Chapter 517: Gossip Survival System (16)

"Why don't you take a jar to trade for something?" Grandma Xie thought for a moment and said, "Don't you still need to send a return gift? If you keep all these for us to eat, where do you plan to get the return gift from?"

The things sold in the State-run Market were either outrageously expensive or required coupons.

Looking at so many good things, Grandma Xie felt it was too extravagant to keep them all for the family to eat; taking half out to trade for other things, then adding some items bought at the market to make up two return gifts to send back, would neither waste money nor make people call them stingy.

Xie Yang put a jar of honey directly onto the side table in the old lady's bedroom: "Grandma, just listen to me, I will arrange everything. We'll keep the honey to eat, and keep one jin of Gastrodia; I'll stew chicken soup with it later to nourish your body, and I'll take one jin to give to Hui Yi. She has helped our family quite a lot."

"That is only right. Add some mushrooms too, we can't finish so many anyway."

"Alright."

Xie Yang weighed the wild mushrooms in the cloth bag; they didn't take up space once dried, and this amount would be enough to last a long time once soaked.

She had also stockpiled a basket in her previous plane, but those were all carefully selected top-tier wild mountain mushrooms: morels, porcini, black tiger palm mushrooms, matsutake... and the premium truffles that could sell for over ten thousand per jin in later generations... their appearance was excellent, and taking them out would be too eye-catching.

But since there were ordinary mushrooms at home now, taking some out to cook a meal occasionally wouldn't make the old lady suspicious.

As for the wild chestnuts, they would rot easily if left too long; she would keep some to shell and stew with chicken tomorrow, and boil the rest—boil them today.

Grandma Xie had never seen saffron before and didn't know how to eat it.

Xie Yang grabbed some and put them into a small porcelain jar with a lid, telling the old lady to soak them in water to drink occasionally, and stored the rest in the Aircraft Cargo Hold to prevent them from getting damp and losing their medicinal efficacy.

There were two jars of Snow Mountain Pu'er tea; she also left one jar out to brew and drink when there was time, and stored the other in the Aircraft Cargo Hold.

After tidying up, the little cousin woke up, babbling and full of energy.

"You are a lucky one." Grandma Xie affectionately tapped the tip of her little grandson's nose, "Your grandpa and grandma sent a lot of good things from far away; later, Grandma will go to the Grain Station to grind them into rice flour and cook rice paste for you to eat."

"Iya!"

Xie Yang watched the interaction between the old and the young and smiled silently.

"Grandma, I'll go grind the rice flour, and stop by Hui Yi's house while I'm at it."

"Then be careful."

"I know."

Xie Yang took one jin of rice, one jin of millet, and the Canned Food jar to hold the rice flour later, then packed the Gastrodia and mushrooms for Hui Yi into a cloth bag, and rode her bicycle out.

She went to the Grain Station first, paid two mao in processing fees, had the rice and millet ground into powder, and packed them into two glass jars respectively.

Then she rode to Zhao Wenhui's house.

The Zhao family did not live in a Dazayuan, but in a three-sided courtyard style two-story Western-style building, but it wasn't just her family living there; a dozen households lived upstairs and downstairs.

The open space in front of the building was very small; a few bicycles were parked on one side, the other side was filled with clothes drying racks for each family, and a narrow passage was left in the middle.

Xie Yang had other things to do and didn't intend to go upstairs, so she pushed her bicycle and called out a few times at the gate: "Hui Yi! Hui Yi!"

Several heads poked out from the second-floor balcony instantly, all staring at her.

Xie Yang: "..."

"Xiao Xie?"

Fortunately, Zhao Wenhui heard the call, poked her head out from the balcony, and seeing it was Xie Yang, she thumped down the wooden stairs.

"Why did you come over at this time? Is there something wrong at home?"

"Nothing's wrong. Xiao Shitou's maternal grandparents sent some local specialties to our family, and Grandma asked me to bring some to your family."

As she spoke, she handed over the cloth bag containing the Gastrodia and mushrooms:

"Gastrodia stewed with chicken is very nourishing; the mushrooms can be used for soup or stir-fries once soaked, and you can also put them in the Gastrodia chicken stew."

"Oh my! These are all good things!" Zhao Wenhui accepted them happily, "Xiao Xie, Hui Yi won't stand on ceremony with you. Your sister Wenqing's partner is coming to eat at our house tonight, and your Uncle Zhao went to the Vegetable Station early this morning to queue up and buy half a chicken; it's just right for stewing with Gastrodia."

Xie Yang smiled upon hearing this; she liked dealing with straightforward people.

But speaking of chicken, she was craving it too.

She had originally planned to go to the Vegetable Station to queue up tomorrow morning, but why not take one out from her own stockpile today?

The chicken she had stockpiled was the pearl chicken she found most delicious after eating it in her previous plane.

It wasn't large, but its breast muscles were well-developed, and its body was almost all lean meat with very little fat, yet the meat was exceptionally tender and fresh; stewing it for soup was even more delicious than the legendary hazel grouse soup.

Of course, she had never caught a hazel grouse in the Great Ye Dynasty; perhaps she had seen one, but she had been too busy mining and gathering herbs to notice.

The first time she ate pearl chicken was when she traded for it while the merchant ship she was on docked along the coast of the Strait of Malacca.

Later, she made a special trip to Africa to stockpile a batch. She ate quite a few during those years of retirement, and now there were about a dozen left.

These pearl chickens were all cleaned by hired help, so there was no need to pluck feathers or remove innards.

Xie Yang found a quiet corner, took one out, thought for a moment, then pulled out a small Machete capable of chopping bone, split the chicken in two, put half back into the Aircraft Cargo Hold, and put the other half of the pearl chicken along with the Machete into the cloth bag, then rode home.

"It's not a holiday or a festival, whose family is stewing chicken! It smells so good!"

"Is it the Xie family? It smells like it's drifting from the Xie family's kitchen. Didn't they just receive two big packages today? I heard they were sent by Xiao Shitou's maternal grandparents; did they send them chicken?"

"Where was it that Jianbing went to the countryside?"

"I remember it was a Nongchang in Dongjiang County."

"A Nongchang is good; they usually raise chickens. The Xie family really made a good match."

"..."

Near evening, the air above the Number 8 Compound was filled with the rich aroma of chicken soup, and following the "sizzle" sound of a pan hitting the oil, the fragrance of stir-fried chicken followed, lingering for a long time.

"Why is it cabbage and tofu again!" Wang Lin wailed when she saw the dishes on her family's table, "It's not like our family doesn't have meat coupons, why do we eat vegetarian every day?"

"Your brother needs money to get married, you need money for school, why do you think?" Niu Cuifen glared at her daughter irritably.

Did she not want to eat meat?

Smelling the chicken fragrance drifting from the Xie family, she had already swallowed her saliva several times.

It was just that there were too many places in the family waiting for money.

A similar conversation was happening at Chen Youcai's house.

Three half-grown boys were holding bowls of sweet potato rice and facing a plate of scrambled eggs; they usually could eat it with great relish, but today it had lost its flavor.

"Mom, when will our family eat chicken?"

"When you bring back a double hundred, I'll go buy you a chicken even if it isn't New Year's."

Luo Caifeng cast a sidelong glance at her eldest son.

The three boys all fell silent.

Don't ask; if you ask, it's because their grades are all bad.

The youngest son, Chen Zhijie, sniffed and said, "I'll just eat my meal with the scent!"

"..."

Chen Youcai was practically laughed to anger; he used his chopsticks to poke his youngest son's forehead: "Have some ambition!"

The only ones who could eat comfortably amidst the overbearing fragrance wafting from the Xie Family were the Zheng family.

On the Zheng family's dinner table tonight, besides a dish of stir-fried chives with eggs and a dish of stir-fried bean sprouts with dried tofu, there was also a plate of steamed eggs with sausage.