Chapter 201 Is this the end of suffering?
Chapter 201 Is this the end of suffering?
Seeing Erhua's eyes fixed on the tangerines, Gu Qingqing sighed, then said to Erhua in a righteous manner, "Erhua, I want to eat fruit, too, but Dad and Daxin are not here, so we can't eat alone. Good things should be eaten by the family together, right? Let's work first, and then we can sit down and eat together as a family after we finish the work."
Gu Qingqing said this to Erhua, but also to herself.
When Erhua heard that she couldn’t eat now, she suddenly felt unhappy.
When I heard that I could eat after finishing my work, I immediately became energetic again.
"Mom, then hurry up." Erhua began to urge.
What the Shen family sent over was half a pig, which weighed about 70 kilograms including bones and meat, but it was a little frozen, so it was a bit difficult to handle.
With the help of Dahua and Erhua, Gu Qingqing salted most of the pork in the afternoon.
I kept some fresh meat and planned to chop it up and make stuffing for buns and dumplings in a couple of days.
We pickled a duck and a chicken, but left two fish and a goose unpickled, leaving the rest to be eaten fresh on New Year's Day.
Gu Qingqing asked Dahua to help spread the salt while she did it herself. Even though a charcoal basin was lit in the room, Gu Qingqing and Dahua's hands were still red from the cold.
After putting the meat away, Dahua learned that her mother was going to make some noodles with shredded pork in the evening. She looked at the rabbit in the kitchen basin that had been peeled, washed and frozen by Grandpa Yang, and pointed at it and asked, "Mom, are you not going to eat the rabbit today? How about I put it in the cellar? Otherwise, Dahei will always drool when he sees it."
Gu Qingqing paused while kneading the dough and said to her, "Dahua, there's no rush. Go to the cabin and ask your Grandpa Yang to come for dinner."
"I understand, Mom." Dahua obediently put down the rabbit meat and ran out.
"Sister, wait for me, I'm going too." Erhua ran out.
Seeing them running, Gu Qingqing immediately shouted outside the kitchen, "There's snow on the ground, don't run, walk slowly."
"I know mother."
But Dahua came back with Erhua not long after. "Mom, Grandpa Yang is not coming today. He is drinking with Uncle Zhaodong."
......
That night, under the oil lamp in the kitchen, the sound of slurping noodles could be heard everywhere.
After the meal, Wen Wuyan washed the dishes while Gu Qingqing prepared the braised pig intestines. Now that it was cold, they braised them in the evening so they didn’t have to get up early the next day.
Everything is ready, let the food in the pot slowly cook.
Gu Qingqing then took out five tangerines and said, "This is for everyone to try, but it's a little cold. If you're afraid of the cold, you can put it next to the stove to cool down before eating it. If you're not afraid of the cold, you can eat it now."
Gu Qingqing said this as she gave everyone present an orange.
Daxin and Dahua turned it over and over in their hands, looking around, their eyes full of reluctance to eat it.
Erhua was much more generous. She had wanted to eat it for a long time. Now that her mother finally gave it to her, Erhua took the orange in her hand, rubbed it on her body, and then put it into her mouth.
Gu Qingqing saw it out of the corner of her eye and quickly raised her head and said, "Erhua, this is not how you eat it."
As soon as she finished speaking, Erhua had already bitten the orange peel, and then her little face wrinkled.
Bah Bah!
"Mom, this thing doesn't taste good, bah!" Erhua spat out the bitter and sour water in her mouth and touched her face with her hands.
At the same time, the small kitchen was filled with the unique bright fragrance of citrus.
Gu Qingqing took the tangerine from Erhua's hand and couldn't help laughing, "Who told you to stuff it into your mouth without asking how to eat it? You can't eat the skin. You have to peel the skin and look at the flesh inside. That's what you want to eat."
Gu Qingqing explained as she peeled the skin slowly so that Dahua and Daxin could see it clearly.
Daxin didn't want to eat it at first, but seeing Dahua and his uncle peeling the fruits, he couldn't help but start learning how to peel them.
After Gu Qingqing completely peeled off the skin, she broke open the flesh and handed it to Erhua, "Here, you can eat it now."
Erhua had just chewed the skin, so she stuffed a piece of fruit flesh into her mouth with some hesitation. After chewing it, her whole face lit up.
"Mom, this is delicious, sour and sweet, I like it." Erhua said as he took another piece and put it in his mouth.
With Erhua being the bravest person to eat the tangerine, Li Xin also broke off a piece and put it in his mouth. His eyes lit up. It was so sweet and juicy. It was the most delicious fruit he had ever eaten.
Dahua was not so lucky. She watched the fruit flesh in her hand being put into her mouth, and the next second her brows were tightly knitted together and her eyes narrowed.
Noticing this, Daxin asked, "Dahua, do you think this is delicious?"
Dahua looked at Erhua eating happily and nodded too.
"Give me some of mine. I don't like it and it's not tasty at all." Li Xin said as he handed the one in his hand to Dahua.
"I do not want."
"Can you exchange with me? Mine tastes terrible."
Dahua looked down at what she had in her hand, then looked at Daxin, who looked disgusted and didn't want what she had.
She wondered in her heart, could it be that his suffering was even worse than hers?
Dahua thought that Li Xin had a hard life in the past, so if he said something was not tasty, it must not be tasty. Although the one in her hand was a little bitter, it smelled sweet.
Dahua handed hers to Li Xin half-believingly, and at the same time took his, thinking that she would let him eat the good food while she could eat the bad food.
Seeing that she agreed, Daxin hurriedly swapped the two people's fruit flesh and immediately put the big flower fruit into his own mouth.
The bitter taste spread in his mouth, but Daxin was eating it with great joy. No wonder Dahua didn't like it, it turned out to be bitter.
On the other side, Dahua also ate the fruit flesh that Daxin gave her. But in a moment, her eyes widened and she blurted out, "Yours is sweet, and mine is bitter. Yours is better than mine, so I won't exchange it with you. Give mine back to me."
Daxin twisted his body and refused to give it to him, and said stubbornly, "Really? I think yours tastes better. Although it's not very sweet at the first bite, it is very sweet when you eat it again."
It seemed as if he was really afraid that Dahua would snatch the fruit away. The citrus flesh was not very big, so he simply stuffed it all into his mouth, leaving Dahua no chance.
"You..." Dahua looked at him slightly angrily.
Daxin was unmoved. He suddenly thought of a word he had learned two days ago. He turned to look at Wen Wuyan and said, "Uncle, this tastes bitter, but it will become sweet after a while. Is this what bitterness turns into sweetness?"
......
On the 22nd day of the twelfth lunar month, Gu Qingqing woke up and turned around to see that only herself and Sanhua were lying on the kang. Wen Wuyan had left for some unknown reason.
When she got up, washed and was about to go to the kitchen to cook, she saw a bowl of steaming noodles on the small table in the kitchen. There were two poached eggs on the noodles and a thick meat sauce on the side.
Looking at the other bowls, there were only noodles and a thin layer of meat sauce and pickles.
Gu Qingqing looked puzzled, pointed at the bowl with eggs and asked, "Wen Wuyan, what is this bowl for?"
"Qingqing, you forgot that today is your birthday."
strictlysupreme