Zhenniang: The Three of Us (Part 4)
Waking up to find yourself in another place, doing something else, is terrifying for anyone.
Fortunately, Zhao Zhenniang had been possessed by ghosts so many times that she had gotten used to it.
Looking at her neighbor who was asking her questions, Zhao Zhenniang didn't know what Ye Sangu was doing out there.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wonder for long. Her personality switched again, and when she opened her eyes, she was already at the pork shop.
Seeing the butcher's eager invitation and the silver coins in her hand, Zhao Zhenniang realized that Aunt Ye wanted to buy meat.
Does even a cunning tree spirit like Aunt Ye need to eat meat?
For her father's funeral, her in-laws kindly gave her one hundred silver dollars for the funeral expenses, and they even left her twenty silver dollars. It was the first time Zhao Zhenniang had ever seen so much money, and she was extremely grateful to her in-laws.
She hid all the money in a secret place and couldn't bear to spend it.
But there's a strange phenomenon about people: they're reluctant to use things for others, but they're willing to use them for ghosts; they're reluctant to eat them themselves, but they dare not neglect offering them to ghosts.
Zhao Zhenniang touched the money in her hand. She dared not disobey her aunt's instructions and carefully asked for two catties of pork fat and half a catty of pork fat. She was also persuaded by the proprietress to buy some offal.
One pound of pork fat costs one cent, and one pound of pork fat costs one and a half cents.
Ye Xiqing and Jian Yu'an, two modern people, dared to spend silver dollars without hesitation, but Zhao Zhenniang would not dare to.
He patted himself down and found the handful of loose change that Jian Yu'an had grabbed when he came out, and painstakingly pieced it together to make up the total.
The butcher saw that she had plenty of money in her hand, so she wasn't going to let her go empty-handed.
He rambled on and on, pushing and shoving, and cut her half a pound of fat and some lard, managing to scrape together five cents.
"Little girl, you look like a girl from a wealthy family. Why be so stingy with these bits of meat? Auntie will give you some extra bits of fat. It's not a bad deal!"
Zhao Zhenniang wasn't one of those two otherworldly people from the future, but as an unmarried young girl, she couldn't resist the advances of these seasoned veterans and ended up buying a lot.
After buying pork, the familiar loss of consciousness returned, this time to buy rice, and specifically requested white rice.
White rice costs three cents a pound! My aunt really knows how to eat...
With a heavy heart, I bought ten catties of white rice and ten catties of millet, which cost a total of forty-five cents. Aunt Ye also wanted a bottle of sesame oil, four ounces, which cost twelve cents.
Looking at the sesame oil that Aunt Ye had chosen, Zhao Zhenniang fell silent.
Fairy, can you guess what kind of oil we grind at home?
Ye Xiqing, who was sitting on Zhao Zhenniang, suddenly realized that sesame oil was actually made by people grinding it.
She thought it was made through a high-end process, like perfume.
Hey, look, this is like the flood washing away the Dragon King's temple.
Without batting an eye, Ye Xiqing returned the sesame oil. Her knowledge was expanded once again; sesame oil was made by grinding, and the Zhao family ground sesame oil.
Before this, she had always thought that Zhao Zhenniang's family ground sunflower oil, peanut oil, and soybean oil.
The result was sesame oil, how amazing!
Zhao Zhenniang: ...
The fact that the ghost inside her body was so flexible and willing to negotiate gave Zhao Zhenniang a very absurd feeling.
Whether it's a ghost or a god, only those who are omniscient possess divine status; the moment a flaw appears, they crumble.
As Zhao Zhenniang's fear and wariness gradually subsided, she began to whisper to Ye Xiqing, "Can we buy three eggs?"
Egg prices have recently gone up, they're so expensive, two for eight cents, three for ten cents, Zhao Zhenniang can't bear to buy them.
Ye Xiqing didn't care; all she wanted was to eat fried eggs with sesame oil.
After all that shopping, Auntie San had brought out three silver dollars and a lot of change, but now she only had two bare coins left. They felt so empty to the touch, and Zhao Zhenniang was heartbroken.
After putting the things in the car, Zhao Zhenniang was very grateful that her neighbor, Uncle Liu, was willing to follow her all the way.
The neighbor beamed with joy, "No need to thank me. You even gave me a dollar. This is nothing. You can sit on it; I can pull you up!"
Zhao Zhenniang fell silent: How...how much?
To her utter surprise, another silver dollar was spent on her in a place she couldn't see, leaving Zhao Zhenniang speechless.
No wonder Uncle Liu is so happy. He can earn a dollar in half a day, and the work isn't heavy. Who wouldn't want to do it?
Zhao Zhenniang choked on her breath, but she wasn't ruthless; she didn't have the kind of determination that made her money back after spending a single silver dollar.
They were all from the same village, and she knew what days her sixth uncle's family celebrated.
Like their family, Uncle Liu's family was also a "family without heirs".
In an attempt to conceive a son, she gave birth to five daughters in a row.
Not only did they fail to catch their son, but only three of their daughters survived, and the villagers always said that their village had bad feng shui.
However, her sixth uncle was different from her father. Even though they were all girls, he still worked hard pulling the cart to support the family and would help them out whenever needed.
Looking at her neighbor's skeletal, aged body, Zhao Zhenniang simply couldn't sit down.
Fortunately, her father was too lazy to care about her and didn't bind her feet. Being young and strong, she naturally had plenty of strength to walk back with the neighbors and didn't feel too tired.
When she got home, her neighbor, Uncle Liu, helped her carry her things inside.
Having bought so many nice things, Zhao Zhenniang didn't want others to see them. She packed up some of the offal for her neighbor to take home and share with his children.
Given their relationship, asking for a silver dollar would be asking for more than they should have. Uncle Liu, the neighbor, already felt guilty and was too embarrassed to accept it.
After some back and forth, she finally accepted it. Not long after, the aunt next door came over with a bowl of pickled cucumbers in her hand.
Although the value isn't quite right, it's still a way of expressing my feelings.
People in the countryside have no money, and this is how they interact with each other in their daily lives.
Zhao Zhenniang was sensible at a young age and already knew how to handle such matters, so she asked the neighbor aunt to stay and exchange a few pleasantries.
Even among people from the same village, there are different levels of social hierarchy, and the Zhao family is definitely more powerful than their neighbors.
My neighbor is a real social butterfly. She'll shower me with compliments whenever something good comes to mind, but when we talk about her father's passing, she bursts into tears, then immediately cheers up and continues to shower me with compliments.
Her praise was so exaggerated that Zhao Zhenniang dared not listen and interrupted, "Sixth Aunt, I'm going to render lard later. If I don't render it well, do you know how to render it?"
Upon hearing this, Aunt Huang Liu, the neighbor, lit up and immediately assured her, "I'll do it! Everyone in the surrounding area knows that the lard rendered by Huang Qiuju is the clearest!"
It's quite bizarre for someone who owns an oil mill to say they know how to render oil, but it was originally just a new topic to change the subject, so the mother and daughter started rendering oil together.
Firewood is a necessity for the Zhao family's oil mill. They've already spent so much money on it, so there's no need to skimp on firewood. They picked out a bundle of good firewood.
As Huang Qiuju added firewood to the stove, she praised it highly, saying, "This firewood is really good, it burns really well!"
Zhao Zhenniang smiled slightly as she cut up the pork fat and lard.
Aunt Huang's praise was well-deserved; the firewood was all dry, produced no smoke, and burned very well.
After preparing the seasonings, cooking the rice, and washing the pot, I stepped aside and let Aunt Huang, who was an expert at rendering lard, do the rendering.
As soon as the pork was put into the pot, Aunt Huang's mouth, which was full of people, immediately closed. The indescribable aroma grew stronger and stronger as the pork simmered, and it was easy to drool if you weren't careful.
No matter what kind of oil is pressed in the oil mill, it's never cheap. Lard is in high demand, and poor families all use lard to make a living. Of course, every housewife knows how to make lard.
After rendering the lard, the thinly sliced pork fat was fried until golden brown in the remaining oil in the pan, producing even more oil and large, fragrant, and firm pieces of crackling.
The last layer of oil at the bottom, mixed with the fried rice cracklings, is so delicious it's almost unbearable to fry.
Zhao Zhenniang asked Aunt Huang to render lard, not just to get her help, but to give her a bowl of fresh lard with cracklings and a bowl of fried rice as the oil cooled down.
Actually, when Zhao Zhenniang left her to render lard, Huang Qiuju guessed that she would eventually get some.
Rationally, Huang Qiuju didn't want to ask people for things, but poverty makes people lose their will, and her family hadn't seen meat in a long time.
His face flushed, but he still accepted the oil bowl and once again expressed his gratitude to Zhao Zhenniang.
Zhao Zhenniang felt uncomfortable spending a single penny on herself, but she unexpectedly felt a sense of satisfaction when giving things to others, as if the money had been spent wisely.
She didn't know what this feeling was. When she closed the door and started frying eggs with sesame oil, she felt heartache again.
Such a small amount of eggs, yet so much fine sesame oil was used!
...
Finally, Zhao Zhenniang placed a bowl of fried rice with lard, fried eggs with sesame oil, pickled cucumbers, and half a pound of pig's head meat on the table, knelt down and kowtowed, muttering softly.
"Thank you for your guidance, Aunt. I have prepared a small feast to offer you with all my heart!"
After respectfully kowtowing three times, the Third Aunt possessed him.
When Zhao Zhenniang woke up, she had already arrived at Granny Wang's door.
After a moment of stunned silence, Zhao Zhenniang suddenly realized that this was what her third aunt meant by asking her to prepare the banquet!
Zhao Zhenniang secretly blamed herself for not being thoughtful enough. She had received such a great favor from her godmother, but she hadn't thought of properly rewarding her.
She hurriedly went inside and invited her godmother to her home. After kneeling and kowtowing three times, she officially became mother and daughter with her third aunt as witness.
Ye Xiqing manipulated Ye Sangu's body to draw a square frame resembling the character "介" (jie). Inside the frame were two figures made of firewood, one holding a long stick resembling a tobacco pipe, and the other wearing the skirt that Zhao Zhenniang was currently wearing, indicating that they would live together from now on.
This is a decree from the immortals, and no one dares to disobey it. Zhao Zhenniang immediately knelt down and kowtowed, vowing to take care of her godmother until her death!
Having lived to this point, Granny Wang was now of no use to gold or silver, except for someone to take care of her after death. She immediately beamed with joy and repeatedly thanked her third aunt for giving her a child.
After the ceremony, it was time to eat. Aunt Wang, being the elder, naturally took the seat of honor, but how should Aunt Ye be worshipped?
Zhao Zhenniang thought for a moment. Ye Sangu was on her body right now. If she was to offer sacrifices to her, did she expect her to eat them herself?
Sitting opposite Granny Wang on the kang, Zhao Zhenniang's heart was filled with turmoil.
Her father never skimped on food before, and often bought her nice things.
But he didn't mistreat himself, so what did he have to do with Zhao Zhenniang?
The good meat was all eaten by Zhao's father himself. Zhao Zhenniang would chew on a few chicken bones with tendons and bits of meat attached in the kitchen until they lost their flavor.
I'm happy picking up leftover chicken bones in the kitchen, and even if there's a little extra meat, I'm still not sure where to start when faced with this proper feast.
Fortunately, she didn't need to worry. Ye Xiqing would never ask someone else to do her meals; she switched personalities in an instant.
Having lived in the previous world for too long, Ye Xiqing longed for the unhealthy taste of an explosion of saturated fatty acids.
In the previous world, humans eventually entered a cultivation mode, which allowed them to convert energy from the outside world more quickly and efficiently, thus ending the hunting of animals.
Those with a love of food can also have dreams by stimulating corresponding areas of the brain, creating an experience similar to eating delicious food.
It satisfies the mind without the worries of real life, such as the health risks of fried food. You can eat as much as you want until you're sick of it.
When the body evolves to the point where it no longer needs to obtain energy through food, and dream food can satisfy the senses, it naturally stops eating.
But as a non-native, I always feel a bit addicted to food, and I really want to eat some simple and crude junk food myself.
Without hesitation, I put a fried egg in sesame oil into my bowl, took a bite, and felt instantly saved as the oil burst open.
This is what real food looks like! What kind of garbage is this zombie salted fish soup from the apocalypse?!
...
Ye Xiqing ate to her heart's content, but Zhao Zhenniang stared blankly at the millstone for a long time.
She was internally turbulent over the thought of that huge table of delicious food, but in the end, she wasn't allowed to eat a single bite...
That's not quite right either. In the end, when it was in her mouth, the feeling of fullness and the lingering aroma of oil told her that she had eaten.
But something feels off, even weirder than when she was sneaking munching on chicken bones in the kitchen…
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