Time Travel: My Comfortable Life After Going to the Countryside

It was more than ten minutes later when Liu Xiangyang helped Xue Bingbing get dressed.

Xue Bingbing pointed at Le Qi and Le Yao, then blushed and ran out to wash up. She had initially tried to refuse Liu Xiangyang's help, but Liu Xiangyang had enlisted the help of Le Qi and Le Yao.

After Xue Bingbing finished breakfast, the four of them set off for the county town together.

By the time they arrived in the county town, it was already noon, and everyone was hungry. Liu Xiangyang led Xue Bingbing and the others into a state-run restaurant.

As the group stepped through the gate, they were greeted by a plaque on the wall that read, "Customers must not be beaten without cause."

There wasn't a single customer in the entire state-run restaurant. A few waiters were chatting and joking with the chef. They glanced at Liu Xiangyang and his group of four, then continued their conversation.

Liu Xiangyang looked up at the menu, which was covered with dense writing.

"Give me four bowls of rice, a serving of braised pork, stir-fried pork with celery, stir-fried eggs with chives, and a bowl of egg drop soup."

"Four more bottles of soda, please," Liu Xiangyang ordered, looking at the menu.

The waiter glanced lazily at Liu Xiangyang, calculated the bill, and said, "It's two yuan and thirty-one cents in total, plus two yuan in meat coupons."

Not long after Liu Xiangyang paid the fare, the food was all served. Xue Bingbing and the other two went to the serving area to get the food and rice, and then they started eating.

The waiters at the state-run restaurant had no service attitude whatsoever, but the chefs' skills were impeccable, and the portions were generous.

After finishing their meal, the group drank the last sip of their soda and left the state-run restaurant.

They asked around to find out where the state-run photo studio was, and then a few of them headed straight there.

I told the photographer that they wanted to take a group photo, and then take another photo of each pair of people, for a total of four photos.

Xue Bingbing, Le Qi, and Le Yao washed their faces and appeared in front of the camera with their beautiful faces full of collagen.

Liu Xiangyang sat with the three women fanning around him. Xue Bingbing stood in the middle with her hands on Liu Xiangyang's shoulders, while Le Qi and Le Yao wore two different colored outfits, each with one hand on Liu Xiangyang's shoulder.

With a "click," the image was forever imprinted on the film.

The four of them were a little excited when they heard the sound of the camera. They all had a feeling that this photo represented their feelings and would be preserved forever.

Afterwards, as agreed, they each took a photo with Liu Xiangyang.

Liu Xiangyang had the photographer show them the color photos, and they were quite good.

"How much does a black and white photo or a color photo cost, sir?"

Photographer: "Two yuan for a black and white photo, seven yuan for a color photo."

After hearing this, Liu Xiangyang wanted to develop all the photos into color. At this moment, Xue Bingbing and Le Qi tugged at his clothes.

Liu Xiangyang looked at them with a puzzled expression: "What's wrong?"

"Master, we'd like to go outside and discuss it before deciding which one to choose. Please wait for us a moment."

Photographer: "Okay, you guys discuss it. This is quite a lot of money, it's a month's salary."

Liu Xiangyang: "What happened?"

Xue Bingbing: "Let's take black and white photos, it'll save us a lot of money."

Leqi: "Yes, seven yuan a piece is too expensive."

Liu Xiangyang interrupted them, saying, "Stop talking. No matter how expensive it is, it can't compare to how good you are to me. No matter how expensive it is, it can't compare to my love for you. I want to give you the best."

I wanted to say something after seeing them.

"My love has been divided into three parts, so I can only do my best to give you the best material conditions to make up for it."

"Alright, let's go in." Liu Xiangyang said and walked into the photo studio.

"Master, all four photos need to be developed into color."

"Okay, that's twenty-eight yuan in total. Pay here and come back to pick up the photos in about a week."

After paying, Liu Xiangyang held up the receipt from the photographer and asked, "Sir, do you sell cameras here?"

Photographer: "Comrade, where would we buy cameras in our small county? We can only buy them in Harbin."

"Okay, thank you, comrade. I'll come back next week to pick up the photos." Liu Xiangyang led the three women out of the photo studio.

Uncle Lu said he was going to Harbin for a month of training, but he didn't know when he would be allowed to go. When he got to Harbin, he was determined to buy a camera to inherit, no, to start Teacher Liu's photography career.

Liu Xiangyang told Xue Bingbing and the others to go shopping while he went to Hong Changqing's place, paid the balance, and retrieved his bearskin cloak.

When Liu Xiangyang arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, he saw that the three of them were carrying fabrics that were obviously for making men's clothing.

Xue Bingbing and the other two were also carrying a bag of tea.

"A man who has a woman to take care of him is happy. Looks like I have new clothes to wear again, three sets in total," Liu Xiangyang joked.

Liu Xiangyang went in and bought some more nails to nail the wooden boards back home.

After the group reunited, they headed back, not returning to Dongsheng Village until it was dark.

The three women hurried off to cook. Liu Xiangyang went to the incense burner, but the fire had gone out. He rekindled the fire, added some more firewood, and planned to dry it overnight. It should be ready to use tomorrow.

After dinner, Liu Xiangyang saw how exhausted they looked and said...

"Let's all get some rest early today, and we can deal with other things tomorrow."

Leqi breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Liu Xiangyang's words. It was supposed to be her turn today, but if she had to endure another night of torrential rain, she would have truly fallen apart.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Liu Xiangyang got up, practiced some boxing in the yard to work up a sweat, and after washing up, Xue Bingbing, Le Qi, and Le Yao came over.

The four of them drank a bowl of corn porridge with pickled cabbage and ate two freshly steamed buns, which immediately warmed them up.

"Let's go, while the snow isn't too heavy these next few days, let's smoke the meat first," Xue Bingbing said, getting up.

The three of them went to the incense burner outside the courtyard. Leqi brought over several wooden sticks as thick as a wrist and placed them horizontally on both sides of the incense burner.

Leqi then took the marinated roe deer meat and yellow-haired cat meat out of the vat. The meat had been carefully rubbed with coarse salt and Sichuan peppercorns, and the surface had become slightly firm with a faint reddish hue.

"This roe deer meat is so tender. Wild boar meat has to be a good mix of fat and lean; if it's too lean, it'll become tough after smoking." Xue Bingbing took the pieces of meat and skillfully tied a sturdy knot at one end of each piece with straw rope.

Before long, dozens of pieces of meat were neatly hung on the wooden stick. The pieces of meat were squeezed together and suspended in mid-air.

Xue Bingbing squatted in front of the incense burner. First, she laid a layer of corn stalks at the bottom of the burner, then placed a few pieces of firewood on the corn stalks before lighting the fire. The flames licked at the stone slab.

After the stone slab was heated, some pine needles were placed on it, and then peppercorns, white sugar, and sesame seeds were evenly sprinkled on the pine needles.

When it touched the scorching hot stone slab, the aroma of Sichuan peppercorns was slowly released, the white sugar melted and evaporated, and Le Yao took a wooden board to cover it.

Le Yao asked curiously, "Bingbing, how long will it take for this smoked meat to be ready?"

"It will take four or five days. For the first two days, the fire needs to be high to force out the moisture from the meat. After that, you need to use a low fire to slowly smoke it, allowing all the flavors to seep in little by little."

"We don't need to stay here anymore. We can just check on things every four or five days, add some pine needles and a little sugar."

Le Yao nodded: "It's been quite a while."