Xiao Lingzi exclaimed in a low voice beside him: "Oh my god, tell me the truth, did Brother Sanyong change it for you? This swallowfish is so fragrant, which means he might... He must have been defeated by you, you really helped me."
Lian Xiaomin looked at this girl and really wanted to give her a thumbs up. She would answer the questions quickly and there was no need for her to make up lies herself.
She frowned and whispered seriously, "Whatever you eat from me today, you two must keep your mouth shut, okay? If outsiders get to know about Brother Sanyong's affairs—"
She stretched out her hand and grabbed the air fiercely, making a gesture as if to crush it to death.
The two nodded repeatedly and answered, "Of course it is necessary. Our families are the closest and most reliable relatives and friends."
While Yufang was adding fuel to the fire and cooking, she looked through the open door of the main room at the two people in the yard who were stretching their arms and legs and gesticulating.
Lian Xiaomin knew that the little girl was probably just playing on a whim, so she taught her some simple moves and started playing with her. Xiao Lingzi then joined in the fun and had a lot of fun.
After they practiced for a while, Xiao Lingzi became tired and her movements became more and more off-kilter, almost like she was doing gymnastics.
Lian Xiaomin didn't care. After all, it was just for fun. There were only a few people who were willing to put in real effort. They wouldn't be full even if they ate, so they might as well save some calories.
You can do gymnastics, it can help you move around and make you sweat a little.
In a blink of an eye, it was almost noon. Yufang had already stewed the swallow fish and had already closed the front and back doors of the main room tightly.
Although it is far from Zheng Laowu’s house, what if someone passes by the foot of the mountain? It is best not to miss any fragrance.
Lian Xiaomin opened the door a crack, squeezed in with the tired Xiaolingzi, and quickly closed the door again.
She scooped a basin of water from the water tank, washed her hands with Xiao Lingzi, and told Yufang to leave a small bowl for Xiao Fu and heat it up for him to taste in the evening. She then put the whole thing in an aluminum lunch box and took it back to her aunt and Da Cui Nai.
Xiao Lingzi smelled the fragrant aroma in the air and quickly helped Yufang serve the dishes.
There was still most of the pot left, filling up a small basin. Soon, the three of them sat cross-legged on the kang and started eating!
Lian Xiaomin took a few sips of the soup with a spoon. Wow, it was so delicious. The taste index was almost as good as that of pheasant stewed with mushrooms. Why did everything cooked in this iron pot smell so delicious?
It would be better if some coriander was added, but this thing still cannot be taken out, so let it be, that’s good enough.
Just now Yufang added some white wine to remove the fishy smell, but there was only one bottle left, which she placed on the stove.
But it was already delicious, and as someone who was not very good at cooking, she was content.
I will make a goose stew in an iron pot when I have the chance. Stew, stew, stew. This is the style of Northeastern cuisine.
Lian Xiaomin asked Yufang and Xiaolingzi to pick up their chopsticks quickly and picked up a piece of fish herself. After chewing it, she thought, "Hmm, this swallowfish is good, quite fresh (Northeastern dialect, fresh), and fragrant!"
Only relatively new swallowtail fish are delicious, the fish meat is very tender, the old ones are not so delicious.
Lian Xiaomin thought to herself: The goods in this cold chain insulated warehouse are really good.
Try the stewed wide vermicelli, which is also good. Vermicelli is the soul of Northeastern stew. There is also the famous pork and sauerkraut stewed vermicelli, which are both delicious.
Yufang also served a few cornmeal pancakes. Lian Xiaomin had a small appetite and only ate half of a pancake, but she did eat a lot of fish.
The three little girls sat on the warm kang and ate voraciously. Lian Xiaomin asked everyone to finish the food and not leave any. As a result, everyone finished it all soon.
Yufang leaned against the wall at the head of the kang and said with satisfaction, "This wide noodle is delicious. In previous Chinese New Years, my mother also made pork stewed with vermicelli. Although there was not much meat, the vermicelli was also very fragrant..."
Halfway through her speech, she remembered something and her brows suddenly knitted together: "But I'm afraid it won't work this year. The situation this year is too bad. Whether it will be a good year or not is another matter. I'm really worried that if it continues for a while, people in the village will starve to death and there will be a big mess."
Xiao Lingzi sat sideways against the kang cabinet and said, "Don't mention it. My grandparents get along well with the old Party Secretary, Mr. Xu. My grandma heard that several families in our village have run out of food."
Lian Xiaomin said: "Really? It's starting now?"
Xiao Lingzi looked at her and nodded, then continued, "At the east entrance of the village, at the head of the group, Wang Erzhu's family, and at the edge of the slope, at Sun Guangcai's family, there are people who can't get up from their beds. They are so hungry. It hasn't been long since the food distribution, and they have nothing to eat. They wanted to borrow food from the village, but the team leader said there was none. Then they went to ask the old branch secretary, but the village granary was empty. How could there be any food? The old branch secretary brought them some sweet potatoes and potatoes himself."
Lian Xiaomin thought that the old branch secretary was a good man, and the sweet potatoes he exchanged for the puppy were probably gone.
Yufang also said, "I heard that the Zhou family, who live one door to the east of our house, started fighting over a bite of food. They fought over who had one more bite or one less bite."
Xiao Lingzi continued, "The Zhou family has eleven children, right? Their family is really too large! They haven't even divided the family."
Yufang replied, "Yes, Zhou Zuoshan and his wife had eleven children, four of whom got married and two of them have grandchildren. All of them lived together and were always making noises. That night, they had a fight. The children cried and the adults shouted. It went on until midnight. Even my family could hear it clearly. It was a daughter-in-law who hid a piece of sweet potato and left the girl hungry. She was so hungry that she was trembling with hunger."
Several people sighed, and Yufang and Xiaolingzi couldn't help but worry about the future of their family.
Yufang was fine, the Li family was small, but her sister-in-law was about to give birth, which was not easy either. In fact, she was still worried about her elder sister. Li Yufen also had four little kids, and her youngest nephew was only four years old. If something happened to her, what would she do if she couldn't support him?
She recalled that her eldest brother came back from the construction site in the middle of the night and said that the black market had recently increased the price of food and it was very difficult to buy. Thinking of her eldest sister, she felt worried.
Xiao Lingzi was even more worried. Her family was also the eldest family, with her grandparents, second uncle's family, and third uncle's family, all living together. Her younger aunt had never married out of the house. She said that she had a ten-year-old brother and an eight-year-old sister. Every time her mother helped her grandmother cook, the two of them would look at the grain bag with worry.
In such an environment, the topics of conversation among the three girls gradually became heavy.
Lian Xiaomin had made a calculation in her mind. She planned to find a way to use the money of the black market to sell a batch of food to the village. If every family waited until they were almost starving to death, then her family would not be immune.
This needs to be planned carefully and done properly.
After taking a short break at noon, Lian Xiaomin took Yufang and Xiaolingzi to continue practicing the moves while the sun was shining and it was warm outside.
The two of them were quite serious. After eating and drinking, they felt energetic and followed Xiaomin in learning.
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