Chapter 21 21. Brick Factory Delivers Meals
After Shi Liu returned, she gave half of the pig offal to Grandma Zhao. After all, her two brothers would be living here for the next month, and it would be a bit of a breach of promise anyway, as she had said that she would be the only one living here.
Grandma Zhao also knew that this was a special situation. Looking at the pig offal and small green vegetables in her hands, she said, "It's okay. Let your brothers live here without worry. There's a small bed in the utility room that can accommodate them."
Shi Liu heaved a sigh of relief when she heard this. She would be staying here for at least two years, and it would be bad if this incident affected Grandma Zhao's impression of her. "My two brothers are going to stay in the city for a month. I wonder how much the utility room costs per month?"
"No money is required. The utility room is just a place to shelter from the wind and rain. There are a lot of things in it. How can I ask for money?"
Shi Liu didn't think so: "Brothers should settle accounts clearly, Grandma Zhao, we can't take advantage of you." A storage room costs 5 yuan a month at most. In her opinion, anything that can be solved with money is not a problem.
"Give me a dollar, then, and I'll go clean up the storage room." Grandma Zhao said hurriedly, thinking of the messy storage room. "It's going to get cold soon. Do you want to take this opportunity to stock up on some coal?"
"Isn't it too early to stock up now? Besides, I don't have any coal coupons..." Shi Liu was a little hesitant. In the countryside, people burned firewood, and she almost forgot that people in the city burned coal. It seemed that she had to find time to find Fatty and exchange some coal coupons with him.
"Let's not talk about coal for now. You have to prepare the coal stove first." This thing is not easy to buy.
A trip to the black market seemed inevitable, so Shi Liu got up and started cooking. By the time she was done, it was almost time for lunch. She deftly prepared two meat dishes—husband and wife's lungs and liver, and spicy stir-fried chicken hearts—filling two large lunch boxes. She then pulled out four large shepherd's purse buns from her space. She'd save the meat buns for another time, as eating too much would easily draw the attention of her brothers.
"Hey, little girl, I'm here to bring food to your brother."
"Yes. Uncle, you haven't finished get off work yet."
"Uncle, I'm on the day shift today. Okay, go ahead, little girl."
Upon hearing this, Shi Liu did not linger any longer and left in a hurry.
After the people left, the old man sniffed hard and said, "Tsk, I can tell it's meat from the smell. The girl is quite willing to give it."
"Big brother, second brother, I brought food." Shi Liu looked at their tired faces and felt distressed: "Big brother, you two didn't take a break all morning, did you?"
Brother Shi chuckled and said, "We took a break for a while. If we didn't, we wouldn't be able to endure such high-intensity labor."
Shi Erge also said: "Working in the fields is actually the same, but now it doesn't matter how much you work, everyone just slacks off." The harvest from the fields was getting worse and worse.
Shi Liu really didn't understand the situation: "Then isn't it a pity that I didn't get a job?"
Brother Shi: "It's not a pity. Normally when you are at home, your share of the work is done in the first month of the year."
Shi Liu was immediately ashamed. It was a blessing for her mother to be able to control her daughter-in-law. If this happened to other families in the village, there would have been a huge uproar. She thought to herself that she would bring some good things for her sisters-in-law next time she went home. Otherwise, if the sisters-in-law rebelled collectively after a long time, her mother would be in trouble. She especially remembered the trouble that the Qin family in the east end of the village had caused two years ago because of their love for their daughter. Shi Liu felt that she should learn from this lesson.
Rural families had so little, yet they were so calculating and calculating. Shi Liu couldn't stand it. She also thought Qin Yiyi, the youngest daughter of the Qin family, had deliberately ignored the family's possessions, after all, her husband was an active-duty officer. She said the Qin brothers and sisters were foolish, only focusing on the short-term benefits. With a good relationship with an officer brother-in-law, their children would definitely have an advantage over others when they wanted to enlist in the army. These days, being a soldier was quite popular.
The three siblings came to the brick factory cafeteria. Big Brother Shi laid out the food one by one. When he opened the lunch box and saw that there were two meat dishes, he was stunned and said with distress: "Big sister, we are here to earn money, so we can't spend it recklessly. Just get some multi-grain steamed buns."
Shi Erge was both distressed and touched: "Yes, this is meat and bone soup, how much is it?"
Shi Liu knew her two brothers' mentality very well, but she just didn't agree with it. She also planned to take the opportunity to give her two brothers more nutrition: "Brothers, you do physical work, how can you not eat well? What if you get thin from hunger, and then the sisters-in-law will have complaints."
Shi Erge's brain was more flexible, and he asked with some doubt: "Big sister, where did you get the meat ticket?"
Shi Liu smiled proudly. "I know a man who works at a meat processing plant. He's the only one at home, so I traded vegetables for the meat he owned. But since I'm not from the meat processing plant, I didn't dare ask for lard or pork belly on our first trade. I'll buy those once we get to know each other better."
When Brother Shi Er heard that vegetables could be used instead of meat tickets, he said in surprise, "Is there such a good thing?" There are not many other things in the countryside, but there are plenty of vegetables. If this is true, their family can still afford to eat meat.
Brother Shi asked with some concern: "How do you know each other?"
"He saw me when I was strolling by the meat processing plant. Uncle Wang was the security guard. He probably felt sorry for me, so he transferred the meat he owned to me. We brought a lot of vegetables from home this time, so we can exchange them with him a few more times. Besides, we can't run out of bone soup."
Brother Shi thought about how his eldest sister looked really adorable. No wonder the guard couldn't bear to see her like that. "Sister, don't cook it all for us. Save some for yourself. Studying is really taxing on your brain."
Anyway, he gets a headache whenever he studies, and feels like he's going to be ruined. Among his four brothers, only the fourth one persisted in studying until junior high school, and the rest all graduated from elementary school. It's not that his mother is partial to him, but none of them are cut out for studying, so it would be better for them to drop out of school early and go home to earn work points.
Shi Erge also nodded and said: "The money mother gave you is not much, so buy yourself some more delicious food."
Shi Liu felt even more comforted when she heard her two brothers' caring words. "Don't worry, I won't go hungry. After I get to know Grandpa better, I'll ask him to help me buy some pork belly to make sausages."
When Shi Da Ge and Shi Da Ge heard this, they were inspired. They got to eat pork because of Da Mei, but the children at home didn't get to eat it. If they made sausages, they could let the children have a few bites. Thinking of this, they wanted Shi Liu to save all the meat, but they thought that pig hearts and pig intestines were not easy to preserve, so they gave up.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
