Chapter 231: Seventies Treasure Appraisal System (5)

The coal delivery man had more than just this place to visit; there were two other households to deliver to. After unloading fifty jin of Coal Ball and twenty honeycomb briquettes, he collected the receipt and left.

Xie Yang used fire tongs to pick up the honeycomb briquettes and Coal Ball one by one, transported them home in two trips, and stacked them neatly under a cast-in-place Cement slab in a corner of the balcony, covering them with a rainproof tarp so that neither heavy wind nor rain could soak them.

On the Cement slab sat a row of dilapidated earthenware jars and washbasins, growing bok choy and small green onions.

However, these were all things Qin Zheng had tinkered with before marriage; the original owner was too lazy to tend to them, at most pouring a little water on them when they looked withered, so they didn't grow very well.

Xie Yang liked flowers and plants; not only did she water the vegetables, but she also had the Main System help exchange for a bottle of Plant Special Nutrient Solution. After diluting it according to the ratio, she fed some to the wilted bok choy and the yellowed small green onions.

"Hey—Xiao Xie, why did you suddenly go buy coal? Is there some inside scoop that the price of Coal Ball is going up?" Chen Fei's wife from 308 poked her head out from her own balcony to ask Xie Yang downstairs.

The neighbors who heard this couldn't help but stop the work in their hands and all pricked up their ears.

Xie Yang: "I don't know if the price of Coal Ball is going up or not; I just had a few coal coupons that were about to expire."

Everyone: "..."

Coal coupons left until they expired? And more than one?

Aside from the lazy-to-the-bone wife of Qin Zheng, who else could it be?

Xie Yang finished watering the vegetables, swept the balcony floor clean, and went inside.

She took the items out of the mesh bag, cloth bag, and back basket one by one.

The Brown Sugar, rock sugar, milk candy, and peach cakes were placed in the food cabinet;

The oil pot, Salt jar, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices were put into the cupboard;

The marrow bones stripped of meat, two sparrows, and dried scallops were kept to make a rich broth in the evening;

Daily consumables like Scented Soap, Soap, Toothbrush, and Toothpaste were organized into the hole in the wall next to the washbasin stand.

She also took the opportunity to change the Toothbrush for both her and Qin Zheng, especially Qin Zheng's, as the bristles on the head were almost worn bald.

She also changed his Towel to a new one, using the old one taken down as a rag, and did a thorough deep cleaning.

But before the deep cleaning, she first carried the hairtail to the water room to gut and wash it clean.

In this day and age, one couldn't bear to throw away the hairtail head; she kept it for braising in soy sauce in the evening.

She cut the fish body into segments, and after draining the water, rubbed it with Salt to fry later; in this season, marinating it for half a day would make it flavorful.

After tidying up the hairtail, she made do with a few pieces of peach cake and a cup of warm boiled water for lunch.

After resting a little bit after lunch, she put on a dust-proof hat folded from a newspaper and started the deep cleaning.

After bustling in and out for most of the day, looking at the fruits of her labor—a one-bedroom, one-living-room apartment that was bright, clean, and spotless—Xie Yang contentedly picked up a few Coal Ball and some dry firewood and newspaper for kindling into a bamboo winnowing basket, and went outside to light the stove to prepare dinner.

The hallway was not wide, and every household had a lot of sundries piled up at their doors, so people generally chose to light fires and cook on the landing at the stairwell corner, which both prevented open flames and facilitated smoke exhaust.

The original owner had never been here, and this was Xie Yang's first time, so she didn't recognize all the neighbors.

However, there wasn't a single neighbor who didn't know her—the gluttonous and lazy wife of Qin Zheng was too famous, wasn't she!

Married to Qin Zheng for over half a month, no one had seen her do any work, but she bought plenty of food and clothes, and every few days she would eat out, go to the Canteen... oh, and go to the bathhouse.

The water used in the factory bathhouse was cooling water from the workshop, so it was considered one of the employee benefits, and employees could wash for free with a ticket.

But bath tickets were mainly supplied to Workshop Workers; drivers could receive at most ten a month, and if they wanted to go to the bathhouse to wash after the tickets were used up, they had to pay, five cents per wash.

In an average household, who could bear to do that? It was better to just mix some warm water at home and wipe oneself down.

It was nothing like Qin Zheng's wife, whom one could see almost every day carrying a washbasin, with a Towel and Scented Soap, heading to the bathhouse.

In a month, she washed far more than ten times; the extra money spent on bathing could have bought several jin of Rice or White Flour.

Everyone muttered about it, envied her in their hearts, and at the same time hoped that Qin Zheng, who was returning from a trip, would teach this spendthrift woman a harsh lesson.

But today, she really gave everyone a huge surprise.

From her buying coal to cleaning the hairtail—and washing so many of them—and then watching her go in and out fetching water, mopping the floor, and cleaning... the work done in the past half month probably didn't add up to as much as today alone, right?

After being surprised so many times, they were numb to it by now.

Seeing Xie Yang carrying the stove to the landing, they didn't know if she was boiling water or cooking...

Everyone was grumbling in their hearts, though they didn't show any expression on their faces.

"Xiao Xie, coming to light a fire? Let me lend you a few red-hot Coal Ball to start the fire; it'll be faster that way."

Although Kuihua Sao was surprised by Xie Yang's change, she felt more approval.

She thought to herself that this was what living a life should look like; previously, eating out at every turn really didn't look like a way to live. Thus, she enthusiastically used tongs to give two very hot Coal Ball to Xie Yang.

Xie Yang thanked her and took two black Coal Ball from her basket to return the favor.

Kuihua Sao was already cooking; her husband had been working the night shift these past few days and had to leave at five, so if she didn't start cooking, he would be late, but that didn't stop her from chatting with Xie Yang in the gaps of stir-frying:

"Did you buy hairtail today? And you bought quite a lot? That fish is fishy and smelly, and it takes a lot of oil to fry; what's so good about it?"

Xie Yang smiled and only said that Qin Zheng liked to eat it.

"Xiao Qin likes to eat it? Then it's worth buying, but hasn't he not returned yet? If you buy it now and leave it until he comes back, won't it stink?"

Although hairtail wasn't available every day, if the person who loved to eat it wasn't there, buying it was just a waste of money.

Xie Yang: "It's fine, if you deep-fry it in oil, it can keep for several days."

Everyone: "..."

Deep-fry, in oil?

It's not a holiday or a festival, and she actually bought several hairtails just to deep-fry them in oil! What a spendthrift woman!

They had thought she had changed—that she wouldn't eat out and squander money anymore, but instead was buying groceries to cook at home.

Who would have thought that a dog can't change its habit of eating excrement; even when the spendthrift woman cooks at home, she's still this wasteful.

After Xie Yang lit the stove, she carried it back to her own balcony to cook.

Next, she had to steam Rice, cook sweet and sour hairtail and fish-flavored eggplant, and later she would fry the hairtail and make a rich broth; it was better not to provoke these sisters-in-law and aunts anymore.

However, the balcony was ventilated, and the fragrance of the rice and dishes still drifted far away, drilling into the nasal cavities of the neighbors next door, upstairs, and downstairs.

"Whose house is still cooking white Rice late at night? Too extravagant!" The coarse grain porridge in their hands suddenly didn't smell good anymore!

Although workers are issued grain and Grain Coupons every month, most families have the elderly to support above and children to raise below, so the burden is not light; who can afford to eat white rice and White Flour at every meal? Generally, only the noon meal is dry rice.

Unless working the night shift, the evening meal is usually just a makeshift bowl of porridge, coarse grain steamed buns, or brown flour buns; anyway, one goes to sleep right after eating, so one won't get too hungry.

But, stimulated by the scent of scorched rice crust carried in the air, a sense of hunger instantly welled up.

"What kind of fragrance is this now? It smells like Fish, but if you sniff closely, it also smells like meat; why is there also a sweet, savory sauce aroma? It smells so damn good! Slurp..."

Accompanied by this fragrance, they hurriedly picked up a piece of pickled vegetable to shovel down a few more mouthfuls of porridge.

The other neighbors didn't know which household was making something delicious, but the neighbors on the same floor who had seen Xie Yang gutting and cleaning the hairtail Fish and planning to deep-fry it certainly knew—

The Qin family! Who else could it be? That spendthrift wife of Qin Zheng!