sinovels Chapter 1617: The unhealthy trends started by the Zhao and Ma families
Chapter 1617: The unhealthy trends started by the Zhao and Ma families
Chapter 1617 The unhealthy trends brought about by the Zhao and Ma families
Eating meat every day for a long time, you won’t eat as much as before. But if there is no meat on the table one day, the meal will definitely not taste good.
Now, these people who eat at the Zhao family every day are in such a strange state.
Fortunately, the Zhao family had no shortage of meat. Tonight, they cooked venison and braised bear meat. They also added vegetables that Zhao Weipeng bought in the city to make celery powder, fried eggs with leeks, home-cooked cold dishes, and fried venison with garlic sprouts.
Wang Qiang was very happy today after completing the gift-asking procedures at the Ma family. At the table where Zhao Youcai was not, he kept raising his glass and inviting everyone to drink.
Xing San also showed his happiness. This old mountain dog actually raised a glass and made arrangements today, which he never did under normal circumstances.
Tonight, the Ma family also ate roasted venison and braised bear paws.
The deer legs are boiled with mountain pepper and salt, then torn into small strips by hand and eaten with salt and flour. It has a unique flavor and is a great dish to go with wine.
At this time, the women and children were eating in the west room and had almost finished their meal. Ma Dafu and Ma Sheng were still drinking in the east room with Ma Ling's two uncles.
Ma Ling's third uncle, Sun Changdong, ate a bite of venison and drank a sip of wine before asking Ma Dafu, "Second brother-in-law, how many dishes will our uncle's family prepare for the banquet?"
"Huh?" Ma Dafu was stunned. He didn't know, and he couldn't ask. So, Ma Dafu smiled and said, "I didn't ask, but I guess his family's banquet is not bad. They usually eat seven plates and eight bowls."
"If you don't ask, forget it." Compared with Sun Changdong, Ma Ling's uncle Liu Jinbao is a down-to-earth person. He just said, "It has nothing to do with us if they cook a few dishes."
"How come it doesn't matter?" Sun Changdong glanced at Liu Jinbao and said, "My uncle's family prepares a few dishes, so ours should be similar, otherwise we won't be outdone by others, right?"
"What's the point of that?" Liu Jinbao frowned and said, "Just make the pants waist the size of your butt. In the past, landlords didn't care about these things when they married wives."
"Oh, brother-in-law." Sun Changdong said with a smile, "Your family is not in this forest area, so you don't know. Our uncle's family is richer than the damn landlord."
As he spoke, Sun Changdong tapped the table with his chopsticks and said, "Although we each have our own banquet, it's okay if ours is a little worse than theirs. But if it's too much worse, won't my daughter feel shorter when she gets married?"
Hearing what Sun Changdong said, Ma Dafu couldn't help but frowned, thinking about what Sun Changdong said.
"Why are you short?" Liu Jinbao disagreed with Sun Changdong's words and said, "It depends on who is in my uncle's family. It doesn't matter what kind of banquet they hold. Last time I saw it, I thought my uncle's family was okay."
"That does matter." Sun Changdong retorted, "Whether the person is good or not, the village chief's family is good. The year before last, the village chief's son got married, but the old son's wife's family was in financial difficulty, so the girl couldn't even sit at the table when she ate at our village chief's house."
At this moment, Sun Changdong was like a gossipy woman.
But as soon as he said this, Ma Dafu's face suddenly turned bad, and he hurriedly asked: "Changdong, is that so?"
"Then what are you thinking about, second brother-in-law?" Sun Changdong said with an exaggerated expression: "Later, because the old daughter-in-law gave birth to a girl for his family, that guy was almost kicked out. Later, he was not kicked out, but he did not take good care of the daughter-in-law during the confinement period."
"Really? Is it fake?" Liu Jinbao asked. Sun Changdong nodded repeatedly and said, "Really? Rich people are really different from us."
As he spoke, Sun Changdong raised his hand and gestured, saying: "Especially now, every family doesn't allow more children..."
Seeing that Ma Dafu remained silent, Sun Changdong raised his wine glass and said to Ma Dafu: "Second brother-in-law, just listen to me. Being in-laws is a lifelong thing, and we can't let people look down on us.
Especially when I heard my second sister say something like that? Will the son-in-law arrange a job for our Xiaoyang in the future? Let’s not talk about anything else. If people say that we are trying to establish a relationship with him, then Ling’er will not be able to live in peace when she enters his house in the future.”
"This...what should I do?" Ma Dafu raised his wine glass and clinked it with the two Lianqiaos. However, after hearing what Sun Changdong said, Ma Dafu no longer had the heart to drink and put his glass down again.
Ma Dafu loves his daughter very much, otherwise he would not have handed the small treasury to Ma Ling.
"Dad." As if seeing Ma Dafu's worry, Ma Sheng hurriedly said to Ma Dafu: "I feel that the Zhao family can't do that. My Aunt Zhao is so open-minded. And Zhao Jun is the most kind and righteous."
"Yeah." Hearing Ma Sheng say this, Ma Dafu felt a little relieved.
Not knowing what Sun Changdong was thinking, as soon as Ma Sheng finished speaking, he said to Ma Sheng: "Ma Sheng, my son-in-law's family is good. But when the two families do business, the people in the village will come over and see that our food is so much worse than theirs. They will definitely talk about us, right?"
Hearing Sun Changdong's words, Ma Sheng kept silent. In the past six months, Ma Sheng had also heard people talking about the Zhao and Ma families becoming in-laws, and it was the Ma family that paid the price.
Of course, the source of the discussion was not a good old woman. Although he knew that those people were envious and jealous, Ma Sheng felt uncomfortable listening to them.
"Boss, you go." At this moment, Ma Dafu waved his hand at Ma Sheng and said, "Go to that room and call your mother back."
"Hey." Ma Sheng, who was sitting on the edge of the kang, responded and went downstairs to the west room to call Wang Cuihua.
"What's the matter?" Wang Cuihua asked as she came in: "What else do you want? Fried peanuts..."
"Don't eat peanuts yet." Ma Dafu interrupted Wang Cuihua and asked, "Have you heard from the villagers how many dishes will be served at the Zhao family's banquet?"
"No, Li Ruhai rarely comes out now, and no one knows about Lao Zhao's family affairs." Wang Cuihua said: "What's the matter? What's wrong with his dishes?"
"Second sister." At this time, Sun Changdong asked Wang Cuihua, "Doesn't his family have ten dishes?"
"I estimate." Wang Cuihua nodded and said, "On the day of the wedding ceremony, how many dishes will there be?"
After saying this, Wang Cuihua added in a positive tone, "There are not many vegetables at home these days, but his family must have eight vegetables. If he goes out to buy vegetables, he can be sure to have ten vegetables."
Wang Cuihua never imagined that the banquet hosted by the old Zhao family would feature twelve dishes that had never appeared in Yong'an's history.
After hearing what Wang Cuihua said, Ma Dafu no longer hesitated and said, "Cuihua, let's add two more dishes to our service."
Wang Cuihua's face changed when she heard this, and she said, "There are already six dishes now, what else do you want to add?"
In Northeast China, the portions of dishes are usually quite large, and one should not be too stingy.
Although there were not many dishes on the day of the banquet, each dish was served on a large plate, small plate or small basin, like the one used for fish. If two more dishes were added, not only would the cost increase a lot, but the key point was that there was nowhere to put these two dishes.
The banquets held in this month are not as good as those held in winter. In winter, at least sauerkraut, cabbage, radish, and potatoes can be prepared. If you don't have that much in your own home, you can get some from the villagers. And then add in large tofu and dried tofu, and that's about it.
By this month, every household was running out of vegetables, and they had to eat all the remaining stored vegetables in the house, waiting for the spring to pick wild vegetables. It was not easy for the Ma family to prepare six dishes.
You have to know that the Ma family had to set up forty tables to entertain the people from Yong'an Village and Ma Dafu and Ma Sheng's colleagues from the forestry farm.
In order to prepare forty tables of banquets, Wang Cuihua and Xu Xiaoqing, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, visited more than half of the households in the village and took money from them to buy potatoes, cabbages and carrots.
This family bought three potatoes, that family bought two carrots, and the next family bought an onion, and only then did they get enough ingredients for forty tables.
In recent days, Ma Dafu and Ma Sheng have not been idle. They took advantage of the spring hunting season to buy four wild boars and a large red deer from a familiar mountain runner.
After finally finishing the banquet, Ma Dafu wanted to add more dishes. Wang Cuihua couldn't help but frown and asked, "Add more dishes? What dishes?"
"Dad." Ma Sheng also knew that this was a difficult matter, so he asked Ma Dafu, "How about we find someone to buy a black bear?"
"Black bears are not easy to buy." Ma Dafu shook his head and said, "That thing is beyond the reach of most people."
What Ma Dafu said was true. Ever since Zhou Chengguo was injured and retired, and Xu Changlin retired due to old age, the best people who could fight black bears in Yong'an Forest District were his brother-in-law and his relatives.
If the Ma family needed Hei Xia Zi, whether for a dinner or a gift, Ma Dafu could talk to Zhao Jun and there would be no problem. But if they wanted to arrange the wedding banquet for Ma Ling, they couldn't ask Zhao Jun.
"Then buy canned food?" Ma Sheng said this, and he was almost hesitant. If canned food was used, a table would need two bottles of luncheon meat and two bottles of canned fish to make up eight dishes. But in that case, the cost of 40 tables would be much higher.
"Dad, Mom." Suddenly, Ma Yang poked his head in from the doorway and said to Ma Dafu and Wang Cuihua, "How about we go into town and buy some vegetables or something?"
"Green vegetables?" Wang Cuihua frowned, and then she heard Ma Yang say, "Before the New Year, my brother Jun brought us those vegetables, so isn't that all right? We can buy a few bundles of celery and make some vermicelli, and then we can make pickled cabbage noodles, right?"
After hearing what Ma Yang said, Wang Cui felt that it was feasible.
At this time, Ma Yang said, "Buy a few more bundles of leeks and stir-fry some leeks and potatoes. Then we have these two dishes, right?"
"Bang!" Hearing what Ma Yang said, Ma Dafu slammed the table and said, "That's it, then..."
Ma Dafu looked at Wang Cuihua and said, "Cuihua, what's wrong with you? Go find Wang Fu tomorrow and ask him to go down the mountain and buy some leeks and celery for us."
Ma Dafu's heart was pounding when he said this. He was not the head of the family, nor did he make decisions, but for the sake of his daughter, Ma Dafu didn't care about that. Anyway, in front of his eldest brother-in-law and third brother-in-law, Ma Dafu didn't believe that Wang Cuihua would lose face for him.
"Wang Fu can't go up." Wang Cuihua poured cold water on Ma Dafu without hesitation, and then explained: "If you want to buy vegetables and other things, you have to go to the big stores in the city. There is nothing in the town at the foot of the mountain."
"This..." Ma Dafu looked at Ma Sheng when he heard this, but saw that Ma Sheng was also frowning.
It was Ma Yang again. He said to Ma Dafu, "Dad, how about we take the whole car into the city?"
"Go into the city..." Ma Dafu was startled when he heard this, and said casually: "Is that possible?"
"His father, don't say anything." Wang Cuihua suddenly took over the conversation and said, "It's really good to go to the city. If we go to the city, we won't get our cigarettes and alcohol from Wang Fu's house. We can buy them cheaper in the city."
"If we want to go into the city, can we borrow a sled?" Sun Changdong interrupted. Ma Dafu smiled and said, "Of course. We can't just carry it back by ourselves."
"Dad!" At this time, Ma Sheng hurriedly stopped Ma Dafu and said, "Dad, you have to go to the mountains and rivers and rice flowers. You can't drive horses or cattle. You can't come back that day."
Hearing what Ma Sheng said, Ma Dafu couldn't help but frown and asked, "What should we do then?"
"Second brother-in-law, doesn't my uncle have a car?" Sun Changdong asked, "Can't we borrow one day?"
"This..." Ma Dafu looked at Wang Cuihua, and Wang Cuihua thought about it, then said to Ma Sheng: "Boss, buy two packs of cigarettes tomorrow and go talk to Zhao Jun. Let's borrow their Jiefang car for the first day of our business."
"Cuihua." Upon hearing this, Ma Dafu hurriedly asked Wang Cuihua, "We want to borrow a car, but we don't know how to drive. It's ok to borrow a car, but we can't ask them to take us into the city, right?"
"Isn't it just driving?" Wang Cuihua glanced at Ma Dafu, then looked at Ma Sheng and said, "Boss, isn't Niu Xiaoyanzi from your west yard in the car team? Talk to him and ask him to make a trip. Can it be okay?"
"Okay, I'll tell him, it works." Ma Sheng agreed without thinking. The two families lived next to each other, so as long as they didn't become enemies, it would be fine if either family said something.
After the order for more dishes was settled, Ma Dafu smiled more when he drank with the two Lianqiaos.
Ma Dafu was so happy that he drank too much.
Compared with Ma Dafu, his relative Zhao Youcai suffered a lot.
Zhao Youcai definitely couldn't drink alcohol these two days. The wound he got yesterday was swollen today. Lin Xue gave him medicine and anti-inflammatory injections, but the effect was not obvious.
There is no other way, this injury needs to be healed.
It was quite scary to talk about it. In Yong'an these days, there was no tetanus shot. If Zhao Youcai's wound really had tetanus, the Zhao family's wedding would be turned into a funeral.
It was not nice to cover the wound, and there were so many women in the family, and Zhao Youcai couldn't be shirtless. So Wang Meilan found an old cloth shirt, cut off the part covering the wound on the back, and exposed the wound.
After dinner, Zhao Jun drove his sister and brother-in-law home, and the diners dispersed. Before they left, Wang Meilan gave each family two bundles of leeks and asked them to make stuffing for dumplings at home the next day.
……
The next morning, Wang Meilan got up to fry eggs and cut leeks.
The leek and egg filling cannot be prepared in advance, otherwise the leeks will be out of water and will not be fresh.
The dumplings stuffed with leek and egg are fresh. It is not easy to eat leek in this year and season. How many people want to eat this all winter?
Zhao Youcai couldn't eat it anymore. Wang Meilan said leeks were an irritant and would not help his wounds heal. So Wang Meilan rolled out some dumpling wrappers and cooked them in a pot. After they were cooked, she served them to Zhao Youcai with pickled vegetables.
This morning, Wang Meilan was the busiest person in the family. She first made more than 300 dumplings by herself, and then rolled out a dozen dumpling wrappers for Zhao Youcai.
During the recovery period, Zhao Youcai's activity level decreased and his appetite also decreased.
After serving Zhao Youcai her meal, Wang Meilan took care of the two younger children, Zhao Hong and Zhao Na. After the two children finished eating, Wang Meilan washed the dishes.
After cleaning the house and watching her two daughters and Xiao Lingdang go to school, Wang Meilan dressed neatly and left the house with Zhao Jun.
The mother and daughter did not walk far, but walked out of their home to their new house. Zhao Jun came first, and he picked up the phone and called the Yongxing Brigade.
The Tao family had already said that everyone in their family would come when Zhao Jun got married.
The first few times Zhao Jun went to Yongxing, he also mentioned the date of his wedding. The Tao family knew that Zhao Jun's family would hold the wedding ceremony five days later. But knowing this was enough, Zhao Jun needed to formally invite the Tao family.
In addition, Zhao Jun made this call for another purpose, which was that his family had added two more pigs that day, and the pigs raised in the pen behind the house were definitely not enough.
Zhao Youcai asked Zhao Jun to go forward and kill the wild boar, but Wang Meilan refused to do anything.
So Zhao Jun ordered another big black pig from Tao Dabao on the phone. The day before his family's business, Zhao Jun drove into the city to buy vegetables, and on his way back, he brought the pig back.
After talking to Tao Dabao, Zhao Jun hung up the phone. Then, Wang Meilan picked up the phone and called her relatives from her mother's side.
Wang Changhai's visit last time gave Wang Meilan another family of relatives. With her family of relatives, Wang Meilan felt like she had roots in her heart.
The call was made to the village office of Xin'an Village in Jiaohe. Wang Meilan waited on the phone for more than ten minutes before her sixth uncle and aunt called.
Wang Changhai was fine, he just said a few words to finish the business, but Wang Changhai's wife and Wang Meilan hadn't seen each other for nearly 20 years, and they couldn't stop talking on the phone.
Wang Changhai is doing well in the village where they live. The village chief is his son's brother-in-law. So who can urge her to do anything when her in-laws' mother-in-law calls?
In this way, Wang Meilan's phone call lasted more than forty minutes.
Zhao Jun left thirty minutes ago. Wang Meilan was shivering in the room, but her heart was warm.
The more Wang Meilan made the call, the more she felt it was nice to have a telephone at home. She and her Sixth Aunt hadn't seen each other for nearly twenty years, and this call brought all their feelings back.
She was beautiful, but at this moment, in the government office of Yushu Township, Zhang Shaowen, the village chief, slammed the microphone on the table, then looked up at the deputy village chief Zou Yunchuan and shouted, "Didn't you say that the Xishan settlement was complete? Why is it taking an hour?"
(End of this chapter)