Chapter 40
◎Early Spring New Tea◎
Not long after the district’s revolutionary storytelling competition ended, Tangtang and the others began their summer vacation.
Tangtang had just finished washing her clothes by the river, wringing them out with a whoosh, when she saw a hot gust of wind blow past. The crystal-clear lake water was stirred by the wind, looking a bit sparkling. She felt playful, so she simply put the washed clothes aside and took off her shoes.
The icy lake water covered the back of her feet, and a cool sensation spread from them, making her let out a soft cry. The icy lake water enveloped her feet. Tangtang gently swayed her feet, splashing up strings of crystal-clear water droplets.
Tangtang couldn’t help but smile, her face filled with a joyous expression.
By the time Tangtang finished washing her clothes and went home, it was almost noon. On the way home, she saw a familiar figure.
“Uncle!” she called out.
Tangtang had a good impression of her grandmother’s family, especially her uncle, Yu Laowu. He had never treated her differently just because she was not her parents’ biological daughter.
Yu Laowu was carrying half a plump wild rabbit in his hand, and his forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat.
“You’ve caught a wild rabbit? That’s amazing!” Tangtang’s eyes lit up.
“It’s nothing. Your uncle has been tumbling around in the mountains for so many years. I still have the skill to catch a wild rabbit.” Yu Laowu laughed twice and handed her the rabbit. “I was lucky today and caught a ten-catty rabbit in the mountains. We kept half at home and brought the other half specially for you. Take this half a rabbit back and have your mom stew it for you tonight to nourish your bodies.”
“I’ve heard that you and Juexiao went to the city to participate in the revolutionary storytelling competition. You two children are really something!”
There was no one else at home, so Tangtang took the half a rabbit into the kitchen. It was heavy in her hand, probably about five catties. Yu Laowu drank a bowl of cold boiled water in one gulp, lifted the corner of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “Then I’ll go back first, Uncle.”
“Aren’t you staying for dinner?”
“No, there’s still work in the fields!”
After saying that, Yu Laowu strode out of the Su family’s courtyard.
In the evening, when Yu Juanfang came back from work, she was taken aback to see the rabbit meat in the bamboo basket. “Where did this rabbit meat come from?”
“Fifth Uncle brought it over during the day. He hunted it in the mountains and brought half of it for our family.”
“Oh, oh.” Hearing this, Yu Juanfang didn’t ask any more questions. Before it got dark, she tied on her apron, washed her hands, and started to prepare dinner.
Usually, they would stew rabbit meat with potatoes and carrots, which they had long grown tired of. Today, Yu Juanfang wanted to try a new method and make pan-fried rabbit.
She first chopped the rabbit meat into small, one-centimeter cubes, then marinated it with a spoonful of salt, half a spoonful of pepper, and a spoonful of rice wine.
As for the green onions, ginger, garlic, and chili peppers, they were grown in the vegetable patch. She first cut a handful of chili peppers into sections, then smashed a large piece of young ginger and chopped it for later use. She also mixed a bowl of sauce in a small bowl.
After the oil in the pot was heated to seventy percent, she added the marinated rabbit meat and stir-fried it with a spatula until it was fragrant and flavorful. Then she added the chopped young ginger and stir-fried it together. With a whoosh, she poured in the pre-mixed sauce. The whole room was filled with the aroma of the sauce. Before serving, she added the chili peppers, and the fragrant and delicious pan-fried rabbit was ready.
A full plate of rabbit meat, with a layer of oil floating on top. The bright red chili sections and the sauce coated the meat, looking very appetizing.
Tangtang picked up a piece of rabbit meat to taste. At first, she was so spicy from the chili peppers that she kept sucking in her breath. Then, the meat juice mixed with the numbing taste of the Sichuan peppercorns ran wild in her mouth. And the meat was very firm and not dry at all. The more she chewed, the more fragrant it became. “Mom, this rabbit meat you made is so delicious!”
“Yes, yes, it’s much more delicious than stewed rabbit meat! With this taste, I feel like I could eat three large bowls of rice!” Su Juesheng was sweating from the spiciness but was reluctant to put down his chopsticks.
“If you like it, eat more. This large plate probably won’t be finished. I’ll use the leftover rabbit meat to make noodles for you tomorrow morning.” Yu Juanfang’s eyes crinkled with a smile as she put the good meat into the two children’s bowls.
Su Huimin picked up a piece of rabbit meat. “Speaking of which, I remembered something. The breeding farm in our county is recruiting workers, mainly to raise pigs. This work is quite dirty and tiring, and the children with city household registrations are not willing to do it. You have to work ten hours a day, and you have to learn to treat the livestock. But at least it’s a stable job. You can get a salary and grain coupons every month, and there’s a subsidy at the end of the year. I wonder if Laowu wants to go. If he wants to, he can go and sign up to try.”
“A breeding farm?” Yu Juanfang was taken aback. Although it was a breeding farm, it was at least an iron rice bowl. In those days, how many people would break their heads for a chance to get a public job? “Such a good opportunity, why don’t you consider Gousheng and Shuanfu first?”
Among the half-grown youths of the Su family, besides Juexiao and Juesheng who were still studying, the rest, like Gousheng and Shuanfu, had long followed in their fathers’ footsteps and developed calluses from working in the fields.
After all, in terms of blood relations, Gousheng and Shuanfu were the ones who were related to Su Huimin by blood.
“Why should I consider Gousheng and Shuanfu first?” Su Huimin gave her a strange look. “Laowu is your brother and also my brother. Isn’t it normal to leave opportunities for our own family?”
Tangtang took a mouthful of rice and said clearly, “A few years ago, when Dad broke his leg, Eldest Uncle and Eldest Aunt all avoided us. Only Uncle came to our house several times and gave us five yuan and a dozen eggs.”
The flames in the stove crackled, and Su Huimin’s shadow flickered on the brick and tile wall.
Tangtang and Su Juesheng were both very happy. If their uncle was hired, with a fixed salary, their grandmother’s family’s life would also be better.
Yu Juanfang’s eyebrows raised in joy. “Then I’ll go and tell Laowu tomorrow.”
The next day, Yu Juanfang told her parents’ family about the recruitment. This made the Yu family overjoyed. Yu Laowu signed up that day and waited anxiously for a week for the news. The results came out, and Yu Laowu was hired by the breeding farm.
When Yu Laowu first started, he was an apprentice. Besides a monthly salary of 20 yuan, he would also receive grain coupons and meat coupons. Moreover, the breeding farm would often have some meat that was sold off at a discount to their internal workers, which was a hidden benefit of the breeding farm. Yu Laowu was a down-to-earth and hardworking person, and all the old masters at the breeding farm praised him. After three months, he became a regular worker, and his salary rose to 35 yuan a month.
Hearing the news that Yu Laowu was hired by the breeding farm, Zhang Guixiang’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot. She sneered twice. “Where is there such a principle? Third Brother, as a biological uncle, doesn’t leave opportunities for his own nephew, but instead favors his brother-in-law with a different surname. He’s really turning his elbow outward. I have to go and ask him if his surname is Su or Yu! Gousheng is his biological nephew. He doesn’t help Gousheng, but helps an outsider. This is unreasonable!”
The eldest son, Su, sat aside with a dark face, his pipe tapping the edge of the kang with a thud thud. “Don’t go! Aren’t you afraid of making things even more ugly? If you go, you’ll just let others laugh at our family!”
“We’ve already divided the family. So what if he’s a biological uncle? Don’t you forget how you cried and made a scene to force the third branch’s family to separate! Look at the situation now. What face do we have to bring this up?”
The eldest son, Su, now also realized that their eldest branch had become a joke in everyone’s eyes. He regretted not holding Zhang Guixiang back at that time. If they hadn’t divided the family, perhaps the opportunity at the breeding farm today would have naturally fallen on Gousheng’s head. Maybe Third Brother would have also considered his own nephew first out of family affection.
“I… wasn’t I doing it for our family?” Zhang Guixiang said stubbornly. “Who knew things would turn out like this? Besides, even if the family is divided, he, Su Laosan, can’t be so heartless!”
“Heartless?” The eldest son, Su, sneered twice. “You still have the face to say he’s heartless. When Third Brother broke his leg, how did we treat him, and how did his brother-in-law treat him? You stayed far away, afraid that he would implicate us. His brother-in-law didn’t dislike him at all and came to visit him several times. Now that Third Brother has the ability to help his own brother-in-law, you come out and criticize others. Do you have any conscience?”
After saying that, the eldest son, Su, slammed the door with a slap, his face full of anger. “If you dare to go and find Third Brother, I… I’ll divorce you!”
The room fell into a brief silence. Zhang Guixiang sat on the floor, her mouth twisted, and the sound of her wailing came out. “Why is my life so hard! How did I marry such an incompetent man!”
…
Tangtang’s family didn’t know about the matters of the eldest branch. In September, the school year began at Hongqi Commune, and Tangtang was promoted from the first year of junior high to the second.
After the last music class on Friday morning, Tangtang was flipping through a second-hand textbook she had bought from a recycling station. The knowledge points in the textbooks from a few years ago were more comprehensive than their current ones. Just then, she heard a classmate say that someone was looking for her.
She went to the door and found that it was Zhou Shunian.
The young man before her was wearing a light gray short-sleeved shirt with two stripes on the shoulders. He was tall and straight, with handsome features, and a Shanghai brand watch on his wrist. Besides a youthful air, he also had a gentle, scholarly temperament.
If Tangtang had to use one word to describe Zhou Shunian, she would say he was like the new tea of early spring, with a hint of mellow sweetness in its astringency.
Zhou Shunian had already graduated from Yuanlin County High School last year. For high school graduates in the city, if they were not recruited for work or the army, they would most likely be sent to the countryside to work as educated youth.
Tangtang called out in a sweet voice, “Brother Shunian.”
“Not bad, little girl. You’ve even become the class monitor.” Zhou Shunian’s eyes crinkled with a teasing smile.
Their class cadre list was posted next to the blackboard. Tangtang lowered her head in embarrassment and said in a low voice, “It’s nothing. The teacher and classmates all trust me, so I just thought I should do my job well. And everyone is very cooperative. Many things are done together.”
“Are you free this afternoon?”
“This afternoon?” Tangtang glanced at the Forever brand bicycle parked behind him. “This afternoon is a labor class. I can ask the teacher for leave.”
Zhou Shunian glanced at his watch. “Alright, if it doesn’t delay your studies, then you can ask the teacher for leave. I’ll take you somewhere.”
“Where are we going?” She widened her eyes.
“You’ll know when we get there.”