“These are some recent ones, and also today’s.”
Ye Linlin handed the newspapers in her hand to Ye Cheng.
Her understanding of this era still remained at the knowledge points in the history textbooks from her previous life. The original owner was just a rural girl who graduated from junior high school and didn’t pay attention to social changes and developments.
Now that coming to this era had become a reality, she had to understand all aspects of this era, and the best way was through newspapers. Whether it was some policies or some major events, they would be reported in the newspapers.
Ye Linlin also wanted to understand the current economic situation through the newspapers, so she could find some opportunities to make money.
“Why did you think of buying newspapers today?”
Ye Cheng flipped through the newspapers from the past two days and didn’t see any special events, so he closed them.
“I wanted to see if there were any ways to make money. A few days ago, I met a junior high school classmate. His family used to be very poor, but after reading the newspaper, he was inspired to start a business, and now he’s a ten-thousand-yuan household.”
Hearing Ye Linlin’s explanation, Ye Cheng nodded. Just as he was about to speak, Grandpa Zhang shouted that they were about to leave.
The two picked up their things and got on the ox cart.
Ye Cheng always felt that his sister was a little different today, as if she had become more mature. Not only did she take the initiative to learn to cook, but she also wanted to make money.
Ye Cheng thought for a long time, and finally attributed all these changes to the fact that his sister was getting married and growing up.
The midday sun in October was bright.
Ye Linlin was wearing a red polka-dot thin shirt, with both sleeves rolled up to her forearms, carrying bowls and chopsticks from the kitchen to the main room.
“I heard people talking about Linlin’s wedding when I went out today. Did our family send out invitations to everyone?”
Ye Linlin put down her bowls and chopsticks and sat down, just as she was about to eat lunch, when she heard Ye Cheng’s words.
The custom here was to find a middleman to send out messages from house to house before holding a banquet. People who received the message would bring gifts to attend the feast.
Liu Xihong was serving rice for everyone. Hearing Ye Cheng’s words, she thought about it. Apart from telling her family, she didn’t seem to have mentioned it to anyone else.
“I only told your maternal grandfather and them. We haven’t notified the village yet. I’ve been busy finding someone to make furniture for your sister these past few days, and the list of people to send the message to hasn’t been decided yet. Maybe I mentioned it casually when I was looking for someone to make furniture.”
Liu Xihong had been very busy these past few days. The wedding time was too tight, and the Ye family wanted to make a new set of furniture for Ye Linlin as a dowry. She had been busy finding a carpenter and choosing wood these past few days, and she didn’t remember whether she had mentioned that Ye Linlin was getting married.
“Brother, what did they say?”
Ye Linlin picked up a piece of mapo tofu and mixed it with the rice, scooping up a spoonful and putting it in her mouth with a satisfied expression.
This was the first time Ye Linlin had taken charge of the kitchen since she came here. These past two days, she had been pretending to help Liu Xihong and learn, and today she finally made two dishes, mapo tofu and stir-fried cabbage with vinegar, both of which were good with rice, and she had specially steamed more rice.
The spicy and hot mapo tofu made Ye Linlin feel that her taste buds had finally come back to life. The food she had been eating these days was too bland, and it didn’t give Ye Linlin, who loved spicy food, any appetite.
“They said that you’re suddenly getting married, so you must have had something going on with Chenhuai before.”
Ye Cheng watched Ye Linlin eat with relish, and while answering, he picked up a piece of tofu and put it in his mouth. In an instant, his mouth was numb, spicy, hot, and fragrant. All the flavors exploded the moment they touched his tongue. Ye Cheng swallowed and quickly ate a mouthful of rice, then raised his head to look at Liu Xihong.
“Mom, this tofu doesn’t taste right.”
“What’s wrong? Is the tofu bad?”
Liu Xihong frowned, picked up a piece of tofu and smelled it, but didn’t smell any sourness.
The tofu was bought back in the morning, and it was October now, the temperature wasn’t that high, and the tofu had been soaked in water all the time, and she had changed the water in the middle, so it shouldn’t spoil so quickly.
She guessed that the taste was too bad, after all, her daughter hadn’t cooked much before.
She had already started thinking about how to comfort Ye Linlin not to be discouraged. She had finally wanted to learn to cook, so she shouldn’t give up again because of the failure of one meal.
Just as she was thinking, she heard Ye Cheng open his mouth vaguely again.
“No, Mom, this tofu you made today is really delicious. I’ve never seen you make it before. Eating it makes me want to eat another bowl of rice.”
“Isn’t that too exaggerated? This wasn’t made by me, it was made by your sister. She said it’s called mapo tofu, and this stir-fried cabbage with vinegar was also made by Linlin.”
Liu Xihong smiled and looked at Ye Cheng, who was using the spoon for serving rice to scoop the tofu into the rice because he thought the chopsticks were inconvenient.
She thought that Ye Cheng must have known that this dish was made by Ye Linlin, and deliberately exaggerated it, not wanting to discourage his sister’s enthusiasm.
Although Ye Linlin’s cooking was indeed much better than it looked before, it wasn’t as exaggerated as he said.
Then she also tasted a bite, and with just one bite, Liu Xihong’s eyes lit up. She quickly picked up another chopstick of cabbage and put it in her mouth, also nodding with satisfaction.
“Linlin, how did you make this dish? It’s really delicious, even better than what Chef Cui makes.”
Chef Cui was the chef of the production team in Dayu Village before, and he cooked excellent dishes. Usually, when someone had a wedding or funeral, they would ask him to take charge of the cooking.
“Don’t mention Chef Cui, Linlin, even your stir-fried cabbage with vinegar is better than what they make in the state-owned restaurant. Before brother returns to the army, make these two dishes a few more times.”
When Ye Cheng heard that the stir-fried cabbage with vinegar was also made by Ye Linlin, he also picked up a little and put it in his mouth. Unlike the tofu, which was numb, spicy, hot, and fragrant, this cabbage was refreshing, sour, and sweet, but both were undoubtedly delicacies.
Ye Quangui watched his wife and son praise the dishes to the sky, and also put down his wine glass and ate a few bites. Although he didn’t say anything, the frequency of picking up dishes was obviously faster than usual.
“If you like to eat it, I’ll make it more often in the future. I learned to make it from the cookbook, it’s very simple.”
Ye Linlin roughly told Liu Xihong the process of making mapo tofu.
In fact, the dish would be more delicious if she added Chef Huang’s secret seasoning, but this secret recipe required several Chinese medicinal herbs, and she couldn’t buy them in the township, so she could only give up for the time being.
After eating lunch, the Ye family of four sat in the main room, planning to write down the list of wedding guests.
“I suspect that the rumors outside were spread by Bai Ni and Wang Junbao. Mom, even if you told others that I was getting married, you shouldn’t have said who the groom was, right?”
Ye Linlin wasn’t very concerned about the guest list. What she was thinking about now was the rumors that Ye Cheng had mentioned when they were eating.
The topic was suddenly shifted by her cooking skills when they were eating, so they didn’t continue to chat about it.
“That’s right, I definitely didn’t say who you were going to marry. I only told your maternal grandfather that you were getting married, and didn’t say who you were marrying into. But how did Bai Ni and them know you were getting married?”
Liu Xihong answered very affirmatively. She subconsciously thought that her daughter’s getting pregnant before marriage was disgraceful, so even when she told her family that she was getting married, she didn’t say who the marriage partner was.
Hearing Ye Linlin’s words, Ye Cheng immediately thought of what happened at the department store that day.
His face suddenly darkened, and a few traces of ferocity flashed in his originally bright eyes.