Seeing that no one else had appeared inside, Zhou Chenyu put her feet down and was met with a closed door: "Are all straight men so insensitive to chivalry?"
"Fortunately, my heart is hard enough to not hurt me. It's okay, we have a long future ahead of us."
Zhou Chenyu smiled and left gracefully. Afterwards, he bought a pound of red beans, a pound of mung beans, half a pound of sugar, half a pound of peanuts, and a pot of rice wine. He gathered all the necessary items and rushed home in the afternoon.
At that time, Chen Tongsheng was sitting on the eaves of their main room. Most of the tiles had been lifted, revealing the wooden structure. Baoyu was below, holding the ladder and passing tiles to him.
"Brother Chen, you've arrived?" Zhou Chenyu looked at the man on the roof and shook the wine pot in his hand. "Knowing you were coming, I specially prepared some good wine for you."
Chen Tongsheng wiped the fine sweat from his forehead with his bare hand. The person he had been waiting for had arrived. His smile blossomed in the sunlight. "Chenyu, why did you buy wine? Auntie has already prepared a good meal. I am very content."
"How can that be? You're a guest, how can we neglect you? Be careful."
Zhou Chenyu returned to the kitchen carrying the things, and Li Xiuju brought back a chicken. "You just went to the street to buy some things, why are you so late? Did you run into that bastard Qian Rushan again?"
She encountered far more than just a mountain of money...
Zhou Chenyu smiled and shook her head, "No, I just waited a while when I got there because the wine shop wasn't open yet, so I was able to buy some wine."
Li Xiuju smiled and removed the ends of the freshly picked green beans, breaking them into sections. Zhou Chenyu put down his things and sat down to help.
Li Xiuju looked at her, then glanced at the person on the eaves, and secretly rejoiced, "Chenyu, Mother thinks Tongsheng is a good person, a good child. You understand what Mother means, right?"
It's nice, but she doesn't like it.
A forced relationship will never be sweet.
"Grandma, I understand what you mean." Zhou Chenyu remained calm and maintained her smile, first reassuring Li Xiuju, and then quietly waiting for the best opportunity.
"Oh dear, look at my brain, I'm getting old and can't remember things. Stir-fried chicken can't be without ginger, so Mom will go to the henhouse to catch some chickens, and you go to the vegetable garden to dig up two pieces of ginger."
Zhou Chenyu clapped his hands, "Okay, I'll go then."
She carried the vegetable basket and walked towards the vegetable garden in the back house. It was already midsummer, and the sun was blazing. The vegetable garden had dried up and turned into loose soil.
Zhou Chenyu pulled up the ginger and put it aside. He then dug up the stone at the water inlet under the bamboo fence and diverted the water from the nearby ditch into the vegetable garden.
Hongmei walked down the mountain path behind the vegetable garden, holding a handful of wild grass with roots in her hand. Zhou Chenyu saw her and greeted her, "Sister Hongmei, what are you holding in your hand?"
"The child isn't feeling well, so I picked some herbs to boil into a drink for him." After saying this, Hongmei glanced at the burly man on the eaves, tiptoed over, and asked with a smile, "Chenyu, is that guest in your household your future husband?"
Husband?
Baoyu was absolutely right. If a strange man were to appear in the house, it would attract gossip within a few days.
Zhou Chenyu shook her head, "He's just an older brother."
"Brother?" Hongmei murmured softly, looking at her meaningfully. She assumed the young girl was too shy to admit it, so she didn't press the matter further.
When Zhou Chenyu returned home, Li Xiuju had already slaughtered the chicken, and the chicken body and internal organs were neatly placed on a plate.
"Tong Sheng and Bao Yu are almost done. Let's start cooking too."
Li Xiuju rolled up her sleeves and went back into the house. She drained the water from the pot, put half a pound of peanuts into the pot, stir-fried them over low heat, added a small spoonful of salt, and stir-fried them until the surface of the peanuts was slightly charred. In this way, the peanut skins could be easily rubbed off.
The roasted peanuts were set aside. Zhou Chenyu, bored while adding firewood, casually grabbed a handful. They tasted fragrant and crunchy, making them a great choice to enjoy with drinks.
After frying the peanuts, Li Xiuju prepared to chop up the chicken and stir-fry it. As someone who grew up in a province famous for its chicken, using a top-quality free-range chicken for stir-frying seemed a bit of a waste, and Zhou Chenyu felt it was time to show off his skills.
In the past, during Chinese New Year, we ate chicken from New Year's Eve to the fifteenth, one chicken a day until we were sick of it. Since arriving here, the only chicken she'd ever eaten was the roast chicken Chen Tongsheng gave her; she'd been waiting for that taste of home for so long.
"Grandma, you should rest today, I'll do it." She quickly changed the subject, but unexpectedly, Li Xiuju misunderstood her meaning. "Okay, you do it, Mom will cook the other two dishes."
Following her mother's steps for making poached chicken, Zhou Chenyu boiled a pot of water, added two slices of ginger and a bunch of scallions, and then submerged the whole chicken in the water to simmer over low heat.
The best poached chicken should be cooked until it's neither too old nor too undercooked. The meat should be tender and white when cooked through, and the bone marrow should still have some blood in it.
Zhou Chenyu was worried that she wouldn't be able to control the heat, so she cut open the thickest part of the chicken leg to check. It was almost cooked and would only need to be cooked for a little while longer.
Li Xiuju prepared stir-fried eggs with chives and stir-fried green beans, and stood aside watching from time to time. Seeing Zhou Chenyu's skillful movements, she unconsciously smiled and nodded.
"The vegetables are almost cooked, Mom will go call someone." She gave up the kitchen and took the vegetables outside.
“Okay.” Zhou Chenyu took out the chicken and the ginger and scallion segments to remove the fishy smell, cut them into small pieces and put them away. Then he added a handful of green vegetables to the soup and cooked them. A pot of fresh and sweet chicken soup was ready.
To make poached chicken retain its original flavor, a ginger and scallion oil dipping sauce is crucial to making this dish stand out.
Zhou Chenyu then chopped the ginger and scallions into small pieces, fried two spoonfuls of lard, and poured it over the ginger and scallions to release their aroma.
Chen Tongsheng climbed down from the eaves, not yet washing his hands. He smelled the kitchen and couldn't wait to peek inside. "Chen Yu, you praised my roast chicken the other day. Now that I see your cooking, it's truly exceptional."
Zhou Chenyu smiled and said, "Then Brother Chen, you must eat more later."
"Stop talking and wash your hands quickly, dinner is almost ready," Li Xiuju urged, carrying bowls and chopsticks. Chen Tongsheng walked over with a smile.
Baoyu sneaked into the kitchen and muttered to himself, "Sister, look how happy Mother is. She's ignoring me completely. Could she be mistaken for her son-in-law returning home?"
Looking at Li Xiuju's beaming smile, Zhou Chenyu was pretty sure it was true. "So what do you think?"
Baoyu raised an eyebrow, pondered deeply for a moment, and said, "As for me, although Brother Chen treats me well, I hope even more that you, Sister, can marry a suitable husband. Since you don't like Brother Chen, then I will naturally stand by your side. No matter how good a man is, he can't be as dear as you, Sister."
Hearing this, Zhou Chenyu felt a warmth in her heart. "That's more like it. I haven't spoiled you for nothing."
Baoyu smiled smugly, but when he saw Li Xiuju coming over to urge him again, he frowned. "Sister, you told me yesterday that you wanted me to cooperate with you. What's your plan? Tell me quickly so I can be prepared and deal with it."
"What other way is there?" Zhou Chenyu took out the wine from the corner, confident of victory. "Then of course, we wish all lovers in the world could become siblings."
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