Lin Lishan laughed heartily, "It would be best if you leave the day after tomorrow right when you return. I’ll bring so things by tomorrow. Then you can co directly without anything in hand, and hopefully sleep here the night after."
"That’s fine, we’ll see how it goes. Soone’s coming in from outside, it should be Red Pepper with that loud voice of hers. Let’s go out and take a look." With that, Zhou Xiaozheng went out with his wife.
Zhao Yuanyuan bounced in from outside. Seeing them, she greeted them with a smile, "Uncle, Auntie, hello. I heard there’s seafood so I ca over. Hasn’t Jiao Jiao co back yet? You should bring her over soon; I’m bored out of my mind."
Lin Lishan smiled and went forward to grab her hand, "Just in ti, where are your mom and brother?"
Zhao Yuanyuan complained, "You don’t know how slow my brother is. My mom asked him to find my dad so he could drive us directly to Uncle Zhou’s, and we won’t cook dinner, but have a feast instead." She finished, then shouted loudly, "Mom, hurry up."
Zhou Xiaozheng smiled at her, this carefree nature is really like the two of them, "Don’t shout, go have a look in the kitchen yourself first—help yourself to sothing you like."
Zhao Yuanyuan jumped up with excitent and shouted, "I love Uncle Zhou the most, you’re just like Jiao Jiao’s dad; our Jiao Jiao is so understanding too." With that, she pulled Lin Lishan and ran towards the kitchen.
Cheng Hongli ca in from outside, yelling in a hurry, "Why are you running, girl, you’re about to make Aunt Shan fall. Oh my, your character is just like your father’s, all hasty and careless—can’t you be more stable?"
"How much is stability worth? I don’t recognize it, don’t let it delay my reunion with delicacies." Zhao Yuanyuan heard her mother shouting, begrudgingly slowed her pace, and gave Lin Lishan an apologetic smile. She’d forgotten that Jiao Jiao’s mom was not as sturdy as her own, better not cause any accidents by pulling around.
Zhou Xiaozheng watched the mother and daughter banter and couldn’t help but laugh heartily—the Zhao family must be lively all the ti. Zhao Yuanyuan’s character is nice, this child is broad-minded and straightforward; only soone like her could get close to Jiao Jiao, otherwise, their steady-tempered Jiao Jiao wouldn’t be able to handle such vivacity. He was quite happy for her to befriend Jiao Jiao; young girls should be carefree every day, and hopefully, with ti, Jiao Jiao would beco more outgoing.
Lin Lishan laughed loudly, "How am I as weak as you say? Yuanyuan is very nice, don’t bla her." She looked at what Cheng Hongli was carrying—one basket and a cloth bag.
"Hongli, what are you doing, moving house? We have everything here. Bringing a cabbage would have been enough; you brought so much, what about your own ho?"
Cheng Hongli shook her head and headed to the kitchen, "What’s ’everything’? Between our families, there’s no need for formality. I brought so sausages for you to try, homade from ho."
She didn’t ntion she planned to bring all the homade sausages from ho, wanting to see if they fit their couple’s taste. As for the ten jin of rice in the bag, she didn’t ntion a word. She had seen Lin Lishan was soaking a few jin of rice, and that bag of dried sweet potatoes was sothing she didn’t even glance at. She was about to advise against it, but thought better and decided to bring ten jin of rice herself, as tonight there would be four adults from her family coming to eat.
Nowadays in the county, every household treats yams and sweet potatoes as staple foods. Their family is well-off, eating the supplied grains, and secretly buying so finer grains. Many families have the adults working with no free ti, letting their own kids go to the suburbs to gather wild vegetables to mix with their food. Other than the walkway, the yard is all planted with vegetables and fruits. Even the monthly rationed flour is only used for guests. Rice is even more precious, used sparingly for white porridge. She didn’t seem to care about anything when shopping downtown.
Yesterday she said the courtyard could be used to plant so vegetables, it shouldn’t be entirely empty. And what did she say? Oh, she said only the flower bed in this courtyard is decent, planting vegetables requires fertilizing, it’s too ssy. Cheng Hongli was speechless and annoyed until Lin Lishan ntioned Xiao Wu’s father had built a large courtyard for him in the village, so there was no fear of having no place to grow vegetables, only then was she relieved.
Cheng Hongli saw Zhou Xiaozheng also followed to the kitchen, and quickly advised, "Brother Zheng, you rest in the living room. Shanshan and I can handle it."
Zhou Xiaozheng saw he couldn’t be of help and said, "Take your ti, don’t rush. We’ll have the al when Dashan and the others co back. Get sothing for your daughter to eat first."
Cheng Hongli saw her daughter in the kitchen, excitedly shouting around the seafood on the table and ground, and walked over to pat her, turning to say, "Brother Zheng, see if the bamboo baskets in the kitchen should be put back in the cellar or storage. What’s the point in having them piled here?"
Zhou Xiaozheng stopped as he was about to turn back to the living room, "No need, just leave them for now; wait for Xiao Wu to co and deal with them."
Lin Lishan, busy with cooking, heard this and looked at him strangely, curiously asking, "Brother Zheng, who are they for? Why wait for Xiao Wu? Your brother in the provincial city wouldn’t ask Xiao Wu to deliver late at night, right?"
"For Zuo Lin, Hong Li, Xiao Wu also has two sisters living not far away, right? Let’s also check if there are families close to Jiao Jiao in the county. These all need Xiao Wu to co before deciding. Just leave them be for now, and if not enough, we’ll add more for Ah Guang and the others. We won’t send them today; when Ah Guang cos tomorrow, he can take everything back."
Cheng Hongli watched the couple discussing and walked over to the kitchen stove, planning to start the fire. Before arriving, she saw her daughter by the table and secretly pushed her daughter lightly, asking her to restrain herself and wait till her dad ca to start eating. This child, at her age, still lacks social nuances.
Zhao Yuanyuan was happily eating. Feeling her mother’s touch, she looked up at her mother with confusion, then suddenly realized and quickly picked up so snail at and put it in her mother’s mouth, "Mom, eat up, it’s so fragrant and fresh. Don’t be shy, there are no outsiders here. What’s my relationship with Jiao Jiao? We’re sworn sisters; girlfriends don’t differentiate between each other. Her family is my family, her dad is my dad, her mom is my mom. You don’t have to be polite. Eat—it’s really good."
Zhou Xiaozheng had noticed Red Pepper’s subtle actions long ago, and seeing the utterly bewildered look on her face, he struggled to hold back laughter, quickly stepped out of the kitchen, walked towards the outer gate, and couldn’t hold back his chuckles anymore. Oh dear, he had now seen the power of the mother-daughter clash of misunderstandings.
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