sinovels Chapter 1680 The Educated Jie Sun
Chapter 1680 The Educated Jie Sun
Chapter 1680 The Educated Jie Sun
The so-called Tai Chi Bear Paw is simply a braised bear paw surrounded by twelve shrimp cakes. The shrimp cakes are placed side-up on an egg crepe, with egg whites and yolks spread out to resemble yin and yang fish. Finally, peas are used for the fish eyes, and the dish is complete.
At this time of year, peas are nowhere to be seen in Yong'an. Mung beans are too small, so Zhao Youcai used cucumber peels to carve out a few fish eyes.
As the food improved, eating for the Zhao family and their guests was no longer simply about filling their stomachs, but gradually became a pursuit of enjoyment.
Peeling bear paws was nothing new to them. But egg-skin shrimp cakes were something they'd never seen before.
This dish, these days, is probably only something the Zhao family can afford in the whole country. The leftover shrimp from Zhao Jun's wedding banquet were all taken out of the refrigerator, peeled, chopped, and made into shrimp cakes.
A normal Tai Chi bear paw dish has twelve shrimp cakes surrounding the outer edge. However, since there were many people eating at the Zhao family's house, Zhao Youcai only made thirty-six shrimp cakes in total, with eighteen shrimp cakes served with each of the two Tai Chi bear paw dishes.
Before the food was served, Wang Meilan left some food for Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu. This was a tradition in the Wang family: if someone was not home for dinner, they would not leave leftovers, but rather set aside food as soon as it was cooked.
Wang Meilan left two shrimp cakes for Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, but when everyone was almost finished eating, Wang Tian suddenly started making a fuss, demanding more shrimp cakes. For this, the boy got slapped by Wang Qiang, and then he kept crying and yelling.
That was Old Wang's only son. Seeing her nephew being beaten, Wang Meilan immediately objected. After scolding Wang Qiang, Wang Meilan took out the shrimp cakes she had saved for Zhao Jun from the dish rack.
At this moment, Lin Xiaobao said he wanted to eat another one.
If the old lady and Xing San are each counted as one family, then there are now nine families and thirty people eating at the Zhao family's house.
Of these thirty people, Lin Xiaobao is the youngest. Even if the adults don't eat, he still has to be fed.
Furthermore, since it's all been given to Wang Tian, how could Wang Meilan not give it to Lin Xiaobao?
So, Li Baoyu's shrimp cake was also lost.
Just as Wang Tian and Lin Xiaobao started eating the shrimp cakes, Wang Meilan heard Li Xiaoqiao ask Li Tongyun if she were a boy, could she eat another one?
Wang Meilan was speechless. She immediately ordered Zhao Youcai to make shrimp cakes out of the remaining shrimp at home by tomorrow.
Tai Chi Bear Paw: Since Tai Chi is gone, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu will eat bear paw instead.
The bear paw, peeled and cooked, has tender and flavorful flesh; it's perfect with rice.
But the pancakes the Zhao family ate today had bear paw skin and meat dipped in rich braised broth, which, when spread on the pancakes, meant there was no need to add egg sauce.
It's served with shredded scallions, stir-fried shredded potatoes, and stir-fried meat with mung bean sprouts. Then, it's rolled up in a large pancake, and it's as thick as Lin Xiaobao's arm.
Opening my mouth wide, I took a big bite. The crispy crust crumbled, and the aroma of oil and flour spread first in my mouth. This was followed by the sweet and spicy flavor of the white part of the autumn-stored scallions, which clearly distinguished the aroma of the pastry from the subsequent meat and savory stir-fry flavors.
While Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were eating pancakes, Li Ruhai came over, reached into his crotch, pulled over a four-legged stool behind him, sat down, and then asked Zhao Jun, "Brother, I heard someone died up there again?"
"I'm eating, don't talk to me about this!" Li Ruhai's words instantly brought to Zhao Jun's mind the image of Xu Changming and Song Laowai's tragic deaths, and he felt uncomfortable for a moment.
"Go! Go upstairs!" Jin Xiaomei, who brought the porridge over, reached out and pushed Li Ruhai aside, then divided the two bowls of rice porridge among Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu.
Li Ruhai got up dejectedly, and at that moment Zhao Youcai came out of the east hut and asked, "How did Old Xu and Old Song die?"
No sooner had Li Ruhai been chased away than he reappeared.
In Northeast China, parents teach their children that if someone speaks to you, you must respond. When parents or elders speak, younger generations are even more expected to respond.
Now that Zhao Jun is married, he's even more mindful of this. If he doesn't respect Zhao Youcai, how can Ma Ling and their future children respect him?
"Dad," Zhao Jun looked up at Zhao Youcai and said, "they were all killed by bad guys."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai took a few quick steps and asked Zhao Jun again, "Was he killed by a hammer?"
Upon seeing Zhao Youcai approach, Li Ruhai quickly took Zhao Youcai's arm and invited him to sit on the stool he had just been sitting on.
"Ah!" Zhao Jun responded, and then Zhao Youcai frowned and said, "This person is too ruthless. Oh dear, these two are going to die a terrible death."
Hearing this, Zhao Jun felt even more disgusted.
Just then, seeing Zhao Jun put down his chopsticks, Wang Meilan came over and gently nudged Zhao Youcai, saying, "Go upstairs and watch TV for a while."
"What's wrong?" Zhao Youcai asked. Wang Meilan replied, "The two kids have been working hard all day. Let them have a quiet meal."
Hearing Wang Meilan say this, Zhao Youcai looked at Zhao Jun and saw that Zhao Jun was giving him a strange look. Zhao Youcai knew that he was annoying.
Thinking of this, Zhao Youcai glared at Zhao Jun before getting up and walking into the inner room.
Zhao Youcai left, and Li Ruhai, the fox in the story of the fox borrowing the tiger's power, hurriedly followed Zhao Youcai.
After that, no one asked any more questions, but as Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu continued eating, more and more people gathered around them.
First, Zhang Yuanmin, Xie Zhong, and Xie Chen sat down to eat with the two of them. Then came Xing San, Wang Qiang, Li Dazhi, and Lin Xiangshun. Finally, Zhao Youcai and Li Ruhai slipped out.
There's nothing we can do, they're just too curious!
Knowing that these people were waiting for him to finish eating, Zhao Jun smirked and deliberately slowed down his eating pace, while also chatting with Jie Chen.
"Hey, Xiao Chen?" Zhao Jun also remembered something important, so he asked Xie Chen, "I heard from Brother Xie that your matter went well?"
"Ah! It's done, Brother Jun, haha..." Just thinking about Zheng Shan's beautiful face, Jie Chen grinned so wide his mouth stretched to his ears.
Just as Zhao Jun was about to say something, Li Ruhai interrupted, "At first, they didn't agree, but then they heard that Aunt Jie wasn't going to live with my brother Chen, so they agreed."
"Haha..." Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing this. Annoyed, Xie Sunshi turned around and smacked Li Ruhai with a pestle, causing him to stumble.
"I've changed it! I won't change it anymore!" Xie Sun shouted, but she couldn't suppress the laughter of the crowd.
"Sister-in-law," Lin Xue tugged at Jin Xiaomei's arm and asked curiously, "What was Sister Sun like before she came?"
Jin Xiaomei was taken aback by Lin Xue's question, and then she recalled the scene of Xie Sunshi arguing with Wang Meilan and eating hot pot on her first day at the Zhao family.
Thinking of all this, Jin Xiaomei laughed heartily.
Seeing Jin Xiaomei smile, Lin Xue became even more curious. At this moment, Li Tongyun leaned over and whispered, "My Aunt Sun came to this village and fought two battles in three days, hehe... uh."
As soon as Li Tongyun started to laugh, she saw her parents staring straight at her. The smile on Li Tongyun's face vanished instantly, and she quickly turned to look at Xie Sunshi.
At this moment, Xie Sunshi had already gotten up from the bench, and she was seen gesturing wildly as she recounted her repentance and transformation.
"I can do so much work now!" After saying this, Xie Sunshi turned around and pulled the old lady over, saying, "Ask my aunt, what can't I do now?"
The old lady nodded repeatedly. Now, the kang (heated brick bed) in the house is heated by Xie Sunshi every day, Xie Sunshi changes the tofu pudding in the morning, and even Xie Sunshi splits the firewood.
"Besides, I wasn't a wicked mother-in-law before!" Xie Sunshi said, then waved her hand at Liu Lanying and said, "Let my Yingzi say it, we've lived together for so many years and we've never had any unpleasantness!"
Hearing this, Liu Lanying laughed, while Xie Zhong and Xie Chen just grimaced. In Xie Sunshi's mind, as long as she hadn't hit anyone, then there hadn't been any unpleasantness.
Ever since Liu Lanying married into the family, she had been serving her, doing her laundry and cleaning. What woman of Xie Sunshi's age doesn't wash clothes?
Previously, Sun was lazy and had a gluttonous appetite; she was the kind of person who would crave fish after eating chicken, and then goose after eating fish. But no matter what she wanted to eat, Liu Lanying tried her best to satisfy her.
Not only that, Liu Lanying also raised Xie Hua and Xie Chen to adulthood. When Xie Hua got married, Xie Zhong and Liu Lanying took care of everything at home.
Which mother-in-law could fight with this daughter-in-law? Xie Sunshi wasn't stupid either. Usually when Liu Lanying went back to her parents' home, she would be anxious to have her come back, otherwise her quality of life would decline.
Seeing that the more she talked, the happier everyone became, Xie Sunshi glared at them and shouted, "What are you laughing at?"
Her question made everyone laugh even harder. Even Zhao Jun didn't dare to put a pancake in his mouth, afraid he would burst out laughing.
"Little Er'er!" Madam Xie slapped Xie Chen on the shoulder and said, "Let me live with you, and I'll definitely be a good mother-in-law. I'll let your wife's family know what kind of person your mother is!"
"Give me a break, Mom!" Xie Chen pushed away Xie Sunshi's hand that was pressing on his shoulder and said, "Mom, if you want to be a mother-in-law, you need to have a daughter-in-law first."
"Huh?" Xie Sunshi was taken aback, and then she heard Li Ruhai say, "Auntie, if you want to live with my brother Chen, you won't have a second daughter-in-law!"
"Hahaha..." The laughter almost lifted the roof off. Jin Xiaomei slapped Li Ruhai twice and laughed, "This child, he's just talking nonsense!"
She plopped down on the stool in a huff. Looking around, she saw that Li Ruhai was quite far away. Then she glared at Xie Chen and said, "You pretty girl, I've been raising you for nothing!"
Xie Chen remained silent despite being scolded, and as the laughter subsided, Xing San suddenly spoke up, saying to Xie Sunshi, "Sister, look at the reputation you've built up!"
As soon as Xing San said this, the room fell silent.
Jie Sun stared blankly at Xing San, thinking to herself, "What were you thinking when you said that? Even if someone criticizes me, you have no right to criticize me."
Xing San has been hanging out with this group lately, becoming increasingly lively. Another thing is that Jie Sunshi and Li Tongyun helped him fight that day, an act that made the old man's favor towards them second only to Zhao Jun's family.
Jie Sunshi glanced at Xing San and felt that the old man couldn't possibly draw his sword at her, so she immediately wanted to say a few words to Xing San.
Just then, Li Tongyun called out to Aunt Sun, "Aunt Sun, what daughter-in-law is so good at picking on her mother-in-law!"
"Hmm?" Xie Sunshi turned to look at Li Tongyun, who said with a serious expression, "Before my family moved to Shuguang, the daughter-in-law in the west courtyard of my family probably fed the old lady too much, so she was sent to her second brother's house by the old lady."
"Huh? How could you be so inhuman?" Xie Sunshi was definitely on her mother-in-law's side, while Lin Xue pulled Li Tongyun behind her and glared at her fiercely.
"That's a bit much," the old lady chimed in. "They've already separated the family property, how can they kick her mother-in-law out? They can't stand it either, can they?"
Just as everyone was complaining about how the daughter-in-law was disrespectful to her mother-in-law, Li Dazhi and Lin Xue glared at Li Tongyun.
When his family lived in Shuguang, the old woman from the Wei family in the west courtyard went to her second son's house. But she wasn't driven away; she went out to seek refuge.
The reason is that each of the two houses has a garden behind it. The house in the west courtyard has a storage room next to the partition wall, and the roof of the storage room is made of asbestos tiles, but the water flows into the Li family's garden.
Li Dazhi and his wife were both at work every day and didn't have time to tend to the garden. But one day, after they went to work, Li Tongyun strolled around the front and back yards and saw the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law harvesting vegetables in the backyard. Li Tongyun then mentioned it to them.
The man was at work that day. At home were his mother and daughter-in-law, as well as the old woman's niece-in-law, who lived in the same village and came to visit.
Of the three, the mother-in-law is only fifty, while the daughter-in-law and niece-in-law are both in their thirties.
In the forest areas of Northeast China, women of this age can do as much farming and manual labor as men; their fighting spirit is exceptionally fierce.
When Li Tongyun mentioned the dripping roof of the shed, the old woman said, "It's been like that for so many years. No other family had this or that problem before. What's wrong with your farm manager's family?"
This sentence enraged Li Tongyun. She first argued with the three people, and when her anger reached a certain point, she directly took action.
The mother-in-law is a big shot in this village, otherwise, how could she speak so arrogantly?
However, even when the three of them joined forces, they couldn't last five rounds against Li Tongyun.
Li Tongyun became famous overnight, stunning the entire village.
Today, after the New Year, Zhao Jun visited the Shuguang Forest Farm. The forest farm is right next to their residential area; it's less than five minutes from the forest farm to home.
Less than an hour after Li Tongyun finished fighting, the news reached the forest farm. Li Dazhi and his wife, along with the man from the Wei family, all rushed back.
The three walked home together from the forest farm, both feeling embarrassed. In this day and age, people valued close neighbors over distant relatives, and the fact that the east and west courtyards had gotten into a fight over such a small matter made Li Dazhi and the others feel ashamed.
When Li Dazhi and his wife got home, they started scolding their daughter. The old woman in the west courtyard, however, knew how to treat people differently based on their status. Seeing that Li Dazhi and his wife were well-mannered, she rushed over from her house to complain, trying to get Li Dazhi and Lin Xue to beat up Li Tongyun.
Her behavior is called "adding a bar" locally. Li Tongyun, who was being scolded, flew into a rage, rushed between Li Dazhi and Lin Xue, and kicked the old woman, pinning her to the spot.
The mother-in-law achieved her goal, and Lin Xue beat Li Tongyun with the sole of her shoe. But after Li Dazhi and his wife left, Li Tongyun went next door and beat up the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, saying that if her parents beat her, she would come next door and give them double the beating.
When Li Dazhi and his wife returned home from get off work that evening, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the west courtyard didn't dare to complain, but the young wife in the east courtyard secretly told Lin Xue what had happened.
Then, before the Li family could even eat dinner, Li Tongyun was given a double beating.
In the summer, everyone kept their windows open, and people in both the east and west courtyards could hear the sounds of Director Li and his wife beating their daughter.
The mother-in-law had a bad feeling. Fearing retaliation from Li Tongyun, she packed her things that very night and went to her second son's house for refuge the next morning.
(End of this chapter)