Chapter 8 - Two future bosses appeared at the same time! (2)
Time always flies when one was gossiping.
Tong Xuelu took a look outside and stood up, “Aunty Cai, it’s getting late. I shouldn’t keep you any longer.”
Aunty Cai took a look outside as well and shouted. “Oh mi, I had forgotten about the time when we chatted. Xuelu, you come over to look for me whenever you want. Bring the eggs back with you!”
The days were rough for everyone, especially the kids who had lost their parents. She couldn’t take their eggs.
“Aunty Cai, it is fine. It’s just a couple of eggs. Keep them.”
Tong Xuelu was never good at the custom of being overly polite. She quickly slipped out after she finished talking.
The sky outside looked like someone had spilled a bottle of orange juice. The entire sky was red and the entire yard was covered in afterglow.
Smoke from dinner being prepared began to rise from the compound. Many of those who had never met Tong Xuelu before looked at her curiously.
Tong Xuelu smiled and nodded at everyone before she went back inside the house and take the ingredients for dinner out.
Every family’s stove was built immediately outside their entrance and there was no privacy to speak of.
What was even worse was that the Tong family has a wood-burning stove.
Tong Xuelu knew how to use a wood-burning stove but it would stink her eyes and it wasn’t easy to use at all.
As Tong Xuelu busied herself with the ingredients, she also thought about how she could make money and improve their quality of life.
She started the rice and cracked the eggs into a porcelain bowl. She rinsed out the bok choy and sliced each bundle into 4 sections. And she minced the garlics.
She planned to make egg fried rice and a dish of garlic bok choy stir fry.
When the aroma of the rice crept out of the pot, she started on the bok choy. She let them cooked for a few minutes in boiling water before she drained them, rinsed them with cold water, and had them ready to go in a plate.
They used lard at home and when the oil was heated up, soy sauce and salt were added, and the minced garlic was stirred fried, an amazing garlic aroma could be detected in the compound.
“Xuelu, what are you making over there? Why does it smell so good?”
Aunty Cai was the closest to them and the smell made her hungry right away.
Tong Xuelu replied to her while pouring the sauce over the bok choy, “Aunty Cai, I am making stirred fry bok choy.”
Most people only boil vegetables in water back in the days and adding a drop of two of oil at most. Nobody used that much oil and sauce as Tong Xuelu did.
Those in the compound were all surprised when they heard her.
She made a dish of vegetables with minced garlic and oil? What a prodigal child.
Tong Mianmian ran over and gulped while looking at the plate of bok choy. She looked like a glutton little kitten and could not be cuter.
Tong Xuelu busted out laughing when she saw that. “Are you hungry, Mianmian?”
The little bun shook her head as she gulped. “Mianmian is not hungry. She will wait for her brothers to come home first.”
“Good girl, Mianmian. You go play inside. It’s smokey out here. We will start dinner when your brothers get home.”
Tong Mianmian nodded like a chicken pecking on rice and went back inside their house on her short little legs.
After Tong Mianmian had walked away, Tong Xuelu scooped the cooked rice out and broke them apart. She then beat the eggs and added some salt in them.
She added some more lard into the frying pan when it was hot and stirred fried the rice inside of it. She quickly added the eggs inside and mixed them up.
It had been barely two minutes when a dish of nice smelling and steaming fried rice was done.
The aroma spread with the breeze and went straight over to Aunty Cai’s nose, making her more and more hungry.
She couldn’t help herself anymore but to run over and looked. Immediately, she was shocked. “Aiyo, Xuelu, how did you make this rice? How is it so pretty and smells so good?”
“It’s nothing special. Just have to use the right amount of oil is all.”
“Aye, you aren’t wrong but oil is expensive. You should be more frugal given the situation of your family.”
Aunty Cai gave her a friendly advice as she nodded.
Tong Xuelu smiled and nodded.
Aunty Cai got curious again. “Speaking of. I was just wondering earlier whether you know how to cook. Did you need to do housework at your other family’s place?”
Tong Xuelu lied through her teeth, “Yes, I will help out with cooking at my adoptive parents’ place.”
Truth was, the original owner had never done a bit of housework her entire life. She was the one who knew how to cook.
She wasn’t born a green tea. She had never been loved by her parents before. Her father re-married a year after her mother had passed away and, as far as her family was concerned, she no longer existed after that point.
She learned how to be a good cook to appease her family and almost ended up become their cook at home!
Her stepmother and stepsister walked all over her. Her stepsister had issues and love taking what was hers – her clothes, her friends, and, finally, her fiancé!
As the saying goes, one either explode silently or die silently. She ended up turning “green” silently.
She had conquered everyone in her family before her transmigration.
Even though she only picked up cooking to appease others, but it had, subsequently, turned into her biggest weapon in her process of “greening”.
Now that she had transmigrated to the 70s, she shall continue to carry it forward.
With Aunty Cai making a fuss over it along with its tempting aroma, everybody gathered around to look.
They saw each grain of rice in the wok was coated with egg and was gold in color, loose from each other. They both looked and smelled amazing.
They possessed aroma, look, and taste. Just one look was enough to make one feel hungry.
The thick aroma attacked everybody’s sense of smell and everybody gulped and rumbling noises from their stomach could be heard.
An old lady wanted to scoop the fried rice with the spatula she had in her hand reflexively and Tong Xuelu quickly placed the cover over work as she said, “Ah, I don’t want them getting cold.”
Stingy girl!
The old lady pursed her lips and walked away with her spatula.
Everybody was short clothes and food these days and normally they would not have dinner over at someone else’s places. As such, as tempting as Tong Xuelu’s cooking was, nobody asked to have a try.
Tong Xuelu took the opportunity to bring the fried rice and garlic bok choy stir fry inside and, right when she was about to wash up, saw two boys standing by the door when she looked up.
The older one was around 11 years old and standing with his back very straight. He looked a little skinny and his thick eyelashes covered up most of his profound eyes.
The younger one was around 7 or 8 years old with a buzz cut. His hair stood up like a that of a hedgehog and his pair of round eyes looked Tong Xuelu up and down.
The two young boys did not look very much alike but they were both looking at Tong Xuelu in an unfriendly manner.
If she was right, these would be her instant brothers Tong Jiaming and Tong Jiaxin.
Two future bosses appearing at the same time.
How exciting was that!