Chapter 7: What Does an Egg Taste Like?
"Mother, I'm back!"
Zhao Dashan's voice was like a savior, and Cheng Wanwan quickly called him to the backyard.
She stuffed the dead rabbit into her eldest son's arms: "Fourth son, you caught a rabbit. You skin it first."
Zhao Dashan went to collect some dry grass, twisted it into a rope, hung the rabbit by the neck, and then began to skin it from the mouth down...
Cheng Wanwan couldn't bear to watch the bloody scene any longer, so she turned to prepare other food.
A family of six couldn't possibly eat just one rabbit. Rabbit stew with potatoes is an amazing dish, but potatoes didn't seem to exist in this era, and Cheng Wanwan didn't know exactly what vegetables were growing in the garden.
"Four eggs!"
She called out.
Zhao Sidan walked over, sobbing uncontrollably. His face was covered in tears, and when he wiped them with his little hand, his face was all dirty.
Cheng Wanwan scooped up some water for him to wash his face and said helplessly, "Zhang Dagang and his gang won't come to steal the rabbits anymore, so why are you crying?"
Zhao Sidan sniffed, holding back his tears, and sobbed, "I won't cry anymore..."
Anyway, the rabbit is already dead, so crying won't bring back any more rabbits.
"Here are five coins. Go to the old house and exchange them for some vegetables." Cheng Wanwan took out a coin from her pouch and placed it in his hand. "It would be best to bring back a radish. Rabbit stew with radish is delicious. Do you want some?"
Zhao Sidan imagined it for a moment, and his mouth watered. He quickly swallowed it back.
Rabbits are his good friends, and he firmly opposes rabbit meat.
He walked toward the old house with five coins in his pocket.
The Zhao family's old house is located in the very center of the village. The Zhao family has three sons, and the house is quite large, with a total of five rooms. It stands squarely under the big locust tree, with vegetable gardens in front of and behind the house. In this dry season, only the Zhao family, with its large population, can arrange for several people to take turns fetching water to keep the vegetable gardens from drying out.
Zhao Sidan pushed open the courtyard gate and went inside, shouting, "Grandma!"
It was broad daylight, and not mealtime, so only Old Mrs. Zhao and Zhao Laosan's wife were at the Zhao family's old house.
Grandma Zhao was drying wild vegetables. The harvest was bad this year, so she had to dry more and store them in advance while there were plenty of wild vegetables on the mountain, so that her family of more than ten people wouldn't starve later.
"Four Eggs, what brings you here?"
Zhao Sidan said, "My mother asked me to bring a radish back with me."
Upon hearing this, Zhao San's wife's face fell. Her sister-in-law had taken twenty taels of silver and more than ten acres of land and left to live separately, agreeing that she would have no further connection with the Zhao family and even signing a written agreement. Now, she was brazenly letting her youngest son come to the old house to ask for food. How could there be such a shameless person in the world!
Grandma Zhao's face was also very unpleasant: "Your mother is a lazy bum. In the spring, everyone planted radishes, but she didn't. She just sat there with her legs up, gossiping all day long. Now, everyone has some food stored up, but your family still has to dig up wild vegetables to eat. It's not like there aren't ferns on the mountain. She just had to make a scene so that people would laugh at her!"
Old Mrs. Zhao went to the field and pulled out a radish while cursing.
Because they weren't moist enough, the radishes were very small. The old lady pulled out two more and stuffed them into Zhao Sidan's hand.
Zhao San's wife's heart was bleeding. Her sister-in-law had gone so far, yet her mother-in-law still favored her sister-in-law's family. Was it just because her sister-in-law could give birth to a son?
Thinking of this, Zhao San's wife felt a bitter taste in her mouth. She had only given birth to two daughters, making her a sinner in the Zhao family and unable to hold her head high in the entire Dahe Village. No matter how biased her mother-in-law was, she couldn't say a word, because she wasn't as good at giving birth to sons as her sister-in-law...
Zhao Sidan hugged the radish covered in dirt to his chest, rummaged in his sleeve, and finally pulled out five copper coins: "Thank you, Grandma."
Grandma Zhao was taken aback: "Where did you get these copper coins?"
Zhao Sidan's voice was clear: "Mother said we should exchange copper coins for radishes."
Old Mrs. Zhao always thought she must have misheard. Her eldest daughter-in-law, that shameless slut, had made a scene at the gate of the old house during the locust plague last year, dragging away twenty catties of millet and buckwheat flour from the cellar without giving her a single copper coin.
She was afraid that this little harlot would cause trouble at the old house again, so she secretly sent three catties of millet over last night.
"Grandma, I'm leaving now."
Zhao Sidan was walking out when he was called back.
Grandma Zhao wasn't one to take advantage of others. One coin could buy at least three pounds of radishes, but she only gave out three, which wasn't enough. Besides, she always felt that her eldest daughter-in-law was plotting something.
She returned the four copper coins, but Zhao Sidan refused to take them, saying, "If Mother finds out I didn't give her the money, she'll beat me to death."
Old Mrs. Zhao knew that her eldest daughter-in-law often beat the children, so she turned around, picked a handful of long beans from the yard, and then took an egg from the henhouse and stuffed it into the child's hand: "Alright, hurry up and leave, you're an eyesore!"
When Zhao Sidan saw the egg, his eyes widened in surprise.
Before, all the eggs in the house ended up in Mom's stomach. He would sneakily pick up the eggshells from the ground and lick them when she wasn't looking. The eggshells smelled so good, and he would keep licking them... Now that Mom has gotten better, I wonder if she'll let him have even a small bite of this egg...
Zhao Sidan carried a large pile of things back home.
When Cheng Wanwan saw the large pile of things in his hands, she quickly took them: "Did your grandma give these to you?"
"Grandma said we can't let Mom suffer a loss." Zhao Sidan grinned, pulling a round egg from his pocket. "Mom, an egg!"
Eggs were a precious commodity in those days. Villagers were reluctant to eat them and would save them to exchange for oil and salt at the market.
Cheng Wanwan searched through the original owner's memories and her face darkened.
Two weeks ago, when there were still chickens at home, the original owner of this body would eat an egg every day. There was a pregnant woman and a child in the family, and she couldn't understand how the original owner could eat the egg so easily...
"Mother..." Zhao Sidan mustered his courage to speak, "Could I have just a tiny bite of egg, just a tiny bit..."
He wasn't greedy; he just wanted to taste what eggs tasted like.
"Of course you can." Cheng Wanwan nodded. "Go out and have fun. I'll call you when it's ready."
Wu Huiniang was busy cutting up the rabbit. For some reason, she felt that the rabbit had grown bigger. It was small when it was on the mountain, but now, after skinning it, it felt like it weighed at least five or six pounds. She placed the cut rabbit meat on the stove and asked cautiously, "Mother, how should I cook this rabbit?"
Cheng Wanwan's cooking skills are limited to fried rice; not being able to cook it doesn't mean she can't eat it, and she has a wealth of theoretical knowledge.
But there were no seasonings in this house, not even oil or salt.
The rabbit was so fat that it could be pressed for oil. She could only buy a bag of salt at the mall, and then secretly poured a little bit into the jar where she used to keep salt. Immediately afterwards, she quickly bought some cinnamon, star anise, and bay leaves at the mall and casually placed them on the stove.
Cheng Wanwan stood to the side and directed: "First, press the oil, then put these leaves and stuff in and stir-fry them until fragrant... I just picked these on the mountain, they smell very good, and they should taste great in cooking. Don't ask too many questions, just do as I say."
Wu Huiniang dared not ask any more questions.
Soon, the aroma of meat filled the kitchen...
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