Egg Cake

After dinner, Song Shixia took Ji Weiqing to the health room to buy medicine. For the first time ever, the two little guys didn't follow them, saying they wanted to read comics at home with their uncle.

Song Shixia is very confident that his younger brother can help take care of the children. Although Song Dongdong is arrogant, he knows the little things well because this is his nephew.

There was no burn ointment in the clinic, so they prescribed a bottle of disinfectant. Song Shixia didn't expect the village clinic to be so simple.

She took Professor Ji home and pulled him to the well.

"Let's rinse it with water for a while."

The well water in winter was warm, not freezing cold. She fetched a bucket of water and used a ladle to pour it over the burns.

The burn may not seem serious, but it may get worse tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so it must be treated as soon as it occurs.

Ji Weiqing lowered his eyes and watched her clean his wound. Song Shixia prayed in his heart that the spiritual spring water would have some effect and that such a beautiful pair of hands would not be left with scars.

She thought of what happened at the dinner table: "Why didn't you tell me about the cotton coat?"

Professor Ji confessed: "I was afraid you would think it was a waste of money, so I asked my mother to help me buy the clothes. It was not a waste."

Song Shixia raised the corners of his lips and said with a smile: "You just remember the waste, right? If you discuss it with me, I will definitely not refuse. I just think that some big items should not be bought. Look, my brother was scolded for buying a refrigerator and a washing machine."

Ji Weiqing pursed her lips and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't think it through."

She curled her lips and explained gently, "You don't have to apologize to me. You've been so kind to my parents and I should thank you. Next time, please discuss it with me. If I disagree, I must have a reason. If you really want to give me something, I can also give you suggestions."

In the morning, Song Dongdong acted like a little adult in front of his nephew, but in the afternoon, his true nature was revealed and he took his nephew to play in the village.

Song Shixia stuffed five yuan into his pocket and told him to buy whatever snacks he liked and she would reimburse him. Children only received a few dimes or a dollar as New Year's gift during the Chinese New Year, so five yuan was almost a huge sum of money for her brother.

Song Dongdong was also present at today's dinner table conversation. Although he was concentrating on eating, he listened to everything with his ears perked up. To sum up, his sister is good at making money and does not spend his brother-in-law's money to support the family. His sister is going to take the college entrance examination this year, and he feels a little guilty and doesn't know if he can get into high school.

Song Qiu Sheng went to the captain's house and came back saying that he would kill pigs the next day.

Song's mother was feeding chickens in the yard: "Why so fast?"

"How can this be fast? Only our team has a few pigs. It's almost New Year, so it's just right for us to kill pigs so the team doesn't have to go elsewhere to buy pigs."

Song Shixia didn't want to get up. The person next to her was getting dressed. Although the movements were very light, she could still hear the sound of clothes rubbing against each other.

She turned over drowsily: "Don't you want to sleep any more?"

"Your family is killing pigs today. I want to see if I need any help."

Song Shixia held her head with one hand, her hair hanging down on the side of her face as she looked at him with a smile.

"The pigs are being killed and the ground is covered in blood. Do you really want to help?"

Ji Weiqing paused in putting on his clothes.

"I'll help deliver the tools."

Song Shixia pulled him to lie down.

"We don't need you outside. Our team will come to help. You should stay with me and lie down, so that you won't be able to respond to strangers who are chatting with you."

She wasn't trying to scare him. The people in the team were very curious about Professor Ji, especially since he was a university teacher. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to withstand the enthusiasm of his fellow villagers.

Professor Ji looked hesitant and struggling, while Song Shixia buried her head in his arms and rubbed it.

"Sleep with me for a while."

Worried that if he moved too much, the cold wind would get into the quilt, Ji Weiqing had no choice but to hold her and listen to the sounds of people coming and going in the yard.

"Is your sister still awake?"

Song Qiu Sheng yawned. "Why is she getting up in such a cold weather? Are we expecting her to help us kill pigs?"

Song's mother didn't mean that: "There are many people from our team here today, don't let anyone talk about her."

"Mom, let her sleep. It's so cold and she'll waste firewood if she gets up."

The Song family didn't have a fire stove, but they built a special fire room with a fire pit in the middle. They kept warm by burning firewood in winter.

Song Dongdong took his nephew to buy two firecrackers and asked Ergou from next door to set off firecrackers.

Ergou sniffed and said, "Song Dongdong, how are these two kids related to you?"

Song Dongdong turned his head away in disgust: "Can you wipe your nose? It's disgusting. These are my two nephews, just call them Dabao and Xiaobao."

His mother called them Dabao and Xiaobao, and he thought it was more convenient than calling them by their names.

Ergou wiped his snot with his sleeve: "They are still wearing sneakers!"

Song Dongdong puffed out his chest proudly: "I also have sneakers. It's not like you haven't seen me wear them before."

Ergou's face was full of envy: "I wish my sister married a city guy. I would also like to wear sneakers."

Song Dongdong rolled his eyes: "Who thinks your sister is really suffering, marrying a city guy just to buy you sneakers. Are you still going to set off firecrackers with us? I'll give you a box."

"Let go, I want to let go!"

Song Dongdong not only bought a few two-foot kicks, but also bought two boxes of firecrackers.

He gave Ergou a box of firecrackers.

"I can only give you one for two kicks, and it's 1.5 cents for two." He then shouted at his nephew, "You two dare not set off the firecrackers, stay away and watch us set off the firecrackers."

Ji Yang pulled his brother to hide on the side and watch his uncle set off firecrackers.

Ergou wanted to play a prank by throwing a firecracker under the two kids' feet to scare them, but Song Dongdong stopped him loudly.

"Why are you scaring them? My sister gave me the money to buy the firecrackers. You used the money my sister gave me to scare her children. Do you have any conscience?"

Ergou lowered his voice and said, "I'm just helping you regain your prestige. Don't be angry if I don't scare them, okay?"

"Please don't help me. How am I going to explain to my sister if they get scared and cry? We are grown-ups and we still scare little brats. Isn't it shameful?"

Ergou shrank his neck and stammered. He thought Song Dongdong didn't like them. Why would she protect him if he wasn't his sister's biological son?

"Okay, okay, but it's not good for the two of us to go out and play with our little follower. I also want to go to the showplace in the village to show off my firecrackers."

Song Dongdong's face was full of confusion. He also wanted to take his two feet and kick it out to show off, but he was afraid that he would forget about his nephew when playing with others.

“I’ll ask them if they want to go.”

Ji Yang saw with his own eyes that his unfamiliar brother wanted to throw firecrackers at them, but fortunately he was stopped by his uncle.

He subconsciously protected his brother: "Uncle, we want to go home."

Song Dongdong said hurriedly: "Then I will take you back. I will kill a pig at home later. I will go home when the butcher comes."

When Song's mother saw her two grandchildren, she took out a handful of candies from her pocket and handed them to them.

"Dabao and Xiaobao, come here and have some candy." She went to the small shop in the next village early in the morning to buy candy.

Ji Yang and Ji Yuan accepted it obediently. They didn't like fruit candies, but their mother said that they couldn't refuse the kindness of their elders.

Song Shixia dragged Professor Ji to sleep until nine o'clock before getting up. When she opened her eyes, she saw two little guys in the room lying on the table and drawing.

"What time did you get up?"

Ji Yang took out a handful of candy: "At seven o'clock, my uncle took us out to play, and grandma gave us candy."

Ji Yuan couldn't help but eat two of them, and when he handed over the candies, his face showed guilt.

"Take some for yourselves, and share with the other kids."

Song Shixia didn't mind the children having a lot of candy on them. The two little guys were spoiled and only ate chocolate and White Rabbit milk candy, not ordinary fruit candy.

Ji Yang added: "This is the candy that grandma gave us."

Song Shixia was wearing a sweater: "It's okay, grandma won't blame you, she will even praise you for being sensible."

Professor Ji's sweater was a mess, with suspicious water stains on the collar. If he took off the turtleneck sweater, he would find that his neck was covered with marks of various sizes.

Song Shixia was putting on a sweater. She only wore warm clothes when she slept. The child's sharp eyes noticed the red marks on her neck.

Ji Yuan pointed at her neck and shouted, "Mom was bitten by a mosquito!"

Song Shixia didn't react for a moment.

"Where are the mosquitoes in winter?"

Ji Yuan sympathized, "Mom has been bitten by mosquitoes so many times, how pitiful."

She immediately understood and touched her neck.

"Well, there might be a big mosquito in Mom's room."

It was clearly a joke, but the two kids told their uncle.

Song Qiusheng pondered for a while and explained to his nephews: "Your mother has delicate skin and tender flesh, so it's normal for mosquitoes to like to bite her."

He wanted his sister to pay attention to her image, but he was too embarrassed to speak up when he saw that his sister and brother-in-law were wearing turtleneck sweaters. It was obvious that the child had seen the traces when he broke into the bedroom.

He coughed twice deliberately: "There are no mosquitoes in our house in winter, don't teach the children bad things."

Professor Ji remained calm but his ears turned red. Song Shixia smiled and ignored his brother's reminder.

Song's mother loved her two grandsons very much, calling them "Dabao" and "Xiaobao" all the time. Song's father would steal glances at his grandsons from time to time with his hands in his pockets.

Song Qiusheng poked his head out and teased, "Dad, why did you suddenly think of shaving today?"

Song's father said with a stern face: "Don't mind your father's business."

Song Qiu Sheng curled his lips. He just wanted to shave so that he could hug his grandson. His eyes were already glued to the child.

He waved to Ji Yang.

"Your grandpa wants to talk to you."

After saying this, he slipped away, leaving Song's father and the young man looking at each other in bewilderment.

Song's father forced a smile, but in the eyes of the children, his smile was fake.

Ji Yang and Ji Yuan said timidly: "Hello, Grandpa."

"Be good, let grandpa hug you."

Ji Yang walked to his grandfather hand in hand, and Ji Yuan held his hand tightly, very scared. He told himself in his heart that this was his grandfather, not a bad person.

Song Shixia came out after washing up and saw her father working as a horse.

Father Song rode his grandson on his neck: "Sit still, my dear grandson. The horse is about to start running."

Ji Yuan hugged his grandfather's neck and giggled.

Song Shixia shook his head helplessly, wrapped himself in his mother's cotton coat and went into the house to warm himself by the fire.

Song Shixia replaced Professor Ji's coat with her father's new cotton coat. The bulky cotton coat made Professor Ji look round and cute.

The cotton coats they were wearing were winter clothes that my mother-in-law had specially selected for her family. She had chosen the thickest cotton coats. This thickness was not convenient to wear when doing farm work, but it was indeed very warm.

Song Shixia placed an iron rack on the fire pit, put an iron pot on the rack, added water to the pot and put a steamer in it. She made a lot of desserts and brought them back, heating them up for the whole family to eat together.

The butcher Shanshan arrived late and was taken by Song's mother to the backyard to pick a pig.

The butcher confirmed again: "Have you really only fed your pigs for half a year?"

"Yes, usually I feed them pig grass, leftover rice and vegetable leaves together. Sometimes I mix some cornmeal and bran in it, and then their size grows like a balloon."

The butcher was sharpening his knife.

"If you hadn't said half a year, I would have thought you had been feeding this pig for more than a year. I've been slaughtering pigs for so long and I've never seen a six-month-old pig so fat."

"How long have you been feeding these chickens and ducks?"

Song's mother was overjoyed. "It's been half a year. The ducks don't have much meat, so we keep feeding them. The chickens we bought have never been sick since we took care of them."

The butcher joked, "You two are good at raising pigs, why don't you try to set up a pig farm? You can sell the pigs after raising them for half a year. It's okay to make a little money from raising chickens and selling eggs, but it's not as profitable as raising pigs."

Song's mother was half-believing and half-doubting: "Is this pig really fed that much?"

"Why would I lie to you? I'm going to another village to kill pigs tomorrow. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself. I guess the pigs they feed for a year are not as big as your pigs."

Song's mother told her son what the butcher said. Song Qiu Sheng was holding an egg cake in his hand.

He blew on the hot cake and said, "This proves that you and my dad are good material for feeding pigs. I didn't lie to you."

Song Qiusheng also had doubts, but he believed that his parents took good care of the pigs, so they were able to grow so big. He had seen some people feed pigs only with pig grass, and how could pigs grow meat if they ate grass every day.

Song's mother was a little tempted. Normally, a pound of pork costs 80 cents, but it can be sold for 1.3 yuan per pound at the New Year's market. It doesn't take much time to feed one or two pigs. They can grow so fat by feeding them some vegetable leaves and pig grass. It seems like a good deal.

"Can you give me and your father some advice on how many pigs we should feed?"

Song Qiusheng finally finished eating the egg cake.

"Ask my sister. She has a good eye. I always ask her for advice when doing business."

Song's mother became more and more confused. Did her daughter become so smart after marrying a city man?

The captain carried a gong and shouted in the village,

"The Song family has slaughtered pigs. If you want to buy pork, go to the Song family..."

Some people from the next brigade wanted to buy some, but when they heard that a pound of pork cost one yuan, they immediately cursed the Song family for making money in a dishonest way, including the middle-aged women who always gossiped at the entrance of the village. When they went to the town to buy meat with their backpacks, they found that the price of meat had already risen to one yuan and three yuan, and the cheapest one was one yuan and two yuan. They immediately regretted it.

The brigade did not have enough meat to share, so Song Qiu Sheng discussed with his second uncle and decided to price it at one yuan. If anyone did not want to buy it, they could go to the town and there would be no forced buying or selling.

The Song family killed all the pigs. Song's mother felt a little uncomfortable looking at the empty pigpen, so she thought it would be a good idea to raise a few pigs.

She came to the fire house and said, "I'll leave some fresh meat for you to take back and eat when the time comes."

Song Shixia did not refuse his mother's kindness. Song Qiu Sheng asked his mother to help prepare the meat. He didn't have a refrigerator, so he put it at his sister's house.

He called his mother, "Mom, sit down and warm yourself by the fire. What are you doing running in and out of the house so early in the morning? Your hands are frozen red, so why not warm them up and have some egg cake."

"I'm just boiling some water. Do you think you can enjoy it like me?" Song's mother didn't want to eat it. It looked expensive, so she asked the young man to keep it for himself.

Just as she was about to refuse, her daughter stuffed a piece of soft egg cake into her mouth.

"I made this cake myself. Try it and see if it tastes good."

Mother Song took a bite, and her taste buds were filled with the aroma of milk and eggs.

"Do you have this skill?"

Song Qiu Sheng picked another piece of egg tart.

"My sister is a good cook. She has nothing to do so she just plays the drums at home."

After eating, Song's mother commented: "It tastes good, but it wastes sugar and eggs. We can't afford to eat like this every day in the countryside."

Song Shixia brought two egg pies to his father.

"Dad, try this."

Father Song took a bite of the egg pie and bit the tin paper in his mouth.

She quickly reminded: "You can't eat the one below."

Song's father spat out the tin, his face full of disgust.

"Why is eating so troublesome?"

"It's not a problem, it's just a small plate to avoid getting your hands dirty."

Song's father couldn't help but complain: "People in the city are really particular."

Song Shixia waited for his father to finish eating and asked for his feedback: "Is the egg tart delicious?"

Song's father wiped his mouth and pretended, "It's OK, just average, about the same as a steamed egg."

Song Shixia held back his laughter. It was hard for him to see his father eat five eggs in one breath.

The villagers and neighbors who came to help were given some pig offal, which they could not finish even if they kept it at home.

Song's mother had finally come to terms with the fact that she had plugged in the refrigerator, which she thought was unused, and used it to store the meat. If she left the pork in the well, she was afraid that it would be taken away by wild cats from other families. If she kept it in the refrigerator, it would waste electricity during the New Year holidays. She would unplug the refrigerator when the children returned to the city.

When everyone saw the refrigerator and washing machine of the Song family, they all praised Song Qiusheng for his ability. A few young men in the crowd showed hope. If Qiusheng succeeded in business, could he help them? After all, they were brothers who had started a business together.