Chapter 533 Chapter 534: Full of Fireworks
Yang Chunyan and Yang Dongmei came back with baskets of vegetables and saw the two standing upstairs. "Huaian, go to the old house with Doctor Xiao Wang and buy some tofu. And call Yumei and the others to come over for dinner."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian and Wang Zhen walked downstairs.
When Yang Chunyan and her sister arrived at the backyard, they saw Wang Zhen's clothes still in the basin, so Yang Dongmei went to wash the clothes. The wind was strong at night, so they hung the clothes on the roof of the backyard and they dried overnight.
Yang Chunyan broke off all the tender leaves of the Chinese cabbage, washed them clean and put them in a colander to drain them dry. She then wrapped the roasted pork belly with a leaf, which tasted perfect.
There were still a lot of garlic cloves at home, so she grabbed a few handfuls and sat there peeling them slowly, preparing to grill the eel slices later.
Yang Dongmei rubbed the collar of her coat and said, "Sister, I think only we call it raked vegetables here. Many classmates in my class call it lettuce!"
"Many dishes are called differently in different places!" Yang Chunyan peeled the garlic cloves and then cut the lettuce, preparing to make a cold lettuce salad.
Zhao Huifang came in with a pot of marinated pork belly and glanced at Yang Dongmei who was washing clothes. "Chunyan, don't cut the pork belly later. I have marinated it here."
Qiuyue also said that Sister Chunyan and Doctor Xiao Wang were a perfect match, and that if they could get together, they wouldn't have to worry about Doctor Xiao Wang getting married and stealing their business.
My mother said that when they were having lunch at noon, she thought the two of them looked quite interesting, and that she might be able to attend their wedding in the second half of the year. It seems that my mother has a good eye.
"Okay, then I have to hang the meat." Yang Chunyan said as she put the peeled lettuce aside and prepared to hang the pork.
"I'll hang it!" Zhao Huifang hung the meat on the hook under the eaves and said with a smile, "Xiuxiang also bought a chicken. The kids were all screaming with joy, saying that tonight's meal was more sumptuous than during the Chinese New Year."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Jiaming and the others will sign up in a few days, right?"
"On the 12th day of the first lunar month, they all groaned and complained, just like when we went to the village to collect taxes and we went to the river dam to make money." Zhao Huifang said helplessly, "They are not good at studying!"
Yang Chunyan comforted him, "Don't worry, things are different now. If things really don't work out, you can learn a craft or start a small business. There are always top talents in all 36 trades, and there is always one that suits them."
Speaking of small businesses, Zhao Huifang remembered something, "Yumei walked around the town with us this morning and found that the two consignment stores in the town were doing pretty good business."
Yang Chunyan nodded. "She has a good position and can earn some money in a year."
"That's good. Mom and I will feel better too."
The two sisters-in-law chatted for a while and then Zhao Huifang went back.
After a while, Zhou Huaian and Wang Zhen came back, and he started killing loaches and eels.
Wang Zhen watched him grab a yellow eel swiftly, slam it heavily on the edge of the basin, then stick the eel's head into the iron nails on the long wooden board, fixing it sideways on the board.
Then use a sharp saw to pierce the cervical vertebrae, and then use the sharp saw to cut from the cervical vertebrae to the tail with a "swish" sound, and the eel will be gutted.
Then take out the internal organs and throw them away, remove the entire spine starting from the neck, clean out the remaining blood and debris in the eel's belly, cut it into inch-long sections with a knife, and finally remove the eel's head and put the eel segments into a bowl.
Zhou Huaian looked up at him and said, "Want to try it?"
Wang Zhen smiled and said, "I don't need to learn this. I was the one who cut open the yellow eels you sent me before."
"Is that so? It will take us a while to finish. Why don't you go for a walk with Dongmei and come back?"
"Okay!" Wang Zhen turned and looked at Yang Dongmei, "Let's go! Let's go for a walk."
Yang Dongmei was not familiar with this either. She thought of the ditch she and Yang Chunyan had seen on the mountain and said, "Then let's go to the back mountain to catch wild crabs."
"Okay!" Wang Zhen picked up the bamboo basket beside him, "We'll take this with us."
Yang Dongmei said with a smile: "If I give you a fisherman's hat, you will become a fisherman."
"I'm Master Huang, a fisherman, and I can't even catch a single fish." The two men talked and laughed, then turned around and disappeared from the bathhouse.
Zhou Huaian then said to Yang Chunyan: "Is Xiong Er's wife here to see you?"
Yang Chunyan: "Yes! She wants us to speak well of Xiong Er..."
"Shameless bastards!" Zhou Huaian said with a dark face, "This family is like flies falling into a bowl. They won't kill you, but they'll make you sick."
Yang Chunyan said softly: "You already know they are flies, why are you still angry! Let us live a prosperous life and make them angry to death!"
Zhou Huaian thought about it and said, "Yes! That bunch of flies will be pissed off to death!"
He thought of Chenxiang's matter, moved the straw stool under his buttocks, sat next to her, leaned close to her ear and whispered: "I took the black thing to Doctor Xiao Wang, we sent..."
Yang Chunyan was also very surprised after hearing this, "Really?"
"It's more real than pearls!" Zhou Huaian looked at her with a smile, "I still put it in the cabinet, you can take it upstairs and hide it."
"Hmm!" Yang Chunyan stood up and walked to the front yard, remembering the short video she had seen before that said natural agarwood is good for the body, and that the ancients also made it into incense medicine to prevent infectious diseases such as influenza and plague...
When she came down from upstairs, Zhou's mother, Zhou Yumei, and Luo Haili and her daughter also came, "Where are grandpa and the old man?"
Zhou's mother said cheerfully, "They are still weeding in the vegetable garden. They will be here soon."
Yang Chunyan felt that the old man and Zhou's father were never idle for a moment. They were either busy in the medicinal fields in the back mountains, or in the vegetable fields, rapeseed fields, and wheat fields.
"Let's eat barbecue!" Zhou Jiaming and his friends swarmed in, some carrying charcoal basins and some carrying grills.
Mother Zhou looked at Zhou Jiaming and the other two and asked, "You've been having a blast during the New Year, and you're going to sign up for school soon. Have you finished your homework?"
Zhou Jiakang hurriedly said, "Grandma, my sister has already finished hers and is reviewing it!"
"You are the only one who can do it!" Zhou Jialiang glared at him, "We have also finished it!"
Mother Zhou patted him on the back and said, "What's your attitude? We are still a family even if we have split up. You are the only brothers in the family. Remember this: uncles and aunts are also brothers. If you don't unite, you will be bullied outside!"
Zhou Jiakang took the opportunity to complain, "Grandma! My second brother has been bullying me recently. He didn't study hard and said my sister was fake, which caused him to be beaten by Auntie!"
Zhou Jialiang asked back, "You were playing in the sunbathing area before the Lumpy Year and the Xiong family's slugs beat you up. I even helped beat them up for you. Why didn't you tell me?"
Zhou Jiakang: "Last time you had a fight with someone, I helped you bite his butt..."
"Hahaha!" Zhou Xiaoru and the others laughed, "Xiaokang, did you eat the stinky poop?"
Zhou Jiakang said with a bitter face, "I didn't get to eat it, it stinks..."
Zhou Xiaoqian rolled her eyes at him with disdain, "You're so stupid!"
"Sister..." Zhou Jiakang smiled at her ingratiatingly.
Zhou Jiaming also said with disdain: "Fool, why are you biting his butt? Just hold his arm up and bite his wrist, and he won't be able to hit you..."
Zhou Jiakang: "He stuck his butt out and pressed my second brother to the ground. I rushed over and bit his butt."
Seeing that they were acting as if nothing had happened, Zhou's mother smiled and said, "That's right. Brothers should unite, and the same goes for you sisters. It's okay to quarrel at home, but you should unite outside. Do you understand?"
"Got it!" The brothers and sisters all responded in unison.
Several children ran to watch Zhou Huaian kill eels and loaches. Zhou's mother asked Yang Chunyan about the Xiong family coming to cause trouble.
After listening to her, he greeted all the ancestors of the Old Xiong family before going to help prepare dinner.
With Zhou's mother and Luo Haili helping, Yang Chunyan had nothing to do, so she just stood by to help out. When it got dark, Wang Zhen and Yang Dongmei came down from the mountain. They had a good harvest and caught half a basket of mountain crabs.
Zhou Huaian helped rinse the crabs several times and then poured them into a basin of hot water to soak for an hour or so. Mountain crabs are afraid of heat and they fainted when they touched the hot water.
After a while, Zhou Huairong and others came carrying straw stools, followed by Zhou Yiding, Zhou Xiaomei and Wan Xuejiao.
Zhou Huaian patted Zhou Jiaming and said, "Go to the old house and call back the old ancestor and grandpa. We are going to have dinner."
Zhou Jiaming pointed at the bicycle in the yard and said, "Dad, I want to go riding!" The little guy had just learned the crotch-free riding method of a 28-bar bicycle and was full of ideas.
Zhou Huaian waved his hand, "Ride on! Just don't fall into the ditch."
"oh!"
When the other kids saw Zhou Jiaming running out and pushing his bicycle away, they all swarmed after him.
The yard became busy, some people were lighting fires to burn charcoal, some were setting up barbecue tables, and the originally spacious yard suddenly became crowded.
Yang Dongmei, Wan Xuejiao and Zhou Xiaomei soon became familiar with each other. They cleaned the fainted crabs, marinated them with wine and minced ginger for a while, and then sent them to the kitchen.
Zhou's mother heated up the oil and fried the mountain crabs in a pan until they were golden brown.
The mountain crab is very small. After being fried, the crab shell becomes crispy and fragrant, and the crab meat is white, tender and full of flavor.
The foodie Zhou Jiakang praised it highly and said he would go get a basket of it tomorrow to fry and eat. After being slapped twice by Zhou Xiaoqian, he quickly changed his mind and said, "I know, we just ate it today. If we want to eat more, we have to go get another basket later!"
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Second sister-in-law, I think your words are not as effective as Xiaoqian's, right?"
Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and nodded, "Sometimes it's true. His sister just glares at him and he behaves himself."
Zhou Jiakang said aggrievedly: "If I don't listen to my sister, she will ignore me and won't talk to me for several days!"
Zhang Xiuxiang glanced at him with a smile, "Then I won't talk to you for a few days!"
Zhou Jiakang: "My sister is the one who can do it, you can't hold it in for a moment."
Zhou Yiding smiled and rubbed him, "Ieyasu is such a funny guy!" Everyone laughed.
Wang Zhen looked at the harmonious and lively Zhou family and thought of his home in the provincial capital, where the nanny was busy in the kitchen and his father was sitting in the living room reading the newspaper.
The woman and her children would glance at me with wary eyes from time to time, fearing that I would stay and compete with them. I just felt depressed there.
His father often advised him that it was also his home and asked him not to consider himself a guest. But he felt that home should be like the Zhou family, simple and harmonious, lively and full of fireworks...
(End of this chapter)
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