To confirm the authenticity, Ruan Changgui and Sun Xiaohui looked out and saw Liu Xinghua and Ruan Xi standing outside the door of the opposite room. Liu Xinghua was holding half a chicken, and Ruan Xi was holding a piece of money. Both of them were smiling.
Ruan Xi reached out and put the piece of money in Liu Xinghua's pocket. He was so happy that he almost flew away. He smiled and said, "Master said that you can get money if you work, so he gave me a piece of money and half a chicken."
The wages for making clothes at home are two yuan a day. Because the woman in the plaid shirt gave a chicken, she only gave three yuan. The old tailor kept two yuan for himself and gave one to Ruan Xi.
As for how the old tailor and their team settled the wages, Ruan Xi, as an apprentice, naturally did not ask these questions. The time was probably the same as other members' work points, and the settlement was made once a year.
The old tailor had an account book that he had sewed together with needle and thread, and it was filled with all these accounts.
Before crossing over, Ruan Xi had never thought that one day he would be so happy because he earned a dollar.
Liu Xinghua was so happy that her granddaughter was making money so quickly with her craft. She took out the money Ruan Xi had stuffed into her hand and put it into Ruan Xi's hand, saying, "Why are you giving me the money you earned? Save it to buy candy."
Ruan Xi still stuffed the money back, "Grandma, you are the head of our family, of course I have to give you the money I earned."
As she said this, she suddenly thought of something and turned around to see Ruan Changgui and Sun Xiaohui sticking their heads out of the stove room door, staring at her and Liu Xinghua, so she changed her tone and said, "I'm not like some people, who are selfish."
Liu Xinghua realized what she said and turned around to look.
Ruan Changgui and Sun Xiaohui couldn't hold back their anger any longer and quickly retracted their heads.
Liu Xinghua withdrew her gaze, and then deliberately said loudly: "Then grandma will help you collect it and put it up for you as a dowry! Let's eat this half chicken tonight. How do you want to eat it? Grandma will make it for you!"
Ruan Xi frowned and said in a crisp voice: "Fried chicken with chili!"
In the stove room, Ruan Changgui stuffed straw under the stove. At this time, his heart was full of mixed feelings, as if there were dozens of cat paws scratching him. Hearing Ruan Xi say "fried chicken with chili", his mouth watered again. Sun
Xiaohui sat there and chopped the chicken with a sharp knife. Her face was burning.
The atmosphere was dry like ice. The two stopped talking. The only sound in the small room was the thumping of the kitchen knife hitting the chopping board.
Sun Xiaohui chopped wild vegetables and mixed them with rice bran, and went out to feed her five old hens.
Ruan Jie came back from outside carrying firewood, and saw her deliberately go around and carry the firewood to the stove in the side room.
Seeing her actions, Sun Xiaohui was furious, but because Liu Xinghua was at home, she did not dare to speak out to Ruan Jie, and could only swallow her anger and curse in a low voice: "You stupid girl, wait until I have time to deal with you!"
Ruan Jie came into the house carrying firewood and saw Liu Xinghua chopping chicken.
Her face was filled with surprise, and she looked at Liu Xinghua and asked, "Grandma, why did you kill a chicken?"
Liu Xinghua smiled, "Who would kill a chicken to eat if they didn't have something serious to do? Don't you want to live? This is Xiaoxi and the old tailor who went out to make clothes, and someone gave it to the old tailor, and the old tailor gave half of it to her."
Ruan Jie put down the firewood behind the stove, and saw Ruan Xi coming out of the room.
She was surprised and happy and said with a smile, "Sister, you are so good."
Ruan Xi also smiled, "Just average."
The three of them chatted and laughed like this, you washed the rice, I lit the fire, and she chopped the chicken, and cooked dinner together.
Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie were busy steaming rice, while Liu Xinghua deftly chopped the rooster into pieces and washed off the blood. She also went to the field to pick a handful of red and green chili peppers, and a handful of red chili peppers.
She hadn't picked the fruits and vegetables from the field to eat for a while. In order to save oil and money, she picked them and sent them directly to the vegetable collection point, and used these vegetables to exchange for some money. She also saved the eggs and didn't eat them, but took them to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange for money.
Today she planned to have a good meal, so naturally she didn't save money. So in addition to two handfuls of chili peppers, she also picked two cucumbers and plucked two green onions, planning to make a cucumber slap, and steam a bowl of eggs.
After picking the things and putting them in the basket, Liu Xinghua put the peppers, cucumbers and green onions in the basin and washed them with water. Just as she walked to the table and put them on the chopping board, Ruan Xi suddenly reached out to her waist and pulled her apron off.
Ruan Xi tied her apron around her waist, "Grandma, I'll cook for you today."
Liu Xinghua reached out to grab it, "You just got home from work, you should sit down and take a rest, I'll cook the dishes. Listen to me, just wait for the food, don't do this and that."
Ruan Xi dodged her hand and smiled, "I'm young and I'm not tired, these peppers are spicy, you can take a rest and wait for the food to be ready. Xiaojie and I are so old, can't we let you enjoy yourself?" Liu Xinghua felt
comfortable after hearing this, so she didn't insist on doing it anymore. But she didn't take a rest, but sat behind the stove next to Ruan Jie, stuffed straw into the bottom of another stove, and helped to light the fire.
Ruan Xi still had to cut peppers, so Liu Xinghua didn't rush to light the fire. She just sat there and said with a smile, "Girls are better."
Ruan Jie's face was red from the fire in the stove, and she smiled and said, "Then I'll never get married, okay?"
Ruan Xi had said this before, and Liu Xinghua still glared at her and said, "Nonsense."
Ruan Xi smiled and listened to them talking. She put on an apron and cut the red and green radishes and millet peppers into circles at the table, smashed a few cloves of garlic and cut a few slices of ginger, and took a bowl to scoop a spoonful of pickled bean paste at home. After
all the preparations were done, Liu Xinghua lit the fire and Ruan Xi cooked in the pot.
Cooking with a wood stove is probably different. Ruan Xi thinks it tastes better than cooking with a gas stove. Pour a little oil into the iron pot, stir-fry garlic and ginger slices when the oil is hot, and pour in
raw chicken nuggets, which instantly fill the room with fragrance. She has never eaten a bite of meat since she came here, so she stir-fried the chicken in the iron pot with a spoon. She smelled the fragrant smell, watched the chicken slowly turn golden, and the chicken skin slightly charred, and couldn't
help but swallow her saliva secretly. When the chicken is almost done, pinch a small handful of peppercorns to continue frying, and then add a spoonful of bean paste. After frying the red oil, the color of the pot is even more tempting to drool.
Add soy sauce, salt, MSG, pepper and other seasonings, stir-fry, and add the chopped green and green pepper rings. The collision of chicken and pepper in the seasoning creates a richer fragrance that fills the room.
The fragrance drifted out from the edge of the door frame along the smoke and drifted straight into the small stove room opposite.
Sun Xiaohui was sitting behind the stove, burning a fire to steam rice. She couldn't help but sniff and swallow a big mouthful of saliva.
She had been clamoring for a division of the family before because they hadn't had a hot meal in their family for a long time, and there wasn't even a speck of oil to be seen. She wanted to avoid being dragged down by the two spendthrifts, Ruan Changsheng and Ruan Xi, so that the family of four could eat better.
But who could have imagined that after the division of the family, Ruan Changsheng and Ruan Xi not only did not become a burden, but one suddenly changed his personality and started working desperately to earn work points, while the other directly let the family eat meat.
Not only meat, but also money!
Sun Xiaohui was so suffocated that she couldn't say a word, and her face was still burning.
Ruan Changgui was even more suffocated than her. He sat by the door of the stove room and did nothing but blink his eyes and took deep breaths. He took a deep breath to swallow the fragrance into his stomach, and then took a long breath to spit it out.
He wanted to speak, but he was so stifled that he couldn't utter a word.
He had never done such a stupid thing in his life, and he wanted to slap himself hard! Just as he
was feeling depressed, his two sons came back tired from playing outside. The two of them started sniffing from a distance, all the way to the door of the opposite room, and instead of coming to the small stove room, they lay down at the door of the side room and looked inside.
Seeing Ruan Xi cooking, Ruan Yuehua asked, "Sister, what are you cooking?"
Ruan Xi didn't look at him, and said directly, "Chicken."
Ruan Yuehua wanted to say more, but before he could say anything, Ruan Yuejin suddenly grabbed her collar from behind, and then dragged her directly to the small stove room.
Ruan Yuejin said that he would not eat his grandmother's food after the family split up. He was quite stubborn and still remembered it.
Ruan Yuehua was very unhappy when he was dragged to the door of the stove room. He frowned and waved his fist to push Ruan Yuejin away. He looked at him unhappily and said, "Brother, what are you doing?!"
Ruan Yuejin said with some disgust, "Your saliva is about to flow out!"
Ruan Yuehua was very angry, "Don't you want to eat?"
Ruan Yuejin opened his mouth, but no matter how strong his character was, he couldn't say a word.
Ruan Changgui sat inside the door and saw the two of them like this. He had a place to vent his anger, so he said with a gloomy face and a heavy voice, "What are you two doing? Look at your useless appearance, get out of the house!"
The house he was talking about was the main house, and the stove room couldn't fit four people in.
Now their family and Ruan Changgui and Liu Xinghua have separated from each other and have their own house. Ruan Zhigao bought them a new table and four benches, which are not as big as the original table, so they are placed in the middle of the main house for them to use, and the big table is moved to the stove room in the side house.
Ruan Yuehua pursed his lips after being scolded, and followed Ruan Yue into the main house. He turned his head three times for every step he took, and each time he looked towards the side house, his heart, eyes, mouth, and stomach were all craving for the aroma of chicken.
As the brigade secretary, Ruan Zhigao always had some extra things to do. He came back a little late today, and it was already dark when he and Ruan Changsheng arrived home carrying a backpack and farm tools.
Before they even reached the door of the side house, they smelled a fragrance.
Ruan Zhigao sniffed and said, "Whose cooking smells so good?"
Ruan Changsheng sniffed and used his keen sense of smell to identify, "It seems to be ours."
Ruan Zhigao looked puzzled and hurriedly walked home. When he and Ruan Changsheng put down their backpacks and farm tools, they looked inside and saw Ruan Xi serving the fried chili chicken from the pot.
The aroma in the house became even stronger, and it went straight into the stomach.
Ruan Zhigao opened his eyes wide in surprise and confusion, walked into the room and looked at Liu Xinghua and asked, "Did you get rich?"
Liu Xinghua looked at him and smiled, jokingly said, "You guessed it right!"
Ruan Zhigao's eyes were still full of doubts. Ruan Jie replied, "I went to make clothes with an old tailor and earned half a chicken and a dollar. How about it, isn't it amazing?"
Hearing this, Ruan Changsheng exclaimed, "Half a chicken? A dollar?"
Ruan Jie nodded, "Yes."
Ruan Changsheng turned to look at Ruan Xi, "You are talking nonsense, I heard that the old man is very stingy, and he is so stingy that he never gives a penny. In the past, people who wanted to learn skills from him would throw things at him, but he never bleeds."
Ruan Xi smiled, "But you have eaten his grapes."
Ruan Changsheng blinked and was dumbfounded - yes! He had eaten the grapes of the old tailor!
He was not so surprised in an instant. He reached out to take the plate from Ruan Xi's hand, put it on the table and said, "Xiaoxi, you are amazing. You can even influence the old tailor. I admire you from the bottom of my heart!"
Ruan Xi shook his head, "I don't rely on influence, I rely on strength."
Ruan Changsheng laughed, "Strength? What strength do you have? I remember you mended my clothes before, and it was as hard as a dog's."
The previous Ruan Xi was not the current Ruan Xi. The current Ruan Xi She snorted at him deliberately, "The past is the past, and the present is the present.
You don't allow me to show my skills." Ruan Changsheng took a stool and sat down, still smiling and said, "Then you must show me how much you have shown your skills when you have the chance. To be recognized by that old tailor, your skills must be extraordinary."
Ruan Xi smiled confidently, "I will show you sooner or later."
As he spoke, the rice in the pot was almost done, the steamed eggs were just tender, and the smacked cucumber was also flavorful. Liu Xinghua and Ruan Jie got up to wash their hands and serve the rice. Ruan Changsheng got up and moved all the stools and placed them beside the table, then went to wash his hands and get chopsticks.
The food was served, and everyone picked up chopsticks, but no one reached into the plate with the chicken.
Ruan Zhigao turned around and looked at everyone, and finally looked at Ruan Xi and said, "Xiaoxi, you brought it back, eat it quickly."
Ruan Xi pursed her lips, "Grandpa, you and grandma eat first."
Scarcity makes things valuable. Only after experiencing how difficult it is to eat a bite of meat can you truly experience the happiness of eating meat. Ruan Xi once thought that she would not be so rare to eat a bite, but now she finds that she can't do it at all.
Even if she has eaten a lot of delicacies from mountains and seas, she will still become a member of the environment when she is in a poor environment.
But even if she is greedy for this bite, she will not act so useless.
Ruan Zhigao smiled and stretched out his chopsticks to pick up a piece of chicken and put it into Liu Xinghua's bowl. He said, "The family is being polite. Eat it quickly. If you don't eat it quickly, you can only eat chili peppers."
Ruan Jie said with a smile on his face, "Chili peppers fried from chicken are also delicious!"
When Liu Xinghua finished her first bite of chicken and told her to eat quickly, the family stopped being polite and stretched their chopsticks to the plate together. Although they were all a little impatient, they still restrained themselves in the end, hoping to make others eat more.
Ruan Changsheng put a piece of chicken dipped in red oil into his mouth, his eyes lit up and he said, "Wow, the skin is crispy and the meat is tight, spicy and delicious..."
He gave Ruan Xi a thumbs up, swallowed the chicken and continued: "Delicious!"
Ruan Jie put a piece of chicken into his bowl and said, "Eat more." Ruan
Changsheng ate two pieces of meat in a row and mixed some chili rings into the rice. The spicy and fresh taste made him finish half a bowl of rice directly.
He felt that he had nothing worth saying. After thinking about it, Ruan Xi had only asked him to do one thing, so he asked Ruan Xi: "I warned Gao Haiyang before, are they still bothering that little idiot?"
Ruan Xi knew that the little idiot he was talking about was Ling Yao, and shook his head and said: "Not recently."
Ruan Changsheng nodded, "That's good."
Liu Xinghua didn't understand what he said, and asked: "What little idiot?"
Ruan Changsheng: "The little idiot in the hanging building. He was always bullied by Gao Haiyang and the others, and he didn't even know how to run away."
Liu Xinghua thought for a while, nodded and said: "Oh, the kid from the big city."
Then he looked at Ruan Xi, "Do you know him?"
Ruan Xi nodded, "I fell into the col before, and he rescued me."
Ruan Changsheng understood at this moment, "Oh, no wonder you want Help him."
Speaking of the Ling family, Ruan Zhigao also had something to say. While eating, he said, "They are estranged from us. They have basically not interacted with anyone for several years. They don't say a word of nonsense every day at work, just burying their heads in work."
Ruan Changsheng picked at the rice in his bowl, "They are city people, what do they have to say to us rural people."
Hearing this, Ruan Xi looked at Ruan Changsheng seriously and said, "Fifth uncle, don't talk nonsense, their family is not that kind of people. They feel discriminated against in the village, and they can't hold their heads up straight, so they don't interact with others. I won't talk about other people, but Teacher Jin is the same. He has a bad background, so he keeps a low profile in the village and rarely interacts with others."
This is one of the reasons. Another reason is that they are afraid that after making friends, they will say something wrong without being prepared, and then people will use it to make a fuss.
Ruan Changsheng just said it casually, without thinking anything else, but he didn't expect Ruan Xi to take it seriously. He blinked and was stunned for a moment, then quickly raised his hand and slapped himself lightly on the face, and admitted his mistake frankly: "I said the wrong thing."
Ruan Xi stretched out chopsticks to pick up two peppers and stuffed them into his mouth, "Eat."
Ruan Changsheng held the peppers in his mouth, pursed his lips, and smiled at Ruan Xi in a nonsensical and flattering way.
Ruan Xi watched him laugh and continued to eat.
In the middle of the main room, Ruan Changgui's grandson Xiaohui and Ruan Yuejin and Ruan Yuehua were also sitting at the table to eat. The expressions on the faces of their family of four were even uglier than the pickled vegetables on the table.
Smelling the aroma of fried chicken with peppers and chewing the pickled vegetables in their mouths, they simply couldn't swallow them.
Ruan Yuehua tapped the edge of the bowl with his chopsticks and snorted at Sun Xiaohui, "Mom, I want to eat chicken too."
Sun Xiaohui raised her eyelids and looked at Ruan Changgui, but didn't dare to say anything. Ruan Changgui took
a deep breath and said unhappily, "Get out if you don't want to eat." Ruan
Yuehua was unhappy and suddenly put down his chopsticks and said loudly, "It's because you want to separate that grandma is angry and I don't have grapes to eat. Now grandma's family eats chicken, but I don't have chicken to eat either. I want to eat chicken!"
Ruan Changgui was so angry that he raised his chopsticks to hit him, and he jumped up and hid behind Sun Xiaohui.
Sun Xiaohui protected Ruan Yuehua, looked at Ruan Changgui and whispered: "What are you doing? How long have we not eaten meat at home? Is it possible that you don't want to eat meat when you smell it? Don't you want to eat it?"
Ruan Changgui took back his chopsticks and said unhappily: "How dare you say that!"
Sun Xiaohui felt that there was nothing to be embarrassed about. It was a lie to not want to eat meat when you smelled meat. What's wrong with wanting to eat meat? Who doesn't want to eat meat? It would be fine if you couldn't smell it, but who could stand the smell of meat lingering on the tip of their nose?
She also felt that she couldn't stand it, so she cleared her throat and reached out to take an empty bowl and stuffed it into Ruan Yuehua's hand.
Ruan Yuehua immediately understood what she meant and took the bowl and glanced at Ruan Changgui. Seeing that Ruan Changgui said nothing, he didn't hesitate for a minute, rushed out of the main room with the bowl, and rushed into the side room.
Rushing between Ruan Zhigao and Liu Xinghua, he hurriedly said: "Grandma, I want to eat chicken too!"
The five people at the table looked up at him, chewing rice at the corners of their mouths, and no one spoke.
It was Liu Xinghua who swallowed the rice in her mouth and said: "Yuehua, you are late, the chicken is eaten up."
The smacked cucumber and steamed eggs were also eaten up long ago.
Ruan Yuehua had already seen that there was only some red oil and red and green pepper rings left in the plate with chicken.
The expression on his face collapsed instantly, and he looked like he wanted to cry. He didn't say a word, swallowed his saliva, and dragged his feet with the bowl. Looking at his back, it seemed as if the whole world had collapsed.
Ruan Changsheng watched him leave the room, smiled, turned around, poured the remaining chili into his own bowl, mixed it with rice, and ate it in a few bites. After finishing the meal, he put down his bowl and chopsticks, and felt extremely comfortable.
Ruan Yuehua went back to the main room with a droopy face, tears streaming down his face, and sniffed his nose. He walked to Sun Xiaohui and cried, "It's gone. It's all eaten. There's not a piece of chicken left."
Sun Xiaohui was calm and whispered, "What about the vegetable sauce? There's chicken oil and seasonings, and the chili is delicious too."
Ruan Yuehua was stunned for a moment before reacting, and hurriedly took the bowl back to the side room.
As a result, when he went to the side room, he saw that the plate that originally had some vegetable sauce and chili rings was now empty, as clean as a mirror. He felt despair, stood by the table with an empty bowl in his hand, and burst into tears with his head raised.
Then he turned around and went back to the main house while crying.
After entering the main house, he howled: "Nothing! Nothing!"
Hearing Ruan Yuehua's crying and what he said, Ruan Changsheng and Ruan Xi, who were sitting at the table, looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.
At first, they laughed silently, but later, neither of them could help laughing, and they laughed louder and louder.
It's not that they are gloating, but Ruan Yuehua is really funny!
Ruan Changgui and Sun Xiaohui heard the laughter from the side room in the main house, and they were so angry that their faces turned green!
Ruan Changgui's face was green as he scolded Ruan Yuehua: "Sit down and eat!"
Ruan Yuehua pouted and wiped his tears, went to the table and sat down, eating rice, pickled vegetables and stir-fried green vegetables while sobbing and crying, with two lines of tears hanging on his face, and his mind was full of the fried chicken with peppers that he couldn't eat...
fragrant, numbing and spicy...
fried chicken with peppers...
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