Xu Qingzhi took the last dish of Chinese cabbage out of the pot, washed the pot and put it aside, picked up the stove lid on the ground and covered the hole under the stove, leaving a slight gap, not covering it completely. If it was covered completely, the fire would be extinguished, and the fire would have to be re-ignited the next day. Leaving a gap would allow it to continue being used. When it was time to use it the next day, he used tongs to pick out a row of three honeycomb coals, removed the burnt one in the middle and put it back, and added a new one on the top so it could be used for another day.
Her family used to use this old-style stove, so Xu Qingzhi felt very familiar with it.
Xu Qingzhi cooked a total of five dishes in the evening, a pot of home-cooked fried chicken, a bowl of bok choy, a bowl of boiled tofu, a bowl of stir-fried lettuce, and a pot of tomato scrambled egg soup.
The dishes were placed on a tall square wooden table. The chicken was the main dish placed in the middle, surrounded by vegetables and soup. Wang Yanmei served herself the rice and picked up the chopsticks.
The old man often eats alone, but he feels so happy every time someone eats with him.
The last time someone had dinner with him was on his birthday, and the whole family was having a great time.
He happily came out carrying a bucket of medicinal wine, "Fuqiang, would you like to have some wine?"
"Okay, Dad." Xu Fuqiang nodded.
Xu Dongru poured two glasses of wine, one for him and one for his son.
Almost every household in the village has this kind of medicinal wine. Beer and white wine are not very popular. They only drink a little when the young people come back home during the Chinese New Year.
Generally, the medicinal wine in the house is placed casually by the wall, so Xu Qingzhi often saw medicinal wine when he visited other people's houses. The medicinal materials used for soaking are different, but most of them are soaked ginseng.
When she was a child, she had seen a family making snake wine. After the family finished drinking the wine, they threw the snake into the river, but the snake was not thrown into the river and got hung on a branch by the river.
Xu Qingzhi happened to be passing by the bridge and saw it, so he deliberately took his friends to see it in order to scare them that there was a snake.
Thinking of this, Xu Qingzhi felt that he was quite bad when he was a child...
After Xu Dongru started eating with his chopsticks, Wang Yanmei looked at the dish, which looked normal, but her heart was still beating fast. She stretched out her chopsticks to pick up the lettuce, took a bite, and her eyes immediately lit up.
"Well, Qingzhi, the lettuce you fried is neither too soft nor too hard, and the taste is just right. Although it looks very simple to fry lettuce, if you want to make it delicious, you have to control the heat. If it is too soft, it will not be crispy. If it is fried for a short time, it will be too hard and have a raw taste. When did you learn to cook and how well you cook?" Wang Yanmei looked surprised and picked up another piece of lettuce with chopsticks.
Xu Qingzhi smiled and said, "I just learned it in the state capital some time ago."
"Well, this chicken is delicious too. Yanmei, try it. It's better than your fried one." Xu Fuqiang said, and then picked a piece of tender meat with few bones and put it in his father's bowl, "Dad, you should eat more chicken. Qingzhi was afraid that you couldn't chew it, so he stewed it for a while."
Wang Yanmei also picked up a piece of chicken and ate it with relish.
"Well, yours is much more delicious than mine. The chicken tastes just right with the right amount of ginger and chili, and it's full of chicken flavor too. What do you call it... The disciple is better than the master, and she's worthy of being the girl of my family." Wang Yanmei praised.
"No way, in my heart, my mother's cooking is the best in the world." Xu Qingzhi was not embarrassed by being praised by his family. He looked at Xu Dongru and asked, "Grandpa, how does this chicken taste? Is it too spicy?"
People in Meicheng like spicy food, but the old man has a bad spleen and stomach, so Xu Qingzhi deliberately put less chili in the wine pot.
"Mm, the spiciness is just right, delicious." Xu Dongru's mouth was full of oil, and his overly skinny cheeks had more flesh than the last time they met. He continued, "The vegetables you grow are also delicious. Grandpa fried them with rapeseed oil last time, and they tasted especially delicious. Usually Grandpa only eats half a bowl of rice, but he ate a big bowl of rice that day."
Wang Yanmei took the initiative to say: "There are a lot of vegetables at home, come and pick them after you finish eating."
Xu Dongru nodded and responded, "Yeah, okay."
Qingzhi also knew about this, so he planned to come and deliver some food when he had time later. Two or three miles was actually not far, and he could walk or drive there.
After the meal, Wang Yanmei went to wash the dishes.
Xu Fuqiang and Xu Dongru sat under the eaves to enjoy the cool air, and Xu Qingzhi also sat over with a wooden chair.
There is a moon today, and a few stars are dotted in the night sky. Some of the stars are big, some are small, and some are brighter. If you look closely, they seem to be still twinkling.
It is a little hot in the summer evening, but sitting in the yard, a cool breeze feels very refreshing. In the distance, someone's dog barks twice, and then everything becomes quiet.
The father and son just sat there without saying a word.
Xu Qingzhi raised his head and counted the stars in his heart.
When I was a kid, I couldn’t go out to play with my friends at night. My parents would scare us, and the same thing was that if we went out to play at night, we would be captured by monsters.
Grandma and grandpa were sitting on wooden chairs in the yard to enjoy the cool air, and Xu Qingzhi was sitting between them.
She was still little at that time, and her favorite thing to do was to sit on a small wooden stool and start counting stars.
She likes it very much when there are many stars, but if there are few stars on that day, she will be a little disappointed.
It is said that people will turn into a star in the sky after they die. Xu Qingzhi thought that the brightest star tonight might be her grandma... She hoped so, just like her grandma always hoped that she could live a good life.
"Right, the tenant said they would come tomorrow to sign the contract and clean up the house before moving in." Xu Dongru suddenly remembered this. "I asked around and found out that there are four people moving in. Can you guys take away any important things in the old house?"
"Yeah." Xu Fuqiang thought about it. He and Yanmei didn't leave anything behind. They took away the important things when they moved to the new house. However, some of the two children's things were not moved. "Qingzhi, do you want to go to the old house and see if there is anything you want to take away?"
"Okay, I'll go take a look." Xu Qingzhi stood up, took the key given by Xu Fuqiang and opened the door. A stale smell hit him in the face, and one could tell that no one had lived here for a long time.
She went in, pulled the light cord on the wall, and the light in the room came on. She walked all the way inside, found the previous room, walked in, and turned on the light.
A large piece of leather had fallen off the white wall in the room, revealing a large area of yellow mud. There was a bed, a dressing table and a bookcase inside.
She looked and saw that on the dressing table were some portraits of her and her classmates taken in high school. Taking these photos was the most popular thing at that time.
There was an album in the drawer, which contained all the photos she had taken in the past, and she took it.
I went to the bookshelf and looked around. There were mostly textbooks, with a few romance magazines in between, including Fireworks, Boys and Girls, Flying Romance, and Hua Nian Shao Tuan…
She is past the age where she enjoys watching it.
After closing the cabinet, Xu Qingzhi finally took away a photo album.
(End of this chapter)