Chapter 3 Roasted Potatoes
Li and Zhou Yulan were stunned where they were. They never thought that this girl could really find food.
Wu Yuetang, who was squatting on the ground working, looked up at the two of them, rolled his eyes, and said coldly.
"Stop asking those nonsense questions. If you want to eat potatoes tonight, come and peel them."
After hearing this, Wu Zhiyun and Zhou Yulan immediately ran to Wu Yuetang, and each of them found a knife and started peeling potatoes.
"Okay, I'll peel them all this afternoon."
Zhou Yulan thought that she could finally have a real staple meal, her eyes narrowed into slits with a smile, and she made a promise happily.
"No, only peel as much as you're going to eat. If you leave peeled potatoes uneaten, they'll oxidize easily and become inedible after a while."
Wu Yuetang immediately spoke out to stop him, then looked at the potatoes in the basin and did some calculations in his mind.
"Let's eat five pounds tonight. I'll go up the mountain tomorrow to see if I can find anything else."
Listening to what my little sister said, although her tone was very flat and without any emotion, it was much more comforting to listen to than her previous unreasonable and unreasonable manner.
Zhou Yulan was genuinely happy. Ever since she married into the Wu family, she had been bullied by her sister-in-law and suffered terribly. Now that she saw that she had turned over a new leaf, she was very relieved.
Mrs. Li stood outside the kitchen, watching the three people busying around inside, feeling a deep sense of unease. The day before, she and her family had been discussing how to kill this girl, but not only had they failed, but now that she had been saved, she had become a completely different person, even going out to find food on her own initiative.
Thinking about how I had spoiled my youngest daughter to the point of lawlessness in the past few years, I felt a pang of pain in my heart. I thought that if I could find a marriage for her, and thought about whether she would change her arrogant temper after she got married and became a wife.
Unfortunately, no matter how many matchmakers I looked for, no one was willing to propose marriage. They said that the girl’s reputation in the village had already been ruined, and now it was a famine year, so who had so much food stored to feed this girl?
Li's eyes reddened as she pondered over this. This girl had a big appetite and didn't like working. It was a blessing that such a large family could survive until now.
About half an incense stick of time later, Wu Shoutian came back with his two sons. Although the land was barren, he still had to take care of his own fields. He couldn't just leave them there and wait for death.
Seeing the third son coming back with a hoe and a bucket of water and a gloomy face, Li knew without a doubt that a lot of crops in the ten acres of land at home had probably died from the sun again.
"Mom, what are you doing standing here?"
The eldest son, Wu Qingeng, put down his hoe and walked over. He looked at his mother standing outside the kitchen in a daze with some confusion.
"Mom, it's okay. Your little sister went to the mountains today and dug up a lot of potatoes. Your wife and the third child are helping to peel them."
Upon hearing this, not only Wu Qingeng, but also Wu Yongqiao and Wu Shoutian who followed him in were stunned.
What? Wu Yuetang went into the mountains and dug up potatoes? Wu Yuetang went into the mountains?
The three of them hurried to the outside of the kitchen, stretched their necks to look inside, and saw the half-peeled potatoes with joy in their eyes.
After seeing Wu Yuetang working hard, complicated expressions appeared on their faces.
"Dad, what's wrong with this girl? Has she changed her personality?"
Wu Yongqiao had a loud voice to begin with, and he had originally wanted to ask in a low voice, but he had no choice but to stand on tiptoe and stretch his neck, so he couldn't suppress his voice for a moment, and he howled out the words.
This howl not only scared Wu Shoutian who was standing next to him, but also frightened the three people who were busy in the kitchen so much that they stopped what they were doing.
"Second brother, your voice is too loud."
Wu Zhiyun said unhappily.
Wu Yuetang glanced at the three people watching outside, put down the knife and potatoes in his hand, and stood up.
"That's all. I'll steam it and have mashed potatoes for dinner."
After saying that, he ignored the frightened looks of the others and walked towards the stove farther away with the basin in his hand.
Suddenly Wu Qingeng came over, stopped her, and looked at the basin she was holding.
"Little sister, let your sisters-in-law do this job, you go and have a rest."
Wu Yuetang looked at him with eyes full of distrust, and the corners of her mouth twitched. It seemed that he was afraid that she would cheat on him.
"Don't worry, I won't steal any of it. My sisters-in-law usually just roast, simmer, and steam the potatoes, but I want to do more than that."
As he said this, he took the basin in his hand into his arms, walked around Wu Qingeng and went to the stove.
After putting all the peeled potatoes into the steamer, I prepared to light a fire. But as soon as I sat down, I saw the firewood and was in trouble. Cooking was not difficult for me, but making a fire was really difficult.
I've never made a fire since I was a child. Although I had extracurricular practice when I was in college at the Agricultural University, I had never come into contact with this kind of purely natural firewood stove. Wu Yuetang immediately turned around and shouted to Wu Zhiyun who was not far away.
"Third brother, help me light a fire."
"Oh, okay."
Wu Zhiyun immediately picked up a bundle of dry firewood from the firewood pile and ran over.
The reason why she called him to help was because Wu Yuetang realized that, except for the third brother, everyone else looked at her with tinted glasses. No matter what she did, they always felt that she was scheming something. Being stared at by this group of people like this, she really had no motivation to do anything.
Wu Zhiyun made a fire very quickly, and the stove was lit in a short while.
"Third brother, please get me some more water and a small bowl of the semolina at home."
After Wu Yuetang finished speaking, she looked at the seasonings on the stove.
Seasonings were really scarce these days. The salt was just coarse salt, and there was no soy sauce or pepper. Looking at the small piece of pork fat in the bowl, I gritted my teeth and cut a small piece out, then put it in the pot to make some lard.
As soon as the smell of lard came out, Li started crying impatiently.
"You damn girl, what are you doing? There's only so much lard in the house, and you're just wasting it like this? Can't you just make ends meet?"
Li walked over while howling, and when she saw Wu Zhiyun coming over with a small bowl of coarse flour, she became even more furious.
"It's fine if you just wasted the lard, but you even scooped out a bowl of flour. What on earth do you want to do? Oh, life is unbearable. We can barely afford to eat, and you're still wasting food like this. Oh, why did I give birth to such a money-losing thing like you?"
As she said this, she was about to grab the bowl of flour. Wu Yuetang saw it and took it before she touched the bowl.
"It's a rare occasion for me to cook dinner, and you have to come and mess with me?"
Wu Yuetang's eyes were cold, staring straight at Li, which made her feel a little scared.
All this commotion wasted a lot of time, and the potatoes in the steamer were cooked. Wu Yuetang took them out and crushed them little by little with a spoon, then poured flour and water together and mixed them, and added some lard in it.
The way he kneaded the dough was quite skillful, not like a novice at all. Mrs. Li was dumbfounded watching from behind, and Wu Zhiyun, who was closest to the stove, had the widest eyes.
For a moment, the whole kitchen was so quiet that only the crackling sound of burning wood could be heard, until the sound from the outer courtyard broke the silence.
"What are you all doing gathered in the kitchen?"
Second sister-in-law Chen Zhaodi came out with the washed clothes and was about to put them on the clothesline when she saw a group of people gathered near the kitchen.
"Wife, my little sister went into the mountains today and dug up a lot of potatoes. She said she would make us dinner tonight."
When Wu Yongqiao heard his wife's voice, he immediately walked over to help her hold her clothes and stood aside.
"What? Did that girl dig up potatoes?"
As expected, Chen Zhaodi was also surprised and stopped drying clothes.
"When has that girl ever worked? The sun has risen from the west?"
However, Chen Zhaodi was also a carefree person. She just thought that this girl might have had a near-death experience, so it was not impossible that her temperament had changed drastically.
Thinking about this, I continued to hang out the clothes.
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