Chapter 30: Rowing 2/3

There were many people in the Jin family, and it was rare to kill a chicken. His grandmother always chopped it up and cooked it with other ingredients in a big pot. He could only get one or two pieces at most, but yesterday? It was a whole chicken, including the chicken wings with the small chicken legs attached, all of it was his, and there was also oily chicken soup to drink, he even ate some extra chicken meat and skin…

Li Qingzhi saw Jin Xiaoshu’s longing look and knew that Jin Xiaoshu was craving it.

Not to mention Jin Xiaoshu, even he was craving it!

Although he had been eating well these days, he had been hungry for many years before. He didn’t mind eating a bit more.

Li Qingzhi appreciated Mr. Yao for taking him to the county town every day, and Yao Zhenfu had lent him books before, so he decided to give them the chicken. Now that they didn’t want it, he wouldn’t force it on them.

Li Qingzhi handed it to Jin Xiaoshu. “Xiaoshu, take it back and share it with your parents.”

“Thank you, brother-in-law!” Jin Xiaoshu looked pleasantly surprised.

At this point, Mr. Yao finally wasn’t awkward anymore and looked at Jin Xiaoye curiously. “Xiaoye, where did you get this boat from?”

“Uncle Yao, I rented it,” Jin Xiaoye smiled.

“You have a lot of ideas, renting a boat is a good idea,” Mr. Yao sighed.

Although Jin Xiaoye was a woman, she had courage and spoke confidently. After going to the county town a few times, she already knew people there. With a boat, she would definitely be able to earn money.

Why was it that Jin Xiaoye, who grew up with his daughter-in-law, had such a different personality?

At this moment, Yao Zhenfu disdainfully looked at Jin Xiaoye. “You, a woman, showing yourself off, it’s not dignified!”

“It’s none of your business!” Jin Xiaoye coldly snorted. There were more than just her rowing boats in the county town. Why did Yao Zhenfu care so much?

Mr. Yao used a bamboo pole to push the boat and walked away with Yao Zhenfu. “Xiaoye, since you have a boat now, I’ll leave first.”

Although Mr. Yao took his son away, they could still hear Yao Zhenfu’s complaints from a distance.

“This Yao Zhenfu is really annoying,” Jin Xiaoshu said.

Jin Xiaoye nodded in agreement and said to Li Qingzhi, “Come here, I’ll help you onto the boat. You need to be careful.”

Jin Xiaoye wasn’t as skilled as Mr. Yao in handling the boat, so Li Qingzhi needed to be careful when boarding. After Li Qingzhi got on the boat, Jin Xiaoye lifted Li Damao and Li Ermao onto the boat by their arms.

Jin Xiaoye wasn’t very strong, but she was used to farm work, so it was easy for her to carry two skinny children.

After Li Damao and Li Ermao got on the boat, they started chattering. “Mom, we’re going to a restaurant today!”

“There’s a table full of dishes! A whole table!”

“Mom, I had fried small fish, it was so delicious.”

…

“You’re going to a restaurant?” Jin Xiaoye looked at Li Qingzhi in shock. Going to a restaurant was one of her dreams!

“Yes,” Li Qingzhi smiled. “Mr. Ding also wanted to invite me to copy books, so he treated me to a meal.”

With that, Li Qingzhi opened the oil-paper package in his hand and took out a piece of fried fish, handing it to Jin Xiaoye. “Xiaoye, try it.”

Jin Xiaoye took a bite and was amazed by the taste of the fried fish.

Daqi already had vegetable oil, and some landlords in Chongcheng County would plant large fields of rapeseed when it was too cold to grow rice. Rapeseed grew in the winter and blossomed into golden rapeseed flowers in the spring. When they matured, they could be taken to the oil mill to extract rapeseed oil.

In addition to rapeseed, peanuts, soybeans, and sesame seeds could also be used to extract oil.

Although there is vegetable oil available, at this time the production is very low, and thus the prices are high.

Ordinary city dwellers would buy some oil, using it to cook by wiping the bottom of the pan, or using it for lamps.

But in the countryside… hardly anyone buys oil for cooking.

Using oil to fry things… that’s something only wealthy people do!

“Brother-in-law, can I eat?” Jin Xiaoshu asked.

“Go ahead and eat,” Li Qingzhi said.

Jin Xiaoshu grinned and quickly grabbed a piece of fried fish. After taking a small bite, he exclaimed, “This is so delicious, how can there be such tasty things in this world…”

He kept talking while eating, but he didn’t really eat much, just nibbling and savoring each bite.

Li Qingzhi smiled and opened several other oil paper packages. “Here we have roasted chicken, sauce duck, braised pork…”

Jin Xiaoshu’s eyes widened, “Brother-in-law, you’re amazing, you’ve managed to get so many delicious things!”

The restaurant’s portions were quite large, but dishes like roasted chicken and sauce duck had little good meat left; Li Qingzhi’s packages mostly contained things like duck heads and chicken feet.

These things were expensive in modern times, but to the people of this era, they were definitely not as good as chicken or duck breasts.

But even so, it was meat!

And most importantly… the food from the restaurant was delicious!

“If you like it, eat more,” Li Qingzhi said.

“Let’s not eat more for now, let’s go back quickly, and we can eat this with rice later,” Jin Xiaoye said.

Jin Xiaoshu also felt that eating such delicious food without rice was too wasteful, “Yes, let’s go back and eat it with rice.”

“Have you not eaten yet? Do you want to buy some steamed buns to fill your stomach?” Li Qingzhi asked.

“If we eat steamed buns now and then leave, it’ll be dark by the time we get home! Let’s go back first,” Jin Xiaoye said. If she had the rowing skills like Mr. Yao, it wouldn’t take much time to get back, but her rowing skills were quite ordinary!

Thinking like this, Jin Xiaoye started rowing back.

Jin Xiaoshu held a bamboo pole and occasionally helped push.

Li Qingzhi knew Jin Xiaoye had just learned to row, so he was initially worried, but Jin Xiaoye rowed fast and well, at most, her turns weren’t as smooth.

“Xiaoye, you’re really clever, you learned to row so quickly,” Li Qingzhi praised.

Jin Xiaoye replied, “I couldn’t do it like this before, I don’t know how I suddenly got so good at it…”

Jin Xiaoshu quickly added, “Sister, we were in a hurry to go home, so we rowed well!”

When they came, they were worried about this and that, so they rowed very slowly, but just now, they didn’t care about anything and ended up rowing exceptionally well.

“You’re really good,” Li Qingzhi said, feeding Jin Xiaoye a piece of braised pork, then calling Li Damao, “Damao, feed your uncle a piece of meat.”

“No need, I’ll eat by myself,” Jin Xiaoshu said.

He could manage without holding the bamboo pole; he could use his hands to eat the meat.

Jin Xiaoshu let go of the bamboo pole, took a piece of meat, and after eating, his voice changed, “Brother-in-law, this meat is sweet, it’s so delicious!” He held the meat in his mouth, reluctant to swallow.

Having eaten something delicious, Jin Xiaoye and Jin Xiaoshu became even hungrier, and their rowing speed increased.

Li Qingzhi had intended to talk to Jin Xiaoye about Yao Zhenfu’s matter, but seeing Li Damao and Li Ermao playing around happily on their boat, he decided against it.

It’s better not to talk about these things in front of the children.

As the day was still long, when they arrived at Miaoqian Village, it wasn’t dark yet.

Then they were surrounded, “Xiaoye, can you row a boat?”

“Xiaoye, where did you get this boat?”

“Xiaoye…”

…

The villagers were too surprised and asked many questions, so much so that Li Laogen, who was eager to get some food from Li Qingzhi, couldn’t even squeeze through.

Li Laogen simply jumped into the water, swam to the boat, and asked Li Qingzhi, “Aqing, did you bring food back?”

Li Qingzhi replied, “I did, Dad. Is there rice at home?”

Li Laogen said, “Yes, Xiaoye asked me to cook, and I did.”