Chapter 168: Brat, you still don't want to listen to me
Jiang Dong stood up happily after hearing this and was about to leave, but Jiang Hao quickly stopped him, "Mom, why are you in such a hurry? You know the place, so you can rest for a while. I'll take you two there after dinner."
Liu Cuihua carried the package and pulled Jiang Dong away without looking back.
"Don't worry, I know the place. I saw it when I passed by the bathhouse on my way back just now. It's the one I've been to before. We're not tired either. We slept all the way here in the sleeper berth. Your third brother asked someone to buy the tickets. We didn't eat dinner either. Dongdong and I each had a serving of pork and radish dumplings before we got off the train."
After saying that, the two of them walked out of the Shi family's gate and headed for the bathhouse.
Shi Luo looked at the fried dough twists and peach cakes he had just taken out and shook his head, "Godmother is still so impetuous."
Jiang Hao pointed to the room where his grandfather used to live. "Let them stay there tonight. Oh, this is for you."
Shi Luo nodded, took the cloth bag and opened it. Inside was neatly wrapped three gold bars and a stack of RMB. "Here, you used to be able to lend gold bars to others."
Jiang Hao was packing up the three huge packages piled up underneath.
"Of course not. I brought Monkey with me to the black market in my hometown. This should be the money they owed me. Seeing that I never went back, they gave it to Monkey. Monkey probably heard that my mother was coming to see me and thought of asking her to bring him here. That brat is unreliable. Didn't he consider that it's not safe for my mother to carry this thing?"
Shi Luo's hands, which were helping to pack things, froze for a moment. "Is Monkey really reliable?"
Jiang Hao nodded and said, "Don't worry, Monkey is the only one who knows my true identity. Monkey has been with me since he was five years old. I saved his life. He is the only one left in his family. Later, I saw that he was young and had a hard time living, so I took him with me to the black market and asked him to help me with some crimes. He has never said anything nonsense over the years.
Besides, once I pay off this money, I won’t have anything to do with the black market over there, so it won’t be a problem.”
Shi Luo nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go over there and heat up the kang first, then put the quilt and other things on. Luckily, when we built the kang, we thought that someone might come from your hometown, so we replaced it with kangs in both rooms. Otherwise, sleeping on the bunk bed in this winter would freeze you into a popsicle."
Jiang Hao: "You are the one who has foresight. If it weren't for the inconvenience of building a kang in the upper floor, I would have built one in the new house as well."
Shi Luo put the luggage that Liu Cuihua had brought out alone into the house, heated the kang, and spread out the quilts before helping Jiang Hao pick up other things. "Hey, could it be that godmother brought all the winter supplies from home and their food rations for the next month? Look, there's all this frozen sticky rice dumplings, rice cakes, and all sorts of mountain products, not to mention nearly 50 kilograms of cornmeal."
Jiang Hao flipped through the books and said, "It's unlikely that they took all the stored food. They might be worried that we don't have enough food. I don't know about the other things, but most of these mountain products must have been exchanged with the villagers. Otherwise, my mother wouldn't be able to pick up so much by herself."
The two put the things where they should be and didn't rush to cook. Shi Luo took out three chickens, a duck, a goose, two pounds of pork belly, five pounds of ribs and a small box of seafood such as shrimp, hairtail and scallops from the space.
After burying the things in the snow pile under the kitchen window, he took out a duck, a pound of pork belly, and half a goose and put them in a basin in the kitchen. Finally, he put twenty radishes and twenty cabbages into the cellar under the kitchen. After thinking for a while, he put in six pounds of bacon, eight sausages, and fifty pounds of rice and flour.
Jiang Hao, "That's enough. No need to take anymore. Look, this cellar is almost full. Besides, the rations and autumn harvest vegetables that my third brother gave us when he delivered the luggage are all here. Add to that the benefits from the factory, and the four of us can eat as much as we want for five or six months without having to worry about running out of food."
Shi Luo: "Go and make the old duck soup. It will take three or four hours to cook it. Then we can have it in the evening."
Jiang Hao nodded. "Okay, I'll stew the half goose and stir-fry a few side dishes in the evening. Then I'll call Grandpa and Grandma over to eat together. At noon, when my mom and her family come back, I'll see if she wants to eat out. If not, I can make some egg noodles. There are ready-made hand-rolled noodles in the cabinet, which is exactly what they say: dumplings when you get on the bus, noodles when you get off."
Shi Luo was cracking melon seeds in the living room, watching Jiang Hao busy in and out of the kitchen. "Brother, have you asked for a few days off for us? When our godmother comes over, shouldn't we spend more time with her?"
Jiang Hao: "Yes, the Chinese New Year is only five days away. We don't have to work at the factory this year. The factory also distributed the New Year benefits yesterday. I thought there was nothing to do, so I took these days off. After the New Year holiday, the factory will officially open on the fifth day of the first lunar month, and we can go to work together."
"That's great. I finally don't have to get up early and stay up late."
Shi Luo leaned back and stretched, finally feeling liberated. He had curled up enough in his previous life, and he must lie down whenever he could in this life.
It was two hours later that Liu Cuihua brought Jiang Dong back.
Liu Cuihua from Jiangdong walked to the two stools next to the stove, sat down, took off the dry towel wrapped around her hair, and combed her hair while warming herself by the fire.
Jiang Dong ruffled his short hair and looked excited. "Uncle Wu, this big city is great. Taking a bath is so comfortable. I spent five cents to ask someone to give me a good scrub at the bathhouse."
Jiang Hao peeled the peanuts in his hand and handed them to Liu Cuihua.
"There's a bathhouse in our hometown's commune. It's not much different here. It's just that your mother doesn't want to spend money, so you've never been there."
Liu Cuihua ate peanuts and said, "Don't listen to your uncle's nonsense. Money is easy to talk about, but people in our village don't have bath tickets. Look, it costs not only 20 cents per person to take a bath, but also bath tickets. If we use a large basin of hot water to take a bath at home, it won't cost so much."
Jiang Dong nodded, "Grandma, I understand."
Jiang Hao stood up and patted the residue on his hands. "Okay, it's almost noon, Mom, your hair is dry, why don't we go out for lunch at noon, it can be regarded as a welcome for you."
Liu Cuihua shook her head. "Why spend that money when you're out eating? You can eat at home. You just bought a house, how much money do you have left? As the saying goes, if you eat well, you won't be poor; if you don't plan well, you will be poor."
Jiang Hao saw that his mother was about to nag again and quickly interrupted her, "Okay, okay, then we won't go out to eat. I'll make a bowl of egg noodles for each of you.
I'm still stewing a duck, but we haven't had enough time yet, so let's have a small lunch and then have the main course in the evening."
Looking at her youngest son's hurried footsteps, Liu Cuihua muttered softly, "Stinky boy, you still don't want to listen to me."
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