Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 605 Chapter 604 Life is not easy
Tang Zhitong went home and read the letter first.

Since the number of letters received last time was very large, this time the opinions received did not contain any more constructive suggestions than last time, and many of them were repetitive.

Following the usual practice from last time, Tang Zhitong would just glance at the letters that came with money and bills, then take out the template left over from the drawer, write a few words on it, and then mail it back to the recipient.

As a former slave, Tang Zhitong felt that he had been educated very successfully and would resolutely reject anything that was not what he wanted.

Being poor has its reasons.

"Brother-in-law, what are we having for dinner tonight?" After it got dark, Jingmin knocked on the door and asked.

"Is there anything you want to eat?" Tang Zhitong gathered the letters together, stood up and stretched. He probably wouldn't get any extra subsidy for sending the letters back this time, but luckily he still had some envelopes and stamps from the last purchase.

"I just want to try my brother-in-law's cooking." Jingmin couldn't explain it clearly, but just blindly trusted Tang Zhitong.

"Let's go and take a look." Tang Zhitong turned off the desk lamp. Since he was at home alone today, his mother could rest a little longer.

Seeing that the children liked to eat sweet and sour shrimps, Zhang Guifang made another pot of them today. When Tang Zhitong saw this, he remembered that he had forgotten to "buy" sugar.

"Let's make some dumpling soup today, with seafood flavor." After last night's consumption, there was very little sugar left in the house, so sweet and sour shrimp could not be made.

"Great!" When Jingmin heard that it was a dish he had never eaten before, he immediately jumped out to support it, regardless of whether it tasted good or not.

Seafood dumpling soup is not difficult to make. Tang Zhitong shreds the shrimps and removes the shrimp threads. Then he cuts the shrimps into peanut-sized pieces for later use. Zhang Guifang mixes the dumplings.

In order to make it easier for children to digest, Zhang Guifang made the noodles into small lumps.

Add animal oil to the pan, sauté the scallions and ginger, then add the shredded cabbage and stir-fry, then add hot water and bring to a boil.

After the pot boils, add the noodles and shrimps. In addition, Tang Zhitong secretly put some clam meat into the pot.

Since it is secretly placed in the pot, its size is naturally not big, almost the same size as flour. You can taste the freshness, but it is not visible to the naked eye.

After the water boiled again, Tang Zhitong beat four more eggs into the pot and sprinkled a handful of salt.

Keep boiling over low heat for about three minutes, then sprinkle with chopped green onions and serve.

Due to the limited logistics conditions at present, it is very difficult for ordinary people in the inland to eat seafood. Even in the cold winter in the old city, you can eat mackerel, hairtail, and shrimp, but there are no clams.

The unique flavor of the seafood dumpling soup easily conquered the taste buds of my family and won them praise.

Tang Zhitong listened happily, and he also took advantage of the fact that he was knowledgeable and could copy dishes from decades later. Of course, now he still had to call them "innovative dishes" or "learned from others" to outsiders.

Tomorrow is the fourth day of the New Year, the day when Wu Aijun and his family come to visit. Tang Zhitong is thinking about what dishes to cook. They can't be too luxurious, but they can't be too unpresentable either.

Cut a plate of the pork head at home, stew some hairtail, stir-fry some spicy sauerkraut, mix some cabbage hearts, and finally make a seafood dumpling soup. It’s the standard of four dishes and one soup, and no one can find fault with it.

After dinner, Tang Zhitong let his younger brothers and sisters play around. After informing his family of his business trip, he took Xiao Wang back to the room. It would be better to finish reading the letter as soon as possible, as he already had a lot of work to do and had not yet completed the work commissioned by the Cultural Reform Commission.

With the experience from last time, Xiao Wang was able to do it easily this time. While helping to open the letter, she chatted with her husband and told him about Jiang Ye’s way of eating pig leg bones.

Tang Zhitong listened with some humming and nodding. This way of eating was not uncommon. It all came down to insufficient supply.

In addition to the supply problem, it may also have something to do with money. Tang Zhitong remembered a cooking video of a blogger decades later.

How to make four dishes and one soup with three shrimps, how to make four dishes with two taels of beef, etc.

In the past, no one paid attention to this kind of thing, but suddenly one year more and more people began to pay attention to it.

Just like the ten years when our daily life was lost. Before we lost it, we were clamoring to buy Manhattan in Xinxiang or something like that, but after we lost it, we kept silent.

TV programs have also become more down-to-earth, and cooking programs are all about teaching housewives how to make the most of resources.

Take boiling eggs as an example. It is no longer a matter of approximate minutes to cook them. Instead, it is more precise. After boiling, turn to low heat and cook for three minutes, and then simmer them with the residual heat.

There are countless examples of this. Among so many bloggers who go to the market, few take pictures of the old man who spends most of the day selling two kilograms of peanuts, and even fewer take pictures of the old lady picking vegetable leaves.

It is easy to be born and easy to live, but living is not easy. Complaining is useless. People have to keep living.

The Tang family is no longer what it used to be. They are confident that they can live a good life and give their children a good life, so this night is another round of hard work.

After a precise attack in the air, Xiao Wang placed a pillow under his buttocks.

"No, who did you learn that from?" Tang Zhitong was dumbfounded when he saw Xiao Wang's clumsy movements.

"Don't look." Xiao Wang turned her husband's face away and then turned her face to the side and snuggled into his arms.

"Student Xiao Wang, you are knowledgeable and you can learn this way. You must have secretly read the ancient books and picture albums in your unit, right?" Tang Zhitong touched the steering wheel, pooh, his hair, and said with a sly smile.

"What are you talking about? Sister Jiang taught me this." Classmate Xiao Wang twisted her husband's waist and scolded him.

"Wow, I know you and Sister Jiang are close, but I didn't expect you to be so close. She taught you this kind of thing?" Tang Zhitong had a good impression of Jiang Ye. She was quite ladylike. Why did she say anything in private? What if it leaked onto the pillow? This thing is not easy to wash.

Just in case, Tang Zhitong secretly used a hook to do the cleaning work.

Xiao Wang wants a child, and Tang Zhitong is willing to cooperate. He also looks forward to having a child with Xiao Wang, but right now there is not even a decent prenatal check-up, let alone genetic screening.

I smoked a lot recently. If something happens... the adults will suffer, and the children will suffer too.

Influenced by the propaganda of eugenics, Tang Zhitong planned to wait until he had quit smoking for three months, adjust his condition, calculate the date of his death and vigorously indoctrinate Xiao Wang in order to succeed in one go.

"Sister Jiang treats me like a younger sister and has taught me a lot of knowledge about preparing for pregnancy." Student Xiao Wang did not think anything wrong and defended Jiang Ye.

"What did you say? Do you need my cooperation?"

"Sister Jiang said that if she wants a child, she will push you harder, and she also said that once you are pregnant, she will let you hold it in." As Wang said this, she imagined her husband's anxious look and couldn't help laughing.

"Hey, this married woman is really good at telling jokes." Tang Zhitong was amused when he heard it. It is said that married women are very fast drivers. Today he saw it. As for holding it back, don't worry about it. I have taught Gu Yong before. I can also ask Xiao Wang to experience it when the time comes.

"What joke?" Student Wang was confused.

"Hehe..." Tang Zhitong raised the corners of his mouth and leaned over to explain to Xiao Wang in his ear.

"Oh my! How can you have such a dirty mind!" Student Xiao Wang said he couldn't stand it and would not have asked if he had known...

The fourth day of the Lunar New Year, January 1st, Sunday.

The weather started to get warmer since yesterday. The snow on the roof has melted away, and the trampled areas on the ground have revealed their original appearance. There are obviously fewer places with snow, and it looks like spring is about to come.

"The weather is getting warmer. Can we still keep those fish and shrimps? Should we rub them with salt?" As the weather got warmer, Zhang Guifang's face showed worry.

"I'm going out to mail a letter. I'll also see where there's still snow. I'll bring back a few baskets and pile them on the bathing pool. It's only 59 degrees Celsius now, and it might be cold tomorrow." There are refrigerators now, but it's not the turn of ordinary people to buy them. Tang Zhitong can only find ways to get back the money. He has to do the surface work well and make sure the fish and shrimps don't go bad. At worst, he can secretly replace them with a fresh batch every day.

"Okay." Zhang Guifang thought about it and agreed. Although the snow outside was a little dirty, it would turn into water when it melted, and water would not dirty people. At most, she could just rinse it before eating.

We continued to eat shrimp oil noodles this morning. While eating, Xiao Wang suggested to Zhang Guifang: "Mom, we only have a limited amount of noodles. We can't eat like this in the future. You don't have to worry about them. Let's eat steamed bread today."

"During the New Year, let the children eat fine grains first, and we will eat coarse grains." Zhang Guifang knew that her daughter-in-law was telling the truth. All the grains her son brought back from the Northeast were coarse grains, and there was only a fixed amount of fine grains. A bite less would mean one less bite, but she didn't want to treat the two young relatives badly.

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"Auntie, we can just eat steamed bread. We often eat it at home." Jingying echoed.

"Jingmin, it's your turn, speak." Seeing that his younger brother did not express his opinion, Xiao Wang reminded him.

"Auntie, I can eat steamed bread too. My mother also makes steamed bread at home." Under the gaze of his elder sister, Jingmin expressed his opinion cleverly.

"Okay, okay, you are all good kids. Let's steam some rice today and eat steamed bread in the evening." Zhang Guifang praised with a smile, but did not fully adopt her daughter-in-law's suggestion.

"We still have to eat steamed bread. Only by eating whole grains can people nourish their internal organs." Tang Zhitong was listening on the side and also agreed with eating coarse grains. One reason was that the family's ration of fine grains could not support this way of eating. Another reason was that the family would enter a period of hunger starting from the second half of the year, and he couldn't let his younger brothers and sisters develop the habit of being picky eaters.

After dinner, Tang Zhitong took the letter, hung the basket on the handlebars, and went out.

The two of them glanced through the letters last night. Judging from the proportion, the proportion of money and bills mixed in the letters this time was a little smaller than the last time.

Many things have traces to follow. Although the two batches of letters reached Tang Zhitong only twenty days apart, the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" was printed and distributed as early as the end of last year.

Judging from the time the letters arrive, the earlier the letters arrive, the higher the proportion of money and bills contained in them.

It goes without saying that the money in people's hands is becoming increasingly scarce as time goes by.

After delivering the letter, Tang Zhitong rode his bike slowly.

After the Spring Festival, the snow in the alleys has been messed up by the children. There are all kinds of things in the snow, even the firecracker skins are considered clean. Many boys pee in the snow to see who can make the biggest hole. Those who pee shallowly will be laughed at.

Although boy's urine is a well-known Chinese medicine, Tang Zhitong felt that his family members were in good health and did not intend to let them try it.

In the end, it was due to lack of knowledge. This is either a good poem or if it was written, at least he would be considered a poet, right?

Tang Zhitong was daydreaming and strolling all the way, and finally he arrived at the moat.

Tang Zhitong originally thought that there would be some floating snow as there was less sunlight on the south side of the moat, but when he arrived, he saw ice on the river surface at a glance.

The weather is getting warmer, but the ice is covered with a layer of snow, which limits its ability to absorb heat, so it is still quite solid.

We already have ice, so what do we need snow for?
When Tang Zhitong returned home, the basket had been moved from the handlebars to the back seat, and it was full of crushed ice.

This ice is not from the moat, but was plucked from the Yalu River and processed into irregular small pieces by Tang Zhitong.

This ice is not only clean but also low in temperature. If you pour two baskets of it into the bathtub, it can stay frozen for at least a whole day.

"Didn't you say it was snow? Where did the ice come from?" Zhang Guifang saw her son carrying a basket of crushed ice and hurried over to help.

"I knocked it from the moat. I can do it myself. I bought some sugar from someone. You can bring it in." Tang Zhitong put down the basket and took out two newspaper packages from his pocket, which contained more than a pound of sugar in total.

"Then be careful not to get your clothes wet." Seeing that her son didn't want her to interfere, Zhang Guifang gave him a warning and went into the house with the sugar.

Tang Zhitong did a full performance. He poured a basket of ice in and then went out to "carry" it before stopping.

Zhang Guifang knew that her son, daughter-in-law and friends were coming to visit today, so she not only prepared fish and shrimps early in the morning as Tang Zhitong had requested, but also specifically told Fengzhen and Fengzhi to be polite and to call people.

"Calling someone" is a colloquialism among common people, which means to greet someone proactively when meeting them, and it should also include the meaning of address.

On the sixth day of quitting smoking, Tang Zhitong still felt dizzy.

In order to divert attention, after covering the fish in the bathroom, Tang Zhitong was not idle and went to prepare the dishes.

There were a lot of fish and shrimps at home. Zhang Guifang was not stingy and bought a lot of them. Tang Zhitong picked them up one by one, which was a good way to pass the time.

All the hairtails are cut into flat pieces. After Tang Zhitong removes the internal organs, he cuts the hairtail into pieces, leaving the head and tail and only taking the meaty part in the middle.

"Fengzhen, find a plate." Tang Zhitong ordered his sister while processing it.

Fengzhen obeyed and didn't ask why. She quickly brought the plate to her brother.

"After I marinate them, you take the fish head and tail to the bathroom and we'll fry them in the evening." After Tang Zhitong said this, he winked at his sister.

"Yes!" Feng Zhen smiled and nodded heavily, agreeing. She knew that her brother remembered that she loved to eat it and specially saved it for her!
"When the time comes, I'll use the steamed buns to wipe the pan for frying fish. AUV, it's so authentic and delicious!" Tang Zhitong said, swallowing his saliva unconsciously.

As for hairtail, the big ones are stewed and the small ones are fried.

The leftover pan bottom from frying fish goes best with hot steamed buns. While the oil is still hot, rub it with the soft hot steamed bun filling. It will not only get the oil on it, but also pick up the broken fish residue.

After the hairtail is marinated, the broken fish residue is not only flavorful but also crispy. When you take a bite, it tastes even better than fish!
(End of this chapter)