Chapter 55 Looking after the children.
He Susu noticed that when her sister-in-law said this, Erbao, who seemed to be playing marbles with his back to them, quietly turned his chubby body to the side, and just happened to catch a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. His little ears perked up, waiting for her answer.
The second baby is well behaved and is neither too old nor too young to play by himself, but he needs someone to watch him at home to prevent him from causing trouble.
She thought for a few moments and agreed: "Okay, sister-in-law, then when you go to work, send Erbao to my house, and we can keep each other company."
Just as he finished speaking, the little ear moved, and the cheek on the visible side puffed up as if he was grinning, and the chubby body turned back to its normal state quietly.
Su Yu was happy to hear that: "Okay, thank you very much, little sister. I will send Erbao to your place when I go to work, and I can bring him back on the way home from get off work. With your help, I can save a lot of worries."
He Susu said indifferently, "These are all trivial matters. Erbao is playing at my house anyway, so I just keep an eye on him from time to time. But I don't wake up that early in the morning, and sometimes I wake up late during my nap. I'll go get a bunch of keys for the compound later, and you can send Erbao over to open the door and let him in, and then lock the compound door."
Su Yu agreed: "Okay, I'll take Erbao over there when the time comes. He won't disturb you if he plays in the yard by himself."
Erbao quickly stood up and ran over to assure Xiaogu: "Don't worry, Xiaogu, I will definitely wait until you wake up before I speak."
He Susu smiled and rubbed his little head: "Okay, I believe you."
Time passed quickly as the aunt and sister-in-law drank tea and chatted.
He Susu looked at her watch and saw it was almost eleven o'clock. She said, "Sister-in-law, it's getting late, so I'll go back first."
During the conversation just now, Su Yu knew that her aunt had to go back to prepare the food, so she nodded: "Okay, I won't keep you here, come and sit more often when you have time."
He Susu smiled and agreed, and after her sister-in-law and the enthusiastic Erbao saw her off, she walked out the door, went downstairs, and headed home. The sun was shining brightly at this time, so she deliberately found a place with shade along the way to reduce the chance of being exposed to the sun.
After a ten-minute journey back home, she was terribly hot. She went back to her room, got a set of clothes and went to the bathroom. She wiped off the sweat on her body with a towel, changed into clean clothes, walked to the living room, turned on the electric fan, and sat down to cool down.
When it was cooler and she felt comfortable, He Susu turned off the fan and went into the kitchen. She and Cheng Shi would discuss what to eat the next day before going to bed every night so that they could prepare the food more easily.
But at this moment, He Susu was standing in the kitchen, she opened the cupboard and saw two handfuls of noodles inside, and suddenly she changed her mind and wanted to eat noodles.
She went to get out two more tomatoes and cut a piece of pork to prepare for making tomato and minced pork noodle soup later.
The more He Susu thought about it, the more greedy she became. She started to prepare. She took a kitchen knife and cut the pork into slices on the chopping board, then chopped it up. She stopped when the pork was chopped into distinct pieces of minced meat. This kind of minced meat was just right for cooking noodles.
Then pour the boiling water from the pot onto the plate with two tomatoes, and use chopsticks to turn the tomatoes over so that each side can be soaked in hot water.
After a while, she took out two tomatoes and easily peeled off the outer red skin, revealing the even redder flesh inside.
He Susu used a kitchen knife to cut two tomatoes into pieces, and the dish was ready.
She was in a good mood today, and cooking noodles was relatively simple, so she simply turned on the coal stove and started the work. She first poured the minced meat into the pot and stir-fried it until it changed color. Then she poured the diced tomatoes in and stir-fried them together. Soon the tomatoes became soft and the juice came out, turning into a crunchy shape. Then she added soy sauce and salt to adjust the color and seasoning.
When she thought it was almost done, He Susu poured water into the pot. The bright red tomato sauce became lighter in color, and she continued to add water until the pot was half full. A handful of noodles weighed one pound. She thought Cheng Shi was tired from training and had a big appetite, so she just grabbed half a handful and put it into the pot.
The distinct noodles slowly softened and sank into the hot water. He Susu changed her chopsticks and stirred the pot from time to time. The sour and sweet taste of tomatoes spread, which was particularly appetizing. There was also the aroma of pork and the aroma of noodles, which smelled very fragrant together.
The flour on the noodles spread out and the soup gradually became thicker. The whole pot was red and very tempting.
At this time, Cheng Shi came back. He didn't see his wife in the living room and went to the kitchen: "Why did you start cooking directly?"
He Susu looked back at him and said, "I suddenly wanted to eat noodles, so I cooked tomato and minced meat noodles instead. I can still cook this kind of noodles, so I thought I'd let you try my cooking skills."
Cheng Shi smiled when he heard this: "Then I'm in for a treat."
He helped to heat the bowls and took two bowls of noodles directly out of the pot.
He Susu was originally worried that the noodles would clump when he came out of the shower, but Cheng Shi put down the bowl and sat down directly, explaining: "I was in a meeting this morning, so I didn't train and didn't sweat much, so I could eat right away. This noodles smells delicious, I'm so greedy."
Cheng Shi gave her face like this, He Susu smiled and said, "Okay, let's eat quickly."
She also picked up the bowl to eat noodles and drank a sip of the hot noodle soup first. The sour and sweet taste mixed with the minced meat was so delicious.
Then she used chopsticks to pick up the noodles and eat them. She redeemed the noodles from the shopping system, which were the best egg noodles of this era. Each noodle was extremely smooth and tender, with the flavor of egg and wheat, and was full of the sweet and sour soup. It was very delicious to bite it. Tomatoes and minced meat were mixed in it, and it was a real pleasure to eat them together.
Cheng Shi slurped up the noodles, along with the tomatoes and minced meat, and thought they were the most delicious noodles he had ever eaten.
Drinking the hot sweet and sour soup has a unique taste in this hot summer. It seems that you will never get tired of it and it is especially refreshing and appetizing.
He praised: "Susu, your tomato and minced meat noodle soup tastes really good. I've never seen anyone cook it this way before."
In no time, he had finished a bowl of noodles.
He Susu smiled and said, "I just had the sudden idea to try cooking it with tomatoes, but I didn't expect it to taste so good. If you like it, we can cook this kind of noodles often in the future."
Cheng Shi smiled and agreed, then stood up and went to the kitchen to get a bowl of noodles and continued eating.
Even He Susu couldn't help but go to the kitchen to get another half bowl of noodles after finishing a whole bowl of noodles, of course, mostly noodle soup. She really liked drinking this sour and sweet noodle soup.
He Susu and Cheng Shi enjoyed their lunch very much, with smiles on their faces.
During this period, He Susu also told him that her sister-in-law would go to work in a while and would send Erbao home.
Cheng Shi welcomed this: "Of course, as long as you can accept it, you will not be so bored if Erbao comes to accompany you, and I will feel more at ease."
He got up and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes and pots, and then the couple went back to the room to sleep.
A few days later, He Susu went to the mailroom after breakfast, hoping to see if there was a reply from the magazine. She asked the staff and found out that there was. She happily took the letter home and opened it to read.
The letter was written in the familiar tone of the magazine editor. He said that the quality of the story submitted this time was very high, and several editors from the magazine liked it very much after reading it. He had a feeling that it would be popular among readers after being published in the magazine.
He also praised He Susu's improved writing style, her enhanced ability to construct stories, her simplicity in writing, and her ability to arouse readers' interest in reading. Based on this, the fee for this time was 5 yuan per thousand words, and the remittance slip contained a full 100 yuan.
This is a huge sum of money.
After reading it, He Susu was overjoyed: "Finally my previous efforts were not in vain, and my manuscript fee has finally increased."
He Susu felt very satisfied when she thought that she could earn 25 yuan for every 5,000 words she wrote and submitted.
You know, she was worried about the manuscript, so she took the opportunity to rest for a few days and never started writing the story. Now that the dust has settled, I should start again and write the 5,000-word manuscript as soon as possible and send it out before the agreed submission time.
You should know that the editor of Xinmo magazine asked her twice to write the manuscript and send it over as soon as possible.
When Cheng Shi came back from training, He Susu told him the good news. Cheng Shi was so happy that he hugged her and kissed her several times: "Susu, you are awesome!"
Falling into Cheng Shi's warm embrace, feeling the excitement coming from his chest, He Susu smiled with her eyebrows curved: "Of course, how can the article I wrote be bad?"
In this way, He Susu had something to do. After waking up every afternoon, she sat at her desk and wrote articles.
When she went back to the county town, she took back the last electric fan in the storage compartment and placed it in the room.
I slept very comfortably with the electric fan on at noon, and I didn’t feel hot when writing in the afternoon. The text I wrote in a calm state of mind also looked of high quality.
Compared to those who need to go out to work in the factory, He Susu works comfortably and freely at home, and she is very satisfied with such a life.
During this period, she also followed Sister Wu and Sister Fang to Sister Ye's house for a visit, and also went to Sister Wu and Sister Fang's houses to familiarize herself with the route, so that if she needed help in the future, she would not be unable to find anyone.
Mrs. Wu and the others knew that He Susu could earn royalties by writing articles at home, and they laughed and said that they usually didn't dare to come and disturb her unless there was something important, for fear of interrupting her work.
They had heard before that Susu was a talented writer and could make money by writing articles. Now that they had seen it for themselves, they could only admire her.
He felt that Susu was capable, and wondered why Captain Cheng fell in love with her. The couple were a perfect match both in appearance and ability.
In mid-October, Su Yu officially went to teach at the military primary school. Every morning after breakfast at around 7 o'clock, she would take Dabao and Erbao out with her. When passing by a family quarters, she would send Erbao to He Susu's house.
This was the first time He Susu got up early to greet him: "Sister-in-law, you can go to work without worry. Don't worry about Erbao. I'll take good care of him."
Erbao felt like he was at home when he came to Xiaogu. He didn't feel strange at all. He waved and said, "Goodbye, Mom."
"You kid..." Su Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and looked at her aunt, "Okay, I'll go to work first, thank you for your hard work."
"It's okay. Goodbye, sister-in-law." He Susu waved goodbye to her. She closed the gate of the courtyard only after she saw her sister-in-law and Dabao walked away.
Erbao had already found a place to play in the yard, and said with a smile, "It's good that you have a yard here, little aunt. It's cool to sit on the ground."
In the morning, the sun doesn't shine here, and the yard is indeed cool. He Susu invited him into the house and told him where the thermos was: "Here is boiled water. Erbao, if you are thirsty, you can come here to fill it with water."
Erbao came over and brought his little water cup.
After explaining, He Susu still felt uneasy. The thermos was filled with hot water, and Erbao was still young: "Forget it, if you want to drink water, call me little aunt, and I'll come over to pour it for you."
Erbao smiled and replied, "I know, aunt."
He Susu went to the kitchen and got some mung bean cakes and put them on the coffee table in the living room: "Here are some cakes. You can come and have some when you are hungry."
Erbao was very happy. His mother said he was too fat, so she usually didn't give him any cakes or pastries, and he could only eat one candy a day. He didn't expect that he could have some cakes or pastries when he came to his aunt's house. He was so happy!
He Susu had no idea what the child was thinking. After giving him instructions, she let him find a place to play by himself. She went to the room, got a book called "Mechanical Engineering", and sat in the living room to read it.
Although she had briefly flipped through the five books a while ago and understood enough content to cope with writing the serialized story, she did not return the five books to the library when she went to the county town last time, but kept them at home.
She usually only writes articles after waking up in the afternoon. In the morning, she has nothing to do after breakfast, so she simply reads these five books in detail. It is always a good thing to know more, which can improve her knowledge and broaden her horizons.
So at home, He Susu and Erbao stayed in the same space, doing their own things without interfering with each other, and occasionally talking to each other.
When it was almost noon, He Susu was looking at the time and preparing to go to the kitchen to prepare food, Su Yu also came over after work to pick up Erbao. She was accompanied by Dabao who was also coming home from school.
Su Yu smiled when she saw her aunt, "Thank you for your hard work, little sister."
He Susu smiled and shook her head: "Sister-in-law, you're welcome. Erbao is very well behaved."
Erbao had already moved closer to his brother and whispered to him what he had played with all morning and also ate a piece of mung bean cake.
Dabao's eyes flashed with envy when he heard this. Ever since he went to school, what he envied most was that his younger brother could stay at home and play every day. Like now, he came to play with his aunt and had cakes to eat.
Su Yu didn't care what the two children were thinking. She smiled and said goodbye: "Little sister, I'm in a hurry to go back to cook. I have to go to work in the afternoon. I won't delay you."
"Okay, then sister-in-law, when you bring Erbao over this afternoon, just use the key to open the door. I may not be awake by then." He Susu said bluntly.
Su Yu smiled and nodded in agreement.
After they left, He Susu closed the courtyard door and went into the kitchen to prepare food.
When Cheng Shi came back, he couldn't help asking during dinner: "Sister-in-law brought Erbao over this morning? Are you used to it?"
He heard from his wife last night that Su Yu would send the second baby over when she went to work today.
He Susu smiled and nodded: "It's delivered. Erbao played by himself and didn't make any noise. I sat in the living room and read a book. He and I ate a piece of mung bean cake. Anyway, I'm used to it. I have someone to talk to when I want to."
Cheng Shi was relieved: "That's good. Children love to eat cakes and candies. When you go to the county town later, buy some and put them at home to comfort the children."
He Susu smiled and agreed, knowing that he was worried that he would be unable to control the baby when he made a fuss, so he used food to coax him.
The days that followed were uneventful and leisurely. He Susu let herself sleep until she woke up naturally. When she woke up, she could see Erbao playing by himself in the yard. When he saw her coming out of the room, he immediately rushed over and called out sweetly, "Aunt, you're awake!"
When she went to the kitchen to heat up breakfast and brought it out, Erbao would occasionally eat a little bit if he was hungry. Then He Susu read her own book while Erbao played with his toys.
The aunt and the sister-in-law get along well with each other.
Days go by, and Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here.
He Susu was worried about her parents back home. She thought that it was the autumn harvest time, which was the most physically demanding and tiring. So she wrote a letter and stuffed several kilograms of meat coupons into it, telling them not to be reluctant to spend money and to buy more pork to fry at home to replenish the oil and water.
Cheng Shi would receive meat coupons every month, but since he had connections at the slaughterhouse and didn't need the coupons to buy meat, he kept them so he could send them to his parents.
She asked her parents-in-law whether they needed to send meat coupons to them. They said no, as their parents' work units had already issued them, so He Susu didn't care.
Fresh food is difficult to mail, so she exchanged three pounds of pork jerky and two pounds of dried shrimp from the shopping system and sent them back. If it is difficult to buy pork from her parents' side, eating these can barely supplement some nutrition.
She has saved up a lot of diligence points now. Just by washing her own clothes and preparing meals for lunch and dinner every day, she can earn 3 points of diligence points. She can also earn extra diligence points by writing articles and submitting them for publication, which makes it easier for her to exchange things.
Every time the family went to the county town to buy food for the next ten days, most of it was redeemed by her from the shopping system, and there was always fruit at home. She asked Cheng Shi to eat fruit with her every day, apples, pears, oranges... in rotation.
Cheng Shi couldn't help but laugh and said, "Since I married you, my life has been like a god. My comrades even laughed at me and said that my complexion has improved a lot because of you."
He used to eat in the cafeteria, and although he could eat meat every day, it was definitely not as good as the meals he has at home now, and he would never buy fruit to eat.
In response, He Susu smiled proudly: "That's right, isn't marriage just about two people forming a family and living a better life? Otherwise, what's the point of getting married."
After hearing this, Cheng Shi thought it made sense and agreed with a smile.
The full moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a rare day of family reunion, and Chinese people have always attached great importance to it. Last year, when she was working in a movie theater, He Susu received a festival gift, which included sugar cubes, melon seeds, and rare moon cakes.
That day, Mrs. Wu and her family gathered at her home. When He Susu mentioned the Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone had something to talk about.
Mrs. Wu: "There is nothing special about celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in our family compound. Each family celebrates it separately. It is not like the Dragon Boat Festival when the Women's Federation organizes everyone to make rice dumplings together. Moon cakes are so rare, and we don't know how to make them."
Mrs. Fang nodded: "Yes, for example, my family has to send an extra ten yuan to my hometown during the holidays, saying that it is a holiday fee. They say that my husband is not at home to spend the reunion festival with his parents, so we send more money back to show our filial piety. This month, my family has to live frugally again."
It is said that a young boy can make his father poor. There are three sons and one daughter in her family. Although her husband has a good monthly allowance, he has to send one-third back to his hometown to support his parents. On weekdays, they can barely get by. But if he sends an extra ten yuan back like during the Mid-Autumn Festival, life will be very tight.
Mrs. Fang felt that her parents-in-law were being too much and that they were just trying to use her own money to support her brother-in-law's family. However, she had no choice but to give the money since her family was not living in her hometown and she did not have to serve her parents-in-law.
She gets angry every time it’s mentioned. She’s been angry for so many years that she feels calm when she talks about it now.
Sister Ye knew her hardship and comforted her, "Then eat less on weekdays and eat more on the Mid-Autumn Festival. Your family can gather together in the family compound, which is also a reunion. You don't have to honor your parents-in-law. I don't know how many people envy you. For example, Zhao Cuihua's family has a mother-in-law who is like an ancestor. If she works slowly, she will be scolded and she has nothing to eat. Her daughter also has to suffer from her bullying. That's what life is like."
In the family compound, there are also many households where the mother-in-law came to live with them. The conflicts between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law caused chaos every day. They privately thanked themselves countless times that their parents-in-law did not come with them.
After hearing what she said, Fang's wife felt relieved. It was worthwhile to send some money back home every month and live a comfortable life by being frugal.
He Susu was silent about what they were saying, and then said, "Yes, I plan to go back to the county town to buy more food and make a big meal on the Mid-Autumn Festival, which can also be considered a festival."
Sister Ye smiled and said, "No matter how you two spend your days, it's a good life. My family is also planning to buy a chicken. The children at home keep asking for fried chicken legs. It's a rare holiday so we can satisfy them for once."
Mrs. Wu joked: "Frying chicken legs wastes so much oil. It's rare to see you being so generous."
Sister Ye: "Isn't this a festival?"
Mrs. Fang also talked about her own plans: "I plan to buy a piece of pork belly and make a dish of braised pork for the kids at home. Then I'll go to the supply and marketing cooperative to see if they have red shrimp cakes. This snack is the most delicious. I'll buy a pound and keep it at home for a few days."
Everyone started chatting about how to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and talked about some new things in the family compound, and all kinds of gossip.
After seeing off her three sisters-in-law, He Susu sat on a chair in the living room, enjoying the fan, and brought up the shopping system screen to see if there was anything she could redeem.
She couldn't help but chuckle when she saw the first thing on the screen. This shopping system was quite sensible. It pushed rice dumplings to her during the Dragon Boat Festival, and moon cakes in several flavors during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The one at the top of the list is the mooncake with salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste filling. He Susu looked at the introduction on the details page and found out that this mooncake actually contains salted egg yolk. The lotus seed paste is made from white lotus seeds fried using a special method. It looks delicious.
Next to it is a mooncake with five-nut filling, which is the most commonly sold mooncake on the market, and the same mooncake that was distributed in the cinema last year. He Susu tasted it last year and it was quite good.
There are also red bean and tangerine peel mooncakes. He Susu guessed from the name that they were sweet mooncakes. After looking at the details, she found that the red beans were fried into the filling using a special method and mixed with tangerine peel powder, so the overall taste was sweet.
Let's look at the price. There are four mooncakes with salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste filling in one pound, and 4 diligence points are required to exchange. There are two mooncakes with five-nut filling in one pound. The five-nut mooncakes distributed by the cinema last year weighed one pound each, and the ones in the system are relatively smaller. It takes 2 diligence points to exchange. There are four mooncakes with red bean and tangerine peel filling in one pound, and 2 diligence points are required to exchange.
He Susu, who had accumulated a lot of diligence points and seemed to be already wealthy, simply waved her hand and exchanged for two kilograms of mooncakes with salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste filling, one kilogram each of mooncakes with five-nut filling, and red bean and tangerine peel filling.
She thought about it and exchanged the three mooncakes for an extra pound.
When I go to the county town, I will bring them back under the pretext that I bought them from the department store, and I can also send some mooncakes to my parents' and my husband's families as festival gifts.
She was always thinking about her natal family. Although she had never met her husband's family, the gift her parents-in-law sent her last time was very thoughtful. After the marriage, they also sent back various tickets and Shanghai snacks, so she had to give some gift in return.
Because she liked Cheng Shi, she also wanted to be nicer to Cheng Shi's parents. Not to mention a good relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, at least they could get along well with each other on the surface, so that Cheng Shi would feel relieved when he saw them.
He Susu thought so.
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