Chapter 5
The woman left happily, but the atmosphere was still very awkward.
Being misunderstood as a couple was fine, but they were also talking about having a baby. No matter how calm Jiang Yao was, she was too embarrassed to look at Lu Che at this moment.
"Go back quickly." Lu Che was the first to break the silence, but he started to chase people away as soon as he opened his mouth.
Jiang Yao said "Oh", she didn't want to stay anyway, so she turned around and left.
After walking past several stalls, she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to return the pork to Lu Che, so she poured it back.
"Why did you come back again?" Lu Che frowned and stared at Jiang Yao with deep hatred.
Jiang Yao was too lazy to argue with him. She took out two taels of pork tickets and two dimes from her messenger bag, handed them over, and said, "Thank you for helping me buy pork last time. I wanted to buy you a piece today to pay you back, but I went too late and it was sold out. I'll return your tickets and money."
Lu Che took a look at the money ticket and took the meat ticket and one cent from it without being polite. He said, "Meat is 50 cents per pound, and two ounces is 10 cents."
"Why are you so honest?" Jiang Yao couldn't help laughing out loud.
When she finished laughing, she realized that Lu Che was staring at her. She asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"
"No." Lu Che then retracted his gaze and coldly ordered him to leave again, "Go away."
"..." Jiang Yao became unhappy after being driven away again and again. She muttered, "Don't you have anything else to say except leave and go back?" and left without looking back.
After spending two cents to buy a large head of pickled cabbage at the market, Jiang Yao went back home. Although she had a day off today, she still had to cook for the educated youth.
It wasn't too hot when I came out in the morning, but now it's almost nine o'clock, and the sun is at its highest point in the sky. Unfortunately, there is no place to shelter from the sun on the way back, so Jiang Yao can only lower her head and hurry forward.
"Jiang Zhiqing, Jiang Zhiqing."
When Jiang Yao heard the voice, she turned her head and saw a man in his forties or fifties driving a ox cart, with an aunt of the same age sitting in the back. It was this aunt who called her.
"Auntie, what a coincidence." Jiang Yao had an impression of them. They were Uncle Tian and Auntie Tian who lived near the youth cadre site. The old couple were very kind. They felt that the city children suffered when they went to the countryside, so they would send some of the vegetables and fruits they grew to the youth cadre site.
"Yes, you bought pig intestines and sauerkraut. Do you want to ride in our ox cart?" Aunt Tian said enthusiastically.
"Okay." Jiang Yao was not polite and climbed onto the ox cart with Aunt Tian's hand, saying with a smile, "Luckily I met you, otherwise I would have to walk for a long time."
"It's okay, as long as you don't mind our ox cart."
"It's great to be able to sit down. How can you say you dislike it?" Jiang Yao said, "By the way, where did you go?"
"Go to the county town to attend the market, and go back after selling everything." said Aunt Tian.
"I was just walking around the market, but I didn't see you guys." Jiang Yao said, remembering that Lu Che's stall still had a dozen or so bunches of vegetables that hadn't been sold. If he counted the eggs and vegetables she helped him sell, he would be lucky if he could sell all his goods before noon.
I really don't understand how someone with such a business acumen can become a big shot in the future.
"The market is divided into two sections. Maybe the section you visit is not the same as the one where we set up our stalls."
"That should be the case. You sold out so early, so your business must be very good." Jiang Yao said with a smile.
"It's OK, but one pound of green vegetables is only two cents, and if others buy more pounds, they have to bargain down. Our family's private plot is so small, and we work hard for two or three weeks, and we can only sell one or two yuan, and then we can go to the stall next door to exchange for ten pounds of rice, and that's it." Aunt Tian sighed, "The rice harvest this time is not good, and we have to eat these ten pounds of rice tightly."
Aunt Tian's situation was common in the Qingyuan Production Team. Jiang Yao didn't know how to comfort her for a moment because farmers' lives were so hard.
Although it was hard for the educated youth to go to the countryside, the state subsidized 45 kilograms of food every month. Even if it was not enough to eat, it was much better than the 100 to 200 kilograms of food that ordinary farmers received a year.
"Difficulties are temporary, and things will get better and better," Jiang Yao comforted.
"I hope so." Aunt Tian sighed and said, "Even if the adults don't eat it, the children have to eat it too."
Time passed quickly as I chatted with the aunt along the way. It was only half past nine when we got off the bus at the educated youth point.
"Uncle Tian, Aunt Tian, thank you for saving me almost half an hour today." Jiang Yao thanked them politely.
"You are too polite, Jiang Zhiqing." Uncle Tian said, "Ox carts are still slow. When our production team has tractors in a while, they will be fast."
"Tractor?" Auntie Tian asked doubtfully, "Does our team have the money to buy a tractor?"
"No, but the county's agricultural machinery store has a batch of obsolete tractors that can be repaired and still be used. Dazhou has recently applied for it and it should be approved," said Grandpa Tian.
"That's great. Second-hand is better than no food. If we can get it approved before paying the public grain tax, we won't have to go to the grain station to pick up grain." Aunt Tian said happily.
Uncle Tian: "It should be approved, but no one in our production team knows how to drive a tractor yet, so we have to find someone to go to the county to learn when the time comes."
"Jiang Zhiqing, please go in quickly. We are going back too." Aunt Tian waved to Jiang Yao, and Uncle Tian drove away on the ox cart.
After they walked away, Auntie Tian came forward and asked Uncle Tian, "Old man, do you feel that Jiang Zhiqing is different from before?"
"How is it different?"
"When she first came, she was very arrogant and seemed to look down on us country folk. But look at her today. She is so warm and polite to us."
"It must be because she received education in the countryside that she was well educated."
“…”
After entering the educated youth center, Jiang Yao first carried the pig intestines and sauerkraut into the kitchen. Seeing that it was still early, she cooked the pig intestines first.
Cleaning is the key to making the pig intestines delicious. Jiang Yao rubbed and washed them with salt, and rinsed them repeatedly, taking a lot of effort to clean the pig intestines. Next, she blanched the pig intestines, cleaned them again, and then added spices such as star anise and cinnamon to the marinade.
After the marinade boiled, she turned down the heat on the stove and simmered it slowly.
After preparing her own "special kitchen", Jiang Yao began to prepare lunch for the educated youth.
For several days, they had either sweet potato rice or sweet potato porridge. Jiang Yao couldn't stand it when she first came here, not to mention Zhu Xia and the others who had been eating like this for years. So, she took the initiative today to improve their meals.
The rice she put into the pot today was about the same as usual, but she added not much water because she planned to cook rice instead of porridge.
Everyone hasn't eaten real rice for a long time, and at most they will each have a small half bowl later.
Half a bowl of rice was definitely not enough, so she went to the vegetable garden to pick some cabbage hearts, cut a few sweet potatoes, and made a pot of refreshing sweet potato and cabbage heart soup.
Before everyone got off work, Jiang Yao had already prepared the meal and braised her pig intestines. She cut the pig intestines into small pieces, then stir-fried them with chopped pickled cabbage, and finally poured the marinade over them, making the aroma overflow.
"Yaoyao, what did you make that smells so good?"
Zhu Xia and her friends could smell the fragrance from a long distance away. They originally thought that it was another family cooking meat to improve the food, but they didn't expect that the fragrance became stronger the closer they got to the educated youth's site.
"I made pickled cabbage and pork intestines." Jiang Yao said with a smile, "I've also prepared the meal, let's eat together."
Today, this pair of pig intestines weighs more than a pound and cost her 20 cents. Since pig offal does not require a ticket, the price-performance ratio is very high compared to pork, which costs 50 cents a pound and requires an additional ticket.
"Let's eat together. We work harder than an ox every day, so we have to reward ourselves." Zhu Xia said and went back to the room. When she came out, she had three more cents in her hand. She handed the money to Jiang Yao and said, "We've been busy all morning, and I can't let you suffer any loss."
Jiang Yao knew that Zhu Xia's family was not well off, but she had her dignity and pride.
"Okay, I'll take the money." Jiang Yao took the money.
Zhu Xia took the lead, and anyone who wanted to eat pig intestines would take the initiative to pay three cents to Jiang Yao first.
"Jiang Yao, luckily you made rice today. The sauce of the pig intestines will taste better when mixed with rice."
"Yes, although it's only half a bowl, but I haven't eaten for a long time."
"Wow, this pig intestine is so delicious. Jiang Yao, you don't know the difference between grains. How come you are so good at cooking all of a sudden?"
"Do you still know how to talk? Even food can't stop your mouth." Jiang Yao scolded with a smile.
Suddenly, it got dark above her head, and then she heard someone say, "Jiang Yao, can you give me some?" Du Yuejia put three cents next to Jiang Yao's hand.
The two sisters of the Du family had been sitting in the corner, and everyone thought they were not going to eat. After all, because of Zhao Pengfei, Du Yuejia and Jiang Yao were rivals in love.
Everyone who was about to eat the delicious pig intestines slowed down their movements and secretly observed Jiang Yao's reaction.
Jiang Yao raised her eyelids and looked at Du Yuejia, replied lightly with "OK", and then scooped a small spoonful from the bowl of pig intestines for her.
Everyone was stunned.
At this time, even if Jiang Yao didn't make sarcastic remarks, at least she wouldn't give Du Yuejia pig intestines.
"Thank you." Du Yuejia thanked with a smile, then returned to her original seat and immediately transferred all the pig intestines in her bowl to Du Yuejiao's bowl, leaving only the sauerkraut for herself.
Jiang Yao looked at this and suddenly felt extremely upset.
She originally thought that, firstly, she didn't like Zhao Pengfei now, so she had no grudge against Du Yuejia, and she was not a bad person, so there was no need to go against her; secondly, if she targeted Du Yuejia, others would think she was still in love with Zhao Pengfei. Therefore, she should just treat Du Yuejia as an ordinary educated youth.
But now the pig intestine that had been cooked for the whole morning fell into the mouth of Du Yuejiao, that little bitch, and it almost made her angry to death.
Du Yuejia is also a fool. She treats Du Yuejiao as a good sister, but she hates her. Whatever Du Yuejia has, Du Yuejiao will try to take it away, including men. Anyway, she just can't stand her being better than him.
Of course, Du Yuejiao also likes Zhao Pengfei. She does all these tricks just to make Du Yuejia and Zhao Pengfei fall out first, then ruin Jiang Yao's reputation, and finally reap the benefits and get Zhao Pengfei.
After lunch, everyone went back to their rooms for a nap because they had to go back to work at two o'clock in the afternoon!
Jiang Yao didn't have to go to work, so after everyone got up, she continued to sleep with peace of mind.
But just as she fell asleep, her body was suddenly shaken. She opened her eyes and saw Du Yuejiao standing beside her bed.
The author has something to say:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
