Xiao Jiu's mature and comforting words drew sidelong glances from his family. While they found it amusing, they also wondered how there could be such a big difference between children.
Ever since Xiao Jiu's miraculous treatment that exceeded her age limit, the Tao family seems to care about her even more than before, especially Tao An, who treats her like a treasure. He even stops eating his favorite eggs and gives them all to Xiao Jiu. If Xiao Jiu can't finish them, he tells her to save them for the next meal.
When he got home from school, he would first go to play with his younger sister. His sister was quiet and didn't want him to make noise nearby, so he would quietly lie down next to her, tilt his head, and stare at her.
Tao An is quite good-looking, with fair skin, a clean and refreshing appearance, thick eyebrows, and big eyes. He is three years older than Xiao Jiu. Before Xiao Jiu could speak, he was just like a kindergarten child, only knowing how to eat, drink, and play. But ever since Xiao Jiu started talking, the two siblings have been inseparable every day. This has not only made Tao An's language skills improve rapidly, but has also subtly influenced his ability to understand the world around him.
Perhaps because Tao An is young, Xiao Jiu relaxes her guard when she is with him and gradually reveals her true nature.
Tao An knew nothing, but Xiao Jiu knew a lot. Sometimes, when Tao An got impatient with his questions, Xiao Jiu would explain the principles to him.
for example--
"Xiao Jiu, do you really think there's a God? Why does Grandma always say, 'Oh my God, look what you've done!'"
Xiao Jiu then made up a story for him: "Yes, you said it's God, right? It even has a name, so it must exist."
"Xiao Jiu, we all have two eyes, right? So why do I see one you with my two eyes, instead of two of you?"
Xiao Jiu glanced at him in surprise, clearly not expecting that this young boy would have so many questions, especially this one, which he was able to ask. He was no ordinary person.
But how could she explain this? This question combined many issues such as optics, neurobiology, psychology, and philosophy. If she tried to explain it to him seriously, he would not only not understand, but would also think she was talking nonsense. If this got to the ears of adults, well, that would be another problem.
So she thought about it seriously for a moment, then made up a story: "You saw me with your left eye, and you saw me with your right eye. When the two of them overlapped, that's me now."
"Little sister, when I'm hungry at night, my brother tells me that I won't be hungry anymore once I fall asleep. So where does the hunger go?"
Xiao Jiu was speechless: "I was eaten by my dreams!"
There were many, many more conversations like this. Perhaps it was because Tao An had reached this age that she had an endless stream of questions every day. He didn't like asking others, but he preferred to ask her, because her answers were always so refreshing and completely different from the perfunctory and irritating answers of others.
Finally, Xiao Jiu understood. Her impatience and perfunctory attitude had become so sophisticated that Xiao Ge couldn't even sense it, which is why he now preferred to confide in her.
What a sweet burden!
——
Every year when it's time to eat toon sprouts, my brother would climb the toon tree in our yard and use a hook to pull down all the tender buds.
After washing the toon sprouts, Grandma dried them, then pickled some with salt and mixed the rest with chili sauce to make toon sauce.
Adding wine and salt to the toon sauce allows it to be preserved for a long time without getting wet.
Because the family opened a restaurant this year, Grandma not only harvested the toon leaves from her own tree, but also searched everywhere for toon trees. This was because when the family ran the tavern, toon sauce was a very popular snack served with peanuts. So this year, she took the prepared toon sauce to a snack shop to see if it could be sold as a side dish.
Because the toon sauce contains many good ingredients, such as wine, chili, peanuts, fermented black beans, and toon, which are rarely available in the city, it is not unreasonable for a stack of them to sell for a thousand yuan when paired with their homemade steamed buns and plain noodles.
Plain noodles are a new addition to the menu. A bowl of noodles costs 1,000 yuan, and if you add an egg, it costs 2,000 yuan.
Tang Cuihua and Zhao Lingli are currently working with great enthusiasm. In their spare time, they are also researching new recipes. In fact, Cuihua is just trying to make some snacks that she saw in her dream. If they do well, great; if they don't, it's because they are not good enough.
They would also buy newspapers and cut out recipes for reference.
Now the two of them are engrossed in studying recipes and learning together. Zhao Lingli teaches Tang Cuihua what she doesn't know. Although Lingli came from a famine-stricken family in her early years, her ancestors were a wealthy family. However, her family was destroyed and she was a female student in the Republic of China who studied for ten years. Tang Cuihua has learned a lot of fine cooking from her.
Tang Zhaodi is only one year younger than Cuihua, and she is already thirteen years old this year. Influenced by her older sister, the two of them also signed up for the literacy class. Many people went to the literacy class in the neighborhood, but most of them would rather earn money than waste their time. Unlike the two sisters, they always brought pens and notebooks to study seriously and even asked the teacher to write a template for them to practice copying at home.
Seeing how diligently the two sisters were working, Tao Qing and Tao Ziran took turns explaining their homework to them using Tao Qing's textbook. Now, thanks to everyone's joint efforts, the two sisters know about a hundred characters, can write their own names, and can even do addition and subtraction within one hundred.
Although I'm not very skilled, at least I can calculate it. The speed may be slow, but my positive attitude is truly commendable.
Grandma would also teach them needlework. Grandma and Zhao Lingli always made the insoles and shoes for the whole family. But after they moved to the city, this job fell to Grandma. The two sisters wanted to help, so they started practicing.
Xiao Jiu is a very easy child to raise. I thought she would be difficult to take care of after she could walk, but I didn't expect her to be even easier to take care of than before. She sleeps by herself when she is tired and plays by herself when she is awake. It is because of her intelligence that they can free up time to take care of the family's food, clothing, housing and transportation.
At first, Xiao Jiu stayed obediently under their noses. But once they let their guard down, she started wandering around the yard, looking at this and touching that. After that, you'll often find some unfamiliar species appearing in the vegetable garden.
First she buried onions, then sugarcane, and now she's buried purple potatoes. Even the Panax notoginseng and dandelion, which can be used to make cold dishes, as well as tofu, mint, and water spinach that can be propagated by cuttings, she casually pressed them into the corner of the wall, waiting for them to sprout successfully and grow up so she can cook them in different ways.
She buried about ten sections of sugarcane, carefully chopping them open and waiting for them to sprout before burying them at the base of the wall. Although she didn't know if they would grow, they were still a fresh species, better than eating sorghum stalks that didn't have much sweet juice.
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