Tang Cuimei and Tang Cuixiang were furious and wanted to go back to confront their uncle's family, but Tang Cuihua stopped them.
"Alright, it's the New Year. Going to find that bad luck will only make you angry and might ruin the whole family's holiday. Let's talk about it after the New Year. Besides, to put it bluntly, if their home hadn't been destroyed, we might not have been able to settle down in Xihe Village. Wouldn't it be better to cut off all contact with them completely? That way, we won't have to worry about them causing trouble for our family every few days!"
"Sister, that's true, but I feel so stifled coming out like this. We all worked so hard to build that home, why should they get such a big advantage?"
While the two sisters were filled with righteous indignation, Tang Cuihua sighed and muttered something under her breath.
"It's hard to say who's getting the better deal!"
If she hadn't found a packet of peppercorns she had mixed into the sorghum rice in the grain Xiaojiu brought back, and if the cloth scraps containing the peppercorns were hand-sewn by her, she might still be angry like them. But the key point is that the stolen grain seems to have already returned to their home.
Given Xiao Jiu's temperament and abilities, he should at least skin them alive. If things go wrong, they might still go hungry at home this year, and having offended so many relatives, who knows how bad things could get!
The reason she stopped her sisters from causing trouble was that she didn't want to invite bad luck.
The food they could get from the production team was far from enough. So, when Cuihong saw that everyone in her family had returned, she conjured up a fish weighing about ten pounds that very evening. The fish looked very fresh and was quite large.
Without saying a word, Cuihua and the others split the fish in half, then cut it in half again, making it into four pieces. She only took half of the fish head and salted the rest, planning to send it to the Tao family during the New Year.
However, Cuihong brought the entire fish head to her and asked her to stew it, saying...
“I still have some, so don’t be stingy. Just eat as much as you want. I didn’t take it out easily before because I thought the fish was too big and I was afraid it would cause unnecessary trouble. Now that all the sisters are here, we’re all a bit hungry, so eat up. Even if you can’t get fat, you have to be able to eat until you’re stuffed.”
The meaning of "翠红" is quite clear: no matter how long the flow of water is, it must be eaten when it's time to eat.
If fish head soup isn't made well, it will be so fishy that it's inedible. That's when the necessity of a chef becomes apparent.
The first meal the sisters had together was cooked by Tang Cuixiang, with Cuihong helping out and learning the skills. They actually managed to stew a pot of milky white soup, topped with chopped green onions and cilantro. The aroma of the soup was so strong that it could be smelled as soon as you entered the courtyard.
Upon smelling the fish soup, she ran out and returned with a plate of tofu in her hand, which, judging by its weight, must have weighed at least three to five pounds.
Cuihua knew this was another of her family's secret stash of liquor, and couldn't help but gasp, "Isn't this too much?"
"Not much. There are a lot of us, and such a big pot will be gone if everyone takes a little."
The Tao family always had a share in everything Cuihua's family did. Since it wasn't appropriate to carry the pot around the streets, everyone was invited to the Zhou family's house to enjoy the soup.
Even though all the doors and windows were closed, the aroma was so tempting that it wafted far and wide, and everyone could smell it, but no one knew where it was coming from. Because the soup was consumed quickly and there wasn't much oil in it, the dishes were washed quickly, and the pot was put away afterward, so by the time people came looking for it, the smell had basically dissipated.
Not only the Zhou family, but also other families in the vicinity were searched. When they went door to door to look for them, the Zhou family was already roasting sweet potatoes on the stove. The smell of sweet potatoes caused everything to be destroyed. No one found any evidence, and the matter was left unresolved.
After everyone left, Tang Cuimei looked at Tang Cuihua in astonishment: "Is the investigation so strict? Are you not allowing any special treatment?"
"It's not that they don't allow you to have special meals; they'd love for you to eat their own food. Ultimately, it's about finding a pot. They took all the pots away back then, just to see who could still afford fish at this time of year. To put it bluntly, it's jealousy and envy."
Tang Cuixiang said worriedly, "Although we roasted sweet potatoes, you can still smell the odor. This means our family is probably being watched."
“We’re outsiders, and they don’t know us very well. They only know we’re relatives of the Tao family. Even if they know we have fish, there’s nothing they can do about it, especially since you two are studying in the city. Don’t top students bring good things home? It’s fine. So what if they know? What can they do to us? We haven’t found any evidence.”
Look how crazy people are about stuttering; no one can stand seeing others doing better than themselves.
Although Cuihua spoke with conviction, she still sighed, "Let's keep a low profile as much as possible this year. At this time, everyone's nose is like a dog's, sharp and keen. If we're really starving, we'll just boil some porridge to drink. That stuff has no taste."
Forget about eating the fish, let alone sending it to the Tao family. It would be a loss if it implicated them again.
This is actually why Xiaojiu doesn't dare to eat and drink openly. Food tastes better when it's flavorful, but if others can smell it, how can she eat it?
We had to eat those filling but tasteless foods as a temporary measure.
Just as the Tang sisters were actively helping out at the Xihe Village canteen every day and gradually integrating into the new community, a major incident occurred in Taoyuan Village!
The stench that had been lingering for days was unbearable for the neighbors, forcing the lazy family to clean the latrine. As a result, they discovered a corpse in Tang Youjin's latrine, which terrified Tang Youjin so much that he fainted. Tang Jiabao ran over to see what was happening and immediately wet his pants.
With such a commotion, it was impossible for no one to see it, so the police intervened very quickly.
Before the identity of the body was determined, Tang Youjin's entire family had been taken away to cooperate with the investigation, and the incident spread like wildfire to several surrounding villages.
When Xiao Jiu found out, he was still sunbathing in his yard, peeling peanuts and eating them, without the slightest expression on his face.
She had anticipated that it would be discovered before the Lunar New Year, because it hadn't reached the freezing point yet, and after soaking for so many days, its taste would definitely be different from ordinary farmyard manure.
Even if Tang Youjin and his son are only suspected and investigated, it will have a significant impact on their family and may even implicate the other branches of the family.
The Tang family, in particular, has a bad reputation. This time, well, they'll be half-crippled if they don't die.
Sure enough, before the New Year was even over, the old man from the Tang family was so angry that he died.
Tang Youjin and his son were taken away. There were police dispatch records showing that they had previously burned down the sisters' house. Just as they were being asked to cooperate with the investigation, news came that the old man had died of anger.
Thus, the sisters had no choice but to return home for the funeral.
No matter how angry, resentful, or how much ties are severed, he is still a descendant of the Tang family. When someone dies, they have to go back, otherwise who knows what will be said about them behind their backs.
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