Chapter 279 Now that things have come to this, let’s eat first
At that time, she felt strange. There was a canteen on the construction site, and Zhou Jianye was lazy. He would never complain about the food and would cook it himself. How did he suddenly learn to cook?
But at that time, my father was getting worse day by day. Not only did his hematuria become more and more serious, but his temper also began to change drastically. The increasingly poor test results and critical illness notices made her more and more panicked. She had no energy to think about these trivial matters.
The past few years seemed to have passed in a flash. Her sister, father, and the old lady downstairs passed away one after another. The warmth and happiness she once had also gone away one by one along with the people who brought her warmth and happiness. Her temper also gradually disappeared like her energy. It seemed that she could no longer feel happy or have an appetite.
A small bowl of steaming porridge was pushed in front of her. Dong Mei took it mechanically and put it into her mouth mouthful by mouthful. After drinking two mouthfuls, she forgot to let the porridge in the spoon cool down.
After taking two bites in succession, the scorching breath spread from the tip of the tongue to the throat, along with the rich aroma of porridge and seafood. Dong Mei seemed to have even become dull and hot in the head, and her whole body was immersed in a burning pain. She didn't know whether it was the physical stimulation of being burned or the inexplicable dullness in her heart. A huge tear rolled down from her eye unexpectedly.
Zhao Xiaojing on the side was slowly blowing the porridge on the spoon with her head down. Dong Mei wiped her eyes hurriedly, lowered her head a little embarrassedly, and hid it in the thick smoke.
She didn't know what was wrong with her. She had so many unreasonable emotions while having a meal on New Year's Day.
"Ding. Dong. Dong." The phone in her pocket rang with messages, and Dong Mei hurriedly lowered her head and took out her phone.
The source of the news was the Sunshine Sisters group, and three people in the group were sending messages asking her.
“@董梅: Where’s Dong Mei? Why is there no movement?”
"@Dong Mei: Did you go to Zhou Jianye's mom's place today? Is everything okay?"
"@董梅: If you don't even grab the red envelopes, you won't wash all the dishes for the whole family, right?"
Dong Mei flipped through the pages and found that three of the four people in the group had posted their family reunion dinners, were chatting animatedly, and were constantly sending out red envelopes, but there was no news from her.
Dong Mei took a picture of the food on the table and posted it in the group chat before she replied to the three people, "I didn't go to Zhou Jianye's mom's today. He drank too much yesterday and is in the hospital on an IV drip. I just got home and was too busy to check the messages. My niece made lunch, and we're having dinner together now."
As soon as the message was sent, Ge Jinhua's voice call popped up. After the two chatted briefly about what was going on, Ge Jinhua said excitedly, "That's perfect. Lao Ren and I will come find you. Bring your niece along. The four of us will get five stars. Lao Ren just learned it and has been very excited these past two days."
Lao Ren is Ge Jinhua's husband, the retired lawyer that Dong Mei and Zhao Xiaojing were talking about. Dong Mei didn't expect that the two of them would be fine during the Chinese New Year, and she didn't expect that after saying she wanted to find them yesterday, they would come to her door today.
Dong Mei paused and asked tentatively, "Aren't you busy? I just happened to have something to ask you guys, and I said you'd be busy during the New Year, so I said it would be a few days."
"I'm not busy. My daughter and son-in-law are spending the New Year in Jiang Province this year. Most of the older generation here have passed away, so there's no need to be busy. What's your business? Is it important to have a five-star card?" Ge Jinhua said.
"Zhou Jianye cheated on his wife. Let's talk about it after you guys come. Don't tell them yet."
The person on the other end was obviously shocked by the news of the explosion and Dong Mei's calmness, and didn't know how to react for a moment. After a long time, he replied "OK" and hung up the phone.
Zhao Xiaojing's heart moved, "Auntie, is the friend whose husband is a lawyer that you mentioned yesterday coming over?"
"Yes, on New Year's Eve, they actually had time to come to my place. It's really a perfect match today." Dong Mei sighed. "That's good. The sooner it's resolved, the sooner I can be free."
"Third Aunt." Zhao Xiaojing knew that the system's universal potion had taken effect. She took the bowl in front of Dong Mei with a smile, filled it with half a bowl of hot porridge, and used Dong Mei's spoon to mix the porridge evenly. "Now that things have come to this, let's eat first."
Dong Mei's eyes moved slightly. She took the bowl through the mist of the hot pot and touched it lightly with her lips to check the temperature. This time, the porridge that had been cold at the bottom of the bowl mixed with the boiling porridge in the casserole, and the temperature was just right.
The chopped lettuce that had been simmered in the pot for a while no longer had the crisp feeling it had before, and seemed a lot wilted, but it seemed to blend better with the porridge when you drink it.
The seafood that I just thought was fresh but didn’t taste carefully now turned out to be dry, fragrant and firm. After boiling it with the porridge, the porridge was also imbued with the unique concentrated aroma of dried seafood.
Taking another bite of the chicken, I felt that it was not tender, but the meat itself seemed to have a slight sweetness. The more I chewed it, the more fragrant it became. Paired with the dipping dish on the side, the spicy red oil and the slightly sour vinegar burst on the tip of the tongue at the same time, stimulating the taste buds and even spreading along the nasal cavity. The original light taste suddenly turned into a violent taste invasion, and the whole person suddenly woke up in a sense of stimulation.
She has a bad temper, a slow brain, and has lived a cowardly life seemingly without suffering any loss; her dearest sister and father have passed away one after another, and the only eldest brother left is snobbish and irresponsible; her marriage that has lasted for decades is dead in name only, and her husband, who is already in his fifties, has a five or six-year-old son outside of his family, and he is calculating in money and never gives her an extra penny.
My daughter is just like me, with a lot of bad habits. She doesn't have a job but stays at home all day, bossing people around and looking for trouble. She not only inherited her father's laziness, but also my stupidity. Every time I see the couple, the atmosphere between them becomes more and more tense.
But what can be done? At this moment, all these slowly fade away, leaving only the sour, spicy, fresh, fragrant and smooth tastes in the mouth, the lingering sound of the two flavors, and the appetite that seems to have been opened after realizing it.
Now that things have come to this, let’s eat first.
Across from her, Zhao Xiaojing raised her eyes and stole a glance at Dong Mei, who seemed to have let go of her worries after being hurt by the spicy food. She suddenly felt much more at ease. While secretly praising herself for being clever, she also carefully dipped a sip of the dipping sauce into her mouth.
This dipping sauce was not the slightly spicy version she had made at the beginning, but a new one she had just made by secretly going to the kitchen while Dong Mei wasn't paying attention.
The new dipping sauce was spicy and sour, and she added the extra spicy red chili oil that she had poured on Su Yuchen at noon.
Su Yuchen loves spicy food. On the first day back home, she complained to her several times that the food at home tasted bland without chili peppers. Therefore, Zhao Xiaojing specially found the dried chili peppers that Dong Mei had stockpiled, selected the spiciest variety and upgraded it to a special grade. She only took a bite of this jar of red chili oil at noon and she was so horny about how spicy it was.
Seeing Dong Mei eating absentmindedly with a dazed look on her face just now, Zhao Xiaojing suddenly remembered what she had read before: spicy food is a kind of pain. Eating spicy food appropriately can stimulate one's appetite and relieve depression. So she secretly tried it, and did not expect the effect to be so effective.
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