Siheyuan: Bringing Warehouses to 1959

Grandma opened the paper package she had wrapped earlier and handed it to Zhang Xiuzhi.

Looking at the white sugar grains, Zhang Xiuzhi was obviously tempted. After all, she was only fourteen years old and a girl. In this era of material scarcity, how could she not like eating sugar?

But she shook her head firmly: "Grandma, I can't eat this candy. I live and eat here. If I take this precious food, it would be immature. Please save it for Xiaohuan and the others."

"It's wrong for you to say that, kid. You treat grandma as an outsider? Don't say that you didn't eat for free. Even if you did, it wouldn't matter. Without your grandpa, our family wouldn't be where we are today.

"Besides, we will be a family sooner or later, and you are the granddaughter-in-law chosen by grandma..."

Zhang Xiuzhi blushed and stubbornly retorted: "Grandma, I'm here to work, not to get married. When I save money, I will go to the city to do odd jobs."

"Okay, okay, odd jobs, how can you save money in the countryside? You are a good worker, you know everything about farm work, you can make a living anywhere, no need. Grandma thinks you'd better ask my Wangcai, he knows best where there are good jobs in the city that can make money to support people."

"I just want to ask him about this. Where is he? Isn't he back? My second uncle asked me to go catch eels early in the morning."

"Wangcai went out to play with Xiaobao. Don't worry, he won't leave today."

"Oh, then grandma, I'll go cook."

Everyone in the village now eats from a big pot, but Zhang Xiuzhi is not eligible to eat it, and her grandmother also doesn't like the atmosphere of eating from a big pot. They are like a group of evil spirits released from a starvation prison, and they can't even eat in peace.

Grandma doesn’t eat much, so she just ate at home.

When we first started eating from the big pot, everyone thought it was a good idea. They worked for the government and ate public food, so they could work as hard as they could. But when it came time to work, they would slack off. Later, the production team became poorer and poorer.

At this time of the year, the porridge cooked in the production team canteen was so delicious that it could be used as a mirror. In order to avoid starving to death, each family could only cook something to eat at home.

The Zeng family has a good reputation in the village. Although Zeng Youhuo is not the production team leader, he is a capable person. Plus, the brothers Zeng Hu and Zeng Bao are notoriously difficult to deal with, so it is not difficult to let Zhang Xiuzhi sneak into the canteen to get a bite to eat.

However, no one in the Zeng family was willing to do this, especially grandma and Zhang Xiuzhi herself.

Don't underestimate this decision. Nowadays, there are people who ignore hunger for the sake of face, but they are few.

The production team once got some crucian carp. At that time, life was not as difficult as it is now, so the production team decided to give everyone some meat. As a result, a man named Lao Liu, in order to eat a bigger fish, spat into the bowl he had chosen, making it impossible for others to eat.

The forest is big and there are all kinds of birds.

Grandma didn't let Zhang Xiuzhi cook. She stood up and said, "Xiuzhi, you are good at swimming. Can you go to the river and catch some fish? Use your uncle's basket and try it out. Wangcai's aunts will be here tonight, so let's have some fish to start our meal."

The so-called basket is actually a small tool made by Zeng Youhuo's skillful hands. It is rarely seen in the north and is made of bamboo. However, it is usually placed in ditches and rarely used in rivers.

Later, this thing was often thrown into the ditch, or the fish in it were secretly caught by someone, so Zeng Youhuo no longer used it.

Zhang Xiuzhi looked up at the sky and said, "Grandma, does your Wangcai not like to eat loaches and eels? Does he dislike the strong earthy smell?"

"No, Wangcai doesn't have that problem, he just wants to eat fish."

Zhang Xiuzhi said "oh", went into the house and took out a cylindrical tool. Before leaving, grandma stuffed the bag of candy into her pocket.

Things like loach and eel do have a strong earthy smell, so they need to be cooked with a lot of oil and more seasoning to make them delicious.

Some people say that living conditions in rural areas are difficult and they are reluctant to use oil and seasonings to make these things. In fact, that is nonsense. People have grown to the point of eating sesame leaves, broad bean leaves, tree leaves and tree bark, so why would they dislike the earthy smell?

It's a problem. This is meat. No matter how earthy it smells, it is still better than the bitter taste of leaves and bark. So now no one complains about the hair on the meat. It's good enough if you can get it and eat it.

Zeng Wangcai and Zeng Bao came to the production team together, but he did not go in. Zeng Bao went in alone, called out his brother Zeng Hu, got some bullets, and then the three brothers ran up the mountain together.

"Brother, hunting wild boars requires luck. Let's just walk around outside today and go into the mountains tomorrow when we are more fully prepared, okay? The production team has organized our militia to hunt wild boars many times, and they are not easy to hunt." Zeng Hu introduced the situation to his brother while smoking a Zhonghua cigarette.

Zeng Wangcai came here today to understand the situation. Although there are many wild boars, you can't just go out and catch them.

Of course, his main purpose was just to pretend. In fact, he didn't really want to hunt wild boars. Aren't the black-skinned fragrant pigs in the space delicious? Why did he have to eat wild boars!

Wild boars are very different from domestic pigs, but are somewhat similar in appearance to black-skinned fragrant pigs. The main difference between the two is the quality of the meat. Wild boar meat is leaner, has less fat, and tastes worse, while black-skinned pigs have more fat, and if they are well fed, they can even have marbled meat.

Zeng Wangcai was planning to use the black-skinned pigs supplied to Hong Kong Island to impersonate wild boars. He thought it would be even better if he could take a look at the appearance of a wild boar. If the appearance of the black-skinned pigs and the wild boars were not much different, there would be no need to peel the pigs.

But unfortunately, the three of them walked around the edge of the forest and only saw a few pheasants. Zeng Hu fired a shot but missed.

"Forget it, let's go back. It's getting late." Zeng Wangcai wiped his sweat and said.

It was not yet noon, and if Zeng Hu and Zeng Bao rushed back now they would almost be able to catch the canteen for lunch, so the three of them returned to the village and separated at the production team.

When I got home, grandma had already prepared lunch, a few cornmeal steamed buns and a pot of wild vegetable porridge with oil, both dry and liquid.

Zeng Wangcai was not picky and ate without hesitation. After cleaning up the dishes and returning to the house, he found that there was an untouched meal in the kitchen and many fresh eels, loaches and other miscellaneous fish in the basin on the ground.

"Haha, it's confirmed. She is Zhang Xiuzhi. She is really capable. She made four or five kilograms of this stuff with her bare hands in a few hours. This is a good thing. Put it in a pot and braise it. It will be so delicious that you can eat it." Zeng Wangcai moved the basin to the yard with great interest. "Grandma, I will cook tonight. If you don't cook it well, it will be wasted."

"As long as you like it, it's fine. Let me tell you, Xiuzhi went out early in the morning to catch these fish. When she heard you wanted to eat fish, she went to the river without saying a word. She hasn't come back yet and hasn't even had lunch. You can't let Xiuzhi down."

On the side, Zeng Jinhuan and her sisters who were surrounding Zeng Wangcai looked at grandma stupidly... Grandma, why are you lying? One moment you said that the candy was bought by big brother for sister Xiuzhi, and the next moment you said that sister Xiuzhi caught fish for big brother... Doesn’t sister Xiuzhi slack off on fishing every day?

They don’t understand that for grandma, this is called matchmaking.

Zeng Wangcai naturally didn't know what to say. He was only fourteen. Apart from his age, he always felt that this matter was not that simple. Even if the girl agreed, she still had parents. Did he really think that it would be like in "The Shepherd" where a simple "Lao Xu, do you want a wife or not" would be enough to get the job done?

After briefly talking to his grandmother, Zeng Wangcai began to process the eels and other things. He wanted to make a delicious braised mixed fish, which was a delicious thing that he didn't even have in his space.