Chapter 17: It's so sweet

A wind blew in the yard, causing the fire under the iron pot to burn fiercely. The dry firewood, encountering the surging flames, was swallowed up in an instant.

Chen Xiang took the sweet potatoes and placed them carefully in the sand.

Then cover it with a layer of sand.

She squatted down and added some firewood to the stove.

Watching the flames growing brighter and brighter, Chen Xiang pursed her lips and smiled faintly, sincerely hoping that the Zhou family's days would grow brighter and brighter like the flames.

Zhou's mother squatted beside Chen Xiang and asked, "When will you get better?"

"An hour?"

Chen Xiang had never done this before. She tilted her head and thought for a while, then said softly, "Mom, do we need to turn the sweet potatoes over later?"

"Use it..."

Zhou's mother's tone was equally uncertain.

After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law finished speaking, they turned their heads to each other at the same time, and then laughed together.

Then Zhou's mother put away the smile on her face, raised her hand and touched Chen Xiang's head, her voice soft and gentle: "It's okay, don't worry, if this pot of sweet potatoes is not ready, we can make another pot, and it will always be successful."

She was afraid that her daughter-in-law would get anxious and angry again.

The children had suffered a lot because of family matters, so Zhou's mother didn't want Xiaoxiang to feel burdened by such matters.

If you can succeed, then succeed. If you can’t succeed, then don’t worry about it.

Chen Xiang smiled, her eyes sparkling: "If it's not baked well, then I'll have sweet potatoes to eat."

Mother Zhou felt sorry for her and hugged her lovingly. She whispered to her daughter-in-law, "Then let's eat enough today..."

Chen Xiang hummed.

As I looked at the stove, my eyes couldn't help but turn slightly red, my nose felt sore, and tears seemed to be about to fall.

The more they did this, the more Chen Xiang hated herself in her previous life.

She used to think that Zhou's father and mother were just being nice to her out of hypocrisy, just for the sake of face. She even wondered if they were so nice to her because Dai Jinhua had caught them.

But she just understood.

This is the upbringing and kindness in the Zhou family's bones.

More than 20 years ago, Zhou's father was able to get a job in a state-owned enterprise, which shows that he was capable and the wife he married would naturally not be too bad.

It is because of such excellent parents that Zhou Dongmeng has the friendship and future success.

Moreover, she vaguely remembered that when he was a child, Zhou Dongmeng was different from the children in the village. He did not study in the village primary school, but had always been studying in the county and could only come back once every half a month.

This shows how much attention Zhou's father and mother paid to their children's education at that time.

After all, compulsory education was not yet universal at that time. The fact that they were able to do this was enough to prove the foresight of Zhou's parents...

—

Before the first pot of sweet potatoes was ready, Zhou's father had already built the stove.

He pushed the tricycle to the center of the yard, making sure the sun could shine on the stove so that the work could be done quickly.

Everything is almost ready, and a hint of fragrance is slowly wafting out of the pot.

Father Zhou washed his hands, came over and asked, "Are you ready?"

Chen Xiang raised her eyebrows: "Dad, do you want to take one out now to see how it looks like?"

Before Zhou's father could say anything, Zhou's mother said, "The smell is already very strong. Hurry up and take a look! You two wait, I'll go get the family recipe."

Having said that, she trotted back to the house.

After a while, Zhou's mother came out with a shovel and a piece of loofah in her hands. She took a few quick steps, came closer, bent down, and used the shovel to turn out a sweet potato.

Then use a loofah to gently sweep away the loose sand on the surface of the sweet potato.

Chen Xiang looked at the sweet potato that looked intact as it was turned out from the boiling sand by Zhou's mother. In an instant, the sweet and sticky aroma of the sweet potato mixed with a hint of caramel burst out in front of her.

This impact is like a mushroom cloud exploding over the Gobi Desert in the northwest.

It went along her nose and mouth, across her chest, filling her stomach all at once, and then rudely messed with her taste buds.

Chen Xiang inhaled the fragrance fiercely: "Mom, it smells so good!"

Zhou's mother deftly broke open the sweet potato, revealing the golden sweet potato flesh inside. She gave most of it to Chen Xiang and gave the other half to Zhou's father.

She quickly called out, "Try it!"

Chen Xiang couldn't wait to blow away the hot air on it, opened her mouth and took a small bite. The soft sweet potato flesh was very hot and sweet: "Hmm... delicious!"

She stamped her feet excitedly and shouted, "It's really delicious! Mom, it looks like we succeeded! We succeeded!!"

I thought I would have to try it a few times, but I got it right the first time! It worked!

Chen Xiang smiled so much that her eyes narrowed into slits. She jumped to Zhou's mother's side and handed the hot sweet potato in her hand to her mouth: "Mom, please try it. It's really sweet!"

Zhou's father over there also took a bite, and a hint of satisfaction appeared on his dry face.

He was eating the sweet potato that burned his teeth, and mumbled, "My dear, try it, it's really delicious."

Even the old men who don't like this kind of sweet and soft food want another bite after taking a bite of the roasted sweet potato.

Mother Zhou didn't hesitate and took Chen Xiang's hand and lowered her head to take a bite.

As soon as the tip of the tongue rolled up the glutinous sweet potato, the aroma spread throughout the mouth.

Her eyes lit up instantly and she nodded: "It's really delicious!"

Chen Xiangyang smiled and said, "Then I will go to the county high school to try it out tomorrow morning."

Zhou's mother pointed to the other sweet potatoes in the pot, and said with a serious look in her mind, "Don't worry, let's see what the others look like."

As she spoke, she picked up the spatula again and turned out the sweet potatoes in the pot one by one.

As expected, the remaining ones were the same as the first baked sweet potato, with no damage on the appearance, and some places were even caramelized.

Zhou's father commented: "Not bad, it looks good!"

Since this method can bake whole sweet potatoes, there is no need to continue the experiment.

Zhou's mother asked her husband to go into the house to rest, leaving her and Chen Xiang to clean up the mess in the yard.

By now the clay stove was completely dry. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law put a large iron pot on it and poured appropriate sand and soil.

Chen Xiang also packed a bag of sweet potatoes and placed it in the corner. Of course, tools like shovels and loofahs were also indispensable, and they were all placed in the car.

After doing all this, the sun had already set and the sky was getting dark.

Mother Zhou put the bricks back at the base of the wall and called out to her daughter-in-law, "Xiaoxiang, come back to the house and help me check what time it is. I'm going to go to the field to gather some straw so I can light a fire and cook."

"Okay."

Chen Xiang responded, turned around and ran into the house.

Looking at the old-fashioned clock standing on the cabinet in the east room, the hour hand pointed to the number four.

It's already past four o'clock...

There are still more than three hours before Zhou Dongmeng gets home from get off work.

This sudden thought flashed through Chen Xiang's mind in an instant. Although the feeling of loss kept lingering in her heart, she had to work hard to live a good life first.

She poured a glass of warm water for Zhou's father, then went out to prepare dinner with Zhou's mother.