Qin Suian looked at Xiaojun’s expression and felt a little heartbroken. In the future, when they had better conditions, she had to buy more good food. She couldn’t let herself, Xiaomei, or Xiaojun suffer anymore.
“Go ahead and eat,” Qin Suian said as she picked up a piece of pig trotter first. Xiaomei had controlled the heat perfectly—the skin was soft and sticky, the meat tender enough to fall off the bone with just a light touch of the chopsticks, rich with collagen.
Qin Suian put it in her mouth, and it almost melted instantly, while still retaining a slight chewiness so the texture wasn’t completely lost.
The flavor was just right too. The braising sauce was savory and fragrant, with a touch of chili that made the spiciness subtle and lingering, even more appetizing. Rich without being greasy.
In her previous life, she had followed countless recipes and cooked many dishes. Braised pig trotters had been Little Tiger’s favorite. Every time she watched him gnaw through one happily, eating with such satisfaction, it warmed her heart.
Xiaojun also picked up a piece and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes immediately lit up.
“This is so delicious! So pig trotters really taste this good!” Xiaojun exclaimed, shocked and delighted.
“Xiaomei really has talent for cooking. You learned it as soon as I taught you,” Qin Suian said, looking at Xiaomei.
She felt Xiaomei had inherited some of her talent when it came to cooking. Not that Qin Suian considered herself some amazing chef, but as long as she had a recipe and steps to follow, after practicing a few times she could master a dish fairly well. If she studied it carefully, she could almost perfect it.
Xiaomei smiled shyly and picked up a piece of steamed grass carp.
They had never eaten pig trotters before, but they had eaten fish. Usually they only got one or two bites at most, never more than that.
In her memory, steamed grass carp had already been delicious—fresh and tender.
She took a bite. It tasted even better than she remembered.
“This fish is steamed really well. Not fishy at all. Xiaomei, I’m not joking—you really are talented,” Qin Suian said after tasting some fish herself.
“Really? It’s because you taught me well, Mom. I just followed along,” Xiaomei replied happily after receiving praise.
She had received far too little praise in her life.
Back in the village, people had complimented her for being hardworking and capable, saying she would make a good wife and surely marry into a good family someday.
But later she realized that being hardworking and capable had led her to marrying into a family like the Lis. If that was the result, she would rather not have the compliments at all.
What she truly wanted was the kind of praise Wang Yaowen and Wang Yaowu received—being praised by the Wang family for eating a few extra bites as children or for being able to write simple numbers, called clever and outstanding.
No one had ever praised her like that.
Whenever she or Xiaojun ate a little more, their grandmother would scold them, saying greedy girls wouldn’t get married.
And when she was in school, she had gotten perfect scores every year and had the neatest handwriting, yet she wasn’t allowed to continue to middle school because “there’s no use educating girls.”
“I’ll teach you other dishes in the future too. Those peppers Master Xie gave us today were pretty good. I’ll pickle some later, and in a few days we can make chopped chili fish head,” Qin Suian said.
“Mom, are we going to sell the pickled peppers too?” Xiaojun asked while eating.
“Of course. Pickled peppers can be used in lots of other dishes too. They should sell well,” Qin Suian replied. She had already planned for that.
They had to slowly expand into more varieties if they wanted the business to last long-term.
“What else can they make?” Xiaomei asked curiously.
The Wang and Li families rarely ate spicy food, so she didn’t know much about it.
“You can make pickled pepper chicken feet, pickled pepper beef, pickled pepper chicken giblets, pickled pepper wood ear mushrooms, and more,” Qin Suian said, thinking it was time to prepare cold dishes as well.
Judging from the pickles they’d sold over the past few days, workers with stable jobs still had some spending power.
Even dockworkers without steady work, since they did hard physical labor, were willing to spend money as long as the food suited their tastes.
She could gradually add some cold dishes and sell them alongside the pickles.
After all, there still weren’t many kinds of prepared foods on the market.
At the dockside market, aside from the state-owned food store, there were only two private cooked-food shops: one selling braised beef and another selling tofu products.
The state-owned and private shops overlapped somewhat in what they sold.
The state-owned food store also sold soy-braised beef, braised ribs, braised pig head meat, smoked fish, marinated tofu, tofu sheets, tofu rolls, and more.
But state-owned stores required ration coupons, and you couldn’t buy things there every day.
Private shops sometimes didn’t require coupons, though the prices were slightly higher.
Qin Suian felt there was definitely still a market for her cold dishes.
The three of them were eating when someone knocked on the front door.
Qin Suian told Xiaojun not to go and got up to open it herself.
Behind the door was a kitchen knife and a club as thick as an arm.
Public security really wasn’t great these days, especially after economic reforms. Some people were making money while others were still poor.
That imbalance easily bred resentment.
Looks like they needed to get a dog too.
The three women carrying goods through the streets every day had surely drawn attention. It wasn’t impossible that someone had started watching them.
“Who is it?” Qin Suian called out.
“It’s me, Xie Kaihua,” came the reply from outside.
“Master Xie?” Qin Suian said in surprise.
She opened the door to find Xie Kaihua, whom she had just seen that morning.
“Boss Qin, while I was waiting for customers at the farmers’ market today, someone came asking about you. He called himself Li Zude, said he was Xiaomei’s husband and your son-in-law. I remembered what you told me, so I said I only drove you into the city and hadn’t seen you since,” Xie Kaihua explained what had happened that afternoon.
Since Xie Kaihua was the only female cart driver around, Li Zude had managed to find her after asking around all the way there.
Before coming over, Xie Kaihua had even circled the area a few times to make sure Li Zude wasn’t lurking nearby.
Although Qin Suian had been mentally prepared, Li Zude had come sooner than she expected.
Looks like no one was left at home to work or serve him, and he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Thank you, Master Xie, for specially coming to warn me. You’ve helped us a lot. By the way, do you know where I can get a watchdog puppy? I want to raise one,” Qin Suian said. Since she planned to work with Xie Kaihua long-term, she didn’t mind troubling her.
Xie Kaihua was always going between the market and the docks, transporting passengers from villages to towns. She was far better informed than Qin Suian.
“My Big Black can guard the house just fine. She recently had puppies. I’ll bring you one tomorrow,” Xie Kaihua said readily.
“That would be wonderful.”
After seeing Xie Kaihua off, Qin Suian returned to continue dinner.
“Mom, was that Master Xie? What happened?” Xiaojun asked.
“Nothing much. Li Zude found her and tried to ask about us,” Qin Suian decided it was better to tell Xiaomei and Xiaojun directly.
Otherwise, if Xiaomei happened to be home alone and Li Zude found her, she would panic even more.
Sure enough, as soon as Xiaomei heard Li Zude’s name, her chopsticks froze in midair.
She looked at Qin Suian, her eyes filled with fear and helpless pleading.
“Don’t be afraid, Xiaomei. If you don’t want to go back, nobody can force you. Remember, you’re someone who can earn at least twenty yuan a month,” Qin Suian said, holding Xiaomei’s hand to comfort her.
Rather than saying Qin Suian could protect her, it was more accurate to say Xiaomei herself could now protect and support herself.
“Sis, don’t be scared. If Li Zude dares hit you again, I’ll beat him up for you,” Xiaojun declared. After witnessing Qin Suian’s divorce confrontation, she had become much braver. As long as she held a knife, people were afraid of her.
Looking at her mother and younger sister, Xiaomei slowly began to feel calmer inside.