AD [QT] Chapter 5

(Word Count: 1607)

 

Han Ze left school and rode his bicycle directly to the town. Hanjia Village is not far from the town, only about three miles away. Today is the market day, so he pushed his bicycle straight to the meat stall in the vegetable market. The weather was hot, and the meat stall was not doing very well. The owner was fanning the stall with a fan.

 

Han Ze obviously knew the butcher. He called him Brother Lei from a few meters away from the stall.

 

The butcher Zhang Lei was the son of Han Ze’s aunt. He was a few years older than Han Ze and had been selling pork in the town for more than ten years. Few people in the town didn’t know him. Han Ze came to him to ask for help to see where to put the noodle stall. After all, he was a country man who dug the land. What did he know about doing business?

 

Zhang Lei didn’t expect Han Ze to ask him for this matter. After thinking for a moment, he agreed to help.

 

Business people are more savvy. He didn’t ask Han Ze why he was selling noodles instead of planting good land. He didn’t persuade Han Ze not to do business.

 

After all, whether the business can be done well or not, whether it can make money or not, you have to do it to know, and he won’t say much about blocking other people’s money, even if he is a cousin.

 

Besides, although Han Ze is not as smooth as his two younger brothers, and his way of dealing with people is even worse than his two younger brothers, Zhang Lei has been selling pork in the town for more than ten years and has seen all kinds of people. He looks up to Han Ze, an honest man with no ulterior motives, and they are cousins. For the sake of his mother, he has to help.

 

Brother Lei is willing to help, Han Ze is relieved, touches the back of his head and says with a smile: “Wait until the noodle stall is open, I will treat you to noodles.”

 

Zhang Lei smiled and said yes, but he didn’t agree in his heart. Although he agreed to help the other party find a place to set up the noodle stall, he didn’t have much expectation for the other party’s cooking skills. He is not short of money as a butcher, and he has even been to the big restaurants in the provincial capital. He has eaten everything. Why would he be interested in the noodles cooked by a country man without much oil and water?

 

Regardless of what the other party thought, Han Ze bought two pounds of meat before leaving. When paying, Zhang Lei politely said to forget it. Han Ze waved his hand and said, “How can you do business without charging money? Then you won’t charge me for the meat next time I come to buy meat?” Then he put the money next to the meat stall and pushed his bicycle away.

 

Zhang Lei’s words were just polite words. If Han Ze really didn’t pay for the meat, he would no longer care about him in the future, let alone find a place for him to set up a noodle stall.

 

…

 

As soon as Han Ze got home, he couldn’t wait to go to the room to see the little girl. The little girl was wrapped in a swaddling cloth, her little face was red, and her soft body was very thin. She weighed less than five pounds when she was born. Now she is more than 20 days old and hasn’t gained much meat. He was afraid of dropping her if he hugged her.

 

He has never raised such a small child. He cherishes her very much, but he dare not hug her. He just looks at her with love, touches her tender face or pinches her little hands to satisfy his pleasure.

 

“It’s been more than 20 days, why is our fifth girl still so small? Is she not full?” Han Ze pinched his daughter’s fingers. There was no flesh on them, and there was not much flesh on her face. There were even wrinkles on her forehead.

 

“There is less milk, not that she is not full.”

 

“Then why didn’t you tell me? No one can let the child starve.” Han Ze frowned.

 

Wu Hongmei was both amused and sad. She had never seen him cherish the previous children so much. When the midwife gave birth to this child, she knew that from the beginning of the girl’s life, the child would be given away.

 

Now, not only has the child not been given away, but her husband cherishes her like nothing. He even looked up the dictionary and muttered that he wanted to give the girl a unique name. Even if it was a boy born by someone else, he would not love the child as much as he does.

 

“Tell me if you’re hungry, or you won’t have milk and the baby will be hungry. What will you do? Take a rest, I’ll go cook for you.”

 

Wu Hongmei looked at the man’s back, and for some reason, she suddenly had a ridiculous idea. Even if she couldn’t give birth to a son in this life, she had nothing to worry about. The man was her support.

 

Han Ze went to the kitchen, cut a piece of meat, chopped it up, added a little salt, sesame oil and green onions, stirred it into stuffing, then kneaded the dough, rolled out the dumpling wrappers, and made dumplings. He moved quickly, and the dumplings were in the pot in a short while.

 

When the dumplings were rolling in the pot, Mrs. Han came back. She saw smoke coming out of the chimney from a distance, and guessed that it might be the eldest son who was cooking. Unexpectedly, he was actually cooking dumplings.

 

She said with a smile on her face: “What day is it today? You are making dumplings? When did you cut the meat? Let Junjun and the others come over to eat later.”

 

Han Ze took a large bowl and put all the dumplings in it. Without raising his head, he said: “Mom, this is for Hongmei. There are not many.”

 

Mrs. Han’s expression froze for a moment, as if she couldn’t believe it. She asked again: “What did you just say?”

 

“Mom, the child is being breastfed. Where will the milk come from if the mother is not full? From now on, any delicious food at home should be given to Hongmei. Otherwise, what will happen if the fifth girl is hungry?” Han Ze said as he walked towards their room with the bowl.

 

Mrs. Han stayed where she was, her old face as if she had swallowed a fly. Wu Hongmei, that woman, couldn’t even give birth to a boy, and she wanted her to make delicious food. How could she not be happy to death?

 

In the room, Wu Hongmei looked at the large bowl of dumplings in front of her, feeling mixed emotions. After so many confinement periods, this time the meal served to her was not only enough to fill her up, but also dumplings filled with meat.

 

Thinking of what the man said, that only when she was full could she produce milk, she smiled knowingly, she was blessed with a daughter.

 

“Stop looking at it, eat quickly.” Han Ze saw that she was only staring at the bowl but not moving her chopsticks, and urged her.

 

Wu Hongmei smiled, picked up the chopsticks, picked up a dumpling and fed it to her mouth. Her eyes lit up, and she ate one after another, finishing the bowl of dumplings unknowingly. Looking at Han Ze, she put down her chopsticks embarrassedly.

 

Han Ze didn’t react, so she breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“How are the dumplings made?” After being married to a man for so long, she didn’t even know that her man had such cooking skills.

 

“I just made it according to the way you usually make dumplings. What’s wrong?” Han Ze looked at her puzzledly, “Not delicious?”

 

“Delicious, very delicious.”

 

“As long as it tastes good.” Han Ze smiled, “The old blind uncle said that I can make money with my hands. I didn’t believe it at first. I can only farm with my hands. What skills can I have? I rolled noodles for my mother that day, and she also said that they were delicious…”

 

At this point, he lowered his voice: “The old blind uncle also ate the noodles, and said that even the noodles made by the chef in the hotel in the provincial capital are not as delicious as mine.”

 

Wu Hongmei thought of the taste of the dumplings just now. She didn’t go to school much, so she didn’t know how to describe it. She only knew that after eating those dumplings, she wanted to eat them again. Just thinking about it makes people drool…

 

“So, I plan to set up a stall in town to sell noodles. What do you think?” Han Ze asked. He had not told Wu Hongmei about this before, and it would be better to tell her.

 

Wu Hongmei frowned. She didn’t have much experience, but her husband’s dumplings were so delicious, so she thought that the noodles he made wouldn’t be bad either. She thought for a while and said, “It’s okay if you think it’s okay. I don’t understand these things, so I’ll listen to you.”