I was married off to a disabled hero in lieu of marriage; my in-laws doted on me and I aspired to gr

It's done, it's done! It really was a problem with the jar.

Qiaoqiao and Hu Xiaomei opened the jar, and golden pickled cabbage appeared before their eyes.

Qiaoqiao tore off a leaf, put it in her mouth and chewed it slowly. The taste was right, sour and crisp with a sweet aftertaste, just like the sauerkraut from Xiaoqi's family.

"Sister Hu, it's amazing! The method is exactly the same, just the jar is different, and the quality of the pickled cabbage is completely different!"

A jar of dark black sauerkraut and a jar of golden yellow sauerkraut—who would believe they came from the same person?

"The sauerkraut from your mother's family is golden yellow. Luckily I asked, or I would have thought my cooking was bad."

Hu Xiaomei breathed a long sigh of relief, as if she had suffered a great injustice and had finally been exonerated.

"Sister Hu, you're a great hero! Tonight I'll tell my father-in-law that the clay pots from Maojia Village are going to become famous," Qiaoqiao praised with a smile.

"You need to tell Xiaoqi to buy a few more large vats and pickle some more quickly. It's almost Chinese New Year, and pickled cabbage is in high demand." Hu Xiaomei was quite worried about Xiaoqi's sales.

"Tomorrow I'll tell her that the supply and marketing cooperative sells large vats from Maojia Village, but I'm afraid the price won't be low."

"To make money, you have to buy a tank first."

"Sister Hu is right."

In the evening, Sister Hu stewed a pot of pork belly and sauerkraut, and the family sat around the table to eat.

"Xiao Hu, your cooking skills have improved! Braised pork belly with sauerkraut is a new dish, and it's delicious."

Zhou Zhonghai was very satisfied with the dinner.

Luo Meiyun also praised, "The cafeteria also has this dish, but it's sour and not very tasty, which is a waste of pork belly."

"Dad, Mom, didn't you notice that the pickled cabbage is different tonight? If you taste it carefully, doesn't it have a sweet aftertaste?"

"Yes, wasn't it the pickled cabbage that Xiao Qi gave you?" Luo Meiyun asked, puzzled.

"I had Secretary Gu take the pickled cabbage that Xiaoqi gave me to Fenglin in the provincial capital. The pickled cabbage we're having tonight was made by Sister Hu using jars from Maojia Village." Qiaoqiao was so happy she couldn't suppress her smile.

Zhou Zhonghai put down his chopsticks and asked, "So, the jars in Maojia Village are indeed different from those in other places?"

"Mmm!" Qiaoqiao nodded vigorously.

"This...this is amazing?"

"The soil in Maojia Village should contain minerals. It helps preserve freshness and enhances flavor. Dad, could it be egg yolk mud? If so, egg yolk mud contains iron oxide, calcium, magnesium, and potassium," Zhou Wenhui said quietly.

"Mud has calcium? So if we eat mud, can we get calcium?" Qiaoqiao asked the soul-searching question.

Zhou Wenhui glanced at his simple-minded wife, smiled calmly, and said gently, "Silly girl, the minerals in the soil can't be absorbed by the human body, but when made into earthenware pots, they can preserve the original flavor of the food. The sweet aftertaste we experience isn't from the minerals, but from the natural sweetness of the vegetables. Ordinary earthenware pots can't preserve freshness, so the sweetness of the vegetables is lost."

"Oh, I see. Wenhui, you know so much."

Qiaoqiao sincerely admired Zhou Wenhui; this man seemed to know everything.

"Hahaha!" Zhou Zhonghai laughed. "Meiyun, ever since Qiaoqiao came, my family's reputation has changed. We write movie reviews and publish them in the Huailin Daily. We even study the material of earthenware pots when we eat sauerkraut. My ancestors have blessed us. From now on, I can proudly tell Fu Sanjun that my Zhou family is not only a military family, but also a family of scholars."

Luo Meiyun burst out laughing after taking a bite of pickled cabbage and quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe her mouth.

"Old Zhou, you should keep a low profile. Wenhui's talent isn't something he just discovered today."

"In my opinion, only Wenhui and his wife truly deserve the title of 'scholarly family'."

Qiaoqiao blushed with shame. Although she was a college student, her university education was merely a stroke of luck, a stroke of good fortune.

"Yes, yes, two college students, how can they not be from a scholarly family?"

Zhou Zhonghai was about to continue praising, but Zhou Wenhui frowned and said, "Dad, let's send the jar to an agency for testing first. If it really is egg yolk paste, tell Maojia Village right away. This is a great opportunity for Tonggang County to become famous."

"Oh right, I forgot about the important matter. Qiaoqiao, give me a jar, and have Guquan send it for testing tomorrow."

"Dad, remember to give me back the jar after you're done inspecting it. I still need to pickle the sauerkraut."

"Next time Gao Bing delivers goods to the supply and marketing cooperative, have him give you a few, okay?"

"Old Zhou, you shouldn't accept bribes."

"It's not a gift to me, it's a gift to Qiaoqiao. If it's a bribe, it's Qiaoqiao who's being bribed, it has nothing to do with me."

"You, how can you still be cheating?"

"Dad, I'll buy them. I'll ask Secretary Gao to give them to me at cost price, okay? Xiao Qi will definitely buy a few tanks too, and we'll calculate the cost price for them all then."

"Okay, it's settled then."

A few jars don't count as bribery, but Xiao Qi wants a large jar, and jars aren't cheap, so we can't accept bribes.

The next day, Qiaoqiao placed two lunchboxes in front of Xiaoqi and Gu Tongan.

"Did you bring us braised pork?" Gu Tong'an asked in surprise.

"This stuff is much more valuable than braised pork," Qiaoqiao said with a mysterious smile.

"Oh, really?"

Gu Tong'an quickly opened the lunchbox, finding two boxes of sauerkraut. She immediately deflated, saying, "We haven't had enough sauerkraut and kimchi, and you still have to bring us more?"

"Yang Qiao, are you running out of pickled cabbage? I'll bring you some." Xiao Qi was also puzzled.

"Xiaoqi, these two boxes of pickled cabbage were both made by Sister Hu and me."

"Isn't the water quality at your house bad, so you can't make golden sauerkraut?" Xiaoqi thought that the box of golden sauerkraut was a gift from her to Qiaoqiao.

"Xiaoqi, the quality of sauerkraut has nothing to do with the water or the soil, but it does depend on the jar used to pickle it," Qiaoqiao said earnestly.

"A jar?"

"Neither my family nor your sister-in-law's family can make golden-yellow sauerkraut, because the jars we use aren't from Maojia Village. But that big vat in your house was a gift from Maojia Village to my father-in-law."

"Really?" Xiaoqi exclaimed in surprise.

"Xiaoqi, if you want to expand and strengthen your business, you need to buy vats first. I've spoken to your father-in-law, and he'll sell you the vats from Maojia Village at cost price. You can now focus on making sauerkraut with peace of mind. Business will be good before the New Year, and sales will be high. Don't miss this opportunity."

"Is it really a problem with the jars? We've also pickled cabbage in small jars at home, and we still can't make golden-yellow sauerkraut. Why didn't we think of the jars as the problem? We're always so careful when we open the jars, afraid of getting a jar full of black sauerkraut. Yang Qiao, thank you so much. I'll buy three jars first."

"Xiaoqi, do you think these two boxes of pickled cabbage are more valuable than braised pork?"

"Yes, Gu Tong'an, I'll treat you and Yang Qiao to braised pork for lunch."

Xiaoqi was overjoyed. Her family's sauerkraut business was doing very well, and she was fully able to treat her classmates to braised pork.

"Forget it, I don't eat braised pork. Give me these two boxes of pickled cabbage instead. I'll buy some meat, cook some pickled cabbage, and eat with Yao Xing and Uncle Yao."

Gu Tong'an closed the lunchbox and put it into her schoolbag without any hesitation.

"Did Yao Xing's father hit Yao Xing?"

Even though Qiaoqiao knew Yao Xing's father was coming, she didn't go to visit him. She heard that his father was very powerful, and Qiaoqiao didn't dare to go.

"Yao Xing is the factory director now, a big shot. His father is very happy, how could he possibly hit him? Yang Qiao, Yao Xing has mentioned many times that he has some cured meat and dried vegetables at home and wants to invite you to dinner."

"No, no, forget it. I won't have anything to say to his father anyway," Yang Qiao waved her hands repeatedly.

"Yang Qiao, my mother also wants to invite you to dinner. You've been there several times, but you've only been served noodles. She hasn't treated you properly."

"Xiaoqi, Gu Tongan, please stop talking about treating us to lunch. We're classmates, it was just a small favor. All this thanking makes me feel awkward. How about this, Xiaoqi will treat us to lunch, I accept."

"Okay, let's have a proper meal together, the three of us."

The friendship between classmates is pure and innocent.