Jiang Shui smiled and said, “With such a big bowl, if my mother didn’t agree, do you think I could have brought it out to give to you?”

Guan Li felt this made a lot of sense.

In the past, Jiang Shui never even had an extra bite.

When they went to pick wild vegetables together, she occasionally brought some food and shared half with Jiang Shui, but Jiang Shui didn’t dare to keep it.

As soon as her mother saw, it was certain it would never make it to Jiang Shui’s stomach.

Jiang Shui urged, “Hurry up and take it, my family is stewing meat today, and I need to hurry back to eat it.”

Guan Li absentmindedly took the bowl and hurriedly called out to Jiang Shui, who was turning to leave, “Wait a moment, I’ll clear the bowl for you to take back. Actually, you can go ahead; I’ll wash it clean and send it over tomorrow.”

Jiang Shui, eager to get back to the food, didn’t mind and replied with a quick “Mm,” before running home.

Seeing Jiang Shui leave, Guan Mujiang and Guan Xiaoshan finally came over and, admiring the high stack of bowls, said, “These pancakes have white flour in them, and there’s quite a bit!”

White flour was a rare, fine grain, so the pancakes were a pale yellow, showing that there was definitely a generous amount of white flour in them.

“There are three pancakes, so each of us can have one.”

“Look, the pancakes are stacked on top; sister, take a look at what’s inside the bowl.” He smelled something meaty.

Guan Li now believed that Aunt Jiang had indeed changed, no longer the same as before, but still didn’t want to let her brother get his hopes too high, in case there was no meat to disappoint him: “Jiang Shui picked so many wild vegetables, every family is eating them now.”

She spoke as she placed the bowl on the stove, and took a plate to move the pancakes off the top.

Once the pancakes were removed, the food inside the bowl was revealed to the three of them!

The room fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the sound of gasps.

There were pork cracklings and fried small fish—thick with oil—more valuable than meat itself!

Guan Li picked up some pork cracklings and fried fish with chopsticks and placed them onto a plate—over twenty pieces of pork cracklings and more than ten small fish.

At the bottom of the bowl were cold pickled pig ears and shredded bone meat, not a lot, but all meat, with very little wild vegetables.

Guan Mujiang stared blankly and said, “This is too much. Xiao Li, I’ll make some molds later, and you can send it over to Aunt Jiang tomorrow when you wash the bowl.”

This was the first time Guan Li didn’t object to sending something to Aunt Jiang.

It really was too much.

Guan Mujiang looked at the over twenty pieces of pork cracklings and then glanced at his thin son and daughter.

He said, “The pork and pickled pig ears should be eaten tonight, and you two can share the fried fish. The pork cracklings and wild vegetables should be stewed, and we’ll make more pancakes. Tomorrow night, I’ll find time to go to the embankment and send them to Xiangxi.”

It would be too dark to do woodworking, and the round trip from Qili Village to the embankment took three hours, which wouldn’t delay the work the next day.

Guan Li nodded, divided the fried fish into two portions, and then split hers into two again—keeping one and placing one portion in her father’s bowl.

She would send the remaining portion tomorrow. The forced labor wasn’t a joke; many people never returned.

Guan Xiaoshan also silently set aside his portion of fried fish.

No one in the family said anything, each silently showing their heart’s intent.

---

The Jiang family’s dinner was especially abundant.

So much so that everyone felt the weariness of the day vanish, and they even thought that after such a delicious meal, the work they did today was not worth it.

There were two dishes and a soup, and each had meat!

There was also a plate of fried small fish as a snack.

Everyone had their own portion of fried fish.

The little fish, covered in batter, were salty on the outside, tender on the inside.

When bitten, they crackled, and even the fish bones were fried to a crisp, easily chewed and swallowed.

This could last a long time, and no one was willing to finish it all at once.

After eating two or three to satisfy their cravings, the rest was put away.

The shredded bone meat was stir-fried with wild mountain garlic and dried chilies.

Xiao Hua couldn’t eat it, but Huo Bing had set aside three pieces of meat earlier, and now she shredded them evenly and rolled them in a pancake made with white flour, placing it in her daughter’s small hand.

She also poured some meat broth into her daughter’s small wooden bowl, with tender gray vegetables floating inside.

When wild vegetables were overcooked or lacked oil, they were not as good as garden vegetables—too dry and astringent.

But paired with oil, the dryness became refreshing, even tastier than vegetables!

Xiao Hua sipped the hot broth, then took a bite of the delicate pancake roll.

Her big eyes immediately turned into crescent moons as she smiled.

Grandma is so good, she even gave me some of her pancake, so delicious.

The others, just like Huo Bing, spread the vegetables onto their pancakes, then alternated between a sip of soup and a bite of pancake.

The only difference was that they used pancakes made with corn flour, but each person was more satisfied than ever.

It was delicious; no one had ever thought that eating could be such an enjoyment!

“Mom, this afternoon I pulled some vines back, and later, by the moonlight, I’ll weave some traps. The more yellow eels you catch, the better. Take them to the city to sell. I still want to eat meat!” Jiang Xiangbei’s cheeks were puffed out like a squirrel, already thinking about the next meal.

“The meat was so good, and the fried small fish was tasty too. If only we could eat like this every three to five days… No, maybe ten to fifteen days, that would be wonderful.”

The eldest son, Jiang Xiangdong, while munching on his pancake, quickly glanced at the fourth son and joked, “You want to eat meat every ten days? We’ve only had this once in all these years, haha, if we could eat it once a year, that would be great.”

Jiang Xiangbei thought for a moment and felt a little deflated, thinking to himself that one meal a year seemed so far off.

Jiang Xiangnan, who had gone to the city with his mother, quietly glanced at her.

He felt that in the future, it was very likely that they would eat meat every ten to fifteen days, maybe even three to five days.

He believed his mother could make it happen.

---

Jiang Xiangzhong returned late.

No matter when he came back, the family always waited to eat until he arrived, even if it was already dark, they would eat in the dim light.

But this time, Shen Qing didn’t wait.

There were many things to do, so why wait?

She asked Huo Bing to save his portion, and everyone else began to take care of their own things.

Jiang Xiangnan and Jiang Xiangbei wove yellow eel traps in the yard.

Jiang Shui cleaned up the wild vegetables she had collected during the day, carefully setting aside a few tender Chinese toon leaves.

Her mother had mentioned that they had a special fragrance when fried with eggs, and though Jiang Shui didn’t understand, her mother said it was something they would love, so she saved it separately and didn’t mix it with the other wild vegetables.

Jiang Xiangdong was in the house, watching the two children while kneading dough.

Mother had said that Huo Bing knew exactly how much salt to add when stir-frying, and that her hands were steady.

The dishes they planned to make later had to be precise in terms of measurements, and only Huo Bing could do that.

Since the children were not only her responsibility, but also his, he could handle it just fine.

As for kneading the dough, mother had said to let the dough rise and steam buns.

Since the weather was cold, they could store them and steam dozens of buns, then send some to the second son at the embankment. He wouldn’t be able to bear it if he didn’t eat well while on forced labor.

At first, Jiang Xiangdong had some complaints about his mother asking him, a grown man, to look after the children, but when his mother said she’d send food to the second son, all those complaints vanished.

She had started to care for them too, just like she had always cared for Xiangzhong.

So, what was the big deal about watching the kids?

His mother was doing it for his own good!

His mother was right.

These were his daughters, and he should treat them well, just like his mother had treated him and Xiangzhong well.

Now, she was treating all of them the same.

His daughters—he needed to treat them well too…