Chapter 35

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Not long after, Zhou Yi’s father, Zhou Zhongguo, also came and brought Zhou Xiao Shu and Zhou Xiao Hua from next door. If Zhou Xiao Shu had not run over to report today, Zhou Yi would not have known that there was danger at home immediately, so it was only right to call them over for dinner.

Everyone sat under the osmanthus tree and couldn’t help but swallow their saliva when they saw so many dishes. Song Xi scooped a full bowl of coarse-grain rice for Zhou Xiao Shu and Zhou Xiao Hua. Afraid that they would be too embarrassed to pick up food, she picked up a lot of food for them and said gently, “Xiao Shu, Xiao Hua, eat.”

“Thank you, Aunt.” The two children thanked Song Xi cautiously. Fortunately, Song Xi was sitting beside them. Otherwise, they would be even more nervous, especially Zhou Xiao Shu. He felt that he had only done a very ordinary thing. He did not expect Uncle Zhou Yi to call them over for dinner and make so much delicious food. There were pheasants, fish, and cured meat. It was even more sumptuous than everyone’s New Year’s Eve dinner.

Knowing that Song Xi was afraid of snakes, Zhou Yi placed the snake soup in front of Sheng Jiahe and kept it a distance away from Song Xi. Song Xi only ate steamed eggs, stir-fried sweet stems with cured meat, vinegar potato shreds, and fish head soup. She did not touch the other dishes.

Zhou Zhongguo did not like to be with young people. He felt that it was noisy and they had no common topic, so he hurriedly ate a bowl of rice and left. Zhou Xiao Shu and Zhou Xiao Hua were young and had small appetites. They ate quickly and went home.

There were only the five of them left at the dining table. Zhou Ping sighed as he ate. “Zhou Yi, I didn’t expect your culinary skills to have improved so much. Then potato shreds are crisp and refreshing. The potato cubes are spicy and soft. It’s really delicious.”

“I didn’t make these two dishes. Little Xi made them,” Zhou Yi said truthfully. After saying that, he looked at Song Xi extremely gently and flaunted their affection to the few single people in front of them.

“It’s delicious. It’s especially delicious. It’s even better than what the chef of that state-run restaurant made.” Sheng Jiahe would occasionally go to the state-run restaurant for a big meal. He did not expect to eat something even better than what the state-run restaurant makes here today.

He really envied Zhou Yi for being so lucky to meet Song Xi.

“It’s not that I make it delicious, but potatoes can be made delicious very easily.” Song Xi did not dare to admit that her culinary skills were good. Otherwise, what if this group of people came to her door every day in the future? She would not be a chef.

After the meal, Song Xi felt that Zhou Yi and his friends were really good people. When the few of them were together, they did not talk about dirty jokes. It had to be known that when men were together, they liked to talk about women the most, making them look extremely wretched. But here, they were not like this. Moreover, their eyes were very simple and pure. They looked like kind-hearted people.

Song Xi was also unwilling to interact with scheming people. There was no danger in interacting with people like them.

Moreover, it was better to be close to neighbors than distant relatives. It was never wrong to build a good relationship with good neighbors and good friends. Moreover, Little ‘Song Xi’ did not have distant relatives. Those people from the Song Family were all demons.

“You guys eat slowly. I’m full.” Song Xi brought the bowls and chopsticks back to the kitchen and quickly brought over a few cups of green tea. Drinking green tea in summer can help clear and relieve the heat.

When Song Xi brought the tea over, she happened to hear them talking about Tian Chicken. She handed the bamboo cup to them and sat down beside Zhou Yi. She asked curiously, “You were just talking about frogs. What’s wrong with frogs? Is there a problem?”

“We said we would catch some frogs to eat tonight,” Zhou Ping explained.

Song Xi knew that people in poor times ate everything, especially two years earlier. Grass roots, leaves, grasshoppers, and insects, so it was actually quite normal to eat rat meat and frog meat.

The original Little ‘Song Xi’ could accept it because everyone survived like this. However, now that she was the modern Song Xi, she could not accept eating wild animals. However, she would not look down on others because she knew that it was not easy for everyone.

“There’s a shortage of supplies. The supply in the city’s supplementary food shops is very tight. It’s also very difficult for the people in the city to buy food and fresh vegetables. It’s useless even if they have money and tickets because there’s only so much food every day. Since you’re physically fit and can catch frogs, why don’t you talk to the supplementary food shop about cooperation? Frogs are also a meat dish! Or try going to the market and acquisition station of the commune. It might increase your income.” If she didn’t see that these people were on good terms with Zhou Yi, she wouldn’t have reminded them.

Nowadays, private transactions were taking advantage of opportunities and bad for socialism, but there were still markets allowed by the higher-ups to allow farmers to trade with agricultural produce. Otherwise, if the farmers starved to death, who would plant food? The higher-ups had their own considerations. They were not ruthless in some things, but in a year and a half or even two years, the market might not exist.

It didn’t matter if the market no longer existed. There was still the night market. The people in the city had to eat. If they couldn’t eat their fill, they would naturally think of other ways, so the night market would always exist.

They did not know that there was a market allowed by the higher-ups in the commune. Perhaps because the news was too tight, no one had any channels to know what was going on outside. Little ‘Song Xi’ definitely did not know either. However, she, Song Xi, who had come from the modern era, knew about history and naturally knew something about the situation. Moreover, she had already asked Li Qingqing about the situation last time.

If there was anything she did not know in the future, she could ask Li Qingqing.

Zhou Ping frowned so hard that he could squeeze a fly to death. “We’ve tried selling frogs before, but we couldn’t sell them. This thing is too troublesome to deal with. Everyone in the city has a job. No one is willing to spend time dealing with this.”

Back then, when he felt that the frog tasted good, he had once gone to the vicinity of the factory in the city and tried to sell it to people with wages in the city. No matter how cheap it was, no one wanted it.

“Do the people in the city find it troublesome to deal with?” Hearing this, Song Xi pursed her lips and frowned. After a while, her eyes lit up, as if she had thought of a good idea. “Then you guys catch some tonight and wash and cut them tomorrow morning and bring them over. I have a way here. We can try it first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll think of other ways.”

“Okay.” Zhou Ping, Sheng Jiahe, and Mo Jiaxiang looked at each other. Their expressions lit up. Song Xi had received an education, so she definitely knew more than them. Perhaps she really had a good idea!

Song Xi thought for a moment and said, “It’s best if you come here at four or five o’clock. Otherwise, if the villagers see you coming here at dawn, there will definitely be trouble.”

“Okay.” Zhou Ping rubbed his hands excitedly and was a little eager to give it a try. Who didn’t want to earn money to build a house and marry a wife? He wanted it too, especially when he saw Zhou Yi marry such a good wife. He couldn’t wait.