"Oh, look at you kid, it's great that you can come home, what else do you have to bring?
Come on, everyone, come in and sit down, take a look at all these young and old ladies, how strange they are."
Zhang Shuzhen, who was cutting leeks, quickly wiped her hands with her apron and stepped forward to take what Zhou Qinglan was holding.
Then he took Zhou Qinglan's hand very affectionately and led Zhou Qinglan into the east room.
Sheng Xiping, Gao Haining and others also followed into the east room.
At this time, every household has little furniture.
The Sheng family is pretty good. Sheng Liancheng has some carpentry skills and can make some things by himself.
In the east room, beside the Kang, there is a pair of boxes with wavy or willow surfaces, with quilts stacked on top of the boxes.
Cleanly unpacked beddings were piled neatly on top, and covered with a white curtain embroidered with flowers and wealth.
There was a chest of drawers on the floor against the east wall, with a thermos and a teapot on it.
Further north, there are rectangular panels and tables standing against the wall.
The Sheng family used the Kang table to eat. After dinner, they cleaned it up and put it there against the wall to avoid getting in the way.
Above the chest of drawers, there are two glass photo frames hanging with many photos on them.
There are photos of the eight members of the Sheng family, photos of Sheng Liancheng taking his wife and children back to his hometown a few years ago with the elderly at home, and even a photo of the baby for a hundred days.
On a chair covered with a tablecloth, a chubby male doll sat, with two female dolls standing on both sides.
You can tell at a glance that this is a photo of the two girls from the Sheng family and the sixth child, Sheng Xitai.
"That belongs to my sixth brother Bai Tianzhao.
Don't look at it, it looks like he's sitting quite firmly, but actually my mother is hiding behind the tablecloth, tugging on Lao Liu's clothes."
When Sheng Xiping saw Zhou Qinglan looking at the photo frame, he thought she was curious about the photos, so he explained to Zhou Qinglan.
In fact, Zhou Qinglan wanted to know which photo was of Sheng Xiping when she was a child, but how could she say this? She could only smile sheepishly.
"My aunt has always been so good-looking since she was young. No wonder people say that my aunt is the beauty of our Qianchuan Forestry Farm.
Yun Fang and Yun Fei both followed my aunt, and they are both quite handsome." Zhou Qinglan turned back to look at Zhang Shuzhen and praised her.
"Oh, my face is all wrinkled, how can I still be a beauty?
I like you young girls when I look at them, look at each one of them, they look like flowers, how beautiful they are."
Zhang Shuzhen was so amused by Zhou Qinglan's compliments that she couldn't even let go of Zhou Qinglan's hand.
"Auntie, are there any dishes that haven't been cooked? Let's go with you. Uncle Shanda should be back from get off work."
Zhou Qinglan looked up at the clock on the wall. It was a little after five o'clock. The small repair shop should get off work at 5:30.
With so many people here, they can't just sit and wait for their meal. It's okay to lend a helping hand.
"No, no, it's almost done. I'll just fry the leeks, chicken, mushrooms, and some fungus and eggs."
When Zhou Qinglan came back to the Sheng family for the first time, how dare Zhang Shuzhen let the girl do the work?
Zhang Shuzhen held down Zhou Qinglan and asked her to sit there, and asked Sheng Xiping to quickly make a pot of tea and make some sugar water for the girls.
"Fengying, you stay with Qinglan. You guys can just sit and chat in the room. The food will be ready soon."
Zhang Shuzhen turned around and told Tang Fengying, and hurriedly went out to cook.
How could Zhou Qinglan and the other girls sit in the room with peace of mind and wait for dinner? They all went to the kitchen to help.
Zhang Shuzhen saw that she had no choice but to let the girls do it.
Everyone was talking and laughing while working in the kitchen, which was quite lively.
While they were talking, Sheng Liancheng came back from get off work at the small repair shop, and Sheng Xian and Sheng Xikang were also out of school.
Even Sheng Xitai, who was playing wild with a group of children outside, also followed him into the house.
It is estimated that his brothers and sisters have warned Sheng Xitai in advance. This boy did not talk nonsense after entering the house today, nor did he shout for food in a hurry.
Instead, he obediently greeted Gao Haining, Wang Jianshe and others before running to wash his hands.
Originally, Zhang Shuzhen planned to let Sheng Liancheng and Sheng Xiping stay in the east room and eat with Gao Haining and others, while Zhang Shuzhen took her five children to the west room to eat.
As a result, both Zhou Qinglan and Tang Fengying said that since they neither drank nor smoked, they would feel more comfortable in the West Room with Zhang Shuzhen.
Zhang Shuzhen thought that it would be fine, since the dishes are all the same.
It’s just that we don’t have that many tables at home, so the West House uses a panel with two wooden piers placed underneath.
So, Zhang Shuzhen sent the second and third children to the east room for dinner. Here she took her two daughters and her youngest son to eat with several girls.
The dinner was unexpectedly sumptuous.
After the snake meat was chopped into pieces, it was split open and the pieces were not that big.
Farmers don’t pay too much attention to the food, so they simply make it braised in red-brown soup. The meat is wrapped in reddish-brown soup. It’s so oily that it’s particularly tempting.
When Zhang Shuzhen was cooking, she added some dried ginger and wine to remove the fishy smell and enhance the flavor, so the stewed snake segments taste particularly good and are not fishy at all.
The fish is simmered with homemade miso and sprinkled with green onion and garlic leaves before serving. It also has a fragrant aroma.
The fine-scaled fish is very delicious and does not require much seasoning. Just stew it and it is so delicious that people would like to swallow it with their tongues.
Stir-fried chicken mushrooms with leeks are also delicious. The chicken mushrooms are soft, tender and smooth, with a special aroma of fungi. When paired with leeks, the umami flavor is more highlighted. It feels better than meat when you take a bite.
Crucian carp and tofu soup, the soup is milky white, the deliciousness of the fish is combined with the tenderness of the tofu.
It also leaves a fragrant taste in your mouth and greatly increases your appetite.
Originally it was said to be six dishes and one soup, but Zhou Qinglan brought four more canned fruits.
As soon as Zhang Shuzhen thought about it, she opened the can and put it on a plate, then went to the vegetable garden to pick some chrysanthemum and fried two plates, making eight vegetables and one soup.
"Oh, my aunt's cooking skills are really amazing. I have never eaten such delicious food."
Zhou Qinglan tasted a few bites of the food and sighed sincerely.
"My mother used to do all the cooking in my house, but then my mother was gone and my mother couldn't cook well, so my brother did all the cooking and I helped."
The Zhou family is a dual-income family, and Zhou Qinglan's mother is also a doctor. She is very busy at work, so how much time does she have to hone her cooking skills?
In order to eat some delicious food, Zhou Qinglan and her brother had to take over the shovel and learn to cook.
"Auntie, if you have time, please teach me how to cook. I can show off my skills when I get home during the Chinese New Year."
Zhou Qinglan asked Zhang Shuzhen for advice sincerely, as if she wanted to become a disciple.
"Okay, what else is there?
Anyway, you eat wherever you go. From now on, if you come here often, your aunt will cook whatever you want.
If you don’t have it at home, let Xiping go to Taodeng.”
In Zhang Shuzhen's heart, she already regarded Zhou Qinglan as her future daughter-in-law.
Regardless of her appearance, character, or family background, this girl is one of a kind. Anyone would like her.
“You can eat whatever you like, it’s just like home here.
Fengying, Hongxia, Cuicui, you guys can eat too, you can eat whatever you want, no need to be polite here, Auntie."
Several girls were there, and Zhang Shuzhen couldn't just talk to Zhou Qinglan. From time to time, she would also greet Tang Fengying and others to eat.