"Alright, time to eat!"
Zhao Sufang placed the stir-fried pork with chili peppers in the middle of the table, then went back to the stove and took out a bowl full of stir-fried pork with chili peppers. Judging by the appearance, there was more pork than on the table.
"Zhenzhen, take this bowl of food to your grandma."
"Ahhh, my little darling!" Li Jiabao looked at his mother pitifully.
Li Zhen, who is usually very obedient, surprisingly did not immediately agree to her mother's request.
"Mother, this bowl of meat cannot be sent away."
Li Xiangdong took the bowl of stir-fried pork with chili peppers and said seriously to his mother.
“Oh, Grandma was wrong last time, but it’s only right to respect our elders. There’s no reason for us to eat the good food ourselves and not share it with our elders,” Zhao Sufang sighed, trying to persuade her son and daughter.
“Mother, it’s not because of Grandma’s arrangement for Fourth Sister to be married off in a different marriage. It’s because we have meat and sugar to eat at home, and we have to keep the fact that we bought malted milk powder and orange soda a secret. Mother, think about it, where did we get the money to buy these things? If Grandma asks you where you got the money to buy meat, how will you explain it?”
Zhao Sufang was speechless.
This is something we really can't talk about in a big way.
Thinking about it, it's not easy for our son. He has to find a way to eat meat on his own. It's all because of the incompetence of parents!
"Mother, you must keep this a secret for me. I trust Fourth Sister and Little Sister. Fifth Sister and Jiabao, if you two dare to tell anyone about what happened today, I'll spank you until your bottoms are sore, and you'll never get to eat candy or meat again." Li Xiangdong threatened Li Ping and Jiabao.
"I definitely won't tell."
"I promise I won't tell."
Both of them turned pale. It was certainly painful to have their buttocks ripped open, but the thought of never being able to eat candy and meat again was even more heartbreaking.
Zhao Sufang was quickly persuaded to stop, and the five of them sat around the table to eat. Zhao Sufang and Li Zhen did not eat meat, but only ate sorghum cakes with potatoes and eggplants.
Li Xiangdong sighed inwardly as he watched Li Jiabao eating with his mouth full of oil.
In this day and age, farming, carrying water, and building houses all require male labor. Coupled with thousands of years of tradition, women always consciously give the best food to men, feeling that they don't deserve to eat the good things.
Changing this mindset is not easy, so he can only try his best to earn money, and earn more, so that his mother and sister can eat meat without any burden.
"Mother, Fourth Sister, please eat." Li Xiangdong placed a piece of meat in each of their bowls.
"You eat it." Zhao Sufang immediately tried to put the meat back to Li Xiangdong.
Li Xiangdong stopped his mother, saying, "Mom, you work harder than anyone else. What's wrong with you eating a piece of meat? I'll definitely earn more money in the future so that you can eat meat every day."
"How could I dare to eat meat every day? It would be a sin."
Zhao Sufang ate the meat with a smile, finding it both fragrant and sweet.
Wow, when did my son become so sensible!
"Fourth sister, eat quickly, or Jiabao and fifth sister will eat it all."
"I want to eat meat too, meat!" the cute little girl called anxiously from behind.
"Haha, it's too spicy, you can't eat it. I'll have Mom make you some malted milk powder later."
The group quickly finished their meal, not only eating all the stir-fried pork with chili peppers, but also all the stewed eggplant and potatoes.
Li Jiabao and Li Ping let out satisfied sighs, their little bellies bulging, and ran out to play.
Li Xiangdong lay on the bamboo mat watching his mother mend old clothes under the kerosene lamp when he suddenly felt a sharp, needle-like pain in his calf.
"Ouch, I got stung."
Zhao Sufang quickly pulled the light cord, and under the bright incandescent light, a large scorpion, more than a foot long, was crawling into the kang (a heated brick bed).
Zhao Sufang picked up the scissors and clamped them between the back of the large scorpion. The scorpion's long tail curled up, and a poisonous stinger gleamed under the light.
"The poison needle is still there; it looks like it got caught in the clamp."
Seeing that Zhao Sufang was about to cut the scorpion in half, Li Xiangdong quickly stopped her, enduring the pain, and took an empty glass bottle, asking his mother to put the scorpion into the bottle.
“This is also a medicinal herb; dried scorpions are valuable too,” Li Xiangdong said, his eyes shining.
The first ingredient in Five Tigers Chasing Wind Powder is a whole scorpion!
"He's practically obsessed with making money."
As she spoke, Zhao Sufang quickly grabbed a piece of ginger and garlic, crushed them together, and tenderly applied the mixture to Li Xiangdong's face.
Looking at the large scorpion in the glass bottle, Li Xiangdong thought to himself that he would ask Uncle Yan how much the scorpion cost when he went to Guangming Pharmaceutical Factory tomorrow afternoon.
Nowadays, every family lives in an adobe house. Every summer, adults and children get stung by scorpions. If scorpions can fetch a good price, people start collecting them, always with ready-made excuses, like using scorpions to make wine.
Wash and dry the scorpions, put them into grain liquor, seal it well, and place it in a cool, dry, well-ventilated, and dark place. It can be drunk after half a month.
This prepared scorpion wine can dispel wind and cold, promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, and relieve pain.
In villages with elderly people, people would brew a bottle or two of this remedy, and drink a small cup when their rheumatism flared up. This is an old folk remedy passed down from ancient times, but few people believe in it anymore.
Li Xiangdong's thoughts were a jumbled mess. One moment he was thinking about how to sell rehmannia root, the next he was thinking about how to sell scorpions. He figured he'd have Guoqing and the others go collect scorpions tomorrow. After selling the scorpions and rehmannia root, he'd have to quickly pay back his third sister's debts and also buy some good food for his third sister's mother-in-law and Daxia.
Li Xiangdong thought about it for a while, and then he drifted off to sleep.
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