Chapter 14 Chapter 14 Song Mian turned around and saw a young man in brocade clothes...
Song Mian turned around.
Then I saw a young man in brocade clothes standing under a cloth banner. The crowd was crowded. He was thin, with bony bones, and his face was full of embarrassment.
But he was born with sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, a straight nose and thin lips, and was extremely handsome, but his expression was full of depression, even more depressed than the Song family.
"Miss Song." he repeated.
Song Mian vaguely felt that his surname should be Zhou.
"Mr. Zhou." Song Fuxue stood where he was, looking at him coldly.
Hearing his greeting, Song Mian also bowed and said distantly, "Mr. Zhou."
Zhou Zheng was silent for a moment. He stared at her for a while, looking at the cotton gown she was wearing, the cart they were pushing, and the oil spots splashed on the hem of her dress.
He stroked the jade pendant in his hand and lowered his eyes.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
Song Fuxue flicked his sleeves and said in a cold voice: "When your family is broken up, I will ask you again if you are okay."
Zhou Zheng's lips moved, but he had nothing to say. In the political struggle, his position was extremely embarrassing, and no one would listen to what he said.
When I told my father about my persistence, my righteousness and morality, he only received a cold sneer.
Not even a splash.
Zhou Zheng stroked the jade pendant, which was given to him by Song Mian.
He cherishes it very much.
He and Song Mian had not met many times and were not familiar with each other, but he had grown up reading Song Zhun's policies and admired him very much.
Everyone said that my father and Prime Minister Song were a perfect match as master and disciple, but who would have thought that when Prime Minister Song's body was still warm, my father would be the first to show his fangs.
He always thought that his wife would only be Song Mian.
But things in this world rarely go perfectly, and he and her will never be together again.
He felt extremely complicated. The collision between his ideals and reality crushed him completely.
"Mr. Zhou, what can I do for you?" Song Fuxue covered Song Mian tightly.
Zhou Zheng's lips moved, and he handed the jade pendant back, whispering, "I'm going to Zhejiang to study. From now on, you have to take good care of yourself."
After saying this, he left again, exhausted.
Song Mian nodded: "Then I won't send you off."
Zhou Zheng had a complicated expression. He wanted to ask Song Mian whether she would not get married and that he would come back to marry her when he grew up and had his own abilities.
Finally, he looked at Song Mian deeply, wanting to bury all those youthful delusions deep in his heart.
He waved his hand and left with the servant behind him.
*
Sun Erya looked at Song Mian's expression and was a little afraid to speak. From the tone of her voice, she knew that this was her ex-fiancé. He was really like a person from heaven, handsome and elegant. It was a pity that they got married separately and had nothing to do with each other anymore.
Song Xiaoshu carried a bamboo basket and helped push the cart.
"This boy has a clear and upright look. If nothing unexpected happens, he will be a very good husband." Song Fuxue sighed. Because he was going to marry their own child, the Song family really took care of his daily education.
Song Mian looked up at the sky.
She was not the original owner and had no feelings for Zhou Zheng, so naturally she did not have these feelings. Zhou Zheng might be a very good husband, but there were so many lives between them in the Song family, and there was no possibility for them to be together in the future.
Worse than a stranger.
Song Mian said lazily, "Everything that happened yesterday is like yesterday's death. He is just yesterday's little kid who doesn't need to be mentioned anymore."
What a pity.
Song Fuxue nodded. He knew it of course, but he still remembered that a married woman should not be punished. His Mian Mian deserved the best young talent.
After returning home, he held the teacup and sighed.
After drinking the spiritual spring water, Song Mian felt much better, so he wanted to change the subject and ask him not to worry about Zhou Zheng anymore.
"What did that man give you yesterday?"
"Your grandfather's manuscript."
Song Fuxue really forgot about all the romantic thoughts and began to think enthusiastically about how to slowly collect and organize her father's manuscripts.
"I'm afraid these are the only things I can do for the rest of my life." He thought that if he could sort out his father's manuscripts and raise his children well, he would have no regrets in his life.
"That's great. I'm thinking, let's sell pies first, and then after we're through this, we can open up some wasteland and plant peaches, plums, apricots, watermelons, and cantaloupes. We'll be self-sufficient, which would be quite interesting."
Song Mian painted a rosy picture for him.
Song Fuxue: ...
He finally realized that she was coaxing him.
Song Fuxue looked up at the sky helplessly, and he coaxed her in return: "Now that you have become an official, the first thing you should do is to understand that being demoted is the fate of civil servants. No one can stay in the limelight forever."
His father also went through half a lifetime of hardship before he achieved the position of Prime Minister.
Song Mian nodded. She always had a stereotype about ancient people, thinking that they were like the pedantic scholars in textbooks, but in fact, since ancient times, people have always been unruly.
Otherwise, where would so many people rebel?
As he was speaking, he saw Aunt Zhao coming over with a basket of vegetables in her left arm, with a layer of lush green vegetables on top, and two big fat fish in her right hand.
"Is Mr. Song at home?" she called out and stood outside the fence waiting.
"Aunt Zhao, come in quickly." Song Fuxue stood up and opened the door for her.
After Zhao Jufang put down the bamboo basket, she smiled and said, "I see the seedlings in your vegetable garden are still young and just emerging. I have so much in my garden that I can't finish eating it all, so I sent it to you."
She also wanted to thank them so much that she was willing to take Erya to sell peaches.
"My family is short of vegetables. They are more expensive than meat when bought on the street, so I really can't afford to buy them." After Song Mian learned about the price of vegetables, he fell silent.
The best pork was only twenty copper coins per pound, but many vegetables cost two hundred copper coins per pound.
Even cheap asparagus is more expensive than pork.
The price made her feel painful just looking at it.
I finally understand why Wang Baochuan has been digging wild vegetables for eighteen years. Maybe she can sell them for a lot of money.
So people usually grow their own food at home. They reclaim a piece of wasteland at the doorstep and plant some common vegetables, onions, ginger, garlic, etc., which are enough for daily consumption.
Song Mian held the fish, feeling a little at a loss, as he always felt that he had given too much.
"This fish was caught by your uncle in a mud pond. The water in the pond dried up due to drought, and it was full of fish and loaches. I picked two to bring to you." Zhao Jufang said with a smile.
Her family members are honest and give the best to others. The fish they keep for themselves are not as fat and not as good in appearance.
"Thank you so much, Grandma Zhao. Please take the vegetables back quickly. There are so many people in your family, all of them strong laborers. What if they don't have enough to eat?" Song Mian felt that there was nothing wrong with harvesting vegetables. There were indeed too many crops in her fields, and they could not be eaten up. But fish was meat after all, which was different.
"There's a Sichuan pepper tree behind my house. If you want to eat Sichuan peppercorns or leaves, just pick them yourself."
Aunt Zhao said this, but then she felt something was wrong. After all, it was someone else's thing and it couldn't be as good as her own.
She called across the fence, "Xiaoshu! Take the shovel and go back home and move a pepper seedling."
Song Xiaoshu responded.
Sun Erya came over quickly: "What's the matter? What's the matter? What's the matter?"
Song Mian was about to refuse when she stopped him. She said that he had been farming all his life and had left the things on the ground before he could even walk. She could not compare with him in terms of these things.
"Well, that all depends on my sister-in-law." She joked with a smile.
Sun Erya blushed, turned around and ran away, saying that she was too mean and she would ignore her in the future.
But after a while she came back with a shovel and asked where we planned to plant the pepper trees.
"Just plant them next to the fence so you can pick some when you want to eat. It's convenient. My family plants them at the back. When it's hot, I have to beat and kick them to get the kids to help with the work." Aunt Zhao is very experienced in this.
Song Mian smiled and said, "I'll listen to Grandma Zhao."
A few people were chatting. Wenlan saw that it was getting late, so she put down the half-cut cloth and went out to cook.
Seeing Aunt Zhao bringing another basket of vegetables, he hurriedly expressed his gratitude.
"Aunt Zhao is so kind, and I hope you will be blessed in the future. I originally thought that our family had fallen on hard times and would have trouble getting food, but I didn't expect to meet such a good neighbor, closer than any family member. She helped my family out of their difficulties. I really don't know how to thank you enough. If you need me in the future, just tell me. I won't refuse anything I can help you with."
Wenlan said this sincerely, and she thought so in her heart.
It is said that it is easy to add icing on the cake but difficult to provide timely assistance. Their family suffered a disaster and they truly experienced the fickleness of human nature.
"Look at you, you're so good at talking. I don't know how to respond. Since you said neighbors are closer than family, then let's treat each other like family."
Aunt Zhao held Wenlan's hand and felt deeply sorry for them.
Everyone said that the Prime Minister was a good official, an honest and upright official who reduced taxes for the people and allocated land to them, but the emperor insisted that he was a corrupt official.
Zhao Jufang thought, she didn’t know whether he was corrupt or not, but he was the only good official who cared about the people.
"I'm going back to cook. As for the pepper tree, just let the sapling grow well. Remember to water it early in the morning to prevent it from dying of drought." She kept on giving instructions and then turned and left.
When Gao Xiu came out, she heard the tail of a car. She walked over slowly with a cane.
"Auntie, I'm back."
Gao Xiu sighed in response and sat in the shade of the tree in a daze.
She is old and has been tortured in prison, so her spirit is really not good.
Song Mian looked at it and thought it would be a good idea to cook the fish.
"The fish was well-killed. Her family is really particular," Wen Lan couldn't help but sigh. "They probably know that we're all useless."
Song Mian frowned. If that was the case, then he was indeed quite useless. He had never done anything like killing chickens or fish.
The two of them started cooking. Song Zhenge wanted to help, but he couldn't do it, so he went outside to chop firewood.
"How do you cook this fish?" Song Mian asked Gao Xiu.
Gao Xiu moved over with a cane and began to give instructions one by one, thinking to himself, it's a good thing she is here, otherwise, their whole family would have suffered so much.
She thought that if it were someone else, they would have to show off their skills to make it delicious.
But when it comes to Mianmian, she uses the simplest way, which makes it taste better.
"Just fry the fish until both sides are golden brown, then add water and stew it." Gao Xiu thought about it and decided not to go into too much detail. "Wenlan, cut some ginger into strips."
Song Mian rolled up his sleeves and watched Song Zhenge clean the fish again and hang it by its mouth with a hemp rope to drain the water.
Song Zhuo was making a fire; he had just learned how.
After the pan and oil were heated, she put the fish in and fry it. Song Mian didn't know how long to fry it, so she listened to Gao Xiu and waited for a while until he told her to turn it over.
"Cooking fish is harder than stir-frying chicken." She muttered softly.
At least chicken is not as fragile as fish. She didn't dare to turn it over frequently for fear of breaking it.
Fortunately, Gao Xiu was there to help, and the fish was fried to perfection.
"That's right. Use a spatula to push the fish upwards to release the oil, then add onions, ginger and other spices to sauté until fragrant. In fact, this is how home-cooked dishes are made." Gao Xiu said with some guilt, because this is how she cooked, and she kept Song Zhun very thin.
She knows that her cooking is terrible.
But Song Mian is different. She can make delicious dishes with such simple cooking methods.
"Then you can just add it according to the different dishes you have on hand every day. Just add whatever you want to eat." Gao Xiu looked up at the sky.
Song Mian understood.
The main feature of farm-style cooking is that it suits your taste and you can cook it however you want.
"Okay, now that the fish is cooked, I'll make some stir-fried beans. With both vegetables and fish, it'll be a complete meal."
The two fish are fat, but it’s still not enough for the whole family to eat, so just add some vegetables.
Dry-fried green beans consumes a lot of oil. Although it is called dry-fried, it actually needs to be fried first. When it is fried into tiger skin shape, take out the green beans and scoop back the oil, leaving a little oil at the bottom to stir-fry the ingredients, such as garlic slices, dried chilies, and peppercorns.
Wait until the aroma of the spices comes out, then add the beans back in and stir-fry, add some soy sauce, salt, chili powder, and sesame seeds. When they look softer, you can turn off the heat and serve.
Gao Xiuguang was particularly motivated when giving instructions just thinking about the taste of the food his great-granddaughter would cook.
"This dish is good. It smells fresh, spicy, and looks like it would go well with rice."
Song Fuxue kept praising him.
"It's time to eat." Song Chi shouted happily.
When he put the food on the table, Song Mian suddenly remembered: "Xiao Shu said he wanted to make tables, chairs and benches for our family and his second brother's family, but I don't know what happened to it."
This is not easy to rush.
"Wait a little longer." Song Zhuo replied casually.
What I look forward to most every day is that Song Mian is in a good mood and takes over the task of cooking. The food she cooks tastes so good.
Just tasting it brings joy.
"This fish is very fresh and tender, and tastes very tasty." Song Fuxue picked up the fish maw and gave it to Song Mian, saying with a smile, "You earn money at home, and you cook the meals, so you should eat the best fish maw."
Song Mian took a bite and said with a smile, "Thank you, Dad. You are so kind."
He is indeed a very good father.
Now he has to take care of her and Song Zhuo, playing the role of both father and mother. He is a very miserable widower.
But if he remarries, she and Song Zhuo will become a miserable pair of siblings.
"This spicy stir-fried green beans is really good with rice." Song Zhuo's cheeks were bulging from eating, and he looked very delicious.
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