Chapter 59: Sour Jujube on the Mountain
Jiang Wanwan went to the kitchen and got a small half basin of two-grain rice. Two-grain rice is quite common here, a mixture of rice and millet. Most people in the team eat sorghum rice, or steamed corn bread, or mixed vegetables. Few people can afford refined rice.
In the past few years, the most rice we ate was 92 meters or 81 meters.
92 rice means 100 kg of brown rice can be ground into 92 kg of white rice, which can retain many grains of rice flour. 81 rice means 100 kg of brown rice can be ground into 81 kg of flour. If everyone eats 92 rice and 81 rice, the country can save 800 million catties of grain a year. Some people eat too much refined rice and even develop beriberi.
Compared with the previous communal meals and the 92-meter and 81-meter life, we are much happier now.
The rice was warming in the pot, emitting steam. Jiang Wanwan took an iron spoon and scooped a spoonful of soup and potatoes and poured them on the rice. The potatoes were soft and broke into pieces when pinched. They absorbed the soup and emitted an enticing aroma.
She served a dozen potatoes and mixed the minced meat from the ribs into the soup, which had a bit of meaty smell and looked delicious.
After filling half the basin, Jiang Wanwan filled another bowl, also covered with a few potatoes and broth, which also smelled of meat. She put the bowl on the ground and said gently to the outside: "Come in, you bastard. I've filled you a bowl of rice with gravy and potatoes. Come in and have some."
The wind blew outside the door, and after a while, a little girl with thin clothes, red face and frostbite on her hands walked in.
Gou Niu sniffed his nose and said, "Fourth Aunt."
She saw the rice on the stove. The rice was so white and the soup was so rich. Gou Nao had never eaten such delicious food before.
Jiang Wanwan felt sorry for this child. He was obviously a good-natured, smart and hardworking child, but he was treated harshly by Liu Yeju just because he was not a boy.
"You must be hungry. Go eat. If it's not enough, get another bowl. Go get the soup from the pot yourself."
Gou Nao hesitated for a moment, then walked up to Jiang Wanwan on her small feet. She was very small, and she had to raise her head to see Jiang Wanwan's face.
"Thank you, Fourth Aunt. When I become successful in the future, I will recognize you as my mother and take care of you in your old age."
Jiang Wanwan patted her head and said, "Good girl, eat quickly."
Gou Nao nodded and walked out with the bowl and chopsticks.
Jiang Wanwan: "Why don't you eat here?"
Gou Nao pursed his cracked lips and said, "I can't eat here. If my mother sees me eating here, she will blame me for secretly eating the ribs from Fourth Aunt's pot. I'm wronged by my mother, and my aunt will be angry. I don't want her to be angry."
My mother is a bad person. She steals my aunt's meat. My aunt doesn't give it to my mother, but gives it to her. If my mother knows about it, she will be jealous and go crazy.
Jiang Wanwan looked at Gou Nao's intelligent and clear eyes and couldn't help but sigh in her heart, Liu Yeju, Liu Yeju, giving birth to such a daughter is really a blessing you earned in your previous life, but it's a pity that you don't appreciate your blessing.
"Then go ahead. If you are hungry or cold in the future and want something, just tell your aunt."
Gou Niu smiled sweetly: "Okay!"
She wanted to get out of the mountains and out of Liu Yeju's abuse, so she needed someone to help her. If it was her aunt who helped her, she was willing to owe her something because her aunt was the first person who was kind to her.
Although my aunt is a good person, she is afraid of my mother. Only my aunt is not afraid of offending my mother because of her.
She walked out on her thin legs.
Jiang Wanwan also carried a basin to the main room. Suisui and Guoguo had not eaten yet, and the twins were rolling around on the kang.
Seeing Jiang Wanwan, Guoguo pushed back the quilt and scratched her messy hair with her chubby hands: "Aunt Fairy."
Sui Sui sniffed her little nose: "What a nice smell! ~"
When Xu Lan saw Jiang Wanwan holding a small basin in her hand, she knew she had brought something: "Why are you bringing something again? My Guoguo has gained weight."
He said this but couldn't stop laughing.
Without Jiang Wanwan, these two children would not have grown up so well.
Jiang Wanwan did not distribute the bowls. She put a spoon in the small basin and put the rice on the kang. Guoguo and Susui sat on the kang obediently. Xu Lan took the basin, scooped a spoonful of meat with the spoon and fed it to Guoguo first.
Guoguo ate the rice with meat soup. She squinted her eyes because of the delicious smell and stuck out her tongue to lick the rice grains on the corner of her mouth.
"It smells so good! It smells just as good as Fourth Auntie's."
Jiang Wanwan was so confused that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What kind of metaphor was this kid using?
Sui Sui also took a bite and kicked her chubby legs happily: "Delicious, delicious, I want to eat more."
Jiang Wanwan looked at the two children eating and sighed with regret: "I originally wanted to give the children a few more ribs, but after delivering the meal to grandma and grandpa, I went back to the kitchen and saw Liu Yeju kicking bones into the stove, with rib soup hanging from the corners of her mouth. I took a look and saw that she ate seven or eight pieces, but she only ate the ones with more meat. I asked her to compensate me, but she is calling me a relative and a relationship with me."
Xu Lan got angry after hearing this, not because of the meat, but because she was infuriated by Liu Yeju's shamelessness.
"How can she be so shameless at her age? She is not a three-year-old child. Is she stealing food from the pot? Why is she so greedy?"
Guo Guo rolled his eyes, swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "Even a three-year-old child wouldn't steal food."
Guoguo won’t steal food unless Fourth Aunt gives it to her. Fourth Aunt also bought her food with money!
Xu Lan scooped a spoonful of rice and stuffed it into her mouth: "Children should not interrupt when adults are talking."
"She hasn't always been like this." Jiang Wanwan told Xu Lan because she was afraid that Liu Yeju would say something nonsense and frame her when she went back to the second room to get the meat. Now that Xu Lan knew the inside story, she would be able to help her argue in the future.
"Sister-in-law, you take the children to eat first. I'm going back."
Xu Lan nodded: "Go quickly, I'll feed them and I won't send you off yet."
Shen Dazhui was not at home because he was helping the brigade to build a water canal. My mother-in-law was making clothes in the next room and she couldn't leave to take care of the two children.
Jiang Wanwan went back after a busy day, and when she sat down, she found that Shen Xingjiang had just drunk some water without even moving his chopsticks. Jiang Wanwan sat down, and he picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and put it in her bowl.
"You've worked hard. Eat more."
The others had been eating for a while, and he was the only one waiting for her to come back.
Jiang Wanwan was hungry after running around, so she picked up a piece of potato for him before lowering her head to eat: "It's delicious."
After she came back, Shen Xingjiang started to eat some food. During the meal, he talked with Cheng Hanzhang about some military affairs and the lives of ordinary people today.
The stove was burning hot, the heat floated onto the glass to form a layer of mist, and everyone was chatting about something, creating the best atmosphere in this winter.
Cheng Hanzhang usually eats little. After finishing half a bowl of rice, he put down his chopsticks and took a sip of wine. He never got angry when drinking. The sorghum wine went down his throat and into his stomach. The wine was warm and had the mellow aroma of grain. After drinking one glass, his face returned to normal.
"I heard that Jiang Lian has been causing trouble for you again recently."
Jiang Wanwan nodded: "It's okay, she is no match for me."
Her bait was about to be cast, and Jiang Lian’s good days were about to come to an end.
Cheng Hanzhang felt for the cigarette in his pocket, and considering that few people were smoking in the room, he put it back and asked Jiang Wanwan: "I will go directly back to the capital this time. Do you need anything to bring? You can tell me."
"Nothing. This place looks poor, but actually it has everything." The memories of the capital city had long faded from Jiang Wanwan's mind. All she remembered now were the endless green fields, the sour jujubes and roasted rabbits on the mountains.
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