"Mom, I'm hungry." Yang Fan was cooking in the kitchen when he caught a glimpse of Zhao Xin coming in and acting coquettishly with Mrs. Zhao.
Since he was not in a familiar kitchen for this meal, Yang Fan spent a lot of time just preparing the side dishes and searching for the ingredients.
For a dish, different methods of preparation require different ingredients.
"You are the only one who is hungry. How can I not be hungry? Didn't you have some snacks on the way home from school?" Mrs. Zhao dotes on her daughter inwardly, but on the surface, she is like thousands of other mothers, disliking her child in various ways.
Yang Fan didn't even raise his head, as if he was concentrating on cooking, but he said, "Xinxin's body is still growing and developing, so she gets hungry quickly. When I was in high school, I often had extra meals. Like most students, I would get 300 grams of rice from the school cafeteria, and then I would get another bowl of noodles after eating, so that I could be full."
Zhao Xin's face flushed, and she shyly explained: "I didn't eat that much. I only eat one or two ounces when I eat in the school cafeteria."
Mrs. Zhao smiled and said, "You used snacks to make up for the remaining two taels, right?"
Zhao Xin curled her lips: "It's not even two taels, at most one tael."
Mrs. Zhao didn't give her daughter face and said, "I don't believe you if you say that the bag of potato chips tonight only weighed three taels."
"Mom~" Zhao Xin shook Mrs. Zhao's arm and glanced at Yang Fan with a blushing face.
Yang Fan closed the pot and simmered it for a while.
The dish he made was pork belly, which was only half-cooked. Mrs. Zhao saw it and said she wanted to eat it.
The best pork belly with skin must have alternating fat and lean parts.
In the Chinese recipe book, braised pork has a short history, but it is very popular.
Pork and soy sauce are common and easily available, and cooking does not require advanced skills, only time and patience, which makes braised pork a classic home cooking.
For those who are more sophisticated, they will first roast the pork skin over a strong fire. The pork skin will shrink rapidly under the high temperature and can be stewed for a long time while still maintaining a chewy texture.
Red is the label of appearance. To obtain this attractive color, you can stir-fry sugar color, add soy sauce, or use red yeast rice or fermented bean curd. Each family has its own method.
The broth cannot be wasted. No matter what ingredients are added, after absorbing the broth, they will become the most tacit supporting role of the braised pork.
The degree of cooking and the strength of the flavor vary from household to household.
Compared to skills, the care and effort put into it is what is most worth remembering.
"After cooking, I'll make you a pot of brown sugar ginger tea." Yang Fan said to Zhao Xin.
Zhao Xin was stunned and her face turned red.
Mrs. Zhao looked at her daughter with a smile and admired Yang Fan's attentiveness and observation.
After dinner at Zhao's house, Yang Fan did not clear the table but sat down in front of the piano next to the dining table.
Music can cultivate sentiment, and musical instruments are part of music.
Living in a house like this, the Zhao family naturally has no shortage of pianos.
In the past, a cigarette after a meal was better than being a living god.
Now, Yang Fan has bid farewell completely.
I have no addiction to smoking in this body, and besides, there are children at home, so smoking is impossible.
We cannot say that people who smoke and drink are selfish, but those who smoke in public definitely have no manners.
So-called public places also include restaurant lobbies where a group of strangers sit at their own tables and eat.
Of course, although open-air food stalls are also public places, the space is not enclosed, so smoking and drinking are normal and cannot be considered uncivilized.
That's how the situation is. You can't say that someone has no manners just because you saw someone stripping at home in the building opposite you through a telescope.
"Brother, do you want to play the piano?" Zhao Xin sat next to Yang Fan. After a meal, she had become familiar with Yang Fan.
Girls nowadays are very courageous, at least more cheerful and bright than Yang Fan’s generation.
Feudal ideas are still quite serious in the countryside. In Yang's generation, boys and girls were not allowed to play together from the age of three or four.
Yang Fan's generation was not very open-minded either. The ones who were open-minded were him and Wang Jun, the two children, who were so close that they didn't care about gender.
In junior high school, the two went to the back mountain to play together.
I remember one time, Wang Jun ran to the toilet halfway through the game, and it was behind a tree. Yang Fan didn't know it at first, and kept talking to Wang Jun while digging wild vegetables.
Wang Jun was a little impatient and yelled, "Don't talk to me first, I'm taking a shit."
Yang Fan stopped talking.
There was no sound for a long while, and Wang Jun went to talk to Yang Fan himself.
Yang Fan said: "You are taking a shit, how can you still talk?"
Wang Jun said: "It was not cut off just now, but now it is cut off and I can speak."
In Zhao's restaurant.
Yang Fan played a piece of music, the sound was as beautiful as ever, and his skills were superb.
Zhao Xin listened to the music and looked at Yang Fan who was concentrating on the piano.
It seems that I can see his past from him.
Love is the most unpredictable thing in the world, some people break up while being together, some people make up after quarreling, some people come while waiting, and some people just separate while walking together.
During the long journey, everyone has his or her own story, happy or sad, or it may have become a thing of the past, but it is these stories that make us who we are today, the special us.
Zhao Xin didn't say anything, but told Yang Fan in her heart that everything would get better slowly.
The only thing in the world that has the power to heal is time and ourselves.
"Brother, are you heartbroken?" Zhao Xin asked Yang Fan.
Yang Fan shook his head: "No."
With one relationship after another connecting seamlessly, how can there be any talk of heartbreak
"Can you play it again?" Zhao Xin asked.
“No matter how good the music is, it can’t withstand being played on repeat,” Yang Fan said with a smile.
"Just once, let's do it again." Zhao Xin said coquettishly.
The way a little girl acts coquettishly is purely natural.
Yang Fan didn't refuse and played it again.
"What song is this?" After listening to it again, Zhao Xin asked the name of the song.
"This kind of love is worth waiting for." Yang Fan said.
Zhao Xin had also learned to play the piano, and searched for this piece of music in her memory, but of course she couldn't find it in the end.
"How come I have never heard such a beautiful song?" Zhao Xin was very confused.
Yang Fan smiled and said, "Because its author is very unfamiliar to the people in this world."
"Isn't the author famous?" Zhao Xin suddenly realized.
"Yes." Yang Fan nodded: "Call me Richard."
Zhao Xin was surprised, and then said with some regret: "It's a pity that a foreigner wrote this song. I thought it was written by someone from our country. It turns out that there are more talented musicians in foreign countries who can write such beautiful songs."
Yang Fan nodded: "If a sapling wants to grow into a big tree, it needs soil. Our soil is not fertile enough, and coupled with the various infiltrations from the West, which have been causing damage, our life is a bit difficult."
"Drive them out." Zhao Xin said naively.
Yang Fan smiled and asked, "There was a World Oceans Day some time ago. Did you know about it?"
Zhao Xin nodded: "I know, every June 8th."
"Have you seen any news on the Internet?" Yang Fan asked.
Today's children each have a mobile phone and have many opportunities to surf the Internet.