After going down the mountain, Zhang Hulan sent Shanzi to the door of her home and said to him, "Shanzi, go home and pack your things. You can stay at my house tomorrow."
Shanzi looked at Zhang Hulan, "Auntie Lan, I..."
"Okay, Shanzi, your grandma entrusted you to me, so I have to be responsible for you. You can stay here by yourself tonight, and I will move into a new house tomorrow, and you will live with us from now on."
"Go back and rest first. Dinner will be ready soon. I'll ask Xinyao to come and call you."
Shanzi's eyes were red and he nodded.
Zhang Hulan returned home and told you, Wang, that Shanzi would live with them in the future.
Wang asked, "Do you plan to keep Shanzi in the future?"
Zhang Hulan said, "Mom, Shanzi is so pitiful. How can he live independently when he is so young?
And you know his house, if it rains heavily again, the house might collapse.
If I don't care, won't he become a little beggar in the future? "
Zhang Hulan then whispered in Wang's ear, "Mom, Shanzi is a good kid. He can endure hardships and is sensible. I'll raise him for a few years and if he's suitable, he'll be my son-in-law in the future."
Wang looked at Zhang Hulan in surprise, then asked in a low voice: "Xinyao?"
Zhang Hulan nodded, "Xinyao is also an honest person, Shanzi is the most suitable for this situation. In the future, without parents-in-law and sisters-in-law, the young couple can live their lives peacefully."
Wang thought for a moment and said, "Shanzi is a good kid, but you have to raise four kids by yourself. Can you afford it?"
Zhang Hulan said, "It's no big deal. I can afford to support more."
"You're just bragging!" Wang tapped Zhang Hulan on the forehead and said, "You can do whatever you want. But if you let Shanzi move in with you, someone might gossip about you."
Zhang Hulan said, "Who cares? They can say whatever they want, just don't let me hear it in front of me."
The daughter had her own ideas, so Wang said nothing more. She also thought Shanzi was a good candidate for a son-in-law. If she raised him from childhood, they would have a closer relationship in the future.
At dinner time, Zhang Hulan asked Zhang Xinyao to call Shanzi over to eat together. The next morning, Zhang Hulan borrowed Zhao Guoliang's ox cart and went to the county town to buy household items.
I bought a whole cart of bedding, blankets, pots and pans, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and other miscellaneous items. I bought dozens of kilograms of rice, as well as pork belly, lean meat, bones, and some eggs.
Seeing someone selling fish, Zhang Hulan bought another carp. She also went to the pharmacy to buy ginger, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves, etc. Then she went to buy some wine and brown sugar.
After returning home, Wang and Li and others cleaned and tidied up Zhang Hulan's new home.
Xiang Chunhua was there too. Ever since her mother sent her back to borrow money, Xiang Chunhua had changed a lot and hadn't been back to her parents' home for a long time.
Shanzi was also there. When Zhang Hulan left in the morning, she asked Zhang Xinyao to call Shanzi over.
When Wang saw the many things Zhang Hulan bought, she began to scold Zhang Hulan for being a spendthrift and not being able to save money.
Zhang Hulan ignored Wang's scolding and asked Zhang Xinyao and the others to move their things into the house.
Zhang Xiaobing saw the meat and bones on the ox cart and said happily, "Wow! There's meat to eat again!"
Then he saw the big carp on the oxcart, "Wow! There are fish!"
Zhang Xinyue's eyes sparkled when she saw the big carp. She went up and hugged the carp, "Mom, fish!"
"Oh my..." Wang quickly took the fish away, "You're all smelling like fish."
Zhang Hulan said, "Mom, kill the fish first. It has been dead for a while. Put some salt on it after killing it, otherwise it will stink soon."
After moving everything into the house, Li put the iron pot on the stove and asked Zhang Dahua to light the fire.
Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing went to the mountain in the morning and chopped a lot of firewood. The firewood was almost piled up in front of the stove door and under the eaves outside.
The iron pot was heated to a red flame, and Li cut some lard into the pot, and used a spatula to spread the lard all over the iron pot. The iron pot needs to be cooked with lard, so that the iron pot will not rust easily in the future.
"Xiaojun, go back and get some kudzu root."
"Okay, aunt." Zhang Xiaojun ran back immediately.
Li boiled the pot and asked Zhang Hulan, "Sister, should we stew the meat and bones together? And how do you plan to cook the fish?"
"Sister-in-law, take a rest. I'll cook today." Zhang Hulan said with a smile, "You are the guests today. Just wait for the food. I'll show you my cooking skills today."
Wang immediately said, "Come on, you cook? Don't waste all this meat and fish."
"Mom, do you look down on me so much?"
"Look down on you? How come you don't know how to cook?"
The original body’s cooking was indeed not delicious. Her family didn’t allow her to cook, but only asked her to light the fire and help.
Zhang Hulan said, "Mom, people change. I am still okay now."
Wang thought about it and decided that Zhang Hulan should learn how to cook. How could a woman not know how to cook? So she said, "You can cook it, and let your sister-in-law watch."
"Okay, okay, let my sister-in-law watch it." Zhang Hulan started to get busy.
Zhang Xiaojun brought the Pueraria root, and Zhang Hulan asked Zhang Xinyao to peel and wash the Pueraria root and stew it in the bone soup.
Zhang Hulan also left two kudzu roots and asked Zhang Xiaojun to crush them and put them in a basin with water and stir, then pick up the residue and squeeze out the water. The water in the basin was left there to settle.
Zhang Hulan asked Zhang Xinyao to go to the fields to cut some leeks, pull some onions, and pick some eggplants.
Zhang Hulan asked Zhang Dahua to heat the pot over high heat, put the pork belly skin in the pot and fry it until golden brown, then wash it, cut it into pieces and blanch it.
Put oil in the pan, put the diced pork belly in the pan and fry until oil comes out, add ginger, cinnamon, star anise and bay leaves, stir-fry, then serve.
Since there was no rock sugar here, Zhang Hulan used brown sugar to make sugar color.
After the sugar water is fried, pour the meat in and stir-fry, then add soy sauce and continue stir-frying.
After the aroma comes out, pour in an appropriate amount of boiling water, and then add some white wine to remove the fishy smell.
Cover the pot and simmer on low heat for half an hour until the juice is almost dried up.
Li was watching from behind, and waited until Zhang Hulan was done before asking, "Big sister, what are you doing? Why are you adding sugar?"
Zhang Hulan smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, try it later and see if it tastes good."
Li said, "It smells pretty good now, it must be delicious."
Zhang Hulan cut some brown sugar cubes and stuffed a piece of brown sugar into each child's mouth.
All the children smiled as they put the food in their mouths.
Zhang Xiaobing said with sparkling eyes: "Aunt, it's so sweet. This candy is really delicious."
Zhang Xinyao and the other three and Shanzi had rarely had access to candy before, so this candy tasted really good.
Zhang Hulan even stuffed a piece into Wang and Li’s mouths. Wang laughed and said, “We are not children. We still eat candy!”
Brown sugar melts quickly, and it will be gone in a few minutes. Seeing the children smacking their lips, Zhang Hulan gave all the remaining brown sugar to Zhang Xiaojun, "Xiaojun, take them to one side and share it."
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