Chapter 45 Don't be too outrageous
After enjoying this delicious meal, Liu Ji opened his eyes and saw four kids holding white porridge, staring at him eagerly and drooling.
Oh, I almost forgot, their stepmother punished them by not allowing them to eat meat tonight. All the chopsticks they stretched out just now were hit back by Qin Yao, and they were only allowed to eat vegetables.
Liu Ji made two sympathetic "tsk tsk" sounds and happily started to eat his dinner.
A small bowl of sparrow meat, he just thought it would not taste good if so many people shared it, but who would have thought that it would only be shared by him and the evil woman Qin Yao.
Half a bowl per person, that's enough, he's not greedy, Liu Ji thought happily.
Qin Yao also felt that today's dishes were particularly delicious. She ate one bite after another, and the freshness and fragrance made her feel like she was back to the time before the end of the world, when she had just returned home for the winter break from college.
Her parents cooked a table full of her favorite dishes, which were delicious and tasty.
But since then, eating stir-fried dishes has become a luxury.
Dalang and his two siblings drank thick white porridge and munched on crispy vegetables. This meal, which was originally very good, tasted bland to them.
Erlang thought to himself, it was all because of the stepmother who fed them too well that they felt that white porridge with vegetables was tasteless. They were just like the young masters of a landlord's family who were not satisfied even after eating dragon meat.
Facing four pairs of eyes that were as bright as light bulbs and filled with desire, Liu Ji had no conscience and wanted to give each of them a small piece to taste.
Otherwise, wouldn't it be a pity that he could cook so well this once in a while, but no one knew about it?
Unexpectedly, as soon as he picked out a piece of meat, Qin Yao's cold eyes swept over him.
"You don't want to eat anymore, do you?"
She held the bowl in front of him and said, "Give it to me if you don't want to eat it."
As he spoke, he picked up the only five pieces of sparrow meat left in Liu Ji's bowl and put them into his own bowl with a few chopsticks. He ate one piece at a time. It was so delicious.
Liu Ji immediately glanced at the four kids with annoyance and said, "See, daddy has nothing to eat either."
The four siblings bit their chopsticks, the hope in their eyes completely extinguished.
Sanlang and Si Niang were so greedy that they started crying. The two little crybabies wiped away their tears and choked while drinking porridge and eating vegetables. They knew they were punished because of their mistakes, so they didn't dare to shout.
Even Liu Ji, a man of stone, couldn't bear to see this.
I looked up at Qin Yao, who was eating with such relish that a small pile of bones soon formed in front of her. She finished three large bowls of white porridge and put down her bowl and chopsticks in satisfaction.
Erlang couldn't help himself and asked weakly, "Auntie, can I have a bite of the remaining bones?"
Qin Yao stared and said, "Liu Erlang, don't be too outrageous!"
"No!" Qin Yao swept all the bones into a bowl, handed it to Liu Ji, and asked him to take it to the kitchen to light a fire.
Erlang watched all the bones enter the stove hole before he let out an "oh" and gave up the idea.
But the good thing was that Qin Yao and Liu Ji had already eaten all the meat, so they couldn't see it, so it wasn't that painful.
The four brothers and sisters finished their dinner one after another, and were fully recovered. They chattered and played their own little games in the main room.
Qin Yao waited for Liu Ji to come back after washing the dishes and cleaning the stove, then said:
"On the way back today, I heard someone say that the county government office will sell cattle on the 15th. I want to buy some beef tendons and buy some New Year's goods and charcoal. Let's go to the city together. You should get up early that day."
"Going into the city?" Liu Ji was pleasantly surprised and quickly responded, "Okay, okay."
He loves going into the city!
The four children who were chattering nearby quieted down.
Dalang asked curiously, "Dad, is the county town far away?"
Erlang also asked, "Dad, is the county town fun?"
Liu Ji replied: "Of course it is far. It takes more than two hours to walk from our village to the county town. We have to set out before daybreak."
"But there are so many fun things in the county town, including restaurants, gambling houses, and rouge houses."
Erlang asked excitedly, "Dad, what is Rouge House? Is it a place that sells rouge? Have you ever been there?"
When Liu Ji heard his son's words, he couldn't help laughing, "Silly boy, Yanzhilou definitely doesn't sell rouge, it sells meat."
The voice stopped abruptly, and Liu Ji suddenly realized that he was about to say something inappropriate for children. He coughed twice and stopped talking:
"Nothing, nothing. There is nothing fun in the county town."
But it sounds like fun, Dalang thought doubtfully.
Erlang didn't wait for an answer and asked again: "Dad, have you ever been to Yanzhilou to buy meat?"
Liu Ji glanced at Qin Yao hurriedly, waved his hand to signal his son to shut up and stop asking questions, turned around and said he would go to the kitchen to boil water.
Unexpectedly, Qin Yao also asked with interest: "Have you been there or not?"
"That's for sure. I haven't been there." Liu Ji lowered his head and shook his empty sleeves. For someone like him, his mother would kick him out if he just sat at the door.
The three brothers and sisters of Dalang were still full of beautiful fantasies about the Yanzhi Tower, thinking that when they grew up and could go to the city, they would definitely go and see it.
Although he was eager to go to the county town with Liu Ji, he knew that his short legs would definitely hold them back, so he was sensible and didn't say anything. He just followed Liu Ji and asked him what there was in the city.
Qin Yao seriously considered, how about going to the city with the whole family?
Kaiyang County is actually not very big, with a permanent population of only two or three thousand people, but considering the current total population of Shengguo of 60 million, it is already a very large place.
Before the prosperity of the country, the chaotic times lasted for several decades. Years of war caused the population to drop sharply. Now the country has begun to recuperate. In fact, you rarely meet people when walking on the street.
The day Qin Yao arrived in Kaiyang County, the number of people she met in the city was the largest since she came here.
There are many people in the village who have never left the village in their entire lives. For most of them, the farthest place is the provincial capital.
This is because they migrated such a long distance just to survive during the war.
Thinking about it this way, for the four children who have never left the small mountain village, going to the city may have a different meaning.
If you can't walk, you can take a ox cart.
It's nice to let the children see the world.
Thinking of this, after the father and his five sons came back from the shower room, Qin Yao said:
"Liu Ji, go borrow the ox cart from the village chief. On the 15th, our whole family will go to the city together and take Dalang and the others to have a look around the city."
When the four brothers and sisters heard this, they were overwhelmed with joy and stood there in a daze.
Liu Ji also paused for two seconds before reacting. He was a little surprised that Qin Yao would make such a decision.
The careless man rarely restrained himself. He looked at her deeply and then agreed.
The children were so happy that they did not want to sleep the whole night. They squeezed into one bed and whispered about their various fantasies about the county town.
Finally, the four brothers and sisters decided that when they arrived in the county town, they would use the copper coins they had received from their father to buy a string of candied haws to eat together.
Let's see if the candied haws are as delicious as Liu Jinbao said.
Si Niang specifically instructed, "Save one for A Niang, because it was A Niang who took us to the city."
The implication is that we should not forget to thank our benefactors.
Dalang and the other two completely agreed, and the four brothers and sisters reached a consensus. They waited until the early morning, when the excitement had passed, and then fell asleep.
(End of this chapter)