Chapter 238: Seventies Appraisal System (12)

Although her own daughter Xiuyuan married quite well, apart from the standard wedding betrothal gifts and the two pastries and one bag of Brown Sugar brought on the day of the return visit, she had never received any other filial offerings from her son-in-law.

She had assumed all city sons-in-law were like this—busy with work, so how could they have time to visit their father-in-law and mother-in-law?

But look at the Xie Family's young son-in-law; he had just finished a long-haul trip and was already driving his wife back to her maiden home, and he even brought back quite a few good things. Otherwise, how could Xie Chunhua have smiled like that?

It goes to show that not all city sons-in-law are too busy to accompany their wives back to their maiden homes to see their mothers-in-law.

Xie Chunhua did not know that a few of her unintentional, happy remarks had planted a thorn in Liu Caiju's heart.

She was happy not just because she had a good son-in-law, but since it hadn't been three months yet, she wouldn't talk about it outside; she didn't know if the eldest daughter-in-law's pregnancy was stable, but she hoped it was.

She snipped two stalks of green onion, intending to steam an egg custard for her daughter-in-law as an extra meal later.

Before her little daughter left, she had stuffed a "Great Unity" banknote into her hand, saying it was filial money from the young son-in-law.

From now on, they would give five yuan to both the husband's family and the maiden family every month; this ten yuan was for the first two months.

She was also told to let her daughter-in-law eat an egg and drink a cup of Brown Sugar water every day to supplement her nutrition, and not to be stingy.

Although Xie Chunhua was uneducated, she still understood the principle of not losing the big for the sake of the small.

Looking at her little daughter's fair, tender face that had grown as delicate as a lotus emerging from water, then glancing at her daughter-in-law's sallow face, one could truly tell at a glance whether the nutrition was sufficient or not.

In order for the baby in her daughter-in-law's belly to be born safely, Xie Chunhua gritted her teeth and decided to listen to her little daughter.

As for the filial money from the young son-in-law, the family was indeed strapped for cash, so she wouldn't be hypocritical about it, but she kept a record of how much she took, and when the Xie Family was better off, they would not forget the son-in-law.

Xie Yang pulled Qin Zheng along to walk around the mountain and picked a basket of wild Shepherd's Purse.

Qingming had just passed, and it was the time when wild vegetables were at their most tender.

She also asked her maiden family for some vegetable seeds, planning to start a small vegetable patch on the balcony to grow some seasonal greens.

She had originally wanted to scavenge for some old clay pots or broken washbasins, but no matter how broken these utensils were, they could still hold odds and ends, so no one would throw them away.

However, seeing the small wooden trough used to feed water to the chickens in her maiden family's Chicken Coop, her heart stirred: That's it! She could find some wooden boards and strips to nail together a long wooden box! If she filled it with soil to grow vegetables later, wouldn't it be more practical than clay pots or basins?

Moreover, if she punched holes in both ends of the wooden box and tied it with wire to the balcony railing, it wouldn't even take up space on the Cement slab.

She had originally wanted to ask her maiden family who in the village had leftover wooden boards from making furniture, but she heard Qin Zheng say that scrap lumber was available in the Mechanical Factory Warehouse, and they could ask the Warehouse keeper, Lao Li, about it later; at worst, they could pay for it.

Xie Yang stopped worrying then.

While picking wild vegetables, she didn't know if her luck had turned, but she actually dug up a small, chipped, broken bowl in the wild vegetable patch.

Don't look at how broken the bowl was; it was an antique identified by the Appraisal System in one second.

【Ding! Scanned a late Song to early Yuan dynasty celadon-white glazed bowl with carved infant patterns (severe defects), recovery price 100 yuan (current legal tender). If you need to recover, press 1; to store, press 2; to ignore, press 3.】

A severely defective, broken little antique bowl could still sell for 100 yuan?

Xie Yang was overjoyed.

Qin Zheng saw her holding a dirty, broken bowl and smiling so happily, thinking she wanted to take it back to grow vegetables, so he said:

"This bowl is broken like this, and it's so small, you can't even grow a few stalks of green onion in it. Tomorrow I'll ask my mother; maybe there are some larger broken clay pots at home."

Xie Yang glanced at him, thinking to herself, don't look down on it; it's so broken but it's worth two months of your salary, you know!

She happily put the little broken bowl into her basket.

Now, she was fired up!

She specifically rummaged through places where wild vegetables and weeds grew densely.

But finding a treasure like this was a matter of luck, not something one could seek out.

It was clear she wouldn't encounter such a good thing again.

However, she was lucky enough to catch two wild chickens that had come out to forage together; she left one for her maiden family and would take the other to her husband's family tomorrow to add a meat dish.

Seeing that the time was about right, the young couple returned to town, returned the bicycle, and caught the evening bus back to the city.

It was past seven when they arrived home, and the sealed stove only had a faint spark left.

Qin Zheng waved a large cattail-leaf fan to revive the stove fire, used the remaining broth from before, added water, and boiled a pot of dough drop soup.

The vegetables were fresh, tender wild Shepherd's Purse blanched on the spot, eaten with salty and fragrant fried hairtail; it was a simple dinner, and Xie Yang ate quite contentedly.

"Tomorrow morning when you go to buy meat, see if there are any marrow bones. If there are, buy two, and I'll boil a pot of broth to make you broth dumplings before you head out on your trip."

Plus, this time there was a wild chicken; if the chicken carcass was stripped and boiled with the marrow bones, it would definitely be more delicious than sparrow.

Qin Zheng sat on the balcony plucking the wild chicken, listening to his wife count off the arrangements for the next few days, his eyes filled with smiles.

He was completely unaware—how did his wife, who came from a farming family, know how to boil broth and know so many ways to cook gourmet food?

Even if he realized it, he would probably just be a mindless wife-worshipper: She was pretty and smart, wasn't it expected that she would know these things?

Being full and warm leads to other thoughts; the dinner was both good and filling, which caused the bed boards to creak and sway for most of the night.

So much so that the next day when going to her husband's family, Xie Yang almost couldn't get out of bed, and she had to rush to avoid missing the bus.

Once again, she sighed that a man who has just tasted the joys of the flesh cannot be teased.

Her husband's family was in the Liming Commune, located in the countryside south of the city; they had to cross a large river, take a minibus to the bus station next to the pier, and buy a ticket for the ferry.

With a blast of a whistle, the ferry slowly sailed toward the opposite bank...

At noon, Qin Mu straightened her back from the peanut field, pounded her stiff waist, wiped her sweat, and prepared to leave work early to go home and cook.

Leaving early meant a deduction in work points, but there was no help for it; her family had few laborers, and her eldest grandson had reached the age where he could eat his father out of house and home, so while she could still work, she tried to earn a few more work points.

But since she had gone to the fields, there was no one at home to cook. She was old anyway, and the tasks she was assigned were either weeding or catching insects, which were relatively less tiring, so she went home an hour early every day to cook, so as not to delay her son and daughter-in-law from eating when they finished work.

"Shufang, why are you still in the fields?"

Ma Hongmei walked over carrying a water jug and was extremely surprised to see Qin Mu just coming out of the peanut field:

"Your chimney is smoking; I thought you had left work early to go home and cook. If you aren't the one cooking, could it be Qin Feng's wife? But wasn't Qin Feng's wife assigned to go to the riverside to cut wild grass today?"

Qin Mu was startled by her words: "There's no one at my house! How could the chimney be smoking? Hongmei, didn't you see wrong?"

"Even if my eyes aren't good, it's impossible for me to mistake someone else's chimney for yours."

At this moment, another young, pregnant village woman came over, carrying a water jug in her hand; she was clearly going to deliver water to her family working in the fields.

Seeing Qin Mu, who couldn't even bother to scrape the mud off the soles of her shoes, running up from the field in a panic, she said with a smile:

"Don't worry, Auntie, it's your second son and his wife who have returned; they are at home cooking for you."

"So the second son is back?"

The heart that had been in Qin Mu's throat instantly dropped back to its place.

But then she thought: That's not right! The cupboards at home are locked; what is the second son using to cook?