sinovels Chapter 1466: Inviting Guests to the Ma Family for a Banquet
Chapter 1466: Inviting Guests to the Ma Family for a Banquet
Chapter 1466: Inviting Guests to the Ma Family for a Banquet
Four large iron cages were stacked in the Li family's warehouse. Li Baoyu and Jie Chen grabbed a roe deer and stuffed it into the cage.
The roe deer pushed into the cage cried out loudly, but its four hooves were tied together, making it impossible for the roe deer to escape.
I originally wanted to loosen the legs of the roe deer after borrowing the cage, but then I thought, Zhang Yuanmin will set up the cage tomorrow morning, and if their legs can move when I try to catch the roe deer, it will be very difficult to catch them.
So let's just keep it like this for one night and make arrangements tomorrow.
Mountain animals are very wild. The roe deer, with its four hooves tied, flapped its head and opened its mouth to bite Li Baoyu's arm when he was not paying attention.
Fortunately, Zhao Jun was quick and grabbed the roe deer by the scruff of the neck.
"Baoyu, pinch its neck." Zhao Jun warned Li Baoyu, "Don't let it bite you."
"I got it, brother." Li Baoyu responded. Although the cotton-padded jacket was quite thick, it would still be painful if bitten by a roe deer.
At this time, Wang Meilan took a closer look at the roe deer and said, "I'll remember it. On the day of the Little New Year, I'll kill it first and let it bite our Baoyu."
"What are you killing?" Zhao Youcai, who came over to supervise, said, "I think they dug out five roe deer today. Aren't they enough for you to eat these few days?"
"Then keep it." Wang Meilan said, "The day after tomorrow, during the Little New Year, we'll kill one and let the children roast it and eat it."
"What should we do with the ones we dug out?" Zhao Youcai asked. Wang Meilan said, "Just put them in the snow and freeze them. They haven't thawed yet, have they?"
After saying this, Wang Meilan saw that Zhao Youcai wanted to say something else, so she said to Zhao Jun: "Son, catch fifteen more tomorrow!"
Zhao Youcai: "..."
"Hey." Zhao Jun knew who he should side with, and immediately responded with a smile: "Mom, don't worry, I won't come back until I catch fifteen tomorrow."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai glared at the mother and daughter, then turned and walked towards his own yard.
Wang Meilan glared at the back of his head, then said to Zhao Jun, "Son, I told your dad this morning that he wanted to invite us to his house. Your dad told him to invite your security chief and security team leader.
"After that... your former team leader who inspected the rulers also called him back. Your father said that we can't let people think that we are just killing the donkey after it has done its work."
"My dad is very thoughtful." Zhao Jun smiled when he heard this, and then Wang Meilan asked again: "Son, do you think we should send them a roe deer?"
"No need for that. Just treat them to pork." Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "Catch these roe deer. Give him four before I go home. The rest will be given as gifts to my brother-in-law and me."
"Who are you sending them to?" Wang Meilan asked Zhao Jun curiously. Zhao Jun said, "I'm going to stay at home on the eighth day of the first lunar month. I'm going to get four for Uncle Zhao. I also want to send two to Director Chu, and have my brother-in-law send two to him."
"That's fine." Wang Meilan nodded and said, "Your uncle Zhou said that the director thinks highly of you."
While the mother and daughter were talking, Zhao Youcai somehow slipped back. After listening to what Zhao Jun and Wang Meilan said, Zhao Youcai suddenly said, "He is such a high-ranking director, how could he still need your two roe deer?"
Zhao Jun and Wang Meilan turned to look at Zhao Youcai when they heard this, and then they heard Zhao Youcai say, "We have crabs, prawns and other things at home. Wouldn't it be nice if you could give him some of those? He can't buy them."
"Oh!" Upon hearing what Zhao Youcai said, Wang Meilan hurriedly pulled Zhao Jun's arm and said, "Son, your father is right!"
"What's right?" Zhao Jun said with a smile, "The director asked me where I got it done, what should I say?"
"Just say you went to Hebei." Wang Meilan said confidently, "I was brought back from Hebei."
Seeing Wang Meilan speaking so calmly, Zhao Jun said, "Then the director is going to ask me something? He's going to ask me why you went to Hebei instead of going to work?"
After Zhao Jun said this, Wang Meilan just blinked her eyes and kept silent.
But Zhao Jun still remembers that during the interview, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper finally asked himself how he had the time and energy to do so many good deeds in a day.
Zhao Jun was so embarrassed when he asked this question at that time.
"Then forget it, let's keep it for ourselves." Wang Meilan skipped the topic and said to Zhao Jun, "Son, don't leave so early tomorrow, okay?"
"What's going on, Mom?" Zhao Jun asked. Wang Meilan said, "After seven o'clock, take your dad and walk around these villages. If we want to invite someone, we should let them know in advance. That's what we call an invitation, right?"
"I don't need him to go with me." Zhao Youcai waved his hand and said, "I can go there by myself."
"Why are you strolling around? Are you strolling around?" Wang Meilan asked, "If you go for a stroll, who will stay at home to look after the house?"
"You..." Zhao Youcai was about to speak when Zhao Jun interrupted him and said, "Okay, Dad, I'll drive you around in our jeep tomorrow. How cool is that?"
"I..." Zhao Youcai wanted to say something, but Wang Meilan spoke first: "Okay, forget about yours and mine. Go and feed the pigs."
Zhao Youcai: "..."
……
There is no need to feed the dogs at night, and the tied roe deer do not need to be fed either.
But the two big pots outside the Zhao family's house were also emitting steam.
There was pig food in one big pot and stewed roe deer ribs in another big pot.
Two roe deer ribs, about the same size as lamb chops, but they are harder to cook than lamb chops.
Cut each roe deer rib into two pieces, put them directly into the pot with cold water, boil them over high heat and skim off the blood foam. Then add a handful of long scallion and mountain pepper, and only season with salt.
When the meat is cooked in this way, it is called hand-pulled meat. When the meat is served, it is spread with a layer of homemade leek flowers, which is so delicious that it makes people's mouths water.
Zhao Youcai was busy outside the house, and Wang Meilan was not idle inside the house either.
Pour the soybean oil directly into the pot, then fry the squirrel meat that has been stewed in advance.
Cut the white-striped squirrel meat into two halves and fry them in a pan.
In the east room, the children who went to bed early today were not paying attention to the TV.
These kids have no shortage of food, but even thirty or forty years later, grilling and frying are still popular, let alone in this day and age?
When the fried squirrel was served, the children cheered and scrambled to share it.
At this time, Wang Meilan fried spring rolls and shrimp chips in the oil in the pan.
Forestry workers have stable incomes and work for the government. But even so, most workers only eat spring rolls during the Chinese New Year. Prawn chips are relatively common, but they are considered a staple dish when served to guests during the Chinese New Year.
After frying these two things, Wang Meilan started frying hairtail.
This hairtail was not given by Zhao Weipeng. This hairtail, spring rolls and shrimp chips were all New Year benefits given by the forest farm to employees.
Each employee received ten kilograms of hairtail, the Zhao family received twenty kilograms, Li Dayong's family received thirty kilograms, Li Dazhi's family received twenty kilograms, and the four families of Wang Qiang, Lin Xiangshun, Zhang Yuanmin, and Jie Chen each received ten kilograms, totaling one hundred and ten kilograms.
Because most of these people were not working, the 110 kilograms of hairtail were brought back with the help of Li Dayong, Li Dazhi and Lin Xiangshun.
When they came back that day, they took the hairtail directly to Zhao's house. After dinner, when everyone went back to their own homes, Wang Meilan asked them to keep the hairtail, but no one wanted it.
According to Lin Xue, we only eat one meal a day at home, which is breakfast. What are we going to do with this at home?
The fried hairtail fish is divided into two portions, one is fried fish, and the other is braised for two minutes to make braised hairtail fish.
Add some roe deer meat and sauerkraut, and tonight's dishes are complete.
The men were toasting each other and chatting, while the women and children ate quickly and started chopping stuffing after they finished.
Nearly 40 kilograms of roe deer meat were chopped up and shared among everyone. Each family took some home to make stuffing for the next morning.
In the west room, Zhao Youcai picked up the wine glass, drank the wine in the glass, and said, "Okay, I won't drink anymore."
"What's the matter, brother-in-law?" Wang Qiang asked, "Why do you only drink one jar today?"
"I'll have a bite to eat, and then I'll go to Old Ma's house." Zhao Youcai said, "When you kill the pig, won't I have to invite my relatives to eat the meat?"
"Dad, let me serve you some rice." Upon hearing this, Zhao Jun quickly stood up and took the bowl of rice from Zhao Youcai's hand.
"Then I won't drink either." Li Dayong said, "I have to invite my in-laws too."
After saying this, Li Dayong shouted to the door: "Xiaomei, when will we invite you?"
Jin Xiaomei appeared at the door with a kitchen knife in her hand and said, "No more talk, twenty-six please."
Originally, the Li and Zhao families had agreed to have the same day, but in the afternoon, when working and chatting at Li's house, Li Ruhai heard Wang Meilan muttering about who her family was going to invite, so he suggested to Jin Xiaomei that his family's guests should be staggered with the Zhao family's and could not be held on the same day.
Jin Xiaomei was very surprised and puzzled. According to what she had discussed with Li Dayong and Li Baoyu, they were going to kill the pig together with the Zhao family and use the two large stoves outside the Zhao family to roast meat and stew vegetables. This would be much more convenient.
But Li Ruhai said that it would save trouble, but if the two families invited guests together, in addition to his three uncles, his uncle Li Daren, who lived in the Northwest Gong Village, and his family, and Li Baoyu's future father-in-law could come. The remaining prominent people would definitely have to go to the Zhao family.
The reason was very simple, because the forestry secretary was staying at Zhao's house that day.
The two houses were separated by a wall. When Li Dayong's team leader and colleagues came, they heard that Zhou Chunming was next door, so they had to go over to take a look.
When someone came into the house during the dinner party, Zhao Youcai, as the host, had to say a polite word to invite the guest to dinner.
Under normal circumstances, the guests invited by the Li family would not eat at the Zhao family. But those people wanted to improve themselves, and they had to agree to have a chance to eat at the same table with Zhou Chunming.
After hearing what Li Ruhai said, Jin Xiaomei finally realized that she, her husband and her eldest son had been overthinking things.
Li Ruhai was right, and the secretary, security chief, and village chief were all next door that day, so Li Dayong should have gone to Zhao's house!
So as soon as Li Dayong got home from get off work, Jin Xiaomei discussed with him about changing the date.
On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhao Jun's family hosted a dinner party, and on the 25th, Wang Qiang and Lin Xiangshun's families slaughtered pigs, but there was no conflict between the two of them.
Lin Xiangshun mainly invited his colleagues from the team, while Wang Qiang's colleagues and friends were all in this room. In addition to this group of people, he also invited his father-in-law, eldest brother-in-law, second brother-in-law, eldest sister-in-law, and younger sister-in-law.
On that day, the Zhao and Li families split into two groups and went to Wang Qiang and Lin Xiangshun's houses for dinner respectively.
Therefore, Li Dayong and his wife decided to slaughter a pig and entertain guests on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month.
Suddenly, Xie Sun squeezed past Jin Xiaomei and entered the west room. As soon as she entered the room, she said to Xie Chen, "Son, let's finish the work for your uncle Li before we leave?"
"Ah?" Xie Chen was stunned when he heard that, and then he said unhappily: "Mom, forget it! We're not going home for the New Year? My uncle Li is treating us on the 26th, and the New Year will be on the 29th!"
There is no New Year’s Eve this year, the 29th is New Year’s Eve.
Xie Sun blinked her eyes and thought that it would be fine to celebrate the New Year here, and then go home to pick up the mother and daughter and reunite. Anyway, her family had a house here and would not have to worry about food and drink.
But thinking that her eldest and second daughters had to go back to their parents' home on the second day of the New Year, Xie Sun smacked her lips, turned around and went back to chop green onions.
Chopping green onions is a very torturous thing. If you don’t do it well, you will shed tears and snot.
The amazing thing is that Xie Sunshi is not afraid of irritating her eyes when cutting chopped green onions. So since she made the transformation, she has been the one to cut the chopped green onions for the Zhao family and the stuffing.
Zhao Jun served Zhao Youcai a bowl of rice, and Zhao Youcai gave half of it to Li Dayong. They had almost finished drinking and eating, and they had a lot of oil and water for the day, so half a bowl of rice was enough.
Zhao Youcai ate half a bowl of rice, mixed with roe deer meat and stir-fried pickled cabbage. He put down his bowl and chopsticks, grabbed the Hongtashan cigarette box beside him, stood up and said, "Let's go!"
When Zhao Youcai was walking out, he passed by Li Dazhi. He put his hand on Li Dazhi's shoulder and asked, "Can't you entertain him? If you want to, there's a pig."
"What can I entertain?" Li Dazhi sighed and said, "I don't have any relatives."
"Haha..." Everyone laughed when they heard this. Li Dazhi said, "I change jobs every few days. All those years of treating people to dinner were in vain."
"Hahaha..." Everyone laughed even louder. In Li Dazhi's case, not only was the dinner in vain, but he couldn't even take back the gifts he had given out.
There is a saying that goes, people are always friendly. Before Li Dazhi came to Yong'an, he was in Shuguang Forest Farm. The border between Shuguang Forest District and Yong'an Forest District is more than 60 miles away from Yong'an Village.
The Shuguang Forest Farm family quarters are nearly 200 miles away from Yong'antun. As someone who has been transferred, who can run 200 miles to bring you a gift? Even if you ask someone to help bring a gift, it's hard to find one.
The other forest areas where Li Dazhi had stayed before were even farther away from Yong'antun, so forget it.
"So what?" Wang Qiang said to Li Dazhi again, "Aren't you not leaving this time?"
"I'm not leaving!" Li Dazhi waved his hand and said, "My mother and I said that we both don't want to work anymore, so we're not leaving. We're just going to stay in this village!"
"Hahaha……"
Amid laughter, Zhao Youcai took Zhao Jun out of the house.
The father went to invite his daughter-in-law to her family. Zhao Jun followed Zhao Youcai and asked as soon as he got out of the door: "Dad, can I drive you there?"
"What's wrong with you?" Zhao Youcai said, "It's just a few steps. Why are you showing off all day?"
Zhao Jun: "..."
Zhao Jun endured it, and after walking out of the yard, Zhao Youcai took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, then turned around to face the fence tent to shelter from the wind, and took out a match from his pocket.
Zhao Jun quickly reached out to help Zhao Youcai block the wind.
Lighting up the cigarette, Zhao Youcai shook out the match and threw it on the ground, then said, "I smoke this cigarette very quickly. Your uncle Zhao gave me that cigarette, and I can't even finish one for two days."
Zhao Jun: "..."
The year 88 in the book is the same as this year in reality, there is no New Year's Eve
(End of this chapter)