Chapter 114 Chalk Stubs: Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
The evening before the cultural performance, which was a Saturday, Qin Xiangxiang went home early. After school, Xiao Pang would always play wildly with other children his age in the courtyard, and these children would always wait until dark before going home.
"Mom! I'm home?"
"Look at your little sister for a bit. Why hasn't your dad come back yet?" Qin Xiangxiang was waiting for Li Jianzhi to come back and cook, while she was preparing to fry some fragrant sunflower seeds in advance to eat while watching the performance tomorrow.
"Let's make do with something simple today, just a braised rice dish." Qin Xiangxiang washed the clay pot, rinsed the rice and added water, along with yam chunks, potato chunks, cured meat and smoked fish from the New Year, drizzled on soy sauce, added some shrimp, cracked in two eggs, covered the pot, and put it on the stove to simmer.
This is the simplest braised rice. When Qin Xiangxiang is too lazy to cook other dishes, she makes this kind of lazy person's clay pot rice.
She took the alarm clock, set the time, and prepared to roast the sunflower seeds on the small stove.
"Mom, your roasted sunflower seeds smell so good!" Little Fatty brought his one-year-old sister to watch their mother roast sunflower seeds.
"Alright, it's cooked. Try it."
"It's so hot...it smells so good! Mom, I want more!"
"These are the sunflower seeds I'll eat while watching the show tomorrow."
After Qin Xiangxiang's clay pot rice was cooked, she added the washed vegetables to it. A minute or two later, Li Jianzhi returned, and Qin Xiangxiang asked the man to take the clay pot rice out.
Li Jianzhi: "...We're having a big stew tonight!"
Little Fatty cheered: "A huge stew!"
Sui Sui: "Stew!"
A large clay pot was lifted, and Qin Xiangxiang picked out the smoked fish separately. She stirred the rice inside with a spoon. By this time, the potatoes and yams had softened and melted into the rice. The rich soy sauce dyed the rice. Li Jianzhi went to the refrigerator to get chili sauce, filled a small bowl, and put it on the table for everyone to take.
Li Jianzhi: "After being married for a long time, we become more casual about eating."
Qin Xiangxiang: "When I first came to the island, we ate wild vegetables and steamed buns."
Li Jianzhi: "The stewed rice in a clay pot is delicious, but it doesn't look very appealing. Next time I'll go home earlier and make a low-fat meal for you and the kids."
I won't listen.
"We have pan-fried pork and boiled shrimp. I guarantee you'll love it."
Little Fatty ate until his belly was round and full, and he and Li Jianzhi finished off the whole pot of rice. Qin Xiangxiang boiled water to make milk powder for her daughter. She wanted to drink some herself, and Little Fatty said he wanted some too, so she made a big bowl of it.
Qin thought: "I need to find a way to get to know a leader of a milk powder factory and exchange the factory's cloth for milk powder as an employee benefit."
Li Jianzhi: "Okay, I'll make you milk tea then."
Li Jianzhi decided to make homemade glutinous rice ball milk tea when he had time—but it was anything but healthy.
"Tomorrow, Little Fatty and his mom are going to the factory to watch the cultural performance. Keep an eye on your little sister and don't make any noise."
"Mom, bring lots of good food with you!"
Thinking about the grand show tomorrow, Qin Xiang couldn't sleep at night. Actually, she was a little worried because Lu Baizhou looked just like her younger sister Li Jinling. What if she took a liking to him again?
Even knowing that the chirping sounds like chalk dust, she still enjoyed it.
Putting everything else aside, Lu Baizhou at least has a handsome face. Perhaps that "chalk stick" thing isn't important to marriage? Or to women?
"Honey, can't sleep? How about we do something fun?" Originally, Li Jianzhi didn't want to do anything, but his wife was wide awake and couldn't sleep, so why not spend a wonderful night together?
Qin Xiangxiang: "!"
See, she said it herself: this "chalk stick" isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's not necessarily a bad thing either. At least it won't make people feel both comfortable and uncomfortable.
The couple used chalk for half a day. Qin Xiangxiang was sweating and exhausted, so she lay on the bed. Li Jianzhi got up and went to the kitchen to bring her hot water to wipe her down. Qin Xiangxiang closed her eyes comfortably, but although she felt very tired, she was also unusually energetic as if she had been injected with chicken blood.
She reached out and squeezed the soft thing, but Li Jianzhi's handsome face remained expressionless as he let her do as she pleased.
Qin Xiangxiang sighed, "Do you think this thing is important?"
Li Jianzhi: "??????"
"Of course it's important. Without this, how could we have a happy family life... and children?"
Qin Xiangxiang glanced at him lazily: "What if you had a 'chalk stick'?"
Li Jianzhi: "Cough—"
Why does his wife make such surprising statements?
"I was just thinking about what this would look like if it were a piece of chalk."
Li Jianzhi's face darkened: "Stay away from Sister-in-law Zhong Li next door from now on."
"Let me study it carefully."
Qin Xiangxiang said curiously, "It would be great if this could change size like Sun Wukong's golden cudgel in Journey to the West."
Li Jianzhi: "???"
“Even if you really become a piece of chalk, don’t worry, there will be women willing to marry you without any regrets.” Her sister-in-law, Li Jinling, was such a devoted woman.
Li Jianzhi was a little exasperated: "Your daughter is still sleeping right next to you, don't you dare set a bad example for the child!"
"When you were messing with me just now, you didn't even think about our daughter being here, huh!"
The next morning, the whole family got up early, ate breakfast, and took the regular transport vehicle from the family compound to the textile factory. Gao Rong and Gou Qiang, along with other female workers and their families, were also on the vehicle.
Besides Li Jianzhi, there was another male officer who smiled and said to Li Jianzhi, "We've become family members now."
"Male family member!"
Li Jianzhi held his little daughter, Sui Sui. The little one had been energetic for a while when she woke up in the morning, but now she was yawning and slumping in her father's arms.
Gou Qiang, dressed in brand-new clothes, rolled up his sleeves to reveal an imported watch on his wrist. Today, he was going to show it off to Gao Rong's coworkers.
"Sister-in-law! Brother! You're all here! The actors haven't arrived yet, but the stage is almost set up."
Master Li was very happy to see Qin Xiangxiang and her family. She said to Qin Xiangxiang, "There was a program on stage today called 'Master and Me,' which is just like our situation. Why don't we make up a story about the factory and call it 'Me and Master'?"
Qin Xiangxiang: "Huh???!"
Li Jinling: "I think this is good!"
Master Li continued, "Director Qin, our factory should also establish an amateur arts and propaganda team for the workers of Feiyan Textile Factory."
"This is an arts and culture propaganda team that every factory should have, to enrich the cultural and spiritual life of the workers."
“In the past, our factory’s propaganda team would often write skits, perform crosstalk, and even write plays. We also composed our own songs.”
Qin Xiangxiang: "An arts propaganda team? That's great! We should set up an arts propaganda team."
Li Jinling: "So, does that mean we'll write about what happens in our factory in the program?"
Let's write a story about a sister-in-law who worked hard and became a factory manager to encourage everyone!
Qin Xiangxiang: "Pfft—"
"Sister-in-law, what's wrong?"
"I choked on a sunflower seed."
Qin Xiangxiang didn't want to chat with them about her inspirational story of becoming a factory manager. She just wanted to eat sunflower seeds and watch the show. Today, some people in the factory had brewed herbal tea, some brought roasted sunflower seeds, and some brought peanuts and dried sweet potatoes. It was very lively, and everyone was treating it like a festival.
Soon, several transport trucks arrived, and a group of actors, both men and women, got off. Among them was Lu Baizhou, whom Qin Xiangxiang recognized. He stood out in the crowd, but he wasn't particularly stunning, because there were many handsome men and beautiful women in the drama troupe.
The young and pretty woman next to her, dressed in a worker's uniform with braided pigtails, must be Liang Ling. She has a graceful face, dimples when she smiles, and occasionally says a few words to the tall man beside her.
The tall man was named Zhou Liangdong. He had the air of a cadre's son. He was very tall, with short hair, thick eyebrows, and big eyes. His eyebrows were very bold, giving him an extremely sharp appearance. When he was expressionless, he looked fierce and menacing.
But Liang Ling didn't care about his cold face at all. She always had a smile on her face, fiddling with her braids, and always trying to strike up a conversation with Zhou Liangdong.
"Zhou Liangdong, the textile factory we've come to today is a bit desolate; it doesn't even have a gate."
"But the scenery here is very beautiful... Will you eat something before you go on stage to perform later? I brought some food, so you can have something to eat."
"Liang Ling, what did you bring? I'm a little hungry." Lu Baizhou gazed at Liang Ling with deep affection, hoping to win the goddess's favor.
But Liang Ling had no eyes for him at all; she only had eyes for Zhou Liangdong, the son of a cadre, who was tall and handsome.
"Haiyang, are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Zhou Liangdong, who had just been cold-faced, looked down and asked the short man beside him who had been silent.
This short man wasn't exactly short, but he appeared short standing next to the tall Zhou Liangdong. He was about the same height as Lu Baizhou, but slightly shorter, around 1.67 to 1.68 meters. He had a very handsome face, almost like a girl, and from a distance, it was hard to tell if he was male or female.
Because she had been dancing since elementary school, Xue Haiyang was graceful and had an outstanding temperament. However, due to her insufficient height, she left the dance team early and became an actress in a drama troupe.
"I'm not hungry." The tall man drew closer, and Xue Haiyang frowned, a hint of disgust flashing in his eyes.
"Zhou Liangdong, you and Xue Haiyang have a really good relationship."
Zhou Liangdong said, "Haiyang is like a younger brother I grew up with in the compound. I treat him like my own brother."
Liang Ling teased, "Do you have any younger sisters in your compound who look like me?"
...
Qin Xiangxiang watched the actors interacting and talking from afar, and she felt a subtle unease, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.
When she saw the tall man smiling and speaking into the short man's ear, something exploded in her head.
Holy crap!
A circuit suddenly went through her mind, and the light bulb on her head lit up.
In the dream, Li Jinling likes Lu Baizhou, but Lu Baizhou has his idol Liang Ling in his heart. Liang Ling likes Zhou Liangdong, the son of a cadre. After Lu Baizhou's unsuccessful pursuit of Liang Ling, he agrees to marry Li Jinling. Then one day, Liang Ling suddenly returns to Lu Baizhou for comfort. The two are still connected and reminisce about the past.
However, the reason why Liang Ling gave up on Zhou Liangdong, the son of a cadre she had pursued for many years, was because Liang Ling discovered—
Liangdong likes men this week!
Qin Xiangxiang: "!!!!!!!!!!"
Qin Xiangxiang's head was about to explode after she figured this out. She originally thought she was reading a story about "I love you, you love him", but it turned out to be a story about "I love you, you love him, he loves him" like a string of candied hawthorns.
Qin Xiangxiang felt numb. She stiffly flipped through the program list to look at the cast of "The Story of Overtime Work". She said blankly, "Liang Ling, Zhou Liangdong, Lu Baizhou, Xue Haiyang... Aren't these the actors mentioned earlier?"
She couldn't help but clap her hands.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
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