Chapter 284 Fish Stew
Han Youran, Jiang Xiurong and Yang Yingxu helped her pack up the things she brought back.
Yang Yingxu pointed to a thick stack of letters on the cabinet and said, "I put all your letters there for you. The ones at the bottom are older, and the ones at the top are more recent."
"Many people sent you packages. I opened them all and sorted out the things that could be stored and put them in the cupboard. Some people also sent you some food that could not be stored. We ate it. I copied the list of the packages and it is on the table on the kang."
"Thank you for your concern." Xia Zhizhi nodded to show that she understood.
Before she left, she told Yang Yingxu that if someone sent something in the mail, she should ask him to open the package and take a look. If there were things that could not be kept, they could be eaten. Otherwise, if they were piled up in the house, they would surely go bad over time. She did not feel bad about the things, but it would make the house smell bad.
Seeing that it was getting late, Han Youran said, "We're going to go back first. You must be tired after such a long car ride. We'll tell you about other things that happened in the village tomorrow."
Xia Zhizhi sent them out, then bolted the door, returned to the space with the thick stack of letters, and opened them one by one.
After reading a letter, I would give it to Ah Ju, dictate the general content of my reply, and let Ah Ju write it.
There are probably a lot of them, but I can finish replying them after a few days.
Among the comrades who wrote to her, many were members of the Anti-Blindness Group, and they found out her mailing address after making inquiries from many sources.
Xia Zhizhi felt that they actually had some idol-chasing thoughts in mind.
No matter what, it's all because I love her.
Thinking that I had run away some time ago, many people had not received any news from me. According to the first letter I received, it took half a year for him to receive a reply from me.
She asked Ah Ju to explain it in the letter, and then asked Ah Ju to make a few pots of fruit jelly candy and send one to each person as a token of her gratitude.
There are quite a lot of these express deliveries, most of which are sent by Ah Ju in different appearances from the city.
This went on for several days. At night, she read letters in the room and Ah Ju wrote back to her. During the day, Ah Ju had to run outside to mail her letters and wait until she fell asleep to make candy for her.
It's a pity that Ah Ju is a robot. Anything that breathes, even a donkey or a horse, will be boiled into gelatin by her.
Human power is limited sometimes. If she didn't have robots at hand, even if she had plug-ins, she wouldn't be able to withstand this kind of construction.
The next day she slept until noon as usual. They had already moved to Han Youran's room to cook.
They left breakfast for her.
After dinner, she went to the captain's house with the local specialties she had brought.
During working hours, the team leader is usually out, and today is no exception. Only the team leader's wife, Aunt Yang, is at home.
Aunt Yang had soaked her quilt in a wooden basin early in the morning and was about to take it to the river to wash. When she saw her, her eyes lit up and she quickly wiped the water off her hands. She walked over to her and took her hand enthusiastically: "Hey, you're finally back. During the time you were away, no one ate the chicken feet and wings that were killed in Aunt Yang's house!"
No one would have thought that even after she had been gone for so long, Aunt Yang still missed her so much.
Although Xia Zhizhi was also an educated youth, in Aunt Yang's heart, Xia Zhizhi and other educated youth were not of the same species.
Xia Zhizhi handed her the specialty in her hand and said, "Alas, something happened at home and I was delayed for a while. I knew that the captain would definitely give me leave, so I didn't write to you specifically."
Aunt Yang took her into the house, and Xia Zhizhi saw some half-finished children's clothes in the house: "Hey, my sister-in-law Mengmeng is pregnant?"
Liu Yumeng was his family's eldest daughter-in-law who was newly married at the end of last year. Although Aunt Yang had never urged her to get married, she had actually been looking forward to this day.
The youngest son and the eldest grandson are the lifeblood of the old man.
What elderly person wouldn’t want this?
Aunt Yang laughed so hard that she couldn't stop: "Oh, actually it was already there when you went back. Mengmeng is such a carefree child. It was her first time being a mother, so I didn't know it. It was only when I saw her clothes were too tight and touched her waist that I discovered it. Now she's almost eight months old."
That's careless enough...
Xia Zhizhi followed her words and said, "Well, it must be your eldest grandson who is filial and knows how to love his mother, so there is no commotion in his stomach. My sister-in-law Meng Meng is relaxed, so naturally she can't feel it."
"But that doesn't mean..."
Aunt Yang is usually a quiet person, but when she talked about her precious grandson whom she had never met, she was so happy that she could not stop talking for three days and three nights.
Xia Zhizhi talked to her for a while and then went to the home of the village party secretary Lin Guorong.
Lin Guorong and Aunt Wang were both at home, working in their private plot of land in the backyard. When they saw Xia Zhizhi, they both fetched water and washed their hands.
Aunt Wang put the local specialties she brought inside the house, and took out a watermelon from the bucket in the kitchen, cut it up and invited her to eat.
While eating watermelon, Lin Guorong complained to her: "You educated youth are really not good enough, especially He Yu. When she came, I knew she was not a good person. I even took the trouble to do a lot of ideological work for her..."
Lin Guorong complained endlessly. In the past, when he saw the educated youth from the neighboring village being annoying, he secretly laughed at their team leader in his heart, but he never expected that the situation would change.
Xia Zhizhi listened to him complaining for a while, and comforted him perfunctorily: "There are people who are confused everywhere. They don't know good from bad. It's a good thing that you don't have to worry about taking care of them."
Lin Guorong complained for a while and then stopped, saying, "You finally came back. Your Aunt Wang and that child Yuanyuan have been talking about you for a long time. Last time, that child Wenxi wrote to her and asked about you. Come have dinner at my house today."
At this point, Lin Guorong showed a distressed expression: "You deserve the treat. The day before yesterday, I went to the river to cast a net and caught a big snapper. It was very fat. I estimated that it weighed about 6 or 7 kilograms. This was the first time I caught such a big snapper. I couldn't bear to eat it even though it was in the basin."
"Oh, forget it, that Yuanyuan would go and poke it every day after school, and she would be poked to death sooner or later. It's better to eat it while it's fresh."
Xia Zhizhi heard the sound of Aunt Yang sharpening a knife in the kitchen. She was too lazy to listen to Lin Guorong's nonsense and ran over to watch.
It was indeed quite big, so big that it couldn't be turned around in the basin.
The carps here usually weigh around two to three pounds. It's rare to see one this big. No wonder Lin Guorong couldn't bear to eat it and kept it here to show off.
When Xia Zhizhi went in, Aunt Wang had already sharpened the knife. She hit the fish head with the rolling pin and the fish immediately stopped moving.
While cleaning the fish, Auntie Wang asked her, "Xiao Xia, what flavor do you want to eat? Auntie will make it for you!"
In the past, they all liked to call her Xia Zhiqing.
Now that I don’t get along well with the educated youth, I don’t want to call her Xia Zhizhi anymore.
Xia Zhizhi swallowed her saliva while ordering dishes: "Fry it in oil, then simmer it. I've brought some rice cakes, Auntie, you can cut them up and put some in to cook together!"