Qi Shufang and He Jianguo discussed, set to treat on Sunday this week, in order not to appear that his wife was embarrassed to eat at the table, He Jianguo smiled and asked the old classmates and sworn brothers who agreed to be guests to bring their wives with them.

Early in the morning of this day, He Jianguo went to buy forty white-flour steamed buns that had just come out of the pot, went to the supply and marketing cooperatives to get ten catties of loose wine, ran to several neighbors, and finally got together two large square tables and twenty chairs to put in the hall, and borrowed enough dishes and chopsticks, and then he and Qi Shufang were busy in the kitchen......

"Hey, Jianguo, you kill the grass carp and stew it in a while. ”

"Okay!"

After a while, Qi Shufang remembered again, "That piece of wild boar pork belly was soaked overnight, I pinched it, it was already soft, cut into large pieces and stewed, but unfortunately there was no peppercorn, and the supply and marketing cooperatives couldn't buy it." ”

"I'll get some for you when I get back, we've got the supplies. "Without seasonings, the food really loses its color.

Qi Shufang smiled.

"We have just one pot, not enough, first fry the vegetables that should be fried, stew the vegetables that should be stewed, and when the meat is steamed and dried, a piece is placed on the grate and is not afraid of cold. There are a lot of dishes to prepare today, and I have to steam several pots. ”

The husband and wife were busy, talking and laughing, and they didn't feel tired at all, until someone called the door.

"Haha, Jianguo, I said I would invite you to dinner, but I didn't expect you to invite us first!" As soon as she heard this voice, Qi Shufang knew that it was Zhao Aiguo who was coming, and put down the dried beans that were being scrubbed after soaking, Qi Shufang and He Jianguo came out of the kitchen.

Qi Shufang beckoned: "Brother Zhao, sister-in-law Zhao, please sit in the room." ”

"I'm the first, right?" Zhao Aiguo asked, seeing He Jianguo and Qi Shufang nodding, he smiled very happily and slapped He Jianguo's shoulder hard, "I know that no one came earlier than me." ”

Qi Shufang looked at her watch, it was only nine o'clock, and she heard He Jianguo ask: "I said just come at twelve o'clock, why is it so early?"

Zhao Aiguo raised his eyebrows, "How can you let my younger brother and sister cook so many people's meals by themselves?" My lover reminded me to come over early to help cook. Zhao Aiguo was the first to actively respond to He Jianguo's invitation and brought his wife Bai Yinghong.

Bai Yinghong looked three or four years older than Qi Shufang, with a thin figure, white and tender skin, a goose egg face with two small dimples, a little shy, curved eyebrows, but a very sweet smile, and said softly to Qi Shufang: "Your name is Shufang, right? What do you need me to do? I'm really sorry to bother you today." As he spoke, he handed her a small cloth bag.

"How can you get a guest to do it? What is this?" Qi Shufang stared at the cloth bag stuffed into her hand.

Zhao Aiguo smiled and replied instead of his wife: "Qing is waiting to eat and drink? Brother and sister, my lover's craftsmanship is very good, and she stews braised pork well, so let her work with you, and let her sit in the house and watch our old men talk, she is embarrassed. ”

"There is a ...... to build a country"! He is very good at craftsmanship......

Before Qi Shufang could finish speaking, she was interrupted by Zhao Aiguo, "I said brother and sister, I'm here, do you still ask Jianguo to cook?" Tell him to talk to me, you guys are busy." A gentleman cooks far away, how can a man cook. ”

"Yes, yes. Bai Yinghong nodded vigorously and pushed Qi Shufang into the kitchen together.

Qi Shufang thought about it, it was not bad, the guests at home came, as the head of the family, He Jianguo was indeed not suitable to stay in the kitchen, although she really wanted He Jianguo to cook, but she had to take into account other people's thoughts.

She opened the heavy cloth bag and found that it contained white rice, weighing about two catties, "Sister-in-law Zhao, you are ......"

"This is my ration and that of patriotism. You can just call me Sister Yinghong, I have my own job and my own salary, but I am not a patriotic accessory, I have to call my sister-in-law with his surname. ”

He Jianguo mentioned to Qi Shufang that Bai Yinghong graduated from university and was assigned to the county government as an accountant, and her salary was higher than that of Zhao Aiguo.

After He Jianguo's explanation in the past few days, Qi Shufang found that his sworn brothers are workers and farmers, rich and poor, but his high school classmates are all regular workers, and most of his spouses have jobs.

After Bai Yinghong finished explaining, she heard Qi Shufang change her words, and then pointed to the cloth bag and said, "Shufang, don't shirk, if you don't accept it, Aiguo and I will be embarrassed to eat at your house, and we won't dare to come in the future." ”

"Okay, Sister Yinghong, I'll take it, let's boil rice porridge at noon. I'm really sorry, I invite you to dinner, and you and Brother Zhao have to bring their own rations. Qi Shufang made up her mind to put a piece of air-dried meat in the cloth pocket when they left, and when she decided to invite guests to dinner, she didn't think about receiving gifts.

"You prepare so many white flour steamed buns, and it's just right to serve them with rice porridge. Seeing the ingredients on the board, the dimples on Bai Yinghong's face deepened a little, the smile in her eyes became a little thicker, and she started her work quickly.

Qi Shufang thought that only Bai Yinghong and Zhao Aiguo brought their own rations, but they didn't expect that before ten o'clock, other people came over with their wives one after another, saying that they wanted their wives to help cook, and they all brought more or less food, including rice, black noodles, cornmeal, dried sweet potato noodles, steamed buns, pancakes, wowotou, some carried a piece of pork belly, some sent seven or eight eggs, and some took a bundle of leeks......

The strangest thing is that someone sent a ball of cotton yarn soaked in peanut oil, shiny and fragrant.

What is it for?

Qi Shufang, who was confused, was afraid of revealing her ignorance, so she didn't dare to ask, and casually put the cotton yarn in an empty bowl that she didn't use.

However, the menu of the He family has been enriched because of this, the pork belly is cut into pieces, Bai Yinghong is invited to make braised pork, leeks and eggs are mixed together to make a leek scrambled egg, and the tofu is made into tofu and spinach soup.

"Oh, Shufang, you are really willing to scoop such a large piece of lard. ”

It was Shen Daniu who spoke, her husband was He Jianguo's sworn brother Zhan Renxi, the eldest in line, a classmate of He Jianguo's primary and junior high schools, and a member of the He Lou brigade, and the whole family made a living from farming. Shen Daniu is also from the He Lou Brigade, Shen Erdan's cousin, Shen Yaowu's aunt, and she is the person who is most familiar with Shufang.

Qi Shufang said with a smile: "It's rare that everyone is here, please have a meal with oil and water." ”

Shen Daniu swallowed her saliva and stopped talking.

Who doesn't want to eat a meal full of oil and water? Just didn't bring the children over, Shen Daniu felt very pity, and wanted to go out and go home to call her children over for dinner, and she was really embarrassed to see so many people in the city, dressed up decently.

Qi Shufang saw it in her eyes and didn't squeak.

Just as the meal was about to be served, there was another hiccup.

Huo Jianfeng was tripped up and came late, when He Jianguo took Qi Shufang to greet the couple, Qi Shufang and Huo Jianfeng's wife Zhou Guohong took a photo, and the two immediately looked at each other, looking embarrassed.

Why? Because she turned out to be a beautiful salesperson who had a conflict with Qi Shufang when she was visiting a department store!

"What's wrong?" Huo Jianfeng and He Jianguo saw that something was wrong.

Zhou Guohong smiled first: "It's nothing, it's just that I feel very kind when I see Shufang." ”

"I also feel kind when I see my sister-in-law. The other party didn't want to mention it, so Qi Shufang covered it up, and waited for the guests to leave before telling Sù He Jianguo, she didn't plan to hide it from her husband.

Zhou Guohong's dissatisfaction with Qi Shufang was slightly alleviated, and when she saw Qi Shufang again today, she felt that the other party seemed to be more beautiful than before, so beautiful that people were jealous. She didn't want her husband to know her bad attitude towards rural customers when he went to work, especially He Jianguo's wife, and it was estimated that the other party didn't want He Jianguo to know her vulgar side.

Over the years, Zhou Guohong has not heard her father-in-law and husband mention He Jianguo's life-saving grace, the day before yesterday He Jianguo came to invite them as guests, and her husband immediately packed ten catties of white flour and ten catties of rice to give to the He family, and he didn't think it was too little.

Seeing two tables full of dishes, hot rice porridge and white-flour steamed buns, Zhou Guohong's dissatisfaction has come to naught.

It's so delicious! How long has it been since I've seen so many meat dishes? One, two, three...... Zhou Guohong counted in his heart, four vegetarians, eight meats, and twelve dishes, all served in large bowls, and they were exactly the same as the dishes on the man's table!

Not only Zhou Guohong's face was full of surprise, but even Bai Yinghong and others also felt incredible, it was too extravagant!

"Sisters-in-law or sisters-in-law eat more, they are all drinking, let's not care about them. Qi Shufang warmly greeted the seven wives who came with her husband, whether it was among her classmates or among the sworn brothers, He Jianguo was actually the youngest, and she had to call her sister or sister-in-law, but fortunately, she was also young, and there was no pressure to shout.

There were fourteen people seated at that table, including He Jiandang and He Jianjun.

The He family has a rule that almost everyone follows, that is, when visiting from their own family, they must invite their brothers to accompany them as a sign of respect.

He Jianguo also invited Old Man He, and his brother invited him, of course, he couldn't forget his father, but Old Man He was unwilling to share a table with young people, and when he smelled the smell of food, his seven nephews and nieces were always wandering at the door, refusing to come in or leaving, Qi Shufang sighed and sent two large bowls of meat and vegetables and a few steamed buns to the two sisters-in-law's families.

Shen Daniu looked at the sumptuous meal, and she was also a little unable to swallow, seeing her fidgeting appearance, Qi Shufang had no choice but to speak in advance, "Sister-in-law, you eat while it's hot, and when everyone is full, you don't think it's leftovers, just go home." ”

"Yes...... Is this okay?" Shen Dayu was surprised and delighted, and then peeked at her husband, afraid of being said.

"Why not? Jianguo and I ate at a state-run restaurant, and we brought back the unfinished steamed buns, and I also saw someone take the leftovers away, as long as you don't think it's leftovers. ”

"No, no, who would dislike such a good dish?"

Shen Daniu smiled on her face, but she still put down her chopsticks very slowly and ate very little.

Qi Shufang kept beckoning others to eat, Zhou Guohong was very reserved, the chopsticks were not slow at all, and the shy Bai Yinghong was also very bold with the chopsticks, especially like to eat stewed wild duck with bamboo shoots, and others were fast and slow to put down chopsticks.

There has never been a rule of not eating and sleeping at the dinner table now, everyone quickly talked and laughed, Qi Shufang couldn't help but ask about the young men and women that Zhao Aiguo had arrested last time, Bai Yinghong thought back for a moment, "I know who you are talking about." Patriotic told me that I had met you that day. It was nothing, but the style of work was not correct, and the patriotic took them to the Revolutionary Committee for criticism and education, and asked their families to take them back, and they had to write a review letter and submit it to the Revolutionary Committee every half a month for three months. ”

Everyone asked what was going on, Qi Shufang briefly narrated, thinking that everyone would be surprised, but who knew that they should teach a lesson, otherwise they would bring bad children and so on.

Zhou Guohong saw Qi Shufang's stunned appearance, and suddenly felt a little funny, she found that He Jianguo's delicate wife was very interesting, sometimes it was like a cannon battle with fire, which caused her to be criticized by Director Mao, and she had to offer the treatment of non-defective products with both hands, and now she talks and behaves very generously and heartily, unlike a countryman, but she doesn't seem to know a lot of things, and several times she looked at the oil cotton yarn in the bowl with very tangled eyes, and muttered something to do, which happened to be heard by her.

When eating braised wild boar, Zhou Guohong couldn't help but say: "In the first month, the Red Sun Commune sent a whole wild boar to the county's non-staple food purchasing station, and I finally grabbed a piece of meat, Shufang, where did your family come from?"

"You don't even know that, wow, that wild boar was handed over by our production brigade. ”

Shen Daniu answered first, and talked about Qi Shufang's hunting skills vividly, especially the thrilling scene of more than a dozen members being chased by wild boars.

When everyone looked at Qi Shufang again, their eyes were either admiration, admiration, alienation and fear.

"How can I be so powerful, I just have a little more strength, and my shot is a little accurate. I used to rely on traps to set some prey, but today I entertained my sisters and sisters-in-law, and it won't be good in the future, and Jianguo won't let me go into the deep mountains and old forests. Qi Shufang kept their eyes in mind, and smiled at Zhou Guohong, who had a grudge against her but looked at her with adoring eyes, "Sister Guohong, the wild boar handed over by our commune was sold directly in the county seat?

Zhou Guohong swallowed the meat in his mouth and said with a smile: "Half of it is sold, half of it is sold." I got the news in advance, and I went to line up with Jianfeng in the middle of the night, and I grabbed a piece of meat, which was already sold out by the time Jianfeng was behind me. ”

Have to queue up in the middle of the night?

Qi Shufang had never experienced that kind of scene, she didn't know what it was like, her doubts turned on the tip of her tongue, and she changed to another question, "There is a sweeper in the city who has been distributed to us, I heard that it is a private wild boar, it can't be the wild boar sold at that time, right?" This question has been stored in her heart for several days, and she has always been unanswered, since Bai Yinghong and Zhou Guohong are all in the city, they should know a little bit about the inside and the scenes, if they really sold it themselves, it would be really a sin.

"What kind of wild boar, it's nothing! With Jin Daxiu's ingredients, who sells meat to her? Usually when she goes to the grain store to buy food, someone spits on her. Zhou Guohong sneered, but she had some scruples, and she didn't say what was going on, but directly diverted the topic and asked Qi Shufang about the scene of hunting in the mountains.

Qi Shufang was silent for a moment, and then said a few words.