The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 65: Helping with the Bath (Additional Chapter)

At lunch, the scrambled eggs with tomatoes, smashed cucumbers, and stir-fried Chinese cabbage were all eaten up, leaving more than half of the fish. It wasn't that people didn't like fish, but fish was hard to buy, so Master Li and Zhu Lan were embarrassed to take more.

In fact, the other dishes should not be eaten up, but Chef Li thought it was a treat for him. If you don't eat well for the first meal, how can you expect to eat well in the future?

Nowadays, people are particular about the food they eat, and even families with poor conditions may end up eating just one dish.

In the evening, Zhou Lingying planned to stir-fry a plate of cabbage, but the weather was hot, and clams died quickly in fresh water, so she had to stir-fry them all.

As for the big crabs, Zhou Lingying didn't plan to cook them all. She counted them and found there were nine crabs, and planned to save four for tomorrow.

Stir-fry the clams, but the coal stove is not very hot. Because there are quite a lot of clams, they have to be stir-fried twice.

Jiang Cheng came out when Zhou Lingying was frying clams. When the oil was frying and the shells were opened and water was added, Jiang Cheng poured some white wine in. He didn't pour a lot, just like cooking wine to enhance the flavor.

It was past 5:30 when the meal was finally ready.

"Master Li, take a break, wash your hands and have dinner." Jiang Cheng greeted.

"Oh, thank you, boss." Master Li responded politely.

Now Master Li was very polite to Jiang Chengzhen, mainly because the dinner was too good. If he worked for other employers, his wages would be calculated by the day, although they would also be paid all at once after the work was completed.

But in other places, Master Li had basically reached mealtime and was hungry, but the employees had not yet started eating, so he would stop his work and wait for the meal.

On Jiang Cheng's side, Master Li didn't dare to put on airs. In addition, the treatment was so good that even if it wasn't a contract, he had to do more work for Jiang Cheng every day.

"Master Li, please come over to work tomorrow. Please make the bed first. I will need it in a few days."

"Okay, I'll bring someone over tomorrow to make the bed for you."

Hearing Jiang Cheng's words, Master Li quickly agreed.

After washing hands and entering the room, Zhou Lingying had already served food to everyone.

At this time, Jiang Cheng happened to see Zhang Yang coming back from get off work, and he brought a urinal with him. This was a coincidence. He called him over, gave him a big crab, and asked him to borrow two stools to use.

During dinner, Jiang Cheng was bored and watched Zhou Lingying eat. She had really good teeth and could easily bite open the crab legs and eat the meat inside.

The key point is that Zhou Lingying did not waste any of the clams' broth and seasonings, but the same was true for Master Li. Ingredients like ginger and chili peppers could not be wasted in this era.

The meal was quickly finished, but there were still a lot of clams left. This was mainly because Master Li and Zhou Lingying were not used to eating vegetables as snacks. If it was a night snack stall, a few pounds of clams would not be a big deal.

After eating, Master Li worked for a while before leaving. Zhu Lan worked in the supply and marketing cooperative. In the summer, she got off work late and came back after 6 o'clock. Jiang Cheng also left a big crab for her.

This evening, the children finished their meal and played in the yard. But when Jiang Cheng sat in front of the door with the remaining clams, eating and chatting with Zhou Lingying, many children came over. They couldn't get food, but the children wanted to play with the clam shells. In this era, children had few toys, let alone these beautiful clam shells. Even if there was a pile of sand to build a house, the sand was fished out from the river, and there would be small clam shells, which were all things that children looked for as toys.

It was getting dark, and the clams were finished as snacks. Jiang Cheng also told Zhou Lingying that he had to go out to deliver goods tomorrow, and would not be back in a day, at least the afternoon of the day after tomorrow.

Zhou Lingying had to take care of the family, do carpentry work, and take care of the meals. This rice really couldn't be eaten every day. Even if Jiang Cheng's ration was 40 kilograms of grain a month, with 30% fine and 70% coarse, Jiang Cheng only had about 10 kilograms of rice and a few kilograms of flour.

The kelp was exchanged for some rice, but it was only about 30 kilograms. Now there are only about 40 kilograms of rice in the rice jar. Considering the appetite of Zhou Lingying and Master Li, and the fact that Master Li would bring people to work together, the house might run out of rice before the furniture is half finished.

Even if Jiang Cheng could find a way to get rice, it would be no problem for him and Zhou Lingying to eat rice every day behind closed doors. If you treat the carpenter well, he won't say you are generous, but he may say you are stupid behind your back.

Jiang Cheng gave the unused coarse grain coupons to Zhou Lingying, and asked her to treat the carpenter to rice at noon and eat coarse food at night.

Even after dark, there were still some people enjoying the cool outside. Jiang Cheng and Zhou Lingying also tacitly moved their bamboo beds to sit outside to enjoy the cool. By eight o'clock, there were no more children outside the yard, and people who were going to work had returned to their houses to sleep.

"Jiang Cheng, let's take a shower and go to bed." Zhou Lingying said in a low voice. In the darkness, even with the light at the door, her expression could not be seen clearly.

"I'll get you some water." Jiang Cheng replied, then went back to the room to get a basin and fetch water from the outside pool. The large wooden basin was placed in the side room. Before cooking today, Zhou Lingying boiled a pot of water in a kettle and filled two thermos bottles with water. Then she filled the kettle with water and boiled another pot of water.

Seeing Jiang Cheng using a washbasin to collect water, Zhou Lingying waited in the room. When the water in the wooden basin was almost full, she began to add hot water. In hot weather, warm water is enough. If you wash directly with cold water, it will still feel a little cold inside.

In fact, many people in the yard would fill a bucket of water in a wooden barrel and put it outside in the sun in the afternoon, so that they could bathe their children directly in the evening. This is convenient and can save coal for boiling water.

"Jiang Cheng, why don't I wash it myself?"

"Let me take it off for you."

The water temperature has been adjusted, but now Zhou Lingying said this, how could Jiang Cheng agree? He just closed the door and bolted it, then walked to Zhou Lingying, insisting that Zhou Lingying give him some "color" to see.

Women just like to say one thing and mean another, or to be stubborn. As soon as Jiang Cheng took action, Zhou Lingying became obedient.

As for helping Zhou Lingying take a bath, Jiang Cheng's plan was so loud that it could be heard by the leaders of the capital of Sijiu City.

The light bulbs of this era were not very bright, mainly to save electricity. Under the dim light, Jiang Cheng touched Zhou Lingying all over.

After Zhou Lingying finished her shower, Jiang Cheng also immediately took a shower in the corner outside and then returned to the main room.

Actually, she could wash directly in the main room, but using a wooden tub would easily cause water to get on the floor. If she took her parents to the hospital for treatment, Zhou Lingying would have to wash in the main room, and there was nothing she could do if the floor got wet.

I slept in my hometown in the countryside last night, and it was inconvenient to light a kerosene lamp. Tonight, there was electric light, and Jiang Cheng had stared at me while I was taking a shower just now, so Zhou Lingying didn't say anything about turning off the light.

But after Jiang Cheng took off his clothes, Zhou Lingying looked at Jiang Cheng's body and covered her face with her hands out of embarrassment. She only covered her face, not her eyes, and she saw everything she should have seen.

(Thanks to many readers who have supported me from the beginning. My new book has achieved good results, but it will soon be removed from the list. Many friends have helped me correct typos, and I am very grateful. So I added another chapter to show my appreciation. Of course, the last few chapters have been full of trivial details, so adding another chapter will also help to speed up the progress. I will soon be sending out for transportation. I hope everyone will support me as much as possible in the last two days of the new book list, and I will not trouble you if I am removed from the list.)
(End of this chapter)