Chapter 526: Gossip-Based Survival System (25)

Grandma Xie is not a killjoy, even though she had originally planned to eat rice porridge this morning, and the pickles and Salted Duck Egg to go with the porridge were already sliced.

But since her granddaughter wants to eat fermented rice with egg, the porridge will be saved for the evening.

There is a big dish for lunch today—the granddaughter brought back a large Grass Carp yesterday; the fish fillets are marinating to be fried into crispy fish later, and the fish head and tail will be stewed with tofu for lunch.

Xie Yang used homemade fermented rice to cook a pot of fermented rice with egg, cracking four eggs into it.

The grandmother and granddaughter each had two eggs, and they also peeled a few Dried Longan, washed a few dried red dates, and grabbed a small pinch of goji berries to put in and cook together.

Actually, it would be sweet enough without sugar, but Xie Yang still broke off a small piece of brick-like Brown Sugar.

This was the first time Grandma Xie had eaten fermented rice with egg with such rich ingredients; she took a sip of the sweet, sugary water and sighed with satisfaction:

"So sweet! Our life is getting better and better. In the past, one was only lucky enough to eat this Brown Sugar fermented rice with egg when recovering from childbirth, and there weren't even this many ingredients."

Xie Yang nodded: "Life is definitely getting better and better."

After eating and drinking their fill, Xiao Shitou woke up.

The grandmother and granddaughter took turns, one mixing milk powder and the other changing a diaper.

Once the little one was also fed and satisfied, Xie Yang stayed on the kang to keep him company while he played, and Grandma Xie went to the kitchen to stir-fry peanuts, melon seeds, and large walnuts.

The peanuts were New Year goods issued by Xie Yang's workplace, the large walnuts were brought by Wang Yumei in exchange for Pomelo, and the melon seeds were sunflower seeds Xie Yang bought on the black market.

After frying these, she still had to deep-fry dough twists, sugar cakes, meat balls, and crispy fish—frying everything that could be fried.

The old lady has quite a few tasks today.

But she is full of energy and refuses to let her granddaughter help at all, only letting her stay in the Main Room to look after her little cousin in peace.

Over the past six months, the old lady has been eating a nutritionally balanced diet following Xie Yang, and in addition to drinking a cup of milk powder every morning or evening, she is also nourished every few days by Nanyang Bird's Nest and ginseng whiskers that Xie Yang passes off as white fungus and Codonopsis; her body is not necessarily robust, but handling daily life is completely effortless.

Seeing her in such high spirits, Xie Yang let her be.

She teased her little cousin as he crawled around the kang a few times; the little guy got tired of crawling, pouted his little bottom, and fell asleep on the blanket for his afternoon nap.

When the sound of firecrackers rang out in the Courtyard, Zheng Miaomiao came to show Xie Yang the wedding candy her family had received, looking puzzled: "3 pieces; logically, shouldn't happy events come in pairs?"

In her previous life, the number "3" had the meaning of "scattering," and people only included the number 3 in red envelopes when visiting the sick, implying that the illness would scatter and they would recover soon.

But to distribute 3 pieces of wedding candy...

Xie Yang showed her the wedding candy her own family had received: 2 pieces.

Zheng Miaomiao was even more puzzled: "I thought it was distributed by head count, but if it were by head count, your family should have received 3 pieces too."

Xie Yang smiled: "My brother is still small and can't eat candy."

"..."

That's possible?

Zheng Miaomiao shook her head: "Auntie Niu wasn't such a stingy person before; it seems that taking a daughter-in-law for her son really costs money."

She did not understand the Wang Family's way of distributing wedding candy at all, but expressed respect.

She peeled a plum candy and put it in her mouth, smacking her lips: "Sour and quite appetizing."

This was the most expensive of the three, while the other two were the cheapest fruit-flavored hard candies.

Holding the plum candy in her mouth, she leaned against the window of the Xie Family's Main Room, watching the bustle in the Courtyard, and incidentally looking for any "gossip" to eat to extend her own pitifully short lifespan.

Xie Yang had nothing to do, so she simply started peeling Pomelo; it would be nice to boil some Pomelo jam later to drink with water or spread on steamed buns.

If she only had Pomelo, she wouldn't have thought of boiling jam.

But it just so happened that there was Honey sent by the Chen Family; the grandmother and granddaughter hadn't even finished the two jars sent previously, and another two jars were sent this time, so she simply used one jar to boil Pomelo jam.

"What's that smell? So fragrant!"

Guests who came to the wedding banquet outside suddenly smelled a fragrant and sweet scent and sniffed their noses.

Lou Xuefang, who was holding Wang Tao's arm and toasting guests one by one, also smelled it, and her sister-in-law muttered beside her: "It must be Xie Yang again; only her family has the capital to make delicious food every day."

At this moment, the Xie Family's door creaked open, and as Zheng Miaomiao ran out happily, the sweet scent became even more intense.

Zheng Miaomiao had gone home to get a glass jar.

Xie Yang had boiled a full pot of Honey Pomelo jam using one jar of Honey, two bags of rock sugar, and three large Pomelo, filling all the empty Canned Food jars in the house with plenty left over, so she asked her to go home and get a container.

She gave Zheng Miaomiao a jar, took one when delivering New Year gifts to Hui Yi, filled a bowl for Luo Caifeng who came to deliver insoles so she could take it home for her children to drink, and the rest was enough for the grandmother and granddaughter to eat slowly until the beginning of spring.

Seeing that the guests of her in-laws were so distracted by the fragrance coming from the Xie Family that they had no heart to eat the banquet, Lou Xuefang was very unhappy.

The Xie Family is too mean! This is her big day, and they are actually stealing her spotlight.

After sending off the guests, while her parents-in-law were still outside returning tables and stools, Lou Xuefang sat on the wedding bed and asked Wang Tao:

"Doesn't the Xie Family in the Main Room only have the three of them left? Why do they still occupy three large rooms? Our family has so many people, yet we can only squeeze into two Side Rooms; how was the housing allocated? Or does their family have powerful relatives?"

"You don't understand; Grandma Xie's son died on duty, and her daughter-in-law also died in a car accident while riding in a public vehicle; the factory leaders intended to compensate them, so even if there were no powerful relatives, no one would dare to covet their house."

Lou Xuefang was thoughtful: "Died on duty? Then wouldn't there be compensation?"

"There probably was, but a lot was spent on the funeral and such."

"How much could that cost? Look at her family, just the old and the young, not even a breadwinner, yet they can still live so well; the compensation must be quite a lot, maybe the factory even paid for the funeral."

"Actually, their family was quite struggling in the first half of the year."

Wang Tao recalled the time when Uncle Xie Jianbing had just passed away and Xie Yang hadn't graduated yet—

"... Back then, they relied on the meager pension from Grandma Xie's medical retirement; the grandmother and granddaughter's life wasn't much better than my family's, it seems like after Xie Yang entered the factory... no, she even fainted when she first entered the factory, stayed in the hospital for several days, and after being discharged, she went to the place where Uncle Jianbing was sent to the countryside to bring back Xiao Shitou. Only after that did their life get better. My mom guesses that Uncle Jianbing's mother-in-law's family might have some strength and often sends packages to the grandmother and the children..."

Lou Xuefang didn't know which part she heard, but her face suddenly lengthened, and she turned her head and "hummed": "Are you looking down on my maiden family? That they can't be as powerful as other people's in-laws and can't help you or me?"

"How could that be!" Seeing her angry, Wang Tao hugged her and fell onto the bed, "It's all my fault, it's our big day, why talk about others? If we're going to talk, let's talk about our own affairs."

Lou Xuefang spat at him: "What is there for us to talk about?"

"Then let's not talk, I'll listen to you, wife..."

The two of them were whispering and being affectionate in the bridal chamber.

Niu Cuifen brought her daughter to wash the bowls and plates from the two tables, and when she returned to the room and heard the commotion coming from her son's room, her face turned black.

She just said that such a daughter-in-law shouldn't be married!

Who would be so impatient as to drag her son off to roll in the sheets before the sky has even turned dark.