In fact, I can see that Ji Guanxin doesn't know how to get angry, but he is a man after all, and he always does things more neatly than women. He walked to the firewood pile next to the stove, took some chopped wooden strips and put them in the small hole under the stove.
I saw sawdust and dried corn leaves not far away, and asked aloud: "Do I need to put these in to light it?"
Ji Guanxin took a look and then said, "I've already seen it without you having to tell me."
As soon as his long legs moved, he walked to the place where the dry leaves were placed, grabbed a handful and stuffed them directly into the hole. When the entrance to the cave was completely packed, Ji Guanxin started looking for something to light a fire.
My mother didn’t just sit around and eat. At least she found a box of matches next to the stove.
When my mother handed the matchbox to Ji Guanxin, Ji Guanxin raised his eyebrows and said, "Ah, I haven't seen this thing in years."
My mother asked: "Don't you smoke?"
Ji Guanxin said: "I used to smoke, but now I quit. I have never used matches before. I seem to have seen them when I was a child."
I said, "Don't come here. You've been smoking a lot at my grandma's house these two days."
My grandfather and uncle both smoked. When Ji Guanxin went there, they would stuff cigarettes for him. Every time Ji Guanxin came out of my grandma's house, he smelled of cigarette smoke. Those who didn't know it thought he had just come out of a mahjong parlor.
Ji Guanxin replied to me: "I really quit smoking. I didn't smoke for a month before coming to Liangcheng. My grandpa and uncle handed me cigarettes. I was embarrassed not to smoke."
My mother quickly said: "Look at you kid, just tell me after you quit smoking, then cigarettes are still a good thing. It's better not to smoke."
While he was talking, Ji Guanxin had already lit a match. He used the small wooden pole on the match to light the corn leaves, but the leaves only caught fire for a moment and stopped burning inside.
Ji Guanxin tried four or five sticks in a row, but he couldn't light the firewood.
My mother asked: "What's going on?"
I squatted down next to Ji Guanxin, grabbed the matchbox from his hand, and said while drawing, "You must have ordered it the wrong way."
Ji Guanxin raised his eyebrows and said, "Come here."
I smashed the corn leaves inside, then scraped the dry sawdust out, starting with the sawdust.
None of us expected that dry sawdust would be so easy to ignite. As soon as I put the match in my hand, I heard a 'pop' sound, and all the sawdust at the entrance of the hole was ignited.
The fire was so strong that it almost burned my hair. Fortunately, Ji Guanxin had quick eyes and quick hands and grabbed me back.
My mother was also frightened and hid much faster than the two of us.
The dry wood chips burned quickly at the entrance of the hole, and soon the corn leaves were also alight. As soon as the corn leaves burned, the wood inside soon also burned red.
At the expense of my shock, the fire was finally lit.
Ji Guanxin stood aside, looking at the big pot that was gradually heating up. He smiled and asked, "Auntie, what should you cook first?"
My mother turned to look at Ji Guanxin with a really confused look on her face. After a few seconds, she clapped her hands and said in a sudden realization: "Children, we haven't prepared the food yet!"
Ji Guanxin couldn't laugh or cry. My mother just saw the stove and casually asked how to light the fire. Then all of us focused on how to light the fire, and no one prepared the dishes.
Seeing that the iron pot was getting hotter and hotter, my mother hurriedly poured a ladle of water into it, and then directed Ji Guanxin and me: "You two, hurry up and wash the vegetables and chop them."
I asked her: "Then what are you doing?"
My mother said, "I'm watching you."
“…”
The three of us turned around and returned to the back room. There was a row of shopping bags in the corner, all brought by us. They contained meat, vegetables and fruits.
At this time, there was no time to ask who liked what to eat, and what to take when they caught it. After washing, fry it first.
My mother arranged for Ji Guanxin to wash the vegetables. After he washed them, I cut them and my mother fried them.
Ji Guanxin stood on the earthen platform next to the stove, with a large basin of warm water in front of him and various fruits and vegetables at hand.
He first washed three tomatoes and gave them to me. I cut them and put them on a plate, and said to my mother, "Can you make scrambled eggs with tomatoes?"
My mother had already tied up her apron, and with a look on her face as if she was going to die with the stove, she replied openly: "Don't worry, it's a piece of cake."
Ji Guanxin said while washing the cucumbers: "Why are they so prickly?"
I said: "Cucumbers must be fresh with flowers and thorns on top. What do you know?"
Ji Guanxin handed me my favorite cucumber, and I put it on the chopping board. Just as I was about to cut it, I turned to my mother and asked, "Can you fry cucumbers?"
My mother was pouring oil into the pot, and the water in the pot was not wiped. There was a "sting" sound, and my mother had already ran to hide two meters away.
She held the spatula in one hand and covered her face with the other hand, and replied vaguely: "I don't know how to fry, just pat a cucumber."
I curled my lips, feeling sorry for how my dad had managed to survive all these years.
I was taking pictures of cucumbers, but I really didn’t pay attention. A few minutes later, Ji Guanxin handed me a big bowl full of small green leaves, which looked familiar and yet strange.
I asked him: "What is this?"
Ji Guanxin also glanced sideways at me and asked calmly, "Don't you recognize me?"
I'm sure this thing just looks a bit like cilantro, but it's definitely not cilantro.
I asked him, "Where did you get it?"
Ji Guanxin pointed at the swill bucket at his feet. I walked over and took a look, Damn! He pulled off all the celery leaves and threw away the edible stalks.
Seeing me open my mouth in surprise, Ji Guanxin asked: "What's wrong?"
I really wanted to hold the big bowl in my hand and call him in the face, frown at him and say, "Celery! Have you never eaten celery? Have you ever seen someone who eats only the leaves and not the stems of celery?"
Ji Guanxin remained calm. He looked down at the celery stems in the swill bucket and then at the celery leaves in the bowl in my hand. He said aloud: "I don't know. I thought this thing just eats leaves."
I almost cried with anger. With so many leaves, did he pull out all the celery? I also want to eat fried celery.
While I was competing with Ji Guanxin, my mother's side was even more lively. The eggs had already been cooked, and she suddenly said "Oops."
Ji Guanxin and I both looked at her.
"What's wrong?" I asked with a frown.
My mother looked at the two of us and asked instead, "Do you like sweet fried persimmons with eggs?"
Sweet taste…
Ji Guanxin said: "The food in Yecheng is salty, but you can try it."
I looked at my mother and asked expressionlessly: "Did you mistake sugar for salt?"
My mother also felt embarrassed and nodded.
I'm so crazy and exhausted!
When I walked to the stove, I looked at the few boxes of seasonings on it and told my mother one by one, which one was salt, which one was sugar, which one was soy sauce and which one was vinegar.
My mother was so proud that she casually said: "Can I still not distinguish between soy sauce and vinegar?"
I didn't want to bury her, so I turned around and walked to the chopping board. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw Ji Guanxin poking something there. I was also scared and quickly took another look.
It turns out that luckily I took another look, because Ji Guanxin was sparing no effort to peel the red onion, layer after layer. He peeled only two-thirds of a good onion, and he was still peeling and throwing it away.
"Hey, hey, don't throw it away."
I walked over and stopped him, frowned and said, "Just peel off the outermost layer of skin. Everything inside is edible."
As I said that, I gave him a demonstration.
Ji Guanxin said nonchalantly: "I'm just telling you, I thought this thing had so much skin, what exactly was inside."
“…”
Taking a deep breath, I kept telling myself in my heart that he who doesn’t know is not guilty.
"Ji Guanxin."
"Um?"
"Next time if you have any food that you don't understand, can you ask me first before throwing it away?"
"It's okay, you're busy with your business, I'll take care of it myself."
I glared and said, "Who discussed this with you? If you keep throwing it away like this, we won't even have to eat it!"
While we were chatting away, my mother's plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes was already ready. She carried the plate and walked to the back room. As she passed by, she didn't forget to urge us: "Stop playing and get ready."
I cried, who played
Twenty minutes later, with the cooperation of the three of us, four dishes and one soup were ready.
When my mother was holding a big bowl of so-called seaweed and tofu soup and said with a smug look on her face that there was still soup, I was so tired that I didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm.
Because I watched her accidentally put a spoonful of sugar into the soup first, and then quietly put two spoonfuls of salt in an attempt to cover up the sweetness of the sugar.
As soon as the big bowl was placed in the middle of the table, my mother smiled and said, "Come on, come on, dinner is ready."
Four people sat around the table. My mother said: "Today's preparations were a bit hasty. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes were a bit sweet. I forgot to blanch the beans for stewed potatoes. They may be a little undercooked. Please wait a little longer. Eat some, don't get poisoned; the tofu soup is a little salty, but the cucumbers are very good, and you will be appetizing just by looking at it."
I said, "I took that photo."
Ji Guanxin immediately said: "I think Auntie's cooking is quite good. It's colorful and fragrant."
My mother smiled and said, "Come on, Guan Xin, eat more."
I will always remember Ji Guanxin's reaction when he took his first bite of tomato scrambled eggs. He was obviously so shocked and disgusted that he didn't want to swallow it, but he had to swallow it. My mother gave me a thumbs up and said, "It's delicious."
After I finished eating, I gave Ji Guanxin a thumbs up: "Good taste."
No wonder I didn’t want to eat the food cooked by my mother since I was a child, and she herself wasn’t willing to eat it. The table was full of four dishes and one soup, some were sweet, some were salty, and some were undercooked. The only thing that was edible was my cucumber dish, but it was a cold dish and couldn't be eaten with rice.
I waited until eleven o'clock to eat this lunch. I was so hungry at first, but now I feel so sick.
Halfway through the meal, my mother couldn't stand it anymore. She said, "Zijin, aren't we buying instant noodles? Let's go and cook a few more packs."
I stood up immediately, my eyes turned green.
"Where? Where are the instant noodles?"
Ji Guanxin's eyes were sharper. He pointed at a place and said, "Over there, I saw it smells like chicken stewed with mushrooms!"
Chicken chicken chicken, he still misses the chicken.