Chapter 7 Who will come home at dinner time?
She knew who was calling.
This phone call was just the beginning of her resentment towards Zhao Fengnian.
She quietly tidied up the room and the yard. She could see that someone next door had probably just started cooking, and a very strong smell of oil came over.
This seems to be called rapeseed oil, and it has a very overbearing smell. The tenants next door are said to be from Sichuan and Chongqing, and the dishes they cook have a strong smell. Once a jar of kimchi broke, and the smell seemed to linger for more than ten days.
Stimulated by the smell, she remembered a delicious Sichuan dish, boiled fish.
The thing that is most abundant here is fish. Shiqiao Town has a river, there are large fish farmers, and it is also close to the sea, so it is easy to get seafood.
She also wanted to eat it.
Let’s buy some fish and make it tomorrow.
But at this time, you can buy meat that is not bad and cheap.
She went out for a while and actually used two-thirds of the money to buy some spare ribs. She went home to make soup. She washed and peeled the white radish, cut it into irregular pieces in her hands, and cooked it with the spare ribs. She also fried garlic oil for later use.
As soon as the lid was closed, there was movement outside the door.
There was a sudden noise outside the house, as if someone was propping up the door, unable to go in or out.
This is obviously not Zhao Fengnian's style.
Shi Qingqing's heart skipped a beat, wondering if it was Zhou Bin who came looking for her.
Otherwise, who would go to someone else's house at dinner time?
She immediately rushed to the chopping board, picked up the knife and held it in her hand, only then did she feel safe.
She had done such things in her dreams.
In the dream, during the seventeen months that Zhao Fengnian was in prison, she lived alone in a rental house as a woman, and it was not the first time that she faced trouble.
"Qing, haven't you eaten yet at this time? Are you cutting vegetables?" The person who came was not Zhou Bin, but her sister Shi Caihong.
Shi Caihong is six years older than Shi Qingqing and is smart and capable.
The Shi family had no male heirs, so when Shi Caihong came of age, she figured out one thing: to find a son-in-law to live with her, so that all four rooms in the house would be hers.
She actually did so.
By chance, Shi Qingqing was able to study until the first grade of junior high school. She was bound by some rigid principles and was also young, so she could not compete with her elder sister at all.
Shi Caihong had a birthmark on her face and was full of hostility towards her younger sister who was always praised for her good looks. Not only did she want to snatch the family's house, she was even wary of her old mother asking her to subsidize her younger sister who could only rent a house after getting married.
She went to the market to buy something and heard a few idlers squatting on the roadside discussing that her sister was crazy and fighting with a man. Before she could smile, she heard the butcher say that her sister actually bought meat! She also bought ribs!
Shi Caihong came over on purpose. Her sister was thin-skinned and could take the meat in her hand back to eat with just a few words.
Wouldn’t that save money?
Besides, I bought the meat myself, and I can get some benefits from my mother.
Just like last time, I said I would buy wool for my sister before she agreed to help me crochet shoes. Didn’t I give her money to buy wool?
It's not a big deal that she's pretty, but she's still a fool and has to suffer by marrying a man from another place.
Shi Qingqing put down the kitchen knife in her hand and replied indifferently, "Zhao Fengnian is injured. I'll make some soup for him to nourish him."
"What kind of soup is this?" Shi Caihong was clumsy and directly lifted the pot.
Because the two were a little far apart, when Shi Qingqing arrived, Shi Caihong had already opened the pot. "Oh, it's pork ribs again. Find a basin to put some in so I can take some back to mom."
Shi Qingqing put the lid back on the pot. "I told you, Zhao Fengnian is injured so he needs to drink the soup to replenish himself. Mom wants to eat some. You and I can each pay for one pound of soup, which will be enough for her."
Shi Caihong thought she might be hallucinating.
She refused? ?
"You, you don't even give your own mother a few bites of meat? Don't forget that you were born by her! She even favors you to study..."
"That's enough. If you want to show extra respect to Mom, you can either give her an extra 3,600 yuan, or split the extra meal with me. I'll go back with you and watch Mom finish her meal. Don't mention anything else."
Shi Qingqing's tough reply made Shi Caihong angry and embarrassed. She raised her foot and was about to kick the coal stove: "How dare you talk to me like that! I'm your sister!"
"Sister is here?" Zhao Fengnian strode back, with a smile and expectation on his face. "Aren't you going to sit down and talk?"
Shi Caihong's eyes stayed on Zhao Fengnian's face for two seconds, and then darkened. "Why are you sitting here? You really taught your wife a bad lesson. Now she doesn't even respect her own mother. She treats a piece of meat like a treasure."
"Ah? Meat?" Zhao Fengnian then noticed the half-open pot. The boiling broth inside was already emitting a fragrant aroma, but he had just come back from outside so he didn't notice it at first.
My daughter-in-law particularly likes ginger slices when stewing soup, but she doesn't like other spices. It is her habit to soak the rice in water to make blood water and then stew the soup with ginger slices.
The soup stewed in this way is clear and delicious, with a mellow taste and a subtle hint of spiciness. Drinking a few bowls is not enough.
"Mom, do you want some? Then take some away." Zhao Fengnian looked at his wife ingratiatingly.
He has decided that he will help less on his side and help more to his wife's family in the future.
Shi Qingqing had a stern face, looked at the smile on Zhao Fengnian's face, and closed her eyes: "There is not much money left at home, and this meat was stewed for you because you were injured. If you want to give it to me, then give it to me. There is no next meal."
Zhao Fengnian choked up and looked back at his sister-in-law who was about to find some cloth to wrap the edge of the pot. "Well, my mother-in-law wants to eat meat, so I'll send it to her house tomorrow. Forget about this bowl.
Oh, by the way, my brother-in-law didn’t return the money he spent on cigarettes last time, so I’ll just use it to buy a few pounds of meat. Please, sister, stew it for my mother-in-law.”
Shi Qingqing, who was originally still angry, couldn't help but burst out laughing.
My sister and her brother-in-law are a perfect match. To give back the advantage they took is like cutting off one's own flesh.
As for the money for cigarettes, the other party had long since given up on paying it back, so Zhao Fengnian's words made him feel justified and he did a favor.
Shi Qingqing was now interested in looking at her sister's expression.
Sure enough, Shi Caihong held her breath, her chest rising and falling, and after a while she bit her cheek and said, "What money for cigarettes? I don't know about your men's affairs. If you don't want to give it to me, forget it."
Obviously, this is a denial.
However, Shi Caihong did not continue to dwell on this pot of soup. She snorted coldly and left, muttering something on the way.
Zhao Fengnian looked back at his wife's face and said, "I love this soup. We will drink it together and not give it to anyone else."
Shi Qingqing was in a good mood when she saw that Zhao Fengnian was able to defeat that man who came from an abacus background, so she just nodded.
But bad things happened in the next second.
Zhao Fengnian said excitedly that his eldest brother and his family were coming to the village to find a school for their children, and his younger sister was also coming to work. His second brother-in-law had also contacted the construction team here and was ready to join the team:
"They prepared light cakes, smoked goose, sour jujube cakes and bean curd cakes for us. I asked them to bring a bag of taro. I tell you, if you boil the taro in water, the skin will fall off if you press it while it's hot.
It is so delicious when eaten directly, and it is also delicious when made into moldy taro. Oh, I am drooling just by talking about it. "
Shi Qingqing's eyebrows and eyes were indifferent, and she seemed to be in a low mood.
Zhao Fengnian looked at her face and frowned slightly.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
