Chapter 239: Seventies Appraisal System (13)

"I saw your second son bring back quite a lot of things, and it looked like there was a slab of meat and a chicken in the basket your second daughter-in-law was carrying..."

"Hiss—"

Hearing this, everyone present subconsciously swallowed their saliva.

Qin Mu: "..."

How did it happen that the more she heard, the more uneasy she became?

It's not a holiday or a festival, so why bring back so many things?

Are they not planning to live anymore?

She took small steps and trotted all the way home.

As soon as she entered the house, she saw a pile of food on the Eight Immortals table in the main room. A single glance at the brown sugar, rock sugar, and white granulated sugar made her heart flutter several times.

When she saw the full glass jar of fried ribbon fish, her doubts grew even greater:

Could it be that the second son and his wife don't want to live together anymore? Are they taking everything in the house to have one big meal, and then planning to split up and divorce?

Although she hadn't been very optimistic about this marriage in the beginning.

She had sent people to inquire, and the reputation of the second son's wife was really not that great, but who told the eldest son to owe the Xie Family a life-saving favor.

The second son had also just reached the age and hadn't found a partner yet.

When the Qin Family proposed the marriage, how could their own family refuse?

Even if she was dissatisfied, she had to pinch her nose and accept this daughter-in-law.

But since they were married, they should live well, so why the talk of divorce in less than a month?

Where exactly did the problem lie?

If it was the second son's fault, she would definitely break his legs!

The Qin Family has multiplied to this day, and there has never been a precedent of a man marrying a wife and not treating her well, let alone divorcing.

Qin Mu let her imagination run wild, steadied herself, and was just about to call her youngest son out to ask, when she saw her youngest daughter-in-law come out of the kitchen carrying a pot of brewed tea.

"Mother, you're back? The rice still needs a bit more time, it needs to steam for a while longer. Qin Zheng and I are in the kitchen, you sit down and rest for a while, drink some water to moisten your throat, and if you're hungry, eat a biscuit. This is called a sandwich biscuit, Qin Zheng brought it back from his driving trip, the taste is quite good, you try it."

Xie Yang poured a cup of water for her mother-in-law, untied the oil paper wrapping the biscuits, took one, and handed it to her mother-in-law, signaling her to try it.

Because sandwich biscuits required ration coupons, Qin Zheng had only bought one bag back, so she divided it into three portions, bringing some to both her maiden home and her husband's home.

This thing was said to be newly developed by a biscuit factory, and it was a rare item even in the south; even with pastry coupons, you couldn't buy it locally in Yongcheng.

Also hard to buy even with coupons were dacron and corduroy fabric.

The two pieces of dacron were for her to make clothes, as Qin Zheng had intended; one was a goose-yellow base with small white flowers, and one was a white base with small blue flowers, which really complemented her skin tone, and it was just enough for her to make a dress and a short-sleeved shirt, so she wouldn't split them up.

But even if Qin Zheng hadn't mentioned the dark navy corduroy fabric, she could guess that there was a share for her mother-in-law, so she didn't keep any for herself, cutting it into two pieces—one for her parents to make a padded jacket, and one for her mother-in-law to make a set of cotton-padded clothes and trousers.

"Mother, cotton is hard to get, but fortunately it's still early before winter. I'll see if I can find someone to trade for some new cotton later, and I'll have Qin Zheng keep an eye out when he's out driving, so I can make you a warm winter coat this year."

Listening to this tone, the young couple didn't look like they were about to divorce, and she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

But seeing so many things on the table, she opened her mouth, wanting to ask something, but didn't know how to start.

At this time, Qin Feng and his wife returned from work to eat. Halfway there, they heard people saying that Qin Zheng and his wife had come, and before they even entered the courtyard, they smelled a rich chicken soup aroma, and another enticing aroma of braised pork.

The couple swallowed a mouthful of saliva in unison.

Qin Feng: It has to be the second brother; in this day and age, which family can eat a meal of meat without it being a holiday or festival?

Chen Meijuan: The meat must have been brought back by the second brother, but where did the chicken come from? Could it be that Mother slaughtered the family's little hen?

Although she was also craving chicken, the family could only raise three chickens in total, originally arranged to eat one during the busy farming season, one during the autumn harvest, and the last one kept for the New Year.

Now, wouldn't there be one less meal of meat for the busy farming season and autumn harvest? Being exhausted to the point of peeling skin and having no meat to eat, she felt terrible.

However, when the chicken soup was brought to the table, Chen Meijuan realized she had misunderstood her mother-in-law.

"This is a wild chicken caught on the mountain behind my mother-in-law's house when I accompanied Yang Yang back to her maiden home yesterday. Yang Yang kept the chicken carcass for making high-quality stock, and the chicken legs are for Qin Yue and Qin Tao to eat when they come back from school. We'll split the rest."

Qin Zheng explained and began to serve chicken soup to his family.

"A wild chicken? No wonder it's so fragrant!" Qin Feng couldn't bear to eat the chicken meat, so he picked up the chicken soup and took a sip, smacking his lips, "Fresh! Damn fresh!"

He felt that even without eating the meat, just this chicken soup mixed with rice could make him finish three big bowls of rice.

"Are there many wild chickens in the mountains?" Chen Meijuan asked curiously.

Her maiden home was also in Liming Commune, but Liming Commune didn't have many mountains, and if there were any, they belonged to other brigades, and they were all low Chai Shan.

Like her maiden brigade, they only had a river, and the commune members weren't allowed to go into the river to catch fish privately. The fish and shrimp in the river were collective property, and at the end of the year, they were caught and distributed first according to the household, and then according to work points.

Usually, if you wanted to eat some meat, you could only go to the field ditches and wild ponds to look.

If you were lucky, you could catch some rice field eels, frogs, or hook a few small miscellaneous fish; if you were unlucky, there was nothing you could do.

But compared to the fragrant chicken meat, what were rice field eels, frogs, and small miscellaneous fish!

At this moment, Chen Meijuan was incredibly envious of Xie Yang's maiden home; it was so good to live in the big mountains! And have the chance to catch wild chickens!

Xie Yang met her sister-in-law's envious gaze and twitched the corner of her mouth: "Wild chickens are very clever; they rarely come to the outer edges, and ordinary people don't dare to enter the deep mountains. Qin Zheng and I were just lucky this time to run into two that came out to forage; it's usually very hard to encounter them."

"That's true."

Chen Meijuan thought it made sense; it was just like the fish and shrimp in the river—they looked like there were plenty, but it was actually very difficult to catch them.

After the meal, Qin Zheng urged his family to take a nap, as they still had to go to work in the afternoon. He cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, carried a small fish basket, and went out for a stroll with his wife.

Usually, every time Qin Zheng came back, he would go to the small ponds in the fields to look around. If he was lucky, he could catch a few crucian carp two or three fingers wide.

Today, he didn't catch any crucian carp two or three fingers wide, but using earthworms, he scooped up a bamboo basket of miscellaneous fish and small shrimp.

He also caught a few jumping frogs, found a nest of wild goose eggs in the wild grass by the pond, and with quick eyes and fast hands, netted a few loaches and rice field eels that had come out of their holes to breathe in the drainage ditch by the field...

"The luck is really good!"

"It is good!"

Xie Yang also had a small harvest—

Under the prompt of the Appraisal System, she found a broken pottery jar with a hole in the bottom by the pond.

【Ding! Scanned a Republic-era handmade single-eared celadon glazed pottery jar (serious defects), recycling price 10 yuan (current currency). To recycle, please press 1; to store, press 2; to ignore, press 3.】

Even though it was only 10 yuan, who wouldn't want something picked up for free?

Qin Zheng saw her come out for a trip and pick up another broken jar, so he scratched his head and said:

"You like these? Then I'll take you to see the old house of my grandparents. I remember there are a few chipped jars better than this one. This one has a hole in the bottom; it's useless to take back."

"It's useful." It could sell for 10 yuan.

"..."

Qin Zheng had no choice but to take it and carry it.

Such a dirty, broken pottery jar with a hole in the bottom was not worthy of being carried by his wife's fair, delicate hands.