Chapter 16 Treating My Warm and Kind Aunt and Her Family
Sunday came in the blink of an eye.
During this period, a single-day-off system was implemented, and schools and factories were only closed on weekends.
She had to invite her uncle and aunt's family to dinner at noon, so she didn't have to go to class. After a simple meal of noodles in the morning, Xu Heye went to the nearby vegetable market with her mother.
It's April now, and many vegetables haven't come into the market yet. The only vegetables that are more common on the market are potatoes, lettuce, radish, greens, cabbage, and spinach.
Dong Taohua bought some of everything. Except for spinach, these vegetables are relatively durable. If they can't finish them at noon, they can save them for the mother and daughter to eat later.
After buying vegetables, the two went to buy some meat.
Take three pounds of pork belly and use it to make braised pork for lunch. Take two pounds of spare ribs and make sweet and sour spare ribs. Take a piece of pork liver and cook it with spinach to make soup.
Buy two pounds of lamb and stew it with radishes. Also get some beef for braised beef in soy sauce. The market even has live chickens, so I'll buy one and make some soup. Later, I can shred the chicken and stir-fry it for shredded chicken. Finally, buy a fish, and we're done.
After buying some more seasonings like onions, ginger, garlic, dried chilies, cinnamon, and star anise, the mother and daughter prepared to go home. When they reached the market entrance, they saw someone else buying pickled mustard greens, so Dong Taohua ordered two more.
Back home, Dong Taohua lit the coal stove to boil water for slaughtering the chicken, while Xu Heye picked up a basin and began washing vegetables. She picked up a broken tile and began peeling potatoes.
After peeling the potatoes, he started shouting, "Mom, do you want to cut the potatoes into cubes or shreds?"
"Chop it into pieces and cook it with the braised pork later." Dong Taohua pinched the chicken's neck with one hand and held the kitchen knife with the other. With a scream, the chicken's neck was severed. Chicken blood spurted out. "He Ye, get a bowl for the chicken blood." She had just bought some pickled cabbage and could make a pickled cabbage chicken blood dish later.
"Okay." Xu Heye put down the broken tiles and potatoes in her hands, went into the house and got a deep blue and white porcelain bowl for soup.
This soup bowl was borrowed from Mrs. Lian.
Many of the dishes were borrowed from neighbors.
Because they were hosting a dinner party at home and didn't have enough bowls and chopsticks, Dong Taohua took some peach cakes and went to other people's houses in the compound last night, borrowing a bunch of things. She even borrowed two coal stoves.
Xu Heye handed the deep bowl to her mother and went back to chopping her potatoes. Three large potatoes, each the size of an adult's palm, were chopped into pieces in a few clicks.
After soaking the cut potatoes in salt water to prevent them from discoloring, she peeled the lettuce.
"Mom, should we shred or slice the lettuce?"
"Shredded."
Two stalks of lettuce were used to cut a large bowl of shredded lettuce.
On the other side, the water on the coal stove was boiling. Dong Taohua scooped up half a bucket of boiling water and stuffed the whole chicken in. The chicken feathers scalded by the boiling water soon emitted a not particularly pleasant smell.
After she finished scalding one side, she quickly switched to the other side until the chicken feathers were scalded. Then she took out the whole chicken and plucked the feathers while it was still hot.
At this moment, a middle-aged woman with a face similar to Dong Taohua stood at the gate of the compound where they lived, her hands full of things. Dong Xinghua looked at the gate and said to her husband, "Pang Li, take a look, is this the compound that my elder sister is talking about?"
There was a red door, a copper ring with bat-shaped patterns, and a sickly little mulberry tree at the entrance. Pang Li nodded, "Yes, this is it."
"Okay, go in." Dong Xinghua walked in first, followed by her daughter Pang Qiao, and then Pang Li who was holding his youngest son.
The family of four entered the compound, walked around the piles of debris, and soon saw the mother and daughter washing things by the well.
"Big sister." Dong Xinghua shouted excitedly. Even though they hadn't seen each other for five years, she recognized Dong Taohua at a glance.
"Xinghua." Dong Taohua was also very excited, and then greeted her brother-in-law Pang Li, "Lizi."
"Big sister." Pang Li also shouted.
Dong Taohua's eyes fell on Pang Wei, who was being held by Pang Li, and she sighed, "Is this Xiao Wei? The last time I saw him, he was just born and still a tiny little ball. Now he's grown so big."
Dong Xinghua said, "Five years have passed, haven't you grown up?"
Then he told his children: "Qiaoqiao, Xiaowei, call me Auntie."
"Auntie." The two children said in unison.
Pang Wei was a little shy, looking at Dong Taohua with a strange and curious look. So this is what the auntie my mother often talked about looks like. She looks a bit like my mother.
Pang Qiao's shouts were enthusiastic. Influenced by her mother, she had a fondness for this aunt she rarely saw. Besides, during Chinese New Year, her family had eaten the bacon, dried beans, and dried bamboo shoots that her aunt had sent them.
Unlike my uncle's house, I can only see him when I ask my mother for cloth or other things. At other times, he is either busy or not at home. If I want to ask him for help, I can never find him.
"Qiaoqiao has grown up and become a big girl." Dong Taohua wanted to reach out and touch Qiaoqiao's hair, but then she remembered that she had just killed a chicken and washed meat, and her hands were numb from the oil, so she withdrew her hand.
"Yes, Auntie, I've grown up." Pang Qiao responded with a smile, then turned her gaze to the girl next to Auntie who looked 50% like her, "Cousin He Ye?"
"Cousin Qiaoqiao." Xu Heye also responded with a smile. She was no stranger to Pang Qiao. In her previous life, she had just eaten hot pot with Pang Qiao before her rebirth.
The two girls are of similar age and look like their mother. Standing together, they look like real sisters.
Dong Xinghua's gaze fell on Xu Heye again, her eyes filled with excitement: "Is this Heye?"
This was the first time she met Xu Heye.
When her eldest sister gave birth, she was pregnant with Qiaoqiao and was not feeling well, so she was unable to visit her and her niece.
Later, when Qiaoqiao grew up a little, she planned to go to Gan Province to visit her sister, her brother-in-law and niece whom she had never met before. However, her mother-in-law happened to be ill.
Later, my mother-in-law passed away, then Dong's father fell ill, then my father-in-law fell ill, and then I became pregnant with my youngest son, so I never got to go.
On the contrary, when she gave birth to her youngest son, her eldest sister specially brought a lot of things and traveled thousands of miles to Hucheng to visit her.
"Yes, aunt, I'm Xu Heye." This was the first time the aunt had seen her, but it wasn't the first time she had seen the aunt. After her mother passed away in her previous life, her aunt and uncle had taken good care of her, and even her cousins cared about her the same way.
"Uncle, cousin." Xu Heye then greeted her uncle Pang Li and her younger cousin Pang Wei.
"Okay." Pang Wei liked the quiet Xu Heye very much. She looked similar to his daughter. Standing there quietly, she looked like a quiet version of Pang Qiao.
Pang Li put his youngest son down, took out a red envelope from his coat pocket, and stuffed it into Xu Heye's hand, "It's a meeting gift, take it quickly."
"Thank you, uncle." Xu Heye accepted the red envelope without hesitation. In their previous life, when they first met, her uncle also gave her a red envelope.
The two sides exchanged information about their recent situation. Dong Taohua asked her daughter to take her sister and her family back to the house to sit for a while while she went to wash the vegetables.
Seeing this, Dong Xinghua handed the gifts she brought to her husband and rolled up her sleeves to help.
"You take the two children inside, I'll help my eldest sister wash the vegetables."
Dong Taohua refused, and Dong Xinghua became unhappy.
"Big sister, do you really think I'm a guest and I just sit there with my mouth open waiting to eat?"
Dong Taohua: "..." "Okay, okay, okay, I've only heard of lazy people, but I've never seen anyone rushing to work." Dong Taohua said, picking up a radish and stuffing it into Dong Xinghua's hand, "Wash the radish, cut it into pieces, and stew it with the beef later."
Originally, the radish was going to be stewed with the mutton, but Dong Taohua changed her mind at the last minute and planned to make braised beef with radish and slice the mutton to make stir-fried mutton with green onions.
The two sisters were having a great time, chatting and laughing while preparing various ingredients.
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