Chapter 28.1

Chapter 28

Everyone was waiting in the yard for Lin Haicai. When they saw him coming back with a small basket, Ning Shu stood up. “Why did you bring something again?”

“Grandma asked me to bring it. She said I shouldn’t always eat at Auntie San’s house.” Lin Haicai felt a little embarrassed as he spoke.

He handed the small basket to Ning Shu, which contained eggplants, sweet potatoes, and taro. “This is my ration.”

Seeing the eggplants and taro, Ning Shu’s eyes lit up. Cold salad eggplant, braised eggplant, both were delicious, and she could eat two bowls of rice with taro stewed with pork ribs.

However, there were no pork ribs, but she had meat vouchers, so she would go to the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow. “Haicai, you don’t need to bring rations when you eat here in the future. If Grandma asks you to bring them, just tell her that you’re helping my family gather firewood, pick wild vegetables, and taking care of Sanbao with Yibao and Erbao, so you’re eating here.”

She took Haicai’s vegetables. Haicai was self-sufficient here; he wasn’t just freeloading, it’s just that the people at the old house didn’t know.

“I got it, Auntie San.” Lin Haicai grinned stupidly. He didn’t understand, but as long as he listened, it was fine.

“Okay, let’s eat. Erbao, sit down with Sanbao, and Yibao and Haicai, come and serve the food.”

The children happily ran into the kitchen and saw the dishes already laid out on the table.

They didn’t recognize sushi, but in their eyes, it was rice balls. As for the grey cakes, they were familiar with them.

In this area, during the ancestral worship on the fifteenth of July, there would be grey cakes, which were also a specialty here. Later, because of the abolition of feudal ideas, the custom of ancestral worship on the fifteenth of July was abolished, but some families still made a few grey cakes as snacks, just like making dumplings.

But the grey cakes were made of rice flour, sweet, and when steamed, the color would turn into a dark green, which looked very nice, and had a unique fragrance.

“Mom, I’ve had these cakes before. They’re so delicious,” Erbao’s eyes lingered on the grey cakes, wanting to eat.

Lin Haicai nodded. “Grandma made them before, but they were smaller, not as big as Auntie San’s.”

If Lin’s mother heard his words, bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork would probably be indispensable.

Ning Shu said, “Later, everyone can have one.” She then lifted the lid of the pot, revealing a total of 24 large dumplings. Each big kid would have five, she would have seven, and Sanbao would have two.

“Dumplings.” Yibao, who was waiting by the stove to serve, saw them. “Mom, these dumplings are huge. Much bigger than the ones we had before.”

“These are big dumplings, and the ones we had before were small dumplings,” Ning Shu explained. “Come, each of you take a bowl down.”

“Okay.”

The two children each took a bowl, and Ning Shu carried three bowls.

On the table, there was a plate of grey cakes and a plate of sushi.

Ning Shu said, “Everyone gets one bowl of large dumplings. If you don’t want that, you can eat either the grey cakes or the sushi. The meat-filled ones are here, and the fish-filled ones are there. Each person can only have two, and each person can only have one grey cake. Understand?”

She didn’t know their appetites, but five large dumplings, one grey cake, and two sushi should be enough, right? In this era, sushi was more appropriately called rice balls.

“We understand.”

The three children couldn’t wait and started eating the dumplings eagerly.

Ning Shu used chopsticks to pick up a small piece of dumpling skin and blew on it before feeding it to Sanbao. “Sanbao…”

“Ah…” Sanbao opened his mouth.

Ning Shu fed him the soft dumpling skin. There was no porridge in the evening, but dumpling skin was made from flour and was easily digestible, so it should be fine. Speaking of porridge, she forgot to make bamboo tube porridge again.

Sanbao took a bite of the dumpling skin with his six baby teeth. He usually ate bland food, except for a slightly sweet taste in porridge.

He couldn’t eat any other dishes, so watching the others eat heartily made him salivate a lot.

Now that he was eating the dumpling skin, his eyes lit up. It was delicious.

“Ah…” Sanbao opened his mouth again.

Ning Shu ate a large dumpling herself and then fed Sanbao some dumpling filling.

“When your child’s seat is ready, you can eat by yourself.”

Feeding children was really exhausting. She admired those full-time stay-at-home moms who took care of their children all day long, did all the housework, and cooked three meals a day. It was really tiring.

Compared to them, she had it much easier. Besides feeding Sanbao and cooking, she mainly relied on Yibao and Erbao to take care of the children.

As for cooking, even if she didn’t have the three children, she still had to eat. So strictly speaking, it wasn’t all for the three children.

Speaking of which, she was still lucky. The timing of having children was just right. Yibao and Erbao were considered older siblings now.

If she had given birth earlier, she would have been worried for a long time about whether something would go wrong during childbirth.

When the meal was almost finished, they heard Lin’s father’s voice from outside.

“Third daughter-in-law, we’ve finished cutting the beams and put them in the yard.”

Ning Shu hurriedly went out from the kitchen. It turned out that Lin’s father, along with Lin Guofeng and Lin Guoliang, had taken advantage of the day off to cut down 20 trees before it got dark.

“Okay, thank you, Dad.” Ning Shu was actually quite embarrassed.

She wasn’t thick-skinned enough to easily accept kindness from others. Seeing Lin’s father and his two sons working hard these past few days to help build the brick house and even going to cut trees today, she felt really grateful.

She wondered how she could show her appreciation.

“Don’t mention it,” Lin’s father didn’t say much, just dropped the trees and went back to carry more.

Lin’s father and his two sons carried seven loads in total before finally finishing with the 20 trees. After they finished, Lin’s father said, “I asked about it when I was working this afternoon. We can start setting up the beams in two days. We need to start early, before work begins in the morning.”

“I’ll remember that. Do we need to prepare anything for setting up the beams?” Ning Shu asked.

She remembered in the future they needed to prepare some offerings for the gods, but now that it was a different era, maybe they didn’t need to.

“We don’t need those things. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, before setting up the beams, I’ll have the chicken coop and pigsty fenced in,” Lin’s father said.

“Okay,” Ning Shu replied.

After a brief explanation, Lin’s father took his two sons and left.

Ning Shu stood outside for a while, thinking about whether to buy things for the Lin family when they set up the beams or to invite them to dinner.

After considering it, she decided that inviting them to dinner would be too much trouble, so she opted to give them gifts instead.

She didn’t like bothering people. If she gave gifts, she’d give them meat, something practical.

Originally, she planned to buy pork ribs from the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow, which would go well with the taro Lin Hai brought.

But if they were setting up the beams in two days, she might as well go after that and buy more then.

Back at the Lin family’s house, Lin Hai came back shortly after they started eating, holding the uneaten half of an apple.

“Mom, I’m back,” Lin Hai bounced into the room happily, seeing everyone still eating.

“Did you eat at Aunt Ning’s house again?” Qian Aifen naturally found out from her mother-in-law.

It was probably because the child had helped Aunt Ning dig vegetables in the afternoon, so he stayed there for dinner.

Qian Aifen didn’t think the vegetables he dug were worth a meal, but she thought the third sister-in-law was just being polite by inviting the child over.

She’d have to send more firewood over later.

“Yeah, Aunt Ning even asked me to come over for breakfast tomorrow morning,” Lin Hai grinned proudly.

“Hey, Hai Cai, what did Aunt Ning serve for dinner?” Lin Hai Wen asked with envy. Despite being the eldest among the grandchildren at 10 years old, he was still just a big kid among the children and was at the age where he loved to eat.

“Well…” Lin Hai Cai counted on his fingers, “We had big wontons with meat inside, and big rice balls, very big , about this big…” He gestured a circle with his fingers, “I ate two small rice balls, one with meat inside and the other with fish, and also… I ate a gray dumpling.”

Every time Lin Hai Cai mentioned a dish, everyone’s mouth watered.

“Hai Cai, why did Aunt Ning invite you for dinner?” Eight-year-old Lin Haiwu couldn’t wait to ask.

It had been a long time since he had eaten meat, and he wondered if he could still join in like his brother.

Lin Haicai didn’t realize his brother wanted to intercept his “self-reliance” plan and happily replied, “Aunt Ning said I was good, said I took care of Little San Bao, said I helped her gather firewood, and also helped her dig wild vegetables.”

Lin Haicai had never realized how good he was until Aunt Ning praised him.

“Then I’ll also go take care of Little San Bao, gather firewood, and dig wild vegetables for Aunt Ning. Will she also give me meat to eat?” Lin Hai Wu asked.

“What are you thinking? Are you not going to school anymore?” Qian Aifen asked irritably.

Unexpectedly, Lin Haiwu replied, “Meat is better than going to school. I’d rather not go to school if there’s meat to eat.” The 8-year-old child was full of rebelliousness. He just didn’t like going to school.

“I’m going to Aunt Ning’s house for breakfast tomorrow.” Lin Haicai boasted proudly again, “And this apple, Aunt Ning gave it to me. It’s so delicious.”

“Then give me a bite.” Lin Hai Wu asked his brother.

“No.” Lin Hai Cai hugged the apple tightly and ran out.

Lin Xiaojing listened to them mentioning Ning Shu, feeling annoyed.

Zhang Qinfang pursed her lips. She also disliked Ning Shu, but she dared not speak up now, fearing that Ning Shu would go to the police again.

“By the way, Xiaojing, I bought an aluminum lunch box for you,” Lin’s mother remembered the lunch box and seeing her daughter silent since she came back home, she mentioned the lunch box to cheer her up.

Lin Xiaojing was somewhat surprised, “Really? Let me see.” Upon hearing about the new aluminum lunch box, her mind focused on it.

“After we finish eating, I’ll show it to you,” Lin’s mother said.

“Mm,” Lin Xiaojing had wanted to buy an aluminum lunch box for a long time, but unfortunately, their family didn’t have an industrial ticket.

Her mother had suggested asking Ning Shu before, but she disagreed; she didn’t want Ning Shu’s things. “Mom, how did you suddenly manage to buy the aluminum lunch box? Did you get an industrial ticket?”

Lin’s mother had already prepared her answer, “No industrial ticket, it’s a defective product from the supply and marketing cooperative.”

She had coordinated with Ning Shu and the people at home in advance to avoid getting caught.

“It’s fine even if it’s a defective product. Being able to buy defective products without a ticket is great,” Lin Xiaojing was happy in her heart.

Ning Shu didn’t know that Lin Xiaojing had come back from school; she was bathing the three children.

After bathing, Ning Shu went to brush her teeth. While she was brushing her teeth, Yibao came to her side, “Mom, should I and Erbao brush our teeth?” Mom said this morning that he and Erbao were big kids now and should brush their teeth too, so why wasn’t she calling them now? Did big kids only need to brush their teeth in the morning and not at night?

Ning Shu: “…”, She was thinking about sending tofu milk to Lin Guodong and needed a bicycle ticket, so she forgot to buy toothpaste and toothbrushes for the two babies today. “Sorry, Yibao, I forgot to buy toothpaste and toothbrushes for you today. I’ll buy them tomorrow.”

“It’s okay, Mom,” Yibao said kindly, “Mom, I’ll go wash clothes first.”

He had learned how to wash clothes, so he didn’t need to trouble grandma to do it anymore.

Ning Shu swore to buy them tomorrow morning. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

After the mother and son finished washing clothes together and dried them, they returned to their respective rooms to sleep.

Meanwhile, in the room, Erbao, who was taking care of Sanbao, had already forgotten about one thing.

Around eight thirty, there was some movement outside, and Ning Shu knew that Lin Xiaoshan had arrived.

Lin Xiaoshan spent the whole day digging bamboo shoots today. There are many bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest, and not many people are digging them, so Lin Xiaoshan dug a lot.

However, he couldn’t exchange all of them. He needed to take out some to give to his family.

Otherwise, if he didn’t go to work and didn’t do any work at home, it would make his grandmother angry.

If his grandmother didn’t see anything for him to go to work, he couldn’t exchange anymore.

“Auntie, I have two bags of bamboo shoots today,” Lin Xiaoshan said, wanting to dig a little more while there were still many bamboo shoots.

“I’ll carry them,” seeing Lin Xiaoshan thin and weak, Ning Shu knew it would be very hard for him to carry two bags of bamboo shoots to her doorstep.

However, because Lin Xiaoshan was still a child, his strength was limited, so the two bags of bamboo shoots were not as many as imagined.

In September, there are winter bamboo shoots, hairy bamboo shoots, stone bamboo shoots, and kind bamboo shoots. Among them, hairy bamboo shoots are the biggest and heaviest, and they grow underground, which makes them the easiest to find.

So Lin Xiaoshan was looking for hairy bamboo shoots. Hairy bamboo shoots are the kind that are used to wrap rice dumplings when they grow up.

“Let me weigh them first,” Ning Shu weighed the hairy bamboo shoots in batches, “a total of 48 catties.” She rounded it up to an integer for Lin Xiaoshan.

48 catties sounded like a lot, but if it were an adult digging, one person could dig up over 200 catties in a day.

“Xiaoshan, what do you want to exchange? You said before that you can exchange for candy, rice, eggs, anything,” Ning Shu asked.

“I want to exchange for rice,” Lin Xiaoshan said without hesitation.

There’s still candy and eggs, no rush to exchange. When he can still exchange for rice, he wants to exchange more rice.

“Alright, let me give you yesterday’s first. Here are 10 pieces of candy, and here is 3 catties of rice,”

Ning Shu gave Lin Xiaoshan what she owed him from last night, then calculated today’s, “Today’s 48 catties of bamboo shoots, four catties of bamboo shoots for one catty of rice, exactly enough to exchange for 12 catties. Can you take it?”