The booming era begins with the director of the Propaganda Department!

Chapter 348 Old Wang is treating us!!
Hearing that Zhang Shenfei was her cousin Qin Huairu's neighbor, Qin Jingru immediately became interested. She approached him and kept asking about Sijiu City and her cousin's family. Her words were full of yearning and longing for the city.

You can't deceive people with children, especially those who are so ignorant as Qin Jingru.

"Jingru, it's almost dark, and the clothes haven't been hung out to dry, the floor hasn't been swept, and the torn clothes haven't been mended. If you don't hurry up and do it, do you want to die?" Qin Laonian's younger brother Qin Laopi scolded his daughter.

After scolding her, he turned his head and looked at Zhang Shenfei with a wry smile: "Rural girls are ignorant, college students, please don't pay attention to her."

Qin Jingru was scolded. Although she picked up the rag obediently, she was still mumbling in dissatisfaction:

"He would just order me around. I have to do all the work. My elder brother and younger brother don't have to do anything..."

Zhang Shenfei and others heard it but pretended not to hear it. There was no such thing as gender equality in those days, especially in rural areas.

In the minds of these people, having a daughter means helping an outsider to raise a wife. Since they are raising an outsider, they naturally cannot lose money.

If you eat your own food, you have to do housework in return. Making your money back is the most basic thing, and it would be best if you can earn some more.

Seeing that his daughter dared to complain in front of outsiders, Qin Laopi stretched out his hand to hit her: "If you don't want to work, then get out. I don't believe I can't deal with you!!!"

Qin Jingru twisted her waist and tried to hide, but she refused to give in: "My cousin said that when I grow up, she will introduce me to a guy in the city. If you want me to come back then, I won't..."

After saying that, he made a face and ran away.

Humph, her parents are only good to her brothers and sisters, not to her. When she gets married, they are not good to them either, but only to her man.

If the man says go east, she won't go west; if the man tells her to beat the dog, she won't chase the chicken.

But I’m not as stupid as my cousin, who asked someone to bring food coupons and money to her parents’ home even after she got married!!!
Qin Laopi chased for a few steps but failed to catch up with Qin Jingru who had already run out the door.

He returned to the main room angrily, bent over and gasped, looking at Zhang Shenfei and the others with flickering eyes. Being talked back by a child in front of the college students from the city made this country man feel very embarrassed.

Tong Luoyang and the others all looked down at the tabletop in tacit understanding, pretending they hadn't heard what had just happened.

Zhang Shenfei looked around. The Qin family's house was shabby even in the rural Qinjiazhuang. It had mottled walls, worn-out wooden windows, and creaking furniture...

In comparison, the Jia family, a working-class family, can indeed be said to be well-off.

Living in such a patriarchal and extremely poor family, and with Qin Huairu's cousin who also "reached the sky" with her beauty, it's no wonder that Qin Jingru has such thoughts at such a young age.

However, looking at the Qin family's current attitude towards their daughter, it can be considered that Qin Jingru will only care about herself after she gets married and ignore them.

Members are allowed to operate a small amount of private plots and small-scale family sideline businesses; the principle of distribution according to work is adhered to; rural market trade is restored, etc.

The work regulations and supplementary provisions were warmly supported by the peasant masses, especially the poor and lower-middle peasants.

Many farmers near Sijiu City started raising chickens and ducks, and also planted various crops in their private plots. Although it was still dry, life was getting better.

After winter, Tong Luoyang's improved model that can drive the water turbine pump for flour mill and rice mill began to be mass-produced. At this time, it was the slack season for farming, and the water that was not needed for irrigation could be used in the mill.

At the end of the year,

Old Wang, who always played chess with Zhang Shenfei, was very happy and wanted to treat Zhang Shenfei to a meal, but Zhang Shenfei naturally refused.

After school, Zhang Shenfei put on gloves and a Lei Feng hat, rode his bicycle, and took the old man out of the gate of Yenching University. After winding around, the bicycle turned into Wenchang Hutong.

The car entered the alley and drove straight in. When it arrived at the gate of a courtyard house with a barbarian gate, Old Wang asked Zhang Shenfei to stop the car.

Zhang Shenfei locked the car at the door and followed Old Wang inside. There were many flowers and plants planted in the yard, some of which were still green even in winter. Although Zhang Shenfei didn't know much about flowers and plants, he could see that these plants were different from Yan Bugui's, and they were all good things.

He couldn't help looking around, looking at the flowers and plants and the furnishings. He always felt that although this courtyard had only two entrances, it was much more magnificent than their slum.

But who on earth is this old Wangtou? How could he live alone in such a small courtyard? Zhang Shenfei pondered.

"Kid, you have no manners. What's wrong with looking around in other people's homes?" Old Wang stretched out his hand and waved it slowly in front of him. "They say that you people in Sijiu City value rules, but I don't think so."

The old man said this with a click of the tongue, looking as if he looked down upon Zhang Shenfei.

"Well, whether it's proper or not depends on who you are with. You?" Zhang Shenfei looked Old Wang up and down, "How can I behave with you, a lousy chess player who cheats every day?"

"Who is cheating? I am not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense." Old Wang denied it three times in a row.

Zhang Shenfei refused and insisted on having it all sorted out with him, counting on his fingers the number of times the old man had cheated in recent days.

As they talked, they kept walking and soon entered the house.

The house is big, but the decoration is very simple, which is a common decoration of that era. Only the two calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall reveal a literary atmosphere.

Old Wang collapsed on a chair as soon as he entered the room and waved his hand at Zhang Shenfei: "Pour your own water. Coming to my place is like going home. Don't be so reserved."

Zhang Shenfei didn't hesitate. He took off his gloves and hat, walked to the table, picked up a few tea cans and examined them. Then he chose Dahongpao, grabbed two handfuls and put them in two glasses, and then poured in hot water.

He gave one of the two cups of tea to Old Wang and held the other in his own hand, blowing away the tea leaves and sipping it.

"Half of a cup of tea is tea leaves..." Old Wangtou's eyebrows jumped, "Is there anyone like you who makes tea like this?"

This is top quality Da Hong Pao, but this kid is just like a cow chewing a peony by doing this!!!

Zhang Shenfei disagreed: "I feel very sleepy at noon, strong tea can help me to relieve my fatigue."

"Relieve fatigue? This is the mother tree Da Hong Pao!!!" Old Wang blew his beard and glared.

"So what?" Zhang Shenfei had a blank expression.

Old Wang was furious for a moment, but after seeing his expression, he realized that he was talking to a deaf person and stopped talking.

He didn't say anything, but Zhang Shenfei still had something to say: "Old man, didn't you say you would treat me to a meal? Where should we eat?"

"Still want to go out to eat? You wish. Of course we should cook at home!!!" Old Wang put down his teacup, rolled up his sleeves and went to the kitchen. He turned his head and glanced at Zhang Shenfei again, "Why don't you come to the kitchen and help me."

in the kitchen,
Old Wang was cutting vegetables and peeling garlic with ease, and he seemed to be a frequent cook. Not only could he cook, but he could also talk. While working, he kept muttering: "Leafy vegetables, whether it's Chinese cabbage, Shanghai greens, or black fungus, as long as they are leafy vegetables, they must be fried with animal oil.

If you use vegetable oil by mistake, the meat won’t soften even after frying for a long time, and will always stick straight in the pan. But if you add lard? It will collapse immediately after a few turns..."

Having said this, he turned to look at Zhang Shenfei: "Do you know what this means?"

Zhang Shenfei pondered for a while, and answered while thinking: "It shows that no matter what you do or who you deal with, you have to use a method. If you use the right method, you can achieve twice the result with half the effort... Some people seem like an iron wall when you can't find their weaknesses, but once you find their weaknesses, they are just paper tigers that can be broken with one blow."

After saying this, I complained in my heart, why does it feel like doing a reading comprehension? ? Too tiring.

Old Wang put down the sauce he was preparing speechlessly and glanced at him: "Boy, you got a high score in reading comprehension in the exam, right?? People wrote that there are two trees in my backyard, one is a jujube tree, and the other is also a jujube tree. You can analyze it one by one, right? "

"Can you tell the difference between what others are thinking and what they are thinking when they look at you? I'm telling you, boy, aren't you tired of living like this?"

"Ah? That's not what you meant?" Zhang Shenfei smiled a little embarrassedly, "Then what do you mean?"

Old Wang picked up the sauce again and stirred it: "I just want to tell you that vegetable oil and lard each have their own uses. You need to have both at home. You can't do without either one."

Beautiful! Zhang Shenfei really wanted to give this old man a slap.

All the dishes were ready and waiting to be put into the pot. Zhang Shenfei looked at the combination and said, "Old man, you are not from the north, are you?"

Old Wang replied in a strange Sijiucheng accent: "How fresh! Isn't this the first time you've seen me? You can tell from my accent that I'm not from here, right?"

Ah, this, Zhang Shenfei touched his nose awkwardly: "You old man are such a spoilsport, I mean the dishes you prepared look like Huaiyang cuisine."

"I'm from Gaoyou, and Gaoyou duck eggs are famous all over the country." The old man seemed to remember something and took out a few duck eggs from the cupboard beside him and told Zhang Shenfei to cut them.

"Remember to cut it with the skin on. It is best to cut it with the shell on, and use both the yellow and white. Do not keep the yellow and leave the white, as this will incomplete the flavor and the oil will also be lost."

After giving the instructions, he continued with some scientific knowledge, "The ancients called salted duck eggs "杬子". I analyzed that this was probably because the ancients needed to use the plant "杬木" to pickle salted duck eggs.

"杬木" is a kind of tree in ancient times.

Later, Hong Mai of the Song Dynasty also quoted the record of "Yiwuzhi" in "Rongzhai Suibi" and mentioned that "杬子, pronounced as yuan, is salt duck. It is made of 杬木皮汁 and salt."

But that was a long time ago. Later, people used rice soup and salt grass ash to pickle duck eggs..."

Zhang Shenfei listened to the popular science, picked up a kitchen knife, and cut a duck egg in two: "Yuan Mei is a good eater. You too, old man."

He probably knew who this old man was.

Old Wang didn't seem to care about being exposed. After giving instructions to Zhang Shenfei, he started to cook. Zhang Shenfei arranged the dishes and helped him whenever he had the chance.

The two of them worked together and quickly prepared four dishes and a soup and placed them on the table.

Zhang Shenfei thought it was time to eat, but the old man covered all the dishes with his bowl and said, "Wait until my wife comes back before eating."

After saying that, he turned his head and looked at the clock on the table: "She should be back by this time. I guess something has delayed her again. She is very busy."

There seemed to be a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone. Zhang Shenfei didn't know what to say and just laughed it off.

Old Wang was about to say something when he heard the long shouts of someone shaking coal balls outside. He immediately stopped talking nonsense and pulled Zhang Shenfei out.

When they arrived at the door, they saw a middle-aged man with black face and hands pulling a horse-drawn carriage loaded with bags of coal dust.

"Comrade, we need to make coal balls at home." Old Wang shouted at the people with a smile.

The man stopped the carriage, asked Old Wang how much he wanted, then unloaded two bags of coal dust from the carriage and spread them on the ground.

After digging a hole in the middle of the coal dust with a shovel, he poured the water brought by Zhang Shenfei's helper into the pit, and then poured the loess unloaded from the car into it and stirred it.

Through his efforts, the pile of coal was turned into a large flat black cake.

Wait for it to dry and solidify slightly, use a spatula to cut it horizontally and vertically into small cubes, shovel it into the sieve, pick up the sieve and start shaking it.

This is also the origin of the name of shaking coal balls.

The man worked very hard in the winter, with beads of sweat on his forehead. Old Wang seemed to be very interested in his work, observing carefully and asking questions from time to time.

Zhang Shenfei found it quite interesting to watch. This old Wang was quite interesting. So was Old Y. Yan Bugui from the courtyard and the others he met all looked as if they had lost all hope in life every day.

Old Wang didn't take it seriously and acted innocent every day. Zhang Shenfei rarely used the word innocent to describe a person, especially an old man.

But at this moment, seeing Old Wang chatting with the man with great interest, I somehow thought of this word.

It was more than an hour later when all the coal briquettes were ready, and the wife that Old Wang had been waiting for finally arrived.

The old lady wore glasses and a cadre uniform, and she looked like an educated person.

Old Wang had been grumbling about his wife being late for home, but he didn't complain when he saw the old lady. He took the remaining dishes except the salted duck eggs back to the kitchen and reheated them. Then the three of them sat down to eat together.

Zhang Shenfei was the only junior, so naturally he had to show off. He served rice and soup to everyone and introduced himself.

The old lady seemed very satisfied with him. She asked him many questions during the meal and also talked about some situations in her own family.

It was also at this time that Zhang Shenfei found out that this old man, Wangtou, who was always cheating in chess and ruining one move after three moves, was actually a famous writer in the city and a professor in the Chinese Department of Yenching University, responsible for the subject of writing theory and practice.

"That old man? Is he going to start teaching us?" Zhang Shenfei picked up half a duck egg, poked the bright red yolk with a chopstick and asked curiously.

Old Wang shook his head and said, "I have been seconded to the film studio to write literary scripts. I will probably leave Yenching University in the next few days."

Being a screenwriter? Zhang Shenfei wondered, is this a good thing or a bad thing?
The old man took a few bites of the spicy tofu and suddenly remembered something: "Boy, I remember you said before that the novel "Sha Jia Bang" serialized in the Youth Daily a few years ago was written by you?"

(End of this chapter)