Chapter 42 Sweet Potato Shreds and Rice Porridge

It's very lively behind the thatched hut.

"Is it Brother Da Kui?" Wang Ziru smiled, stopped what she was doing, and quickly stood up to greet Tian Da Kui.

"Girls, Third Brother, I have some sweet potatoes at home, and I thought you might like them."

Tian Da Kui handed the dustpan to Wang Ziru and said with a smile.

"Brother Da Kui! It's a blessing for our family to always eat the vegetables grown by you and Sister Xiuxiang." Wang Ziru threw the wild mushrooms in her hand to the ground and looked at the dustpan that Tian Da Kui was holding. There were about ten pounds of sweet potatoes in it. Just one look at it made people feel that life was rich.

Tian Da Kui smiled and said, "Your sister-in-law Xiu Xiang said that there are only these sweet potatoes at home, so let Bao Er and his father taste them."

"Tomorrow, I have to thank Sister Xiuxiang in person."

Wang Ziru signaled the man to accept the sweet potatoes sent by Tian Da Kui, as that would be the food for their family for the next few days.

Right now, it's a late spring, and only a handful of villagers have surplus food.

There are four people in the Tian family, four mouths to feed, so they need a lot of food. We squeezed out food from our teeth and gave them carrots and cabbages, and now we also gave them precious sweet potatoes.

It can be seen that the couple really know how to repay their gratitude.

Zhai Ximo had been to the battlefield, fought the enemy, and attended military school. He had long since imprinted in his mind that the military and the people are one family, and he was unwilling to exploit the villagers in this way.

He took the sweet potatoes that Tian Da Kui brought him, took them straight into the house, poured them all onto the bumpy ground, and placed them together with a pile of white radishes.

He turned around and handed two yuan to Tian Da Kui, "Brother Da Kui, these vegetables are also grown with great effort to feed the family. The land in the village has just been given to households. Life is not easy for everyone. This is a little gift from me. You can take it back and give it to Sister Xiu Xiang."

"Oh, you are being so polite, how can I take your money?"

Tian Da Kui didn't expect Zhai Ximo to give him money. He was surprised but refused again and again.

In the end, Zhai Ximo stuffed it into his untied trouser pocket.

Seeing this, Mrs. Liu's eyes became even gloomier.

She dreamed of asking the third brother to give her some money. When she saw the third brother stuffing money into Tian Da Kui's trouser pocket, her eyes were full of greed and she cursed in her heart, "Damn Wang Ziru, there is so much food at home, but she didn't take the initiative to give some to her, her mother."

And you have to send money out!

Later I won't teach him a lesson.

Seeing that the third brother and his wife had such a good relationship with Tian Da Kui's family, I felt even more jealous.

She was worried that after the third son returned to the army in the future, Tian Da Kui and his wife would become the third son's wife's support.

Mrs. Liu went back to her room with red eyes and slammed the door.

Behind the house, the two men who were pulling each other finally stopped.

Tian Da Kui saw that Liu Pozi, the bitch, had finally disappeared from his sight, so he lowered his voice and asked with a smirk, "Sister, your sister-in-law said that she felt very comfortable after you washed her, and she asked me to ask if it was possible to apply some medicine inside as well?"

"It's the medicine we gave her after we caught her. Can you use that to wash it off?"

Hearing Tian Da Kui's urgent question, Zhai Ximo felt a little embarrassed and pretended to tidy up the dry branches next to him.

Wang Ziru glanced at the man and whispered, "Drinking medicine cannot be used for cleaning. However, if you can find a few herbs, crush them and squeeze out the juice, you can use it for internal treatment."

"Sister, are you telling the truth? Do you know which herbs they are?" Tian Da Kui was extremely surprised and treated Wang Ziru as a living Bodhisattva.

"Brother Da Kui, you don't recognize the herbs, so it's no use telling you. How about this, I'll go to the forest to look for them tomorrow..."

"Well... sister, it's very dangerous for you to go to the mountains alone!"

"It's okay. I'll look for it in the forest behind the house. If I can't find it, Da Kui, you can go to the town to get some dry herbs and bring them back to boil water. Then I'll help wash my sister-in-law's internal organs. That way, she'll recover faster."

Hearing Wang Ziru's sincerity, Tian Dagui's eyes were filled with tears, "Sister, you are really a living Bodhisattva. No wonder you can marry such a promising man like the third brother."

"Also, Brother Da Kui, go to the town clinic tomorrow and buy two pairs of tweezers, the longer ones, and some cotton balls..."

Wang Ziru chuckled and turned her head, just in time to meet the man's shy expression.

Today, their family lives a good life, and everyone will say that Wang Ziru is lucky to marry the most promising man in the Zhai family.

But the fact is, their family ate so many dishes from the Tian family, so they should help.

Besides, when gynecological diseases cause itching, I have no concentration on work.

Tian Da Kui walked out of the Zhai family yard in a very good mood and met the eldest couple of the Zhai family who were pulling a cart of bricks and trying hard to pull it up the slope towards the Zhai family yard.

He quickly dropped the dustpan in his hand and ran over to help push the ball.

"Brother Da Kui, where have you been?"

The cart was pushed up the slope and finally arrived outside the gate of Zhai's yard. Zhai Qingsong asked with a smile.

Tian Da Kui said with a smile, "There are still some sweet potatoes in the cellar at home. Here, I'll send some over to your third child."

"So you're here to give sweet potatoes to the third brother..." Zhai Qingsong was surprised.

When Liu Xiangqin heard Tian Da Kui say that he was actually delivering food to the third child, she pushed the cart and was sweating profusely from exhaustion.

He asked in astonishment, "Da Kui! Did you and Xiu Xiang take the wrong medicine? And you gave sweet potatoes to the third brother! If he has money, why doesn't he go to the food station to buy it himself?"

Tian Da Kui smiled awkwardly, not wanting to explain, and turned around and walked away with the dustpan.

Outside the Zhai family yard.

The eldest brother and his wife began to move all the bricks off the cart and stacked them on the open space outside the yard.

Zhai Qingsong said, "I asked you to go to the town to cut some meat this afternoon, but you refused to go. Tomorrow, you have to work at home, how can you eat radishes for breakfast? Tomorrow morning, I will go to the town to cut some pork."

"If you have money, go get it cut yourself."

Liu Xiangqin said with anger on her face.

Zhuang Jiahan was also frowning with worry. There was only a little over 100 yuan in his family, part of which was the salary he earned as a bricklayer when he was building a house for someone else last June.

Right now, the family had to buy food and repair two brick and tile houses.

The bricks and tiles used to build the house are all debts. I don’t know how much money I owe for these.

The beams for the roof were also borrowed from other families in the village, and they will have to be cut down in the mountains and returned to them in the second half of the year.

We hired two bricklayers and a helper from the village. According to everyone's custom, we have to return the labor we borrowed from others.

In the evening, the Zhai family's yard became lively.

Some were boiling water, some were cooking, and the children were making a lot of noise in the yard.

The second son of the Zhai family and his wife came back from the fields.

Xu Ping came back carrying a piece of steaming pork, "Sister-in-law! You have work tomorrow, have you bought meat?"

Outside the yard, the eldest brother and his wife had just unloaded all the bricks from the cart.

Liu Xiangqin wiped the sweat off her neck and saw Xu Ping carrying a piece of pork. She asked, "Are you going to the town?"

"No, I heard that Liu Laosan's family in Huma Village was killing pigs this afternoon, so I rushed over to cut a piece. There are still a lot left. If you haven't cut any yet, hurry to Liu Laosan's house."

"Let's go to the town to buy some tomorrow. Liu Laosan must be planning to sell the unsold goods in the town." Zhai Qingsong looked at his wife and asked, "How about I go?"

Seeing that it was getting dark, Liu Xiangqin had no choice but to give in and hurried back to the house to open the box to get the money. "Then go to Liu Laosan's house and buy a piece of pork belly."

Behind the house, in the side room, there was a hanging pot cooking sweet potato shreds and rice porridge on the fire.

A sweet fragrance wafted through the side room.

Xu Ping carried the pork into the kitchen, preparing to roast some pork skin over the fire.

As soon as I entered, I saw the third son's wife wearing a brand new red-bottomed peony flower blouse with her sleeves rolled up, revealing her arms as white as lotus roots. She was holding a wooden spoon in her hand, stirring something in the hanging pot.

"Hey! Are you cooking porridge?"

Wang Ziru looked up at her second sister-in-law and saw her coming in with pork. "Well, do you want to roast the pork skin?"

"Yes! I can't watch you all eat meat every day. My son Hao is already very hungry, and the children also want to eat meat. So when I heard that Liu Laosan's family in Huma Village was slaughtering a pig, I hurried over to cut a piece of meat and brought it back."

Xu Ping's face was filled with joy, as the family could finally eat meat.

As I walked to the fire and was about to sit down, I saw that the hanging pot was actually filled with rice porridge!

"You cooked rice porridge? And added sweet potatoes?!" Xu Ping was shocked by the scene in front of her.

Wang Ziru slowly stirred the sweet potato shreds and rice porridge in the hanging pot, smiling, "Last time I went there, I bought a few kilograms of rice."

"You also bought sweet potatoes?! Sweet potato rice porridge is so delicious..., how many kilograms did you buy?" Xu Ping couldn't help but gurgle in her throat.