Chapter 82: Everyone Can Eat It
"Meat! It's Meat!"
Xiang Xiaoyi was playing house alone in the yard. When she saw what her uncle was holding, she immediately started drooling and shouted loudly.
Xiang Yao quickly glanced at the neighbor next door and raised his index finger to his lips to warn: "Shh, keep your voice down!"
What is worrying is not the lack of food but the inequality. The Liu family next door is not easy to get along with. It is better to keep a low profile when eating meat and not publicize it loudly to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Xiang Xiaoyi nodded quickly, raised her sleeve to wipe her saliva, and followed closely, muttering under her breath, "Rou Rou, there's Rou Rou to eat, Xiaoyi loves eating Rou Rou!"
Soon, the Xiang family got busy, boiling water, sharpening knives, cleaning up the rabbits, and picking vegetables from the garden...
After Xiang Ming finished packing the rabbit, he cut it into two and held the smaller half in his hand.
Zhang Juhua said, "I think we can just eat one rabbit leg today. We can save half for a few days and smoke the other half on the stove to eat during the New Year."
Xiang Ming pulled over a basket, padded it with a few leaves, and stuffed the small portion in his hand. "No, grandma, I have to give this half to them."
Zhang Juhua frowned. "What? I have to give it to someone else? To whom? This is meat! How can I give it to someone else?"
Xiang Ming: "I played this with others, so of course we have to share it."
Zhang Juhua stammered twice, but didn't say anything. She just nodded and said, "Okay, then we'll eat one leg today. I'll save the rest and stew it. I have some chestnuts at home, so I'll throw some in."
Xiang Ming retorted: "Grandma, there are so many people at home, and this rabbit is not big, one leg is not even enough to fill the gap between my teeth!"
Zhang Juhua glared at him, "Why isn't it enough? It's just for you grown men. The others aren't working in the fields these days, so what do you need meat for?"
Xiang Yao popped his head out from the back and interrupted, "Why can't women eat? The men haven't been working in the fields lately, so why? I don't care, I want to eat meat anyway."
Xiang Ming chuckled and nodded seriously, "Yes, stir-fry them all. Don't stew them. Stir-fry them with dried chilies. Everyone can eat them."
Seeing that Zhang Juhua was dissatisfied and wanted to speak, he put on a nonchalant look and said with a smile: "Grandma, I got this, so I should make the decision. If you don't do as I say, then don't eat it. I'll take it out and eat it myself."
Zhang Juhua stopped talking.
Of course, she knew that her grandson could say this, which meant he was capable of doing it, so she nodded with a straight face: "Get out quickly, you don't need anything here anymore."
Xiang Ming went out with a smile on his face, carrying the basket. Xiang Yao stretched his head to look at the other half of the rabbit meat, as if he could see the hot and spicy finished product from the raw meat, and his mouth was watering.
Zhang Juhua couldn't bear to see her so happy, and her face became even uglier. She drove her away: "Go away, go away, you spendthrift girl, you only know how to eat."
Xiang Yao shrugged, not caring about her venomous words, and simply said, "Okay, let's go, but grandma, don't try to secretly keep some and hide it while we're gone! I'll be keeping an eye on it!"
After saying that, she left happily without even looking at Zhang Juhua's face which darkened instantly as her thoughts were exposed.
Zhang Juhua’s cooking skills were not very good, but the strong flavor of the dried chili peppers and the rare use of oil made the final dish of spicy rabbit cubes appear particularly fresh and fragrant.
The smoke came out through the tiles above the kitchen. Xiang Yao sniffed sharply and sneezed uncontrollably. He looked towards the kitchen several times and felt his stomach growling.
There was another girl who looked like her, Xiang Xiaoyi, and Xiang Lili who had just returned from elementary school.
"Sister Yaoyao, what kind of meat is our grandma cooking?" Xiang Lili came close to Xiang Yao and asked in a low voice.
Zhou Aihua is usually the one who cooks. Only when the family eats meat will Zhang Juhua pick up the spatula because she dislikes Zhou Aihua's cooking skills. Xiang Lili is obviously well aware of this.
Xiang Yao looked at the kitchen eagerly and swallowed his saliva: "Brother Ming brought back a rabbit, and our family got half of it. We're having rabbit meat tonight!"
Xiang Lili's eyes lit up, but then she muttered timidly, "I hope I can have some too."
Xiang Yao turned his head and glanced at Xiang Lili, feeling a little uncomfortable.
This is the Xiang family. The good things are for the men to eat. A girl like Xiang Lili, if she wants to pick up a piece of meat with chopsticks, has to mentally prepare herself many times before she can bravely stretch out her chopsticks.
But the result may not be a piece of meat, but a series of fierce scoldings.
She gathered herself and patted Xiang Lili's head, just as Xiang Ming patted herself. "Don't worry, Brother Ming said he'd stir-fry half the rabbit tonight. It should be a big pot, enough for everyone to eat."
I blinked at Lili's bright eyes, and my mood became as cheerful as a dandelion.
Then, as if to let Zhang Juhua notice her presence, she stood up and busied herself looking for things to do, like a hardworking little bee, flapping its wings and flying around, looking very happy.
When Xiang Ming came back, the meal at home was almost ready.
At the Eight Immortals Table, Zhang Juhua watched the younger generations in the family eating meat in big gulps. She said "Hey, hey, hey" a few times, glared and wanted to curse, but was interrupted by Xiang Ming.
"Lili, eat more meat," he muttered casually as he picked up several pieces of rabbit meat and gave them to his sister. "You look so thin. If someone didn't know, they would think we didn't give you any food."
Xiang Lili held the bowl and subconsciously glanced at Zhang Juhua, fearing that her grandmother would jump out and scold her.
But Zhang Juhua retracted her annoyed look, lowered her eyes to eat, and said no more.
What else can I say?
If she said one more word, that little bastard Xiang Ming might overturn the table!
Zhang Juhua felt that her authority was challenged, but there was nothing she could do.
In the blink of an eye, she saw Xiang Yao also happily picking up meat and eating, one piece after another, with a very happy face. She became even more unhappy.
Silently deciding to put the marriage with the Zhou family on the agenda as soon as possible, she continued eating without saying a word.
Xiang Yao had no idea that Zhang Juhua was intensifying her plans again. She just thought that the rabbit meat was fried very well tonight. The meat was tender and fresh, and the smell of oil was strong. Although it was not as greasy as the greasy dishes of later generations, it was already a rare delicacy nowadays.
“Brother Ming, you are this!”
She freed one hand and gave Xiang Ming a thumbs-up, praising him sincerely.
Xiang Ming raised his eyebrows and threw a piece of meat into her bowl: "Eat yours!"
As he spoke, he put some more food into his bowl, stood up and said, "I remembered that I have something to tell someone right away, so I'm leaving now."
Nowadays, there are many people who go out with their bowls of rice and eat while strolling. After Xiang Ming said this, the Xiang family did not have any objections.
Only Zhou Aihua felt sorry for her son and worried that he might not take enough food. She couldn't help but grumble in her heart, but she had no choice but to let him go.
At the dinner table, everyone was eating hard, especially Xiang Liang, who had his entire upper body leaning on the table, stuffing meat and rice into his mouth quickly like a digger.
Seeing this, Ye Fang lowered her eyelashes, a shadow fell on her face. She didn't know what she was thinking, but she stretched out her chopsticks and picked up several pieces of meat for Xiang Jun and Xiang Xiaoyi respectively.
Xiang Yao accidentally saw Xiang Liang eating and felt a little nauseous. He quickly turned his eyes away and stopped looking at him.
Liu Xiaolan, on the other hand, admired her son's "cleverness" very much, but she also felt a little melancholy: "Oh, it's rare to eat such fresh meat. If only Xiuxiu were at home, she would really need to nourish her body. Studying is so tiring."
Xiang Yao couldn't bear to see this aunt telling lies with open eyes, so he swallowed a mouthful of food and said, "Aunt, when I was still in school, I saw Xiang Xiuxiu eating delicious food and drinking spicy drinks every day. It's not as miserable as you say."
As she recalled, although she and Xiang Xiuxiu were both studying in the same school, the food they had was completely different.
The original body's father was still alive at that time. Xiang Liangsheng would never privately favor his daughter or subsidize her. He was an upright man who valued fairness.
However, Xiang Jinsheng and Liu Xiaolan regarded Xiang Xiuxiu as their hope for a bright future. They always got money from Zhang Juhua and gave it to Xiang Xiuxiu.
Tsk, so she really couldn't stand Liu Xiaolan saying this.
Liu Xiaolan didn't expect Xiang Yao to confront her about this matter. She was very unhappy, but she still grinned.
"Yaoyao, even though you've dropped out of school, you've still studied for so many years. That's not bad. There's really no need to say such things just because you're jealous of our Xiuxiu."
"Our Xiuxiu, this is a critical period. Of course, she's not having an easy time. Unlike you, you're about to get married and will be able to enjoy a happy life in the future!"
Everyone present knew that Liu Xiaolan was just being sarcastic, but she said it so lively and politely, as if she really meant it from the bottom of her heart.
In addition, people like Zhou Aihua and Ye Fang were extremely eager to promote this marriage, so they naturally would not jump out to refute anything.
On the contrary, Zhou Aihua continued Liu Xiaolan's words gently, "Oh, that's right. What's the point of studying? It's better for girls to get married early. Go to a well-off family and have a comfortable life. How wonderful it is."
There were too many complaints, and Xiang Yao felt like there was a firecracker in her heart, ready to be lit and explode.
She suppressed her burst of emotions and nodded, saying, "Yes, yes, that's right, my aunt is right. So I think Xiang Xiuxiu should just go to school and marry into the Zhou family. That's perfect."
Liu Xiaolan was outspoken and quickly squinted her eyes: "How can that shabby guy from the Zhou family be worthy of my Xiuxiu!"
He gave Xiang Yao a polite smile and stopped talking.
She didn't say anything, but Zhang Juhua, Zhou Aihua and others felt uncomfortable.
Zhang Juhua slammed her chopsticks down. "How can you talk like that? You only know how to eat with a mouth, not talk, right?"
Liu Xiaolan also knew that she had said something wrong. She looked embarrassed and lowered her head without saying anything.
Xiang Yao looked at this group of people and felt a little bit unappetizing, but she couldn't bear to give up the rabbit meat and couldn't miss a single bite.
So, in full view of everyone, she stood up and quickly scooped a bunch of vegetables into her bowl, saying with a smile, "I'd better eat outside, so that I don't get upset and do something bad."
Having said that, she took the bowl and walked out of the main room without looking back.
As expected, it is comfortable outside. There are no ugly faces and no unappetizing eating habits. Wow.
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