Chapter 160: Eating, the Top Priority

Jia Zhangshi had no mind or energy to pay attention to the gossip fire blazing like raging flames in the neighbors' eyes; her current focus was entirely on that carp.

She needed to get that carp.

"Shazhu, Qin Huairu in our family is pregnant; the child in her belly needs nutrition. We're all neighbors in the same courtyard—can you prioritize the child first?"

Shazhu knew this carp couldn't just peacefully go into their bellies; the poultry and beasts in the courtyard would surely stir up trouble.

Think of something, and it comes.

Jia Zhangshi arrived.

And she came up with such a lame excuse.

"Can you prioritize the child first?" This excuse is no different from a child's.

"The Jia Family's daughter-in-law is pregnant—what does that have to do with us He Family people? Surely the child isn't related to me? Or is it that the Jia Family can't afford to raise the child, begging all over the courtyard? The Head Steward's white flour isn't enough for the Jia Family to eat, yet you Jia Family still have designs on my fish?"

Shazhu shifted his tone, giving Jia Zhangshi no chance at all.

"If I don't give this carp to your Jia Family, will you Jia Zhangshi go report me to the Jiēdào? I've said my piece—I'd actually welcome you reporting it, because over a hundred people can testify how I got this fish."

"Shazhu, I really have no other option—when Qin Huairu gave birth to Bangeng, you were there; due to lack of nutrition, she nearly died in childbirth. You're a cook, you're not short on appetite."

"Having no way isn't an excuse. Why should the Jia Family get special treatment when all the neighbors are going hungry? Qin Huairu is pregnant—does that make her face big? Our Siheyuan isn't just about the Jia Family's Qin Huairu being pregnant; the Old Ma family's daughter-in-law isn't pregnant? She can eat coarse grain steamed buns, yet the Jia Family's Qin Huairu must eat white flour? Are you Jia Family people noble while we are lowly? Good neighbors, you've artificially divided us into high and low."

The accusations keep growing.

We must thoroughly cut off Jia Zhangshi's grasping hands that plot to take Shazhu's belongings.

For the next two years.

It's been like this all along.

Shazhu has to scrounge for food as best he can—fishing, hunting, raiding mouse storerooms, etc.; when desperate, even bugs must be eaten. I painstakingly gather food, yet the Jia Family wants to take it away in just a few words; if they don't take it, I'll report them.

Who gave you the gall?

Shazhu wants to once and for all resolve the trouble of Jia Zhangshi's constant baseless reports.

"This carp I caught to improve my life—Jia Zhangshi, stay where it's cool if you want fish, there's none; if you want to eat, go catch it yourself. I said you're like a landlady, and indeed you Jia Zhangshi act as if you were a landlady, holding out your hand for food?"

"Shazhu, I won't take it for free, I'll buy it." The persistent Jia Zhangshi pulled out a wrinkled fifty-cent coin from her pocket: "I'll buy your fish."

Don't say it's not enough.

It is enough.

This carp also cannot be sold to Jia Zhangshi.

Given Jia Zhangshi's nature, if she bought the carp from Shazhu, she'd then run to the Jiēdào to openly report him for tampering with machinery.

"Not selling."

Shazhu's cold two words thrown at Jia Zhangshi forced Qin Huairu, hiding behind to watch the show, to send a distress signal to Yi Zhonghai.

Pregnant woman's craving.

The craving worm is wreaking havoc.

Ever since Shazhu brought the carp back, Qin Huairu's heart felt as if scratched by a cat, an unbearable itch; she wished to instantly turn the carp into a cooked fish and feast heartily. She also knew Jia Zhangshi would come away empty-handed, so she had long set her sights on Yi Zhonghai, making things difficult for him as well—after all, the child in her womb bears the Yi surname.

Yi Zhonghai, upon receiving Qin Huairu's signal, felt far from pleased.

He knew Shazhu wouldn't give him any face; even if he spoke up, besides inviting humiliation, he'd get nothing—there's no way he'd get the carp from Shazhu's hands.

But Qin Huairu spoke up.

The child in her belly also bears the Yi surname.

Yi Zhonghai thus had no choice but to risk embarrassment and speak to Shazhu; it was as if he had already thrown his face on the ground for Shazhu to trample.

Lacking clothing and provisions!

This is the root.

At this time last year, Yi Zhonghai's prestige as a Level Seven Technician let him easily obtain certain goods—white flour, pork, and other daily necessities; the Yagangchang issued them monthly, even a bit more than his fellow workers.

He had become an Eighth-Level Worker.

Yet the goods had disappeared.

It wasn't that they were gone.

They just couldn't be produced.

Yi Zhonghai also knew what the current situation was.

For the child's sake.

What if it brings humiliation!

He took a step toward Shazhu.

As soon as he moved, Shazhu knew what kind of nonsense Yi Zhonghai was about to pull—he understood the hypocrite all too well, all too well.

"Head Steward, are you standing up for the Jia Family?"

A hostile tone.

It made Yi Zhonghai pause.

The carp that is owed, the hypocrite still demands.

"Who made Qin Huairu nearby stare longingly at the carp in Yu Li's hands, looking so pitiful, that it made Yi Zhonghai want to explode?"

"If you send your family's white flour to the Jia Family, we neighbors can't control it—your property is your Yi family's to dispose of as you wish." Shazhu pointed at the carp Yu Li was holding, "But our family's belongings are for us to decide; you, Head Steward, had best not interfere. I still say: what relation does the Jia Family have with me? None at all! Why should the carp I painstakingly obtained have to go to the Jia Family?"

Emotions flared.

Some words must be spoken.

"These years I've been away, the Jia Family has fabricated stories about me—insisting I'd never return, claiming my wife is born to bring misfortune to her husband, saying my sister is born to bring misfortune to her brother. Not even slapping Jia Zhangshi hard, I've already tolerated it for the neighbors' sake, yet you still want to eat fish? Go catch it yourself! Aren't you the Head Steward? The Head Steward can't bear to see the Jia Family suffer—so go catch it yourself!"

Fishing is indeed a technical skill.

On the other hand, there are many people but few fish.

Before Shazhu returned, Yan Fugui had been fishing nonstop for a month, managing to catch fish only twice; most of the time he came up empty.

I heard someone dragged a fishing net several times.

"Elder, in your eyes, are only the Jia family in our siheyuan pitiful? Are only the Jia family in need of relief? Must the Jia family eat well?"

Only magic can defeat magic.

Using the tactic of morally blackmailing Yi Zhonghai, turn it around to lecture Yi Zhonghai.

"The day before yesterday you gave white flour to the Jia family, saying Qin Huairu needed nutrition; whether Qin Huairu ate it or not, we don't know, but I heard you, Elder, gave the white flour of the old lady in the rear courtyard to the Jia family; the Jia family ate white flour, the old lady ate steamed corn buns; in front of everyone, I ask you, Elder, is this your proclaimed filial piety toward the elderly?"

Yi Zhonghai's mind stirred, and he actually came up with the idea of using this opportunity to toss the deaf old lady to Shazhu; you, Shazhu, think I, Yi Zhonghai, haven't taken good care of the deaf old lady, then you, Shazhu, should personally step in.

The hypocrite opened his mouth, about to shift blame.

Shazhu seemed to guess what Yi Zhonghai was about to say, and took the initiative to block the hypocrite's retreat.

"Still want to explain? Explain what? The neighbors all saw it; I still say the same thing: you should spend more time thinking about how to be a role model for us to learn from."

Holding Yu Li's hand.

He leisurely returned to the house.

As for those messed-up things in the courtyard.

Shazhu really couldn't be bothered to deal with it.

……

Entered the house.

Looking at everything before him.

Shazhu was completely dumbfounded, and fearing his eyes were playing tricks on him, he rubbed his eyes with his hand.

The house was still the same house, the furnishings still the same, the things still the same, but because there was now a female mistress in the home, it gave Shazhu a hint of familial warmth.

Before getting married.

The house had a bachelor's vibe.

Got married.

The house now had a woman's gentleness.

Everything thus became quite full of charm.

Overall, it gave Shazhu an indescribable feeling; at this moment, he transformed into Liu Laolao who had just entered the Grand View Garden, finding everything different.

Yu Li thought Shazhu was tired; after getting married all day yesterday, in the evening he and Yu Li together calculated how much Deputy Factory Director Li had sent, then early the next morning he went fishing again; after thinking it over carefully, Shazhu really hadn't rested much.

A cup of steaming hot tea appeared before Shazhu's face.

"Head of the household, sit a while, I'll go deal with the fish."

"There's a chef at home; do you still need to pitch in?" Shazhu felt sorry for his wife, unwilling to let her work; even the most basic cooking, he took care of it all, saying, "I'm here."

"You stew the fish." Yu Li smiled sweetly, "I'll handle the fish scales and innards."

Yu Li, now a woman, was like a ripe apple, exuding an alluring charm everywhere.

Shazhu stared, his gaze lingering on Yu Li's charming cheeks, then moved to her hair bun; yesterday it was still the braid symbolizing an unmarried young lady, today it had become the hairpin signifying a married woman.

"Don't scrape the fish scales either."

His wife couldn't bear to let him work.

His biological younger sister, He Yushui, however, was willing to let him work.

He had been raising his foster sister for several years.

He used his sister for a while.

"Let Yushui do these."

Shazhu's head turned left and right, beginning to look for He Yushui's figure.

Before fishing, he specially instructed He Yushui to accompany Yu Li well, making sure Yu Li wouldn't feel lonely.

This girl.

They took his words as idle talk.

Disappeared.

"Yushui." Yu Li explained to Shazhu, "She went out."

"Why did she go? You left your sister-in-law at home, and she went out to play?"

"Something came up!"

Seeing Shazhu get angry because of her, Yu Li felt a little excited inside.

She roughly explained the reason He Yushui wasn't home.

It wasn't to excuse He Yushui.

It was because He Yushui really had something to do.

Upon hearing this, Shazhu...

He realized it was again about food causing trouble.

He Yushui's class teacher went to the mountains and picked some mushrooms, which turned out to be poisonous; the teacher is now lying in the hospital, and He Yushui carried a small half-jin of barley noodles to visit the teacher, saying the teacher hadn't eaten any grains or rice for several days.

"Ah!" Shazhu sighed, muttering, "When will this ever end?"

"Head of the household, I heard something recently; the Wang family in our Dayuan, who just returned to their hometown a few days ago, went out to the fields late at night to gather fallen crops—what do you think he found?"

"Could it be grain?" Shazhu quickly rebutted his own statement, "The crops in the fields have all been harvested; the fallen wheat spikes, millet shoots, and corn cobs have all been picked up stalk by stalk—there's no way there's any grain left, so don't tell me it's grain."

"How can there be no grain? They managed to get some grain, about five or six jin." Yu Li solemnly said to Shazhu, "My dad said that's damaging one's yin virtue—it's stealing the food stores of those mice and rabbits."

Unintentionally spoken.

The listener took it to heart.

Yu Li's account, however, opened the door to Shazhu's memory.

To support the family at the lake mouth, let the wife and children eat their fill—this is not disgraceful.

What a loss of hidden virtue!

You can't possibly, just to ensure the survival of those little things, let your own wife and children go hungry, right? Those little things aren't people; if they run out of food, they can still eat grass.

Shazhu had an idea.

The key is he doesn't know how to do it; there must be special tools; you can't just go digging up the whole place with a hammer, hammering away!

There's time.

Find Comrade Old Wang and have a good chat.

Ask the fields for grain.

Support the wife.

Heaven and earth are big, but the wife is biggest.

Shazhu got up, walked to the basin, and in a few quick moves cleaned the fish; the fish meat has its way of being cooked, the fish entrails have their way of being eaten.

Apart from the fish scales and bones, there's probably no waste elsewhere.

It's not that Shazhu must eat the fish entrails; cleaning them is too troublesome, so Yu Li gave them to a needy household in the courtyard.

Using Yu Li's words to describe it, our family's conditions are not good, but we are still better off than them; an elderly couple, struggling to support three grandchildren, we help as much as we can, and this counts as accumulating hidden virtue for Yu Li's unborn child.

Our own wife.

Still a soft-hearted person.

Yu Li only ever deals with that household in the front courtyard; as for Long Laotaitai and her ilk, sorry, Yu Li always keeps her distance; she probably doesn't know that just now Shazhu, taking the opportunity while she was looking for a bowl, secretly wrapped a small piece of fish tail with meat inside the fish entrails.

Shazhu also wants to accumulate good deeds for his unborn son!

……

The Jia Family.

Jia Zhangshi was nagging again.

The cause was the aroma of the fish stew from Shazhu's house, which drifted through the air into the Jia family's nostrils, making Jia Zhangshi's cravings flare up.

Damned immoral scoundrel.

Would rather give it to the needy household in the front courtyard than to the Jia family, even though they had spent five mao to buy his fish, Shazhu still wouldn't sell, making Jia Zhangshi so angry her nose twisted.

All these years.

When has Jia Zhangshi ever bought anything?

She always just takes what she sees.

If not given, she sends Bangeng.

Eat fish meat.

Let you choke to death.

Jia Zhangshi's gaze fell on Bangeng, hesitating whether to let Bangeng take the Xiao Dang to Shazhu's house opposite to ask for some fish meat.

Her eldest grandson Bangeng is a good child whom everyone in the Siheyuan loves.

……

Long Laotaitai's home.

The gluttonous, greedy Long Laotaitai, smelling the fish aroma, deliberately said to Aunt Yi: "Old Yi's wife, Old Yi's fish stew skills are really getting better and better; this aroma has hooked my old lady's cravings; this steamed bun, I won't eat it; wait for Zhonghai to stew the fish a bit later, I want to use fish soup to soak the steamed bun; fish soup soaked steamed bun, eaten with fish meat like this, the taste is delicious."

Aunt Yi snorted coldly in her heart.

She certainly knew this was Long Laotaitai's trick.

Eat fish.

I spit!

"Old lady, you're mistaken; it's not Zhonghai stewing the fish, it's Shazhu."

"Old Yi didn't stew fish; he went to slaughter a pig—what a rare thing! The Level 8 Technician from Yagangchang turned into a pig-slaughtering butcher; that's fine, we eat pork, Old Yi's wife, the pig just slaughtered has very fresh meat; the Northeastern pig-slaughter dish is made this way; if we can't have fish, eating pork is also good."

This is just pure messing around.

Aunt Yi also couldn't be bothered to expose it.

She casually agreed with a sentence, then angrily turned and left Long Laotaitai's home.

She entered the Yi household.

She gave Yi Zhonghai a good round of complaints.

Yi Zhonghai knew for sure that Long Laotaitai had upset Aunt Yi; the aroma of Shazhu's fish stew was smelled by anyone whose nose wasn't broken.

In a season when eating is the top priority.

Yet Yi Zhonghai was still worried about Qin Huairu's nutrition supplements.

Just now Qin Huairu once again sent out a signal.

She wants to eat something good.

Among the twenty-odd households, aside from Shazhu's family stewing fish, no other household had anything good for Qin Huairu to eat.

The Yagangchang Level 8 Technician and the Siheyuan Head Steward Yi Zhonghai were also worried about food.

There's food there!