Bai Fumei in the ’70s Chapter 65
Translated by Serena Love
Little Huzi likes to eat the food made by his sister very much, and he is greedy to death when he thinks about it.
During the period when Zhao Lanxiang had just been reborn, she dropped the marriage contract with Mister Zeng and reported to the "Down to the Countryside" movement. In order to please her angry parents, she did housework every day, all meals included. Zhao Yongqing and Feng Lian can get a delicious breakfast when they wake up in the morning, and when they come back from work tired in the evening. The food fragrance was always floating on the dinner table.
After half a month, the couple's anger towards their baby girl almost disappeared. Originally, it was not an overnight hatred between father and daughter (or mother and daughter). Although they were not very happy, but Zhao Yongqing and Feng Lian really had a good time.
After half a month of eating the food cooked by her sister, Little Huzi gained a lot of weight on his short body. It's not that he used to be picky eaters and refused to eat. It's just that he could eat more when his sister cooked.
Zhao Lanxiang took him to the store to buy meat and vegetables. Xiao Huzi pointed to this and that and said he wanted to eat it. The saliva fell off, and if it were not for the candy in his mouth, he would just drooling all the way.
Zhao Lanxiang lined up for a long time, and the last thing she got could only stuffed between her teeth. She deliberately picked the trotters that everyone disliked, so that she could barely buy a little meat.
Little Huzi is not as tall as Zhao Lanxiang's waist. At the age of four or five years, it is still a bit difficult for a child to hold a basket of potatoes. But with a look of joy, he asked his sister happily as he walked, "Sister, will we have French fries tonight?"
The fries are fragrant and crispy. When it's soaked in tomato sauce, it's sweet and sour, Little Huzi especially loves it.
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Zhao Lanxiang nodded and said, "Yes, I will make it for you."
Little Huzi happily flew up, rubbed his sister's leg with his face, and said movedly, "You're so good!"
Feng Lian really has no talent for cooking. Potatoes are just the most tangible food in the famine years. They are big and full. Her meal of boiled steamed potatoes has been fed to her son for four years. Little Huzi will look at potatoes and shakes his head desperately, he was too tired to eat it that he stepped back several times.
But little Huzi couldn't hate the fries made by Zhao Lanxiang, and he fell in love with potatoes again.
Zhao Lanxiang squeezed a heavy bag of flour, thinking that she would make mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow. She deliberately brought a bag of lotus seeds from the countryside, thinking that it would be enough to make mooncakes filled with lotus paste.
But she went around the black market and bought two pounds of fresh pork, three pounds of sugar, two pounds of red beans, melon seeds, peanuts, walnuts, and sesame seeds.
Little Huzi was so greedy that he squatted in front of the fish stall and pointed his thumb at the fish, and asked, "Big sister, can I buy a fish to sleep with me?"
"Buy it again tomorrow."
They have already bought pork, trotters, and pig bones for stew in her hand. Zhao Lanxiang didn't want to buy any more meat. She gritted her teeth and pulled little Huzi out of the stall. "Fish can't sleep with you. It will die. Let's buy it tomorrow, okay?"
"Tonight there are too many dishes, it is wasteful to not finish it."
Little Huzi was a little frustrated, but his thin arms couldn't twist around. His whole body was picked up by his sister. Then he remembered that he will have fries to eat tonight, and went back with her sister obediently.
As soon as the two returned home, they heard the sound of their father ringing his bicycle.
Zhao Yongqing stopped pressing the bell, and when he was dazzled, he even saw a back that looked like his daughter, even though his son is next to her, he still has no idea.
He pushed the bicycle downstairs and said in surprise, "Niu Niu is back."
"Yes, what about my mother?"
Zhao Yongqing said, "Went to the black market to buy fish. I would have told her to come back if I knew you had also bought some ingredients, but it's rare for you to come back with some ingredients.
He touched the back of his head. Anyway, his girl cooks deliciously, and buying more food will not be a waste.
Zhao Lanxiang nodded and went straight to the kitchen to put down her things.
Soon Feng Lian came back with a carp, and she said happily, "My child, his father, today's fish is 30 cents, which is more than two pounds, it is very heavy!"
There are many coastal waters and rivers in G city, and the aquatic products are very cheap. The price of fish is much cheaper than pork. However, because the price of fish is uniformly priced across the country, the price in the black market is often lower than the store. Feng Lian likes to go to the black market to buy fish and shrimp to eat.
She walked into the kitchen and saw her daughter who was slicing potato chips with a kitchen knife. She was so shocked that she could not help covering her mouth.
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"Niu Niu!"
"How did you come back!"
Feng Lian stepped forward and looked at her daughter carefully, with fair skin and ruddy cheeks, jet-black hair, and wearing a clean blue indigo short-sleeved shirt. She pulled one of her daughter's hair down, and it was not dry and there was no split ends. Feng Lian muttered, "Fortunately, no hardship."
She could not help but laugh, "Skin seems a bit darker, but it seems to be a little fatter."
Zhao Lanxiang couldn't help coughing, "There is no reason not to work in the countryside. People teach. Go and sit down! You will have food soon."
Feng Lian sighed, but she push her daughter to the side, washing and cutting vegetables.
Zhao Lan expertly removed the fish bones with a clean kitchen knife, and scour a number of patchwork pattern on the surface. The carp is marinated in flour and fried in a squirrel-mandarin-fish style. She cut the tomatoes that Feng Lian bought into sauce and mixed them with vinegar. She made a rich, sweet and sour sauce, and pour it on the golden fried squirrel-mandarin-fish, steaming hot, and with oil, it was as bright as a layer of sugar syrup.
Little huzi loves to eat this sweet and sour sweet dish. Especially when the weather is hot, and eat it for dinner. The rich and white fish is crisp outside and tender inside, it is sweet and sour.
Zhao Lanxiang labored in the kitchen for more than an hour, and the dinner was ready.
In the evening, the whole family gathered around the table. The red five-spiced pork trotters, the golden squirrel mandarin fish, and a bone soup with green vegetables and green spring onion. Zhao Yongqing opened a bottle of wine and drank it. The clear and strong wine accompanied by the sweet and slightly sour squirrel mandarin fish made him very happy.
"Niu Niu's craft is getting better and better."
Feng Lian is feeding little Huzi and said with a smile.
Little Huzi didn't need his mother to feed him. He twitched his fingers, dipped his fish in the sauce, and ate crunchy fries.
Feng Lian said in a weird way, "These vegetables cost you a lot of money, do you still have enough money?"
"Your dad and I often worry that you don't have enough money to spend!"
Zhao Lanxiang shook her head, "In a poor place like the countryside, money can't be spent. How come it is not enough. Don't worry, I eat until I'm full in the cafeteria!"
She wanted her parents not to send her money anymore, but she had no valid reason, so she had to persuade them to send less money.
"From now on, send five yuans less every month. I can't spend half of it."
Feng Lian didn't quite understand the price situation in N city. However, after thinking about it, it seemed that there was really no place to spend money in the countryside. Her daughter came home this time and looked beautiful with red lips and white teeth. She was also a bit fatter and didn't look like she suffered too much. Feng Lian temporarily believed that her life was pretty good.
Feng Lian said, "Don't be too distressed about the money. In August, the state issued a notice to adjust the wages of some employees. Your dad and I both increased our wages! Your grandma keeps talking about us treating her baby girl harshly. If it wasn't for your dad to stop her, she would also send you money."
Zhao Lanxiang said, "Tell grandma not worry. My money is enough, even half is enough."
Zhao Yongqing is drunk and his complexion changed slightly. He said lightly, "Come on, don't I know you? If you spend money like this, half is enough?"
His voice rose slightly, with a sharp mockery.
Zhao Lanxiang felt choked. She winked at her father and quickly recovered her calm.
"Eat, eat while it's hot."
She sighed, her father was not easy to fool, unlike her silly mother who is easy to coax.
After the meal, she hurried to marinate the fresh meat, smoked it slightly on the stove, and roasted the tender pork into char siu that could be used as moon cakes.
...
In a family house of G Military Region.
Gu Shuming's mother came to visit him. She was here after hearing the rumor.
She asked, "I heard that there was a girl coming to you today?"
Gu Shuoming said, "Dad introduced her and asked me to take care of her. It's not what you think."
When Madam Gu heard that she was introduced by the old man, Gu Huaijin, the joy on her face disappeared immediately. "That old immortal dare to contact you. Is it not enough for him to drag you down?"
Gu Shuoming was taken away and investigated for a long time after the old man's accident. If it weren't for the military merits that Gu Shuoming earned last time in exchange for his life, and the government was afraid to chill the hero's heart, Gu Shuoming's official career might have come to an end.
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She beckoned to her son, took out a booklet, and said in a whisper, "Zhang family's girl is a good girl. She is a teacher and has a good education."
"The Lu family's girl is also very good. She is a military doctor. It is more suitable for your work... but it is a bit busy."
She was chattering about it for a long time.
Gu Shuoming's eyes were hazy and his mind drifted to another place.
Educated youth Zhao came from the country. How did she know that he was going to the seminar of the Ministry of Military Affairs? She also listed two names. He was frightened by the look of those names, but immediately memorized them with his good memory and quickly burned the paper after returning home.
Gu Shuoming had some idea in his mind before, but after reading the two rows of distinct names in Zhao Lanxiang's memo, he was a little uncertain.
Madam Gu roared angrily, "Are you listening?"
She is also from a military family, so she always acted a bit of heroism. She became very tough when she was older.
Gu Shuoming clenched his hands into a fist and coughed, then recovered his senses to conceal his thoughts. "Yes."
"Didn't you just talk about the Fang family's girl? She is not very good. Her mouth is too sweet. I'm afraid she will sweet talk you until you are too weak to drink water."
Madam Gu twisted her son's ear and scolded, "Alone! You will be alone!"
"You're so poor-mouthed. In front of girls, you look like a gourd with a sawed mouth. She will think you are a gourd!"
"This old mother wants to see, will you dare to be a bachelor forever!"
Gu Shuoming picked up his hat, changed into his pine branch green uniform, and said solemnly, "I have something to do, so I have to go to my leader. Mom, you go to bed first."
After he finished talking, the tall and muscular body quickly disappeared into the night...
---
[T/N: This is how a squirrel mandarin fish looked like. It is prepared by deboning and carving a mandarin fish into an ornamental shape similar to a squirrel, and then deep-frying it in batter before dousing it in sweet and sour sauce. I don't see a squirrel, so don't ask me why they think it looks like a squirrel. ]
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