In the countryside, living alone is often difficult and leaves one vulnerable to bullying.
Because of this, women or gers, who had decided to live in their mother-in-law's home, like to find those who had more brothers. If Eldest Jiang separated from his family and was not married after he went back from working in the field, he may not even be able to eat a hot meal, so he really needed some help.
And if he had been assigned to the shabby hut of the Jiang family, wouldn't he be closest to the Zhao family?
Zhao Jinge accepted Jiang Zhen's reason. When he ate porridge, he felt peace of mind. But Jiang Zhen kept staring at him. He moved slowly and urged him to eat more, which, in the end, made him a little uncomfortable.
"I will come to you if you get in any trouble in the future." Jiang Zhen also gave another chicken leg to Zhao Jinge. "Here. Take it."
"There's no need to give me chicken legs." Zhao Jinge quickly refused. Being able to eat some delicious porridge was already good enough. He had thought that he was going to work hungry.
"I've eaten more than half of this chicken. What is chicken leg for me? Don't I already have one? Eat quickly." Jiang Zhen put the chicken leg on Zhao Jinge's lips, and then saw Zhao Jin's whole body froze up again.
Zhao Jinge finally ate chicken leg, and then Jiang Zhen gave him a chicken wing, saying that there was no meat in the chicken wing, so he did not like to eat it himself.
Zhao Jinge could not refuse Jiang Zhen directly. He could only put the chicken wings into his mouth.
Jiang Zhen looked at Zhao Jinge sweetly eating; he even chewed up the small bones in the chicken wings. He ate the other chicken leg in a good mood.
The two men ate a pot of chicken porridge clean. Although Zhao Jinge had tried not to eat the shredded chicken in the porridge, but he ate a chicken leg and chicken wing that was attached to the wing root, and he also had oily water in his stomach.
Jiang Zhen was very satisfied that he could feed Zhao Jinge so much. He washed the pots clean and asked, "What else do you want to do?"
"I have to cut firewood," Zhao Jinge said.
"I will accompany you, Jiang Zhen."
"No . . . ," Zhao Jinge subconsciously refused. What did Jiang Zhen want to do? Why did he refuse?
Jiang Zhen was reluctant to chop firewood with his sharply sharpened bone-cutting knife, so he did not use the knife. Instead, he climbed a camphor tree and stomped on the branches with his feet.
Half of the trees on this side are camphor trees. The branches of this kind of tree have always been very brittle. Jiang Zhen could easily trample off this section of branches; it wasn't long before he got many branches down.
Zhao Jin bowed his head and chopped down the branches of Jiang Zhen as he cut down the trees. The dead leaves of camphor trees replaced by new leaves fell one after another, and many of them fell on him.
Jiang Zhen looked down at him and saw the lines of his body after he bent down because his clothes were tight. Suddenly, his mouth was dry and his movements stopped.
Zhao Jinge could not hear any movement. He looked up and saw Jiang Zhen staring at him. He felt like there was a fever rising to his face. Why did he eat porridge in the same pot with Boss Jiang just now and let Boss Jiang feed him chicken liver?
For a long time now, Zhao Jinge had thought of himself as a man, and he usually grabbed a meal to eat with the other long-term workers, but that didn't seem to be the same with Eldest Jiang
Neither of them spoke, but the atmosphere between them was somewhat subtle.
When Zhao Jinge cut enough wood and was about to leave, Jiang Zhen stopped him. "Jinge."
Zhao Jinge looked at him in a puzzled way, and Jiang Zhen added, "I don't by the name of Jiang Zhenwei. Later, I want to be called Jiang Zhen . . . Don't call me Eldest Jiang in the future. Just call me Jiang Zhen."
Zhao Jinge nodded. "Jiang Zhen."
Jiang Zhen smiled at him.
Zhao Jin looked at that smile; his heart beat a little faster. He bowed his head and walked away quickly.
Watching Zhao Jinge with a large bundle of firewood on his back, Jiang Zhen raised his eyebrows and whistled.
According to what he observed today, Zhao Jinge is 100% fond of men, and now, he should have a little interest in him. Also, this man is ger who thought he would marry a man. He does not like men who can like women that way.
This Zhao Jinge was really made for him. He would have a wife soon. No, it shouldn't be long before he can marry himself off.
Jiang Zhen didn't mind joining the Zhao family at all.
There were always some people who thought that it's a bit shameful to marry into a family, but in his eyes, the men who thought that way had no ability on their own. If a man had the ability and his children didn't use his surname, others would only feel that he was in love with his wife. Who would look down on him? Those men who were not capable themselves worry about that all the time. They would look at their own face more than the sky. They would not be able to earn face outside and blame their families.
Of course, he didn't seem to be able to do anything now.
While touching his nose, Jiang Zheng went home while shaking the earthen pot in his arm.
People in the village were very busy. Jiang Zhen met many men and women working in the fields along the way, and some children were mowing grass or . . .
Jiang Zhen raised his eyebrows and looked at a group of children gathered near a ditch not far away.
There were rice fields on the side of the Hexi Village, and every household has dug water drains. The ditches were full of water all year round, and naturally, small fish and shrimps lived in it.
Jiang Zhen went through his memories and discovered that the small children here liked to catch fish in the ditch. When they went home, they let their mother steam them on the steamer and eat it as a dish.
The vast majority of the people in Hexi Village seldom eat meat. For example, Zhao Dahu's family eat it three or four times a month, but small fish and shrimp were not scarce. But because everyone was generally very busy, this activity could not be done every day. They only do it once in a few days, and it went basically into the mouths of the children.
If you want to mend your body, you need to think of these things in the future.
When Jiang Zhen returned home this time, the house was quiet.
It was clear that, after he had made trouble, the people in this family had become peaceful for the time being.
Instead of going back to his room to sleep, Jiang Zhen moved a bamboo chair and waited for dinner in the hall so that neither Jiang Chengcai nor his wife, who were waiting for dinner at home like him, dared stay in the hall but hid in the hall with their precious son in their arms.
Jiang Xiaomei was assigned with cooking and feeding pigs by Madam Jiang. She did not dare to hide in the house and had to work in the kitchen, trembling.
Although Jiang Xiaomei was the best person in Jiang's family to Eldest Jiang, she was not too good to Eldest Jiang. She often pushed her work on Eldest Jiang. Because of that, she was now afraid of Eldest Jiang.
While Jiang Xiaomei was cooking a pot of porridge, the sky had darkened, and old Jiang and old Madam Jiang came back with hoes on their shoulders.
When they saw Jiang Zhen, their faces were not very pleasant. Madam Jiang was even more eager to swallow Jiang Zhen. She just saw that Jiang Zhen had a knife in his hand. She did not dare clash with him. Instead, she scolded the Jiang family's second son, who came out of the house after hearing the news of their return. "You are really capable. Watching your parents work hard outside and just staying lazy at home. I'm really guilty of raising a group of debt collectors!"
Old Madam Jiang meant to scold Huang Min. Jiang Chengwen and his family had never worked very much. She never scolded them before. Today, she scolded them in order to scold Jiang Zhen.
Jiang Zhen knew all about it but nodded approvingly at Madam Jiang. "Mother, you're right. Chengwen is a real debt collector. If I give birth to such a bastard, I would kill him with a stick."
Old Madam Jiang's face looked wonderful.
"Mother, didn't you say you couldn't eat without working? Second brother, don't eat this meal," Jiang Zhen said while taking a big bowl of porridge from the pot.
The Jiang's porridge was very thin. It's covered with porridge soup. When he ladled porridge with a long-handled wooden spoon, he scooped down to the bottom. After scooping up porridge, he poured the porridge soup back into the pot.
Jiang Zhen filled himself a bowl of porridge without any porridge soup and sat down at the table.
On the table, there was a bowl of salted lettuce, a bowl of pickles, a bowl of boiled cauliflower.
That was basically what Jiang family dishes looked like, and of course, like Jiang Yuan Wen, he would eat another egg.
Jiang Zhen didn't pick it either. He snorted on the porridge bowl and kept eating lettuce and cauliflower with chopsticks.
He ate so fast that old lady Jiang felt sick when she saw him eating there all the time.
This fellow was born to be overbearing, not only did he not work, but also chooses to eat at home.
Old lady Jiang kept cursing Jiang Zhen in her heart, but Jiang Chengwen didn't dare eat at all. He and his wife slipped into the kitchen with their son. At last, they could fill a bowl of porridge. After eating, they slipped back to their room.
When the Jiang family was throwing a wedding, Huang Min took some dishes and hid them in their house. Although the porridge was not very thick, it would be good in addition to other dishes.
When Butcher Jiang looked at his second son's posture, he felt that there was too little iron to become steel at that moment. He couldn't help looking at Jiang Zhen again. "Eldest Jiang, have you done enough? Stop fussing tomorrow and go to fields with me!"
Before, in order to do Jiang second son marriage, they had no go to the field for five or six days, leaving behind a lot of work.
Those acres of mulberry fields should be fertilized, and those vegetable fields should also be planted . . . The weather was getting warmer, and all vegetables and flowers were blooming. In addition to planting seeds, the other older vegetables had to be pulled from the fields and replaced with other kinds of plants. Besides, the drains must be opened, and rice would also start raising seedlings.
In the past it was all done by eldest Jiang. Jiang butchers didn't have to worry about these jobs. They were basically all done before he thought of them. They could do some of them if they wanted and less if they don't want to. But now, Eldest Jiang doesn't go to work.
The farmwork could not be pushed back. Butcher Jiang and Madam Jiang can only go to the field by themselves today. Now, after a day's work, Butcher Jiang felt that his waist was going to be broken.
"No." Jiang Zhen did not raise his head either. "I am in poor health right now, and I will need to rest for a few months at least."