Chapter 11: Sharing Food

Dinner was ready. There were two tables, one large and one small. The children sat at the lower table, and the adults sat at the upper table. A large pot of rice porridge was served, and each person received a cornbread bun made of coarse grains. Today, there was meat cooked with Chinese cabbage, which was delicious and sweet, and a large plate of wild vegetables. As soon as the dishes were placed on the table, the children started snatching them up.

The adults’ table was a little better. Qi Wanfeng came over after bringing the dishes. No one was allowed to start eating until a-die picked up his chopsticks. Qi Wanfeng hesitated a little before sitting down. He was thinking about his husband and child who were still in the room. He glanced at a-mu and said to a-die, “A-die, Si Lang and An’an are in the room. I want to scoop some food and go to the room to eat with them.”

“Mm, go ahead,” Cao A’shan said, pausing the action of picking up his chopsticks. He nodded and said, “Si Lang just woke up today. Give him more meat.”

There were only a few slices of meat in the pot in total, and you could count them.

Chen Zhu was unhappy when he heard this, and her face immediately lengthened. So, the three of you want to eat separately? But hearing what her man said, she couldn’t directly refute her man in front of the whole family, so she could only endure it.

“We don’t know when this disease will get better. If he just lies in bed like this, doesn’t that mean he’ll have to be served good food and good dishes every day? Those of us who work from morning till night don’t get to eat much meat, but now that he’s lying down and not doing anything, he can eat more meat,” the second brother’s wife, Wang Yan, said pretentiously when she heard this.

The second son, Cao Fuqiang, curled his lips and completely agreed with his wife’s words. “That’s right. Hiring a doctor to see a doctor and buying medicine all cost money. I haven’t seen meat for several days.”

The eldest son, Cao Fuqiang, was an honest man. He was awkward with words and didn’t know what to say. He looked at his second brother speaking like this and felt a little angry. Compared to this lazy and useless second brother, he still preferred the fourth brother who brought money home every month. Comparing these two brothers, it was easy to see who was good and who was bad.

The eldest brother’s wife, Chen Li, held the bowl and was secretly overjoyed.

Now, even without him speaking, someone had said what he wanted to say. This second brother’s wife wasn’t completely useless. But if the fourth uncle just lay on the bed half-dead and they had to support him, to put it bluntly, it would be better if he just died like this. If he kept lying in bed, it would only implicate their family’s lives. He had his calculations in mind.

Sitting at the same table, everyone had different thoughts. Although they were called a family, each family had their plans and ideas.

Qi Wanfeng heard those ugly words in his ears. He silently filled a bowl with enough rice porridge for the three of them to eat, took three cornbread buns, and scooped a little vegetable soup, which didn’t have many slices of meat in it. After preparing it, he said to a-die, “A-die, then I’ll go.”

“Mm, go,” Cao A-die said, hearing those words in his ears, he silently held the bowl, and said, “Eat.”

Cao A-die started eating, and everyone started eating.

Chen Zhu looked at Qi Wanfeng, who had left holding the bowl, and snorted, with displeasure written on his face. He placed a chopstick of meat for his man and said, “Eat, you. It’ll be gone in a while.” But he was still uncomfortable in his heart.

Cao A-die glanced at Chen Zhu beside him, his expression a bit disapproving.

The little ones at the table below were crying because they couldn’t grab any meat. When the second brother’s wife, Wang Yan, saw her son crying because he hadn’t eaten meat, she lovingly hugged him in front of her and coaxed him, giving him a piece of meat from his bowl to eat before he stopped crying.

At the small table, the big pot of Chinese cabbage and meat slices had been snatched up, leaving only a little vegetable juice. There were still some Chinese cabbage and meat slices at their adult table. Cao A-die waved his hand. The eldest brother’s wife, Chen Li, looked at a-mu before using a large bowl to scoop some vegetables over.