Chapter 068
Chuxia did deliberately avoid Wang Cuiying and came out.
When she pushed her bicycle out of the alley, she ran into other neighbors in the alley.
Most of the neighbors were surprised to see her. After greeting her, some even said, "Chuxia, you've done a good job in the countryside. Not only does it look like you didn't suffer, but you're doing better than at home."
Chuxia smiled and greeted everyone as we walked out of the alley, then got on her bike and went to handle the household registration procedures.
She used the morning time to complete the settlement procedures. Knowing that Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei would not go home for lunch, she did not return to the courtyard at noon.
She took the money and ticket and ate something outside.
In the afternoon, during working hours, I went to the Grain Management Office to handle grain supply procedures.
There was still early time after completing the food supply procedures, so Chuxia was not in a hurry to go back.
Wang Cuiying and Li Lan were unemployed and spent most of their time in the yard. If she went back early, they would inevitably drag her away to talk about Han Ting, so she rode her bike around the city.
Although I haven't been back for nearly two years, the development of Beijing has stagnated over the years and there has been little change in Beijing.
After a stroll, Chuxia went to the Xinhua Bookstore in Wangfujing, looked for some materials and books that could be used for review, and bought two books before the bookstore closed.
At the end of the working day, the bookstore salesperson closed the shop.
Chuxia put two review materials in her schoolbag and rode her bike home.
It was already evening when she rode her bike back to the alley.
After entering the alley, I greeted people along the way.
I rode my bike to the gate of her house and got off, where I happened to meet the Jiang family of four who were returning home from get off work or school. They greeted each other with a smile. Jiang Jianping and Jiang Guanjie were both stunned when they saw Chu Xia.
But the Jiang family members are reserved and will not express all their emotions outwardly.
Especially Jiang Jianping and Jiang Guanjie, they were stunned for a moment and then it passed.
Chuxia pushed her bicycle and walked into the gate with them.
They parked the car in the front yard, entered the second gate, and then went back to their homes.
After entering the backyard, Chuxia saw smoke coming out of her kitchen, so she hurried back to her room, put down her schoolbag, and went out to the kitchen.
Wu Xuemei got off work early and was cooking in the kitchen.
Seeing Chu Xia coming back, she smiled and said, "Take a break. The meal is almost ready, and your dad will be back from get off work soon. Wait for him to come back and cook a few dishes, and then we'll eat."
Of course Wu Xuemei can also cook.
It’s just that Chuxia came back late last night and we ate in a hurry. We didn’t have time in the morning and at noon, so we can only have a good meal together as a family tonight.
Tang Haikuan's family inherited cooking skills and he used to be a chef, so naturally he is better at cooking than her.
But Chuxia didn't listen to her and wait.
Chu Xia went over to take a look at what Wu Xuemei bought, then turned around and asked Wu Xuemei, "Mom, what are you going to cook?"
Wu Xuemei smiled and said, "Let's have a good meal tonight. Let's cook four dishes, two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. The meat dishes include stir-fried three kinds of vegetables and shredded pork with Beijing sauce, and the vegetable dishes include stir-fried lotus root slices with green peppers and shredded potatoes with green peppers. Do you think that's okay?"
Chuxia asked what to eat, not that she wanted to give any advice.
After listening, she wrote it down and said, "Okay, then today I will show you my skills. I will cook it."
Hearing this, Wu Xuemei hurriedly said, "No need, just take a rest and wait for the meal."
Chu Xia naturally didn't listen. She went straight to the stove and started to prepare the dishes Wu Xuemei bought, saying, "I can cook all these dishes. You can try my cooking today."
Wu Xuemei could see that Chu Xia really wanted to show them her skills, so she didn't say anything more.
After cooking, she went to Chuxia's side, watched Chuxia busy herself, and helped her.
In early summer, she skillfully cuts fresh pork liver and kidney, then cuts the pork into shreds after cutting the pig intestines.
When Chuxia was cutting the pork kidney, Wu Xuemei was a little dumbfounded.
In her eyes, Chuxia cooks better than her father and is more pleasing to the eye.
After standing by and watching for a while, Wu Xuemei couldn't help but sigh: "Oh, we can also eat Xia Xia's dishes. You can tell they are delicious just by looking at them."
Hearing this, Chu Xia looked at Wu Xuemei and suddenly realized that she was really nothing in the past. Although she is a good cook, she has never cooked a meal for her family.
She improved her cooking skills and thought about food, and most of the time she would cook for herself and give it to Han Ting like a treasure.
How is Han Ting worthy of this?
On what basis does he do that?
Chu Xia couldn't help but take a deep breath, clearing Han Ting from her mind, and then looked at Wu Xuemei and said with a smile: "In the future, as long as I have time and opportunity, I will often cook for you and dad."
Wu Xuemei didn't care about this. "It's enough if you have this in mind for your parents."
Chu Xia said a few words to Wu Xuemei and continued to concentrate on cooking.
She prepared all the ingredients and materials, and finished all the preparations, and heated the oil in a pan.
Heat the oil to 60% hot, then put the prepared pork kidney and liver into the pan to fry.
When the kidneys are put into the pot, there is a sizzling sound and they are instantly boiled into curled flower spikes.
Boil the pork intestines and side dishes in a frying pan, then drain out the oil and remove them.
After taking out all the main dishes and side dishes, leave a little oil at the bottom of the pot, then add the minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, then pour the main dishes in and pour the sauce prepared in advance...
The kitchen was filled with fragrance.
The fragrance drifted out of the kitchen with the green smoke from the pot and into the yard.
It was still daylight, and Jiang Shan and her brother Jiang Guanjie were doing their homework at the table in the yard.
There was a Albizia Julibrissin tree in their yard, close to the west wing.
The Jiang family placed two chairs and a small table under the tree. When the light in the house was dim or the weather was good, the Jiang brothers and sisters would read books and do homework here.
Suddenly she smelled the aroma of three kinds of food exploding, and she sniffed and said, "What a nice smell."
Jiang Guanjie also smelled it. He took a deep breath and sniffed it, then he and Jiang Shan looked in the direction where the fragrance came from - Chu Xia's kitchen.
After watching for a while, Jiang Shan and Jiang Guanjie swallowed their saliva together.
But Jiang Guanjie said nothing, withdrew his gaze and continued to do his homework.
Jiang Shan was so attracted by the fragrance that she couldn't calm down.
But she didn't show too much greed, after all, in her parents' eyes, this was considered shameful behavior.
The two children of Han Lei, the eldest brother of the Han family, are not so particular.
His daughter Han Mengyuan is about the same age as Jiang Shan, only one year younger. She took her younger brother Jiang Feipeng and followed the smell directly to the kitchen of Chu Xia's house. They lay down at the door and stretched their heads to look inside.
When Li Lan, the eldest sister-in-law of the Han family, smelled the fragrance when she entered the yard, she didn't care about being subtle.
When Wu Xuemei was carrying the cooked dishes to the middle room of the main house, she smiled and said to Wu Xuemei: "Is your family celebrating a festival today? I can smell the aroma of several kinds of meat."
Wu Xuemei put the dishes on the table in the house, and when she came out, she said with a smile: "Xia Xia just came back. She has been through such a hard time in the countryside for such a long time. She finally came home. She must have a few more good meals."
Li Lan smiled and asked again: "Is this Chu Xia's craft?"
In the past two years since I was away from the city in early summer, there has never been such a fragrance in the yard.
Although Tang Haikuan has the skills of a chef and can cook many dishes, he can't make it taste like this.
Wu Xuemei stood under the corridor and said: "I told her not to do it, but she insisted on doing it for us."
Li Lan smiled and said with envy: "You and Uncle Haikuan are blessed to have a daughter like Chuxia. It would be a great blessing for anyone to marry Chuxia as a daughter-in-law!"
While Wu Xuemei and Li Lan were talking, Tang Haikuan, Han Qingtian and Han Lei just came back.
The three of them entered the yard and sniffed together. Then Han Qingtian said first, "Oh, what a nice smell! Whose restaurant is this?"
Li Lan smiled and continued, "It was Chuxia who cooked for Uncle Haikuan and Aunt Xuemei."
Han Qingtian turned to look at Tang Haikuan and said, "Oh, you are lucky."
Tang Haikuan smiled happily, "Then I can go home and enjoy my life."
They walked into the yard, and Jiang Shan and Jiang Guanjie, who were sitting at the table doing homework, called out for help.
After Tang Haikuan, Han Qingtian and Han Lei went home, Han Mengyuan and Han Feipeng, who were lying outside the kitchen of Chu Xia's house, were also called back. Jiang Shan and Jiang Guanjie also happened to hear Xu Lihua calling them in the house: "Shanshan, Guanjie, it's time to eat."
Jiang Guanjie responded, "Coming."
He and Jiang Shan stood up and went back to the west wing of their house to have dinner together.
When they sat down at the table to eat, Jiang Shan couldn't help but speak first.
Jiang Shan looked at Xu Lihua and said, "You all saw it, didn't you? Tang Chuxia has become very beautiful?"
Yes, I saw it, but what does it have to do with them?
Xu Lihua said, "What's wrong with seeing her? Why do you care about her so much?"
She never allowed Jiang Guanjie and Jiang Shan to play close to other children in the yard. In her opinion, no matter whether they were the Han family's children or Chu Xia, they were not presentable and had no future.
Birds of a feather flock together. She was afraid that Jiang Guanjie and Jiang Shan would be led astray by them.
Jiang Shan didn't stop talking, looking at Xu Lihua and continued, "I was thinking, she has become so beautiful, is it because the soil and water in the countryside are good? Otherwise, I will also sign up to join the team here for two years?"
She is in the second grade of junior high school this year and will graduate at the end of the year.
If you are willing, you can also go to the countryside to work as a sent-down youth.
When Xu Lihua heard her words, she immediately frowned and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? Are you sane? The country has slowed down the policy of sending educated youth to the countryside. There are so many educated youth in the countryside waiting to return to the city. Do you still want to go?"
Jiang Shan lowered her head and muttered, "I envy Tang Chuxia."
Xu Lihua said, "What's there to envy about being pretty? You should envy those who are smart, good at studying, capable and promising. Tang Chuxia has been obsessed with getting married since she was a child, and she still likes a little hooligan like Han Ting who has no quality and no character. No matter how beautiful she becomes, she will never achieve anything in her life. You are not allowed to learn from her. If you learn to be as useless as she is, then I have really taught you in vain!"
Jiang Shanshan pursed her lips and said nothing more.
Jiang Jianping said again: "Listen to your mother, don't think about nonsense all the time. The news of the resumption of the college entrance examination will be officially announced soon. The most important thing is to study hard and take the college entrance examination."
Jiang Shanshan lowered her head and responded in a low voice: "I know."
Jiang Jianping then looked at Jiang Guanjie and asked, "How is your review going?"
Ever since the Ministry of Education held a national college admissions work conference in Beijing and decided to resume the college entrance examination, he worked at the Education Bureau and learned the news by virtue of his position. He then began to have Jiang Guanjie review and prepare for the college entrance examination.
Of course, the news that the college entrance examination would be resumed was not top secret. National leaders had held many meetings on the matter. They lived in Beijing, which was closest to the source of the news. It was not difficult to find out as long as one was willing to inquire, especially if someone in the family worked in a government agency.
Jiang Guanjie is now in his second year of high school and is a recent graduate.
They got the news in advance and asked Jiang Guanjie to review in advance. They also got him a review outline and found a lot of review materials, which gave them a lot of advantages over others.
Jiang Guanjie is not as thoughtful as Jiang Shan. He has always listened to his parents since he was a child.
He nodded and said, "Yes, I have been reviewing seriously."
The topic turned to Jiang Guanjie, and this topic was the important topic in his family.
So Xu Lihua looked at Jiang Guanjie and said, "When you review, if you come across something you don't understand, you must ask your teacher, okay? Especially for math, physics, and chemistry, you must understand it thoroughly and make good use of your time to do more exercises."
Jiang Guanjie nodded again, "I know."
Xu Lihua added, "For the past ten years, the school has been in a semi-abandoned state. Everyone thinks that learning is useless and does not take it seriously. Therefore, there are very few students who study seriously. There are not even a few in a class. Moreover, they all go to work in society or go to the countryside as educated youth. After leaving school, they study even less. But Guanjie, you have always studied honestly. In addition, we started reviewing more than a month earlier than others, so there will be no problem for you to take the college entrance examination."
Jiang Guanjie usually believes Xu Lihua's words the most.
In this matter, Xu Lihua is a teacher. Although she teaches in elementary school, she knows more about the school environment, student quality, and examinations over the years than others.
Xu Lihua analyzed that he could do it, so he definitely could do it.
So he nodded again and said, "Yeah."
They had almost finished what they could say, and Xu Lihua gave one last reminder: "As usual, you can't say anything you said at the dinner table outside."
These words were naturally said to Jiang Guanjie and Jiang Shan.
They both knew it and nodded.
***
The dinner table at Chuxia's and Han's families was not so serious as a meeting.
The Han family's dinner table was still noisy, but the Chuxia family of three was relatively quiet.
After eating the dishes made by Chu Xia, Wu Xuemei said, "Our daughter's cooking skills are still the best."
Tang Haikuan deliberately said: "That's right, he got my true teachings."
Wu Xuemei smiled and didn't refuse him.
What real secrets does he have? The small restaurant his family ran closed down when he was a chef. Later, he failed to find a job as a chef, so he went to work as a worker in a pickle factory.
Chuxia naturally did not give Tang Haikuan any face.
She smiled and said, "Yes, I inherited your talent and craft."
These were just gossips at the dinner table. No one in the family of three mentioned those unhappy things, creating a warm and light-hearted atmosphere. They finished all four dishes while chatting and laughing.
After the meal, Tang Haikuan took the initiative to clean up the dishes.
Chuxia and Wu Xuemei also went to the yard and watched Tang Haikuan wash dishes while they digested their food.
When Chuxia was talking to Wu Xuemei, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a piece of paper on the ground not far away.
Seeing that there seemed to be words on it, Chuxia walked over, bent down, picked it up, and looked at it in her hand. She saw two lines of large characters printed in the middle of the paper - [Review outline for the 1977 enrollment cultural examination]
It looks like the title page of a reference book.
Before Chu Xia could come to her senses, someone suddenly snatched the paper from her hand.
She looked up and saw it was Jiang Shan's brother Jiang Guanjie.
Jiang Guanjie has grown a lot bigger than he was two years ago. He has become nearsighted and wears glasses.
He raised his hand to push up his glasses and said, "This is mine."
Chuxia came back to her senses and exclaimed.
His and Jiang Shan's books were placed on the table under the albizzia tree, probably blown over by the wind.
Chuxia was very interested in this review outline.
So she hurriedly asked Jiang Guanjie: "What is the admissions exam?"
Chuxia concluded that this must be the review outline for this year's college entrance examination.
Jiang Guanjie's father works in the Education Bureau and his mother is a teacher. He knew the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination earlier than others, and got the review outline in advance, which was not a difficult task.
The reason why Chuxia asked this was that she wanted to take this opportunity to chat more with Jiang Guanjie, and when the time was right, she would take the opportunity to borrow this outline from him to take a look.
In the end, Jiang Guanjie did not answer Chu Xia's words.
He said directly: "You won't understand anything about studying even if I tell you."
Chu Xia: “…”
Why doesn't she understand anything about studying?
It's not like she never went to school. She only graduated from high school before going to the countryside to work in the fields.
This makes her sound as if she is illiterate.
Without waiting for Chuxia to say anything, Jiang Guanjie took the paper and turned away.
It was already dark by then, so he went to the table, packed up his textbooks and homework, and went into the house.
Chuxia curled her lips secretly and went back to Wu Xuemei.
Wu Xuemei and Tang Haikuan didn't quite hear what Chu Xia and Jiang Guanjie said. Wu Xuemei looked at Chu Xia and asked, "What is that?"
Chu Xia replied to Wu Xuemei: "Exam review outline."
Wu Xuemei heard this and said, "Study matters have little to do with us."
Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei didn't pay attention to the college entrance examination, and Chuxia naturally didn't plan to say more to them. After all, the news of the official resumption of the college entrance examination had not yet been announced.
But what Wu Xuemei said was not wrong. Jiang Guanjie's refusal to let her look at the review outline did not have much impact on her.
According to the time point in the novel, there is only about a week left before major media announce the official resumption of the college entrance examination.
She started reviewing in March last year, so this week's time is not a big deal at all.
Once the news of the official resumption of the college entrance examination is announced, the review outline will naturally come out, and there will be many ways to get it by then.
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