When Xiao Jiu finished eating and drinking and went home, he was carrying a basket filled with all kinds of fried food.
Unexpectedly, even though it was only a short distance between the front and back doors, two old ladies had already set their sights on her. As soon as she came out of the Tang family's house, they stopped her.
"Hey, Xiao Jiu's back? What were you doing all this time? What's in your basket? It smells so good!"
The people speaking were the neighbors across the street and to the right of the Tang family. Judging from the situation, they had been keeping an eye on the sisters for quite some time.
Come to think of it, after frying food for most of the day, even if you try to cover up the smell, people will probably still be able to smell it.
But every time they went there, they didn't get anything good, so they decided to try their luck with Xiao Jiu.
Although there was no rule in those days that it was a crime to eat well, it still aroused jealousy!
People who are starving are now willing to block the road halfway. If we really wait until those chaotic years, won't they find all sorts of excuses to nitpick about you?
If it weren't for the fact that there were two college students in the family who were carrying the grain, they probably would have reported it to the Revolutionary Committee long ago to investigate the source of their grain.
After all, there are only three or four people earning work points. No matter how well a family eats, it's impossible for the aroma to waft through the air every day. If an investigation were to be launched, no one would be spared.
Realizing that the visitors were up to no good, Xiao Jiu frowned as she looked at the two old ladies.
"Grandma Cao, Grandma Qin, we're out of vegetables at home. I'll borrow some from my god-sisters."
"Vegetables? You're kidding me. Everyone knows their house smells amazing before dawn; they're definitely frying something!"
"That's right, hurry up and stop talking nonsense. Open it and let us have a taste. I haven't had fried food for almost a year."
"Why is your sister making so much delicious food when it's neither a holiday nor a festival? I haven't even heard of her sending any to the Huang family."
Xiao Jiu's lips twitched. Send it to the Huang family? Why should they?
Seeing that Xiao Jiu was hiding and wouldn't let them open up, the two exchanged a glance and grabbed Xiao Jiu's arms from the left and right.
Upon opening the lid, what came into view was indeed a basket of small, misshapen, and cracked potatoes.
But it clearly smells like deep-fried food!
Seeing this, Xiao Jiu snatched the potatoes from their hands.
"I already said I was going to get potatoes, but you insisted on talking about fried food. You haven't eaten it for a year, so we're going to eat it?"
Besides, this area is so big, are you really so sure the smell is coming from my sister's house?
Xiao Jiu glared at them angrily, then grabbed her basket and left.
Once inside the gate, seeing that no one was paying attention to her, she quickly took the fried food wrapped in oil paper from her spatial storage and placed it on top of the potatoes.
Grandpa and Grandma had already eaten breakfast. When they saw Xiaojiu come back, they smiled and asked.
"Why did it take you so long? Did you eat and take some with you?"
"Hehe, my older sister and the others knew that my brother and I were going to school this afternoon, so they specially fried some things and brought them over."
"Oh my, why are your sisters being so polite? Yesterday we made dumplings and invited them over to eat, but they insisted on making some too."
I got up early again this morning to set all this up; it must have used up a lot of oil. No wonder I saw those old fogies circling around the Tang family's place.
When the old man said that the two gluttons were wandering around in front, the old woman picked up her basket and went into the main room.
They found some oil paper and planned to wrap it up for the brother and sister to take with them.
Xiao Jiu quickly said, "Mom, I won't take any. I ate quite a lot at my sister's this morning. You guys can try these, and my brother can take the rest."
She couldn't tell her sisters that they had packed two basins of food for her, but Zhao Lingli wouldn't listen to her and packed two bags herself.
Give the big one to her, and the small one to the younger brother.
Tao An was already used to this blatant favoritism, and was even easily satisfied, readily taking the small bag and leaving.
Xiao Jiu wanted everyone to try it, but her grandparents waved their hands at the same time, and even her parents shook their heads.
“You’re lacking in oil and food at school, so please take this as a token of your sister’s appreciation. I’ll prepare some fried noodles for you before you leave.”
Fried noodles are made by frying wheat flour on a griddle until it turns brown, then putting it in a container, mixing it with water, and stirring it into a sesame paste. This can relieve stomach discomfort and aid digestion. Many types of oil tea are made this way, but with more ingredients added.
"Oh, Mom, please stop bringing me so much stuff. Really, I'm doing fine at school."
You should keep it for yourselves. You and Dad work hard every day and burn a lot of energy, so you should prepare more food for yourselves.
Don't let your stomach get upset from hunger. If we run out of food, I'll go and get the food we stored up before...
Zhao Lingli gently ruffled Xiao Jiu's hair with a look of pity.
"Alright, don't worry about things at home. It's enough. We have enough food, enough vegetables, and even oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar."
Your sisters from the Tang family would occasionally bring us dry rations, saying they were made from the grain you had stockpiled.
Xiao Jiu scratched his head awkwardly, "We only have a week's worth of food left at home. You and Dad aren't home, and neither are my brothers. It's just Grandpa and Grandma. I was worried that someone might try to take advantage of us, so I put some things in the front yard."
“My little Jiu is very thoughtful. She did the right thing. Your father and I both know this and are very reassured.”
The 72 jin of grain that your father and I each eat every month is far from enough for our family.
Your grandparents said that when it's inconvenient for your sister and the others to deliver, they can have it made here directly.
Eat refined grains every morning, and whole grains for lunch and dinner.
Sometimes we're not very active, so we only cook two meals a day. See how well we take care of your grandparents while we're not home?
At this point, Zhao Lingli couldn't help but nervously pull Xiao Jiu aside.
"They're really something, daring to go to the black market. Did they get all those eggs, fish, and meat from the black market?"
Xiao Jiu's eyes twitched, and she scratched her head awkwardly.
"My sisters didn't tell me about these things, but with my fourth sister around, I don't think these things should be a problem?"
"Many people in my workplace haven't seen meat for a year or two, but our family is doing well. We still get enough nutrition. If we didn't eat more whole grains, I reckon we would have gotten fat."
"Is the food we stockpiled before enough?"
Xiao Jiu nodded vigorously, "It's enough, enough for us to eat until the end of 1962. My dad bought quite a lot before, and it was originally calculated to be enough for nine people in our family. Now we all eat out, and it's just you few at home, so it doesn't actually consume that much."
She piled the grains separately in a corner of the warehouse. Although she hadn't counted the exact weight, she had been taking all the coarse grains from there over the past few years.
It's all for our own consumption. The sisters have their own food supply channels. Besides exchanging work points for food, they also stockpiled a lot of food in earlier years.
At first, they were kept in the attic and rooms, but after learning about Fourth Sister's secret, they were all moved into the space.
She remembers clearly that they dried a lot of vegetables back then.
They bought the cheapest whole grains.
The fine grains were given to Xiao Jiu separately later; these were things from her warehouse and couldn't be counted together with the rest of them.
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