Chapter 26
On the sixth day of the first lunar month, the second day after returning to the county town, He Guijuan started working.
Jiang Jiang opened her eyes drowsily and saw that He Guijuan had neatly tied her hair up and was ready to go out with her bag on.
"Mom, are you going to work?"
He Guijuan came over and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Breakfast is ready and is heating up in the pot. Mom will come back to cook for you at noon. The sugar and egg cake are in the cupboard. There is a store selling maltose at the gate of the compound. You can buy some if you want. There is some change I have collected in the drawer, but don't run around and get lost, okay?"
"I understand." Jiang Jiang rubbed his eyes and nodded.
"That's good. Mom is out now?"
"Well, bye, mom."
There was a sound of a door closing. After He Guijuan left, Jiang Jiang did not stay in bed any longer. She got dressed, took a toothbrush and a towel for washing her face, and simply washed up in the yard.
Breakfast was corn and sweet potato porridge, which was cooked into a thick consistency. The sweet potatoes were particularly sweet, and when cooked together with the corn porridge, it had a sticky texture. There were also buns that He Guijuan had packed last night and steamed this morning.
Jiang Jiang drank a mouthful of porridge and grabbed a bun to chew on. The bun was filled with peanuts and sesame seeds and was still hot. It was very fluffy and soft, with a thin skin and lots of fillings. It smelled especially delicious when he took a big bite.
I went to the yard with messy hair. The weather was nice today, the sun was shining brightly, and the old hen in the corner was pecking at corn kernels on the ground.
Jiang Jiang quickly finished his breakfast and cleaned the chicken coop. Raising chickens is not like raising cats or dogs. The area around the chicken coop was a little dirty. Jiang Jiang used a shovel to clean up the chicken manure on the ground.
I filled another basin with clean water, found a rag and scrubbed it clean, then wiped the doors, windows, tables and chairs in the house from inside to outside.
Then use the water used to wipe the table to mop the floors of the house until they are clean and bright.
After doing all this, Jiang Jiang filled the enamel basin for washing vegetables with water again, picked and washed the cabbage next to the chopping board, put it in a basket beside to drain the water, and waited for He Guijuan to come back to cook at noon.
In fact, Jiang Jiang is not picky about food. She can heat up the leftover buns and porridge from the morning and have a good meal at noon. It’s just that He Guijuan is worried about her coming back at noon.
For lunch, we had cabbage and vermicelli soup, and we put in all the leftover mung bean vermicelli. He Guijuan also dripped sesame oil in the soup and poached two eggs, one for her and Jiang Jiang. The staple food was steamed buns with peanut and sesame filling. Lin Youqing had gone to the countryside for an inspection and would not be back for lunch.
The cabbage was sweet and refreshing, and the poached eggs were very fragrant. After Jiang Jiang drank two bowls of cabbage vermicelli soup, he also ate a bun.
After lunch, He Guijuan took advantage of the free time at noon to teach Jiang Jiang how to hold a pen and recognize a few simple new words. She didn't want her child to learn to read and write so soon, but Jiang Jiang was probably used to it and couldn't sit still. One morning when she was at work, the child cleaned the house, swept the chicken coop, mopped the floor clean and bright, and cleared out all the ash.
This age is the age when children love to play and make trouble, but her daughter is so hardworking. He Guijuan felt distressed and also reflected on herself.
Jiang Jiang had just arrived and didn't have any friends of the same age. Apart from doing housework, he had no other way to pass the time.
However, there is no copybook at home, so Jiang Jiang can only practice calligraphy on white paper.
After get off work, He Guijuan went to the bookstore and bought her child some books suitable for children's literacy enlightenment, and also bought some copybooks.
When He Guijuan got home, she first glanced at the words Jiang Jiang had written during the day.
When she saw the words, He Guijuan was stunned for a moment. The words were all written correctly, each stroke was neat and square, and the degree of completion was much better than she expected. It was obvious that the author had spent a lot of effort to calm down and write slowly.
Jiang Jiang licked his lips and said, "Mom, please teach me how to write a few more words."
He Guijuan didn't expect her daughter to be so smart. She touched her head with satisfaction and said, "Don't learn to read tonight. Mom bought a story book and will tell you a story tonight."
Learning to read requires a gradual process. If you learn too much at once and try to load all the knowledge into your brain, it will have the opposite effect.
"Okay." Jiang Jiang nodded.
The storybook that He Guijuan bought had colorful illustrations on it. After He Guijuan finished telling the story once, Jiang Jiang would take the storybook and read it carefully again. Although she couldn't understand it, she was happy when she saw the colorful illustrations.
After I finished reading it, I carefully put the book away and put it away properly.
After Jiang Jiang had something to do, he no longer thought only about doing housework. He only did housework for a while every day. The rest of the time he either went out for a walk in the yard to familiarize himself with the environment, or practiced calligraphy at home.
A few days passed like this. One weekend, He Guijuan got up in the morning, took an egg from the basket, cracked it into a white porcelain bowl, added a drop of sesame oil, added a spoonful of sugar, and then took some boiling water from the stove. While stirring the egg liquid with chopsticks, she poured the boiling water into the bowl and stirred it clockwise with chopsticks until there were no lumps.
After making the egg tea, He Guijuan dipped the leftover steamed bread slices in salt and fried them. She prepared breakfast, and her husband and daughter washed up. Then the family sat down at the table to have breakfast.
"Jiang Jiang, are you used to drinking egg tea? If not, mom will change it for you."
The egg tea was learned from He's mother. He Guijuan was not used to drinking egg tea for a long time at first, and only later did she get a taste for it. However, her husband got used to it after the first drink and would ask her to make egg tea for him every now and then.
"Mmmm, it tastes good. I like it."
It was Jiang Jiang’s first time to drink egg tea. The eggs were fresh and did not taste fishy at all. The taste was refreshing and delicate, sweet and tender. The fried crispy steamed bread slices tasted delicious with the egg tea.
Lin Youqing ate a few slices of steamed bread and finished a bowl of egg tea. He glanced at his wife and daughter and said, "I'm going to go to the furniture factory later to buy furniture for my daughter's room."
When they were in Dongxi Village, they had agreed to clean up the original study and use it as their daughter's room, but after they returned to the city, they had been working and had not found the time to decorate it.
"Okay, Shuhua asked me to bring the kids to visit her home when I'm free this weekend. I'll take Jiang Jiang with me later. I remember her son is about the same age as Jiang Jiang?"
"I think he's one year older than Jiang Jiang."
Huang Shuhua is the secretary of the county hospital where He Guijuan works. Her husband is also a county party committee cadre, and He Guijuan has a good personal relationship with her. It is not good for her daughter to be alone without a playmate. The child of Huang Shuhua is about the same age as Jiang Jiang, so maybe they can play together.
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