Chapter 3535 Sour Papaya and Fish

Speaking of this, Chen Minzhi couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

Everyone in the factory knew that the Xia family had a difficult time.

But in fact, the Li family is not an easy one to deal with.

Li Laoer is a lathe operator at the Second Medicinal Materials Factory, and his wife is getting her meals at the canteen window.

In addition to the eldest child Li Meifeng, there is also a twin brother Li Chenglong and a sister who is six years younger. The whole family depends on the second medicinal material factory for their livelihood.

Being a lathe operator is a somewhat special profession.

In these days, the industrialized cultivation of medicinal herbs has not yet been promoted. In order to purchase medicinal herbs, medicinal herb factories have to drive large trucks to the mountains and the countryside to collect them.

There are usually three people on a truck: a driver, a collector, and a machinist.

According to common sense, a machinist is usually responsible for transporting and repairing cars. Sometimes, when they encounter unreasonable villagers who try to rob them, they have to stand up to protect the factory’s property.

But in this world, anyone who has anything to do with the purchasing business can make a lot of money.

It was after Li Laoer became a machinist that he made a lot of money from purchasing and developed a habit of spending money lavishly.

I love to drink and eat.

Although there was some lucrative business with the machinist and the salary was higher than that of ordinary workers, after so many years of hard work, the family had not saved any money. When his son was about to get married, he realized that he was at a loss.

But this Li Laoer is also a talented person. His son has no money and instead of thinking of a way to get married himself, he actually thinks of exchanging his daughter for his daughter!

Be good!

Nowadays, even rural people who want to get married know that they want to find a man who knows them well, for the sake of the girl's future plans.

He is a man living in the city who eats commercial grain, but he actually wants to exchange his daughter's lifelong affairs for his son's dowry. How heartless!

Everyone in the factory knew the situation of the Xia family. After knowing Li Laoer's plan, they were all disdainful.

But they are disdainful and just watch for fun, it is actually useless.

Chen Minzhi was naturally disdainful.

Even when she was in the most difficult time, she had no intention of marrying Minyun off to ease the burden, and she could not understand Li Laoer's plan.

However, after two lifetimes, Xia Tang understands Li Laoer and the Xia family's situation better than Chen Minzhi.

Although the two families have different degrees of abuse, their attitudes towards women are the same:

That means not treating women as human beings.

Women can be little toys to play with when life is abundant, like Xia Lulu;

Or it could be a blood bag when life is tough, like her;

They can also be the hard laborers in ordinary life, like Liu Mei and Li Meifeng.

But there is one thing: it cannot be like a human.

In such a family, no matter whether it is the wife, daughter-in-law, or daughter-in-law, the final outcome is the same.

They are just blood suppliers for men.

However, a woman can also become a knife that stabs herself when she is brainwashed.

Xia Tang is used to all this.

She doesn't want to care, and she can't care.

After hearing what Chen Minzhi said, he just washed his hands with clean water, raised his head, and smiled faintly:

"Sister Minzhi, do you want to eat sour papaya today?"

Chen Minzhi also found it interesting:

"Hey, what is this?"

She had heard of papaya before, but this sour papaya was really fresh.

Xia Tang shook his hands and rolled up his sleeves:

"You'll find out in a moment."

It was already evening and there were only two or three tables of guests left in the house.

Since no one ordered any more food, Xia Tang prepared to go to the kitchen and make some fresh dishes for them.

She took out an earthen jar and as soon as she opened the lid, the sour fruity aroma wafted out.

Xia Tang used chopsticks to flip it over, pushed down the top papaya slice, and then picked up seven or eight large slices from the bottom.

There are two ways to pickle papaya. One is to pickle the whole thing, which takes longer but makes it ferment more fully and tastes better.

The other way is to marinate it in slices, which can be done in a few days, but if it is marinated for too long, the flavor will easily go bad.

Xia Tang put the papaya slices in an aluminum basin and rinsed them several times in clean water. He set aside half of them for shredding and cut the other half into medium-sized papaya pieces.

The shredded half is used for stir-frying the beef.

Cut the beef into shreds like the sour papaya, add cooking wine, salt, etc. and marinate for ten minutes, then stir-fry with chili pepper, green pepper, garlic, etc. over high heat, and add sour papaya shreds and mint before serving.

The sour papaya and beef stir-fried in this way tastes sour and spicy, and has a very refreshing texture. It is a particularly delicious dish that goes well with rice.

The chopped sour papaya is used to cook fish.

Today, Lao Qian, who delivered the food, happened to give Xia Tang a long-bearded fish caught from a mountain stream, which was just right for making sour papaya and fish.

The method is very simple, but the taste is so refreshing and delicious that you can't stop eating it.

Both dishes don’t take long to prepare.

Soon, two steaming dishes were served on the plates.

As soon as Chen Minzhi took a sip, her eyes widened:

"Xia Tang, where did you learn this cooking skill? It's really extraordinary."

She has never liked sour food since she was a child, but the taste of this sour papaya is just right for her taste buds.

How to describe it?

Although it is sour, it is the right kind of sour and very appealing, just like a small hand reaching out from the throat, moving back and forth, making you want to eat it again and again.

The perfect combination of the thickness of the Wagyu beef and the tenderness of the fish, which is sour, fresh and fragrant, coupled with the complex flavors brought by the unique spices of Yunnan Province, the taste is simply amazing!

Several people started eating while chatting and laughing.

The guests at the table just now smelled the aroma and couldn't help but walk to the kitchen:

"Boss, what are you doing? It smells so good."

Xia Tang couldn't help but laugh, and quickly took a plate, divided the remaining two fish, and gave one plate to each of the two tables that stayed at the end:

"This is what we are going to prepare later. Please taste it and give us your comments."

The guests were amazed and delighted to take it back, and after taking a bite, they praised it highly:

"Boss Tang, are you going to do this tomorrow?"

"If I make it tomorrow, I'll have my friends over to eat it!"

Xia Tang smiled with her lips pursed:

"It's ready, but the date hasn't been confirmed yet!"

*

Early the next morning, Xia Tang posted a recruitment notice.

There is no other way. Even though Ma Dafeng is capable, it won’t work if there are no extra people in the store to take over the shifts.

Therefore, it is proper to recruit another person.

But she didn't expect that the first person who came after the recruitment notice was posted was not someone looking for a job, but someone she least expected.

Li Meifeng hesitated at the door of Tangji Snack Bar for a long time before she knocked on the door as if she had made up her mind.

"Who is it?"

Xia Tang came out wearing an apron, and when he saw it was her, surprise instantly appeared on his face.

No wonder she was surprised.

To be honest, she and Li Meifeng really have nothing in common.

Did she come to see her to find a job?

Thinking of this, Xia Tang smiled and shook his head.

Li Meifeng is a substitute teacher in the school.

Although I don't have a job at the moment, the job is quite stable.

She also remembered that in a few years, all the teachers in their batch would be included in the organization.

Why would she give up her stable job and come here to help in the kitchen?

Sure enough, Li Meifeng opened her mouth hesitantly:

"Xia Tang... I came here... to ask about the Xia family."

really.

Xia Tang wiped her hands on her apron, said a few words to Ma Dafeng, took off her apron, and walked out of the snack bar with Li Meifeng, and came to the big locust tree at the corner.

This is a place where old men and women from the neighborhood come to rest and chat. It is almost noon now and there are not many people around. There are only two old men playing chess together.

Xia Tang pulled Li Meifeng to sit on a big rock:

"What do you want to ask?"

"I……"

Li Meifeng's chubby face was full of confusion.

She wrinkled her delicate eyebrows, then relaxed them, and after thinking for a long time, she said:

"Last time you said that the Xia family was bullying people... Can you explain it more clearly?"

She was really confused.

These days, because Xia Dashan's retirement subsidy is about to be issued, his father, who had been holding back, has gradually softened his attitude.

However, the way he drank the Yulinquan that Xia Dong offered him, smoked Hongtashan cigarettes, pointed at her drunkenly, and asked her to go out and walk on the street with Xia Dong made her feel particularly uncomfortable.

In fact, she also knew that from her family's perspective, she should marry Xia Dong.

Even Xia Dong looks better than her cousins-in-law.

He... also has those little flaws that are inherent in men. He likes to drink, play cards, and sometimes when he gets too impatient, he can't help but swear.

But even her mother told her that this was normal.

She is not a fairy herself, why is she picking on others?

Outsiders have ten thousand reasons to make her marry Xia Dong.

However, after going through so much, she became increasingly unable to convince herself.

Seeing Li Meifeng's expression, Xia Tang roughly understood what she was thinking.

She knew her future was clearly determined, but there seemed to be a veil in front of her eyes, and she could never see the truth of life clearly.

It's no different from the women who married blindly or unmarried in ancient times.

She was silent for a while, then said:

"Have you ever thought about what kind of person you will become after getting married?"

Li Meifeng said nothing.

She said in a steady voice:

"You will become a combination of your mother and Liu Mei."

The words were calm, but they made all the hairs on the back of Li Meifeng's neck stand up.

"Xia Dashan likes playing cards, your father likes eating and drinking, and Xia Dong is the perfect combination of the two."

She paused for a moment, but finally couldn't help but say,

"Xia Dong may not be as good as Xia Dashan. Xia Dashan at least won't hit anyone casually, but he may not be that way."

She thought about the first time in her life that Li Meifeng was beaten by Xia Dong, the corners of her mouth were cracked, and she came to her with swollen eyes, saying that she felt dizzy.

That was the sixth month after they were married.

She was still a girl at the time and was terribly frightened, but she was still dragged to the clinic.

The clinic didn't have the equipment to do the examination, so they just prescribed an IV drip for her.

She watched the transparent liquid in the drip go down little by little so carefully, and she also had to keep an eye on Li Meifeng all the time, fearing that she would faint in the next second and never wake up again.

She didn't understand why Xia Dong became like this.

It was obvious that Xia Dashan would not hit Liu Mei like this, but why was Xia Dong able to do that to Li Meifeng?

Later, she gradually understood.

People tend to imitate others.

It is not easy to learn well, but it is often just a matter of a moment to learn badly.

The hidden nature of marriage and family has become the best breeding ground for them to learn from others.

Xia Dashan gambles but doesn't beat his wife;

Li Lao Er doesn't gamble, he loves to eat and drink, and beats his wife when he gets drunk;

When the news reached Xia Dong, he started eating, drinking, gambling and domestic violence.