"Go next door to warm yourself by the fire. It's too cold outside. I'll ask your mother to come back and cook." Zhuang Qing's father said.
"Just cook some rice. I bought some vegetables," Zhuang Qing said.
I was very surprised: when did she buy vegetables? Just as I was thinking about it, I found Zhuang Qing pulling me, "Let's go next door to warm up by the fire." So I followed her to the room next door, and immediately felt the warmth:
I saw that in the corner of the house was a large stove, the kind commonly seen in rural areas. There were two large iron pots on the stove, and the iron pots were steaming. There was an earthen pot on one wall of the house.
Pit, inside the pit is a firewood that is burning brightly. The flames are red and making a "crackling" sound, which should be the sound made when the wood expands and cracks after being heated. There is a tripod jar on top of the flames.
It was hung on a wooden hook that hung vertically from the top of the house. I didn't know what was being cooked in the cauldron, but it was also steaming. There were a few black things on the wooden hook. I looked at it and saw that it was bacon.
.
Zhuang Qing's father invited me to sit down and warm myself by the fire and then went out. After a while, I heard him shouting loudly outside: "Fen, come back quickly, girl Qing is back!"
I laughed immediately and asked Zhuang Qing in a low voice, "What is your mother's name, Fen?"
Her face turned even redder in the firelight, "Disgusting!"
I stretched out my hand toward the flames, of course at a relatively far distance. Warmth immediately spread throughout my body, and I felt that every cell in my body began to warm up. I couldn't help but sigh: "This fire is really good."
"It's like this in all rural areas," Zhuang Qing said.
Immediately, she moved a wooden table from the corner of the room, frowned and said, "It's so dirty."
"Just find a rag and wipe it clean. You go get it and I'll wipe it clean." I said.
She looked around, and then her father came in. She asked, "Dad, where's the rag?"
"We usually eat on top of the stove, and we have never used this table." Her father said with a naive smile, "Girl Qing, you go and accompany you, and I'll do it for you to warm yourself by the fire."
I hurriedly said: "I'll do it."
Her father said: "You are from the city, our countryside is too dirty. You warm yourself by the fire, you warm yourself by the fire."
"Feng Xiao, come with me to get the food." Zhuang Qing called me.
When I followed her to the main room, I discovered that she had actually bought a lot of vegetables, all of which were braised vegetables. Pig ears, pig belly, braised beef, etc., and dried tofu.
"Girl Qing, how much will this cost?" her father said.
"Dad, Feng Xiao also brought you two bottles of good wine. Each bottle costs nearly a thousand yuan." Zhuang Qing said, and then said to me: "Feng Xiao, go and get that bottle of Maotai and open it.
"
"Don't drink such expensive wine. If you sell it, you can buy a lot of bags of grain wine." Her father hurriedly stopped her.
"Dad, you are serious. You have never drunk good wine in your life. You must try it today. Just think of it this way and pretend that Feng Xiao didn't bring this wine." Zhuang Qing said with a smile.
At this time, I suddenly heard a voice coming from behind me, "Girl Qing, are you back?"
It was a woman's voice, which seemed a little old and choked with excitement. I turned around quickly and found that Zhuang Qing had run over and hugged her. I couldn't see her face, but her clothes were still shabby.
Yes, there is still mud on the sleeves.
"Mom! I'm back!" Zhuang Qing was saying.
"Girl Qing, you haven't been home for a long time. Really, I thought you didn't want us anymore." Zhuang Qing's mother was saying, with a crying sound.
"Fen, we have guests." Zhuang Qing's father coughed twice and said.
Zhuang Qing and her mother separated, and I immediately saw her face. I was surprised to find that she looked a little young, she looked about fifty years old, and she didn't have many wrinkles on her face.
I hurriedly introduced myself, "My name is Feng Xiao. I am in the same department as Zhuang Qing. I am a doctor."
"Girl Qing's boyfriend." Zhuang Qing's father suddenly said something. Zhuang Qing's mother was stunned, and then went to see Zhuang Qing, "Song, where is that person?"
"He's dead." Zhuang Qing whispered.
"Ah?" Zhuang Qing's father exclaimed in surprise. "Ah!" Zhuang Qing's mother's face was full of surprise, and her scream was so sharp that it could penetrate the night sky.
Zhuang Qing looked sad, and then said: "It was not about money? In the end, he was killed."
"How could this happen? What a good young man." Zhuang Qing's father looked shocked and murmured.
I suddenly became embarrassed and stood here a little at a loss.
"Dad, Mom, Feng Xiao is my current boyfriend. Don't be like this. This person is all about fate. Song Mei likes money so much, but she dies because of money. This is fate." Zhuang Qing said.
I felt that it was easier for me to talk, "I used to be good friends with Song Mei."
"Girl Qing is right. Fen, stop talking. The guests are here. The pig food in the pot is cooked. I will feed the pigs. Can you see if the rice in the pot is ready? If it is, you can scoop it out.
Cook something. They must be hungry." Zhuang Qing's father said.
"Dad, Feng Xiao and I are going to feed the pigs." Zhuang Qing said.
"That's okay. I'll call your brother over," her father said.
"Okay. I haven't seen my brother for a long time." Zhuang Qing said, and then came to see me, "You haven't fed pigs before, have you? Let's go feed them. It's very fun."
When I opened the lid of the pot on the stove, I saw a large, dark pot inside. Most of them were chopped vegetable leaves, which turned into this color after the pot was covered with the lid. I know how to cook and know how to cook vegetables early.
Don't cover the pot when cooking, because that will make the vegetables lose their beautiful green color, and it is said that it will also produce toxins.
Zhuang Qing brought a large wooden bucket. She used a large wooden ladle to scoop the pig food from the pot into the wooden bucket. Then she went to the water tank and scooped out a few ladles of water and poured it into the pot. Then she washed the pot.
It has to be clean. Her movements are very skillful. I can imagine that she must have done this kind of work often before.
"You come and carry it. It's too heavy." Zhuang Qing ordered me.
I bent down and carried the barrel and followed her outside. Only then did I realize that there was another door next to this room. After I went out, I heard Zhuang Qing's mother saying: "This man from Girl Qing seems to be better than Song."
Mei is more practical." Then he heard Zhuang Qing's father say: "She's just too pretty, I don't know if girl Qing can take care of her from now on."
Zhuang Qing chuckled lightly and ran forward immediately. I hurriedly followed and asked her with a wry smile: "Why did your father use the word 'beautiful' to describe me?"
She laughed and said: "They like to describe people like this."
"Then how do they describe a woman's beauty?" I asked in surprise.
"Just say 'good-looking'" she replied, then laughed.
Only then did I realize that the hut next to me was a pigsty. There were two pigs in the pigsty, a big fat pig and a small pig. I put down the wooden bucket on my hand, and Zhuang Qing immediately scooped out pig food from it and put it into the pigsty.
The pigs poured it into a stone trough. The two pigs suddenly became happy and ran to the stone trough with loud noises and began to eat.
"Does your family want to kill the New Year pig?" I asked, looking at the big fat pig.
"I'm going to sell it for money." Zhuang Qing sighed.
I was speechless for a moment.
"I used to send money to my family, but my father used it to build a house for my brother. My brother didn't get married until he was in his thirties," she added.
"Where does your brother live? Why do you have to call him so late?" I asked.
"It's not far. You can walk there in ten minutes." She replied, "In the countryside, the son is the most important. Dad saw that there was good food and wine at home today, so he went to call his brother."
"Zhuang Qing, don't say that. Maybe your father called him because he thought you brother and sister hadn't seen each other for a long time." I said.
"Feng Xiao, you always look at others from the good side." She sighed, and then said: "Feng Xiao, let's not talk about this anymore. By the way, this is also the toilet. If you want to be convenient at night, you must run here.
.Originally there was a chamber pot in the house, but it smelled too bad to pee in the house.”
I finally understood why she said that the conditions of her home were too poor. Not to mention taking a bath, it was very inconvenient to go to the toilet.
When I returned to the kitchen house, Zhuang Qing's father hadn't come back yet. I was shocked to see Zhuang Qing's mother cooking in the same big iron pot that she had just used to cook pig food! So I asked Zhuang Qing quietly: "Is this hygienic?"
"It's like this in rural areas. Didn't I clean the pot just now? What's the pig food? It's clean." She replied in a low voice.
"Girl Qing, please invite Dr. Feng to warm the fire. Your father and your brother will be here soon. We will have dinner when they come," said Zhuang Qing's mother.
"Mom, please stop cooking. I bought them. Huh? Where are the vegetables? Where are the vegetables on the table?" Zhuang Qing suddenly asked in surprise.
"Those vegetables are all cold, I'll stir-fry them," her mother replied.
"Mom, it's braised vegetables. The taste changes after frying." Zhuang Qing said in a reproachful tone.
"It's fried a lot. Eating food from outside can cause diarrhea." I said hurriedly and quietly pulled her hand. She stopped talking immediately.
"That's it. You pig ears, I'll add some garlic sprouts and fry them. They'll be very fragrant." Zhuang Qing's mother said.
Not long after, Zhuang Qing's father came back, and behind him was Zhuang Qing's brother. I found that Zhuang Qing's brother was very tall, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. He looked nothing like Zhuang Qing. The tutor looked a bit like Zhuang Qing's mother.
.He is smiling silly at me.
I also smiled at him, "Are you Zhuang Qing's brother?"
"Yes. My name is Zhuang Yu. It rained when I was born, and it was sunny when Zhuang Qing was born. Haha!" He said with a smile.
I never thought that Zhuang Qing's name had such an origin. It seems that a good name does not need to be poetic to come up with.
Everyone immediately sat down to drink. Zhuang Qing opened the bottle of Maotai and poured it for everyone. After pouring a bottle of wine, there was not much in each bowl.
"Drink and eat." Zhuang Qing's father said, just these four words.
So everyone picked up their bowls and drank.
"How can such an expensive wine not taste as good as Baogu wine?" Zhuang Qing's father suddenly said.
I was stunned for a moment, and then said: "This is the taste of this wine. But it has the advantage that you won't have a headache when you are drunk." (To be continued)