Chapter 22: Pickled Vegetables
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Su Wen went to the kitchen and opened the cabinet to see if there were any ingredients left. All the good food had been consumed by the original character, and the sisters were malnourished; they needed to be nourished.
It would have been great if there had been milk!
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Su Wen went to the kitchen and opened the cabinet to see if there were any ingredients left. All the good food had been consumed by the original character, and the sisters were malnourished; they needed to be nourished.
It would have been great if there had been milk!
She sighed inwardly and planned to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to purchase some malted milk and get Su Qing to send it to school for Fourth and Fifth sister.
Those poor girls; who knew what kind of life they were leading in school!
When Su Wen was young, she had eaten in the school canteen. Not only had there been no oil used, but the food was also extremely unpalatable and of poor nutritional value. With Fourth and Fifth sisters’ status, they could probably only eat some pickled vegetables, steamed buns, and drink some cold water.
Her heart ached at the thought of it.
“Big sister, what are we having for dinner?” After cleaning up the yard, little sister Su quietly washed her hands before entering the kitchen.
She knew that her elder sister prioritized basic hygiene. If she was unhygienic, her elder sister would not like her.
“We’ll have egg pancakes and fry up some pickled vegetables for dinner.” Su Wen made her decision and started to take action.
She took five eggs from the drawer, then began to mix some white flour and water into cornmeal to make the batter. She then went to their plot outside, pulled out a few shallots, washed and chopped them up before putting them into the batter.
When she was done, she realized little sister Su was clutching her chest in pain.
“What’s wrong with you? Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
Little sister Su’s eyes were filled with tears. “Big sister, do you want to eat five eggs? We only have fourteen eggs in total. If we finish them, we’ll have none left! Let’s not eat them. I’m not hungry at all, really. I ate such delicious meat and bones yesterday. I can live without good food for a year.”
They usually couldn’t bear to eat even a single one.
“Big sister, let’s not eat eggs! We’ll just have cornmeal paste. That will be delicious enough.”
Su Wen was silent for a long time. It turned out that when her little sister had eaten meat the day before, she had already decided not to eat it for the next year.
“Listen to me, you’re malnourished now and need more nutrition. From now on, you have to eat eggs every day. Not only eggs, but also meat, bones, fish, and a lot of other delicious food.”
Little sister Su looked at Su Wen, startled, her little heart in great shock. In her eyes, her elder sister had such a tall and tough image, even more radiant than it had been when their father had been alive.
“Don’t worry. There will be eggs, money, and beautiful clothes in the future.”
Her little sister was too sensible, which was really gratifying.
Come, help me start the fire. Let’s start cooking!”
“Oh!” Little sister Su had yet to recover from the shock. She sat on a small stool with a dazed expression on her face as she started the fire. Her hands, however, were very skilled. She added firewood little by little when she was filling the stove, allowing the iron pot to be heated evenly without needing to use a fire fork.
With someone helping her with the fire, she would be able to cook twice as quickly. It would be more convenient than the natural gas in the city, and the food she made would be more fragrant.
Su Wen deftly wiped the heated pot with oil before spreading out flour in the pot to make a pancake, subsequently adding a whipped egg. Soon, the fragrance of corn mixed with scallions and eggs filled the air.
Little sister Su couldn’t help but swallow her saliva. Her eyes were fixed on the egg pancake, and she couldn’t bear to look away. She had long forgotten what she had just said.
Su Wen couldn’t help but laugh. No matter how sensible a child was, she was still a child.
She repeated the process four times and made four egg pancakes. Dinner was ready.
It wouldn’t do to have a main course without side dishes. Little sister Su made a fuss about not wanting side dishes, saying that it was sufficiently delicious and blissful to have the egg pancakes. However, Su Wen ignored her. From what she knew, what was a meal without side dishes?
There must be a sense of ceremony in life, and it was important to pay attention to the pairing of items.
She opened a small jar of pickled vegetables from the corner of the kitchen. Inside were pickled vegetables with beautiful coloring. The tangy smell made one feel like eating a big bowl of rice.
It would go well with the egg pancake.
She didn’t expect the original character to have a unique skill in pickling vegetables.
Chapter 23: Talents
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“This was pickled by Second and Third sister! They didn’t mean to hide it from you. Big sister, don’t be angry.” Little sister Su was dizzy from fear when she saw what her big sister was doing.
Big sister didn’t know how to pickle vegetables, so she didn’t let them do it as well. However, there was nothing to eat at home. It was too unbearable to bite on dry cornbread all day long, so Second and Third sisters had secretly done some pickling.
Little sister Su’s words shattered Su Wen’s illusion about the original character.
Second sister, Third sister have never played with little swallows before, so the pickled vegetables are very delicious and don’t smell.”
Looking at little sister Su’s nervous gaze, a superstition held in the countryside came to Su Wen’s mind. In the countryside of the past, girls had to learn how to make pickled vegetables, noodles, dumplings, and so on before they got married.
The adults all said that if girls caught little swallows, the pickled vegetables would stink.
Therefore, the adults were all watching and did not allow their daughters to touch little swallows.
This was a superstition, and the root of it was that boys were favored over girls. Boys were mischievous and could cause trouble, climb trees to catch birds or even dig out bird nests.
The girls, on the other hand, could do nothing of the sort. They could only help with the household chores at home, feed the livestock, and work in the fields when they were slightly older.
“It’s fine, I’m not angry.” Su Wen waved her hand. “You turn on the fire, I’ll cook the pickles.”
Preserved vegetables were not popular in the countryside. Firstly, because they were eaten for every meal. Many ate it over the course of their entire lives. They were also served without any oil or water, so it was unlikely to be delicious. However, Su Wen’s method was different. She didn’t simply take the pickled vegetables out of the jar and place them on the plate for consumption.
Instead, she washed the preserved vegetables with clean water a few times. After washing out the salt, she sliced it and added a lot of oil into the pot before adding ginger, onions, and chili once the pot had been heated.
The stir-fried pickled vegetables were completely different from before. Little sister Su plucked up her courage and secretly pinched a little bit of it when Su Wen wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes suddenly widened in surprise.
Was this…preserved vegetables?
How could it be so delicious?
Su Wen pretended not to see little sister Su’s oily mouth and brought the dinner to the small table under the pomegranate tree. Su Qing and Su Xiu returned at the same time. The four sisters washed their hands and sat down to eat.
Su Wen ate slowly as she watched her three little sisters gobble up the food. They were eating so much that they couldn’t even speak. So she put down her chopsticks and knocked on the table a few times.
“Knock knock knock!”
The three of them paused at the same time and looked at Su Wen nervously.
“I’m sorry, Big sister. We shouldn’t have snatched it from you.” Su Xiu lowered her head and apologized, her face red.
Su Wen was speechless.
I’m not angry, and you guys didn’t snatch mine.” She explained helplessly, before saying in a serious tone, “I just want to tell you that you must maintain good etiquette and manners whenever you eat. From now on, you have to be strict with yourself. As your big sister, I have the responsibility to cultivate you into talents and not to let you live a mediocre life and randomly find someone to marry in the village when you’re older.”
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Su Qing didn’t know why, but her face suddenly turned pale.
She thought of her mother, who had passed away while giving birth to her little sister. When her mother was still alive, she would wash them daily and be strict with them. They were not allowed to grab at rice with their hands, nor drag their chopsticks around the plate when eating.
She had long forgotten many details. Now that she heard her big sister’s words, she suddenly thought of it, and what followed was shame. She was only a year younger than her elder sister, but she was far inferior to her.
Su Xiu’s eyes were filled with shock. “Big sister, can we also become talents?”
“Of course you can.” Su Wen nodded with confidence. In her opinion, the Su sisters were smart, sensible, and hardworking. They were all talents.
Chapter 24: My Man
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Okay! Big sister, we’ll listen to you.”
“Me too.”
“Me too.”
The three sisters all expressed their opinions, looking at Su Wen with excitement and adoration, their eyes so passionate that they could melt someone.
Su Wen was embarrassed!
Ahem ahem… Hurry up and eat!”
“Okay!”
This time, the three sisters learned from Su Wen’s example and ate slowly. It was merely a pancake made with whole grains and egg, paired with pickled vegetables, but they ate as though they were at a state banquet.
Su Wen was very satisfied. In the future, even if they were to go to the provincial capital, they would not be inferior to anyone there.
“Don’t be nervous. If you want to talk, talk. If you want to chat, chat.” She had never thought of raising her younger sisters according to the standards of nobles.
Deep down, she was from the countryside, so she would not look down on people from there. On the contrary, she liked them very much.
“Big sis wants you to learn manners and etiquette, not because you’re not good as you are. On the contrary, I want you to be better, stronger, more confident, and be a person with inner strength. Don’t feel inferior; don’t back down.”
Su Wen was afraid that she had overexerted herself, so she earnestly reiterated herself.
“Big sister, don’t worry! We understand.” After all, Su Qing was the second child. When she was young, her mother, who was an educated youth, had taught her carefully.
“Me too.”
Alright!” Su Wen looked at Su Qing with satisfaction, and her evaluation of her second sister increased a little.
After dinner, as usual, little sister Su washed the dishes, Su Xiu went to boil the bath water, and the four sisters took turns to shower. By the time they were done, the sky had already turned dark, and they went to sleep.
*****
The next day, Su Qing was the earliest to rise. After cooking taro porridge, everyone else woke up.
Su Qing and Su Xiu went to work together after breakfast.
Su Wen took a basket and brought little sister Su to the village chief’s house to look for Aunt Chunyan. On the way there, she met a man in a vintage long-sleeved white shirt and navy blue pants. He was wearing a pair of old-fashioned and ugly black-rimmed glasses, and was laughing and chatting with Su Pingfan.
Su Wen hated Su Pingfan so much that she didn’t even bother to look at him.
However, little sister Su’s expression was unusual, and Su Wen immediately understood.
It was Zhao Jiangang!
Upon closer inspection, Zhao Jiangang was about 1.75 meters tall and looked very refined. The eyes hidden behind the glasses were shining like a mouse, greedily sizing up Su Wen, his eyes filled with dishonesty.
Su Wen wanted to laugh. Zhao Jiangang’s sinister expression was almost written all over his face. Was the original character blind? She was actually so infatuated with such a person.
Her man was 1.86 meters tall, had six-pack abs, was handsome and cool, and was masculine. He was simply a walking hormone. She actually didn’t like him, but liked this kind of pretty boy.
In fact, Su Wen was wrong.
In her eyes, Zhao Jiangang’s black-rimmed glasses were old-fashioned and ugly, but they were the most popular now and the standard of the cultured people in the city. A white shirt and navy blue pants were even rarer and sought-after, the kind that came with its own filter.
In addition, Zhao Jiangang was good at putting on an act and coaxing people, so there were many girls who liked him. Zhou Hengyang, on the other hand, had a cold and hard personality. His eyes were so sharp that they seemed to be able to see through people. The original character was subconsciously afraid of Zhou Hengyang. In addition, Zhou Hengyang never coaxed her, so she was easily deceived by Zhao Jiangang.
Zhao Jiangang and Su Pingfan had been working together for a long time, deliberately harming educated youths in the countryside in various production teams. It was impossible to count how many people had been defiled. There were even cases of pregnancies and miscarriages that resulted in illnesses due to poor recuperation.
The two of them were locals, and the educated youths were from outside and were under the supervision of the brigade, so they could only bear with it even if they were dumped.
“Cousin, what are you busy with?” When Su Pingfan saw Su Wen, he gave Zhao Jiangang a meaningful look and walked over with a big smile on his face. “Cousin, brother-in-law is here to see you.” After he finished speaking, he even winked, thinking that he was humorous.
Su Wen was repulsed.