Chapter 39: Building a House 3/3

Busy with her business, as soon as everyone arrived, Jin Xiaoye greeted them and then left.

Once Jin Xiaoye left, everyone began digging pits under the guidance of the master.

When building a house, you couldn’t start directly from the ground; you had to dig several trenches first, then tamp the earth into walls in the trenches. This way, some of the walls would be underground, making them sturdy enough.

The laborers got busy, while Li Qingzhi took Jin’s mother to the kitchen to prepare the meal.

Their original kitchen hadn’t been demolished yet, so they could still use it to cook. However, there was only one pot, so they might have to cook in batches.

As soon as they entered the kitchen, Jin’s mother said, “Ah… Ah Qing, maybe we shouldn’t cook this duck…”

“We should.” Li Qingzhi smiled.

The people helping were doing physical labor, and they usually only got two meals a day. They should have something good to eat.

The ducks at this time weren’t fat, and there wasn’t much meat on them. Split among so many people, wouldn’t each person only get a small piece?

Jin’s mother was a very introverted person. Hearing Li Qingzhi say this, she didn’t know what to say and just silently prepared the meal.

She mixed the duck blood with water and salt, steaming it during cooking. The duck’s internal organs were also steamed with ginger slices to remove any unwanted flavors, and the salted fish was also steamed…

If the pot hadn’t been big enough and the steaming rack large enough, and if they hadn’t made two pots of rice, they might not have been able to steam everything!

After cooking the rice and putting it in the rice bucket, Jin’s mother added water to the pot and started cooking the duck blood and tofu soup.

Li Qingzhi found that Jin’s mother’s cooking was more exquisite than that of other people in the village, which was normal because both Jin’s father and Uncle Jin earned money by cooking.

The tofu was bought by Li’s father early in the morning, and then duck blood and duck innards were added. Such a pot of soup might not be up to the standards of wealthy people, but for the villagers, it was already a good dish.

Unfortunately, there was neither a thickening agent, nor MSG or chicken essence to enhance the flavor of the soup.

Li Qingzhi felt a bit out of place. Initially, he would even eat medicinal herbs, but now he cared about the taste of food!

Thinking like this, Li Qingzhi picked some pumpkin leaves from the ground and ate them raw, pressing them down a bit.

The taste of fresh, tender plants was actually quite good.

Jin’s mother: “…” Pumpkin leaves were edible; sometimes they used them to dye glutinous rice balls. But eating them raw… Li Qingzhi wasn’t a goat!

What was wrong with this son-in-law of hers? Had his brain really been damaged?

Jin’s mother glanced at Li Qingzhi with a conflicted expression, then fished out a whole duck gizzard from the pot and cut one-third of it for Li Qingzhi. “Ah Qing, you eat.”

She didn’t cut the gizzard finely and put it in the soup, just to leave it for Li Qingzhi and the two children to eat.

Li Qingzhi smiled and ate it, then went out to invite everyone to eat.

Jin’s mother had borrowed some extra bowls in advance and served a bowl of tofu soup to each of the workers, along with a piece of salted fish for each.

As for rice, they could have as much as they wanted; they would cook more if needed.

When hiring people to work, it was essential to feed them well.

“This is the first time I’ve come out to help, and I’ve never eaten so well.”

“This salted fish is really appetizing!”

“The rice is also clean, it’s white rice.”

“This tofu soup is delicious, not inferior to the one made by Dajiang at all!”

…

Jin Dajiang chuckled amiably. His wife’s cooking skills were learned from him. Everyone was very satisfied with the meal. Li Qingzhi saw that there were quite a few duck livers and intestines in his bowl of tofu soup, and his salted fish was larger than others’, but he couldn’t help but smile.

He felt his mother-in-law’s care!

Half of the duck’s internal organs were in the bowls of Li Qingzhi, Li Damao, and Li Ermao. Li Laogen couldn’t help but grumble when he saw this, but he only dared to grumble privately. He didn’t dare say anything in front of Jin’s mother, even though Jin’s mother was actually quite easy-going.

Li Laogen carried his bowl and went to talk to his younger brother, Zhao Laosan, telling him how much delicious food he had eaten before and how good the leftovers from Zhu’s family tasted.

Zhao Laosan listened to Li Laogen talking about these things for the first time, and he listened very seriously, his eyes full of longing. “That’s really nice…”

The meal in the afternoon still had salted fish, along with stewed duck with dried bamboo shoots, but most of it was actually dried bamboo shoots.

However, people in Miaoqian Village don’t usually have access to dried bamboo shoots.

There was a bamboo forest in the village, and it wasn’t difficult to find bamboo shoots in the spring, but dried bamboo shoots were something many families only bought for the Lunar New Year.

When Jin’s mother served the dishes, she gave two duck legs to the two children and gave Li Qingzhi a piece of good meat.

Li Laogen, based on his experience from the previous meal, found Jin’s mother and asked her for a piece of good meat. Jin’s mother, being thin-skinned, gave him a piece.

Li Laogen couldn’t keep things to himself. Li Qingzhi thought he would eat the meat immediately, but to his surprise, Li Laogen took out some used oiled paper and wrapped the meat in it, then gave it to Zhao Laosan. “Laosan, take this back and let Xiaodouzi eat it.”

Zhao Laosan’s wife had a son and a daughter with her former husband. After being with Zhao Laosan, she had another son named Zhao Xiaodou, who was eight years old this year.

It was the first time Zhao Laosan had received something from Li Laogen, and he was somewhat surprised. “I’ll take the meat to Xiaodouzi later.”

“Come tomorrow, you can bring Xiaodouzi over to have a meal here. The food here is good!” Li Laogen added.

“That’s not really appropriate…” Zhao Laosan hesitated a bit but also felt tempted. They usually didn’t have meat dishes at home, at most just an egg.

“What’s inappropriate about it? We’re all family!” Li Laogen patted his brother’s shoulder. “In this household, I’m still in charge!”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Laosan immediately agreed.

However, when Zhao Laosan and his family went to work the next day, Li Laogen found Li Qingzhi. “Ah Qing, my brother wants to bring his child tomorrow… The child is eight years old and can play with Damao and Ermao.”

He looked at Li Qingzhi hopefully. Li Qingzhi said, “That sounds good.”

Seeing Li Qingzhi’s agreement, Li Laogen immediately felt relieved.

The weather had cooled down recently, so everyone worked for a whole day until the evening before leaving.

It was around this time that Jin Xiaoye returned. She brought back some more salted fish and also brought a bundle of kelp and a large piece of pork.

Jin’s mother hadn’t left yet, and when she saw the piece of pork, she couldn’t help but cover her chest. “Xiaoye, why did you buy so much meat?” This meat weighed five or six kilograms. It would probably cost a significant sum of money to buy it; even if they had money, they couldn’t spend it like this!

She thought today was the first day Jin Xiaoye would slaughter a duck, but Jin Xiaoye brought back so much meat…

“Mom, everyone is here to help, we can’t skimp on meals. Half of this meat will be used to stew dried tofu tomorrow, and the other half will be salted and steamed the day after tomorrow,” Jin Xiaoye stuffed the meat into her mother’s hands, “Mom, you eat more then!”

Jin’s mother felt her hands trembling! So much meat!

But at this moment, Jin Xiaoye continued, “Mom, from now on, our family will eat meat every day. You just need to cook, don’t worry about me spending money!”

Jin’s mother couldn’t hold back anymore, “You… you… Eating meat every day, is that what it means to live?”

Saying this, Jin’s mother cautiously looked at Li Qingzhi, fearing he might blame Jin Xiaoye for spending too much.

Li Qingzhi said, “Mom, I listen to Xiaoye!”

Jin’s mother was touched instantly.

Although this son-in-law loved to eat grass, he was still a good person.