Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 809: Condolences to the Martyrs' Families
At noon, the door opened and Wang Zhan heard several people talking and laughing as they came to the backyard. Wang Zhan and He Yushui took Wang Li out of the main hall. It turned out to be Director Li and his master, followed by a young man in police uniform. The people from the Street Office were Aunt Wang and Deputy Director Liu. The most interesting thing was that there were two well-behaved boys following behind them, who were Xiao Si and Xiao Wu.

Aunt Sun also came out and said with a smile, "It's just right, let's start eating. Come on, Xiao Zhan Yushui, come get the bowl and spoon."

Wang Zhan greeted a few people. He was not the master here, his master was, so he didn’t need to greet everyone.

In the main room, there was a large round table and a circle of chairs. Everyone found a seat and sat down. Qi Dasheng went to make tea and turned back to ask, "Would you like some, Old Li?"

Director Li couldn't help but hesitated and said, "Less, one cup."

Soon, Auntie Sun came in carrying two porridge buckets. After entering, she proudly lifted the lids, and the whole room was filled with the aroma of Laba porridge. Deputy Director Liu was a native of Beijing, and he praised: "This tastes just like what I ate when I was a child. It's so authentic. I have to drink two more bowls."

The younger ones also distributed bowls, chopsticks and soup spoons to everyone. Aunt Sun served everyone a bowl and said, "Whether you drink or eat food, drink a bowl first. This bowl warms your stomach and nourishes your body."

When several people heard what Aunt Sun said, they all felt warm in their hearts. After a while, Wang Zhan and four others also brought six plates of side dishes to the table. Especially the first dish, fried peanuts, immediately attracted several people who wanted to drink. There were also several side dishes for drinking, such as braised beef with soy sauce, mixed shredded vegetables, dipped pickles, small pickles and sweet and sour dried fruit.

These were all made by Wang Zhan, and He Yushui was busy behind him. Then four half-grown children and three small children were also served at the table. He Yushui and Wang Zhan served porridge to each child, and everyone drank the porridge very quickly. This was mainly because many of the ingredients were only bought during the Chinese New Year, and ordinary people would not afford them.

After eating two bowls, Aunt Wang stopped drinking and didn't drink with those people. She just stared at the porridge bucket in a daze. Wang Zhan saw that Aunt Wang was in trouble, so he asked, "Aunt Wang, what's wrong with you?"

Aunt Wang asked, "How much did you cook?"

Wang Zhan said: "Two big pots, this pot is two buckets, we just drank one bucket."

"What are you going to do with the rest?" Aunt Wang asked.

Before Wang Zhan could answer, Aunt Sun said, "So you were planning to distribute it to the neighbors in the next yard. After all, they are all neighbors."

Aunt Wang felt a little disappointed and didn't say anything. Wang Zhan said, "Aunt Wang, if you have something to say, just tell me. What's wrong with you?"

Director Li also looked at Director Wang and said, "Yes, if you have any problem, just tell him. With his master here, there is nothing that can't be solved."

Qi Dasheng pouted beside him. Director Wang looked at Wang Zhan and said, "It's mainly because of my street. The martyrs' families should have been visited by the street on Laba Festival, but I can't find anything here. I was thinking of sending five eggs to each family this afternoon. If we had this Laba porridge, wouldn't it be even better? It would warm people's hearts."

Wang Zhan smiled and looked at Aunt Wang, saying, "You scared me to death. What's the big deal? I have enough ingredients now. Luckily I bought a lot. We will cook it this afternoon. You can send someone to pack it. Yes, use that two-pound lunch box. Let's not be stingy. Besides, Aunt Wang, have you forgotten that I am also a family member of a martyr?"

Aunt Wang felt relieved when she heard this, and said to Wang Zhan with a smile: "Thank you, Xiao Zhan. How much can you cook?"

"Enough!" Wang Zhan said proudly, but he didn't expect that his master's voice would ring out as soon as he finished speaking, "Don't be polite to him, this kid is rich."

Everyone laughed. Wang Zhan scratched his head and said, "You know what, I'm really rich. Just consider me your rich guest." The adults didn't drink much. They just drank a bottle of Lianhua Bai, which was from Wang Zhan's warehouse. But there was not a single fried peanut left. Two pounds of it, they ate them all. Wang Li was so angry that she pouted.

Because they had to cook Laba porridge for the martyrs' families in the afternoon, the lunch was finished in an hour. Then everyone cleaned up and started to get busy. First, Qi Dasheng and Wang Zhan took out all the grains and beans from the garden warehouse. Everyone had a basin and one kind of grain, and they started to pick them out and picked out the bad ones.

After everything was soaked, Wang Zhan and Xiao Si and Xiao Wu took out all the dried fruits and dry goods from the small warehouse in the backyard and started picking them again.

When everything was done, the grains and beans were almost soaked. At this time, Qi Dasheng became the main chef, and Aunt Sun could only help. Wang Zhan and the fourth and fifth children all became firemen. Only He Yushui was free, so she took the children out to play.

At around four o'clock in the afternoon, Director Wang and Deputy Director Liu, along with more than a dozen staff members, entered the yard. This was the first time that the door of Wang Zhan's house was wide open.

The yard suddenly became lively. Deputy Director Liu was responsible for reviewing the relatives of martyrs in the areas under the jurisdiction of each staff member. Then Aunt Sun and Director Wang were responsible for packing the porridge. Many staff members found a lot of towels and carefully wrapped the boxes of porridge and put them into net bags. Some areas had a lot of relatives of martyrs, so the staff there had to make three or four trips, but no one complained and they all had enthusiastic smiles.

For the first time, Wang Zhan felt warm and proud. This was what he should do more of and he needed to participate more in the future.

In this way, they were busy until it was dark at night, and then they finally finished. Director Wang and his team returned to the main room and slumped in their chairs. Qi Dasheng said, "Apprentice, and those two brothers, go make some tea quickly. They haven't had a sip of water all afternoon."

The three little ones went to the kitchen to make tea. Wang Zhan specially took out Zhang Yiyuan's tea and brewed it. When he served it to them, Qi Dasheng got angry after taking a sip and shouted, "Wang Zhan, what do you mean? Where did you hide this tea? How come I don't know that you have Zhang Yiyuan's tea or Piaoxue?"

Wang Zhan rolled his eyes and said, "If I let you find everything, am I still Blind Chen's cheap apprentice?"

When the others heard this, they burst into laughter. They smoked, drank tea and chatted for a while. Qi Dasheng asked, "By the way, apprentice, do you have any peanuts?"

Wang Zhan thought for a moment and said, "It seems that there is still half a bag left in the small warehouse, and there is also a bag of Tianfuzhai's braised beef."

Qi Dasheng winked at Director Li and said, "How about a drink tonight?"

After a busy day, several people wanted to relax and nodded continuously. Director Wang stood up and said, "You gentlemen, please drink. I have children at home, so I'll go back first." After saying that, she stood up and walked out. Just as she walked out of the main room and took two steps, Wang Zhan called her.

Director Wang was stunned, and saw Wang Zhan went to the small kitchen and took out a net bag, which also contained a lunch box wrapped in a towel. Wang Zhan handed it over and said, "Auntie Wang, I specially left this for my younger brother and sister. I put black dates in it."

Aunt Wang smiled and touched Wang Zhan's head, saying, "Aunt Wang thanks you on behalf of your brother and sister. I'm leaving now."

Looking at Director Wang who was about to leave, Wang Zhan suddenly shouted for some reason: "Auntie Wang, if you have such good things in the future, please think of me. I like it very much."

Director Wang waved his hand without looking back, but what Wang Zhan didn't know was that Director Wang went home singing a little tune.

(End of this chapter)