Chapter 64: Smell the Spring and Know the Numbers

As the name suggests, the scallion pot stove^[1]scallion cake or can be refers to dishes prepared using a traditional Chinese scallion pot stove.must have the taste of scallion. After Wen Jiajia tried it, she realized that it not only has the taste of scallion but also the taste of pepper and salt.

“What a delicious cake!” Wen Xuan’s cheeks were puffed up like a squirrel, and she took another bite of the cake without waiting to swallow it.

Her palate is very inclusive, and she can accept flavors from any region.

There was a sister-in-law from Yunnan province living in Beishan. She once brought a plate of houttuynia^[2]is a plant with heart-shaped leaves that smells like fish when crushed. It’s used in Asian cooking and traditional medicine. to tease Wen Chun and Wen Xuan. Wen Chun took a bite and spat it out, but Wen Xuan ate it with great relish, even finishing the whole plate and actively asking for more. As a result, Wen Jiajia suspected that Wen Xuan’s biological father might be from the southwest region.

It’s okay to eat Houttuynia cordata; she even eats soy milk.

Xie Yang and Teacher Shen are both from the capital. One day, they had an idea to use the leftover residue from Wen Jiajia’s making of mung bean powder to ferment it into bean juice. The smell was just like a pair of stinky socks that had been worn for a month and then soaked in water. Several families in Beishan temporarily left their homes and ran far away to avoid the smell until the bean juice cooled down.

At that time, Wen Chun and Wen Xuan had just returned home from school. Wen Chun smelled the odor and ran away. Wen Xuan followed the smell to Xie Yang’s house, asked for a bowl, and sat on a bench to drink it leisurely.

That was not enough; she also ran home, holding a bowl to get some soy milk, so much so that Wen Jiajia still thinks that bowl stinks.

At this moment, Wen Jiajia was not surprised at all that she liked to eat scallion pot stoves.

Wen Chun felt that this cake was ordinary. She took a bite and chewed it, then took another bite and tasted it.

Then, she put the cake she had taken two bites of into Wen Xuan’s bowl. “I don’t like it.”

Wen Jiajia asked, “Why?”

“It tastes weird, sweet, and salty.” Wen Chun frowned and quickly picked up the cauliflower with chopsticks and stuffed it into her mouth.

Wen Jiajia understood that this girl didn’t like pastries with both sweet and salty flavors. It would be fine if only one flavor was prominent, but she didn’t like it if both were.

“You can only say this at home. If someone invites you to their house for dinner, even if you don’t like the food, you can’t say it doesn’t taste good in front of them.” Wen Jiajia peeled two shrimps for her and taught her carefully.

Wen Chun nodded vigorously and used chopsticks to pick up a piece of shrimp meat and put it into her mouth. “I definitely won’t tell them. If I do, they’ll be sad. And next time I have something delicious, they won’t treat me to a meal.”

“Yes, that’s great!” Not wanting to eat the scallion pot stove, Wen Jiajia put the millet porridge left over from the morning into the pot to warm it up and let Wen Chun eat it with it.

Today, every household in Beishan has a bowl of crayfish, and there are at least ten shrimps in each net.

Ten crayfishes are not enough to eat. If there are fewer people in the family, each person can get two or three, but if there are more people, each person can only get one.

It’s over now.

The craving in their stomachs was aroused, but there were not enough crayfish to appease it. Many people were eager to take another bite of the shrimp soaked in garlic soup.

“How do you cook these shrimp?” someone asked. “Can you tell me?”

“Sure,” Wen Jiajia replied, handing over the ingredients and cooking method she had just written down.

After giving it to the first inquirer, another person soon came by in a hurry…

Can’t they just come together? Wen Jiajia thought.

With no other choice, she wrote it down again. The second woman treated the paper like a priceless treasure, holding it in her arms and said, “Is this method a family heirloom? Wei Daixiao doesn’t know.”

“…”

Wen Jiajia smiled awkwardly. “No, what are you thinking? This is just an ordinary recipe; many people know how to make it.”

The woman was relieved. She was just afraid it was a family secret recipe that Wen Jiajia had shared without knowing. After all, Wen Jiajia was known for her generosity in the family compound.

People kept coming to the house, and it wasn’t until 8:30 that they finally stopped.

Wei Dai didn’t come back until almost nine o’clock. Seeing Jia Jia looking listless, he thought she had a fever.

“Did you catch a cold today?” he asked. “It’s not impossible. After all, it rained last night, and the temperature was low, and the wind was strong in the morning. You refused to put on a coat when I asked you to go out.”

Wen Jiajia stood up, her eyes wide open. “What kind of cold am I feeling? I just feel like I’m stuck in a cycle.”

Wei Dai was puzzled. “What cycle?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Wen Jiajia said, waving it off as she went to her room to grab her clothes and take a shower.

Wei Dai smiled. “You’re still waiting for me to come back and take a bath together!”

Wen Jiajia rolled her eyes. “You wish. I was just delayed by something. I didn’t wait for you!”

Wei Dai took off his shirt, revealing his muscular upper body. “Get two more buckets of water; let’s go together.”

It was late at night.

After a workout, the couple felt the afterglow of love. As their intimacy continued, it started to rain outside.

Listening to the rain hitting the eaves, Wen Jiajia said, “This rain is very considerate. It’s been falling at night for the past two days.”

Wei Dai replied, “Summer rain is usually like this. It will be hard for you to ride your bike tomorrow, so try to ride slowly.”

“Slow down, or I’ll be late.”

“Then let’s leave early,” Wei Dai suggested. He couldn’t understand why Wen Jiajia always insisted on being on time for work.

Wen Jiajia pulled his earlobe. “I have to be punctual… Everyone knows that leaving early ensures you won’t be late.”

Deciding to share some good news, she said, “It was rumored in the factory today that the new factory will open on September 1st. It was specially chosen as an auspicious day. Everyone said there must be a reason for choosing this day. It’s a good day for moving.”

Wei Dai tapped her lips. “Don’t talk about such things. Let’s not get involved in those topics.”

“I’m just saying it at home,” she assured him.

The closer the relocation date got, the more nervous Wen Jiajia became. She always felt like a bird about to leave its nest, leaving her safe zone to start a new life in a strange place alone.

She added, “Last month, the pharmaceutical factory had a recruitment exam. Several of our army kids went, but none of them passed. I don’t know when the new factory’s exam will start.”

Wen Jiajia originally thought it would start at the same time as the pharmaceutical factory, but then she reconsidered. After all, there was also the chemical factory.

It’s the first recruitment exam for the new factory, and they can’t just follow one side.

Wei Dai said, “It’s only been two months. The teachers in our army are actually not as good as those in the city. Many teachers who graduated from regular normal schools are unwilling to come here. In the future… when Chun’er and Xuanxuan want to go to middle school, let them go to the city.”

Wen Jiajia agreed. “Well, there’s no rush for that.”

“You were anxious to get Chun’er into elementary school yesterday.”

Wen Jiajia thought, how can it be the same? In three or four years, the social situation will be completely different, and then they can consider studying.

Afraid that the perceptive Wei Dai would notice something was wrong, Wen Jiajia closed her eyes and pretended to be extremely sleepy.

Wei Dai put his arm under her neck, turned sideways, hugged her, and closed his eyes to sleep.

It was cold and rainy at night, and when the temperature rose again, his wife would not let him hold her like that.

Not only would she not let him, but she also kicked him away and made him lie further away.

—

The temperature rise seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. Yesterday, they were worried about the muddy roads, but today the temperature suddenly soared. Sitting in the office felt like sitting in a furnace.

Summer is the peak production season for pharmaceutical factories, and Wen Jiajia has been getting busier and busier during this period.

Not only did she have to do her job, but she also had to help Sister Xiaoru in the workshop manage the workshop affairs.

Team leader Wei was visiting relatives recently. His father-in-law and his family worked in the northwest, and he heard that his father-in-law was in poor health and hospitalized. Under such circumstances, how could he not take his wife to visit her father?

Therefore, the production of the sixth workshop could only be taken over by the deputy team leader, Sister Xiaoru. She had just taken over the entire workshop and was still a little flustered. Director Xue had no choice but to arrange for Wen Jiajia to help her through the busy early stages.

At the end of June, countless students graduated.

There was an employee with a strong background who passed the recruitment exam in early July and was able to work in the pharmaceutical factory. One of them was assigned to the sixth workshop.

This person has been following Wen Jiajia recently, and Director Xue intends for her to take care of him so that after she leaves, no bad things will happen in the office because no one will take over her work tasks.

And there are those who have to hurry to take over their parents’ jobs, otherwise, they will have to go to the countryside to become educated youth.

Once you take over, the level returns to the initialization level, so taking over is actually a matter of “cutting flesh to heal wounds^[3]Phrases that refers to doing something painful to fix a problem and make things better in the end.,” and no one would do this unless there was no other way.

There was only one person like this in the sixth workshop. The new girl was quite hardworking. Anyway, she was more pleasing to the eye than the boy who followed her and had to be explained in detail before he could remember everything.

Wen Jiajia has been annoyed by this guy recently. She even suspects that if she were not a woman, this guy would follow her to the toilet.

But Director Xue was so polite to him that Wen Jiajia restrained herself from showing any impatience. Who knew which big boss’s family member he might be? But his presence made her more eager to move to the new factory.

During the dog days of summer, everyone felt wilted.

There was a heavy rain on the day of the Beginning of Autumn, but the temperature did not drop much. It could only be described as a drop in the bucket. Instead, it became even hotter the next day.

Sha Yue returned around this time. When she learned that Wen Jiajia was going to the new factory, she almost cried.

“I can’t bear to see you go,” Sha Yue choked up. “Without you here, what’s the point of me staying in the office?”

“…” Wen Jiajia thought, You started working before me, and you were doing fine before I came.

Sha Yue continued confidently, “It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality.”

What does this have to do with frugality or luxury?

Wen Jiajia comforted her, “Anyway, the two factories are close to each other, so we’ll definitely meet often.”

Sha Yue sighed, “I guess that’s the only way.”

She quickly added, “The food in the new factory isn’t good. You can come to the pharmaceutical factory for lunch from now on. Yibo has a close relationship with our pharmaceutical factory, so if you come, the cafeteria won’t chase you away.”

It’s not easy for outsiders to eat in the pharmaceutical factory canteen without someone to lead them because the canteen is subsidized by the factory, and the cost of meals for employees is much lower than in other factories.

Wen Jiajia agreed, and the two chatted for a long time before stopping.

When Sha Yue came, Dong Qi naturally left.