Chapter 35

The two cubs wandered around for a long time before they picked the pepper peppers. Han Cheng had already returned home from work and was checking Xiao Doubao’s hands to change his dressings.

Xiao Doubao is obedient and quiet, and won’t move or scratch, so he keeps his hands well and recovers well. He should be free of bandages next week.

“Xiao Doubao called me Mom today.” Su Xiaoxiao squatted down and rubbed Xiao Doubao’s head, her smile reached her eyes, sharing her happiness with Han Cheng.

“Really?” Han Cheng looked at his cute little quiet son. How could he not believe it?

“Xiao Doubao, call father?”

Xiao Doubao looked at Han Cheng with his big black and white eyes. He shook his head and looked at Su Xiaoxiao, who was behind his Father.

Han Cheng: “…” Why does it look like his son is despising him? Did he guess it right?

Su Xiaoxiao laughed with joy.

The cubs who went on missions also came home, and little Fantuan yelled at the door: “Mom, mom, your babies have successfully completed the mission and are back!”

Su Xiaoxiao got up and saw the two cubs pick up the clothes in front of them and make them into a pocket shape; it was filled with peppers.

Embarrassed, Su Xiaoxiao, reached out and touched her forehead: “You two, you didn’t pick all of the peppers in Grandma’s garden, did you?” 

‘I did tell them to pick a few, right?’

Little Fantuan said, “Little Zhuzi picked it, not me. I told him that Mom only wants a few, and I just picked five. I picked only five. Little Zhuzi picked a total of 17, and we have a total of 22 peppers!”

Little Fantuan is very sensitive to numbers after learning how to count. He has to count everything. If it weren’t for the fact that Su Xiaoxiao cooked too many rice grains, he would have to count how many grains Su Xiaoxiao used for cooking.     

Little Zhuzi said, “It’s okay, Aunt Su. We didn’t pick the little ones. My grandmother didn’t eat much pepper. It used to rot in the trees.”

All right, it’s just a matter of using them.

Su Xiaoxiao broke off one of the green peppers and tasted it, which seemed not very spicy. The rest can be used to make a tiger skin pepper at night.

Su Xiaoxiao only cut pepper and put it in several of the scallops; she didn’t put pepper in the cubs’ share.

Scallops can be steamed for eight minutes, so Su Xiaoxiao didn’t steam them until Han Cheng come home. Seafood will be especially delicious if it is served on the table fresh from the steamer.

In fact, it is best to place mung bean starch noodles under the scallops. Unfortunately, there are mung bean starch noodles. Su Xiaoxiao cut several eggplants and placed them under the scallops. In this way, the eggplants can absorb the juice from the scallops, which is convenient and delicious.

Han Cheng cleared the table and served the rice. Su Xiaoxiao’s scallops also came out of the pot.

As soon as the lid was lifted, the onlookers exclaimed in astonishment.

Little Zhuzi has been very frugal since he was young. He hasn’t eaten much seafood in his memory. He can’t help swallowing his saliva when he smelled it.

Fantuan took a breath of fragrance and began to show off: “Little Zhuzi, I didn’t lie to you, did I? Every time my mother cooks a new dish, it’s more delicious, isn’t it better than the Fried Chinese leek dumplings in the morning?”

Little Zhuzi nodded: “They are both delicious, every dish is delicious.”

Every time Su Xiaoxiao makes something, Fantuan updates his views on which dish is the most delicious. Last night’s lotus root soup and stone snail, this morning’s fried Chinese leek dumplings, and now’s scallops are not more delicious than each other, but each one is different. As Fantuan said, each one is the new first.

Han Cheng didn’t like seafood very much in the past because it was fishy. Even if he cooked a lot of shredded ginger, there would still be a fishy smell. But what Su Xiaoxiao cooked did not have any fishy smell at all, instead, it was very fragrant and refreshing.

“Unexpectedly, when you combine garlic and seafood, they won’t have a fishy smell.” The little bit of lard residue and pepper is the finishing touch—a little spicy, a little salty, and very refreshing.

Han Cheng has never seen this practice before. He wants to swallow his tongue.

Even Han Cheng is like this, let alone a few cubs. Even the shells are licked clean and can’t be thrown away.

Su Xiaoxiao also likes it very much. The spicy and tasty wild scallops are very good. It’s invincible with garlic. This is also the first time she has done this. She didn’t expect it to be delicious.

“If seafood is cheaper than meat, you can buy more seafood to eat in the future. It will be delicious if it’s steamed with garlic, but unfortunately, there is not enough oil, otherwise, there are many other ways.” You don’t have to think about frying meals with oil because there’s no oil.

“Shellfish and crabs are cheaper because they don’t have much meat, and most of them don’t need tickets. But some still need tickets, such as shrimp and fish,” Han Cheng said.

Su Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered hearsay saying that the Huangpu River was flooded with yellow croakers, and the poor people in Mordu could not afford to eat, so they could only eat mitten crabs. She doesn’t know the validity of this hearsay.

But shells and crabs are far less popular than meat at this time.

“Shells and crabs are very good. We can eat them once or twice a week.” Su Xiaoxiao loves to eat crabs, especially frozen crabs, which are delicious without oil.

“I agree!” Fantuan was the first to raise his hand, and the others naturally had no objection.

After dinner, Fantuan was not willing to throw away the shells and was not sure how many he could keep. Su Xiaoxiao said that he could only keep two for digging worms. If he keeps too much food at home, it will cause rats to come to their house.

Fantuan finally tried bargaining and asked to keep four. His reason was that if he kept two, they would still need another two shells for Doubao and Zhuzi when they dig for earthworms.

Su Xiaoxiao had no choice but to let him keep four.

When the children went to take a nap, Han Cheng and Su Xiaoxiao discussed the matter between Zhuzi and Grandma.

Han Cheng said: “Grandma is fine. She can leave the hospital tomorrow morning. Zhao Xianfeng will send someone to tell her in the afternoon. If she doesn’t want to, we can’t force her.”

Su Xiaoxiao couldn’t find the reason why she would refuse the offer: “They must tell her clearly that we won’t touch her money, we will save it for Zhuzi to go to school later. We will just use the tickets. She and Zhuzi can eat their breakfast at their house, while lunch and dinner must be eaten at our home, and you can say that Zhuzi and Fantuan can study and improve together.”

Zhuzi’s Grandma only wanted to make money to buy books for Zhuzi, so she probably paid much attention to Zhuzi’s studies.

Han Cheng nodded: “Don’t worry, I know what to say.”

When Su Xiaoxiao noticed Han Cheng looked a little tired, she asked him to rest first.

Han Cheng lay down and Su Xiaoxiao sat beside the bed and gently massaged his temples.

Han Cheng closed his eyes, pulled one of her hands, put it on his lips, and kissed it gently, then squeezed Su Xiaoxiao’s palm before releasing it.

He hadn’t understood the meaning of the sentence ” Hundreds of tempered steels turned into soft fingers.” before. Since he married this delicate and simple wife, he fully understood the meaning of this sentence. Even if there was any great worry or anger, he had, it would disappear automatically when he was with Su Xiaoxiao. ^[1]This is from the Song of Fufeng, left by Liu Kun, a Chinese military general and poet of the Jin dynasty, before his death. “Hundreds of tempered steels turned into soft fingers.” comes … Continue reading

Really astonishing. 

After returning to the hospital in the afternoon, a person from the military logistics department came. The person directly told Grandma Zhuzi that she and her grandson’s pension would be handed over to Han Cheng’s family for management, and she and her grandson could eat at Han Cheng’s house.

Grandma Zhuzi didn’t want to take advantage of their kindness, so she shook her head. “No, no, the food at Han Cheng’s house is too good. We don’t have enough money to pay for our meals. Besides, we have no money and no tickets.”

The people in the room didn’t know how to respond.

Han Cheng was also there, so he repeated what Su Xiaoxiao told him, saying that the money will be saved for Zhuzi’s tuition fees and they don’t need to pay much, just food and meat tickets.

Grandma Zhuzi’s tears came out after listening, but she shook her head and said: “I know you are kind, but the money and tickets are for Zhuzi’s mother. This time I want to leave some meat tickets for Zhuzi to mend his body, but she won’t give them all. All of them were taken away by her. If I don’t give them to her, what will she do after I leave(pass away)? Our old Zhang family has three generations of single biographies. If I leave, then my one and only grandson will be alone. There are only two of us. My poor grandson is only six years old. I’m too old to take care of him for a few years, but his mother said that when her side becomes stable, she will take Zhuzi to live with her, and she promised me that Zhuzi will not change his surname. When he goes there, it is still the root of our old Zhang family. “

Everyone looked at each other after listening.

Is this how Zhuzi’s mother cheated Zhuzi and the old lady to take their pension?

……

T/N: Hi~ Thanks for reading!! New update will be on Saturday. 2-4 chapters! Bye~