The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 221

On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, Lao Tan's five sisters and five brother-in-laws all came to the house of the fifth sister, and the whole family had a lively reunion.

The next morning, Lao Tan picked up two cabbages from the yard, picked a handful of peppers, pulled out a dozen green onions, took them to the well and washed them, and prepared to eat dumplings stuffed with cabbage, green onions, and peppers dipped in sauce for lunch.

Mother put on thick clothes and sat on the stool in front of the hall to bask in the sun.

Old Tan took the cutting board out of the house, propped it up on the steps, and started cutting cabbage.

"Put some meat, it won't taste good without meat." The old lady said to her son.

"Yes, put the meat." Old Tan agreed.

"Bring me some meat-free ones. You can eat meat-infused ones. I can't digest meat." The old lady muttered.

"I'll cook it for you a little longer." Old Tan said with a smile.

"Cooking for a while will not work, you will have no teeth, and you will not be able to bite. When you are old, it is better to eat some vegetarian food, just a little oily water. You should also eat less meat. If you are too fat, fat people love high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, you can get high blood pressure." If you don’t go to the roots, you still love cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction——
Look at the present, those who die are all young, not very old, in their forties or fifties, either with cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage, or myocardial infarction—all eating and drinking—like us These old people can't die, they don't eat meat, they don't drink alcohol, and the fried and oily ones don't stick to their mouths, where can they get sick? "

"It's better to eat whole grains." Old Tan said.

"What is better than coarse grains? Rice and white noodles are good, but they are not nutritious. I don't like rice porridge at all. Your fifth sister always cooks millet porridge for me. The boiled ones are rotten. I can drink them, but you can't. You guys You have to drink something hard."

The old lady might be hot, so she unbuttoned two coat buttons.

Old Tan cut up one cabbage, put the second one on the cutting board, and then lit a cigarette.

Fifth Sister came out with the brewed tea after cleaning up the house, and took the kitchen knife from her younger brother.

"The mooncake stuffed with jujube paste that Guohua brought back is quite soft, and it's okay to eat—" the old lady muttered casually.

The fifth sister smiled and said to her younger brother: "See, I want to eat mooncakes, and I have to eat what you brought back."

Old Tan laughed.

The fifth sister teased her mother: "Eat what your old son bought for you? Why, the ones he bought are more delicious than mine?"

"Isn't that made of jujube paste? I can bite it." The old lady argued.

Fifth Sister laughed, got up and went into the room to take a jujube paste mooncake.

The old lady broke the mooncake in half, handed half to the old girl, and then used her thin hands to break off a small piece from the other half and put it in her mouth, slowly grinding it together with her toothless gums.

Swallowing a mouthful of mooncakes, the old lady remembered the past and said: "When I was still in the production team, there were no you two at that time, just your eldest sister and your second sister, and there was nothing to eat for the August Festival. It would be better to grab a bowl of millet rice." it's --
Dr. Xu from the mine has a good heart. Seeing that our family has nothing to eat, the two children only have pickles for a bowl of millet rice --- they will give you a piece of moon cake, and your eldest sister and your second sister will each have half ---
The child has grown up so big that he has never eaten moon cakes. Your second sister took a bite, and your elder sister didn't eat the sweetness. Give it to me, and say Mom, you eat—"

The old lady said a handful of bitter tears flowed from her scarlet eyes——
Fifth Sister's eyes were filled with tears, and Lao Tan's nose was sore——
Those days of misery—

The old lady wiped away the tears from her face with her wrinkled hands, sighed, and then said in a relieved tone: "The life is so good now, you can eat anything, not to mention moon cakes, there are imperial banquets. Or The society is good. At that time, no one thought about such a society. It would be nice to have a full stomach.

Look at this family now, every day is like Chinese New Year, they are tired of eating meat, and they start eating seafood.If you want me to say that nothing is as good as the whole grains in the field and the eggplants and peppers in the garden, an ordinary person, who eats food in the soil, what kind of seafood do they eat? "

Fifth Sister and Old Tan laughed at the same time.

The old lady was very talkative, she shifted from food to health, and said to her son: "Eat less seafood, less meat, and less alcohol in restaurants. Look at you, you have high blood pressure when you are just 41, and your physique is not as good as mine.

What is better than having a good physique, what is your own?As far as the physique is your own, it is better to be free from illness and disaster.At my age, you have to have a good physique. It is your blessing that there is nothing wrong with you.If I paralyzed on the kang and ate and pulled, you don't have to worry about it. "

The fifth sister said to Lao Tan: "Our mother is in good health. When the weather changes in spring, I have a cold, so I have to take a bottle for a few days. My mother is fine, and she cooks for me. While doing it, I muttered: You people still don’t catch a cold? None of them are in good shape, and they are not as good as my old lady.”

Old Tan smiled and looked at his mother.

Mother broke another mooncake and put it in her mouth, chewing slowly.

The autumn sunshine warmly sprinkles into this warm small farmyard, a kind of sweetness of family affection and happiness of home rippling.

People, when you have a mother, you have to have a home.

Zhou Xiaomei spent the August Festival with her parents, brother and sister-in-law, nephews and nieces, and her precious son, and spent the next two days doing nothing but spending time with her son.

I haven't seen my son for more than half a year, and the little guy has grown taller again, looking like a little man.

The son follows her, is very aggressive, always speaks adult language, and is sensible, just like when she was a child.Xiaomei's mother said that her son always got little red flowers in the kindergarten, and he was good at drawing. If he enrolls in an art class in the city, he might be good.

Zhou Xiaomei also wants to bring her child with her, but the reality doesn't allow it - she's single, going to work every day is a little bit, and I don't know when to get off work, so how to bring it?

She also wants to buy a house in Hohhot and take her parents over, but the two old people are used to living in the countryside, but not in the city. Besides, there are brothers and sisters-in-law at home, and parents cannot do without their grandchildren.

She is relieved that the child is at home, with her parents taking care of her, and her brother's two children as playmates, so she is living a good life.It's just that education in rural areas is not as good as that in cities. As a mother, I hope my children will receive a good education.

She plans to take her child to Hohhot when she is in elementary school, go to school there, and hire a nanny at that time.

She told her parents about this idea, and her father didn't say anything, and the fact that he didn't say anything didn't mean he had no idea.

My mother said: "It's okay to hire a nanny, but it's best to find someone else. You can't live alone for a lifetime."

What mother said was also what father meant. Parents in the world, like parents, cannot bear to watch their children live alone, let alone young.

It's not that she hasn't thought about it, it's just that she hasn't met the right one.

A woman's first marriage must be for love, without any scruples.But a second marriage may not be possible, especially with children, there are many thoughts and scruples.

This is not to say that people lose love when they reach middle age. In fact, the love of middle-aged people is purer and deeper.It's just that with life experience and obstacles, I think more and be more cautious.

Because of thinking too much and being cautious, I often love and care deeply in my heart, but don't express it.

This may be the reality of adult love.

Of course, there are also those who are open-minded and simply regard love as a relationship between the sexes. As long as the two look at each other, they will follow their hearts and live together quickly.One day it doesn't look pleasing to the eye and then separate, chic and comfortable.

Our Zhou Xiaomei, a woman with a model figure and a very beautiful temperament, is still not so chic. The traditional moral concepts in her bones make her more cautious when interacting with men after becoming a divorced woman, and sometimes even avoid them.

Reputation is very important to a woman, once she indulges herself, a bad reputation will accompany her for a lifetime.

Due to the particularity of the work, it is inevitable to come into contact with all kinds of men. In addition to their beauty, there are many suitors, including those who have a successful career.

But Zhou Xiaomei politely refused, because whenever she had an idea, her lovely son would appear in front of her eyes.

Thinking of his son's happiness and guilt, he came up with an idea: Can other men treat the child well?Obviously, they came here for their looks. If they weren't pretty, no one would notice them, and they wouldn't pursue them.

Can these people accept themselves and their son?They will feel like a burden.

It's easy to be a father when you enter the door.This is just a joke, don't take it seriously.

It is very difficult for a woman and a boy to find a second family. It is easy to be a step-husband but difficult to be a step-father.

Having said that, at this age, most of the men are divorced, and 80.00% have children.When the two start a family, they will face the embarrassing situation of two children who are not related by blood together. One stepfather and one stepmother are difficult to deal with.

This is an unavoidable reality that cannot be ignored.

It might be easier if you just pursue your own happiness, but can it?Handing over the child to her parents, finding a man to marry herself, and then living a sweet life, Zhou Xiaomei still can't do this.

But it is not easy to find a man who loves himself and his son, and treats his son as his own son.

"I have a child here, so it's not so easy to find." Zhou Xiaomei said to her mother.

"Hey, I told you not to have a child, you were disobedient, it's been almost two years, and I haven't seen a cent of child support—" Xiaomei's mother complained about her daughter.

"No need, I can support my son."

"If you can feed you and take it away, then you can talk from there without toothache."

"Take it away, take it away." Xiaomei lost her temper.

Xiaomei's mother looked at her daughter helplessly, and said with a sigh of relief: "The child will be raised by me and your father. You can find someone who doesn't have children and give birth to another one. The boy will just wait until he has his own child. Think more comprehensively. We can go together."

"Mom, don't worry about my affairs. I can fix them. You and my dad take good care of your health. No problem is better than everything else. I can rest assured when I'm outside, don't worry about it."

(End of this chapter)