Chapter 240: Seventies Appraisal System (14)

On the way back, Qin Zheng really did take Xie Yang for a detour to the old house left behind by his grandparents.

It was an old, dilapidated adobe house with half the wall collapsed, and the area in front and behind the house was overgrown with knee-high weeds.

This house was the inheritance from Qin Zheng's grandparents, but Qin Zheng's father was a late-born child, and his two older sisters were twenty years his senior; both had since passed away.

Qin Zheng only had one older brother, who rarely returned after being admitted to the Mechanical Factory Transportation Team, and since there was enough room at home, this old house had just been left to crumble without repairs.

Just as Qin Zheng had said, the few broken jars and pots left by his grandparents were indeed better than the bottomless clay pot she had picked up—at least they didn't have holes in the bottom, so they could still be used to grow some scallions or garlic.

The problem was—Xie Yang had the Appraisal System scan them, and not a single one was an antique.

But since she was willing to take home a broken, bottomless clay pot, there was no reason not to take these pots and jars that didn't have holes, even if they were chipped or cracked.

Take them!

Take them all!

At worst, she could fill them with soil and place them on the balcony as vegetable or flower pots.

The young couple headed home, carrying a basket full of their harvest, with ten wild duck eggs tucked into their clothes.

The rest of the family had already gone to work after their afternoon nap.

Qin Zheng put the Rice Field Eel and Loach he had saved for the family into a water bucket, placed the small miscellaneous Fish and Shrimp into the small water vat usually used for keeping fish, and left half of the wild duck eggs behind.

Before leaving, Xie Yang placed a ten-yuan bill on the desk by her mother-in-law's bed.

This was something she and Qin Zheng had agreed upon: five yuan per month for the support of both sets of parents, and the ten yuan was for last month and this month.

Of course, if their wages increased or their cost of living rose in the future, the support money would naturally increase as well.

Qin Zheng had no objections to her proposal.

To quote his own words: the family's financial power was handed over to her, so she could arrange it however she liked.

With her husband being so enlightened, Xie Yang was naturally happy and decided to make him a new set of undergarments when they got home.

Thus, after arriving home, Qin Zheng consciously went to the water room to rinse rice, wash vegetables, and scrub clothes, while Xie Yang sat before the sewing machine and began to treadle away.

There was still a piece of white fine Cotton Cloth at home, originally kept for her to make undergarments, but she decided to use it first to make two undershirts for her husband, and if there was any Fabric left, she would make him a pair of briefs.

But as she was cutting, she suddenly remembered the fatal calamity he would face in the future, and her gaze darkened.

After pondering for a moment while holding the tailor's chalk, she asked the Main System: "How many points do I have left? Is it enough to redeem a Prop similar to Heart-Protecting Soft Armor?"

The Main System reported her point balance to her:

【Host, after deducting the Physical Fitness Potion and Plant Nutrient Solution you redeemed after arriving, you still have points remaining. As for a Prop like Heart-Protecting Soft Armor... Host, do you think this one would work?】

It pulled up the Prop page to show her a piece of Xianmu Fiber that cost points.

【Don't let its palm-sized appearance fool you; it is lightweight, impervious to blades and spears, and resistant to wind and rain.】

Xie Yang: "That's the one!"

Is 208 stewing meat again? This smell is just too fragrant!

The neighbors upstairs and downstairs were practically going crazy.

The adults could still hold back, but the children didn't care about that and were clamoring to eat meat.

Wang Tieqiang's wife endured the heart-wrenching pain of parting with her money, fished out the family's last two-ounce Meat Coupon, and coaxed her tantrum-throwing son:

"Stop making a scene, you little ancestor! I'm going to buy you meat to eat right now!"

As she went out, she glared at 208 and grumbled pointedly: "Those god-forsaken gluttons! Making a fuss all day long..."

Before she could finish, the door to 208 opened.

Qin Zheng had just finished nailing together a wooden box for his wife to grow vegetables and was carrying a bucket to the water room to process the Rice Field Eel; he seemed to have heard Wang Tieqiang's wife's grumbling, and the look he cast her was sharp and cold.

It startled Wang Tieqiang's wife so much that she choked on her words; she didn't dare to continue scolding and hurriedly led her son downstairs.

Xie Yang was watching the coal stove on the balcony to simmer the stock, and took a moment to marinate the small miscellaneous Fish Qin Zheng had cleaned, intending to coat them in an egg-flour batter and deep-fry them later.

She would wait until tomorrow or the day after to eat the small river Shrimp; she added a tiny drop of Nutrient Solution to the water they were kept in to see if she could keep them alive for another day.

Qin Zheng had four days off from his driving duties, and today was the last day; he had to return to the factory for work tomorrow.

The time for him to go to Shanghai City to pick up cargo hadn't been set yet, so although he was technically "at work" these few days, there wasn't much to do; he occasionally filled in for colleagues on short-haul trips, returning the same day, so he could eat both breakfast and dinner at home.

Xie Yang intended to give him a good boost.

This time, she had large marrow bones, as well as chicken carcasses and chicken feet, so she put some effort into simmering a pot of refined stock.

With stock, any dish would taste fresh.

For lunch, there was scallion-braised eel shreds, batter-fried fish, and a dish of Mao Mao greens in stock, with Rice as the staple food as usual.

Dinner was simpler: Mao Mao greens and poached egg noodle soup.

But even if it was simple, the stock base made the fragrance drift for three or four miles, leaving the neighbors in the building looking at their dry steamed buns or coarse grain porridge with resentful expressions.

The next morning, when they ran into Qin Zheng heading out to work, several of the men he was on good terms with couldn't help but grumble:

"What are you eating for all three meals a day at your place? Why does it smell so good!"

"Exactly! That smell last night was so tempting that I ended up getting up in the middle of the night to gnaw on a dry, throat-choking yellow steamed bun, and I even got a slap from my old mother this morning; she said that was today's breakfast and scolded me for not eating tomorrow's food in advance. I'd like to, but I have to have the grain to eat it!"

"Hahaha!"

The others laughed uncharitably, and after laughing, they continued to ask Qin Zheng:

"Brother, you haven't used up your Meat Coupons yet? Or do you have a way to trade for them?"

"Tell us if you have a way! My family hasn't had a bite of meat in half a month!"

Qin Zheng shook his head: "My family doesn't have any Meat Coupons left either."

"Impossible! If you don't have coupons, how is your family stewing meat every day?"

"There really aren't any coupons; what's being stewed isn't meat, it's just my wife simmering stock."

Qin Zheng raised the corners of his mouth, his eyes full of tenderness when he mentioned his wife:

"She uses marrow bones that don't require coupons and the chicken carcasses left over after the meat has been stripped from the wild chickens caught back home to simmer stock, which makes the dishes fragrant and fresh."

He paused, then added, "Breakfast today was also rice porridge simmered in high-quality stock, and my wife even fried two cornmeal egg pancakes for me."

His wife had fed him until he was full before he left the house; he wanted the whole world to know this feeling of happiness.

Everyone: "..."

How could they not believe it!

The lazy and gluttonous wife of Qin Zheng could actually simmer high-quality stock? Wasn't that a skill only the chefs at the State-run Restaurant possessed?

Everyone did not believe him, assuming Qin Zheng was just unwilling to reveal his source for trading Meat Coupons.

Only He Ximing, who lived next door, believed him.

He had seen Xie Yang with his own eyes sitting on the balcony, watching over the stove to simmer the high-quality stock; that rich and overbearing fragrance had made him eat two extra bowls of rice last night.

His wife was pregnant and had a poor appetite, vomiting up everything she ate these past few days; seeing him eat so heartily, she even had an argument with him. If it weren't for the fact that she was pregnant, he really wouldn't have wanted to coax her.

He was exhausted to death from driving every day, and having to coax an unreasonable woman when he got home was simply mentally draining.