sbdcsierra Chapter 117 If they don't eat soon, they'll have to be fed to the chickens.
Chapter 117 If they don't eat soon, they'll have to be fed to the chickens.
"Grandma Liu, you're still in good health."
"It's quite robust."
Jiang Tao greeted Grandma Liu warmly.
Bao Ya then took a closer look at her brother-in-law, who was often mentioned by others.
The three brothers all look somewhat alike, but their temperaments are different. Jiang Tao has the typical image of a soldier. He stands there with his back straight and speaks in a calm tone, giving people a very dignified feeling.
The man behind him, I've seen him before, he's that smiling tiger who went to their brigade to arrest spies.
"You've finally come back, go home and rest."
After exchanging pleasantries, Grandma Liu urged Jiang Tao to go back and rest, and then the conversation ended, and the group went inside together.
"Brother, this is Bao Ya, Bao Ya, this is our brother, and that is Brother Fang."
Upon entering, Jiang Yuan introduced the three people.
"Brother, Brother Fang."
Bao Ya greeted Jiang Tao and Fang Mingda in a very open and generous manner.
"Comrade Kobayashi, we meet again."
Composing himself, Fang Mingda greeted Bao Ya with a smile. He never dreamed he would see her here.
"Have you known each other before?"
Jiang Tao looked at Fang Mingda and asked, puzzled:
"The last mission we carried out was in their village, and it was she who helped us find the clues."
"Oh, that's perfect. We have some things to take care of here, so could you please cook our meals as well? This is our meal allowance."
Seeing that everyone knew each other, Jiang Tao took out the money and receipts for their business trip allowance and was about to give them to Bao Ya. He was worried that his younger siblings would not be willing to bring a stranger home for dinner.
Bao Ya didn't go to take the money and tickets, but looked at Jiang Yuan, as if to say whether or not to accept them was up to him.
Jiang Yuan accepted the money and handed it to Bao Ya without hesitation.
"Here you go, just take it."
Bao Ya nodded, leaving them to talk in the main room while she went to the kitchen to prepare lunch and count how much money she had.
Jiang Tao gave her twenty yuan, a dozen jin of grain coupons, and two jin of meat coupons, all of which were military-issue.
Bao Ya smiled and put the food in her pocket, then began preparing lunch.
They've already given us money, so we should at least treat them well.
Bao Ya took out a cured rabbit from the storeroom, chopped it up, and stewed it. Along with the mixed-grain steamed buns, she also steamed some potatoes to make mashed potatoes later.
Blanch fresh wild vegetables and make a cold dish, and also slice a plate of braised large intestine.
Last year's dried vegetables were used to make a stew with green beans and eggplant, with some pork cracklings added.
She's already tired of braised pork intestines, and the pot she stewed yesterday hasn't been touched yet, so it's perfect for entertaining guests.
After finishing all that, I found some dried wild vegetables that I had dried last year and soaked them. I steamed vegetable dumplings for them to eat that evening.
Even if they were given food coupons, they couldn't possibly eat refined grains every meal; a combination of coarse and refined grains would already be quite good.
Finally, I made a bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup.
At lunchtime, the table was laden with dishes. Jiang Tao was very satisfied, thinking that his sister-in-law was easy to get along with and straightforward in her dealings with people.
Bao Ya also thought that this brother-in-law was easy to get along with and generous.
Fang Mingda was the only one who felt bad. He never expected that when he saw her again, everything had changed. The more he looked forward to it when he came, the more disappointed he was now.
The three of them had some drinks at noon. In the afternoon, Jiang Tao and Fang Mingda rested in the west room, while Jiang Yuan went to work. Bao Ya specifically told him to bring back a bone in the afternoon. Then they went to chat with Granny Zhou and Granny Liu about gossip.
In the afternoon, when Jiang Yuan handed a bone to Bao Ya, she held the bone and looked at it repeatedly, but she couldn't find a single shred of meat.
"How is it? Not bad, right?"
Jiang Yuan was a little smug; the bones he removed were absolutely completely naked.
After Bao Ya looked at the bone that had no meat on it, she looked at Jiang Yuan with disgust.
"I told you to bring back a bone, and this is all you brought?"
Are their understandings of bones really that different?
"Yeah, didn't you want bones?"
He brought back bones, so why does his wife seem unhappy?
"What an idiot!"
Bao Ya rolled her eyes at him, picked up the bones, and went to the kitchen. How come they have absolutely no chemistry? They'll have to work on that in the future.
Jiang Yuan was a little confused. Had he done something wrong?
Jiang Tao found the interaction between the two amusing. His younger brother was usually quite smart, so why was he acting so silly?
"Silly boy, your wife wants bones with meat on them, why are you picking them so clean?"
Jiang Yuan was even more confused. Why didn't she just say she wanted meat? The standard for deboning in the workshop is not to hang meat on the bones.
He thought his wife was going to bring bones to the village's big yellow dog.
If Big Yellow could hear his thoughts, it would definitely spit in his face and say, "Bone? It hasn't even tasted a drop of your poop."
Over the course of a few days, Bao Ya used all the food she had at home to entertain the guests, since they had paid her.
Dried mushrooms, dried wild vegetables, and homemade dried potatoes, dried green beans, dried eggplant, etc., are used in stews, soups, and cold dishes.
I make different dishes every day and try to clean everything up before they leave. We stocked up on too much stuff last year, and if we don't eat it soon, we'll have to feed it to the chickens.
Jiang Tao ate the vegetable dumplings made by Bao Ya with relish, marveling at Bao Ya's excellent cooking skills.
Bao Ya was happy to have earned money. The wild vegetables were picked from the mountain, the dried vegetables were homemade, the cornmeal was one cent per pound, and the radishes were from last year's harvest, with a few still in the cellar. In just a few days, she earned another ten yuan.
"My sister-in-law's cooking is really good. I've never had wild vegetable dumplings like this before."
Jiang Tao ate three in one go, then picked up another and continued eating. He felt that the wild vegetables he used to eat were a bit gritty, but the ones Bao Ya wrapped today weren't gritty at all.
"That's because the dried wild vegetables weren't dried properly. If you wash the wild vegetables thoroughly, blanch them, and then dry them, they won't be gritty."
Bao Ya explained from the side. Her process of making dried wild vegetables was complicated, but it also varied from person to person.
Wild vegetables for your own consumption: wash, blanch, chop, and dry.
Wild vegetables given as gifts: dried.
Jiang Tao thought his sister-in-law was hardworking and had a good personality, unlike what Tan Xinmin had complained about, that the old man was too pretentious.
"I'm planning to go back to the village to see my parents tomorrow, are you coming?"
Jiang Tao had almost finished his business and planned to go back to his hometown for a visit. He hadn't been back for several years and felt his mother was starting to have a problem with him.
The letter I received last month only contained one sentence: "Monthly allowance has increased to ten yuan." Not a single word more, but I could feel my mother's anger even through the letter.
"Third Brother, why don't you switch shifts with someone tomorrow? Let's go too."
Thinking of the things on the mountain, Bao Ya immediately suggested. She had just finished processing the batch of goods in Jiangcheng and had nothing to do, so going back to the mountain for a stroll would be fine.
"Okay, I'll find someone to switch shifts with tomorrow, and we'll go back together."
"Let's change it for two days. The wine I brewed for Dad should be distilled by now."
Jiang Yuan nodded. Two days is fine. He'll just let his coworkers know.
The next morning, Jiang Tao borrowed a bicycle from Factory Director Song and they set off. Bao Ya didn't expect that Fang Mingda, who had disappeared for two days, would also go with them.
Several people rode bicycles into the village. At the stone mill at the entrance of the village, a group of people were chatting, including Liao Chunhua and Jiang Laoshan.
"Father~, Mother~"
From a distance, Bao Ya started calling out for people. Liao Chunhua knew from the sound that her daughter-in-law had returned, and immediately beamed with joy.
"Hey, my darling is back."
Jiang Laoshan quickly stood up and squinted as he looked in their direction.