As soon as Li Fang, the only elder at the table, took the first bite with chopsticks, the others seemed to have pressed the start button, waving their chopsticks, aiming directly at the favorite dish they had been craving for a long time.
Maybe because everyone picked up the seafood today, Xu Manman ate it with relish. Her favorite was not the plump oysters, but the sea fish that she usually disliked the most. The braising method allowed the fish to fully blend with the flavor of fermented black beans. The chewy and firm fish meat was no worse than meat.
"Mom, this fermented black beans smells so good, did you make it yourself?"
"I bought this black bean paste from a local islander. You like it, don't you? I'll buy more next time we go to the market, Mom."
Xu Manman nodded and said, "Well, I can buy more and send some back to my mother and aunt. They should like it." I wonder if the space factory can make fermented black beans with this flavor?
"Okay, buy more, but you can't send me money this time."
Hearing this, Xu Manman paused her eating and gave Li Fang a dry laugh, "Ha, ha, wasn't that...wasn't that too much before?"
Li Fang poked her forehead with the hand that wasn't holding the chopsticks. "Since this is your first offense, I'll let you go. But if you try this trick on me again, I won't let you go."
Xu Manman lowered her head and rubbed her aunt's shoulder, "I won't dare to do it again, I won't dare to do it again."
The two of them talking here did not affect the brothers eating below at all. Fortunately, they were still rational. While grabbing the food, they tacitly left some for the dishes that the two ladies liked.
With so many young men around, it’s naturally not the girls’ turn to clean up after dinner.
Xu Manman sat on the sofa and shared the shells she picked up today with her aunt. After washing them in the afternoon, she spread them on bamboo mats to dry for a while. Now they were clean and had a hint of soap fragrance.
"Grandma, I want to string these shells into a curtain and hang it on the door of my room. It can block the view and look beautiful at the same time." Xu Manman picked out a few shells with special colors and said, "Grandma, if we can find more of these colors, we can arrange them and combine them to make patterns."
Li Fang looked at Xu Manman kindly, and sighed in her heart that daughters are still the best. She didn't expect her two sons to have the aesthetic taste to play with these little gadgets.
In the next few days, my aunt will have to go to work. Although my eldest and second cousins have finished their exams, they are still on active duty. After returning to the army to cancel their leave, they still have to go back and be on standby.
However, when they left, they took their younger brothers with them. Now that everything is fine at home, they can exercise in the camp.
I was worried about leaving Xu Manman alone at home, so I stayed alone every day.
Xu Manman was not idle at home. In the morning, she went out to pick up shells with her brother/brother who stayed behind that day. In the afternoon, she read a book while stringing shells.
By the time my aunt had a day off on Sunday, she had already finished one shell door curtain and was preparing to make a second one.
Li Fang looked at the door curtain hanging in the master bedroom on the first floor. Xu Manman used shells of the same color to piece together a geometric pattern in the middle. "This is so beautiful, Manman. This should be hung upstairs for you." As she said that, she was about to take it down.
Xu Manman stopped her and pointed to the shells in the basket that Xu Jianmin had just drilled today. "Grandma, I'm working on that upstairs."
Li Fang took a look at it and didn't insist. This thing doesn't cost money, but it takes effort, and it's the child's thoughtfulness.
Xu Manman also took out four square cloth covers made of homespun cloth from the sewing basket and said, "Grandma, I also made a few pillowcases. Do you have any old clothes or cotton at home that you don't want?"
She bought the homespun cloth at the supply and marketing cooperative in the staff housing complex the day before yesterday, but she couldn't buy any cotton. Supplies on the island were limited, and it wasn't a special season, so some things couldn't be bought even with a ticket.
Li Fang flipped through the items. She had seen good things before, so she knew what they were used for. "There aren't that many old clothes." The old clothes that the family didn't wear were given to families in need.
"But this doesn't have to be filled with cloth and cotton. Work cloth or straw will work, right?"
"Labor cloth?" Xu Manman had never heard of this before. She only knew about homespun cloth.
Li Fang explained to her, "The raw material isn't very good. Clothes made from it aren't comfortable to wear and break easily. For the four of us, we'll probably need a whole piece. But it's cheap. I'll have someone run an errand to the supply and marketing cooperative and bring it back later."
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