"Bang, bang, bang--" Yin Hong sat cross-legged on the kang, peeling her fingernails nervously, without stopping until her nails were full of bumps.
Just when her thoughts were in confusion, there was a rapid knocking sound from the window on the outer wall of the room. The window creaked, and Yin Hong was so scared that she jumped off the kang and stood at the farthest place from the window, standing close to the wall.
"Yin Hong, I know you are in the house, don't try to hide from me. Don't forget the note you wrote with your fingerprints, it's still in my hand. If you want the whole village to know who you are, just hide. Do you think I dare to expose the matter? Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who are wearing shoes. I am like this now, do you think I dare to do it?"
The sound of knocking on the window became lighter, and a vicious female voice came through the window. Yin Hong's heart was beating fast with fear and her face turned pale.
"What's that sound?"
Xiang Laoshi's voice was heard outside the house. Yin Hong thought for a moment and replied, "It's okay. I forgot to close the window in the room, and it was rustling in the wind. I'll close the window right away."
When people are overly nervous, they can always burst out with unprecedented calmness. After Yin Hong finished replying, she walked to the window and opened the tightly closed window.
"What do you want to do?"
Sure enough, the person standing outside the window was Fan Xiaojuan, with whom she had once had a deal. Her entire body was wrapped tightly, with the only exposed part of her eyes having a circle of purple scars around them.
"If you don't want your family to know about our deal, go to the shabby house at the end of the village and wait for me after lunch today."
Fan Xiaojuan glanced at Yin Hong, who looked panicked and contemptuous, and sneered in her heart. After saying this, she turned around and left without looking back. Only Yin Hong was left standing alone in the room, panicked and terrified.
At this time, neither of them noticed that there was a small crack in the window of the room next to Yin Hong, and a figure was standing behind the window, hearing their conversation clearly.
******
These days, out-of-season fruits are hard to find. If you want to eat summer and autumn fruits in winter, you can only eat canned fruits processed by food factories. Canned fruits are not affordable for ordinary people. Most of the time, they only open a few cans on festivals or when guests come to visit to show off their wealth.
Today's canned fruits are made from authentic ingredients. When selecting raw materials, food factories basically do not use rotten or spoiled fruit pulp. Moreover, there are relatively fewer food additives these days. Canned fruits basically retain the original taste of the fruit, but it is sweeter than the original taste. The flesh is large and soft. When you take a bite, the sweet fragrance of the fruit immediately fills the entire mouth. Every child cannot escape its charm.
For children, canned fruit is far more attractive than fresh fruit.
It was New Year, and everyone was willing to be generous at this time. In addition, canned fruit did not require tickets, and anyone with money could buy it. During this period, as soon as the canned fruit was put on display in the county's supply and marketing cooperatives, it would be snapped up. The Jiang family went to the county twice and did not buy a single can of canned fruit. I don't know how Gu Xiashi did it, but he took out five cans of canned fruit from his room, three cans of yellow peaches and two cans of bayberry, all of which he opened and let his nephew and granddaughter eat to their heart's content.
"I heard from the people at the supply and marketing cooperative that canned oranges taste better, but they're all sold out." Gu Xia Shi still felt a little regretful. It was a rare opportunity for his nephews and nieces to come over, and he didn't give them the best food, leaving him, as an uncle, with no sense of accomplishment at all.
"This is too much. There's no way the kids can finish it all." Gu Dongmei scolded her second brother, "Why don't you leave one can for Dakin?"
Gu Dongmei doesn't like her weird sister-in-law, but she still has some feelings for her brother's only son. After all, if her second brother never gets married, Gu Dakin will be the only child of their Gu family.
No one knew whose problem it was, but since the birth of Gu Dakin, Gu Chunhui and Niu Fang had never gotten pregnant again. Gu Dakin was the only male in the Gu family. Gu Xiashi was reluctant to marry. Niu Fang felt that she was the hero of the Gu family, and with a son in her hands, her temper became worse and worse.
"Why mention him!" Gu Xiashi's originally happy face turned serious. His nephew had been completely corrupted by his mother. He was the best at stealing and cheating, and he couldn't do any serious work. A sixteen-year-old's character has long been determined and cannot be changed.
If his mother hadn't been reluctant to leave this old house, Gu Xiashi would have moved out with her long ago. It's not like he hadn't thought about kicking that family out, but he was concerned about his mother's feelings. No matter how bad his eldest brother was, he was still his mother's eldest son. He was afraid to do anything, and that's how he had been doing all these years.
In fact, Gu Chunhui is a good person, honest and steady. Before he married Niu Fang, he had always been a kind and good brother. But no one expected that this man would be so afraid of his wife. Ever since he got a wife, he no longer dared to help his younger siblings a bit. He became a soft dough and agreed to whatever his wife said.
"Alright, alright, everyone, come and eat."
When Zhao Hong saw that her youngest son was unhappy again, she had a terrible headache and regretted that she had married her eldest son to a powerful wife because she thought he was too soft-hearted. The four siblings had originally had such a good relationship, but now it had turned out like this. The two brothers who lived under the same roof were quarreling like enemies.
Zhao Hong didn't want to think about these things on such a good day. It was a rare occasion that her daughter-in-law returned to her parents' home on the first day of the new year, so there was no troublemaker to mess up the day. This good mood couldn't be ruined by such a bad thing.
The Gu family's lunch was very rich, with chicken, fish, shrimp, and many seafood that were not common in their hometown. Those seafood were sent by Gu Dongmei's third sister. She married in Z Province, which is a famous seafood province. Gu Qiuju married in a small fishing village, and the last thing she lacked was seafood. Moreover, she was concerned about her relatives in her hometown, so she would send some seafood every once in a while.
"What is this?" Sanni picked up a paste-like substance with chopsticks curiously, "Is this a crab?" Sanni saw that there were still a few intact shells on the bowl of paste-like substance, and could barely confirm that it was a piece of the remains of a crab claw.
Sanni had eaten roasted crabs before, but she had never seen this kind of mashed crabs.
"Ugh—" As soon as Sanni put the sticky crab into her mouth, the salty and fishy taste made her unbearable. She stuck out her tongue and spit out the lump of unknown stuff.
"It's so disgusting, what on earth is this." Sanni ate a large piece of yellow peach flesh to suppress the fishy and salty taste in her mouth. At this time, she looked at the plate of mushy things and avoided them like snakes and scorpions.
"Your third aunt said that it was crab sauce, which was made by chopping up the fattest and freshest swimming crabs and marinating them with salt. Because it was going to be sent over, more salt was added, and grandma waited until you arrived to bring it out. Why, is this thing not delicious?"
You know, Sanni is famous for not being picky about food. She will eat anything you give her. Even she thinks it tastes bad. What does it taste like?
Zhao Hong asked uncertainly. In the past, all the seafood sent by her eldest daughter was delicious, but this crab sauce looked a little strange. She knew that people in some places liked to eat drunken crabs, but she had never seen anyone chop crabs into small pieces and pickle them to eat. Seeing Sanni's appearance, the old lady didn't dare to pick up her chopsticks.
"This crab sauce tastes really good, but it can't be eaten alone. It must be dipped in vinegar. First, it can kill bacteria and remove the fishy smell. Second, it can also remove the coldness of the crab."
Jiang Yilu looked at the crab sauce in front of him that he had not had for a long time, and his mouth began to drool. His favorite was the crab sauce made by his aunt in his previous life. The crab sauce made by his aunt was made of the fattest and freshest swimming crabs. The red and yellow stuff in the crab sauce was the swimming crab roe, which was the essence of the crab sauce.
The crab paste, which is not cooked by any means, perfectly brings out the freshness and aroma of the seafood. The crab roe melts in your mouth, and the crab meat is tender and plump. The salty and fresh taste lingers in your mouth after one bite. The delicate and smooth taste makes you want to take a second bite.
"You talk as if you've eaten this before." Sanni pouted. How could something so disgusting taste better after being dipped in vinegar?
Jiang Yilu froze for a moment. He had forgotten that he had never eaten crab paste in his life. He was so excited that he lost his mind: "I saw it in a book. Ruan Ruan grew up in Haicheng. She must have eaten crab paste, right?" He asked Ruan Ruan who was sitting next to him.
"Yeah." Ruan Ruan nodded heavily. She used to love eating seafood when she was in Haicheng, especially drunken crabs and crab sauce, but she never ate them again after coming to Yuchuan.
"Crab sauce is delicious with vinegar, but it's also delicious without vinegar." Ruan Ruan looked at the long-lost plate of crab sauce in front of her. Her big round eyes blinked, and her little tongue licked her pink lips. She looked greedy like a cute little kitten.
Seeing her grandson and the pretty little girl looking at her with sparkling eyes, Zhao Hong smiled, went to the kitchen to get a small plate, poured a pile of aged vinegar and placed it in front of the two children.
Jiang Yilu and Ruan Ruan were not polite. They took a mouthful of crab sauce, dipped it in some aged vinegar and put it into their mouths. The moment the crab sauce entered their mouths, an intoxicated expression appeared on their faces.
Seeing their expressions, everyone present couldn't help swallowing their saliva, and half-doubtingly followed their example, taking a mouthful of crab sauce and putting it in their mouths. Even Sanni, who had complained about the taste of the crab sauce at the beginning, couldn't help but take another small bite and dip it in vinegar to try.
"vomit--"
The little ones couldn't control themselves and spat out the strange-tasting crab sauce in their mouths, then ate the yellow peaches and bayberries in the bowl to suppress the taste.
The adults were better, and they managed to swallow the crab sauce in their mouths, but they never took a second bite. In the end, the whole bowl of crab sauce went into the mouths of Jiang Yiliu and Ruan Ruan, and the two of them had an extra bowl of rice with their big appetites.
Zhao Hong looked at the two children who were eating happily, then glanced at her well-behaved and handsome grandson, then at the delicate and pretty girl beside him. The more she looked, the more she felt that they were a perfect match.
The girl's parents were both martyrs, and she was said to be a lady from a wealthy family. Although her grandfather had a bad background, who could say for sure what happened next? But she heard that an old leader in the neighboring county who had been sent down for reform had returned.
If my grandson and the little girl can cultivate a good relationship, in the future...
Zhao Hong thought about it and asked her daughter what she thought before she went back. In her opinion, Ruan Ruan was excellent in everything except her grandfather's identity. The most important thing was that she got along well with Xiao Bao. You can see that they had the same taste in food. This was fate.
No one else noticed Zhao Hong's little thoughts. Except for the strange-tasting crab sauce, everyone enjoyed the other dishes. The meal was a great pleasure.
Someone across the river was obviously not so relaxed now. There was no festive joy on his face. He walked cautiously towards the small shabby house at the end of the village with a pale face. He looked around carefully as he walked. Occasionally, when he met villagers who greeted him, he just responded with a stiff face and then hurried away, leaving the villagers looking puzzled.
Yin Hong walked quickly to the small dilapidated house at the end of the village. This used to be the home of an old widower in the village. He had no relatives or nephews, and no one had lived here since his death. Now one of the four mud walls had collapsed, and the remaining three walls were also crumbling. Half of the tiles on the roof had collapsed, and there was no place to step inside.
"I've been waiting for you for half an hour." Seeing Yin Hong appear, the woman standing in the room smiled.
"I waited until they finished their meal before finding a chance to come out. Tell me, what do you want?" Yin Hong asked in a timid tone with a hint of panic.
"Give me five hundred yuan, or I will give the agreement you wrote to your son. You know the consequences if your son sees that agreement." Fan Xiaojuan took out a note from her arms and said threateningly.
"Five hundred dollars, you're crazy!"
Yin Hong almost shouted as she said this. After building the house and dividing the money among her other sons, she was left with no money left over from the five hundred yuan.
"What is worth five hundred dollars? I want to see it."
Amid the shocked looks of the two, a voice came from behind Yin Hong.
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