Siheyuan: Yan Jiekuang's carefree life

Yan Jiekuang was serious about preparing food. After working for more than half an hour, he finished preparing the chicken and rabbit. Yan Jiekuang walked to the door of Su Zihui's house and knocked on it. Su Zihui opened the door after hearing the knock. Yan Jiekuang said, "Can I borrow the stove in your house for a while?"

"Hey!" Su Zihui responded and made way. Yan Jiekuang brought the chopped chicken into Su Zihui's room. There was water boiling in the pot on Su Zihui's stove, so Yan Jiekuang didn't have to worry about much. Yan Jiekuang first poured out the hot water in the pot, then poured some oil into the pot, put the chopped chicken, wild garlic and wild onion into the pot and stir-fried them for a while, then poured the hot water into the pot and said, "Please help watch the stove and don't let the soup in the pot boil away. And don't eat it secretly!"

Su Zihui snorted and said, "I won't eat secretly!"

Yan Jiekuang smiled, left Su Zihui's room, and returned to his room. He first blanched the wild grass and put it aside for later use. He cleaned the pot and poured clean water into it. When the water temperature came up, he poured the rabbit meat and some wild onions and wild garlic into the pot. After the water came out, Yan Jiekuang took out the rabbit meat, washed it with water, and put it aside. Then he poured some oil into the pot, poured the wild onions and wild garlic into the pot to stir-fry, and then poured the rabbit that was on the side into the pot. After a stir-fry, the fragrance of the rabbit meat came out, and then added wine and soy sauce, and then stir-fried it, added sugar and water, and then left the rest to time.

After finishing his work, Yan Jiekuang just walked out of the house when he heard a noisy sound in the front yard. It turned out that Carpenter Wu and his two sons came to deliver furniture to him and Su Zihui.

"Yan Zhiqing, Su Zhiqing! Uncle Wu is here to bring you furniture!"

"Coming!" Yan Jiekuang responded, ran to the front yard, and said, "Uncle Wu, Su Zhiqing and I live in the back. Thank you for your hard work today!"

"It's not hard! It's not hard!" Carpenter Wu ordered his two sons to pull the cart to the back. Carpenter Wu then said, "Yan Zhiqing, you and Su Zhiqing have exchanged too many things, and there is still a cart."

"Hey!" Yan Jiekuang responded, took out a pack of Economy brand cigarettes from his pocket and stuffed it into Carpenter Wu's hand, saying, "Uncle Wu, you guys have worked so hard today. I just got here yesterday, so I don't have anything to treat you. Have a cigarette to relieve your fatigue!"

Carpenter Wu wanted to return the cigarettes, but seeing Yan Jiekuang's expression that said if he didn't accept them, he would be giving him no face, Carpenter Wu had no choice but to accept the cigarettes. Carpenter Wu said, "Yan Zhiqing!"

Yan Jiekuang interrupted hastily, "Uncle Wu, I already call you uncle, but you still call me Yan Zhiqing. Isn't that too formal? From now on, you can either call me Xiao Yan or Jiekuang. Just treat me as a junior in the village."

"Okay! Then I'll call you Xiao Yan." Carpenter Wu agreed and said, "Xiao Yan, if you want to do anything in the future, just come and find me, your uncle."

Yan Jiekuang smiled and responded, "Uncle Wu, don't worry! I will definitely come to you if I need anything." After that, Yan Jiekuang accompanied Carpenter Wu to the single dormitory area for the educated youth at the back.

Carpenter Wu and his family were really honest people. Not only did they provide door-to-door delivery service, they also helped to arrange the furniture. This saved Yan Jiekuang and Su Zihui a lot of trouble. After two trips back and forth, all of Yan Jiekuang and Su Zihui's things were finally delivered. Carpenter Wu also gave Yan Jiekuang and Su Zihui four small stools. Su Zihui was embarrassed and took out a bag of brown sugar weighing about 300 grams and stuffed it into Carpenter Wu's pocket.

Carpenter Wu didn't want to accept the things at first, but he couldn't persuade Su Zihui, so he had to accept them. At the same time, he put labels on Yan Jiekuang and Su Zihui that these two educated youths could get along with.

After sending Wu the carpenter and his two sons away, the meat in the pot was almost done. Yan Jiekuang put a handful of firewood into the furnace to make the fire burn. He dried up the soup, added some salt for seasoning, and then added some chili oil and pepper oil, stir-fried it, and served the rabbit meat. He then fried two more dishes and put them on the table. He then ran to the next room and put some blanched wild vegetables into the chicken soup, and added a little salt for seasoning. He served the chicken soup and said, "Let's go! Let's eat next door!"

"Here I come!" Su Zihui followed Yan Jiekuang and ran into Yan Jiekuang's house happily.

Looking at the three dishes and one soup on the table, Su Zihui couldn't help but shed tears. Yan Jiekuang was stunned and asked, "Girl, what are you doing?!"

Su Zihui choked up and said, "I thought I would suffer in the countryside, but I didn't expect the food would be better than in the city."

"Pfft!" Yan Jiekuang couldn't help laughing and said, "What a silly girl. This is called sweet first and bitter later. You will understand when you start working."

Su Zihui was stunned for a moment, looked at Yan Jiekuang with a puzzled look, and asked: "What do you mean by this?!"

Yan Jiekuang replied, "It means exactly what it says! If you have connections, ask them to tell the village chief and others as soon as possible so that they can assign you an easier job. If you can't find any connections, take some things and go to the village chief or the party secretary, and tell them that you are young and can't do heavy work, and ask them to assign you an easier job. However, the easier the job, the less work points you will get. You have to think about it carefully!"

Su Zihui thought for a while and muttered, "Things will work out when the time comes! I won't think about it anymore! I'll eat first!" Then Su Zihui picked up a steamed bun and took a big bite, then picked up a piece of braised rabbit meat and put it in his mouth. Suddenly, Su Zihui's eyes widened and he looked at Yan Jiekuang, mumbling, "That's great!"

Yan Jiekuang smiled, took a bowl of chicken soup, drank it happily, and thought to himself: "No wonder they say that good ingredients only need simple cooking. This is absolutely true!"

After about a quarter of an hour, Su Zihui rubbed her stomach with a satisfied look and said, "I'm so full!"

Yan Jiekuang smiled, raised his wrist to check the time on his watch, and urged, "Hurry up and pack up! We should go to town, otherwise it will be too late."

"Hey!" Su Zihui immediately moved, quickly cleared the table, and left the room with their bowls and chopsticks. Yan Jiekuang brought the remaining rabbit meat and chicken soup to the stove and kept them warm with the residual heat from the stove.

Su Zihui quickly washed the bowls and chopsticks for the two of them. After taking the bowls and chopsticks into Yan Jiekuang's room, Su Zihui returned to his own room, took his shoulder bag and backpack, and came out of the room, calling out, "Brother Jiekuang, we can go now!"

"Here we go!" Yan Jiekuang pushed his bicycle out of the house and said, "Let's go!"

"Hey!" Su Zihui responded and followed Yan Jiekuang out of the educated youth point.

When the two were about to reach the gate, Gong Liang, who was about to go to work, stopped Yan Jiekuang and Su Zihui and asked, "Yan Zhiqing, where did you get this bicycle?!"

Yan Jiekuang replied, "Before going to the countryside, I disassembled the bicycle into parts and sent them here." Then he asked, "What's the matter?!"

"Nothing, just asking casually." Gong Liang replied sourly, and then asked: "Where are you going?!"

Yan Jiekuang replied, "Let's go to the town and buy some farm tools. We can't take care of our private plots and then borrow farm tools from the brigade, right?!" After that, Yan Jiekuang said hello to Gong Liang and went out with Su Zihui.

Watching Yan Jiekuang riding his bicycle with Su Zihui going away, Gong Liang sighed softly and muttered, "I never realized that Yan Jiekuang is so rich?!"