Zhenzhen's big eyes flickered as she looked at this and that. Although she couldn't see clearly, after these days she could basically recognize several close people in the family.
Old Mrs. Li held Zhenzhen and pulled Li Mulin over, coaxing Zhenzhen, "Baby, this is your uncle. See him? Give him a smile." Zhenzhen cooperated, opened her mouth, babbled twice, and showed a sweet smile.
Mrs. Li was immediately delighted: "Oh, my baby is so smart. When he grows up, he will be like your big brother. Let's go to college too."
Zhang Chunhua didn't like listening to Li Mulin talking about his hometown before. Whenever Li Mulin mentioned the Li family, she would either change the subject or find an excuse to do something else. Therefore, she didn't know the people in the Li family very well.
Zhang Chunhua's eyes lit up when she heard Mrs. Li talking about taking the college entrance exam. In this era, college students are still very valuable. For example, in the power company where Zhang's father and Li Mulin work, college graduates can earn much more than ordinary workers. Zhang Chunhua immediately asked eagerly, "Mulin, who in our family has been admitted to college?"
Li Mulin glanced at her and pointed to the inner room: "Mingdong from my second brother's family will take the college entrance examination in the summer after the New Year."
Zhang Chunhua instantly lost her temper and said with a curled lip, "I thought they all passed the exam."
Li Mulin looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to this side. He quickly pinched her and whispered, "Stop talking so much. Dongzi studies hard and is a sure thing for him to be admitted to university. If your mother hears you talking nonsense, she will hit you with her pipe."
Zhang Chunhua immediately shut her mouth and looked in the direction of Old Lady Li with lingering fear. She felt mixed emotions for a moment and couldn't tell whether she was more grateful to her mother-in-law or more afraid of her.
After a busy afternoon, it was getting dark. Guihua came over and asked Old Lady Li: "Grandma, what are we going to eat tonight?"
The eldest son and his family of four came back. Even though it was not yet the Chinese New Year, Mrs. Li generously took out a piece of pork and a fish, and brought in a piece of frozen tofu: "Stew fish with tofu, stew cabbage and pork with vermicelli, and heat up a steamed bean curd. You can do the rest yourself."
Zhang Chunhua couldn't sit still when she heard what Mrs. Li arranged. She smiled at Mrs. Li and said, "I'll go to the kitchen and help."
Old Lady Li nodded, and Liu Xiulan also stood up: "Then I will take my sister-in-law over."
As soon as Zhang Chunhua arrived at the kitchen, she couldn't help looking around. The fine grains were locked in a big box in the corner. No one except Old Lady Li could take them out. But sweet potato flour, corn flour and the like were in flour bags on the cabinet. Zhang Chunhua looked at each bag and couldn't help but say sourly, "We have a lot of food at home. The food here is more than what is supplied by Ice City."
"Don't mention it. The supply at home is also insufficient. We haven't been able to buy enough food and vegetables since last year. It was only because my mother took us to the mountains to open up wasteland and plant a lot of corn, sweet potatoes, cabbage, potatoes and the like that we didn't starve." Liu Xiulan asked Zhang Chunhua curiously while cutting sauerkraut, "They say that the food grown in the mountains is supplied to those big towns. Could it be that you guys in Bingcheng are still short of food?"
Zhang Chunhua lost the desire to look around after hearing that. She poured the dozen potatoes that Guihua had taken out of the cellar into a basin and couldn't help sighing, "Even with food coupons, there's nowhere to buy them. It's good enough to get half of the rations a month, and fish and meat are even harder to come by. This year, Mingshu and Mingxin haven't gained much weight."
Liu Xiulan looked back at her and couldn't help asking, "Then why didn't you ask Mu Lin to go catch some fish for the child? I heard that you have a big river in Bingcheng."
The more Zhang Chunhua talked, the less interested she became. "It's far away, and besides, my family doesn't have the tools to fish. In fact, our family is relatively good, with a small population and a light burden. My neighbor works in the same workshop as Mu Lin. He has seven or eight children, all of whom are skinny and hungry. His parents are worried sick." Looking at the piles of potatoes on the ground, Zhang Chunhua couldn't help but say, "If we had these potatoes at home, the two children wouldn't be so hungry that they wouldn't grow any weight."
Liu Xiulan was a smart person. After hearing the hidden meaning in Zhang Chunhua's words, she stopped talking and just silently put the chopped sauerkraut into a bowl on the side, then took another one and continued cutting it.
Zhang Chunhua was peeling potatoes while Guihua had already put the prepared fish into the pot. Hearing the sizzling sound of oil, Zhang Chunhua couldn't help but stand up and look into the pot: "How much oil is there?"
"Not much." Guihua shook her braids and smiled at Zhang Chunhua.
Zhang Chunhua glanced at the pot and couldn't help sucking her lip: "This is not enough, I can see the oil stains. Why are you so unhappy, kid? How come you don't feel sorry for something that's not yours?" Guihua lowered her eyes and said nothing. She scooped a spoonful of boiling water into the pot and added the frozen tofu in.
Seeing that Zhang Chunhua wanted to talk, Liu Xiulan quickly explained, "My second brother's family planted a lot of soybeans this year, and asked someone to go to the oil store to press the oil. Besides, how can this not be hers? Dongzi and Guihua will get married next winter, and by then Guihua will be the eldest daughter-in-law of our grandson."
Zhang Chunhua sat back down awkwardly: "I am just being thrifty. You don't know that in Bingcheng we only dare to use soybean-sized amount of oil when cooking, and even that is not enough."
Guihua then turned around and said, "We usually do the same at home. It's because uncle and aunt are back that we put more oil in."
Seeing Guihua's unhappy face, Zhang Chunhua realized that she was in someone else's house and said quickly: "Auntie just said it casually, she didn't mean any harm, Guihua, don't take it to heart."
"It's okay. How can I, a junior, be angry with the old aunt?" Guihua said as she put the pork, cabbage and vermicelli stewed in the big pot on the west side into a basin. After a simple wash, she poured a little oil into it and then poured in the sauerkraut.
Zhang Chunhua looked at the few pieces of fat left on the chopping board next to her and couldn't help but remind her, "Guihua, that pickled cabbage is a lot to eat with just a little oil. Besides, you forgot to put the meat in it."
Guihua put the remaining meat into a bowl and put it in the cupboard. She replied slowly, "There are already many delicious dishes. Why put so much meat? Besides, oil is so rare. I'm afraid my aunt will feel bad if I put too much."
Liu Xiulan couldn't help but chuckle. Guihua picked up the broom and began to sweep the potato peels on the ground. While sweeping, she chased Zhang Chunhua out: "Auntie, take a step out! Auntie, you are stepping on potato peels!"
Zhang Chunhua was driven back step by step. When she retreated to the outside of the kitchen, she finally realized that Guihua had dumped the potato peels into the trash basket at the kitchen door, and put down the door curtain. She also leaned over and said, "You are a guest from afar, Auntie, why don't you go back to your room and rest? There is nothing to do here."
Liu Xiulan couldn't help laughing so hard that she couldn't straighten her back, holding her stomach. Zhang Chunhua stared at Guihua in amazement as she slammed the door curtain and went back to the kitchen. Her face turned pale and blue: "I was just saying that, why are you so childish? Don't put the remaining meat in the cupboard, just stew it quickly. It's hot in the house, what if it goes bad?"
In the kitchen, Liu Xiulan laughed even louder when she heard what Zhang Chunhua said outside. Guihua, who was sitting on the side adding firewood to the stove, couldn't help but smile.
Zhenzhen dozed off after playing in the west room for a while. Seeing this, Old Lady Li said quickly, "Hurry back to the room and feed her again before she falls asleep, so she won't sleep restlessly."
Wang Sufen agreed and walked out with the child in her arms. Old Lady Li saw that it was inconvenient for her to hold the child, so she leaned on her walking stick to help open the door. Zhang Chunhua was walking back in the kitchen after being bored. As she stretched out her hand to open the door, Old Lady Li's wrinkled face suddenly appeared in front of her. Zhang Chunhua's legs went weak and she hugged the door tightly, almost falling down.
Old Lady Li glanced at the frightened Zhang Chunhua, then at the creaking door, and couldn't help but frowning: "Although my door is strong, it can't withstand your pulling like that."
Wang Sufen patted Zhenzhen and couldn't help asking, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong with you?"
When Zhang Chunhua thought about how she flirted with someone else's future daughter-in-law in the kitchen and got retorted, her face suddenly turned red and white. She wanted to complain but she didn't have the courage. If she didn't complain, she felt a little aggrieved. She didn't know what to do for a moment.
Old Lady Li didn't like this mischievous daughter-in-law. She leaned heavily on her cane and said with a flat mouth, "If there's nothing to do in the kitchen, go back to the house and look after the children. Don't keep knocking on my door. If you break it, you'll pay for it."
Zhang Chunhua stood up straight immediately and stepped back to make way: "I was squatting to peel potatoes just now, and my legs are numb."
"Okay, I got it." Old Lady Li waved her hand and said, "Go back to your room and rest. After dinner, go to the back room and sleep early. The kang is ready for you."
Zhang Chunhua responded, turned around and watched Wang Sufen and Old Lady Li enter the east room, then went in with trembling legs. Li Muwu and Li Sen went out to chop firewood, and Li Mulin was sitting on the kang, rolling tobacco leaves for his mother. When he looked up, he saw Zhang Chunhua coming in in a daze, and asked quickly, "What's wrong with you?"
Zhang Chunhua sat down on the kang and couldn't help but push Li Mulin. "Why are all your family members so powerful? Your mother is fine, she is a hero who killed Japanese invaders after all, I don't think I can beat her. How dare Guihua, a little girl, talk back to me? I just said she wasted oil, and she was already unhappy with me."
"I didn't eat any of your oil, so why are you talking so much? Just shut up and don't make me unhappy during the New Year." Li Mulin rolled his eyes at her.
Zhang Chunhua hesitantly moved closer, kicked Li Mulin with her toes, and whispered, "I see your family is not worse off than ours."
Li Mulin looked at her strangely and said, "When did I say that my family lives in poverty? Although Beicha is a small place, it has mountains and rivers. As long as you work hard, you will never starve to death."
Zhang Chunhua stretched her neck and looked back. Seeing that Old Lady Li had not returned, she whispered to Li Mulin, "There is a lot of food in the kitchen. When Guihua opened the cellar to get the cabbage, I took a look inside. There must be hundreds of kilograms of cabbage and potatoes. Third sister-in-law said that the family has reclaimed a lot of wasteland in the mountains."
The letters from home mentioned these things, and Li Mulin was not surprised. He lowered his head and rubbed the tobacco leaves while saying, "I know, the letters from home mentioned these things. Why are you talking about these things?"
Zhang Chunhua hit him with a look of dismay and said in a low voice, "We can only eat half full every day in Bingcheng. Can you talk to mother about helping us?"
"What did you say?" Li Mulin looked at her in disbelief. "Zhang Chunhua, why is it that this is the first time I realize how shameless you are? To put it bluntly, since I married you in Bingcheng, I have been separated from this family. From then on, I have been the only one who takes care of my mother, and I have never asked for anything from my family. I'm telling you, you'd better give up this idea as soon as possible."
"But doesn't the family have enough food?" Zhang Chunhua still felt a little unwilling.
"The food at home is barely enough to fill your stomach, and it's only because we're back home for the New Year that we're letting you eat as much as you want. Don't be ungrateful!"
Zhang Chunhua found helplessly that everyone in this family, from the old to the young, was too straightforward and tough. She couldn't help but pound the kang, wanting to cry but without tears: "Can't you give me some face? After all, I'm the first one here!"