Chapter 14: Prelude to Thousand-Year-Old Eggs (Part One)

  "Second brother, come quickly, I have a good thing to tell you." Xi Mei ran mischievously in front of Rui Hao. The child who was still hot from playing with Zhang Zi Shang couldn't understand, "What's the good thing, little sister?" "Brother, go help out in the kitchen and light the fire, let you smell more meat fragrance."

  "Little sister, this is not a good thing, let big brother go. I'm not going." Second Brother firmly refused this time, joking that just smelling the aroma without being able to eat was absolute torture.

  "Brother, look, Father and the others are all busy, you can't let Sister, Second Sister, and me, this weak girl, do such tiring work like cooking, okay Brother, you go quickly," In the end, Ruihao couldn't resist Xi Mei's coquettishness and got up to head towards the kitchen.

  "Hey, what's going on that you didn't call me? Wait for me, I'm coming too." Xiao Bawang demanded. "Really? Are you sure you want to go? No regrets?" Ruihao sneered and asked.

  "Of course, a real man does what he says. Come on, let's go together, you can't leave me behind." "Of course, of course, we're brothers after all. Let's go, I'll tell you what to do." He said as he walked towards the kitchen with his arm around his shoulder.

  Can't see it, his second brother actually has such a dark side? Indeed, after walking for a few steps, I heard the angry voice of Little Overlord, "What? Cooking? I'm not going." Struggling to go back.

  "Haha, you can't stay here anymore. Brother, let's go?" He dragged him into the kitchen reluctantly.

  After the excitement, Xi Mei also followed them to find her older sister. They still had a lot of things to do. "Sister, let's make some cold dishes first, the fire is still occupied." Xi Mei said as she walked up behind Xi Ju.

  "Alright, go wash the lettuce, we'll season it first." "Aye aye captain!" The little girl playfully stuck out her tongue and skipped away.

  After washing the lettuce, Xi Ju Mali quickly got to work, chopping it up and adding seasonings. Finally, she poured hot oil over the chopped garlic, and the refreshing cold lettuce dish was ready to be served.

  After some thought, I felt that there was a lack of cold dishes, so I washed the small cucumbers that had just been picked and still had thorns, cut them into small pieces, put in the peanuts that had just been drained, added salt, Sichuan pepper powder, sugar, garlic, chili oil, and stirred it skillfully before putting it aside.

  The two of them washed and chopped the vegetables that were to be stir-fried, and also cut up the meat that Chen Tian had bought. The fatty and lean parts were separated and placed in a bowl. Soy sauce, scallions, ginger, and garlic were added for marinating. After checking the time for stewing the meat, they walked into the kitchen to take a look.

  They were so excited that they didn't know what to say, the two little guys were burning fire and saying "one piece of meat, two pieces of meat, three pieces of meat........." while counting and twitching their little noses. Zhi Shang kept asking "how much longer? why can't we eat yet? it smells so good, I'm so hungry" and his stomach growled in agreement twice.

  "Endure a bit, I'm also very hungry. At noon, I'll definitely eat three big bowls of it. However, now I'm so hungry that I don't even have the energy to cook, meat, meat, hurry up and get cooked."

  Xi Mei Xi Ju heard this and burst out laughing. "You guys hurry up and get out, once these dishes are stir-fried we can eat. Rui Hao, go take a look if your brother is back yet?"

  "Alright, I know. Let's go." He said and ran out, the smell was too unbearable to eat. "Why did you run? Wait for me!" Xiaobao Wang shouted from behind and also ran after him.

  "Sister, let's get started." Xi Mei said to her sister with a smile. "En, let's start. That young master Zhang doesn't look like the son of a wealthy family at all, he looks just like your second brother."

  Sister, you're really good at this. The two of us, one cooking the fire and the other stir-frying the meat, have just finished making a delicious braised pork belly that's already been placed in the nearby dough-mixing basin.

  The delicious smell of the braised pork elbow kept wafting into Xi Mei's nose, and she couldn't help but think that it was no wonder those two ran away so quickly, they had indeed been tortured for quite a while.

  The hand holding the fire was still moving quickly. Suddenly, a sizzling sound came from above. The meat had already been put into the pot, and Jihui had first stir-fried some Sichuan peppercorns before adding the big ingredients - scallions, ginger, and garlic. After the peppercorns were fragrant, she scooped them out, then added the marinated meat to the pot, stir-frying it a few times until the color was almost even, at which point she added salt, so as not to make the meat tough.

  The aroma in the kitchen has become increasingly strong, attracting several little ones to gather around, two from Dabo's family, one from Erbo's family, and three from her own family, each stretching their necks like ducks waiting for food.

  Sister and sister discovered that they had run away again, making Xikui smile bitterly. Xikui looked at the time and it was not early, so she quickened her movements. She stir-fried a bean sprout with meat, wood mushroom with meat, green pepper with meat, braised river clams, and quickly fried several eggs, stir-frying a tomato and egg dish. Finally, at Ximei's request, she let her fry a mapo tofu herself.

  Several large bowls of dishes were served, although the variety was not too many but won in quantity. Served with steamed white buns, it looked especially appetizing.

  Sister Xi stood at the door and shouted loudly, "Dinner is ready!" Before she had even finished speaking, several little ones came running over, one carrying this and another carrying that, and in a flash they were gone. This led to everyone in the courtyard bursting into loud laughter.

  After everything was done, Chen Tianfa stood up and said: "As everyone knows yesterday, Xi Mei was taken away by someone. Although we don't know who did it, the heavens will see to it that he will get his retribution someday."

  He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and said, "Thanks to the nobleman I met yesterday, Young Master Zhang saved Xi Mei's life. I won't say anything else, thank you. If there's anything we can help with in the future, don't hesitate to ask. The Chen family will not decline."

  "Finally, I want to thank everyone in our Chen family. You all went to a lot of trouble yesterday and there's not much good food to treat you with today, so please don't be picky, just eat casually and enjoy yourselves." After saying that, he finished the wine in his bowl.

  The Chen family laughed at him for being polite, as if there was any reason why a family wouldn't help each other out. When it was time to eat, the dinner table presented a new scene. The kids were gobbling down food, one chicken leg and one piece of pork knuckle at a time. Xiaobao was even more unrestrained, eating with abandon, his mouth overflowing with oil.

  Ji Mei kept rolling her eyes at him, but unfortunately he was eating happily and didn't have time to look, even if he did look, he probably wouldn't have had time to speak because his mouth was full.

  Everyone was eating and drinking, making a lively scene. A few kids were eating while praising Zhao's culinary skills, saying they were good. Zhao heard this and said with embarrassment: "This time it really wasn't me who arranged everything, it was all Ji Kui's credit." This girl's cooking skills are getting better and better now.

  Everyone was praising Xi Ju, Xi Ju felt embarrassed "It's not all my credit, Xi Mei worked harder than me, if I had to say the biggest credit should go to Xi Mei."

  Little girl smiled slyly "Sister, this can't be pushed onto me, I'm still young, if you want to talk about my credit, it's just burning the fire. Became a little fire girl."

  Everyone burst out laughing. They all complimented Zhao's family, praising her for having a considerate daughter and a capable son.

  Everyone praises me and I praise you, voices echoing far away from the farmhouse courtyard...