Chapter 189: Red Hot 189: Really Smells Good
Zhao Yu hesitated to speak, and when she met Qian Guihua's eyes, she hid the sadness that flashed across her eyes and said, "Something happened at home, so he went home first."
"Oh." Her sudden silence made even a thick-skinned person like Gu Qingqing feel something was wrong, but he didn't ask too much because it was someone else's family affair.
Xu Nian had told her on the island that no matter how close you are to someone, you should not interfere in other people's affairs. The couple is the one who lives together, and if something goes wrong, they might blame you.
She believed this deeply and adhered to this principle. She lived a very comfortable life on the island and all the sisters-in-law in the North District had a close relationship with her.
Biting her steamed bun silently, she suddenly felt she didn't know what to say to Zhao Yu.
After Qian Guihua finished kneading the dough, she went to the backyard to pick radishes. Fried radish meatballs are an indispensable dish every New Year's Eve. "Qingqing, there are still steamed buns in the pot. Take them if you want to eat. Auntie, go pick some vegetables first. You and Xiaoyu haven't seen each other for two years. You two sisters should have a good chat."
"Okay, go ahead and do your thing, don't worry about me." Gu Qingqing said quickly.
After Qian Guihua left, Zhao Yu was obviously relieved. He glanced at the woman who was quietly eating steamed buns with the warm firelight on her face, bit her lip, and said, "Qingqing, I regret it."
Gu Qingqing looked at her in confusion.
Zhao Yu smiled bitterly: "Actually, the man I married is not bad. He turned over all his salary to me and was very kind to me. He really loves me from the bottom of his heart. You should have heard that he is the only son in his family."
Once the chatterbox started, it couldn't be stopped. Zhao Yu felt relieved and continued, "His father is an honest man, quite like my father. His mother is used to trying to save face. She would bring gifts to my house during festivals and would praise me in front of outsiders, saying that she likes me as a daughter-in-law very much."
Gu Qingqing didn't say anything, but just listened quietly, but her furrowed brows proved that she was not so calm in her heart.
Judging from what Auntie A-niang and Auntie Guihua herself said, Xiao Yu was living a very happy life, and she was genuinely happy for her good friend.
She and Zhao Yu grew up together. Zhao Yu inherited her mother's temperament and was a bit talkative, but she was a straightforward person. She would always think of her when she had something delicious. The two sisters were good at playing wild games. They went to the river to dig crabs, went up the mountain to dig bamboo shoots, climbed trees and dug out bird nests. They had done everything.
"But after I got home, she wasn't so warm to me anymore. When I was in confinement, the stewed meat at home was just stringy in my bowl, while she and her son had a huge piece of meat in their bowls. She even told her son that she gave me the most."
She ate alone in the room during her confinement. Her husband would serve her food in advance when he had to go to work, and he didn't know about these things.
"Once I told him and he still didn't believe me, so I didn't eat that day and waited for him to come back and show him."
Gu Qingqing asked: "Then how did he do it?"
"He later came into the house with a bowl to eat, and fed me all the meat." Speaking of men, Zhao Yu was satisfied in his heart, but soon his face fell: "His mother soon found out and had a quarrel with him. When he left, he said in front of me in a sarcastic tone that people from the countryside are more coquettish than those from the city. I really don't know how he was taught at home."
Gu Qingqing was furious after hearing this and muttered, "How can there be such a hypocritical person?"
Zhao Yu nodded: "She just wants to save face, and she does a good job of pretending. Sometimes when I tell her that her mother bullies me, she doesn't believe me. That time when she saw the liquid in the bowl, she said it might be an accident."
Gu Qingqing couldn't help but say: "What's so careless about this..." Seeing the little guy in her arms move, she held back and kept silent.
Zhao Yu sighed, "That's why I wanted to spend the New Year at my mother's house to have some peace and quiet. He came with me, and his mother pretended to be sick yesterday to coax him back."
"I really don't know who I told. My mother always thinks that I think too much and am too petty. Qingqing, I don't want to go back at all now. A while ago, he said that the factory will distribute houses after the New Year. I want to go back after the houses are distributed."
"That's good." Gu Qingqing also breathed a sigh of relief for her.
Zhao Yu nodded: "I just want to talk to you, otherwise it would be too boring."
Gu Qingqing smiled: "My home is not far from your place. You can come and see me anytime if you want to talk. I will stay at home for a week or so, but I have to go to my grandmother's house on the second day of the Chinese New Year to pay New Year's greetings and stay for two days."
"Okay, when the time comes, don't bother me." Zhao Yu just needed someone to talk to to vent his feelings. He felt better after talking it out. Everyone has some troubles.
What's more, she will soon be able to live separately from her mother-in-law, which makes her feel much happier.
After picking vegetables, Qian Guihua came back and found the young lady talking to Gu Qingqing with a smile on her face. The depression between her eyebrows disappeared and she looked a little brighter.
She muttered in her heart, "I really need to talk to some friends."
Since she became pregnant, Zhao Yu has basically not made any friends and stays in the house all day long. Her mother and daughter live so far apart that it is not easy for her to go to the city to visit her often.
Seeing her daughter smiling happily, she felt relieved, thinking that she could finally have a good New Year, even though her aunt was not around.
Compared to the neighboring aunt Gu who came here with her family, her place is indeed a bit lonely.
But who knows whether it is just a face-saving project? Outsiders can only look at the surface.
After talking to Zhao Yu for a while, she looked at her watch. It was almost eleven o'clock. She stood up and said, "I'm going home first. I have to heat water for a bath early today. I'll come to see you next time."
"Okay." Zhao Yu didn't want to keep her: "Even if you don't come to see me, I will still go to find you. Just don't think I'm annoying."
"How could that be?" Gu Qingqing was reluctant to leave the warm fire, but when she thought of the two little boys waiting for her at home, she felt that blowing in the cold wind was nothing.
"Aunt Zhao, I'm home! Thank you for the steamed buns, they are delicious."
"Take two more back." Qian Guihua said as she was about to lift the lid of the pot.
"No, no, I have some at home, you can keep them for yourselves." White flour steamed buns can only be eaten freely during Chinese New Year. Her family only often makes corn flour steamed buns.
After leaving the kitchen, she was caught off guard by the cold wind blowing in her face. She shrank her neck and ran home quickly.
"How come you are still so impetuous, kid?" Shi Rushuang was sitting in the kitchen holding her little grandson. When she saw Gu Qingqing pushing the door in rashly, she couldn't help but said angrily.
"It's too cold!" Gu Qingqing sat down in front of the woodstove next to her mother. Her chubby little face kept rubbing against Shi Rushang's arm, and her big almond eyes met her son's clear eyes.
She made a face at her son, which made the little boy smile so much that his white glutinous rice teeth were exposed.
Xiao Niannian clapped his hands and chattered non-stop, and Gu Qingqing also smiled.
"These are not two children, these are three children. Thank you for your hard work, Adai." Gu Cai said with a smile while frying meatballs.
Gu Qingqing sniffed: "Uncle San, are they water chestnut meatballs?"
"Of course not. There's something else. Smell it. If you can smell it, your uncle will prepare a bowl for you to try in advance." Gu Cai used a colander to scoop out the golden fried meatballs.
Gu Qingqing's big black eyes kept turning around. She sniffed it again, "Carrot meatballs?" This is indispensable.
“Yes, there’s more.” Gu Cai tasted one with chopsticks first and found it was cooked to perfection.
"There should also be lotus root meatballs!" she said firmly.
"Huh?" This time it was Gu Cai who was surprised: "You can't smell this when it's fried. We rarely make this at home. You have an amazing nose, even better than rice."
Gu Qingqing didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She really didn't know whether Third Uncle was exaggerating or praising. "I saw the peeled lotus root skin in the yard when I came in just now."
"No wonder." Gu Cai was willing to admit defeat and filled a bowl with food and handed it to her: "Be careful of the burns. If your mouth gets blisters, you won't be able to eat good food for a few days."
Gu Qingqing chuckled: "I know!"
Seeing her eating so happily, Xiao Niannian's mouth was drooling. Gu Qingqing said seriously, "Our little Niannian baby can't eat this. You have to ask your third grandfather to steam some red date meat cake soup for you."
"Don't worry, it's been steaming in the pot. It's almost ready now." Gu Cai opened the lid of the pot next to him. There were two small porcelain bowls inside, with two red dates floating on the meat pie soup.
He was not afraid of the heat at all, he directly took out the porcelain bowl with his hands and put it on the stove, staring: "Tuantuan is in Adai's hands, you can pass this bowl over later, we adults will eat later at noon, don't let the child go hungry."
"Okay." Gu Qingqing put a meatball into A Niang's mouth, roasted it for a while, and held the red date soup in one hand and the remaining meatballs in the other hand: "A Niang, I'll go see Tuan Tuan, you feed him the soup for Niannian."
"Okay, you don't have to worry about it." Shi Rushuang replied. Seeing the crystal clear saliva on her grandson's mouth, she couldn't help but smile. She took the meat pie soup from the stove, put her arm around Niannian and held the bowl, holding the spoon in her other hand: "Don't worry, dear, we have Niannian too."
Gu Qingqing didn't find the father and son downstairs, so she went upstairs with the bowl in her hand. As expected, the man was sitting on the bed with his legs crossed, his head lazily resting against the bed board. Little Tuantuan was twisting and turning in her father's arms, giving him a tender kiss from time to time.
The man had drool all over his face, feeling helpless.
Gu Qingqing sat on the bed, next to the father and son: "Wow, everyone says that son and mother are closer, but these two little guys in our family obviously like father more."
As she spoke, she put down the soup, poked a meatball with a short bamboo stick and handed it to the man's mouth.
The man opened his mouth and bit down, his Adam's apple rolling slowly.
Little Tuantuan looked at A Niang eagerly and opened his little mouth: "Meat~meat!"
Although he can only say "stacked words", his baby voice is so cute.
The couple looked at each other, and Gu Qingqing slowly poked a meatball and slowly put it in front of the little dumpling. With an expectant expression on his face, she stuffed it into the man's mouth.
"......!" Xiao Tuantuan pouted, tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, and looked at her father aggrievedly. When she saw some crispy meat residue at the corner of the man's mouth, her eyes lit up and she slowly moved her little mouth towards the man.
Gu Qingqing watched her son making a fuss with a smile on her face. Seeing the man looking at the young man nonchalantly with his eyes downcast, she suddenly thought and leaned over in front of her son and kissed the corner of the man's lips.
Little Tuantuan's mouth almost clenched when she saw her father's cleanness. Gu Qingqing added fuel to the fire and smacked her lips, "It smells so good."
"...Wawu~" The little guy finally couldn't hold it in anymore, he leaned on his father's shoulder with his butt sticking out and cried loudly.
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