Chapter 84
84 Reunion
Wei Ting sneered. “Heh, dream on.”
Su Xiaoxiao cut the vegetables and raised her eyebrows. “I’m quite beautiful, right, Dahu, Erhu, Xiaohu?”
The three little ones nodded.
Their mother was the most beautiful!
They would not accept any reb.u.t.tal!
“Little brats...” Wei Ting felt that if this continued, they would probably not remember whose sons they were.
Su Xiaoxiao glanced at the stove and said to Wei Ting, “You came at the right time. Add some firewood.”
Wei Ting walked in with his walking stick and sat on the small stool. He placed the thick linen on his right leg, grabbed a dried branch rack, and pressed both ends down.
The dry branch broke.
Country b.u.mpkins broke dead branches like this, but if the people in the capital saw this, their jaws would probably drop.
He was the Killing G.o.d who became famous when he was young; he had broken the spines of enemies, strangled their throats, stepped on thousands of bones, waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and his hands were stained with countless thick blood.
At this moment, he was willing to sit in a dilapidated kitchen and be a villager.
“Peel a corn cob,” Su Xiaoxiao said.
Wei Ting went to wash his hands and began to peel the corn cob.
Su Xiaoxiao said, “I want another bucket of water.”
Wei Ting went to get water again.
No way. Was this guy so obedient today?
Su Xiaoxiao sized him up. To be honest, she felt that it was abnormal if he and Father Su didn’t slack off for a day.
“Mother, I’m full.” Xiaohu couldn’t eat anymore. He raised half a piece of thin bacon and looked at Su Xiaoxiao eagerly.
He ate the fat part because it was so delicious. The other part was a little hard and his little teeth couldn’t bite through it.
“Uh, I’m going to gain weight again.” Su Xiaoxiao sighed and ate it with Xiaohu’s hand.
Among the three of them, only Dahu finished eating and gave Erhu’s to Su Xiaoxiao.
The meat floss that fell from the stove was eaten by Su Xiaoxiao.
Wei Ting looked at her interaction with the three children and his eyes moved, but he did not say anything.
....
This was Su Xiaoxiao’s first New Year in ancient times, and she took it very seriously.
In her previous life, Madam Li and Academician Su would only get together on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, even so, their family had never had the atmosphere of New Year.
The three of them ate the New Year’s Eve dinner cooked by the nanny and watched the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala. They stayed until midnight and ate dumplings or drank a bowl of silver ear soup. The New Year would be over.
Throughout the night, Madam Li and Academician Su did not exchange more than ten sentences.
As the only child in the family, she could still chatter a few years ago. When she grew up, she became an emotionless New Year machine like them.
At noon, Su Xiaoxiao cooked cured meat and jade rice. The cured meat was very soft, and the salty fragrance mixed perfectly with the sweetness of the corn. Coupled with a little glutinous rice, it tasted glutinous.
The three children liked it very much!
The family buried their heads in their food and finished the large pot of bacon rice in the blink of an eye.
Su Xiaoxiao was 60% full. She could only eat so little to lose weight.
Even though she was 60% full... the portion was actually not small.
She planned to make some soup. After removing the lid, Little Fatty’s body trembled!
No way!
Were they all gone?
She made two meals!
Were they too good at eating?
Su Xiaoxiao felt that she had to hurry up and earn money. Otherwise, she might not be able to feed the family.
In the afternoon, Su Xiaoxiao planned to make some fried snacks.
She washed the table in the central room clean and sprinkled it with powder.
She remembered that in her previous life, her grandmother used the door as a table when she went to her grandmother’s house in the countryside. The entire family gathered together and worked very quickly.
There were not many people in this house now, so the table was enough.
Su Xiaoxiao brought the fermented dough over and cut it into evenly-sized b.a.l.l.s. She rolled them into strips and rubbed them into five centimeters of dough.
Su Ergou watched for a while and followed suit. He rubbed ten dough twists in one go.
Father Su and Wei Ting did not have this talent.
Su Xiaoxiao exploded. “It wasn’t easy for me to roll dough into noodles... You guys made it back into dough!”
“Mother.” Dahu raised the ugly dough he had rubbed.
Su Xiaoxiao took a look and said, “The children are better than you!”
Su Xiaoxiao re-a.s.signed the two of them to a job requiring lower skills-turning dumplings.
She cut the thin slices into small diamond-shaped pieces and made a cut in the middle. She pa.s.sed a corner of the diamond-shaped slice through the cut. It was the dumpling that her grandmother had made for her when she was young.
Wei Ting was in charge of cutting, and Father Su was in charge of folding it.
Needless to say, Wei Ting’s knife skills were really good. They were clean and precise.
Su Xiaoxiao’s almond-shaped eyes widened. She bent down to admire the artwork that Wei Ting had cut out and muttered softly, “Have you practiced it before?”
“Yes, I’ve practiced it.”
Wei Ting’s slender fingers held the knife and easily drew an opening of the same length and angle.
“Not only do you have to find the vital points when killing... If the angle and depth are a little different, you can’t kill anyone.”
Su Xiaoxiao was speechless.
Opposite the two of them, Father Su worked hard to fold the dumpling skin. It was also a form of training for his right hand.
His right hand was getting more and more agile.
An 80% chance became 100%.
Su Xiaoxiao believed that with one or two bottles of black technology bone-strengthening pills from the pharmacy, he would definitely be completely cured!
Su Xiaoxiao took the fried dough and dumplings to the oil pot in the kitchen and fried them until they were golden and crispy. She placed sesame in half of them, and the fragrance of the oil and sesame wafted through most of the village!
In addition, Su Xiaoxiao also fried a few catties of lotus root and green bean b.a.l.l.s and wrapped them in dumplings and spring rolls.
She called Su Ergou over and sent some fried goods and dumplings to Liu Ping and Little Wu.
She also gave a bowl to Old Li and Auntie Liu.
“Oh right, there’s this.” Su Xiaoxiao took a few papercuts and couplets and handed them to Su Ergou.
Previously, she did not give them to Little Wu because they had not split up. If she had given them to her, it would be s.n.a.t.c.hed away by Big Wu and the second branch.
There was no trouble now.
Su Ergou’s movements were extremely smooth. He ran through the cold snow as expected of someone who grew up taking cold showers!
When he returned, Su Ergou had two large baskets of fresh vegetables and a sack of plump chestnuts.
—
On New Year’s Eve, Su Xiaoxiao woke up earlier than she did business.
She wanted to make a reunion meal.
Other families would skip breakfast or take two bites at noon.
Their family could not do it. They had to eat until they were full.
She baked herself sweet potato pancakes with peanut b.u.t.ter and cooked vegetable egg noodles for her family, accompanied by fried lotus root and green bean b.a.l.l.s.
Wei Ting’s injuries were no longer serious. Other than abstaining from spicy food, there was no need to be too wary of anything else.
Then, Su Xiaoxiao sadly realized that this guy’s appet.i.te had increased since his food restrictions were removed.
There was now another person at home giving her cause to slog!
....
Su Xiaoxiao made braised crucian carp caught by Su Ergou at the river, braised lotus roots dug by Su Ergou at the fish pond, and wild vegetables and egg pancakes. The vegetables were plucked by Su Ergou at the back of the mountain.
She also steamed lotus root meatb.a.l.l.s, green bean meatb.a.l.l.s, and glutinous rice pearl meatb.a.l.l.s.
The three little ones loved glutinous rice pearl b.a.l.l.s the most and even accepted the small ginger grains inside.
There was also preserved food-pig liver, sausages, pork ribs, and a few stir-fried dishes.
Father Su really didn’t expect to eat such a sumptuous reunion meal in his life. If only his wife was still around.
She would definitely be relieved.
“Grandpa, eat pork ribs.” Dahu picked up a big pork rib for him.
“Eat meat.” Erhu gave him the meat in his bowl.
Xiaohu’s grasp of the chopsticks was not as good as his brothers’. He scooped a pearl ball with his small spoon and placed it clumsily into Father Su’s bowl.
“Pig b.a.l.l.s!” he said in a childish voice.
Father Su smiled and corrected him. “It’s a pearl ball.”
Xiao Hu imitated him and said, “Pig b.a.l.l.s.”
“Pearl b.a.l.l.s!” Father Su taught patiently.
“Pig b.a.l.l.s!”
Xiaohu studied hard!
Dahu stuck out his tongue. “Xiaohu is so stupid!”
Xiaohu waved his hand seriously. “Xiaohu isn’t stupid!”
Erhu also said, “Stupid.”
Xiaohu said, “Not stupid!”
Erhu was a fence-sitter. “Yes, not stupid.”
Dahu insisted, “Stupid!”
Xiao Hu said, “I’m not stupid!”
The three little fellows quarreled. The main forces were Dahu and Xiaohu, and Erhu and the mud.
“Alright, alright, stop arguing.” Father Su’s tears had already been stopped by the three little fellows.
As he coaxed the three of them and reminisced about his wife sadly, he realized that his emotions were no longer coherent!
“They’ve never been so noisy before.” Wei Ting seemed to be talking to himself or Su Xiaoxiao beside him.
Su Xiaoxiao looked at the three little ones who were no longer arguing but kept sticking out their tongues and making faces at each other. She smiled and said, “Are they noisy? I don’t think so.”
If not for them chattering, how cold and desolate would it be this year?
At night, Su Xiaoxiao took out the big red lantern she had made and asked Wei Ting to hang it up.
Su Ergou cut a basket of bamboo from somewhere, raised a pile of firewood in the empty s.p.a.ce in front of the door, and threw the bamboo in one by one.
The bamboo crackled like firecrackers.
The three little ones had never seen firecrackers before. Their first reaction was fear and they pounced into Su Xiaoxiao’s arms.
Su Xiaoxiao smiled and said, “It’s fine. These are firecrackers. They are very fun.”
As she spoke, she threw one into the fire herself.
The three little ones saw that Su Xiaoxiao was also playing and were really not afraid.
“More firecrackers! More firecrackers!”
The three of them ran over and held Su Ergou’s hand.
“Okay!” Su Ergou said. “Watch.”
“Hey, hey, hey! What’s that called? Let me do it!” Father Su decisively s.n.a.t.c.hed Su Ergou’s bamboo.