Chapter 116: Chives and Meat
Su Zhen was very efficient and brought back the vegetables in less than 20 minutes.
In addition to vegetables and oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, chili powder and the like, I also bought cornmeal steamed buns.
It’s a pity that the buns outside were sold out, otherwise he would have wanted to buy some.
He is also a big eater. Eating only dumpling soup will not fill his stomach, he must eat something solid.
Lao Ning usually eats a lot, and now he drove such a long distance back and forth, so he would definitely be starving when he comes back, so Su Zhen bought some extra steamed buns to be prepared.
However, when Lin Li was counting the dishes, he was shocked when he saw the meat Su Zhen bought:
"Why did you buy so much? It must be about five or six kilograms, right?"
Su Zhen answered casually, "It's because of your Ling Xiao. The meat was sold out, and I met an acquaintance who raised some money for me."
Lin Li curiously concentrated his mental strength to listen to Su Zhen's thoughts.
Su Zhen just had a flash of memory, and he quickly recalled what happened when he bought the meat in his mind again.
He wanted to review it to see if there was anything important that he had overlooked.
So Lin Li also browsed through the events like a revolving lantern.
It turned out that when Su Zhen went to the state-owned vegetable market, the meat was indeed sold out, but a few salesgirls knew him. They had never seen him buy vegetables in person before, so they surrounded him curiously and asked him questions.
He replied, "There's a war hero at home who refuses to eat, so I hired an all-purpose chef to see if I can coax him into eating. I know it's late to go out and buy food, but I still want to try my luck..."
After he said this, a girl immediately said that she had saved some fresh meat and had planned to take it home after get off work, but now she could give it to him for free.
After this girl finished speaking, she didn't expect that the other girls also took out the meat they had kept.
Su Zhen was not willing to take advantage, he wanted to give the girls a little more money on top of the market price.
But the girls were angry and said that he looked down on them. They were all young people with progressive ideas and they came to help the war heroes. If he charged them more, wouldn't that be taking advantage of the situation?
Finally, after much persuasion, Su Zhen simply paid the girls according to the market price and expressed his deep gratitude.
Now, Su Zhen is still grateful to those girls in his heart.
Lin Li didn't care whether those girls were positive-minded and really wanted to do good things or they did this good deed because Su Zhen was handsome and wanted to win over Su Zhen. Anyway, they had to thank Su Zhen.
Su Zhen asked Lin Li: "Although it is already late autumn, it is still not suitable to keep fresh meat overnight. What should we do? How about hanging it outside the window? It will be more breathable..."
Lin Hua said: "It might as well be taken away by a wild cat..."
Rural people have to take precautions against wild cats every day, out of habit.
"I have a way." Lin Li rolled up his sleeves and started to work.
She prepared the meat and vegetables needed for making dumpling soup tonight, and fried the remaining meat into jerky.
Salt was added during frying, and chili powder was added after the first batch was taken out of the pot while it was still hot.
She heard Su Zhen's thoughts. Su Zhen did not forget to buy chili powder when buying seasonings because he himself likes spicy food.
If he bought chili peppers, he was afraid that Lin Li would not fry them for him, after all, Ling Xiao didn't eat spicy food.
He thought that he would add some chili powder to the dishes after cooking them tomorrow morning.
So Lin Li thought, they could quarrel as usual, but now that the resources were in place, she could "reward" Su Zhen some benefits just by raising her hand, so she might as well "reward" him.
After mixing the dried meat with chili powder while it was still hot, Lin Li said to Su Zhen, "Here, I'll give you a dish as a gift."
"Thank you...it smells so nice..." Su Zhen's eyes turned into crescents due to his smile.
He was now starving, so he didn't care about his face anymore. He picked up a cornmeal bun and took a big bite to fill the bottom, then picked up a piece of dried meat and ate it.
It is fragrant, crispy, slightly salty and spicy when you take a bite. The taste is absolutely amazing.
He no longer thought about the lump soup and started to eat voraciously.
After eating half a plate of dried meat, he wanted to eat more, but he didn't feel very good.
Then he raised his head and asked Lin Li tactfully: "Ling Xiao can't eat spicy food. Lin Hua said he is full and doesn't want to eat anymore. Do you want to eat some meat later?"
Lin Li found it funny that Su Zhen looked so guilty.
She had no intention of teasing him about the food, in case he felt embarrassed about not eating enough.
So he said sympathetically: "If you like, eat more. There is so much anyway. If you finish it all tonight, you can buy more tomorrow morning."
After that, he added chili powder and stirred it when serving the second plate.
Su Zhen was deeply moved. Usually Lin Li always ridiculed him with a sharp tongue, but he didn't expect that this time he would not laugh at his greed.
You know, because rural areas are poor, if rural children are a little greedy, they will be scolded by their elders for being lazy and greedy. Su Zhen was afraid that Lin Li would also have these habits of scolding others and being greedy, but it turned out that she didn't have any of those habits at all.
"It's just slightly spicy," Su Zhen asked again, "Can I give Ling Xiao a few pieces?"
Lin Li shook his head: "Not on an empty stomach."
She quickly picked up another plate, this time without adding chili powder, and handed it to Su Zhen: "Let him taste this..."
Su Zhen happily took two plates of dried meat and went to find Ling Xiao.
But Ling Xiao was indifferent to the delicious food and refused to even taste it, which immediately made Su Zhen feel depressed. The dried meat no longer tasted delicious in his mouth.
After hearing the conversation between Su Zhen and Ling Xiao, Lin Li suddenly felt that something was not right.
It was obvious that Ling Xiao felt that even eating some steamed buns with pickles was delicious since he woke up, after all, he had been hungry for two whole years.
But now, with such delicious meat jerky in front of him, he could actually resist the temptation. He said he would not eat it and he would never eat it.
Then, Lin Li no longer had confidence in the dumpling soup he made. Maybe Ling Xiao would only eat one bite as promised, but because he was so disappointed that he didn't care about the taste at all, he still couldn't be tempted to eat more...
So, we have to think of a solution.
…
Although Su Zhen was distracted by Ling Xiao and lost his mood to enjoy the delicious food, the aroma of Lin Li's cooking always filled his nostrils, so he couldn't help but watch Lin Li cook in the name of helping out.
By the way, I would also take a couple of bites of the food as soon as it comes out of the pot, just to help me taste it to see if it’s cooked.
Lin Li still didn't expose him.
Greedy children really shouldn't be scolded, because if they eat too much every day and can't eat even if they want to, they naturally won't be hungry.
Su Zhen was curious: "Didn't you say that tonight is only..."
He wanted to ask: Didn't you say that you were only going to make dumpling soup tonight? Why did you make so many different dishes?
Lin Li heard his inner voice and interrupted him before he finished speaking, asking, "Laoning should be back soon, right?"
Su Zhen: "How can it be that fast?"
Just as he was about to say something else, he saw Lin Lichong wink at him and then pointed to the inner room.
Su Zhen can be really stupid sometimes; he still didn't realize Lin Li's intention.
Hearing his confused voice, Lin Li wanted to kick him again.
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