Chapter 98
When they got home, their younger brothers and sisters weren't home yet. A few days wasn't a long separation, but a little absence is better than a new marriage. With that double blessing, the couple locked the door and embraced each other affectionately. When they heard a noise outside the door, they looked at each other in shock, burst out laughing, and quickly separated.
When the three of them saw that it was Xing Fei who opened the door, they all called out, "Sister, brother-in-law."
"Well, wash your hands quickly, it's time to eat." Bi Chunliu called her two sisters to put down their schoolbags and wash their hands, while Xing Fei called her brother-in-law to the kitchen to serve the dishes. He had not put out the fire on the stove after he had prepared the meal, and now that everyone was here, they could start eating right away.
After dinner, the family of five began their usual post-meal chat. Xing Fei brought over the two apples he had bought and cut each into five slices. Since they had just finished their meal, each person could just have two slices to taste.
"Sister, when we returned to the compound, we heard that Aunt Wen found another blind date for Dali."
Bi Chunliu replied lazily, "Have you found better conditions?"
Chen Dali was truly a difficult man to please. Ever since Nie Xiangbei had stolen Liu Juan away, Chen Dali had become attached to Aunt Wen. She'd even heard Aunt Liu and the others say that Aunt Wen was getting so fed up with Chen Dali that she was considering going to her sister's house in the countryside to avoid him. Even Aunt Wen, who was only interested in money, couldn't handle him, which showed how difficult Chen Dali was.
Bi Qiuguo was very regretful. "I don't know the details yet. I only heard a few words when Third Sister dragged me here. I'll ask Liu He tomorrow. I told him to ask Aunt Liu about it."
Bi Weiguo finished eating the apple, looked at Xing Fei earnestly and said, "Brother-in-law, I have something to ask of you."
"Go ahead." Xing Fei thought, his brother-in-law was so serious, he must be asking for something important. Was he unhappy at work? Or was he just in love with a girl and didn't know how to talk to her?
"Can I buy some of these apples?" His master's birthday was in two weeks. He was very kind to him. Although he was usually very critical of his work, he knew it was all because he wanted him to learn the craft well. He also always remembered him when he had something to eat. This was his first year as a disciple, and as the old saying goes, a teacher is a father for life. This was his first year as a teacher, so he had to show his wholehearted support for his master's birthday.
Xing Fei didn't know whether he should breathe a sigh of relief. Was that all? He nodded, "If you want to buy it, I'll contact my comrades. More than that won't work, but eight or ten kilograms should be no problem."
Bi Weiguo was happy, "Okay, okay, no problem!" The good fruits in the supply and marketing cooperative couldn't wait for him to buy them, so it was good enough that his brother-in-law could say a word for him and let him buy a few kilograms.
A few days ago, Bi Chunliu heard Xia He say that Weiguo was thinking about celebrating his master's birthday. She had asked Weiguo if he wanted to buy anything for him, but he declined, so she stopped worrying about it. When she heard Weiguo wanted to buy apples today, she knew it was probably for his master's birthday. That was fine; he would definitely be able to honor his own master.
"Sister, there's one more thing. My master said we can start buying winter vegetables the week after next. He can help us get 50 kilograms of cabbage and 30 kilograms of radishes. I agreed."
Bi Chunliu slapped his head, almost forgetting about the winter vegetables. He quickly nodded and said, "Okay, I forgot about this. I will give you the money in advance when the time comes." The weather has started to get colder, and it's time to start stocking up on vegetables.
The five of them chatted for a while, then went about their business. Bi Weiguo asked his two younger sisters to do their homework or read a book, while he went to the kitchen to wash dishes and boil water. Bi Chunliu and his wife, one went to retrieve the family's food allowance, while the other went to retrieve their coal briquettes. This was the first time for one of them to prepare so many winter supplies, while the other hadn't experienced such scarcity in years, so careful planning was essential to feel at ease.
Bi Chunliu calculated the vegetables she needed for winter and planned to pickle them after she finished digging the hole next week. People in later generations said it was bad to eat pickled vegetables all the time, but now they had no other storage options. In her previous life in Northeast China, her balcony was like a refrigerator in winter. Now, she had neither a natural refrigerator nor an electric one. If she wanted to eat vegetables, she had to either dry them or pickle them.
There were dried vegetables at home. During summer vacation, Xia He and Qiu Guo had learned to make two cans of tomato sauce from Aunt Liu and Aunt Wang. They were still sitting there, but they had to wait until the weather got really cold to open them. There was no time to dry the extra dried vegetables, so they had to prepare more pickled vegetables. Otherwise, they would have to eat only cabbage and radishes all winter.
She wondered if she could grow some rare green leafy vegetables in the kitchen, such as garlic sprouts, chives, etc. It would be nice to eat a plate of them occasionally to change the taste.
“Crack! Crack!”
The sound of chewing something hard continued to ring in his ears. Bi Chunliu turned his head to look at Xing Fei, "What are you eating again?"
Xing Fei shared the fried soybeans in his hand with Bi Chunliu, "Weiguo just gave them to me. He said Master Cai gave them to him. You know what, they smell pretty good."
Bi Chunliu took a few and ate them. They were indeed delicious! As she chewed them, she remembered a video she had seen that taught people how to grow bean sprouts at home.
She was so confident after seeing this that she dug out all the leftover soybeans and mung beans at home. After a few days, they sprouted. But she forgot the most important thing: she was the only one at home, and she couldn't eat them all! In the end, she shared with her neighbors and ate the sprouts for four or five days before she finished them. From then on, she learned her lesson: when she wanted to eat more, she would buy them at the supermarket. A one- or two-yuan groceries would be enough for two meals. She couldn't finish them then, but now that there were more people at home, she felt free to give it a try.
Holding Xing Fei's face, he gave her a kiss. Xing Fei was startled and was about to pout and kiss back, but Bi Chunliu held him back, "Where's the coal briquette ticket you just found? Take it out!"
Xing Fei: "..."
In winter, every household has a greater demand for coal briquettes, which makes them hard to buy. Although the five of them don't stay at home much, they can't rely solely on their own energy to resist the cold at night.
Bi Chunliu also thought that she couldn't keep burning coal briquettes at night. What if she wasn't careful and got carbon monoxide poisoning? Her former neighbor, the old lady, had been poisoned by carbon monoxide. Although her two daughters were kind to her, Bi Chunliu couldn't help but think about how miserable it would be if she were to suffer the same fate.
"Don't you have a small stove at home? There's a small stove at the house in the compound. You can bring it here, and then put two charcoal basins in Xia He and the others' room. Forget it, forget it. I'd rather not get the charcoal basins. I'm afraid something might happen to them again. I'd better cover them with an extra blanket and get two hot water bottles."
Xing Fei: "Okay, then I'll ask someone to buy three hot water bottles."
"Okay, I'll ask someone too." Bi Chunliu thought of Fang Yuanyuan and Liu Xiaoyue, and asked them if they could find a way to buy him a hot water bottle. If that didn't work, he could only use a canning bottle, but there was a risk of getting the quilt wet.
After finishing the business, he washed his face, brushed his teeth and washed his feet. The lights in the three rooms were turned off. Soon, there was no movement in the two rooms in the west wing, and only faint sounds could be heard from the bedroom in the main hall.
.
On Monday, the excavation work began, split into two shifts, day and night, as usual. Director Dong spoke before the excavation began, emphasizing the need to ensure ample space for everyone and every machine, and to dig deep and thoroughly.
Bi Chunliu: ...
Early Tuesday morning, Bi Chunliu arrived at the factory and saw Aunt Lei and her niece Lei Xiuying coming out. He greeted them, "Aunt Lei, good morning, Sister Xiuying."
"Chunliu, are you at work? You have something to do at home. Let's talk later." Lei Xiuying kept walking and greeted her with a smile.
Bi Chunliu: "Yeah, okay."
Aunt Lei and Lei Xiuying were so anxious because the sister-in-law of Lei Xiuying's second aunt from her husband's family sent a message.
"Is it his aunt? I didn't expect you to arrive so early. Have you eaten? Xiuying went to the state-owned restaurant to buy noodles for us. Come on, let's go to my house and sit for a while. Wait for me to wash my face. I'm covered in dirt. Let's talk after we have dinner." Aunt Lei invited Chen Xiaomei, the sister-in-law of Tong Yucheng's second aunt, who was squatting outside the wall, to come into the house.
Chen Xiaomei started to inquire after receiving a message from her sister-in-law two days ago. Although she was not good at speaking, she finally found someone to find out the situation with the help of her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. She was afraid of delaying the matter, so she got up early this morning. It happened that the jujube tree in her mother-in-law's yard was ripe, so she asked her to see if she could exchange the jujubes and vegetables with the people in the city.
Chen Xiaomei had met Aunt Lei twice before. Once was when Lei Xiuying and Tong Yucheng got married, and the other time was when her sister-in-law's father, Tong Yucheng's grandfather, passed away. She met Aunt Lei when she was sending the pregnant Lei Xiuying back to the city. At that time, Aunt Lei had a sullen face and looked fierce, as if she was going to hit someone, so she was always a little afraid of Aunt Lei, and she was also a little scared when she was alone with Aunt Lei in a room.
Hearing Aunt Lei say that her nephew's wife bought noodles, Chen Xiaomei quickly stood up from the stool and said embarrassedly: "No, no, I ate here, how can I eat your food. Sister Lei, let Xiuying come back quickly."
Aunt Lei finished washing her face and slapped the dust and dirt off her body with a towel. "We are all family, why be polite!"
"Aunt, I'm back. I bought some noodles. Let's eat." Lei Xiuying put three aluminum lunch boxes on the table. She had run all the way here, and the noodles were very hot. Her hands were red. She blew on her fingers and pulled the reserved Chen Xiaomei to sit at the table. "Aunt, don't be so polite. Let's eat!"
"Hey, hey, okay!" Chen Xiaomei sat down obediently, thinking that her nephew's wife was worthy of being a cadre, she was really impressive and looked more and more like her aunt.
Chen Xiaomei's in-laws' family is not poor, but they are not one that has no worries about food and drink. She hasn't eaten thin noodles for a long time. She originally wanted to just have a couple of bites to be polite, but when she came to her senses, the whole lunch box of noodles was gone, even the few slices of meat on it had been eaten by her. Chen Xiaomei's face suddenly turned red, thinking that she was so useless!
After the three of them finished eating, Chen Xiaomei began to talk about the things they had inquired about Wenlan.
"...That's right, this is what sister-in-law Wenlan said, it should be accurate." Chen Xiaomei's voice became softer and softer, and her aunt's face became darker and darker. No wonder her surname is Lei, I guess the Thunder God is the same.
Aunt Lei was so angry that she wanted to slam the table. She knew Wenlan was a person who would never get anything good out of herself! And her mother was the same! She had to go back to her in-laws and scold her, otherwise she would never be able to vent her anger!
"Auntie, I have an idea. Let's split up into two groups..."
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