"Do I, a grown man, need a child to protect me?" As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them reached the entrance of the alley, where a delicious aroma of meat wafted over, instantly catching their attention.
"My goodness, whose family is cooking here? It smells like braised pork, it smells so good, even better than what chefs outside make."
Lin Xiaomeng was also puzzled, "Who in our neighborhood has such good skills? I don't think I've ever smelled it before."
Only after the two walked inside did they realize that the smell was coming from Lin Xiaomeng's house.
Zhang Min was a little excited. "Sister Meng, that's right, it came from your house. Didn't you have two kids at your house? Could it be that they did it, or maybe their parents came?"
Lin Xiao didn't even hesitate before rejecting the idea, "Definitely not. I've eaten their parents' cooking before, and it's even worse than what I cook."
After venting her frustrations, Lin Xiaomeng went inside.
Before she knew it, Zhang Min had followed them inside.
Backyard kitchen.
Lin Wei stared at the fire, and Lin Yuan stared at the pot. If Lin Yuan's little head hadn't been so far away, he would have been drooling.
Lin Wei reminded him helplessly, "Yuanyuan... don't fall into the pot."
Lin Yuan feigned grievance, "But sister, it smells so good, when can we eat it?"
"We can eat it when Auntie comes back. The braised pork should be eaten while it's hot, otherwise..." Lin Wei was halfway through her sentence when she saw Lin Xiaomeng walking towards the kitchen. She quickly called out, "Auntie, you're back."
"Oh, you can cook? I bought some groceries to cook when I get back."
"My parents aren't good cooks, so I learned to cook for myself." Lin Wei looked behind Lin Xiaomeng and asked, "Auntie, is this the lady from the house on the left?"
"Yes, Zhang Min, you can just call her Aunt Zhang."
"Hello Aunt Zhang, thank you for taking care of my aunt in the past. I made braised pork, please take a plate home and try it."
As she spoke, Lin Wei took a plate and prepared to serve the meat.
Zhang Min quickly stopped her, "No, no, you can keep it for yourselves. I just came in out of curiosity because of the smell."
These days, everyone's life is better and there's no shortage of meat. Zhang Min came in out of curiosity to take a look. If it were when life was tough, she wouldn't have entered someone's house at all.
Lin Xiaomeng understood this reasoning and quickly said, "Don't be shy about the child's kindness. There is indeed a lot of meat. We don't have a refrigerator at home, so it would be a waste if we didn't finish it today. You can take it back and try the child's cooking."
Lin Wei's braised pork was made with quail eggs, which were then fried into tiger-skin patterns. She used a medium-sized iron pot heated by firewood and managed to cook half a pot of it, which shows that the amount was quite large.
After hesitating for a moment, her appetite prevailed, and Zhang Min agreed, "Alright, Auntie will take it without hesitation. Thank you, child."
"It's nothing, don't be so polite."
The plate was full, with absolutely no skimping on ingredients; just holding it in her hand made Zhang Min's mouth water.
As soon as she stepped out of the Lin family's courtyard with the plate in her hand, she saw her husband, Su Mulin, and their two children already waiting at the entrance of their yard.
What are you grinning like an idiot at the door?
Su Mulin joked, "I heard your voice, and when I saw you weren't back, you must have gone next door. The two kids were leaning against the wall and heard you were bringing back meat, so they specifically asked me to meet them at the door."
Zhang Min looked a little embarrassed. "No, please keep it down. Don't make it seem like we've never eaten meat before, or people will laugh at us."
"We've eaten it before, but we've never tasted anything this delicious." The Su twins, Su Sijin and Su Si'an, said in unison, "Mom, let us see! We could smell the aroma at home, and it's making us so hungry."
Not only the Su family was envious, but the neighbor on the right was also envious.
When Lin Xiaomeng delivered the meat, Gao Huifang also laughed and said, "I didn't buy any vegetables, and I got back before you. This smell is making my mouth water. Who made this for you? Their cooking is really good."
"The kids made it. I was planning to cook it for them when I got back, but I didn't expect they had already prepared it."
"I thought it was the adults who came, but I didn't expect the kids to have such skills. You're really lucky. Thank you for the meat. Let our family try the kids' cooking too. You should go home now, the meat won't taste good if it gets cold."
When Lin Xiaomeng returned home, all the food was already on the table.
"Auntie, come and try my cooking."
Under the expectant gazes of the siblings, Lin Xiaomeng gave an affirmative answer.
"It's delicious."
But Lin Xiaomeng wasn't stupid; after a moment's realization, she roughly guessed what Lin Wei was planning to do.
"With your skills, are you planning to work in a restaurant? But I'm afraid restaurants won't hire chefs for short-term jobs. If it weren't for the low wages and hard work, there would be no need for them."
Lin Wei laughed and said, "I can't hide it from my aunt. But I'm not planning to work at a restaurant. I know that there's a stock market building that opened in front of Jiangdu Road. There are a lot of people inside, but because of the large flow of people on Jiangdu Road, all the vendors are making money in that area, so there's no one selling food there. I was thinking if I could cook a couple of dishes and some rice and set up a stall at the entrance to sell boxed lunches for more than a month until the start of the school term."
"Setting up a stall to sell boxed lunches?" That's a good idea.
By the 1990s, private business was completely legal. Lin Xiaomeng wasn't so old-fashioned as to prevent the children from doing it, but she was the only one who had to take care of Lin Yuan. Could she manage it all?
“I can manage. Yuanyuan helps me wash and prepare the vegetables at home, and she can also help me start the fire. I don’t plan to cook a lot of dishes. One meat dish, one vegetable dish, and one bowl of rice will be enough. At most, four buckets will be enough. Nowadays, there are disposable lunch boxes, so there’s no need to wash dishes or anything. If all else fails, I can just put a plastic bag over the lunch box. In short, it definitely won’t be troublesome for me.”
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