Chapter 15: Fragrance
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Su Wen shook her head. “I’ll go with Little sister! It’s a good time for me to distribute the work at home. You’re still in charge of earning work points in the brigade. I’ll look for Aunt Chunyan and ask her to help arrange an easier job for you.”
It didn’t make sense that there wasn’t a single person in the family who earned work points.
“Su Qing will continue to learn tailoring, and you two will help me when you have free time. I’ll be in charge of thinking of ways to make money, and Little sister will be my helper. Let’s try to get Sixth sister to go to school this year.”
Sixth sister was eight years old that year, long past the age to go to school. However, she had been helping their aunt take care of her child and was ordered around like a servant.
She had just transmigrated and had not fully grasped the situation. She would hold back for the moment. When school reopened in September, she would definitely send her sixth sister to school.
“Big sister, does sixth sister really have the chance to study?” Su Qing asked in disbelief.
She realized that Big sister had really changed a lot. In the past, she didn’t allow her sixth and seventh sisters to attend school, and even wanted her fourth and fifth sisters to drop out of school to earn work points.
Because of this, Sixth sister had hid in the straw pile in the kitchen and quietly wiped her tears.
“Of course.”
“That’s great. When Sixth sister returns, I’ll tell her this good news.”
“I’ll also make more sleeve guards to earn money.” Su Xiu quickly declared.
Su Wen waved her hand. “Let’s not make sleeve guards. I’ll try to make something else.”
“Why not?”
“We did it before because we had free cloth, so we didn’t have to spend much. The cloth is now gone, right?” Su Wen said as she looked at Su Qing.
Su Qing nodded. She had still been worrying during the day! She had brought back the cloth that her master had collecting for almost a year. Even if they wanted to make more later, there was no more cloth to be had.
“Alright, let’s not talk about this. Let’s cook first.”
Su Wen’s order made the three sisters cheer. Such good meat and bones; Su Wen personally cooked and asked Su Qing to help with the fire.
After all, little sister Su was still young, and had to be tired after walking for the entire day. She asked Su Xiu to give her a bath and let her rest.
In the big pot, the tubular bones were boiled using cold water to produce scum. Then, she added ginger, scallion, salt, seasoning, and boiling water to simmer it over low heat.
The streaky pork was cut into moderately thick chunks. Not a single drop of oil was needed. After frying the fragrant oil in a smaller iron pan, she added in ginger and star anise for a stir-fry.
Very quickly, a fragrant and intoxicating braised meat dish was done.
There was no sugar at home, otherwise it’d be even more delicious.
When Su Qing started the fire, she couldn’t help but swallow her saliva and look at Su Wen with shining eyes.
She was curious about how Big sister’s cooking skills had suddenly become so amazing, but on second thought, she felt that it was a good thing, so she simply put it aside and didn’t ask about it.
The Su family’s house was relatively remote in the village. The surrounding areas were not as densely packed as the middle and east of the village, but there were still quite a few people.
The aroma of the braised meat spread far and wide. Chen Guihua, who lived on the east side, was at home eating steamed buns. She caught a whiff of the aroma.
“Where’s the smell of meat coming from?”
As soon as the little fatty Zhuangzhuang smelled the meat, he refused to eat the flour buns, rolling on the ground and shouting for meat. Su Xueqiang’s face flushed with anger. He wanted to hit the child but was stopped by Chen Guihua.
“Hit him if you dare. You don’t have the ability to earn enough to buy meat, yet you’re taking it out on the child.”
“You…” Su Xueqiang angrily threw down his chopsticks and stopped eating.
“Mom, I want to eat meat! I want to eat meat…” Zhuangzhuang insatiably shouted.
Chen Guihua was also annoyed. She had gone to Second brother’s house that night and smelled meat, but she hadn’t been able to get her hands on it. She was furious about it! Now that her son was making a scene, she raised her hand and slapped him.
It was one thing not to let her husband hit their son, but she would not be soft-hearted when she hit him.
After Zhuangzhuang had been given a beating, he gave up and obediently ate the steamed buns.
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