Chapter 132 Too Embarrassing Carefree

  "Pickled vegetables, brewed wine, pickled fruits, salted vegetables... In the spring, we can also pickle spring bamboo shoots to eat..." Shen Sisi thought for a moment and smiled: "In the future, these might not be enough..."

  Zhong Gen Sheng was shocked and laughed: "How long will it take to eat that much? There are so many people coming home for dinner?"

  "Father, don't you want to hold your grandson in the future? Won't your sons get married?! When we have more children in the future, this house will be even more lively and crowded. These pickled vegetables won't be enough for everyone to eat..."

  Zhong Gensheng smiled and said: "That's great, when the time comes, I'll enjoy happiness with your mother..."

  He Axiu sent the rice after, and called Da Bao and Si Bao to come over for lunch. Lunch at the Zhong family was usually relatively simple, but for ordinary families, it was extremely good, let alone today's meal of rice.

  "Mother, let's have a banquet at our house the day after tomorrow. The day after tomorrow is a good day. And today we bought vegetables, if we don't eat them, it won't be good to leave them for too long..." said Shen Sisi, holding her bowl.

  He Qiaoxiu smiled and said: "I'll just listen to you, I'll be in charge of cooking at that time."

  "Alright..." Zhong Gensheng responded with a smile, "This afternoon when Wang Tufu comes, I'll tell him to kill two pigs tomorrow."

  "It's just that the fish is a bit of trouble... Shen Sisi smiled and said: "At worst, Dabao can buy some from the city and bring them back to kill and pickle first, and use them again in two days. This day isn't hot anyway, so they won't spoil. I originally wanted to scoop them up from the river, but scooping up a few wouldn't be a problem. If we scoop too many, I'm afraid it would provoke the villagers' anger. Now that Chinese New Year is approaching, every household in the village is looking forward to scooping up fish to share... how can they just watch our family scoop up so many fish? So it's better to buy some and avoid trouble... what do you think, Dad, Mom?"

  He Axiu nodded and said, "No need to take advantage of this, it's better not to let the villagers talk."

  Dabao nodded and said: "I'll buy it tomorrow, Tuniu, give me a number..."

  Zhong Gensheng said: "I'll go to the village to inform them and see how many people want to come, then I'll count again for you, no rush..."

  Zhong Jia entered the house, and now only people from this village can come. However, there are no relatives. Zhong Gensheng's grandfather was a refugee who settled here, his sons died on the way, and only Zhong Gensheng's father was left. The Zhong family was originally an outsider, but they had been living in the village for a long time and had integrated into the community. His father only had him and his older brother, and his older brother and parents were working in the city, which is relatively far from this mountain city. It's even more impossible for them to have received news, knowing that their relationship with themselves was ordinary, let alone being notified. Therefore, Zhong Gensheng has no relatives here.

  He Axiu's family was no exception. Originally, her mother's family was also in a nearby village, but the drought eight years ago had caused them to suffer greatly, with some dying and others fleeing. For eight years, there had been no sign of life, and it was likely that something terrible had happened. He Axiu wasn't one who hadn't thought about searching for them, but... where could she even begin? With no news whatsoever, He Axiu gradually lost hope, so this side of the family also had no relatives left.

  Eight years ago, the drought was not just a disaster for his family, many families were affected in the same way. Even if other families in the village did not suffer much, their living conditions have declined significantly compared to eight years ago, except for those with particularly strong financial foundations who were relatively unaffected.

  So Zhong Gensheng didn't know how many people would come, and after finishing dinner, he went out of the yard, going from door to door to inform them, calculating how many people would come.

  The vegetables are enough to eat, and the grain at home is also very abundant. He bought a lot of it, thinking that even if they couldn't finish eating it, they could leave some for their own family to eat slowly. There won't be less meat, but fish is hard to buy. They're afraid of buying too little, which wouldn't be enough to share, and buying too much would be wasteful. They also mind the money, so naturally, they have to calculate it carefully.

  Zhong Gen was born out of the gate, Wang Tu came when Shen Sisi had to tell him, asking him to kill two pigs tomorrow. As soon as he heard that the Zhong family would move in the day after tomorrow, Wang Tu hurriedly smiled and said: "The day after tomorrow I will also come to make a scene, eat a big feast..."

  Shen Sisi knew he was giving face to his own family, so he smiled and said: "Uncle Wang can come, that's the best. When our home is lively, we're happy too... going inside means it's lively, that's the point..."

  Wang Tufu was even more delighted after hearing this, thinking that tomorrow he would have to bring a certain amount of gifts in order to get closer to the Zhong family, and his business could last longer.

  "Uncle Wang, tomorrow's pig will be used for the banquet after tomorrow, and one head will be made into braised meat for the day after tomorrow. However, the pig for the day after tomorrow can only be slaughtered when it's almost evening, so I'm afraid it might be too late. That's why I'm informing you in advance, Uncle Wang, just in case you have something on, can you make some time available for tomorrow evening?" Shen Sisi said with a smile.

  "It's all settled then. Anyway, I don't have much to live for..." Wang Tufu smiled and nodded in agreement, before going off to catch the pig to be slaughtered.

  Shen Sisi followed him to fetch pig's blood.

  He Qiu had gone to the backyard to work on the vegetable garden. Si Bao was chopping firewood, while Da Bao was washing a vat, thinking about making some pickled vegetables for winter. The sour fish they had yesterday was truly delicious and had stirred up his appetite. Now, just thinking about being able to eat the tasty dishes made by Tuni made him extremely excited.

  Zhong Gensheng returned with a smile on his face, although he knew that every household's smile towards him had a hint of envy for his family's wealth. However, everyone was willing to join in the excitement at his house, and he was genuinely delighted. In the past when they were poor, even if their relationships weren't as good, he didn't have any thoughts about it. Now that everyone was smiling at him and giving him face, Zhong Gensheng finally understood what it meant by "when a man is poor, his ambitions are short".

  The poorer he was, the more he couldn't stand up straight, but now, he is standing upright with a straight back. Every household that sees him greets him, and although they are probing for something in their words, their faces are all smiling.

  Being valued by others, Zhong Gensheng, an honest farmer, couldn't help but be moved. He smiled happily and said: "Everyone in the village is coming, Dabao, tomorrow when buying fish, we need to buy 50 big fish, it seems that we still need to borrow Lao Gen's donkey cart..."

  Dabao responded with a "yes", saying: "Father, is everyone coming?!"

  "Yes..." Zhong Gensheng sighed, now when he walked to someone's doorstep, they immediately came out to greet him, politely serving tea and water. As soon as his family was about to enter the house, every household would come to join in the excitement.

  This point, Shen Sisi had expected early, she thought every family might want to come, but didn't think... everyone would come, it seems that tomorrow's banquet will be busy, just borrowing tables and stools will make people exhausted.

  Shen Sisi leaned in close to Da Bao and said, "The day after tomorrow, you'll be taking people to sell braised meat in the morning. Leave Si Bao at home and have him keep an eye on the kitchen. Don't let anyone get close to our family's braising liquid. If someone were to sabotage it, it would be terrible! This braising liquid has been stored for a long time and the flavor has come out. If it were to break, we'd have to start over, and the flavor wouldn't be as good as it is now!"

  Dabao hastily responded with a "yes", saying: "Got it, don't worry, when the time comes I'll get Dabao to move the brine water to the woodshed and lock it up. Who can get in then?!"

  "Alright then..." Shen Sisi responded with a smile and went to cook the blood clots.

  Today, Wang Tufu was extremely happy, slaughtering pigs while chatting with Zhong Gensheng for a few sentences, until Shen Sisi's pig blood cake came out of the pot, he reluctantly took a piece and left...

  Shen Sisi was eating a blood clot while savoring the flavor of her lunchtime rice. Although the rice still tasted as she remembered, this lowest-grade yet expensive rice was really just average in terms of taste, not delicious at all, and cost eight cents per catty. She wanted to eat better rice... but that seemed like an extravagant hope. This rice wasn't very good, so Shen Sisi lost interest and thought about earning more money to buy good rice to eat. Eating this rice was no better than eating wheat flour noodles or something, after all, wheat flour only cost five cents per catty and tasted much better than this inferior rice...

  Alas! Money, money... come quickly into my bowl.

  Shen Sisi held the pork blood cake and dipped it in chili sauce to eat, this sauce was still made by her, she ground the chili into fine pieces and added some ground Sichuan pepper, then used fragrant oil and sesame oil to simmer out the fragrance, and poured it into the powder, and added some garlic buds, this flavor, paired with anything, everything is delicious...

  However, she didn't finish eating it all, as everyone in the family loves this dish, so she left some for her four treasures.

  Dabao started braising meat, and the familiar aroma gradually wafted out of the kitchen again.

  Shen Sisi had just put the braised meat in the kitchen when he saw Turen bringing Er Gouz with him. Er Gouzi's face was full of reluctance, while Turen's face was filled with a flattering smile. He had originally wanted to let Er Gouzi run an errand for him, but Er Gouzi thought it would be humiliating and refused to come, so he had no choice but to bring him along, hoping that Tuniang would help him out of consideration for the fact that Er Gouzi was doing things for her.

  "Radish... is your daughter at home?!" Turen's face was full of embarrassment.

  Zhong Gensheng was taken aback and said: "Tugen, what's wrong?! Tuni is in the kitchen."

  Tu Gen scratched his head and smiled foolishly: "......Today, we have guests at home, I was thinking if we could buy some braised sauce from your family?! Braised meat is a pressure for our family...I thought of buying some braised sauce to braise it ourselves when we get back, so the meat will also have the flavor of braising, and our family can save some money......Gen Sheng, you know, for people like us, eating meat is also a pressure, let alone braised meat...we can't even afford to eat it..."

  The second dog felt extremely embarrassed, and hummed: "... Dad, you too..." But he still couldn't bear to take out his own money to buy braised meat. After all, a catty of braised meat cost forty cents, which was almost two days' wages for him, just to eat a catty of meat. He really couldn't afford it... Occasionally, the earth girl would give him a piece of meat to gnaw on, but now that he opened his mouth to ask for it, the second dog felt too ashamed.