth to taste it. He almost burst into tears when he tasted the familiar flavor again.
"What's wrong? Is it not tasty?" He Zhijun said, quickly picking up a piece of meat and tasting it himself. "It still tastes the same."
Xu Hui shook his head: "It's delicious, very delicious."
"I just thought of my mother."
He Zhijun then remembered that this dish was actually a specialty of her husband's stepmother, Wang Mei, Xu Hui's mother. She was a beautiful and gentle woman with excellent cooking skills. Whenever she made this dish, the boys in the family would scramble for it.
The He family and the Ji family have a good relationship, and He Zhijun often comes to the Ji family for meals.
Seeing that she liked this dish, Aunt Wang taught her. It's no secret that He Zhijun is quite talented in cooking. After just a few attempts, she's already replicated Wang Mei's cooking skills by 70% to 80%.
"If it tastes good, eat more and see if my Eight Treasure Duck has captured the essence of Aunt Wang's." He Zhijun said, and used the serving chopsticks to pick up another piece of duck meat for him and Xu Heye.
"Try the lotus leaf too."
"Good." Xu Heye ate the duck meat, chewing it with big mouthfuls, then gave He Zhijun a thumbs-up. "The duck meat is tender and smooth, without any fishy smell. Second aunt's cooking skills are really good."
"Haha." He Zhijun smiled so much that lines appeared on the corners of his eyes. He even picked up several pieces of meat for Xu Heye.
"Thank you, Auntie. Don't just pick some for me. You and Uncle should eat some too."
"Eat them all." He Zhijun looked at Xu Heye and liked her very much. She only had two sons, and she just needed a pretty, smart and lovely girl like this.
After lunch, Ji Weimin and Xu Hui went to the study on the second floor to talk. Entering the study, Ji Weimin opened a drawer and took out a stack of letters.
The envelopes have turned yellow, which shows that these letters are quite old.
Ji Weimin placed the letter in front of Xu Hui and said, "Third brother, these are the letters that were returned over the years. I have kept them all."
Xu Hui took the letters and read them one by one. The dates of posting were all ten years ago. Most of them were written by his stepfather and second brother, with occasional letters from his eldest brother and the fourth and fifth brothers.
Xu Hui looked at these yellowed and old envelopes, his eyes gradually became moist. He blinked, opened the envelopes and read them one by one.
Xu Hui read very slowly, and after an hour, he finished reading the last letter.
This is a suicide letter.
It was a letter my stepfather sent before he died.
Xu Hui put down the letter, blinked his red eyes, and looked at Ji Weimin: "Second brother, father still remembers me."
When Xu Hui knew that his father was still thinking about him before his death, the resentment deep in his heart dissipated.
Know that you are not an abandoned child.
That's enough.
"That's good." Ji Weimin's eyes also turned red.
He took out another letter and placed it in front of Xu Hui, "Third brother, this is what my father asked me to give you."
"What is this?" Xu Hui took the envelope and opened it. Inside was a house deed with his name written on it.
Xu Hui's first reaction was to refuse: "I don't want it."
Xu Hui knew full well that his mother had no property in her name. After his biological father passed away, the family's property compensation had been snatched away by his grandparents and uncles.
When he went to the countryside, his mother regretted it and said she shouldn't have remarried. But Xu Hui knew that if his mother hadn't taken him with her when she remarried, perhaps neither he nor she would have lived to see him grow up.
The relatives on his biological father's side were like jackals. Without the protection of the Ji family, they would not be able to keep the job promised to him by the factory.
Ji Weimin: "Why not?"
"After my father was rehabilitated, the family property that had been confiscated was returned. Not all of it, but most of it. Of the five of us brothers, this house is what my father said he would leave to you."
Xu Hui: "But these are all the ancestral property of the Ji family. My surname is Xu, and I can't accept them." No matter how shameless he is, he would not covet the Ji family's property.
Ji Weimin was angry: "What do you mean your last name is Xu? This is the Ji family's ancestral property, and you can't take it? Could it be that you are not your father's son? Or do you still hate your father and are unwilling to forgive us?"
Ji Weimin said, with a hint of sarcasm on his face: "It's normal for you to hold a grudge."
"What happened back then was because we were not upright and acted biasedly." It is also ironic that the father forced his stepson in order to keep all his sons in the city, but in the end none of them stayed.
Xu Hui shook his head: "Second brother, you know that's not what I meant."
"If that's not your intention, why don't you accept it?" Ji Weimin said firmly, "Third brother, if you still recognize me as your second brother and your father as your father, then accept it."
Xu Hui put the letter back into the envelope and pushed it in front of Ji Weimin, "Brother, I really can't accept it."
"I don't hate my father, really. But this house is too valuable. I can't accept it."
Ji Weimin looked at him, and Xu Hui also looked at him. Both brothers were stubborn. After a long while, Ji Weimin was defeated.
"Okay, if you don't want this property, then you should at least accept this one." Ji Weimin said, and took out another property certificate and placed it in front of Xu Hui.
"This is..." Xu Hui looked at the property information with surprise on his face.
Ji Weimin nodded: "Yes, this is the room where your biological father was kidnapped."
"After father was rehabilitated, most of the family property that had been confiscated was returned. The real estate was also returned. Father originally wanted to give you one of those properties, but he was afraid he wouldn't accept it. So he found a way to get the house back that was in your biological father's name."
"Second brother, I—"
"Don't think too much." Ji Weimin patted Xu Hui's shoulder and said seriously, "Keep it. Let me make it clear. This is your father's compensation to you. Third brother, don't let the old man be unable to close his eyes in the underground."
"Okay." This time Xu Hui finally agreed.
Xu Hui looked at the house deed with mixed feelings.
He inevitably thought of a year ago, when he and his wife were still busy with the settlement of Heye, and he also thought how great it would be if his father's house had not been stolen.
Now He Ye has settled down in the Dong family and bought them a property to live on. The house that was once robbed has returned to his hands after many twists and turns.
In the living room, He Zhijun was also asking about Xu Heye and Xu Hui's situation over the years.
"Things have been pretty good these past few years," Xu Heye said. "At first, farming in the brigade was very hard, but then Mom seized the opportunity to become the brigade's head woman, and later she joined the Women's Federation. Dad took the college entrance examination in 1977 and successfully got into university. After graduation, he returned to our county high school and became a math teacher and homeroom teacher."
"That's good." He Zhijun felt a little comforted.
As long as Xu Hui is doing well, Old Ji won't feel so guilty.
Xu Heye: "Dad is amazing. This year, several of his seniors from the graduating class who took the college entrance exam were admitted to their ideal universities. One of them even got into Hucheng."
"So powerful?"
"Yes." Xu Heye respected her father very much. "He really likes being a teacher."
"A few years ago, my father was seconded to our county's Education Bureau to help out. After the secondment period ended, the Education Bureau's leaders invited my father to stay, but he declined. He still prefers interacting with students."
He Zhijun was a little surprised: "That's quite a coincidence."
"Um?"
"Your second uncle was also a teacher.
At the end of 1978, we were rehabilitated, and your second uncle's original salary was restored. He continued to teach physics at the middle school affiliated with the No. 10 Iron and Steel Plant. He taught for three years and was then seconded to our district education bureau.
Unlike your father, he chose to stay in the District Education Bureau after his secondment period ended, and has been working there ever since."
"My second uncle is also very capable." In less than ten years, he became the director of the admissions office.
Thinking of something, Xu Heye asked again, "Second Aunt, you just said that Second Uncle used to be a teacher at the Middle School Affiliated to the Tenth Steel Plant?"
"Yes." He Zhijun nodded.
Xu Heye: "What a coincidence, Second Aunt, I used to study at the High School Affiliated to the Tenth Steel Plant."
"It's really a coincidence." He Zhijun couldn't help but sigh at the coincidence when he thought of the reunion of the two brothers.
If it weren't for the fact that Mr. Ji valued talent and didn't reject his niece outright when she came to his house to apply for a certificate of loss, Xu Hui and his daughter wouldn't have come to thank him, and the brothers wouldn't have been reunited.
Thinking of her father's behavior during the meal, Xu Heye said a little embarrassedly, "Second Aunt, can you teach me how to make the Eight Treasure Duck that we had for lunch?"
Xu Heye wanted to give it a try and make it for Xu Hui after she learned how to cook it.
Dong Taohua used to make Eight Treasure Duck back home, but she didn't know how her grandmother made it, and she couldn't quite get it to taste the way her grandmother did, no matter how many times she tried. While it wasn't bad, it didn't taste like the way her father remembered it.
"Sure." He Zhijun agreed readily. "I learned this dish from your grandmother. Teaching it to you now can be considered a legacy."
He Zhijun took a pen and paper and quickly wrote down the steps.
Eight Treasure Duck is a classic Hucheng specialty, with duck as the main ingredient and a variety of side dishes including fresh bamboo shoots, meat, ham, chestnuts, chicken gizzards, mushrooms, lotus seeds, dried shrimps, and glutinous rice.
Wash the tender duck, blanch it in water and set aside, then spread soy sauce on the duck body and marinate.
Cut the rest of the ingredients into small pieces, add Shaoxing wine, sugar, soy sauce and MSG to season, stir into stuffing, stuff into the duck's belly, place the duck with its back facing up on a plate, and steam in a steamer for three or four hours, until the duck meat is tender and crispy.
The last step is to make the sauce. Add lard to a hot pan, fry the shrimp until cooked, remove them, leave the bottom oil, add bamboo shoots and mushrooms, add soy sauce for color and seasoning, pour in the original juice of the steamed duck, bring to a boil, add shrimp and cooked green beans, and thicken with starch.
The cooked sauce is thick and delicious. Pour the sauce over the duck and the dish is ready.
This is a very elegant and luxurious dish.
So for ordinary people, it is not easy to make such a dish. It is unknown how much time it will take just to gather the ingredients for this dish.
Especially during the planned economy era, when fish, meat, vegetables, and even rice, flour, grain and oil were all in limited supply.
So Wang Mei made a low-end version, with not so many complete fillings. The most important thing is that the duck she used was not a fresh and tender duck, but a pickled and dried duck.
After being marinated and sun-dried, the cured duck meat becomes firm and has a unique cured flavor. Even after being blanched and steamed, the cured duck meat will not be as tender and boneless as freshly slaughtered tender duck, but will taste more chewy.
Later, she remarried into the Ji family with her son. The Ji family was better off than before, but Wang Mei was still used to the previous method and made this dish with cured duck.
It’s not that Wang Mei’s recipe tastes better, it’s just that it’s his mother’s recipe. For Xu Hui, it has the flavor of his mother hidden in it.
Xu Heye carefully folded the recipe and put it in her pocket. Although she had read it once and memorized the general instructions, there were still many details that needed to be explored in practice.
At this time, Xu Hui and Ji Weimin also came down from the study.
Xu Hui quickly said goodbye.
Ji Weimin had to go to work in the afternoon, so He Zhijun was alone at home. Although his daughter was there, it was still not appropriate for him, a stepbrother from another family, to be in the same room with his sister-in-law.
Ji Weimin did not try to keep him.
My niece is already in Hucheng, and the house my father gave to the third brother has also been given to him. The third brother and his wife will definitely return to Hucheng in the future, so there will be no shortage of opportunities for reunion.
The couple walked the father and daughter to the door together.
"Third brother, bring your younger brother and sister-in-law back home for dinner as a family of three."
"Don't worry." Xu Hui turned around and waved, and Xu Heye also waved to his second aunt.
She looked at the bags in her hands and was very fond of her second aunt whom she had just met. She decided to send money to her mother when she got home so that she could buy some special products from Gan Province and send them to her second aunt.
The economy of Gan Province is not as developed as that of Hucheng, but for many good things, the best and most authentic ones can only be bought at the place of origin.
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