She went to the neighbor's house and returned the flour she had borrowed yesterday to Li Xiulan. She also picked out the eggs and, as if she had done it many times before, placed them where Li Xiulan usually hid her eggs.
"I came back late today and didn't have time to go to the private plot to cut vegetables. Xiulan, give me some. I'll make do with Miao Miao tonight. When Zhanjun comes back tomorrow or the day after, you all come to my house for dinner."
Li Xiulan seemed to have anticipated her cousin's visit to get vegetables. She picked up a hook from the wall and, from a wooden nail under the eaves, hooked down a broken bamboo basket.
"I saw that the production team had already finished work, and you and Miao Miao still hadn't returned. I figured you definitely didn't have time to go to the private plot. When I went to my private plot to cut vegetables just now, I happened to cut a basket for you."
Li Xiufen craned her neck to look. Below were two large green eggplants, a pile of green and red chili peppers, a bunch of long beans, three loofahs, and two cucumbers. On top were four tomatoes of varying sizes, a bunch of water spinach, and a small handful of Chinese selfheal for seasoning, along with a bunch of small green onions.
"That's enough, that's enough! We won't be able to finish it even tomorrow. I'll head back now, Miao Miao is waiting for dinner."
Li Xiufen, carrying the vegetable basket, bustled back home. She put down the basket, went inside, unfastened a string of keys from her waistband, and opened her "treasure chest."
"Miao Miao, are you hungry? Here, have two walnut cookies first. Mom's going to make dinner!"
Li Xiufen took out two walnut cookies and stuffed them into Gu Chunmiao's hands. After thinking for a moment, she grabbed a few more orange candies and put them into her daughter-in-law's pocket.
"Go play! Dinner will be a while yet."
Gu Chunmiao looked at the walnut cookies in her hand, then felt the orange candies in her pocket, and couldn't help but smile.
Was her mother-in-law treating her like a child?
"Mom, wait a moment!"
Gu Chunmiao took out a golden banana and a bright red Qin Guan apple from her yellow schoolbag and put them into her mother-in-law's hands.
"I saw there was no fruit at home, so I went to the food store to buy some bananas and apples. Mom, you go ahead and get busy. I'll take out the fruit and arrange it."
Li Xiufen was stunned for a moment. Then she remembered that the last time her son got married, she had visited the Military Compound once. In her memory, there was indeed always a fruit bowl on the coffee table in Commander Gu's house.
Sigh! They were country folk. They rarely bought fruit in a year, and if they did, they hid it in the cabinet. Who would put it out on display?
If they really put it out, then all the adults and children in the village would come to their house to visit...
After thinking about it, Li Xiufen unfastened the key chain from her waistband and handed it directly to Gu Chunmiao.
"Don't put the fruit outside. Lock it in the cabinet and save it for yourself to eat slowly."
She didn't know how Commander Gu and his wife raised her, but they had raised Gu Chunmiao to be like a celestial being.
Li Xiufen felt a little guilty now. She was afraid that if she couldn't raise her well and spoiled this fairy-like daughter-in-law who grew up in the compound, it would be a sinful act...
With their family's conditions, they certainly couldn't be like those in the Military Compound, with bananas, apples, and big pears just placed on the coffee table for anyone to eat their fill.
Looking at the bananas and apples in her hand, Li Xiufen walked to the kitchen, took a knife, and cut half of the banana, skin and all. Holding half a banana and a whole apple, she walked to the neighbor's house and sneakily stuffed them into Li Xiulan's hands.
"Here! Miao Miao bought these. This banana is a rare item. I cut half of it, you can try some too."
"I don't like apples. You keep them for Jianjun and the others to eat."
Li Xiulan nudged her: "Who doesn't like apples? I know you dote on Jianjun and the others, so I won't be polite. We really haven't bought apples in more than half a year, so let them have a taste."
After delivering the items, Li Xiufen started walking back: "There's something steaming in the pot. I'm going back to make minced garlic eggplant. Miao Miao loves to eat that."
Since she returned late in the evening, Li Xiufen didn't make any complicated dishes. She steamed a bowl of cooked rice in the pot, which was prepared for Gu Chunmiao.
She herself steamed over a dozen vegetable buns by the side of the pot. If there were any leftovers, they could be eaten for breakfast the next morning.
Two large green eggplants were also steamed in the pot. Eggplants cook quickly. Once they were soft and tender, she quickly took them out and mixed them with minced garlic, sesame oil, chopped green and red chili peppers, and her homemade soybean paste. It was simple and appetizing.
While the rice was steaming, Li Xiufen took out the pork tenderloin bought from the black market and made a small plate of stir-fried pork. She also made a basin of tomato egg drop soup. After thinking for a moment, she stir-fried a bunch of water spinach. It was enough for the two of them.
When dinner was served, seeing the bowl full of steamed rice in front of her, and then looking at the steamed vegetable buns in her mother-in-law's bowl, Gu Chunmiao didn't speak. She stood up, went to the kitchen, got a bowl, and divided half of her steamed rice into her mother-in-law's bowl.
Li Xiufen habitually said: "Miao Miao, you eat! Mom doesn't like to eat cooked rice..."
Gu Chunmiao took a vegetable bun and put it in her bowl. She smiled at her mother-in-law and said: "Mom, actually, I don't like to eat cooked rice either. I just like to eat the vegetable buns you steam!"
"Especially the burnt layer at the bottom, it's fragrant and crispy!"
Saying that, Gu Chunmiao tore off the burnt layer from the bottom of the vegetable bun and started crunching on it.
Li Xiufen saw that she didn't seem to be deliberately comforting her, but genuinely liked it. She quickly tore off the burnt layer from her own bun and put it into Gu Chunmiao's bowl.
"It's good that you like it. We don't have much else at our family's place, but we have plenty of vegetable buns!"
"If you like it, eat more. Mom will make more for you tomorrow."
"Okay!"
Gu Chunmiao originally thought she didn't have much of a palate, but she didn't expect her mother-in-law's cold-mixed eggplant to be so appetizing. Without realizing it, she finished half a bowl of rice, plus two steamed vegetable buns.
She also ate a good portion of the stir-fried pork and tomato egg drop soup.
She didn't like water spinach, so she only took two bites.
Li Xiufen observed carefully and decided to plant less water spinach in her private plot next year. As for eggplants, she could plant a few more, otherwise, they wouldn't be enough to eat.
After dinner, Li Xiufen washed all the pots and bowls clean and boiled another pot of hot water.
"Miao Miao, you go take a bath first. Mom is going to pick out some vegetable seeds and then plant the private plot assigned to you by the production team."
Gu Chunmiao walked over and took a look. She found that many of the vegetable seeds her mother-in-law had kept for herself had been eaten by mice. The remaining ones probably wouldn't yield much.
Thinking of the high-yield, superior seeds in her space, Gu Chunmiao returned to her room, opened her suitcase, and felt around in the interlayer.
When she came out again, she was holding a large bag of vegetable seeds.
"Mom, try these. These were given to me by teachers from the agricultural college. They said they are new high-yield varieties that produce a lot and taste good. Our commune's Agricultural Technology Station doesn't even have them."
When Li Xiufen heard they were rare items from the agricultural college, and that the entire commune didn't have them, she took them without a second thought.
Gu Chunmiao had wrapped them in a blue checkered handkerchief. She untied the handkerchief, revealing more than a dozen small folded paper packets, each labeled with the variety of seeds.
"Radish, carrot, Chinese cabbage, water spinach, cabbage, soybean, pumpkin, winter melon, spinach, cilantro, celery..."
"Oh my! So many vegetable seeds, we can't possibly plant them all ourselves. Miao Miao, why don't we share some with your Second Great Aunt and Zhanjun's maternal grandmother's side of the family?"
Gu Chunmiao nodded: "Why not? They're all our own people."
The superior seeds in her space were almost piled up like a mountain. She had never dared to take them out when she was in Beijing City.
Unexpectedly, by a twist of fate, after the Gu family had arranged the Cultural Troupe job for her and given the true daughter, Gu Sisi, her position, she was assigned to the commune's Agricultural Technology Station!
Now, the high-yield, superior seeds in her space, which were decades ahead of this era, finally had a chance to be brought out...
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