Zhenzhen has been roasting pheasants and rabbits for many years and has rich experience in this. From time to time, she instructs them to turn them over or brush them with a layer of honey. When the roast fish is almost eaten, the roast chicken and rabbit are also cooked.
After turning down the barbecue fire, Zhenzhen picked up the pheasant skewered on a thick branch and distributed it to several classmates.
Guo Xiaoqiao held the thick branch with both hands, his eyes wide open: "Is this all mine?"
Zhenzhen blew on it while tearing off a pheasant wing and put it in her mouth to take a bite. It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the meat was very delicious.
"It's all yours." Zhenzhen looked at her and smiled: "Try it quickly, it's especially delicious while it's hot."
Guo Xiaoqiao followed Zhenzhen's example and tried to grab the chicken wings, but she got burned every time she tried. She could only hold up the branch and take a bite of the meaty chicken leg: "It's delicious, huh..." Guo Xiaoqiao exhaled because of the burn: "I'm just worried that I can't finish it." She glanced at the hare still on the shelf: "I have to try what the hare tastes like."
"If you can't finish it, take it back and eat it at night. You won't be left without anything." Zhenzhen looked at her with a smile and quickly finished a chicken wing.
The living conditions are still difficult. Even though Guo Xiaoqiao and Meng Yaoxing are from the capital, they may not be able to eat meat when they go home on weekends. For the students who live in the school, buying a dish with pork slices is considered an improvement in their meals. For people like Liu Chenglin and Kong Xiangwu, who have big appetites, the food coupons and subsidies they receive are barely enough to eat. Eating as much meat and fish as they want is a dream life.
But today Zhenzhen brought them out, which was like a dream coming true. Liu Chenglin was so happy that he almost cried while eating the roasted chicken. He was too lazy to even tear it apart. He just held the whole chicken and ate it hard, with his face covered in oil.
The girls had only eaten half of the pheasant, but Kong Xiangwu and Liu Chenglin had already finished the whole pheasant. The bones were gnawed until they were shiny, and the dog was so sad that it cried.
After drinking a mouthful of fish soup, Liu Chenglin took a wild rabbit from the shelf and said, "Xiangwu, we'll each have half."
Zhenzhen took out a hunting knife from her schoolbag and threw it to him: "Divide it among yourselves."
Liu Chenglin didn't recognize the gemstone on the handle of the hunting knife, but when he pulled out the scabbard and saw the cold light inside, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "What a good knife."
"I picked it up from the mountains when I was a kid. It's gotten sharper over the years." Zhenzhen was very fond of her hunting knife. Seeing Liu Chenglin's clumsy hands and feet, she couldn't help but remind him, "Be careful, don't drop it on the ground."
"Don't worry, sister. I will be very careful. If this knife falls on my foot, it will make a big hole." Liu Chenglin signaled Kong Xiangwu to pull one side of the rabbit's body, and with a cut with the hunting knife, the hare was easily cut in half.
After putting the hunting knife back into its sheath and setting it aside, the two began to eat the wild rabbits again. The four rabbits that Zhenzhen had hunted were all big and fat. They were especially tender and fragrant when roasted, and with the carefully prepared condiments sprinkled on top, the more they ate, the more they became addicted.
"Sister, if you don't go to college, you will definitely be the most famous hunter in your country." Liu Chenglin held a rabbit leg in his mouth and looked at Zhenzhen with admiration: "You will definitely be able to eat meat every day. Oh, this life is so good."
Zhenzhen looked at him with a smile on her face: "Liu Chenglin, what would you do if you were really sent to France with your awareness?"
"What's wrong with going to France?" Liu Chenglin looked confused, holding a bone in his mouth.
Zhenzhen smiled with her eyes curved, and gestured a basketball-sized circle: "Such a big plate..." She drew another circle with her finger: "Putting a snail this big on it, it counts as a dish."
Liu Chenglin almost choked to death on the rabbit meat. He looked at Xi Junjie in horror and asked, "Is what my fellow villager said true?"
Xi Junjie looked at him with a smile: "French cuisine is indeed known for its delicacy, not quantity. But don't you like meat? In France, steak and lamb shanks can be served as main dishes, but they like to eat them medium-rare, and cut them with a knife until there is blood."
Several girls showed terrified expressions, and Liu Chenglin wanted to cry but had no tears: "I chose my major with my eyes closed. Do you think it's too late for me to change my major now?"
"I'm afraid it's too late." Zhen Zhen poured a basin of cold water on him and looked at him with gloating: "If you have time to think about these useless things, you might as well think about tomorrow's exam."
Liu Chenglin, Kong Xiangwu and Meng Yaoxing all looked at her in unison, wailing together. Liu Chenglin showed his big thick arms and put on a crying expression: "Oh, I had almost forgotten about this, why did you bring it up again? Oh, it's so annoying, I can't even eat." As he spoke, he tore off a big bite of rabbit meat, his mouth full of oil, and there was no sign of him not being able to eat.
Meng Yaoxing took a deep breath and said, "In fact, we are not afraid of normal exams, but we don't know what tricks the professor will come up with. I hope he can think more normally this time and give us ordinary people a chance to survive."
Kong Xiangwu nodded vigorously, and when he saw that he had almost finished his roasted rabbit, he went to Meng Yaoxing's side to tear off his rabbit leg and eat it. "In the last exam, the last question asked us to translate an ancient poem into French. We couldn't just write out the meaning, we had to recite it fluently and read it beautifully. I wasted the last half hour on that and didn't even have time to check the questions I had finished before."
Guo Xiaoqiao was delighted when he heard this: "Your French teacher should come to our department to teach. Let alone translating it into poetry, we can even change it into a prose novel. Three thousand words is the beginning."
Xu Jiajia burst into laughter: "You are such a good writer. Last time, you ran out of paper for the quiz and didn't even get to the point. You failed the whole thing."
A few people were eating and laughing, enjoying the weekend to their heart's content.
The meal took about two hours. The girls had small appetites, so they packed the leftover roasted chicken, roasted rabbit, and roasted fish into their vest bags and prepared to eat together in the dormitory at night. The boys, with Liu Chenglin and Kong Xiangwu as their big eaters, ate all the fish soup without leaving a drop. The two were so full that they sat on the ground, holding their stomachs and unable to get up.
A group of people staggered to the river to wash their faces and hands. Zhenzhen looked at the bones on the ground and thought it was not a big deal. She directed the boys to light a fire and burn all the leftover bones and fish bones into ashes. After the fire was extinguished, they fetched water to soak the place where the fire was made, and then walked towards the train station.
When I got back to school, my roommates were so excited when they saw the chicken rice boxes and barbecued meat. They ate the meat while listening to Xu Jiajia's gestures about going out hunting. The roommates were talking and smelling good. A girl named Li Xianmei from the next door happened to be from the same hometown as Zhenzhen's roommate Su Qiutao, so they came over to watch the fun.
Seeing someone coming, several people hurriedly divided up the remaining chicken. Li Xianmei arrived a step late and couldn't help swallowing her saliva as she watched them chewing the meat with grease dripping from their mouths: "Where did the meat come from?"
Xu Jiajia, who was drinking water, glanced at her and said, "Today we went hunting in the mountains in the southwest. Zhenzhen shot a pheasant with a slingshot."
"Oh, is it so easy to fight?" Li Xianmei was very excited: "Look, why didn't you invite us for such a fun thing? How about we go together next week? I want to eat roasted pheasant too."
Li Xianmei was not a journalism major, but because she lived nearby and was from the same hometown as Su Qiutao, she often came to talk, so Zhenzhen was familiar with her. Because of this familiarity, everyone in the dormitory knew that she liked to take advantage of others and took it for granted, so they were not used to her.
Zhenzhen glanced at her and smiled faintly: "No, I'm going home next week."
Li Xianmei was stunned for a moment, then quickly smiled and said, "It's okay, it's okay, next week is fine, there's no rush."
Zhenzhen stood up, turned off the lamp, and put away the books on the table: "The weather will be cold in two weeks, and that place is too far. It's enough to go there once. I don't plan to go there a second time."
Li Xianmei seemed a little unhappy: "But I haven't been there yet."
"Then you can find some friends to go with you." Zhen Zhen glanced at her and said in a cold tone, "This is not my home, you don't have to report to me."
Zhenzhen always smiles at school, but she still looks very imposing when she suddenly frowns, and immediately interrupts Li Xianmei before she finishes her words. Zhenzhen puts her books away, picks up her schoolbag and prepares to go to Xi Junjie to review her lessons. She says hello to her roommate and leaves in a hurry.
"Oh, your class's Li Mingzhen is quite arrogant." Li Xianmei didn't dare to say anything when Zhenzhen was in the dormitory. After Zhenzhen left, she seemed to feel embarrassed again. She couldn't help but mutter something. Seeing several female classmates in the dormitory looking at her, she hurriedly asked, "Is she like this in the dormitory all the time?"
"No." Guo Xiaoqiao looked up at her and said, "Zhenzhen is fine."
"But I don't think she's like what you said. She won't go out to play when we ask her to." Li Xianmei curled her lips, looking a little disdainful. "What's so great about that? She's just a good student. I think there's no one who can get into Didu University who's a bad student. Don't you agree? Look at how capable she is, and yet you can't even ask her to go out. Do you think she's the only one who can hunt? Actually, that's not that difficult. I can also shoot a slingshot."
Xu Jiajia was unhappy when she heard this. Her eyebrows raised and she exploded: "Who do you think you are? If you call our Zhenzhen, she will have to go out. Isn't her face a little big?" As soon as she finished speaking, several girls in the dormitory laughed: "I think it is quite big." "Not only is her face big, but her skin is also thick."
Li Xianmei couldn't sit still any longer. She looked at her fellow villager Su Qiutao who was looking gloomy, and felt very embarrassed. "I came here to hang out with my fellow villagers, not to talk to you."
Su Qiutao stood up suddenly, dragged her and walked out. At first, Xu Jiajia thought Su Qiutao was throwing a tantrum at her. Just as she was about to chase her and yell at her, she heard a quarrel outside the corridor. Seeing that Su Qiutao could distinguish right from wrong, Xu Jiajia relaxed her expression and sat on Meng Ranxiao's bed: "At least she has a conscience and didn't eat my roasted rabbit in vain."
Wei Yujin looked at her, shook his head and sighed: "Each one has a worse temper than the other, and they are all like firecrackers."
Xu Jiajia pulled the corners of her mouth and smiled: "Firecrackers are better than being a nice guy. What kind of person would you be if you don't protect the sisters in the same dormitory?"
Wei Yujin was so angry that she laughed: "Look, you're still not convinced. You got angry as soon as I said something." Listening to the quarrel getting farther and farther away outside, Wei Yujin shook his head helplessly: "Okay, I won't worry about it. Su Qiutao won't lose anyway. Her fellow villager is a bully who only fears the strong and bullies the weak."
About ten minutes later, Su Qiutao came back with anger still on her face.
"Did you win the argument?" Guo Xiaoqiao turned around and looked at her.
"What's the point of winning or not?" Su Qiutao scratched her hair in annoyance. "I just can't stand the way she takes advantage of others and wants to boss everyone around without considering her own moral character."
Xu Jiajia looked at her and started to get angry again, and immediately laughed: "Alright, alright, you have a bad temper, don't let her in from now on." Grabbing two books, Xu Jiajia shouted: "It's late now in the library, I'm going to read there, who will go with you?"
When she asked this question, several people got up, each holding their homework books and water bottles, locked the door, and rushed to the library.
Li Xianmei returned to the dormitory and felt more and more unwilling to accept the result. Xu Jiajia and the others only said in the dormitory that Zhenzhen had shot a pheasant, but did not give any details. Li Xianmei felt that if even Zhenzhen, a girl who looked so delicate, could shoot one, she must be better than her as she had done farm work for so many years. So she returned to the dormitory and found a few people she liked, and called a few male fellow villagers, and made an appointment to go hunting and barbecue in the suburbs together on Sunday.
The dream is beautiful, but the reality is cruel. A dozen people went there with high spirits, but came back in the afternoon covered in dust. They didn't even have time to put their bags back in the dormitory, but rushed into the cafeteria, bought double servings of rice and stuffed them into their mouths.
When they were looking for people to go hunting, Li Xianmei's description was so exaggerated that the others listened to it as if there were pheasants and rabbits everywhere and they were just picking them up at random. The group of people were full of confidence and didn't bring any dry food in their bags. But after walking around the place, the group of people were dumbfounded. There were many pheasants and rabbits to see, but they couldn't catch any of them.
Although Li Xianmei borrowed a slingshot from somewhere, none of the ten or so people were good at it. After a day of hard work, they didn't catch any. Seeing that the sun was at its highest point, the girls had no choice but to go pick mushrooms to fill their stomachs. But it just so happened that the children from several nearby villages had just picked mushrooms the day before. Now the mushrooms they saw were either just roots or small mushroom cubes. There were mushrooms in the mountains farther away, but they didn't dare to go there. A group of people went through sixty or seventy kilometers, and came back hungry for a day. It was so unlucky.
After coming back and having a full meal, Li Xianmei was complained by several classmates who went with her, saying that she was exaggerating. Li Xianmei couldn't win the argument with them and wanted to come to Zhenzhen's dormitory to cause trouble. As a result, as soon as she came in, she questioned Zhenzhen on the nose, and was directly grabbed by the collar and thrown out by Zhenzhen, which immediately made her quiet down.
Zhenzhen never took such things to heart. She had too many things to do at school. Even if she had free time, she would just be with Xi Junjie. There was no point in arguing with a female classmate. It was a waste of time.
***
The days went on in an orderly manner, and in the blink of an eye it was spring again. Zhenzhen woke up from a late nap at home and saw Roubao wandering around outside her door, sitting down on a bench, looking quite anxious.
After putting on her clothes, Zhen Zhen pushed open the window and called out lazily, "Come in."
Roubao jumped up from the stool at the door as if his butt was on fire, pushed the door open and rushed in, and very attentively helped Zhenzhen pour water for washing her face: "Aunt, wash your face."
Zhenzhen yawned: "Why are you coming to my house so early in the morning instead of staying at home?"
Roubao was like a eunuch in the past, holding a towel and waiting by the side: "Don't I have a request for my sister-in-law?"
Zhenzhen washed her face, took the towel from him, and glanced at the half-bent meat bun: "You are so polite, what if you want to borrow money from me?"
"Hmm!" Roubao immediately raised his head, his eyes lit up: "How did you guess so accurately?"
"Are you really going to borrow money?" Zhenzhen wiped her face, put the towel on the towel rack, brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth. After tidying up, she took out a bottle of lotion from the table: "You got a lot of New Year's money, isn't it enough for you to spend?"
"It's not pocket money." Roubao stretched his neck to look outside, then closed the window stealthily. He then stood next to Zhenzhen again, with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face: "Aunt, let's make a deal first. No matter if it works out or not, don't tell my dad."
Zhen Zhen's eyes widened when she heard this, and her hand trembled as she pointed at Rou Bao: "Did you get a girl pregnant?"
Roubao was so frightened by these words that he almost fell to the ground. When he came to his senses, he looked at her suspiciously: "Aunt, you know a lot?"
Zhen Zhen knew she had guessed wrong. She sat on a chair, took a bottle of milk from the table and soaked it in hot water, then opened a bag of snacks and started eating: "Just pretend I didn't ask, go on."
Roubao coughed twice and rubbed his palms nervously. "I noticed that people in our capital are very fond of wearing jeans and big sweaters, and they are not cheap. When I bought jeans last month, I asked around and was told that the source of the goods is in Guangdong Province. I also want to buy some and try to sell them. But I don't have enough capital, so I want to ask my aunt to borrow some and try to make some money."
Zhenzhen paused as she was passing the Shaqima to her. She squinted her eyes slightly and looked at Roubao, as if she was meeting him for the first time. Roubao felt unsure at Zhenzhen's look, so he smiled awkwardly and stood up: "Well, forget it, aunt, don't tell my dad, I'm going back first."
"Wait a minute!" Zhen Zhen called him and poured him a cup of hot water: "You are quite smart, kid!"
When Roubao heard this, he was relieved and a look of joy appeared on his face: "Aunt, are you supporting me?"
"I have no problem supporting you, but what about your classes in school? I dare say that if your grades drop, your father will beat you to death even if you make a mountain of gold." Zhenzhen finished the shaqi ma in her hand, took out the bottle of milk in the lunch box, unscrewed the cap and took a sip.
"I promise I won't fall behind." Roubao rubbed his hands excitedly, "The people in our dormitory are all very nice. I'll copy their notes when the time comes. If there's anything I can't do, I'll ask them."
"Okay then." Zhen Zhen glanced at him and said earnestly, "Now is a good time. Only those who are smart and can endure hardships can guarantee that life will not be bad."
Seeing Mingdong was so happy that he didn't know what to do, Zhenzhen asked, "How much do you want to borrow?"
Mingdong pondered for a long time, then carefully held up two fingers: "Two hundred?"
Zhenzhen smiled and shook her head. Mingdong thought she was unhappy, so he had to bite the bullet and ask, "How about a hundred? It's not worth going so far for less money."
Zhenzhen stood up, opened the box, took out a thousand yuan and handed it to him: "In this era, the brave will die of overeating while the timid will die of starvation. Two hundred yuan, you can't even say that."
Looking at the thick stack of big unity, Mingdong swallowed his saliva and stammered with excitement: "Little aunt, can you lend me all these?" He was touched and flustered: "Aren't you afraid that I will lose money?"
Zhenzhen picked up another piece of Shaqima and took a bite: "As long as you don't smoke or gamble, you won't lose money."
Roubao looked at the stack of money on the table, then looked at Zhenzhen who was drinking milk and shaqima, and his eyes were filled with tears. "Aunt, I promise not to let you down. When I make money, I will buy you a big gold chain."
Zhenzhen almost spit a mouthful of milk on his face: "Come on, forget it. I, your aunt, have high tastes. I don't like big gold chains or anything like that."
Roubao chuckled twice and reached out to pick up the money: "Then can I take the money?"
Zhen Zhen waved her hand: "Go and do your thing. I'll wait to hear your good news."
Putting the money in his arms, Roubao patted Zhenzhen on the shoulder and said, "You are worthy of being my aunt. You are so affectionate." Then he ran away with tears in his eyes.
Zhenzhen looked at his back, shook her head and smiled.
Reform and opening up had just begun. As long as you grasp the policies, getting rich is not a dream. Even Zhenzhen has opened clothing stores in the capital, Shanghai, Bingcheng, Yidong, etc. As long as you buy a house along the street and hire a storekeeper, Zhenzhen only needs to go to the south and Hong Kong Island regularly to buy the most popular clothes and accessories and put them in the space, and the goods of several shops can be prepared on the same day.
In terms of management, Zhenzhen only registered the number of clothes, the cost, and the lowest price for each piece of clothing, and the rest was managed by the waiters. Some honest people paid no matter how much they sold, and some shrewd people paid at the lowest price. However, Zhenzhen always calculated the profit well, and even the lowest price was several times higher than the cost. Although the shops have only been open for a year, they have made more than 10,000 yuan.
This time Roubao wanted to try his hand at business, and Zhenzhen didn't stop him. This kid had already thought of making money from buying fashionable clothes when other students only wanted to wear them, which showed that he was quite talented in this area.
I don't know what Roubao said to the school, but he got a month's vacation and took a train south that day. He came back half a month later, carrying several sacks and looking like a refugee. He went to a bathhouse, took a bath, shaved his head, put on the latest jeans, and started his stall business.
After Roubao came back, he went to class during the day, and set up a stall outside the school cafeteria to sell clothes at night. On weekends, he went to the streets with a lot of traffic to sell. Because he brought back the latest styles and was good at talking, he sold out all the clothes he brought back in just half a month. After paying back the 1,000 yuan principal to Zhenzhen, he made a net profit of more than 2,600 yuan.
Seeing Roubao's crazy look, Zhenzhen couldn't help but remind him: "Don't forget that you are still a student. Studying is your priority. You can do whatever you want during the winter and summer vacations, but don't run around too much during class."
Roubao always believed in Zhenzhen's words, and the capital for this business was lent to him by Zhenzhen, so Roubao nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, aunt, I promise not to delay my studies."
Facts have proved that this guy really has good vision. He sells jeans in the spring and switches to stockings, skirts and high heels in the summer. His business is getting better and better, and the clothes he brings back are usually sold out within a week.
Roubao was feeling very proud and was thinking about when he could become a millionaire, when he was caught by Mingdong who came to the school.
The author has something to say: Speaking of which, the richest person in my family is my eldest brother. Just as it is written in the article, he started to go south to buy clothes during college, doing business while studying, and accumulated capital for a few years after graduation. In the early 1990s, he opened his own company in Zhuhai. After more than 20 years, his company is still surviving well and has opened many branches across the country. The veteran employees have their own companies of the same type, but they support each other. I think they are really capable.
What makes me most thankful for this capable brother is that he doesn't read novels, hahaha, otherwise I can't imagine what he would use to beat me (?w?)hiahiahia