"Although I'm full, I still want to eat a little more." Qiao Ye was very happy when he heard that Qiao Xinyi's mother was worried about him. He carried the basin back to the kitchen and changed it for his own basin, then took the bowl and chopsticks and a dish of vinegar out.
When Qiao Ye went to the kitchen to busy himself, the old man had already set up a small table in the yard. The three of them sat around the small table. Qiao Ye ate dumplings with the old man, and Qiao Xinyi drank the tea that the old man specially poured for her.
Qiao Xinyi doesn't like sour food. She watched the old man pick up a dumpling and roll it in the vinegar. Even before she put it in her mouth, she felt it was sour.
"It smells so good~" The old man took a bite and looked at the dumpling filling. "The dumpling filling in your house is quite interesting. What did you add to it that makes it feel a little crispy when you bite it?"
"Bamboo shoots." Qiao Xinyi replied.
After the old man finished speaking, he looked at the plate again. From the color, he could tell there were three flavors. He then looked at Qiao Ye and asked, "What kind of filling did you eat?"
Qiao Ye didn't know what he was thinking. He was stunned for a while before he reacted. He replied in a low voice, "The one I'm eating has dried mushrooms."
When the old man heard that there were dried mushrooms, he immediately ate the remaining half of the bamboo shoots and went to look for dried mushrooms. After eating, he praised repeatedly, "Your mother's dumplings are not greasy, the taste is different from others, and you know how to cook."
After that, I tried another one with another filling. After tasting them, I couldn’t say which one was the best. In short, both tasted fresh.
"My mother said that when we were young, our family was poor and couldn't afford to buy too much meat. There were many people in the family, so pork and leeks alone were not enough for dumplings, so she tried to add many kinds of vegetables to the dumplings." Qiao Xinyi explained casually, "This filling was figured out by my mother herself to best suit the tastes of the children in the family."
"Your mother loves her children, so she spends her time thinking. Who wasn't poor in the past? The poor have their own way of living, and the same goes for eating dumplings. The poor have their own way of eating." The old man nodded in approval.
"When I was a kid, I couldn't even eat pork and leeks. I thought dumplings with zucchini and greasy residue were delicious. Poor people were lucky to have a full meal a day. Eating dumplings with zucchini and greasy residue was a luxury. They were only available during the Chinese New Year."
"That's true." Qiao Xinyi said that in the original owner's memory, Gazi Village was so poor that meat could only be seen during the Chinese New Year. "My mother said that she also tried dumplings stuffed with zucchini and eggs, but the children at home didn't like it."
The villagers order meat for the New Year's Eve reunion dinner and eat to their heart's content. When the meat is served, the wealthier families each eat two small pieces, while the less wealthy families just look at the meat but don't touch it, because they have to entertain relatives and friends during the New Year, and won't even look at anything on the table without meat.
It is very common in poor rural families to have a plate of meat from New Year's Eve to the fifteenth day of the lunar year.
The three of them sat together, but Qiao Xinyi kept chatting with the suddenly talkative old man, while Qiao Ye lowered his head and ate dumplings quietly without interrupting.
It was not until Qiao Xinyi said that she was going home that Qiao Ye stood up and said, "Sister Xinyi, I'll see you off."
Qiao Ye hurried to the kitchen to take out the basin that Qiao Xinyi had just washed and followed behind her, asking her, "Sister Xinyi, why don't you sit for a while before going back?"
"My two children have to go to school tomorrow morning, so I'm going back to the military compound tonight. I don't want them to feel that it doesn't matter if they're late for school. I'm instilling in them the concept of abiding by the rules from an early age." Qiao Xinyi explained. She was going back to the compound from the small western-style building, and the two children had to get up very early tomorrow.
Not to mention the child, Qiao Xinyi herself couldn't get up either.
"Sister Xinyi, you are right." Qiao Ye lowered his head and kicked the small stones at his feet. After Qiao Xinyi unlocked the bicycle, Qiao Ye asked again, "Sister Xinyi, how many brothers and sisters do you have?"
"Including me, it should be four." Qiao Xinyi said.
Qiao Ye nodded gently, then bit his lip and seemed a little entangled. After several seconds, he asked again, "What are the names of your brother and sister?"
"I have a younger sister and two younger brothers. You told me about this younger sister when we were in the bridge tunnel. I said that I took her away from home by mistake. She is also at home now. I let her be the younger sister and I am the elder sister. This way, you all have to listen to me!" Qiao Xinyi said with a smile.
As for who was born first, her or Qiao Baili, no one knew. No one asked the He family, and including He Rou, the three of them were all born in the middle of the night anyway.
The Qiao family and the He family did not have a good relationship, so no one specifically asked about the time of Qiao Baili's birth.
Qiao Baili stayed at home. When Chen Yubing was sorting the girls, Qiao Xinyi bossily asked to be the eldest sister. That's why Qiao Yunbai later called her the eldest sister and Qiao Baili "Sister Baili".
"I have two younger brothers, one is Qiao Yunsong and the other is Qiao Yunbai. When I come back from the industrial exhibition, you will meet Qiao Baili and Qiao Yunbai when you go to their house to play." Qiao Xinyi said.
"What about the other one?" Qiao Ye noticed that Qiao Xinyi mentioned two names instead of "them".
Qiao Ye heard the wind carry Qiao Xinyi's voice to his ears, "My eldest brother went missing when he was six years old."
Qiao Ye quietly hid his hands behind his back, and used his right hand to dig into his left thumb with increasing force, as if he was digging his fingers to pieces.
"You said that Xiaoxiao was lost?" Qiao Ye asked in a low voice.
"Well, it is said that the child was playing in the family compound by himself that day and then ran out and disappeared. My mother has been looking for him for so many years and still doesn't know when she will be found." Qiao Xinyi said as she got on her bike. "I'll bring you some delicious food when I come back from Beijing. I'm going back first."
When Qiao Ye mentioned family matters before, Qiao Xinyi didn't say so much. After all, it was their first meeting, and he was still a strange villain, so Qiao Xinyi was on guard against Qiao Ye.
This time Qiao Ye took the initiative to ask Qiao Xinyi and she told him everything. Anyway, they would have more interactions in the future, and Qiao Ye would know about her family affairs after visiting her home.
"Sister Xinyi, please drive slowly." Qiao Ye came to his senses and quickly gave her a warning like an adult, then watched Qiao Xinyi ride away on her bike.
But this time, Qiao Ye stood there without moving until everyone had left.
Maybe the breeze outside the door was so cool that he was reluctant to leave, but maybe he stood there lost in thought, not knowing what he was thinking.
Qiao Xinyi didn't stay too long at Qiao Ye's place so she got home early. Fu Qingshan had already packed up. Qiao Xinyi sat for a while and listened to Chen Yubing talk about the National Day singing competition organized by the textile factory in October. After chatting for a while, the family returned to the military family compound.
The bus stopped at the station. Fu Qingshan carried his things, while Fu Bailu and Qiao Xinyi each held a child and got off the bus.
After getting off the car, Fu Bailu said, "The life of city people is indeed interesting. I didn't expect that they would organize employees to sing, and even employees your mother's age would participate."
National Day is a festival that all units attach great importance to every year. When Fu Bailu heard Fu Linzhou and Fu Zeyu say that the school was organizing student performances, she thought the performances were exclusive to children.
Just now, when I heard from Chen Yubing that Chen Yubing also went to rehearse after work, I thought it was quite novel. On the way back, I heard that there were also performances by employees from other factories. There were all kinds of performances. Fu Bailu found it very interesting all the way.
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